If you are an ed-tech business, and you want to capitalize on social networking, how do you get results?
There are four components to defining your social networking goals: your purpose, your audience, your media, and your metrics.
You need to pick one primary purpose for your social media marketing.
- Are you looking to boost brand recognition?
- Do you want to generate leads?
- Do you want to get feedback?
- Do you want to generate sales?
If you answered 2 or 4 above, then social networking is not the way to accomplish your goal. While you may end up generating leads through social networking, and you may end up generating sales, direct marketing, including search engine optimization and search engine marketing, is generally much better and more predictable.
Social networking can help you achieve a market leadership position for your brand, and it can provide invaluable feedback on messaging, features, benefits, drawbacks, threats, and impressions.
In looking over your messaging, who is your target audience? Do you want to reach the investment community? Potential partners? State or district administrators? Principals? Teachers? Tech Coordinators?
In terms of media, what social media does your audience use? Do they read blogs, and which ones? Which communities do they belong to? What tweats do they read or send? What do you need to contribute to the community, how often, and how long a ramp up time do you need to become a valued part of the community? Who else could help you along the way, and what will they expect in return?
In considering your metrics, what is your expected return, and how will you measure it? Are there milestones?
Through ABA's experience with communities, texting, networking, and blogs, we have a track record establishing leadership positions and building rapport through social networking. If you want to use social media to build and establish a leadership position for your brand or obtain market feedback, we'd love to talk further.
