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ROI in Social Media

Using the terms Social Media and Return On Investment (ROI) in the same sentence has been a subject of intense debate in the beverage industry.

Many small to mid cap wineries, breweries and distilleries are still suspicious of the relatively new idea that building a healthy social following will ultimately lead to increased sales.

One of the main worries is that the time and money spent on developing and implementing a social media marketing campaign will not yield strong enough results to warrant the investment.

Like any new marketing campaign, understanding what works and what doesn’t is paramount to launching a successful Social Media (SM) campaign.

BeverageTradeNetwork.com outlines social media strategies for beverage brands that have proven to be successful for increasing sales and optimizing your ROI.

Small and medium sized beverage companies should first concentrate on developing an in house campaign that focuses on looking at different techniques to communicate with consumers across multiple social media platforms. Discuss various ways of presenting your brand with your team and remember to use multimedia such as videos and photos to enhance your brand image. Use these early states to experiment with the various platforms and concentrate on optimizing those tactics that work and harboring the relationships you develop. Be sure to record your results weekly, monthly and quarterly to monitor your followings and understand what works. Take Advantage of all the different options.

Each Social Networking site can be used in unique ways to enhance consumer interaction with your brand. Understand what strategies work on one and the other and utilizing them properly is the key to success.

1. Use Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to connect with consumers and industry peers. Be sure to keep on top of your correspondence and to post new and engaging material regularly. Use photos, articles, questions and news bits to keep your followers informed.

2. Post appealing photos to picture based social media sites like Tumblr, Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram to ignite the curiosity of millions of shutterbug networkers.

3. Use user based review sites like Four Square and TripAdvisor to increase public interest by encouraging your following to post their positive experiences.

4. Use Blogs to voice your opinions and knowledge of the industry and profession. By writing poignant blogs you can dramatically increase SEO and traffic of both your website and social media pages.

5. Upload entertaining videos to Youtube and Vimeo and showcase your product to the world.

Successfully integrating a handful of Social pages into your marketing campaign will help grow your brand name SEO. Be sure to link your videos, articles, blogs, postings , and photos across your different platforms to increase your traffic to each site. Always try to “give as much as you sell,” that is to say that you shouldn’t expect your followers to be interested in your different sites if you never engage with those sites that they are involved or interested in. Consistently try and network with new friends and followers.

One of the main reasons SM has become so popular in the marketing business is that it is effectively a free and direct networking line to consumers. However, using these platforms can be time consuming so set your limits early on and remember to always record your and analyze your results.

Once you have come to understand the various platforms that work for your brand, consider investing in Promotional Sweepstakes and Contests.

Using promotions and contents can be a very powerful tool to use in order increase your brand’s image and social following. Be sure to study the data you collected carefully and implement a promotional event that will pique the curiosity of both your followers and potential new followers. If the early stages of developing your social media presence came easy to you then you should have a good grasp on what will work and what won’t.

You might also want to consider hiring a professional consultant who can set clear objectives for your new promotions. With or without a consultant, be sure to track your results by measuring the increase in traffic to your various website and the increase of sales during the time of the promotion and some short, pre-determined period, thereafter. Successful campaigns are those that engage with their audiences by generating an inherent desire to keep coming back to your sites.

Consistently using Social Media is the Key to Success.

Since the introduction of Social Media into the world of business, companies from all industries have picked apart every social platform available with the intention of finding ways of increasing sales through new and unconventional marketing strategies. Keep your brand’s social media pages active and follow the changing trends in the beverage industry to keep your brand relevant in today’s market.