FAQ | Elder Care Social Media Marketing and Senior Service Social Media Marketing

Frequently Asked Questions and Inside Scoop!

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

Those who ignore the efficacy of social media usually fall into three categories; the ones who don’t know much or anything about social media, the ones who are interested but don’t know how to use it and those who don’t believe in the value that a social media strategy can bring to any site or business.

1. Links = Better Search Engine Rankings.

When a website receives a large number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, it develops authority. Search engines trust it. If you optimize your backlinks and website structure properly, you can easily start ranking for competitive keywords, which will in turn bring in search engine visitors.

Do this often enough and your search traffic will undoubtedly increase. In a sense, you are obtaining these quality links through borrowed trust. Many bloggers and webmaster still think that if an article is on the Digg or del.icio.us homepage, then it’s probably worth checking out and referencing through a citation link.

A new website may find it difficult to gain links from a critical mass that is not familiar with it but a trusted social news resource makes it easier for links to come in, because the community and buzz has somewhat ‘certified’ the value of the site. Note that the actual strength of the article is still of utmost importance for all.

2. Primary + Secondary Traffic = Community/Supporters.

Some people claim that social news websites only send useless traffic, visitors that will often just view a specific webpage and click away. Yes, that’s usually the case. Sites like Digg are notorious for their poor bounce rates: many visitors drop in for the article and then leave after reading it.

But don’t mistake this with a lack of interest. Your subscriber figures will often take big jump up and then stabilize after a few days. If your entire site is relevant to the general interests of the social media website, there will always be a handful of social users who will start to track your site in order to submit future content.

Detractors also ignore the power of ultra targeted secondary traffic. General sites or blogs in the same niche will link to a story that’s popular on social sites, because it adds value for their readers or users. This is done naturally on a daily basis for many.

While primary traffic usually comes in a larger volume, I would argue that secondary traffic is more valuable. Why? Because links from other websites bring visitors who are very likely to be interested in your content. These citation links demonstrate recognition of your site in the eyes of others. It builds your brand.

Think of the social news site as a platform or a soapbox. As something that gives you a chance to be heard or read, even for a brief moment of a few hours. The people who are drawn to your message will visit your site and recommend it to others.

Why bother exploring social media as a marketing channel for your website or business? After all, you could stick to link exchanges, search advertising or the purchase of banner and editorial ads on relevant sites.

Here are some reasons why you should consider using social media:

How do we target your geographic area? :

Geographic area is determined by the KEYWORDS that we use. For instance, a nursing home in St. Louis, MO would be utilizing keywords for that specific area. An assisted living facility in Seattle Washington would have keywords for that area, and so on. This is how we geographically target your market.

How do you calculate ROI for Social Media Marketing Campaigns?:

No marketing program has value that can be measured separately or independently. The value of marketing derives from its ability to help the organization implement its strategy … Marketing programs seldom have a direct impact on financial outcomes such as increased revenues, lowered costs, and higher profits. (Rather,) Marketing affects financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships.

The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

Or as David Meerman Scott is fond of saying, “What is the ROI of putting on your pants?”

Some basic objectives to measure include:

• Attention. The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time. Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views.
• Participation. The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel. Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions.
• Authority. A la Technorati, the inbound links to your content – like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video.
• Influence. The size of the user base subscribed to your content. For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page.
• There’s an “x-factor” that comes into play well: Sentiment. The spirit driving user participation matters. The net result of these adds up to a score for social media engagement.

So what’s the monetary value of a visit, comment, link, or friend? Well, the only honest answer is “it depends.” Only you know how much these interactions matter to your brand, regardless of industry, channel, or competitive results.

(Until) we can measure the impact of a conversation between an employee and a prospect at a coffee shop, it (will be) difficult to measure social media…

What are you trying to accomplish? … (The) trick is to figure out what your goal is first – is it to spread a message among a community? Is it to reduce support costs? Is it to learn from your community? In each of these cases you’ll have to then assign the right attributes to measure against.

So, yea, basically it’s tough to measure ROI for Social Media. This doesn’t mean it is not worth doing! It just means that the justifications that professional marketers will make to qualify for budget are as likely to be anecdotal as analytical/quantifiable.

Lessons?

Know your objectives in advance. Start small, when possible: think “proof of concept.” Track the metrics obsessively. Make sure that your interactive marketing efforts are tied to the sales funnel (e.g., your vp of sales ought to be able to determine where most leads are coming from online). Report frequently.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Here’s another look at how to measure ROI for social media marketing:

Budget, not fudge-it

Prior to writing word one, creating app one, or snapping photo one, put in place a budget for measurement. More times than I care to recall, marketers would eschew this as ‘cost savings’ up front, preferring to “get on with” the creative. Inevitably, someone (CFO, COO, etc.) somewhere else in the organization raises questions (usually just after the initiative begins, or worse – as budgets need slashing) about effectiveness, ROI, accountability. The base investment budgeted before ‘the work’ begins anticipates this, and puts in place a means for continuous improvement to the content marketing efforts.

Bench ‘em

This goes hand-in-hand with both setting objectives and budgeting. Again, before the initiatives are introduced to the marketplace, take a benchmark reading of your planned metrics. Comparing post-effort results with pre-effort marks is valuable for new initiatives to existing efforts and brand-new initiatives alike. Remember, tracking studies compare similar metrics over time, and they have to start sometime. No time like the present.

Old Softie

Legacy efforts, as well as off-line efforts, often look to ’soft measures’ to determine effectiveness. Mostly determined by four- through ten-point scale, these softer metrics seek to measure customer self-reported awareness, attitudes, and intention. Traditional thought suggests there is a large enough disconnect between reported intent and actual behavior to render these softer self-reported metrics ineffective; however, the most recent views on the subject find ‘reported intention’ as a better predictor of brand loyalty when compared to actual behavior – which can suffer from tactical promotions more readily than deep felt intention.

Oh, Behave!

Our digital age provides the opportunity to link actual behavior directly to content marketing efforts. Metrics such as time spent on site, page views per session, repeat visits, and even click-throughs can indicate activity from the result of content marketing. Marketers with ecommerce capabilities can measure the ultimate behavior, transaction, and the role content plays on cross-sell, up-sell, and retention, amongst other metrics.

A Little Experiment

Our forefathers in direct marketing have passed along to us in modern day integrated marketing the building blocks of segmentation, test/control, A/B testing, and other disciplines based in the creation of Experimental Design.

On the most basic of levels, a simple Experimental Design will hypothesize what your Content Marketing Strategy aims to achieve on behalf of the Marcomm objective, then puts in place a test to measure it. Choose a target segment that you believe will be most influenced by your content efforts and test that against a secondary segment. Or take a key segment and randomly separate out a test portion (those who receive the content) and a control portion (those who do not) and measure the effect over time. You’ll need the assistance of a data analyst, but will be pleased with the quality of measurement your data will unleash.

It’s in the Hole!

While this is a simple primer of a checklist for involving measurement in your content marketing strategies, remember these two key points:

Keith Wiegold is Chief Content Evangelist at Nutlug Content Marketing, and creator of C.A.R.E ™, a proprietary strategic framework for Customer Acquisition and Retention through Engagement. He can be reached at keith[at]marketingcontentstrategy.com.

Do I have to sign a contract with LTCSocialMark2.0 for 6 months or a year?

No. Cancel at any time. The subscription is month to month. However, set up fee is never refundable. We do a lot of work on the front end to make sure things work together smoothly moving forward. To terminate service, just email valerie@theltcexpert.com

How do I cancel services?

To terminate service, just email valerie@theltcexpert.com

How long does it take to get my accounts set up and running?

We find that the answer varies from client to client, depending on how accurate their forms are that are submitted to us, and how many services they already have set up, and any problems associated with current accounts that we need to address. However, usually it takes around 1 week for set up.

Is LTCSocialMark2.0 supposed to be an overnight success for me?

No, social media marketing takes some time to establish and see ROI. We feel that with consistency and communication with our team, you should see nice internet results within about 60 days. Some markets are tougher than others because there is a lot of competition, but we work hard to make sure you are moving toward page 1 on most search engine results. Some issues that are out of our control include poorly designed corporate websites and poorly designed individual websites that need lots of work.

The important rule of thumb is that if you establish yourself quickly as a trusted authority on your subject, service, or product, you will then be light years ahead of the competition when they finally open their eyes and realize that they should be doing what YOU are doing!!!

How much do I need to participate?

You can contribute as little or as much as you want, the more you participate, the more you learn, and the better your results.

If I have some new content, or an event, should I post it myself, or let your team do it for me?

If you feel comfortable posting content please do! However, we are happy to do this for you. We like titles and information to be very keyword rich. Therefore, instead of posting something that says for example, “April Newsletter”, a better title would be “April Home Care Newsletter for Rockville, MD”.

Should I cancel my Google Adwords account usage when I start LTCSocialMark2.0?

That depends on whether or not you rely on Google Adwords for business. If you get ZERO business (paid business) from Google Adwords, you might want to decrease the amount your spending while we get you up and running. If you DEPEND on Google Adwords for a percentage of your business, then by all means, don’t decrease or cancel your account until you start seeing results from LTCSocialMark2.0.

What do you mean by results?

Other questions?

Just email Valerie@theltcexpert.com