- [Instructor] Social media is a multifaceted marketing
channel, as it can help your organization accomplish
vastly different goals at once,
one of which is driving sales.
Many companies make the mistake of regarding social media
as solely a medium for generating brand awareness.
But in reality, social media also drives
conversions for companies in the long term.
Social is often one of many touchpoints a customer
has with a brand before making a purchase.
And that's how social media earns
incremental revenue for companies by assisting
other marketing channels in driving a conversion.
A conversion from social media can happen in a variety
of ways, as there's no single path to purchase.
For example, a customer might hear about a new product
in the news and decide to Google it to do more research
on the company site and read other write-ups on the product.
A few days later, the same person might be served
banner ads about the product on their favorite blog,
but they decide not to click on it, instead, keep reading.
The next day, they're served an ad on Instagram
about the product and decide to read
through the comments on the post about it
before silencing their phone for the night.
Two weeks later, a coworker shows up to the office
with the product in hand and lets them look at it
in person, which convinces them it's time to buy one.
That day, they type in the address of the website
that sells the product right from their browser
and make the purchase, deciding at the last minute
to get a couple similar items.
In this example, the customer's interaction on social media
wasn't the first time they heard of the product
or the last activity that led them to make a purchase.
But their time on Instagram seeing an ad
and reading comments about the product
did help them move closer to taking action.
This is just one of the many ways a customer
might interact with an organization
before taking action, as there's multiple paths to purchase.
Sometimes, it'll take six months and five interactions
to get a customer to make a purchase;
and for others, it may only take
two interactions in a week's time.
Social media is often a key part of the process
known as an assisted conversion,
which are the actions that occur prior to a conversion.
A tool like Google Analytics can help your organization
assign value to these actions, whether they're
from social media or another marketing channel,
to better understand their impact.
Social media often deserves credit
for assisting in a conversion,
and that's where leadership should focus their efforts
when determining the channel's impact on revenue.
Too often do companies get frustrated
with social media as a marketing tool
because they have the expectation that a majority
of their efforts should lead directly to a conversion.
While direct conversions from social media
do happen, it is not the standard.
Generating revenue from social media is a common occurrence
for many organizations that embrace how the medium is used
by consumers and adapt their strategies accordingly.