Competitive pressure in social media marketing will only grow. Companies which win at marketing are the ones who continually stay at the top of their games.
What does it take to stay on top? This article addresses three key areas of focus that are needed to continually maintain high performance over time.
First, let’s take an analogy in sports. There is only one gold medal. While business occasionally offers prizes for second and third place – ie., profitability – there is always a long tail of competing entities which are, let’s face it, not very competitive. Elite athletes must consistently optimize all elements of their training in preparation for the big game. Strength, coordination, endurance, skills and even mindset are all key aspects of a winning performance. Top athletes are not only the most well-prepared, but they are the most agile when it comes to applying their skills and strength to a diverse set of environmental factors and doing so in a way that continually outperforms whatever technology or training methods that their opponents implement.
Even the smallest of wins can make a recurring champion. When it comes to business, the smallest of differences – often times that extra 1% or 2% of effort – can put you over the top of the competition – a standing which leverages itself dramatically in sales and ensuing profitability. There is no room for casual observers. Competition is tough, rigorous and perpetual.
Getting a social media strategy up-and-running is a good start. Having a replicable and consistent process in place is the next level of performance. Top performance, however, requires a holistic mindset towards accelerating performance, bringing together a sophisticated strategy which leverages individual strengths of multiple channels of communication (ie., of different social media platforms). The development of a winning system is a process that is unique to each business situation, but some commonalities across the board offer guidance.
A recent study by Strategy& showed that when it comes to top performers versus the average company, there is on average a 13x difference in profitability and growth. In other words, putting yourself in the very top performance category can generate a substantial premium on your business and its success.
With that in mind, the social media marketing efforts of your business must focus on 3 key strategic areas.
Invest in what matters
Making the right investment into high-return outcomes is key, and that is more than just an obvious observation. Optimizing your outcome requires rigorous tracking of data to identify successful campaigns, so they can be effectively replicated.
The reason this process is critical is not because of the direct result of any specific marketing or promotional efforts, but because these efforts, when brought together as part of a comprehensive strategy, multiply against not only themselves, but also against each other. Increasing “likes” increases views which increases click-throughs which increases your closing rate. All performance areas work together and complement each other. It’s the difference of 5% month-on-month growth in your audience, versus 5% x 5% growth in likes, and another 5% growth in ranking… and so on.
How do you know what matters? Know the data.
Invest in process
When you know the data, you can raise your system to a higher level by implementing processes which repeat successful performance.
Making good business processes is as much about thinking of the best way forward as it is developing an approach to reducing barriers. Every plan has a glitch. Every pursuit runs into trouble along the way. Getting around obstacles is as much a skill as learning to do the basic work.
Optimal processes are a result of a systematic combination of the business operations, technology and cadence/repetition. Each area reinforces and leverages the other. Effective implementation of continual process improvements comes about as a result of innovation and flexibility, which then leads to faster growth and quicker customer conversions.
Two areas of focus will facilitate process optimization:
- Develop a high-productivity ecosystem – Start with identifying the tools you need to optimize your strategy. There is an app for everything. Finding the right app and assessing different options takes time, but the benefit is greater efficiency and effectiveness. Where you have a process that you must implement which makes a clear and noticable difference in your bottom line, focus on reducing the manual and administrative input as much as possible, and equally importantly, reducing transaction costs. You will not lead the pack in any journey you undertake on your own. Let the technology do the work for you, and take the time to apply this advantage.
- Build relationships with strategic partners and suppliers – Focus on outsourcing those areas which are repetitive and easily replicable. Keep your internal focus on your core strengths, and direct your energy to the areas which best differentiate your business and your corresponding marketing efforts. Letting external support services serve in non-core busines areas can help to fill in areas of missing expertise, and at the same time can save time and expense required to build and enhance your internal capabilities.
Invest in capabilities
More than just using apps, but continually develop skills, and invest in your team’s skills. Good skills development is like a snowball rolling down the mountain. It starts the size of a pebble and develops into an unstoppable force. Reach out to the right communities, and establish a bond with the audience of like-minded individuals. Recruit a team from those who already have a passion for the work that you do. With the foundation of a good passion, a mountain of skills can be developed over time.
Lead by example. Companies which outpace their rivals are continually taking onboard new knowledge, skills and technologies. It is an endless cycle of learning and implementing, but it is the springboard of innovation. Every growing business is both at the mercy of and thrives in the endless cycle of transformation. Some businesses learn and innovate better than others, and the ones who can move into this cycle systematically are the ones with the greatest momentum behind them.
In conclusion
Successful social media campaigns are not a result of whimsical inspiration. They are the result of continually-focused efforts which build on previous effort. In this way, highest-performing results are not created, but rather, they are extended out of the intensive activities that have already been made.
The hardest part of the cycle to achieve is the starting point. How will you get your business on the virtuous cycle of success?