The Underused Power of Social Media That Will Increase Your ROI

Every “social media guru” and “marketing maven” touts the importance of engaging with your social following in an authentic and conversational way. Most brands have an individual or a team that makes critical decisions about publishing curated information to their audience, but how many companies are building customer loyalty through these online chats? Sure, there are top brands like Google, Taco Bell, and Southwest Airlines, who have built social media empires but what about your company? Are you using the power of social media to monitor or interact with customers? More importantly, are you using it to bring in revenue?

Most companies today agree that social media is a prominent marketing tool. As marketers, we understand that social media can put you in touch with your target market. What many brands are still missing in their strategy is when social media is combined with referral marketing, organic engagement and brand awareness can be easier achieved. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Ambassador, two-thirds of Americans say they’re at least a little more likely to purchase a product after a friend or family member shares it via social media or email.

So how can you help your loyal followers share your product to their networks? Social referral marketing outreach.

According to the same survey, 88% of Americans say they would like some sort of incentive (money, product or service, loyalty points, early access, swag) for sharing a product via social media or email. The best way to pair your follower’s sharing behavior with an incentive is through referral marketing. Not only can you promote your referral marketing program through social, but referral marketing software today allows your brand to provide unique links to your brand ambassadors who can then share these trackable links and earn rewards for their behavior. By automating the manual process of enrolling, tracking, managing and rewarding referrals, referral marketing automation enables companies to quickly scale their efforts.

By combining these two power houses, social media and referral marketing, companies can forge meaningful relationships that extend beyond typical online outreach. So what does this look like in practice? For some brands, that means tweets from their ambassadors with unique share links or adding that link to their profiles. 

Flexibility is key - however your ambassadors choose to share, make sure the experience is inline with your brand. When asking your ambassadors to share, make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Have a pre-made message ready to go so they don’t have to spend time coming up with their own. And everyone loves pretty pictures, include attractive photos that make the post more appealing.

Get Social With Referral Marketing

Naturally, a large contributor of increasing brand awareness is social media marketing. The more your referrers talk about your products and services online, the larger your reach becomes. Additionally, generating brand awareness through referral marketing is more likely than not to turn into brand preference, which ultimately leads to revenue.