Guest blogger Andre Oentoro notes that for business owners, there’s no point in posting to social media unless your content helps to grow your business and produce a positive ROI. In this blog, he offers five tips to help ensure that your social media marketing provides results.
With more than 5.2 billion people using social media, social media marketing is no longer a nice-to-have strategy. Today, at least 93% of businesses use social media. But now that more and more businesses are jumping onto the bandwagon, it’s a battle for eyeballs out there.
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Without a solid, well-thought-out plan, your social media strategy risks getting lost in the noise rather than generating real results. That’s why we’ve put together these game-changing hacks to help you cut through the clutter, boost engagement, and maximize your ROI on social media.
Understanding social media marketing ROI
First thing first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what social media marketing ROI really means.
When it comes to social media marketing, ROI is much more than measuring likes and follows—it represents the real value your social media efforts bring to your business. It’s measured to answer one big question: Is my social media strategy driving revenue or meaningful results?
ROI is much more than measuring likes and follows—it represents the real value your social media marketing brings to your business.
Calculating ROI in social media marketing means balancing the cost of your campaigns against their outcomes, which can include sales, customer acquisition, brand awareness, or engagement. For most businesses, tracking ROI means identifying which social media activities lead directly to profits and growth. This might include conversions from ads, engagement rates that reflect genuine audience interest, or new leads from social posts.
Without clear ROI insights, it’s easy to get lost in vanity metrics. That’s how you spend resources without knowing if your efforts are truly effective.
Now, how do you measure it?
Just like the general marketing ROI formula, you can use this one:
Calculating ROI in social media marketing means balancing the cost of your campaigns against their outcomes.
For example, if a campaign generated $10,000 in revenue and cost $4,000, the ROI would be ($10,000 – $4,000) / $4,000 x 100 = 150% ROI.
How do you maximize your social media marketing ROI?
Now that we understand the definition of social media marketing ROI and the formula to calculate it, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty details about how you can maximize it.
Tip #1. Quality > quantity
The foundation of any successful social media strategy is creating content that resonates with your audience. The same old, generic content that your competitors also post doesn’t take you very far.
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Instead of posting for the sake of staying active, concentrate on producing high-quality, relevant content that engages and excites your followers. To do this, you need to understand your audience’s preferences, challenges, and interests through tools like audience insights, surveys, or social listening.
No matter what types of content you create—educational, entertaining, or endearing—always tailor it to align with what your audience truly values. When content is meaningful and targeted, engagement rates increase. What happens next is stronger brand loyalty that can boost your conversion rates.
Tip #2. Let data pick your perfect post time
There are so many surveys that reveal the best times to post on social media, just like the one below from SproutSocial.
However, each business can have its own unique peak engagement periods depending on its audience’s habits.
Of course, you can use those survey results and recommendations as a reference, but a better way is to dive into your data using platform analytics to find when your followers are most active and responsive. Experiment by posting at different times and track which posts see the highest engagement.
Once you find the best time to post, it won’t last forever because social media is such a fast-paced platform. Always make sure to review and adjust your posting schedule based on any changes in audience behavior and keep testing to refine your strategy.
Tip #3. Put your money where the ads are
Organic reach can only take you so far, so boosting your ROI often means incorporating paid ads. After all, organic reach is cool, but let’s be real. Sometimes, you need to throw some money behind it.
And when we talk about paid ads, it can be tempting to spread your budget thinly across multiple platforms or campaigns because more platforms mean more eyeballs, right?
Nope.
The key is focus, not volume. Rather than trying to cover every platform, concentrate your budget on the platforms where your target audience is most active and engaged. This targeted approach allows you to craft ads that speak directly to the needs and interests of your audience.
Start with well-defined objectives. Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, or generate leads? Then, use targeting options to reach the right people based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
Concentrate your social media marketing budget on the platforms where your target audience is most active and engaged.
Don’t forget to experiment with different ad formats, like video ads, carousel posts, or story ads. Track performance closely to identify which types deliver the best results. A/B or split testing your ads and tweaking audiences or creatives can provide valuable insights.
Tip #4. Engage, don’t just post
Engagement is a two-way street, and responding to your audience is just as important as posting great content. Make it a priority to reply to comments, messages, and mentions in a timely and personable way.
This builds trust, strengthens relationships, and shows that you value your followers. Engaging with your audience also encourages more interaction, which boosts your content’s reach thanks to social media algorithms that prioritize posts with high engagement.
Social media marketing performs best when you reply to comments, messages, and mentions in a timely and personable way.
But don’t just wait for people to comment. You can make the first move by liking, sharing, and commenting on relevant content from your followers or industry leaders. That’s how you can keep your brand top of mind, foster community, and lead to greater brand loyalty, all of which contribute to a higher ROI in the long run.
Tip #5. Give old content new life
Constantly creating fresh content can be time-consuming and costly. Plus, coming up with new ideas one after another is not a walk in the park. That said, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every post.
Using CRM marketing automation alongside repurposing high-performing content across different platforms or formats can help you get more mileage out of your efforts. For example, you can turn a popular blog post into an infographic, create a video summarizing key points, or share a snippet of your latest webinar as a social media post.
Wrapping up: Take your social media marketing to the next level
Now’s the time to level up your social media management and start seeing real results. Social media marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy, so don’t be afraid to fine-tune your approach based on what works for you. Remember, growth doesn’t happen overnight, but with persistence and the right mindset, the rewards are worth the effort.
And if you’re looking to simplify the process, check out ReminderMedia’s Social Media Automation tool.
If you know your business would thrive from being consistent on social media but struggle with content creation and time, this is exactly what you need. There’s nothing else quite like it on the market. It’s so simple because ReminderMedia does everything for you—they write the content, automate the posting, and track and report results. Just select the type of content you want (business, motivation, recipes, real estate, etc.), pick how often want to post, and watch your social media calendar fill up with branded, ready-to-go posts, including a contact form to capture new leads!
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Andre Oentoro is the founder of Breadnbeyond, an award-winning explainer video company. He helps businesses increase conversion rates, close more sales, and get positive ROI from explainer videos (in that order).
