We all know that social media as a marketing and sales tool grew out of its infancy stage quite a bit ago. If you still need one final piece of proof that it has become a mainstream business channel (other than the fact that every major business uses it heavily, of course), consider that marketing industry watchers are predicting that as much as 20% of most companies' marketing budgets will be dedicated to social channels within the next few years. I doubt it takes that long.
That puts the budgetary spending for social on par with radio if not television, and likely ahead of print in many cases. Couple that nugget of information with the now-being-tested but soon-to-be-released "Buy" buttons for Facebook and Twitter, and it becomes obvious that not getting or having a social media team in place now is a negligent move.
Yet even with a social media manager or team, the increase in traffic, sales, and general social activity is beginning to get more unwieldy as more is needed in managing your posting, monitoring, engagement, and most of all, creating conversions from it all. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be as difficult as it is for most.
Everything in One Place
Whether you are a solopreneur, a small to medium business, or even a large business, a quality social media management dashboard is a necessity to stay on top of your online marketing these days. With the ever-increasing demands coming from multiple networks, in addition to email and sms marketing and blogging (all of which are part of a solid online strategy), most software doesn't cut it anymore. The days of being able to rely on freeware that posts to and monitors your Facebook and Twitter streams only are over.
In the realm of complete social and online marketing platforms, none have stayed ahead of the curve and supplied a front to back solution the way that Sendible has. While others are still adding such basics as Pinterest and Instagram integration, Sendible is constantly working to incorporate cutting-edge features like the new Canva integration which allows you to access or even create beautiful graphics for your social posts or blogs from the same screen where you've been able to cross-post and monitor for years. The new Content Recommendation Engine will also recommend relevant content to share based on your previous social media posts. Feature for feature there's no comparison, and the final piece of the puzzle is now included - but more on that in a moment.
Wake Up to New Prospects
Automation is a huge tool in saving time. Scheduling posts infinitely into the future and using the bulk importer means you can set up a week's or month's worth of posts and tweets in only a matter of hours or even minutes. But what about finding new leads? That's where more automation comes in handy. Using keyword and brand monitoring, you can set up auto-follows (and unfollows) for Twitter, auto replies and responders for Twitter and LinkedIn, auto retweets and welcome messages on Twitter, and even an auto moderator for Facebook that will remove profane or slanderous comments based on keywords.
With all of these features on top of the unmatched social media monitoring system, you can wake up in the morning and have new leads without having to search for them. Time is money, and these features save you valuable time that can be spent creating conversions instead. However, numbers don't tell a complete story. It's great to have thousands of fans and followers, but if none of them are sharing your content or extending your reach in any way, they're just that - nothing but numbers. So how do you find the fans who can make an impact for you? I'm glad you asked.
Social CRM Tells You Who They Are
The new Sendible 360 upgrade has brought the social sales cycle full circle (360, get it?) by adding a fully featured CRM service which is wholly integrated with your existing social media marketing through Sendible's software. Every contact that you engage with via social media, email, and sms can be saved easily and simply into the CRM system and categorized, and every conversation with that prospect is shown each time you message or respond to them to keep you up to date on the history of that engagement.
In addition to the conversation history, the social CRM is fully integrated with PeerIndex and Klout, which gives you detailed analytics on their profiles and tells you their location, the content they share, their interests, and their followers, as well as their level of influence in key areas. When you import your existing mailing lists into the system, you suddenly have more information about the people you are already in touch with as well.
The stored information, including any notes that you add about each contact, can be viewed by any team member that is granted access, and ownership of that contact can be transferred as well. If you're unavailable because you took the week to go surfing in Fiji, you don't have to worry that no one will know the state of the lead to sales to customer service cycle that you've been developing. And with the combination of a fully featured Social CRM and the outstanding and customizable analytics already available through your dashboard, you will be able to take full advantage of every interaction, with every contact, every time.