Let’s face it, social marketing can feel like you’re talking to thin air. Twitter and Facebook have countless millions of users, and yet actually getting the attention of just a few of them can feel overwhelming.

Developing a social media strategy is admittedly no easy task for the beginner, and you may have looked into different social marketing services for your business. There are a quite a few of them out there, from the more expensive all inclusive online packages like what Mojo Media Labs offers, all the way down the line to college students touting themselves as social media experts on Craigslist. Question is, are they worth it for your business?

What’s the ROI of Social Media?

This depends entirely on the nature of your business and what your goals are, and I’ll be the first to admit heavy investment into social media isn’t necessarily worthwhile for every business. If you’re a high level B2B service provider with an extremely narrow market, you aren’t going to get as much out of social media as a B2C company or a B2B company that wants to pull in a ton of leads. That doesn’t mean you won’t gain something—practically every business has something to gain from implementation of an awesome social media strategy—but your energy could be spent somewhere else, like on the development of proper conversion paths and offers on your website.

Secondly, you can’t track ROI without analytics. Inbound marketing service providers like Mojo Media Labs use software like HubSpot to track every aspect of social media efforts, from growth rate to reach to lead conversion to sales. It’s extremely useful information to have. If your analytics are telling you that Twitter isn’t giving you much ROI but your Linkedin campaign is successful, you can divert your attention away from Twitter and focus on what matters. You’ll also be able to track what your community is responding to when you post updates, and what kind of offers pull them in. If you don’t have analytics, you don’t have a proper strategy.

Generally, the ROI of social media is extremely good, and it gets better as it grows. It isn’t a short term strategy, but in the long run it’s a great way not only to connect to your customer base directly, but also to build all-important inbound links to your website to get your search ranking in Google improved.

How do I select a service?

This depends on your budget and the time frame in which you want to start seeing results. Inbound marketing agencies like Mojo Media Labs tend to be all inclusive with social media, tying it into their pricing for blogs and other content as it’s all connected. If you have the budget for it, it’s the best thing you can do to get your business noticed.

If inbound marketing isn’t in your budget, try finding a service near you that will handle your social media and incorporate your campaigns effectively. The key is to make sure they can offer you a strategy that is integrated with your lead conversion campaigns, and to make sure they have the analytics to track their results. Sometimes you can find good services on Craigslist or on other listings, but it’s risky and you won’t be guaranteed results. Sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised, but this is not the norm.

For more information on what to look for when selecting a social marketing service, I highly recommend you check out our free Essential Guide to Inbound Marketing. It will quickly teach you the strategies you need to use for your social media efforts to make them effective in lead generation and conversion, which will in turn let you be more informed when purchasing social media services for your business.

To learn more Mojo marketing secrets, check out our free ebook, The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing!

Matt Anderson

Matt Anderson is a business problem solver, Inbound Marketing Consultant, and writer for Mojo Media Labs, bringing readers the latest in digital marketing news, tips, and life hacks for achieving ridiculous online growth. Follow @MojoMediaLabs.