6. DEVELOPING SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY.

6.3. Social influencing.

At this stage, your aim is to lead and direct your followers’ opinions, attitudes,
and behaviors. And since you’ve been listening, it’s relatively easy. You already
know the trending topics and conversations taking place, so adding your
authority voice is the natural next step.
What are the signs that your influence is growing?
• You get more engagement – people retweeting or sharing your posts, and
people responding to your posts.
• Your traffic numbers increase – people click on your links.
• You develop a greater mindshare – people share their questions, thoughts,
and opinions with you, and they eagerly seek interaction with you.
• You become a recognized authority and a brand people watch.
Keep in mind, this stage of the success cycle is influenced by the social
listening you did in Stage 1. But the reality is that you’ll continue listening at
every stage. In fact, once the cycle is going, you’ll perform every stage every
day.
Goals for Social Influencing
During this phase of the social success cycle, you’re trying to:
• Increase engagement with your brand and your content.
• Start conversations around the topics related to your business.
• Boost traffic to your site.
• Build awareness of your products and offers.
• Grow your retargeting list.

Retargeting is an advanced tactic that can significantly boost your bottom line.
To learn more about retargeting (or remarketing), read The Remarketing Grid:
The Science of Ad Retargeting Audience Segmentation.
Metrics to Watch
How do you know you’re building your social influence? These are the metrics
that matter most:
• Site engagement rates. Are you getting more social shares and
comments?
• Traffic by channel. Traffic from your social media channels should increase
over time.
• Offer awareness. People see and respond to the offers you make in social
media.
• Retargeting list growth. Through retargeting, you’re able to get your
offers in front of people who are most likely to buy from you—and they
respond by downloading your lead magnets and subscribing.