A recent study performed by iContact highlights key lessons that small businesses can learn through the Republican presidential candidate campaigns that are going on. With Newt Gingrich mastering Twitter, Ron Paul engaging the audience of YouTube, and Mitt Romney attracting millions of fans through Facebook, these candidates are relying heavily on social media to increase their chances of winning.
iContact believes that small businesses can successfully utilize social media in a manner similar to political candidates to engage followers, promote their brand and increase sales. Providing a detailed view into each candidate’s overall social media presence, the study they performed provided social media correlations and takeaways gleaned from the campaigns.
With Facebook dominating, this is where Republican candidates are receiving the largest volume of followers and engagement levels. The popularity of Facebook should not come as a surprise to small business owners, seeing as a recent iContact customer survey revealed that 76 percent favor Facebook, and only backs-up the fact that if your small business is not implementing if you are potentially missing valuable customer engagement.
Another key finding from the survey is that candidates have all incorporated email into their marketing strategies and have proved that social media and email create a powerful combination. What this does it make it very easy for potential fans to subscribe to email and social media updates from their campaigns. Solidifying the huge opportunity that email marketing delivers, the results that these candidates are reaping in from the tried-and-true email marketing method shows that it can help convert the results of those initial engagements and conversations into targeted campaigns and long-term customers.
Most importantly, because there is a social media strategy to fit every budget, social media is providing a fair playing-field for these candidates. Even candidates with lower campaign funding have seen high engagement numbers across their followers, proving that there is a positive return of investment no matter what budget you might have.
“This survey provides insight into how the Republican candidates are using social media to their advantage, with different strategies, perspectives and investments across channels. While it’s never a one-size-fits-all approach, as we see here, the common takeaway remains that social media presence can lead to increased engagement and a return on investment,” said Jeff Revoy, chief product and marketing officer at iContact. “By applying the many lessons learned and creative successes from these candidates, small businesses too can enjoy the many benefits of social media marketing.”
If you’d like to see other takeaways from the survey, you can download the official iContact study here.
About Brittany Klontz
