Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy

(COURTESY: Top 10 Social Media)

The Social Network

Social media marketing has become more than a temporary fad. In today’s society, it has become an all-encompassing and unavoidable of most people’s lives. That logic also applies to the marketing industry. In an environment where every click, like, tweet, share, sign-up and view are now recorded documents, here are some statistics for marketers to consider:

• More than 2.3 billion people are active social media users.
• There are more an estimated 1.65 billion active mobile social media accounts, with the average person owning more than five social media accounts.
• One million new, active mobile social media users increase an estimated 1 million per day.
• Social networks earned an estimated $8.3 billion in revenue from advertising in 2015.
• According to a survey, 38 percent of organizations plan to spend more than 20 percent of their 2016 advertising budgets on social media channels.
• More than 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a presence on Twitter.
• People age 55-64 are more than twice as likely to engage in branded content than people ages 28 and younger (Smith, para. 5-37).

Because of increasing global connectivity, the communications gap between companies and customers is reduced considerably. However, companies must consider the appropriate channels with which to engage customers and reaching new audiences.

“With so many social media platforms available to the marketer, should a company adopt only one platform as its main/primary channel?”

Knowing which social media platform can be tricky. Despite all the information and data on which platforms work well, the human element can be a variable. People follow trends, which can change quickly. So a company engaging in a social media platform must pay attention to trends while incorporating a consistent, but an adaptable social marketing strategy.

There are a few rules of thumb:

• Understand that each social media platform has a different scope. Facebook is known as the more “social” for businesses where people can leave a message, browse through photos and talk to targeted potential customers. Twitter is suited for more immediate updates on company news. LinkedIn is becoming a resource for professional resources and leads. A photo-heavy company should consider Pinterest and Instagram.
• Look at each social media channel to see which one will work best for the scope. Companies need to consider the product and services they are offering and the available human and financial resources at their disposal. Companies do not need to sign for every social media platform available; it is better to master one or two platforms than to have five average to unattended platforms.
• Work out a clear plan on how to use the platforms. Companies need to decide on a consistent schedule for posting, who will be the account administrators, how to respond to complaints or criticism and editorial policy. The company also must make sure that it sticks with the plan because it takes time and investment over a sustained period to achieve efforts.

A company new to social media should start with one or two platforms that complement each other. The ultimate goal for a social media marketing strategy is to create an actionable audience that will create some business benefit over time. Social media merely opens the door for an audience; the ultimate goal is to develop an online community that can convert to advocates and customers.

“Do you think this week’s readings regarding content vs. conversation factor into the decision? Please feel free to use a real of fictitious company to explain your position.”

The shift in content conversations changed dramatically in the past 10 years, where the emergence of blogs and aggregate distributors allow the online discussion process to be multidimensional. As Kaushik points out, “Anyone can access the Web, and if they have something of value to say, they can reach a relevant audience (p. 245).”

The Forrester Research created the concept of the social technographics ladder, which is a categorization of the types of internet/social media user. Li and Bernoff explain that there different entry points for engagement, where customers can start the engagement process either slowly or immediately depending on their interests (p. 73).

By examining how each person fits on each rung on the ladder – and more importantly, how each person enters and leaves a social relationship – marketers can come up with which sorts of strategies make sense to reach customers.

When I was the affiliate marketing manager for a small vegan manufacturer and distribution in North Carolina, the company struggled to decide on using social media to promote its business. The company had a Facebook page managed by a part-time employee. We began an audit of our resources, our website and customer base through surveys to determine our social media direction.

Once we gathered the information, we asked the following questions:

• Where is our audience? Our core customer was in the 45-54 age demographic, and we discovered 37 percent of our customers had at least one social media account. More than 80 percent of the customers who had at least one social media account had Facebook accounts. Of the Facebook account holders, 68 percent considered themselves followers (meaning they visited the page occasionally to read the latest post). When asked whether they would refer people to the company’s Facebook page, more than 70 percent said they would recommend people if possible (NOTE: The page at the time was a closed-group page).
• How active is the audience? We found that roughly 62 percent of our customers with Facebook accounts were active (defined by our metrics as posting at least once per month). When we asked customers how often they came to our page, 32 percent said at least once per month. While the numbers seem to be low, at the time our company posted content once every four days. We saw the numbers as an opportunity to increase our following by concentrating more of active engagement and content from a full-time employee.
• For what our customers are searching? In addition to socialization, our service found that 48 percent of our customers were searching for information. In a follow-up survey, the majority of our respondents (74 percent) said they would like more information on the company’s products and information they could share with people. Forty-three percent said they searched other company websites and social media pages to find information on healthy lifestyle products and information. Surprisingly, nearly half of the respondents stated that they would purchase products advertised on the Facebook page.

With our research, the company decided to beef up its Facebook page presence. The company hired a full-time employee to handle the social media page. We started posting content more frequently (three times per day – one post on a product, one post on nutritional information and the third post on lifestyle activities) and began posting ads where members could buy the products while on Facebook, using a trackable link. Using the Facebook page as a sales and conversion channel, we began to track our numbers to gauge our page’s effectiveness.

It is OK for a company to pick and choose which social networks to join. As a small business, the company may not be able to maintain a constant presence on multiple platforms. A company needs to assess each social media platform annually to ensure the pages are accomplishing their goals – building an active audience while converting visitors into customers.

REFERENCES:

Kaushik, A. (2010). “Web analytics 2.0: the art of online accountability & science of consumer centricity.” Indianapolis, IN: Wiley & Publishing, Inc.

Lee, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). “Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies.” Watertown, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Smith, K. (2016, March 7). “Marketing: 96 amazing social media statistics and facts for 2016.” Brandwatch. Retrieved June 6, 2016, from https://www.brandwatch.com/2016/03/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts-for-2016/