Social media embrace a range of applications, all of which incorporate a form of word-of-mouth communications. (Fill & Turnbull, 2016) Also expressed as a state that Social media employ mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss and modify user-generated content (Kietzmann et all, 2011:1). These days the role and presence that an organisation seeks to adopt in social media is critical, which has caused problems for businesses as they sometimes fail to adapt and implement digital strategies, in an environment where their level of control and influence is reduced.
Tips to consider with social media marketing:
Don’t be afraid to show off your personality
Creating a great social media presence isn’t only about showing the value of your product or service to your audience. It’s about connection and experiences. The best brands out there share a common point of view with their fans. A favorite example to show of this idea in action would be Merriam Webster Dictionary.
Read more here about their idea to transform her dictionary success on social media: https://blog.bufferapp.com/merriam-webster-show-notes
Get the most out of your content
Experiment with creating shareable graphics throughout the post that people can use on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can also create a series of Instagram Stories to help promote the post. Or you might try creating a short video for Facebook summarizing the post (or even a more in-depth YouTube video!)
Every piece of content you create should have at least 2-3 other pieces of shareable content to accompany (call-to-action). That way if the link doesn’t resonate then the video might. Or if the video falls short, maybe it makes for good Instagram Stories.
Read more here on how often to post on social media: https://coschedule.com/blog/social-media-marketing-tips/
These could be added to the Kietzmann et all (2011) framework called ‘4Cs’
The framework proposes that organizations should develop strategies to monitor, understand and respond to different social media activities. These could be considered as guidelines to follow, which are:
1.Cognise – Each organisation should try to recognize and understand its social media landscape.
This is a way to communicate a brand purpose through a visual media content considering specific target audiences on their social media channels. For example boosting an organic content to a target audience, which is the perfect testing ground for paid ads and boosted posts. Through this method, a business would determine what posts to further invest in, and target specific users within many of the social platform ad managers. For example, you can exclude traffic to your website in order to eliminate people who are already familiar with the brand.
2.Congriuty – Each organisation should develop strategies that match the different social media functionalities and their goals.
Businesses need to find their balance in using their social media channels, because often found is that companies would be getting average results across the board in they are on every platform.
It may seem counterintuitive, but focusing all your efforts on the two to three key platforms which give the best return on investment. Crafting content unique to each platform is critical.
For example, let’s say we write a blog post about social media marketing. Writing the copy that will get attention and clicks on LinkedIn is much different than what would work on Facebook, which is dramatically different than what works on Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter.
Guide on what to post on each social media platform here:
https://blog.bufferapp.com/what-to-post-on-each-social-media-platform
3. Curate – Each organisation should develop a policy about who should listen to conversations on a social media platform and when.
To go along with the previous social media marketing tip, you need to measure your efforts and analyze the results. In a survey from Convince & Convert, over 40% of companies don’t track their social media ROI at all, so they have no idea whether or not anything they’re doing is working. If you don’t want to fall under that umbrella, start tracking your social media activity right now.
Some of the metrics that you want to look for include:
- Reach and engagement for Facebook
- Impressions, visits and mentions on Twitter
- Views and actions on Google+
- Impressions, clicks and interactions on LinkedIn
- Impressions and engagement on Pinterest
- Likes, comments and mentions on Instagram
You should track these metrics on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis so you know when and if you need to make changes to your social media strategy.
Read about more social media metrics that matter:
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-metrics-that-matter/
Figure 1. showing the functionalities of different platforms
4. Chase – Each organisation should undertake environmental scanning to understand the speed of conversations and information flows that could affect the organisation and the market.
A constant chase for information about social media activity is tremendously time-consuming. Yet, firms must scan their environments in order to understand the velocity of conversations and other information flows that could affect current or future position in the market (McCarthy et al.,2010).
The honeycomb framework provides a valuable tool for evaluating the changing social media ecology and a firm can revisit the assumptions about a community’s engagement needs, observe how platforms are evolving, and gauge how competitors are responding. More specifically, it is important to follow conversations and other interactions that include a particular firm, brand, product, or individual.
Some social media analytics tools like Tweet-Deck, Social Mention, and Google Alerts exist to make this process more manageable.
Figure 2. Showing the honeycoomb framework of social media
Further to be considered, as to confirm the importance of a well-considered digital strategy, (Truong and Simons, 2010) report research finds that the use of inappropriate pushed web-based advertising and mobile digital formats can lead to negative impact upon brand equity.
References:
Chaffey (2014) SmartInsights, http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-acquisition-strategy/new-media-options/
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012). Digital Marketing: Strategy. Implementation and Practice: Pearson.
Baer, J. (2018). Not Tracking Social Media ROI is Your Fault. [online] Convince and Convert: Social Media Consulting and Content Marketing Consulting. Available at: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-measurement/not-tracking-social-media-roi-is-your-fault/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].
Business, S., Management, S., Service, C., Marketing, S., Structure, A., CRM, S., Integrations, O., Questions, F. and In, L. (2018). Ultimate Guide to Measuring Social Media ROI. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-roi-guide/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].
Kietzmann, Jan & Hermkens, Kristopher & McCarthy, Ian & Silvestre, Bruno. (2011). Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media. Business Horizons. 54. 241-251. 10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005.
McCarthy, I., Lawrence, T., Wixted, B., & Gordon, B. (2010). A multidimensional conceptualization of environmental velocity. The Academy of Management Review, 35(4), 604—626.
Social. (2018). 8 Tips to Quickly Master Social Media For Businesses & Entrepreneurs. [online] Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-for-businesses [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].
Social. (2018). What to Post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and More. [online] Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/what-to-post-on-each-social-media-platform [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].