Waterstones & Social Media

When it comes to implementing a successful digital strategy into a company the channels are immense. Without the use digital channels in digital marketing strategies in order to engage and retain consumers a business will fall behind its competitors and the digital divide (Ryan, D., Jones, C. & Dawsonera (2009). Waterstones knows all too well about the consequences of not keep up with the changing environment and being underpinned by its competitors (Amazon). Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012), provide a complex diagram of the extensive channels digital marketing can take.

What’s really taking marketers by storm and pressuring companies to up their digital game? Take a look at what’s happening online in 60 seconds. This post will focus on social media marketing and its elusive web of ever changing and growing attributes.

When you think social media you think networking and along with it Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest and Instagram, the variety is endless. These are but one tiny element of social media however incredibly important there is much more to it. Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012) outline 10 components within social media:

 

• Social Networks
• Social Publishing and News
• Social Commenting in Blogs
• Social Niche Communities
• Social Customer Service
• Social Knowledge
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Streaming
• Social Search
• Social Commerce

 

Lets not make things too confusing and take a page out of The Social Media Bible.

 

Step 1.) For social media success; Analyze your existing media (Safko, L. & Dawsonera (2010)

• Online Website
• Blog
• Events Page
• Click and Collect
• Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram and Google +
• Android and IOS Mobile application
• Alta Vista Search Engine (Siemens Primergy 870 Internet Connectivity – BT)
• Epiphany agency runs: SEO, pay-per-click and advertising
• EPUB: digital service that allows book to be read via Hardware platforms
• ‘Read for Free’ Service

 

Step 2.) The Social Media Trinity (Safko, L. & Dawsonera (2010)

Waterstones is missing out on a huge proportion of the market, millennial’s that are avid users of social media. Not only does it promote customer communication, relationships, products and services but also it gives the company insight into data about the consumer. This is extremely important for leveraging consumer-generated content and engaging with the target audience.

Its most recent digital marketing campaign ‘planners’ or ‘wingers’ was designed to promoted their click and collect system as well as the importance of real books this Christmas. Waterstones needs to use its social media more effectively and who better to learn from then the champions themselves.

Successful Social Media Marketing Campaigns

 

Facebook: Heinz 5 Beans – (Hawes, A. (2015)

 

This company used Facebook as a medium to reach out to their consumers through the use of an online personality quiz “Which Bean Are You?” This is a great example of a company with little social networking presence creating a personalized relationship with its consumers, increasing its fan base by 30,000 and creating buzz.

YouTube: Three Mobile #danceponydance – (Hawes, A. (2015)

The famous moon-walking pony to Fleetwood Mac led to 7 million views you would think that alone was enough to create hysteria. The company took the opportunity to further involve consumers through ‘the pony mixer’ allowing the to customize, create and pick the music for their own dancing pony video.

LinkedIn: Fruit of the Loom – (Wasserman, T. (2013)

 

This tactical social networking campaign used LinkedIn to discover people who had started a new job or changed in the last 30 days. The message disclosed that they were eligible to claim a pair of underwear, because “great-fitting underwear can help you start your workday in a great mood”

For more great social networking campaigns check out this blog posts!

 

Why Social Networking?

All highly effective digital marketing strategies that use social networking channels to engage with consumers that companies were never able to reach before. Waterstones should endeavor to create more personalized consumer relationships. The average person checks their phone 150 times a day, this is one of the easiest targeting mechanisms for Waterstones to use to bring their product and service into the home of the consumer.

Waterstones does amazing advertisements for their books on their You Tube page but they only have 6, 565 subscribers. The latest was ‘The City of Mirrors’ by Justin Cronin and it has 175 views.

The expectation from the company is that the consumer will take the initiative to purchase the book. Social networking allows companies to understand who are influencers and advocates (who do people listen to these days) how can we acquire these people to promote our products and services via social networking (Browne, E. & British Computer Society (2012). Waterstones needs to broaden its spectrum of advocates and influencers and understand that millennials want to be recommended a book by Zoella (via You Tube) or Demi Lovato (via tweeting).

Implementing digital initiatives would unmask elusive opportunities that don’t have to drift from its core value of wanting consumers to experience the physical book retailer. Using social networks to promote campaigns; events and book signings would broaden its marketing scope but segment its focus into a wider audience (Ryan, D., Jones, C. & Dawsonera (2009).

 

References

Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012), Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and practice, 5th edn, Pearson Education, Harlow.

Browne, E. & British Computer Society (2012), Working the crowd: social media marketing for business, 2nd edn, BCS, London.
Safko, L. & Dawsonera (2010), The social media bible: tactics, tools, and strategies for business success, 2nd edn, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J.

Ryan, D., Jones, C. & Dawsonera (2009), Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation, Kogan Page, London.

Taken Smith, K. (2012), “Longitudinal study of digital marketing strategies targeting Millennials”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 86-92.

Wasserman, T. (2013). 8 Innovative LinkedIn Marketing Campaigns. Available: http://mashable.com/2013/10/14/creative-marketing-linkedin/#X4Mp.Z3fGPqT. Last accessed 24th Jan 2016.

Hawes, A. (2015). 5 of the Most Imaginative You Tube Campaigns. Available: http://oursocialtimes.com/5-of-the-most-imaginative-youtube-campaigns/. Last accessed 25th Jan 2016.

Hawes, A. (2015). 5 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Campaigns. Available: http://oursocialtimes.com/5-fantastic-facebook-campaigns/. Last accessed 25th Jan 2016.

Chaffey, D. (2016). What Happens in One Minute Online. Available: http://blog.davechaffey.com/. Last accessed 27th Jan 2016.

SalesForce. (2014). The 30 Most Brilliant Social Media Campaigns of the Last Half of 2014. Available: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/12/the-30-most-brilliant-social-media-campaigns-of-the-last-half-of-2014-152015.html. Last accessed 27th Jan 2016.