Before a
company is able to identify which particular social media channel is more
relevant to their business, they must first understand social media as a whole.
It was reported that 97% of businesses are using social media but 85% of
participants are not sure which tool is the best to use (DeMers, 2014). Why do
we use social media in the first place? From a wholistic perspective, the
following outlines three identified attributes that social media offers to a
business:
- Brand affirmation. Affirmation comes in all shapes and
sizes; recognition, engagement and loyalty.
Social media offers an opportunity for any company to expose themselves to
a new audience through different messages. Tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube
videos, etc. A study found that 53% of Americans who follow brands on these
platforms are more loyal (DeMers, 2014).
Social media also allows for a business to get in front of its existing
client base through various mediums outside of traditional media.
- Conversion.
Based on your company’s objectives,
each platform’s brand messaging style can be customized in a way that drives
web traffic and conversion. In short, every exposure may not guarantee a
conversion upon first impression but each message act as a building block for
conversion. From what has been outlined, we have discovered that our followers
are our brand loyalists in which we are marinating to become converted leads. It
is through established credibility and trust that our followers feel more
confident in their purchasing decisions (DeMers, 2014).
- Marketing expenses are at a minimum. Aside from CPC advertisements across the various social media platforms, pushing these messages come at a small price – time. Marketers are currently spending on average six hours per week on their social media strategy (DeMers, 2014). As a result, companies are seeing an increase in web traffic and a slow increase in the SEO ranks on Google. To expedite this growth, a smart strategy should include pertinent keywords that are relevant to the business (DeMers, 2014).
The
foundation of every effective marketing mix includes the 4 P’s of promotion,
product, price and place. However, many affluent marketers argue that social
media is the fifth domain of “participation” which as Mikal Belicove describes
as the “viral loop” (Belicove, 2012).
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| (Photo credit: Van De Walle, 2011). |
Traditionally
companies build upon the 4 P’s through various traditional media of print,
radio, television, digital, etc. It is this authors thoughts that a smart
marketing mix includes in addition to these classic marketing avenues, a smart
and dynamic social media portfolio. However, how each platform is utilized to
maximize brand authority and conversions is based upon audience analytics. What
does our social media analytics tell us about a particular platform? Who is our
target audience? Chris Lake describes “social media measurement in terms of
sales, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty” (Reed College of Media, West
Virginia University, 2016). Lake’s metrics include an array of consumer actions
that help a company identify in what way a particular platform provides value.
Perhaps Facebook is an efficient way to drive comments while Twitter drives a
higher percentage of click-through-rates. When combining these traditional
roots with the adaptation of social media technology, the key element that
remains is the customer.
How a
company determines how these metrics compare to one another is through a clear
understanding of the capabilities of each platform and applying A/B testing. By
testing the same particular message across Twitter, Facebook, etc., a company
can identify and measure engagement through the use of social media metrics
plugin available through Google Analytics. Such practices take time but what we
learn throughout this process is invaluable. We learn who are brand loyalists
are in terms of demographics as well as how to best utilize our time.
A company
that best exemplifies an effective approach to customizing its messages across
each platform is Dove. Dove does a nice job articulating the key elements of this
post and how they interact in the “viral loop” (Belicove, 2012). Through a
balance of earned, paid and owned media, their marketing mix always maintains
brand integrity and always surrounds its target audience. Robert Candelino,
Marketing Director for Unilever says, “aggressive benchmarks for all efforts
are tracked and adjusted as necessary…resulting in sales” (emarketer.com, 2011).
Each platform is catapulted in a way that drives engagement. On Twitter,
Candelino says its audience was engulfed with conversation about sports,
fatherhood and other relative topics and sports memorabilia giveaways (emarketer.com,
2011). Similarly, the same principles can be applied to today’s campaign of
#speakbeauty. The following example shoes Dove utilizing a spokesperson to
share their own testimonial to the social media empowerment movement
specifically amongst young women.
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| (Dove Twitter, 2016) |
While Candelino
describes its Facebook presence to be more focused on the brand as a whole,
driving conversation around Dove’s core messaging, social mission and product
focused content (emarketer.com, 2011). Years later, these tactics are still
utilized currently on Facebook. The following post shows Dove drawing attention
on product reinforcement among third party influencers, in this case – Allure Magazine.
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| (Dove Facebook, 2016) |
Lastly, an
effective social media strategy will include all social media platforms. How
they are best utilized should be narrowly tailored around clearly defined
objectives sought out by a strong marketing mix. To meet these objectives, key
measurements are constantly evaluated to show strengths and weaknesses among
varying content and strategies. What currently works for Dove’s Twitter account
may not continue to work if objectives are not being met. Marketers must remain
vigilant throughout the content creation process and always willing to evolve
and make swift adjustments as necessary. The idea of content creation leads me
to my next thought of content verses conversation.
The question at hand is this, is social media irrelevant if
content is lacking? It can be perceived that without content, there is no
conversation. Through social media analytics, we can identify how our messages
provide value in terms of the measurements collected. How does our content
drive email sign-ups? Does a video on Facebook provide more video views than
Twitter? Without content to measure such engagement, the platform itself
becomes irrelevant and a waste of time. Creating content that sparks constant
conversation takes effort, creativity and a well-thought out approach.
Greenberg identifies the powerful process of content creation the driving force
behind social media marketing (Greenberg, 2009).
However, content is merely the live energy that fuels conversation
and conversation provides measurements, data and conversions as well. All of
these elements are the driving force behind our social media efforts (Novak,
2010). Novak proclaims that it is emotions, relationships and conversation that
keep social media alive, whether such elements exist in our personal lives or
in commercial practices (Novak, 2010).
At the end of the day, we all want to be treated as independent
thinkers in anything that we believe is “buzzworthy” to include commercialized brand
messages. This idea is what embodies social media. A business can effectively
interject itself in such conversation when a combination of traditional
practices, smart branding and engaging conversation exists within its marketing
efforts.
