Social Media: A Strategy, Not a Tactic

Imagine this. You’re running a business and decide to put some of your budget toward social media marketing. You’ve finally hired someone to setup your social accounts (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and manage possible engagement. All of this effort and you still don’t know if you have a full grip on the effectiveness of social media marketing!

Don’t worry. By setting goals for your company within the social space, you will prevent feelings of frustration and instead, reach objectives and create brand awareness that will eventually lead to sales. But how?

1. Start from the bottom. Set up obtainable social media goals and reflect the main business goals within them.
2. Do your research. Ask the following questions before moving forward:
   • Who is your demographic & where do they congregate?
   • What are your current resources/budget?
   • How much time can you give to this task?
   • What are your competitors doing within the space?
   • What are your strengths?
   • What are the potential issues/problems with this execution?
3. Be honest & realistic with your digital/social media goals.
   • Increase overall brand awareness
   • Increase website traffic and sales
   • Increase SEO for your company
   • Provide information for your fans
   • Decrease various marketing spending
4. Be patient. Social media is an ongoing effort with ROI being difficult to measure and most engagement results being hard to pinpoint. A lot of time, effort and money often go into the most successful social media campaigns in the market. Although it will sometimes feel like a crawl, your social push will eventually yield results over time!
5. Always keep learning. Although you may have already created a Twitter or Facebook account, there are other “big picture” social strategies that could greatly effect your total success. Be willing to learn the details to keep evolving with the current platforms at hand – or hire someone who is knowledgable and can do it for you!
6. Understand that social media is not the answer. Putting your brand on various social media platforms does not replace all of your marketing efforts. Instead, social media should be seen as a large piece of the larger picture.

Overall, social media should be seen as a strategy, not a tactic. No matter what industry you work in, such strategies will differ -- although most companies will need one relating to social to stay relevant. Having said this, it remains true that social media requires a full effort from all parties involved in order to successfully integrate your company goals. So go ahead -- take a deep breath, dive in head first & have fun!

xx Samantha

$50 and 90,000 Followers Later...

I came across a very interesting article yesterday on how easy it is to become internet famous with a few hours of work and a couple bucks. A man named Kevin Ashton used his internet prowess to create a fake online celebrity known as Santiago Swallow. Kevin documents how, after only 2 hours of work and $68, he was able to create a web presence that scored a 754 out of 1000 in consumer influence according to Kred, one of the largest companies that claim to accurately evaluate online influence.  Kevin used methods from creating a fake twitter with auto-generated tweets and 90,000 purchased followers to registering a full Wikipedia page and website.

Kevin didn't even think of the name Santiago Swallow himself, he used an online name generator. Now I don't think it is going to shock anyone to hear that there is some dishonest activity being perpetrated on the internet. However, what did surprise me was how easy and cheap it was to do what Kevin did. If he can do it, what is stopping anyone else from doing it? Are the people or companies you follow on Twitter really as influential as they seem? Is Justin Bieber really the king of Twitter with 38 million followers or did he buy a couple million of those? We may not see flat out deception like we do here with Santigo very often, but I would bet this form of "reputation enhancement" is more prevalent than we think. For the full article please use the following link:

http://mashable.com/2013/04/18/become-internet-famous/

-Mike

Going Social After the Boston Bombings

As a woman who was born and raised in the great city of Boston, there are no words that can accurately summarize my emotions after hearing and seeing yesterday's bombings at the Boston Marathon. The images and first person accounts that were shared will forever remain in my heart – a horrific incident that hit way too close to home.

But, it's tragic events like these that I find interesting within my own social space. Personally, I saw friends tweeting #prayforboston within the first few minutes after the story broke and as expected, my Facebook wall was slammed with posts expressing extreme sadness and anger toward those responsible. But professionally speaking, how does an event like 9/11, the Newtown shooting or the Boston bombings effect larger brands on social platforms?

For once, they make brands go silent.

Although there is some debate around what a major brand should do on social during/after a large tragedy, a brand’s reasoning for going quiet is done with both good intentions and a bit of selfishness. On one side, we recognize the loss and sadness associated with the life-changing event. Our content simply wouldn’t make sense to share, nor would it resonate with fans, especially during a time when the nation is grieving. On the other hand, some brands believe in posting consistency with a main goal of beating Facebook’s EdgeRank and showing up higher than competitors within newsfeeds -- but, no one really wants to be the one brand actively posting in a newsfeed filled with content surrounding a tragedy. For those brands that saw this as an opportunity – or accidentally had posts pre-scheduled to go live during this time frame – many were met with a negative backlash from fans and non-fans alike for being insensitive.

From a community manager of a few large brands, it’s often the safest decision to cease all social engagement until a 24 hour period of bereavement has been allowed. Unless you have a meaningful and direct connection to the tragedy, this means no posting, no tweeting, no Instagraming and more. Yes, a brand’s messaging will be not top of mind for fans for a day or two, but this overall respect for the emotions of fans will resonate louder than a product-centric post.

Although you may not see every brand following this recommendation, see if you notice those that do. Then, respect them a bit more for giving fans their space during this terrible time.

What do you think is the appropriate move for brands after a national tragedy?

xx Samantha