Social Media Marketing Plan

With the presence of Web 2.0  and the fact that Social Media is now part of our everyday lives, it only makes sense for companies to exploit it and use it for their own benefits. I am referring to advertisements. The problem for many of these companies is that they struggle to clearly define what their objectives are for social media. According to Houssem Daoud from Social Media Examiner, Goals and objectives guide your social media strategy to help you successfully connect with your customers (Daoud, 2014).

Regardless of your objectives for social media, when ever a company makes an investment in something they expect a return. This is referred to the Return on Investment or ROI . So prior to a business diving into measuring their ROI, it is important for them to define what exactly their goals are. This will ensure that the measuring metrics to be used are inline with what the company’s overall objectives are. So in other words, what does the company expect to get out of developing a social media-marketing plan?

Right off the bat a company should be focusing on a few things like how to: increase traffic, exposure and engagement with their consumers. Engagement can be tracked using how many likes, shares or comments have been left. Exposure will show how large the company’s overall reach is. Traffic can be measured by counting the amount of page views and how long a consumer was on their page. “Instead of thinking about social media analytics as a noun, think of it as a verb. Specifically, it’s gathering data from social platforms to help guide your marketing strategy”(Guido, 2016). This information that is constantly being gathered gives the company the ability to make mid course corrections. For instance, if they are consistently receiving 100 likes on their Facebook posts but over the past week have barely been receiving 50 it would be a good indication that they need to take a closer look at what has been posted.

There are limitless social media analytics tools for tracking metrics; Keyhole, AgoraPulse  and Brandwatch  are some of the best out there. However, without the proper strategy the data that is being recorded is useless. A good marketing campaign will be one that not only reaches people but one that pulls them in and makes them feel part of something bigger. The real key is connecting with the customers and letting them give you feedback that does not fall on deaf ears. Embracing the change that both the times and customers bring will ensure that a company will be around for many years to come.

 

References

Dauod, H. (2014). 8 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-marketing-strategy/

Guido, M. (2016). The List of the Top 25 Social Media Analytics Tools. Retrieved from http://keyhole.co/blog/list-of-the-top-25-social-media-analytics-tools/

Privacy and Online Advertising

Online advertising is a major economic force in the Internet today, funding a wide variety of websites and services. Today’s deployments, however, erode privacy and degrade performance as browsers wait for ad networks to deliver ads (Guha, 2016). This is not to say that online advertising isn’t an essential to reach target audiences. Just like standard marketing, some personal information must be gathered in order to attain the objective. The most common information needed for marketing is demographic information to include: gender, age, income, education, ethnicity, marital status, number in household, occupation and location.

Most people would consider their lives to be less then thrilling however Melissa Riofio points out that data you generate is a rich trove of information that says more about you than you realize—and it’s a tempting treasure for marketers and law enforcement officials alike (Riofio, 2016). Most companies make every attempt to keep your information secure, the good ones will have an information security plan in place and ensure it is followed. However this is not always the case, Data breaches occur all the time, just look at the biggest ones of 2014.

When a data breach does occur companies need to do damage control immediately by notifying who has been affected. They must also follow through by providing assistance and monitoring. Restitution must also be made for the affected or they may face client litigation. Depending on the severity of the breach, fines may be imposed by the FTC. If companies do decide to use a location based or form of tracking advertising they need to ensure their system does not poses any vulnerabilities. They also need to be transparent, letting customers know what information you are gathering so that it does not come to them as a surprise. Don’t be greedy, only take the information you need, do not get caught up in storing information that is not needed for your company. Finally, don’t make it too personal, general information is fine but don’t be the creepy guy stalking girls at the gym.

 

References

Guha, S. (2016). Privad: Practical Privacy in Online Advertising. Retrieved from https://adresearch.mpi-sws.org/privad-nsdi.pdf

Riofio, M. (2013). The 5 biggest online privacy threats of 2013. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031908/the-5-biggest-online-privacy-threats-of-2013.html

The Power Of Visuals

Vine and Instagram have limitless potential when in come to marketing on social media.   Vine in particular is specifically designed to develop film shorts; separate instances that can be linked together for six seconds (rumor has it that there is a hack to get twenty seconds out of it). Each one of these film shorts is designed to play on a continuous loop and is viewable directly from twitter’s time line or a webpage (Moreau, 2016). Instgram also gives you the ability to post a video from 3 to 60 seconds. However, the two platforms are vastly different you can find out more information on the differences here.

The purpose behind using these social media visual platforms is relatively simple. First it allows customers to see your products in action. Buyers typically want as much information about a product prior to purchasing it as possible. These tools offer an exceptional way to connect with the target audience. Second, it provides entertainment while educating the audience. If done properly, these resources can teach the consumers how to use the product while engaging them. Finally, it promotes the company, especially if there is about to be a new product launch. This is all done while keeping your customers engaged and involved.

My videos would show how my products work, in this case, detergent. I would set up a series of stop motion videos where I would purposely dirty an article of clothing and then use time lapse to show the effectiveness on certain stains. I would then engage my followers by asking them what type of stain I would impose and what color/fabric I should choose to stain. This would be the easiest way for me to develop a connection with the customers. I would then challenge them to make their own videos of stains and other types of blemishes they were able to remove. To go further I would pose the question as to what else, other then clothes, they used our products on. Maybe this would take some of the load off of the R&D department.

We would gauge the success of the campaign based on the number of shares and likes we received. This form of feedback is today’s word of mouth; in many cases a like or share can be seen as a handwritten note or a phone call (Herron, 2014). Of course sales would also play a factor; hopefully there would be an increase after the campaign took flight.

References

Moreau, E. (2016). What is a Vine. Retrieved from http://webtrends.about.com/od/Twitter-Web/a/What-Is-Vine.htm

Herron, J. (2014). The power of “Like” and “Share”. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-like-share-jamie-herron

Social CRM & Wal-Mart

The Background

Sam Walton began with a single store over 50 years ago with a simple business model; sell more for less. Today, Wal-Mart has amassed into the largest retailer in the world. They currently have over eleven thousand stores in 28 countries and a loyal customer base that brings nearly 260 million customers through their doors every week. They also employ more then 2.2 million employees worldwide, with 1.4 million of those employees working right here in the states (About Us, 2016). However, over the years Wal-Mart has developed a bad wrap, this is mainly due to poor wages, unkempt appearance of the stores, and poor customer relations.

So What’s Changed?

Wal-Mart has been making some headway in regards to their Social CRM. Social CRM steps away from just dealing with data and information and begins to establish relationships and near real-time conversations with their customers (Rouse, 2016). Just recently they launched their blog, where they make a solid attempt to connect with their customers on a more personal relationship. They break their blog up into four separate categories: Trending, Earning, Innovation, and Opportunity. Trending is the homepage for the blog, in attempts to connect the reader to what Wal-Mart sees as important. Reading though some of the blogs I found that they did a very nice job with the layout, even though the subject was less then thrilling. As you would suspect, Earnings takes you to the company’s latest earning report where they boasted about a 4% increase in revenue, which is pretty significant. Innovation loops back into what they consider as trending and opportunity lays out some of the advantages of working at Wal-Mart. Overall I thought they did a decent job with the layout and content, however the site lacked on interaction.

Wal-Mart’s Facebook Page  was what you would expect from any retailer. Most posts where about sales that where running in their circular. Some gave insight as to what Mom may want for Mother’s Day and they associated links to their online retail store. I was surprised at their frequency of posting; typically once a week thus the Mother’s Day post was only the third one down on their page. They do offer their phone number and the ability to message right from their Facebook page, it was listed that they typically reply in minutes. I messaged them to check for accuracy and was pleasantly surprised when I had a reply in my inbox 6 minutes later. Their admin also did a good job replying to comments from their posts. As one would expect most where negative, however, all responses where done tastefully and apologetic when it was needed.

Overall I would say Wal-Mart has done a good job with their Social CRM: their blog is there to establish a one-way relationship. Their use of Facebook bridges the gap between one-way and two-way communication.

References

About Us. (2016). Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story

Rouse, M. (2016). Socail CRM. Retrieved from http://searchsalesforce.techtarget.com/definition/social-CRM

ALS and Peer Pressure

The #ALSIceBucketChallenge was one of the most successful campaigns that I have seen to date. This was mainly due to the fact that the driving force behind the campaign was the enormous amount of peer pressure. People were chomping at the bit to jump onboard this bandwagon simply because it was what was popular at the time. Many people that competed in the challenge had no idea what Lou Gehrig’s disease was; less people knew what ALS was. However, many people hoped that they would get tagged or be requested by one of their “friends” on social media to participate in the campaign. This willingness to participate played on many need to have friends resulting on inflated egos if they where chosen to participate. Some people decided not to wait to be nominated and took it upon themselves to be the ground zero.

This viral sensation started with Chris Kennedy who challenged his sister, Jeanette Senerchia in Pelham: Jeanette’s husband Anthony has ALS. This eventually led to the ALS co-founders setting up guidelines to participate. According to the ALS Website:

ACCEPT: Accept the challenge;

RECORD: Take a video of yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head to increase awareness of ALS;

UPLOAD: Upload your video to social media, tagging/challenging at least three of your friends;

GIVE: Make a donation to support the ALS community.

Unfortunately I think the Ice Bucket Challenge has gone its course and will not be able to replicate what it had a few years back. The organization says that they intend to continue their newly found tradition every year, however, I think that the wind has left the sails. I do believe that viral challenges are here to stay as long as they maintain their ability to be new and exciting, though they’re not always smart ones. Just last week I read of a challenge the required participants to ride their skateboards on the freeway during rush hour. Many remember the knock out challenge were people attempted to knock out strangers while recording it. This challenge resulted in injury, death and some prison time. What about you, have you participated in any of these fad challenges?

References

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.alsa.org/about-us/ice-bucket-challenge-faq.html

 

Wolff-Mann, E. (2015). Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Here’s What Happened to the Money. Retrieved from http://time.com/money/4000583/ice-bucket-challenge-money-donations/

 

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