The need for social media marketing in business has never been more necessary than today. This product-oriented thesis looks at how to build a social media marketing strategy from scratch.
Background
Research objectives and task
Structure of the thesis
Anticipated benefits to stakeholders; the final outcome of the thesis
Key concepts
Case Company introduction
This section will show you how to formulate your objectives and goals for your SMM strategy. It will describe how to define your target audience and identify your audience personas, as well as show you how to choose the right channels and tools.
Goals and Objectives
- SWOT Analysis
- Listening
- Listening posts
- The conversation prism
- Meyer’s S.M.A.R.T system
2011, 30) clearly states that every social media marketing strategy should start with the listening model "The social media marketing planning cycle's" first step before setting goals and objectives is to listen. In 2007, Brian Solis developed "The Conversation Prism" which illustrates a social landscape in relation to his organization.
Define the target audience
Audience Personas
An audience persona can be understood in terms of the characteristics that make up a customer.
Three Step Persona Development Cycle
The second step is to identify personal needs, problems and concerns and connect situational triggers with them. The idea is to know which messages will be suitable for which audience personality, and thus to deal with the problems and needs of each group (Barker et al.
Joe Pulizzi’s Tips for Creating Audience Personas
The fifth, "Decision Criteria," is about knowing how a person chooses one service or product over another. Basically, "The Five Rings of Insight" helps the marketer avoid irrelevant trivia and focus directly on the factors that influence the buyer's decision making.
Choosing the right channels
- Network, Share, Promote
- Social Media Frequency Matrix
- Social Media Statistics
Facebook has many features that make it one of the more dynamic social media channels. With 200 million monthly active users, Instagram is one of the most popular image sharing channels.
Create Content Plan
- Content Marketing Maturity Model
- The B.E.S.T. Formula
- Content Categories
- Editorial Calendar
- Content Manager
- Measuring success
Before you start creating a content plan for the SMM strategy, it's smart to look at the content marketing maturity model. The next step is the "Though Leader", where the content provides value that does not necessarily have to relate to the product or service. The marketer must also verify that the content marketing plan is aligned with other "strategic" goals.
Another important aspect is understanding who the 'targeted' prospects are for the content plan in terms of their motivations and relationship to the products and services offered (Pulizzi, Barret, 2009, 29). People read certain magazines and watch certain programs because they expect to get the content they are looking for. A content manager will oversee the implementation of the content plan and see to it that it succeeds.
Without a manager, no one will be responsible for the content that is published and in turn the quality of the content that is published will suffer. A content manager will check whether the content that is published is aligned with the strategic goals and objectives of the SMM strategy. In a small business, the content manager is often the same person who creates the content and in most cases is the owner of the business.
Engagement
Solis’s Rules Of Engagement
Protocol’s for Content Engagement
In addition to having a human voice, it is also important to have an original point of view that makes the brand clearly distinct and different (Hadley, Chapman, 2011, 15). Of course some issues are not related to the industry and having strong opinions on sensitive issues can create controversy and damage business. For example, when Chick Fil-A announced in 2012 that they don't condone same-sex marriage, it caused quite an uproar among many people, especially on social media, where they asked people to boycott Chick Fil-A.
Usually good content should have a call to action, and even if some don't, it should still have a clear purpose (Pulizzi, 2014, 76). It's important to think outside the box with your content on some occasions and not get too one-dimensional. Rather than trying everything from blogging to podcasting, it is better to do one thing, but do it very well (Hadley, Chapman, 2011, 16).
Good content does not try to use sales language or tell stories about products and services (Pulizzi, 2014, 78). Instead, good content showcases and demonstrates products and services that help people and make life more enjoyable (Hadley, Chapman, 2011, 16). In other words, good content is content that, if not entirely sincere, at least appears to be it, and attempts to instill a sense of trust between the content provider and its subscriber.
Content for Social Networks
The content that is eventually released has to be the best in its industry, and of course it won't be the case at first, but it should be the goal anyway (Pulizzi, 2014, 79). He points to some key factors, including: "You need more than just an interesting topic," "It's good to be short, but it's better to be good," "Use smarter targeting," and "Watch out for Graph Search" ( Pulizzi What this means is that it's not enough that you have an interesting topic to discuss on Facebook, it's also very important how you present it to your audience.
The second point (it's good to be short, but it's better to be good) is very crucial given the sheer amount of information out there and the short time people have to absorb it all. Essentially he argues that it's best to be brief with your Facebook posts unless the story is very compelling and needs a few extra words (Pulizzi. The third point (Use smarter targeting) is where Pulizzi suggests the user to Using Page Post Targeting, which simply helps the user find their target audience within Facebook, and by using it, they have the ability to deliver a much clearer and more direct message to the audience (Pulizzi.
The fourth point (Beware of Graph Search) is where Pulizzi suggests the user to use Graph Search, a program that allows the user to find answers about their various networks on Facebook (Pulizzi. This advice basically asks the user to try and experiment with Pinterest tweets with their design and layout allows the user to show their personality through pictures and videos even more than other picture sharing platforms.
Conclusion of theory
It's also smart to avoid common mistakes when creating audience personas, as they can be very detrimental to an SMM strategy. Choosing the right social media channels for the SMM strategy should be done in the context of the organization's goals and objectives, as well as the target audience and audience personas. It is important to understand different social media channels in the context of their use and who uses them.
Content categories are important to the content plan because they give structure to the overall content of the SMM strategy. Engaging with customers on social media is as important as any other step featured in an SMM strategy. Understanding how to engage with customers online is strategically important to make your social media marketing as effective as possible.
So it's helpful to study Solis' "Rules of Engagement" as well as Pulizzi's "Protocols for Content Engagement" to understand what you should and shouldn't do on social media. However, it should be noted that the five-step process is a general outline of an SMM strategy and should not be taken as sacred. In order to proceed with the creation of an SMM strategy for Flueriste, it is necessary to analyze the data from the customer survey to understand the target audience.
Age & Gender
The process that has been outlined for creating an SMM strategy is only a process that can and should be modified if necessary. This process is still very much based on the case the companies need and it has been formulated to create their strategy. More or less, the five-step guideline can be used by most organizations and companies with the consideration that something could be changed or reordered.
As mentioned earlier, a survey is a fundamental research method for understanding the target audience. The survey consists of 12 quantitative questions with an additional qualitative question in which the customer is asked to express his opinion about the cafe. In this section, we will analyze the most interesting and relevant data received from the survey, as they will have the greatest impact on the SMM strategy.
Location
Products and Services
Social Media Usage
Culture
Conclusion
During the process of producing this thesis, I worked with a suitable company to further understand and implement social media tools. The main problems and challenges in the creation of the thesis were discovering the right steps that make up the guidelines of the strategy. Social media is such a hot topic these days that you will find information overload and some information can be more harmful than helpful when creating a social media strategy.
Of course, I would advise him to find more relevant information if someone takes this thesis in 20 years to better understand social media for marketing. The main stakeholder of this thesis is the Fleuriste company and any company that will use these guidelines in the near future. Jaokar A., Jacobs B., Moore A., Ahvenainen J., 2009, Social Media Marketing: How data analytics helps monetize the user base in telecommunications, social networks, media and advertising in a converging ecosystem.
Turner J., Shah R., 2011, How to monetize social media: a guide to using new and emerging media to grow your business. Social media can help share this message of passion and love for all things beautiful. Generating a reasonable amount of new followers to any existing or new social media profile is very achievable.
Of course, the number of new followers for Instagram will be significantly easier to get at the beginning compared to Facebook, since the latter was already set up four years ago. A realistic time frame for creating more followers and more activity in the designated social media channels would be one year.
