Content Marketing 101: Social Media Strategy
Originally written by Julian Karstel | Revised & Updated by Carina Claassens
The entire business world has moved online, which means engaging with others through social media has become more crucial than ever before. Social media communication has become a science in its own right and, when done right, will result in exposure that was before only achievable through massive marketing budgets.
What is Social Media?
Social media is the collection of online media that is created for the purposes of sharing with others through unique websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. Social media’s main function in business is to create a platform for communication between Internet users and a specific business.
Some Advantages of Social Media
Getting Started
Before we get started it important to note that a social media strategy requires a holistic business approach whereby social media should become an integral part of every business function.
For example: if your company wishes to expand its market share by widening a product’s target market to a younger segment, social media communication should follow by being more informal and fun.
For example: Brands can create unique hashtags to use on Facebook and Twitter. They can sign of posts using these hashtags as a creative signature of sorts.
For example: a social media strategy requires numerous processes such as update scheduling, management, monitoring and evaluation. This means that every process of the social media strategy needs to be planned.
For example: Dorris, the receptionist, needs to ensure that the company’s internal Facebook page is constantly updated with relevant info. Bob from marketing, on the other hand, may need to update the company’s Twitter page daily for promotional reasons. This means that your company needs to ensure that its people are fully trained in their roles, and that their actions are aligned with the company’s social media strategy.
Choosing the Right Platform
When it comes to business and content marketing, how do you choose between the wide selection of sites? Which platforms will drive the most traffic to your site? This mostly depends on your target audience and industry. Each different social media platform consists of a unique community of users that you can easily tap into if you know what you’re doing. Some sites might work better for some than others, but ultimately you should be using all of the top sites as often and effectively as you can.
- Which Social Media Platform Should You Be Using?
Choosing between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, the list goes on, is difficult if you don’t have a plan in place. You need to decide what type of content you’re promoting and who you’re promoting to. As all the platforms are made up of different communities, you should define your target audience from the word go.
Gain a Quality Following
Quality trumps quantity every time. It might not seem that way at first. A massive fake and/or irrelevant following can seem worth it when all your colleagues seem majorly impressed with how popular you are in the social media sphere. When the figures don’t change and your website traffic and client list doesn’t increase, you’ll realise just how important a quality following is.
If you use social media to its full advantage you’ll gain real, quality followers with time. If your updates are constant, relevant and informative people will want to follow you, and what’s more, they’ll be industry relevant people who you can learn from as well.
- How Many Twitter Followers Do You Really Need?
Social media is not simply a fad. Social media is the new means of communicating with the world. It’s not a matter of choosing to be a part of social media but rather whether you want to be a part of the conversation.
Have any comments or questions? Leave them here or connect with us on Twitter @JulianKarstel & @SoundIdea
Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing | www.soundidea.co.za | info@soundidea.co.za
The entire business world has moved online, which means engaging with others through social media has become more crucial than ever before. Social media communication has become a science in its own right and, when done right, will result in exposure that was before only achievable through massive marketing budgets.
What is Social Media?
Social media is the collection of online media that is created for the purposes of sharing with others through unique websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. Social media’s main function in business is to create a platform for communication between Internet users and a specific business.
Some Advantages of Social Media
- Easy to share: Content is really easy to share through social media, often increasing exposure exponentially - sometimes to a viral level.
- Easily accessible: Anyone with an Internet connection can access social media networks, and due to the nature of the sites they are incredibly user-friendly.
- Highly interactive: Social media provides a great platform for creating interaction with users, also (due to its nature) on a very human level.
- Customer service: Social media is the perfect customer service tool, and due to the personal nature of the dialogue, it’s highly effective.
- Little regulation: There is very little regulation for online content, meaning that a lot of online content is bogus. As a result users have a tendency to be wary with their trust. However, this should be seen as a big opportunity to create quality content. Content that demonstrates your expertise is trustworthy and ultimately value-adding.
- Content is difficult to reverse: Once something is posted it is almost impossible to take it back, which means careful attention must be given to every post.
- Social media is a global platform: This may pose new cultural and communication challenges.
- Frequency of posts: Social media communication should be very frequent. This requires constant updates, which may make planning posts a little difficult at times.
Getting Started
Before we get started it important to note that a social media strategy requires a holistic business approach whereby social media should become an integral part of every business function.
- Context: In order to implement a social media strategy, a company needs to identify its goals so that it can communicate in the right context.
For example: if your company wishes to expand its market share by widening a product’s target market to a younger segment, social media communication should follow by being more informal and fun.
- Culture: social media communication is the most efficient means of creating dialogue with users; as a result it is important that the company’s culture is apparent in its social media communication.
For example: Brands can create unique hashtags to use on Facebook and Twitter. They can sign of posts using these hashtags as a creative signature of sorts.
- Processes: Identify which processes are required in order to fully implement your social media strategy.
For example: a social media strategy requires numerous processes such as update scheduling, management, monitoring and evaluation. This means that every process of the social media strategy needs to be planned.
- Metrics: A social media strategy should be implemented as a whole, which means that each business process should be involved in the strategy. Business processes should establish which metrics are a part of the businesses goals.
- People: Social media strategy implementation requires the involvement of many business functions and as a result the involvement of many employees. In order for a company to successfully capitalise on social media it needs to ensure that the people are consistently involved in the entire process.
For example: Dorris, the receptionist, needs to ensure that the company’s internal Facebook page is constantly updated with relevant info. Bob from marketing, on the other hand, may need to update the company’s Twitter page daily for promotional reasons. This means that your company needs to ensure that its people are fully trained in their roles, and that their actions are aligned with the company’s social media strategy.
- Policies: For any strategy to be effective there needs to be regulation. This means identifying and establishing what is acceptable and desired social media communication. Policies should be created and implemented to ensure that every employee involved in the social media interaction fully understands the social media strategy. Without regulation the company’s social media input could end up confusing users, or even worse - damaging the company’s reputation.
Choosing the Right Platform
When it comes to business and content marketing, how do you choose between the wide selection of sites? Which platforms will drive the most traffic to your site? This mostly depends on your target audience and industry. Each different social media platform consists of a unique community of users that you can easily tap into if you know what you’re doing. Some sites might work better for some than others, but ultimately you should be using all of the top sites as often and effectively as you can.
- Which Social Media Platform Should You Be Using?
Choosing between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, the list goes on, is difficult if you don’t have a plan in place. You need to decide what type of content you’re promoting and who you’re promoting to. As all the platforms are made up of different communities, you should define your target audience from the word go.
Gain a Quality Following
Quality trumps quantity every time. It might not seem that way at first. A massive fake and/or irrelevant following can seem worth it when all your colleagues seem majorly impressed with how popular you are in the social media sphere. When the figures don’t change and your website traffic and client list doesn’t increase, you’ll realise just how important a quality following is.
If you use social media to its full advantage you’ll gain real, quality followers with time. If your updates are constant, relevant and informative people will want to follow you, and what’s more, they’ll be industry relevant people who you can learn from as well.
- How Many Twitter Followers Do You Really Need?
Social media is not simply a fad. Social media is the new means of communicating with the world. It’s not a matter of choosing to be a part of social media but rather whether you want to be a part of the conversation.
Have any comments or questions? Leave them here or connect with us on Twitter @JulianKarstel & @SoundIdea
Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing | www.soundidea.co.za | info@soundidea.co.za
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