Different ways to use social media for marketing

 

• Focus on the bigger picture

 

• Use a consistent voice- Provide the customers with a coherent brand messaging to allow them recognize the grand, and build audience engagement. If you decide to use different channels such as Facebook, and Twitter, use a consistent voice in all channels in order to build brand recognition.
• Create the overall goal and a central aim- Make a clear goal such as to attract users to visit the social media page. To allow customers to access the website and browse the products, post links of the website to other sites and product pages so that customers can navigate.
• Use offline messaging- integrate offline marketing strategies such as indicating the website addresses to business cards, print advertisement, and sign in the store. These traditional forms of marketing will attract customers and drive them to social media networks.

Speech notes:  Social media is an effective way of engaging customers and promoting brand. However, in order to get more benefit, the company need to focus on the bigger picture which entails setting the objectives, think about the buyer personas, and the product and services.  Focus on content marketing strategy, prepare the audience, and ensure similar goals on a different medium.

 

• Choose the best social media tool
• Analyze the strength and weaknesses of the business- when it comes to advertising and marketing your brand, choose the right marketing channel. Note that using multiple platforms will not bring effective results and thus, it is important to find the social platform that complements the customers' needs.  First, understand the target audience, define your objectives, and have adequate skills and resources.

 

Speech notes:   it is important to make a strategic decision when using social media for marketing. Note that there are various great options but the big task is to figure out the best tool that fit the company.  Therefore, it is important to have a time commitment to reflect on the business strengths and weakness on using social media tools, the business priorities and goals, and more importantly the target market.

 

• Use the social media champion approach whose role is to;
• Engaging regularly and coordinating social media activities- the social media champion will monitor the activities of the social media channel and ensure that all company's content posted on the websites. The champion also interacts with employees independently to build brand recognition.

 

• Selling internally- the champion also coordinates with senior executives and marketing agencies to increase brand awareness by advocating a new tool.

Speech notes: Social media champion play a significant role in bringing progressive change in the business. They are responsible for monitoring the day-to-day activities of the social media and they bring effective ideas and provide constructive feedback to the rest of the organization members.

 

• Track the effect
• Use site analytics to track social media activities and give a report on site traffic trends.
• Use tools such as Hootsuite to analyze and give a report on Twitter account statistics
• Use PostRank to track bookmarks
• Use Facebook Insights to track the performance of the advertisements.
• Use Radian6 and Addictomatic to monitor the brand in social networking sites

 Speech notes- when using social media for marketing, it is important to monitor the activities and assess whether the social media campaign is meeting the goals. The company may want to know if the social media is working, and to achieve the reports, the company should track content using the highlighted several tools.

 

• Take action
• Evaluate the value of the social media strategy in terms of return on investment
• Use website analytics to gather data and make sound analysis on which social media tool is perfoming better
• Compare the social media tools and invest time on the tool that made the business thrive

Speech notes:  It is important to compare the multiple tools and use the channel that fits the business and the target market. When evaluating the best tool, also consider the billing options, the number of users, use a tool that has social network rich, and a tool that has social interaction capabilities. Finally, it is important to invest in a tool that the company will be able to manage effectively and one that brings a return.

 

 

Reference

 

Parker, C. (2010). 301 ways to use social media to boost your marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.