Social Media Strategy

Oona Marttila 1200189

Report Social Media Marketing 2.11.2012

Contents
1. 2. Introduction .......................................................................................................................3 The Social Media Marketing Plan ........................................................................................4 2.2 2.3 2.4 3. 4. The Four Pillars of Social Media Marketing .................................................................4 Adding Value ...............................................................................................................5 Search Engine Optimization ........................................................................................6

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................7 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................8

1. Introduction
Social media marketing is a great tool for interacting with clients and generating awareness among prospects. Social media is great for spreading news, arranging e.g. competitions and receiving feedback. Many social medias also provide users with statistics on followers and visitors, which can be helpful when conducting market researches or making marketing decisions. Social media allows companies to be more present in consumers lives and dialogue with them, enabling customers feeling heard. A social media presence can be difficult to accomplish, but maintaining the publics interest is the hardest part. In order to benefit most of social media marketing, the activities should be carefully planned and structured from the start. A clear goal should be set and worked toward. Reaching the goal requires daily work, what with keeping up with the industry news, updating pages and keeping up conversation with the public. In order to accomplish this, a marketing plan is in order. The marketing plan should include target segments, goals and detailed plans of how to reach them.

2. The Social Media Marketing Plan

The first phases in making a marketing plan, is to identify the targeted customer. Who the customer is, in terms of age, gender, geographical location, income level, etc., and what is the most effective platform of reaching them. There are endless amounts of social media networks, and new ones are created constantly. Choosing the right platform is among the most important decisions, and of course the bigger the presence, the higher chance of success. Susan Gunelius, author of 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, suggests that traditional marketing is characterised as push marketing, where information is pushed to the consumer. In contrast, social media marketing is characterised as pull marketing, as the consumer is drawn to the companys information flow, Facebook, blog or other platform. Consumers are constantly seeking information, engaging in the debate and creating word-of-mouth buzz (Gunelius, 2011. 4). Because of this, it is important to offer visitors interesting content. When planning social media marketing, the content should be planned carefully. To get the customer to continue coming back, the content should be as engaging as possible and inspire to converse. Engaging in the conversations and keeping them up is one of the best tools to create awareness in the social media. Accessibility and honesty are factors that consumers value highly, and should therefore be prioritized when marketing in the social media.

2.2

The Four Pillars of Social Media Marketing In the book The Social Media Bible, by Safko & Brake, the authors suggest that in order to create a balanced and functioning social media marketing plan, the plan must include the four pillars of social media marketing. These pillars are Communication, Collaboration, Education and Entertainment. (Safko & Brake, 2009, 674). The authors emphasize the importance of allowing communication among customers, and also

engaging in the conversations. Existing customers sharing personal experiences is the best marketing and is guaranteed to boost sales and increase revenue. Gunelius also presents four pillars in social media marketing. The pillars according to Gunelius are Read, Create, Share and Discuss. Gunelius suggests that the first step in creating content to a social media page is to read. Staying on top of what is happening in the field is crucial to be able to execute the three remaining pillars. Generating discussion through sharing news and participating in the discussions keep up the interest of consumers. What is in common of both pillar theories is that open discussion is one of the fundamental aspects in succeeding in social media marketing. Knowing what is going on in the field and generating productive and interesting thoughts and provoking conversation, all hugely contribute to traffic on the site.

2.3

Adding Value One of the most important factors in social media marketing is adding value. One must always be able to offer a customer something new or the customer will probably lose interest. Gunelius suggests an 80-20 rule in social media marketing; use 80% of the time for interaction with customers, and only 20% on self-promotion. This means that a social media marketer should put great efforts towards the content and update frequently. Consistency is the key to succeed in social media marketing. The low level of self-promotion is advised, because if a consumer feels that he/she is reading marketing material, there is a great threat of agitating the consumer. He might become irritated that products are being forced upon him, and therefore never visit the site again. In contrast, a conversation about the field / market in general or sharing and reading experiences of customers can be far more effective.

2.4

Search Engine Optimization A good tool to enhance visibility on the web is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO enhances the positioning in search engine results, which enhances traffic on the site. Many service providers provide analytics tools that are useful when tracking through what channels visitors enter your site, the frequency of visits and geographical data. This information may also be beneficial in further studies of the market and segmentation. The amount of links to a website and the websites key words play big roles in search engine result ranking. Search engines penalise sites for certain behaviour, like tampering with these criteria. Hiding keywords in HTML codes, buying links and other activities along these lines may result in penalization. The punishment is often a lower ranking in search engine results. Thus, a social media marketer can, with consideration, use SEO techniques to improve the visibility in search engines. For example blogs are a great way to boost visibility, since each post has its own key words. If one blogs once a day for a year, there are already 356 index pages with key words. (Gunelius, 2011. 222-223).

3. Conclusion
All literature used in this report suggest that since social media marketing is still in its infancy, there are no right or wrong ways of doing it. Gunelius emphasizes that One size does not fit all, meaning that social media marketing is highly tailored and should always be implemented individually (Gunelius, 2011, 37). What works for some, might be totally wrong for another. As a conclusion, one of the most important ways in marketing in social media is interaction and free conversation. Allowing consumers to express their minds without trying to prohibit it is greatly valued among customers. Also, generating value for the visitors is crucial to get them to visit again. Social media marketing is often regarded as a free medium. Setting up social media accounts is easy and free, but when it comes to maintaining and planning, it is a very time consuming media. But only practice makes perfect.

4. Bibliography
Safko, L. & Brake, D. 2009. The Social Media Bible. John Wiley & Sons. Gunelius, S. 2011. 30-Minute Social Media Marketing. McGraw-Hill.