It isn’t always the best strategy to sprinkle a little bit of your
brand into every single social media platform available immediately. Instead, a
company should only adopt one platform as its main/primary channel and then
consider which other platforms, if any, would be acceptable for that brand. After
setting a foundation, strategies need to incorporate a mix of social media
touch points for maximum impact. This is especially true for smaller companies
who may not have a well-established and fully dedicated social media team. Instead of having sub-par representation in a
lot of places; brands should focus on doing well on a few of them.
By effective social media marketing, a brand is able to build its
popularity by increasing its website presence and growing the number of its
followers using social media (Bowden, 2014). However, the tools and functionality a brand
will require will depend upon the brand’s line of business, its objectives and
its strategy.
Facebook has billions of users each day, making it a viable channels
to promote a brand (Bowden, 2014). It also has advertising service that allow
advertisers to distinguish its exact target audience instead of possibly
wasting advertising dollars on an audience other than its demographic. These
include Facebook Ads and Sponsored Posts. Facebook requires a long-term commitment
and consistent relationship building from brands, although there is some
immediacy as you can reply directly to people’s comments of questions (Levy,
2013). Many brands choose to use Facebook thanks to its size alone, thanks to
its broad network and opportunity to build a community presence (Levy, 2013).
Twitter offers a platform that brands are able to interact with humans
through commenting and promoting trending topics (Bowden, 2014). Companies
leverage Twitter in responding to customers in a timely manner while featuring
the latest news and headlines about an upcoming event and product releases that
keeps followers engaged with the brands (Bowden, 2014). Twitter is most useful
for the business that has something to say frequently and prefers to reach
people directly (Levy, 2013).
Pinterest is billed as a content-sharing service that allows members
to pin or post photos, videos and other images to their boards (Levy, 2013).
The site has a predominantly female audience and is ideal for businesses which
visual imagery is a main feature or selling point (Levy, 2013).
LinkedIn, generally used for B2B marketing, helps professionals
connect socially. When reaching out to generate conversation with other
professionals, posting links to a brand’s articles or blogs help people learn
exactly what that brand is and how that brand can help them.
The visually driven platform, YouTube, has become synonymous with
homemade or company-made videos. By featuring products or services with visual
selling points, brands can generate conversation with their audience. Videos
might include teaching consumers how to do something, demonstrate a product or
service or introduce a new or unusual product to the market (Levy, 2013).
Like YouTube and Pinterest, Instagram is for the brand that needs to
include a visual aspect into its communication mix. Instagram has proved to
have a specific appeal to certain ethnic segments and popularity among
urbanites, making it a good choice for certain markets (Manafy, 2014).
As search is a very important piece of marketing, Google AdWords
stands as one of the most powerful tools for marketers. By using its
sophisticated, highly refined ecosystem, Google AdWords helps to make sure that
ads are relevant to users directly impacting click-through rates and therefore
providing a successful strategy option to advertisers.
By eventually incorporating a mix of social media touch points, a
brand can create specific content creation for each platform in order to
communicate with each audience best. It
is about quality, not quantity. Doing two or three channels well with
consistent, highly engaging content that is reaching and interacting with your
target audience is what will lead to conversion and customers (Clark, n.d.).
When attempting to decide which platforms to choose, it is important
to decide where your target buyer is, where is your competition, if there is an
untapped opportunity, how many channels can your brand handle well and
consistently, and are there any geographic differences that a brand needs to take
into consideration (Clark, n.d.). For instance, if a brand is competing against
a much bigger company, that brand should pick the channels where it can have
the most impact and engagement and invest to win (Clark, n.d.). Understanding
how customers discover content, consume content and what motivates them to take
action in a social media context can help marketers plan for effective social
media marketing efforts (Odden, 2014).
By taking these insights and leveraging them into social media content
planning, a brand can choose platforms and then provide information that is
more relevant and useful to buyers as well as content that influencers can use
to advance their own objectives (Odden, 2014).
It’s imperative that a brand consider content versus conversation.
Content simply puts human interaction at the forefront noting that content is
something to talk about (Novak, 2010). Content without conversation is just
broadcasting or advertising. In order for content to be effective in social
media, there has to be a conversation starter in the message (Novak, 2010).
Social media marketing is continuous and is an investment of time, and
when appropriate, should include monetary resources as marketing budgets allow.
Brands should be realistic about what it is willing to invest in terms of
interaction. Social media is a two-way channel therefore consistent
participation in conversations that make sense for your consumers and business
is necessary. Social media also needs to be consistently monitored in order to
analyze how social media users respond to a specific brand marketing strategy
and obtain feedback to improve the campaign. The actual analysis of social
media channels remains the most important piece, as it can help a brand determine
where to invest more or less time in order to reach its specific social media
goals.
By establishing a market, planning content, being consistent and
keeping an eye on the competition, a brand is able to choose the most effective
social media platforms. Choosing a few social media channels that align with
the audience will help accelerate a brand into a social media success story.
References
Bowden, J. (2014, September 7). How the top
brands use social media for marketing. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-brands-use-social-media-marketing-0995357
Clark, J. (n.d.). Convince and convert: Social
media strategy and content marketing strategy. Retrieved January 22, 2015, from
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/how-to-choose-the-right-social-channels-to-reach-your-customers/
Levy, S. (2013, December 2). How to choose the
best social media platform for your business. Retrieved January 22, 2015, from
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230020
Manafy, M. (2014, July 9). How to choose the
best social media site for your business. Retrieved January 22, 2015, from
http://www.inc.com/michelle-manafy/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-sites-to-market-your-business.html
Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation,
not content, is king. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-conversation-not-content-king
Odden, L. (2014, October 21). Three ways to
optimize your brand’s social media marketing success. Retrieved January 22,
2015, from http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/10/optimize-social-media-marketing/
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