PBL 8

Problem.

How to use social media as a marketing channel?

Learning objectives

1. What are the social media platforms and how to utilize them? (combine them)

2. How to create an identity through social media channels? (examples)

3. How to measure the impact of social media? (tracking measurement)

1. What are the social media platforms and how to utilize them? (combine them)

Social-media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. Technologies include blogging, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-posting, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP, to name a few. Social network aggregation can integrate many of the platforms in use.

List of social networking websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites#V








Source: http://eatsleepsocial.com/2009/11/social-media-platforms-venn-diagram/




Which platforms to be on and to invest time and resources in is a crucial question, even for the most deep-pocketed brands. While Facebook remains the most popular social network, LinkedIn’s focus on business made it the top platform for business-related b-to-b issues. Pinterest and Instagram, on the other hand, have proven to be good platforms b-to-c retail where consumers “get inspiration on what to buy”.
Which platform to choose ultimately depends on what a business is trying to achieve, the product and services it sells, whether audience is b-to-c or b-to-b and the available budget and resources. For example, businesses with a small social media budget or limited resources can still achieve a high level of brand awareness by focusing on just one or two platforms. The mistake many small businesses make is that they feel they have to be on 5 to 6 social media platforms while certain platforms may not be ideal for their business anyway.

Source: http://joopcrijk.com/choosing-the-right-social-media-platform-for-your-business/


Source: http://sociallyacceptablesharing.com/social-media-platform-comparison/


Info on some social media platforms:
 http://www.visionmonday.com/click/archive/newsletter/2506/content/42140/

2. How to create an identity through social media channels? (examples)

Facebook has created issues among getting hired for jobs and losing jobs because of exposing inappropriate content. Facebook is a place on the Internet where users can update their statuses and express their personal opinions about life issues to their friends. This is controversial because employers can access their employee’s profiles, and judge them based on their social behavior. According to Silicon Republic’s statistics, 17,000 young people in six countries were interviewed in a survey. 1 in 10 people aged 16 to 34 have been rejected for a job because of comments on an online profile

Shoplet, an online retailer of over 400,000 office products and other consumables, uses social media to publicize important brand initiatives and company news. For example, Shoplet announced that, after 19 years, it was going to implement a new, green and industrial logo.

“The transition away from our old, red logo was dramatic.” Shoplet’s CEO and founder, Tony Ellison continues, “but, thanks to our marketing team’s understanding of social media, we were able to introduce & celebrate our new logo with a series of Shoplet promotions and giveaways. Social media has made our rebranding initiatives as a smooth and natural as possible.”

A lot of companies use humor to connect with their audience.

“It is also important to post funny, inspirational, and uplifting content that your consumers can really connect with, as they can easily be turned off if you constantly post promotional business-related content. In your posts, make sure to also ask your followers for comments and opinions to get a conversation going and to bring them back to the pages often,” says Kelly.

Source: https://blog.shareaholic.com/social-media-business-branding/

First of all, you have to identify your target consumers and join the social media websites that are most favored by them. For instance, if you want to reach out to consumers between the ages of 25 and 34, the best platforms to use are Google+, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter and StumbleUpon. Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest are the preferred websites for people aged 45 to 54.

Then, you need to develop a social media marketing strategy that will appeal to the interests and needs of your target consumers.

Sharing content on social media websites can help you increase the visibility of your business, improve your relationships with your customers and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

Maintain a Consistent Brand Image

Monitoring your competitors constantly is a great way to keep your social media marketing strategy up-to-date. There are many things you can learn from your competitors, such as the latest marketing trends, sources of industry-related information and keyword selection.

3. How to measure the impact of social media? (tracking measurement)

There is an increasing trend towards using social media monitoring tools that allow marketers to search, track, and analyze conversation on the web about their brand or about topics of interest.^[13] This can be useful in PR management and campaign tracking, allowing the user to measure return on investment, competitor-auditing, and general public engagement. Tools range from free, basic applications to subscription-based, more in-depth tools.

 For instance, LinkedIn users are thought to care mostly about identity, reputation, and relationships, whereas YouTube's primary features are sharing, conversations, groups, and reputation. 

Social media measurement or ‘social media monitoring’ is an active monitoring of social media channels for information about a company or organization,^[1] usually tracking of various social media content such as blogs, wikis, news sites, micro-blogs such as Twitter, social networking sites, video/photo sharing websites, forums, message boards,blogs and user-generated content in general as a way to determine the volume and sentiment of online conversation about a brand or topic.

Social media monitoring allows users to find insights into a brand's overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and share of voice, and be alerted to impending crises. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, brands or products. This is the work of a cross-section of groups that include market researchers, PR staff, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, agencies and sales teams. Several different providers have created tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels from blogging to internet video to internet forums. This allows companies to track what consumers are saying about their brands and actions. Companies can then react to these conversations and interact with consumers through social media platforms.

Various monitoring platforms like Sprout Social and TweetDeck and social listening platforms, such as Crimson Hexagon, Netbase, Brandwatch, Plumlytics and Mention use different technologies for social media monitoring and measurement. These technology providers may connect to the API provided by social platforms that are created for 3rd party developers to develop their own applications and services that access data.




Source: http://truemediablog.com/2011/03/part-2-social-media-monitoring-tools-and-tips/.