January 29, 2018
In our week 3 lesson, our topic was social media outlets.
Specifically, the question has been asked “How should a brand approach social
media participation?” Based on commentary provided in our lesson and other
sources, a major purpose and function of a brand’s social media platform
overall should involve activating engagement within their target market. Our
week 3 lesson stated that brands should look for their social media outlets to
produce certain outcomes. The lesson stated, “The objective of any social media
strategy, says Lake, is "to provide the right tools, so that people can
engage with your brand/people/products/services onsite and offsite. “According
to Econsultancy's Chris
Lake, the following is the ideal situation:
- You
want people to make a noise.
- You
want people to store and share things.
- You
want people to love your Web site.
- You
want people to visit more frequently.
- You
want people to refer your company to their friends.
- You
want people to buy into your brand.
- You
want people to buy your products.
It's a fact that current and potential customers who are
engaged are much more likely to perform some (or all) of the actions above” (Reed
College of Media, West Virginia University, 2018).
These are some of the objectives and desired outcomes that a
brand will want from their social media outlets. There is still the matter of choosing
the right tools to gain these type of results. A major factor in the choice of
tools will stem from factors including a brand’s “line of business, objectives
and strategy” (Reed College of Media, West Virginia University, 2018). There are
various social media platforms in existence and they tend to present different
offerings. Articles on Forbes.com
andMedium.co. provided great insight into some of these offerings and how they
should be used by brands. The results are as follows:
“Facebook
American women and men between the ages of 25 - 54 make up 32% and 29% of Facebook users,
respectively. And only 9% of users are between the ages of 18 - 24. For
companies whose target customer is under 24 years old, the most effective use
of company time may be to forego Facebook altogether or to create a company
page in order to to have a presence, provide important contact information, and
use it strictly for their robust advertising platform, while not investing in
any manpower to publish new posts regularly. On the other hand, if your company targets a slightly older
market, it could be very valuable since 44% of users check Facebook several times per day” (Wertz,
2017).
Photo courtesy of Statista.com (Wertz, 2017).
“Instagram
With 500
million users on the app and 59% of those users checking the app every
single day, it's no doubt that Instagram has great reach. However, with their
latest algorithm change, users no longer view the content in chronological
order and rather through an algorithm determined by Instagram, much like
Facebook's algorithm, that not many people understand. This change takes
more control away from the companies posting content and makes it hard to
determine how many people will be exposed to your posts. Not to mention,
without any clickable links associated with each individual post, getting customers
to your site from the app is a challenge.
Instagram may best
be used as a brand building tool if you have a decent following and post
beautiful images or videos, but if you plan to use it as a marketing tool, you
will need to devise a strategic plan to capitalize on the half a billion users”
(Wertz, 2017).
“Snapchat
60% of snapchat
users in the U.S. are under the age of 24and with more than 100
million users consuming 30 minutes of content every day, it's a goldmine
for businesses targeting millennials. Companies creating unique video content,
releasing behind the scenes footage, new collections, or conducting interviews
with prominent figures can capitalize on this free marketing opportunity and
gain a loyal following” (Wertz, 2017).
(Wertz, 2017)
“Twitter
Twitter is where
you go for trending topics and news, to share short updates, communicate with
people and search for things that you might need answers too.
Twitter can be a
great tool in business for finding people you have a problem that your business
can solve.
Demographics
- 32% of internet users aged 18 to 29
continue to use Twitter
- 13% of those aged 50 to 64 use Twitter
- Almost
half of girls aged 15 to 17 (49%) use Twitter, compared to 34% of boys. While
only 19% of online moms use Twitter, 27% of online dads embrace the
service
What Twitter Does Best
Twitter provides you and your business a real-time communication
channel with the rest of the world. There has been a lot of talk over recent
years about Twitter’s lack of innovation and issues with the way they deliver
content in the feed. But there has been a gradual revival in recent months,
which is seeing Twitter’s value start to climb.
Best
features for your business include:
- The ability to
communicate and engage on trending topics and events worldwide
- Digital advertising (can
be rather pricey compared to Facebook for example)
- Provide real time
customer service
What Works Best On Twitter
- Multiple posts or
‘tweets’ per day is recommended due to each post’s short timespan
- Tweets with images or
video show higher levels of engagement
- Tweets with 2 hashtags
perform better that posts with none or multiple hashtags (Murphy, 2017).
In
summary, again, a brand should choose social media platforms based on their specific
offerings to their chosen target market and strategy. In my opinion, there will
more than likely be multiple social media platforms chosen to accomplish goals
a brand has set forth. I also feel content and conversions share an equal role
in the success of businesse’s social media strategy. The content must be
engaging, which in turn will keep a continuous healthy relationship flowing with
users. Calls-to-action must also be present within the content to drive user
conversions. Therefore, the social media platform must present content in a
manner that keeps the process moving in a fluid manner. Another article on
Medium.com spoke on this subject saying, “Conversions, the cornerstone of marketing
since its inception and, until now, the channel’s USP. You only pay on
conversion; plain and simple. It’s low-risk, high ROI performance marketing. The
only problem is that it’s just not that simple anymore. The online world is
changing, and it’s changing fast. Content is now king and advertisers are well
advised to look towards self-produced content, content partners, and
influencers to help with driving engagement and shaping purchase decisions in
the increasingly crowded and competitive online retail space. The
key is therefore to look beyond last-click and acknowledge that there is value in
content and engagement” (Weh, 2017).
Resources:
Murphy, Anthony. (2017, May 8) How to choose the best social
media platforms for your business. Medium.com.
Retrieved from https://medium.com/strategic-content-marketing/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-platforms-for-your-business-e7e0f668e4e8
Reed College of Media, West Virginia University. (2018).
Week 3 Lesson: Social Media Analytics & Advertising Channels [Online].
Retrieved from https://cas-ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_97081_1&content_id=_4434991_1&framesetWrapped=true
Weh, Ricarda. (2017, June 6) Conversion vs. Content: Why
it’s Important to Look Beyond the Last Click. Medium.com. Retrieved from https://medium.com/digital-vault/conversion-vs-content-why-its-important-to-look-beyond-the-last-click-b07bf4c2098a
Wertz, Jia (2017, February 18). Which Social Media Platforms
Are Right For Your Business? Forbes.com.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2017/02/18/which-social-media-platforms-are-right-for-your-business/
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