Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing

Relatively new field

Definition of Social Media Marketing: Creation of content that attracts attention and encourages audiences to participate and share it with their social networks.

Social Media Marketing is powerful, as a corporate message can spread from user to user, because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the company itself. It’s driven by word-of-mouth.

The barrier to entry is low, and can level the playing field especially for small businesses.

A key component of social media marketing is building social authority, or opinion leadership.

This is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an ‘expert’ in their given field, or is able to influence consumer behavior due to their popularity.

The most effective social media marketing efforts revolve around genuine building of authority through providing accurate and timely information on an ongoing basis, without any overt associated marketing angle.






Why Social Media Marketing?

- Customer Relations Tool, to connect and network with customers

- Help business go viral – By befriending a user, stand a chance of being spotted or recommended to hundreds of other users

- Easier for curious people to gather information about the company, products or services

- Feedback channel – Gather customer’s perspective to improve

- Low cost of entry, but not completely free:
–      Equipment (Internet Connection, Computers, Software),
–      Ad Space,
–      Manpower (Consulting, Monitoring, Updating, Design & Copywriting)

- Can make company look ‘cooler’, provides a starting point for an online branding campaign



Social Media Marketing Plan

1. Research
  • Who are our customers?
  • What influences them? How many of them use social media?
  • What are our customers saying about us and our competitors online?

2. Plan
  • What’s our objective?
  • What platforms are we using?
  • Can we get the username?
  • Who is allowed to post?
  • What are the rules?
  • How frequently should we update?
  • What’s our message? And tone?

3. Launch
  • Make it SEO-friendly
  • Make it easily searchable through Search Engine Marketing

4. Participate
  • Be transparent and authentic
  • Update regularly
  • Reply promptly and politely
  • Have a conversation, not a monologue
  • Don’t focus excessively on selling, focus on brand building and reputation management

5. Evaluate
  • Have we met our objectives?
  • What’s the return on investment (ROI)?:
    • Financial: More Enquires, More Sales
    • Tangible: More Fans, More Social Mentions
    • Intangible: Better Reputation, More Recognition
  • Monitor the outcome with tools:
    • Free: Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Facebook Insights
    • Paid: Web Analytics
  • Shall we continue, discard, or refine?






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