Is Bigger Really Better?
In her blog, Think
Like the Consumer: Stepping in Someone Else’s Shoes, Ste-Aria explains how
it is imperative to use social media to effectively target your audience and to
make sure the messages sent are ones that the consumers want to see. It is important to “find your target
audience, listen to them, find out what they are looking for, and provide your product
or service to meet their needs” (Kerpen, 2015, pg. 27).
However, before doing so, one must have a single focused goal and a
plan to capture their audience’s attention, engage them by telling stories, and
create a viral campaign that helps in spreading the message and supporting the established
goal (Aker, 2010). Through measurable
goals and targeted efforts, companies will see more positive results in their
social media campaigns. Just because a
company may be reaching more people, it does not mean that they are reaching
them effectively or reaching the right people at all so is bigger reach really
better reach?
There are plenty of sites online providing tips and tricks on how to
get more “likes” on your page and many businesses may follow this advice. However, the people you are reaching may “like”
or see your page but will never buy from you or use your product? How efficient is that? In 2015, there was nearly 1.59 billion
Facebook users, 400 million users on Instagram, and 320 million on Twitter (Adweek,
2016). Should it be the goal of every
company to capture all of these users? This
seems quite un-achievable. If every
company were targeted everyone, there would be no success – they would be a
small fish, in a big bowl. On the flip
side, if companies established social media campaign goals that targeted the
specific audiences they wanted to reach, they would stand a fighting chance and
be the big fish, in a little bowl!
The Courtyard Lake George for
example, would love to see millions of followers on social media and reach individuals
in California or Russia or Japan but this wouldn’t gain the hotel any business
as these areas and these people are not its target audience. We want to see as many followers from New England,
Pennsylvania, and Canada as possible as this would mean that we were reaching
more of the right people. The same thing
applies if the Courtyard’s Facebook
page was only sharing historical data or political posts at 12:00 noon – our audience
doesn’t want to see that. They want to
see gorgeous views of the lake, discount deals, and travel opportunities for
things going on in the area when they are relaxing or thinking of a getaway.
Implementing targeting strategies such as paid advertising with
Facebook will assist a company in targeting their consumers by gender, age,
location, interests, and workplace (Kerpen, 2015, pg. 28-29). However, these efforts need to be strategic
and surround the goal of the social media campaign rather than blanket boosts and
ineffective posts to reach mass audiences.
As Ste-Aria mentioned, “if
it’s something I wouldn’t like or pay attention too, it’s likely my audience
won’t either.”
References:
Adweek. (2016, Apr 4). Here’s How Many People Are on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter and Other Big Social Networks. Adweek. Retrieved: http://www.adweek.com/digital/heres-how-many-people-are-on-facebook-instagram-twitter-other-big-social-networks/
Aker, Jennifer. (2010). The Dragonfly Effect: Social Media Strategies
that Innovate. Monster. Retrieved: http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/attracting-job-candidates/social-media-strategies.aspx
Kerpen, David. (2015). Likeable Social Media, 2nd
Edition. McGraw-Hill.
Ste-Aria's Post -
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa,
I like how you used the Courtyard as an example to identify its target audience. Along with identifying one's target audience, the proper content must be identified to use on each social site. As Morgan Johnston discussed, having good content marketing is great, but knowing what your users want to see on each of those social sites is also important. This is when planning becomes a vital part in shaping how a company will present its social media page. Content is to be focused on, but the way the website looks should also be an important part of the process. "As anyone who has built a website knows, there is much more to think about than just the content. Design, color, navigation, and appropriate technology are all important aspects of a good website" (Scott, p. 101). Often times, these aspects of social sites are forgotten.
According to Houssem Daoud, 8 Essential Elements of Social Media Marketing on the Social Media Examiner, which also supports our readings, these are the steps that should be included in your marketing and PR plan:
1. Identify business goals: Scott (2015) discusses that the business goals of the company should align with the marketing objectives.
2. Set Marketing objectives: When using a social site, the marketing objectives should not consist of measuring likes, number of followers , or retweets. "Unless your site makes money through advertising so that raw traffic adds revenue, traffic is the wrong measure" Scott, p. 115). The goals should be set to grow and strengthen the company.
3. Identify ideal customers: Creating a buyer persona is one of the most important steps that will be made in the planning process (Scott, 2015). When creating this profile it is important to think about what the users want to see, hear, and the overall content that will engage and attract them, remember think like your consumers (Kerpen, 2015).
4. Research competition: This step helps a company see not only what users are saying about its competitors, but what they are saying about them. It is important to know what your competitors are doing and see how they engage users on their social sites and if those same users are engaged with your company.
5. Choose channels and tactics: This step can be identified from the buyer persona. Knowing the proper social channels to engage users is vital. If a company users are more into viewing video content, a company wouldn't make Twitter its dominant social outlet to engage its users, instead they would use YouTube.
6. Create a content strategy: As discussed in my initial post, content marketing should not be confused with advertising, it should be engaging, add value to its users, add to the conversation, and be customer focused.
7. Allocate Budget and resources: This can be difficult for smaller companies to do with small budgets, but effectively using social sites can grow your members and company's brand. Scott (2015) also mentions a company can pay to boost its page. He notes it can be worth the investment, but is not necessary.
8. Assign roles: Creating a social media team to monitor and respond to users is important. As Meredith mentioned in her blog, robot responses are busy and not easily read. It makes the brand lack personality and appear careless about its users. Having a team who is responsible for the social sites helps prevent this by being able to intentionally and authentically engage its users and not give scripted responses.
Using these steps to guide the marketing and PR plan will attract the proper audience, provide insightful content marketing, and create a two-way conversation amongst the company and its users.
Daoud, H. (2016, September 28). 8 Essential Elements of Social Media Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from socialexaminer.com: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-marketing-strategy/
Kerpen, D. (2015). Likable Social Media. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Scott, D. M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing and PR (5th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Hey Mel! I hope you are having a great weekend. I loved your small fish in a big bowl vs a big fish in a small bowl. That is such a great analogy and really sums it up quite nicely. I think it was really great of you to take a step back and evaluate the proper target market and incorporating the Courtyard in Lake George was a prime example of that. It is important for marketers to know the difference between a target market and a demographic. Something that I have learned over the last year in our IMC courses is although target market and demographic are closely related terms, they are not interchangeable. One of the most common mistakes made by businesses of all sizes is a failure to recognize that not everyone fits into neat little demographic boxes. WordStream.com points out that "It’s important to be as inclusionary as possible when looking at potentially sensitive demographics, especially in the imagery and language used in your messaging, otherwise you risk alienating members of your community and prospective customers" (Shewan, 2016).
ReplyDeleteBoth Ste-Aria and Melissa brought up “if it’s something I wouldn’t like or pay attention too, it’s likely my audience won’t either" which is a lesson that David Scott expands on on page 117. He notes that people like to be entertained and to share in something remarkable... create something that will be talked about online. This relates back to Melissa's example of the Courtyard in Lake George. This Courtyard should focus on followers from New England, Pennsylvania, and Canada and create an initiative that will get people to spread your ideas and share your stories (Scott, 2015).
Scott, D. M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing and PR (5th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Shewan, D. (2016). ‘Everyone’ is Not a Demographic: A Guide to Target Markets for Small Businesses. The Word Stream Blog. http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/09/18/beginners-guide-to-target-markets
Hi Meredith!
DeleteYou and Scott make a good point in only sharing what people what to see. Scott (2015, pg. 117-118) explains that there are essential components to make something worth sharing.
1. Nobody Cares About Your Products (Except You): Resist the urge to hype your products and services - create something interesting instead.
2. No Coercion Required: Don't advertise or incentivize, share somethin gpeople will like and share themselves.
3. Lose Control: Sharing is not about generating sales leads, make your content totally free.
4. Put Down Roots: Be involved in the right online communities that will share your messages.
5. Create Triggers that Encourage People to Share: Use triggers to get people to share your content.
6. Point the World to Your (Virtual) Doorstep: The more people that talk about you, the more easily you will be found online.
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteNice post. I like how you were able to incorporate a real-world example. Not every company is using social media in hopes of gaining millions of followers. It is so important to target and speak to your audience. In addition to paid targeting strategies, companies can seek out followers based on interests and hashtag use. News feed optimization is another important strategy the Kerpen discusses on pages 42-43. He provides four key questions you should ask yourself in order for your Facebook posts to be seen:
When and how often should I post content?
Do these users interact with me often?
How interactive are the engagements with the post?
Have I boosted the post?
Asking yourself these questions is important because it encourages you to examine your audience’s preferences, engagement, and interaction. Investing money in boosting your posts can result in more users seeing your content. It sounds like the Courtyard has a great understanding of the first three factors. Have they considered boosting posts to gain more followers in targeted locations?
Hi Aimee!
DeleteThere are so many things you need to take into consideration when posting on social media besides just content. There are even studies that predict what time of day and day of week are best times to post in order to reach the most people/the people you are targeting!
Hi Aimee and Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI like how you both discussed the importance of content, but recognizing that it's much more than good content alone. This is a point I discussed in my initial point.