Communicating and engaging consumers across social-media platforms can be a minefield or a goldmine depending on your company’s strategy. Savvy senior executives understand the importance of this often under-utilised resource and ensure that their social-media marketing is holistic and widespread.
Kate vanderVoort, Founder and CEO of Social Mediology, says that many companies leave the social-media strategy decisions to executives who may not have a thorough understanding of the psychology of social media and how it works.
“The first step for any business undertaking social-media marketing or social customer service is to ensure that those involved, at every level, understand why and how it works. This often involves a culture change process as the approach is very different to traditional marketing and customer-service models.
“Secondly, social media must be seen as part of the whole and not a standalone communication platform. For social to be successful it must be embedded into the business, blended with offline communications and processes and integrated into the overall business strategy. A holistic social-media strategy involves exploring how social can support other systems, processes, and functions as well as enhancing other forms of communications.”
“A holistic social-media strategy involves exploring how social can support other systems, processes and functions as well as enhancing other forms of communications.” – Kate vanderVoort
As companies develop their social-media strategy and presence, Kate advises executives to remember that no one social-media platform will deliver all of their marketing or customer service needs.
“Each has its own benefits, risks, messaging style, and audience demographic. A social-media audit allows an organisation to understand the resources available and match them to the most appropriate platforms to reach their target audience and achieve desired business objectives.
“Once this is clear, a holistic strategy articulates appropriate platforms and associated campaigns, including key messaging. A company should view content in campaigns, or segments, and always ask the question, “What is the behaviour we are wanting to influence?” Once this has been articulated, content can then be created to work towards that outcome. Appropriate messaging needs to be created for each platform. No one platform should be viewed in isolation, just as a social-media strategy should not be created in isolation.”
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