Social media strategy and planning essentials
First let’s answer the question, “What is a social media strategy?”
A social media strategy defines how your organization will use social media to achieve its communications aims and the supporting platform and tools it will use to achieve this. At a basic level it’s a simple statement of intent, outlining the goals and measurable objectives for using social media, and the target outcomes you want to achieve. It does this in the context of the overall business and comms plan so that social media isn’t in a silo but working in parallel with other channels. It isn’t a detailed plan of action – you’ll also need a plan but without a clear strategy, how do you prioritize the activities for a plan? Think strategy first, plan second.
Even if you’re not actively involved in social…
Twitter has made some small tweaks to its platform, The CAP has announced new gambling ad rules, Google showcases plans for US location expansion and Instagram investigates bug that caused follower counts to fall
There are no big platform changes to unpick this week, although Twitter has announced three tiny changes to its platform, one to create clarity, another to make it easier to view profiles and the third is especially for Valentine's Day.
New gambling advertisement rules will come into play in April that are aimed at reducing the effect that such ads have on those under the age of 18. As well as affecting where and when bookmakers can advertise, the rules will also impact who can feature in their ads.
Google has announced its latest $13 billion expansion plans that will see it set up locations in a range of new states, helping to create thousands of construction jobs.
Finally, Instagram…
Chart of the Week: More than 1.12 billion accounts spread across Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp now watch or create Stories every day
When it comes to social media marketing trends, Stories is the big one you need to watch. More than 1.12 billion accounts spread across Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp now watch or create Stories every day, representing a 987% increase since the start of 2016.
It isn’t just individual users that are causing Stories to grow hugely in popularity, more brands, companies and marketers are making the most of them. Buffer’s State of Social 2019 report has found that 57% of brands have found that Stories have been an "effective" part of their social media strategy.
The effectiveness of…
Facebook sees ad revenues increase year-on-year, Google has new GDPR complaint lodged against it, Facebook "blocks" third-party apps from monitoring political advertisements and Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp set to join forces with combined chat functions
This week's news roundup is fairly Facebook-heavy as the social media platform has been fairly busy. While its ad revenues may have increased in the final quarter of 2018, it has also come under fire some recent changes that blog third-parties from monitoring political ads.
Other than Facebook, Google is now in more hot water with yet another GDPR complaint lodged against it. It has been accused of using sensitive information to target ads at users, something that it is denying.
Take a look at these stories in a bit more detail below.
Facebook reports strong ad revenue growth
Facebook may have had a particularly touch 2018 in…
Forget all other social media platforms - If you run a B2B business, LinkedIn can be a treasure-trove for you
With more than 500 million users present on LinkedIn, of which, 61 million users are senior-level influencers, 40 million users are decision makers and around 7 million users are C-level executives, it is without a doubt a B2B marketer’s dream.
Around 94% of B2B marketers out there are already making use of the platform to showcase their expertise, generate leads and make a tonne of sales. But are they doing it well?
If you are experiencing sub-par results from your marketing efforts on LinkedIn or haven’t yet started your marketing journey on the platform then this post is just for you.
I have mentioned some actionable steps below that you can take to put your LinkedIn…
High user volume caused Alexa to crash on Christmas Day, Google is testing new search with importance placed on streaming, Instagram launches new features for Stories and Facebook is testing 'dark mode' for its Messenger app
We may have switched off for the holidays and New Year, but it's now time to take a look at what news stories in the marketing, tech and social media worlds were missed over the last couple of weeks.
First up is the news that Amazon's smart speaker was such a popular item this festive season that Alexa crashed on Christmas Day across many parts of Europe. It just goes to show that the idea of a smart home is becoming increasingly appealing for many.
It also looks like Google is just about ready to admit the importance of streaming services, as it seems to be testing a new design for search that puts streaming higher up…
O2 experienced a major network issue, the UK government has published a selection of Facebook's internal documents and Iceland's banned Christmas advert has been named 'most powerful' of the festive offerings
While the news has been fairly slow this week in the digital and marketing worlds, Facebook's ongoing struggles following the Cambridge Analytica scandal are continuing. The UK government has now released some documents seized from the social media platform, which includes some interesting internal emails.
One of the biggest stories of the week is O2's massive network issues yesterday (Thursday, December 6th), which left millions of customers without access to their data and many people unable to make calls or send texts.
Ending on a positive note, Iceland's banned Christmas advert has been named the most powerful of all the festive adverts of 2018 - leaving many of the big-budget ads at the bottom of the pile.
Find out more with this week's news…
The updated report elaborates the why, what and how of selecting social media listening and engagement platforms
Social media has been evolving rapidly and presenting a wide range of new challenges and opportunities for businesses to capture the attention of customers.
A series of developments, ranging from major acquisitions and closures, new privacy regulations, increasing adoption of AI; a rise of messaging apps and "dark social", the decline of social sharing and organic reach, to name a few, have been disrupting and shaping the industry. In order to stay competitive and make more informed strategic decisions, continuous learning and new approaches are required to master new social technologies and developments.
In order to enable companies and individuals to understand the market and make effective decisions about the selection and use of social media monitoring tools and services, this November’s Social Media Monitoring (SMM) Tools and Services Report 2018 by …
Social listening can help improve your sales by boosting the awareness, interest, engagement and action stages
The sales funnel is the Holy Grail of marketing metaphors. For anyone who wants to have a successful business, a convenient scheme describing how to make people buy your product or service is extremely appealing.
Social media typically fits at the top of a classical sales funnel - it is supposed to bring strangers into your sales funnel, with other strategies kicking in afterward. However, with the development of social media and the introduction of new tools, sales funnels have changed and evolved.
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Nowadays there are multiple ways to view sales funnels: as a reverse funnel,…
Discover six costly mistakes that marketers make with social media and how to fix them
Despite the herculean changes to both technology and media, marketers have no choice but to build emotion-rich and customer-centric strategies to always stay on top. In the struggle to sink into the trivial details of the marketing functions especially with social media, some of the smartest marketers sometimes go wrong in strategizing the right way with social media.
So, do you wish to make your social media marketing a flawless one?
1. Not choosing the right social media platform
Why is it necessary to pick up the right social media platform for your business?
You can only call a platform perfect for your business if it enables you to use the best of its functions that can enhance your business presence and add value.
The ultimate idea is to reach widely, to enhance visibility, to add value, to understand your followers, to…
