Social Media Explained

Figure 1: Social media in donuts (Source: unknown n.d.)

Is it as simple as this?

It’s a great explanation of the different social media services, simply put social media explained. For social media marketing, you have to technically be able to use each service and know how to use the best platform for results and benefits for the specific business. You wouldn’t be  successful if you told everyone on a LinkedIn business account that you are eating a doughnut right now but that conversation works well for the 140 character tweets on Twitter. Businesses need to consider that one size does not fit all, find their audience and be clear and consistent there. In social media marketing a lack of consistency can be an issue for businesses; as employees leave, lack resources, lack of desire or lack of a plan!  Is the business B2B or B2C? for example B2B focus on LinkedIn where B2C focus on Facebook as that’s where you customers are. Businesses need to consider why they want to be on social media and results they require. Do they want to raise awareness, build a presence, reach out to potential and existing customers, interact with customers; loyalty programs / discount incentives, build or maintain relationships or even market research.  A solid marketing plan with analysis of the results – review and reset goals.  A constant rinse and repeat because social media marketing is a long-term game, not a short-term one.

Figure 2: mobile marketing strategy (Source: unknown n.d.)

There is a risk involved with a social media presence but there is also a risk involved with not having a presence. Businesses that are not actively involved in this type of marketing need to understand that the medium is real and believe that it can make a difference.

[1] Small business owners have got to be thinking of their social presence as first and foremost an extension of what’s happening in their physical locations,” he says, whether it’s a storefront of service business. If customers come in for local gossip, then tear it up online, he says. “Facebook is a great place to extend your personality online so that customers existing and new feel connected.”

Small business lack of adoption can be driven by fear, security, lack of resources, limited resources – financial and physical, education and also desire. Local advertising where you hand out a 2 for 1 voucher on the street seems more tangible for some owners.  The return on the social media marketing investment can feel uninspiring as they cannot hold the results in their hands. As the competition is fierce, large hospitality and tourism organisations are in constant communication with their networks because if they drop off another organisation will quickly pick up space.  Joe Soap may not book his once in a lifetime holiday in New Zealand this year but may be planning for future years so information he reads today could predict where his future dollar will go. Often for small business, they are not willing to play that long term game or understand lead generation.  Lack of priority can be a lack of education with the tools or with marketing in general. They may have had a bad experience where they let a past employee setup an account on their behalf and now sit with a neglected channel where it looks like they are ignoring or not interested in their audience. There could be an approach that their son can use Facebook so, therefore, is a social media specialist and they post the wrong content with no vision  = no results.

They need to understand who they are talking to and speak with the same tone

Figure 3: social media voice (Source: Taco Bell 2102, July.)

 They need to clean up their mistakes and protect the mission and voice

Figure 4: Red Cross (Source: Red Cross 2011, February)

They need to be relevant, consistent and appropriate

Figure 5: Oreo (Source 2012)

They also need to understand that social media is evolving constantly and it’s real. Look at mobile marketing and how fast that is moving!

Predicted in 2016, 2 billion smartphones in use worldwide. Which of course means new developing markets and business opportunities, more info here. China being the most prolific of smartphone users, with over 900 billion yuan payments made via Alipay an online mobile Chinese payment platform per year. That’s 203188224232.99 New Zealand Dollars!! does that get your attention! The average Chinese smartphone user spends 4.7 hours per day; games, cloud, social media etc, sounds like a great place for a business to market their product doesn’t it? Social economics plays a large part in what individuals use their smartphone for and in-turn how businesses market to them. It would be full hearty to avoid looking at mobile marketing because we are ‘in the future already’  If you want to read more about the digital lives of Chinese consumers see here.

Some have an irrational fear of losing our phones, check out what I said earlier here… We want constant access to a network to gain knowledge, buy products, read about our social connections and organize our lives. Small business needs to follow the trend of larger organisations and understand that mobile / social marketing is relevant.

The facts are here:

• 77% of smartphone users search the internet
• 97% of those who search the internet look for local information
• 68% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping. They use it for comparing prices, finding out more about retailers etc.
• 42% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase.
• 71% search on their phones because of an ad exposure, whether from traditional media (68%) to online ads (18%) to mobile ads (27%)
• 82% notice mobile ads, especially mobile display ads and a third notice mobile search ads
• Half of those who see a mobile ad take action, with 35% visiting a website and 42% making a purchase

It is not the end it’s that start!

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…and now for some humour.

Figure 6: Dinosaur humour (Source: unknown n.d.) 

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References

[1] Casserly, Megahn (17 March 2013) Why Small Businesses Are Losing On Social Media. 31-31. Retrieved from Forbes.com

Image Sources

Social media in donuts. (n.d.). [Image].Retrieved from http://garinga.biz/social-media-explained-it-s-all-about-donuts

Mobile marketing strategy. (n.d.). [Image]. Retrieved from http://mobileshoppingapps.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/mobile-marketing-11.png

Social media voice. (2012, July). [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-best-of-taco-bells-twitter?utm_term=.ntvqpOLAKL#.smozWKZPxZ

Red Cross (2011, February). [Image]. Retrieved from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/redcross.png

Oreo (2012). [Image]. Retrieved from http://coschedule.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2015-07-13-at-1.51.19-PM.png

Dinosaur Humour (n.d.) [Image]. Social Media Humour Dinosaurs. Retrieved from http://dzeyznfiverr.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/social-media-humor-dinosaurs.html