Jack Carpenter

Power of positivity: How a positive and persistent social media can

increase brand presence, recognition and business.

Abstract
Social media has become a crucial aspect of modern marketing
in the business world. The cost-saving audience interaction tool has
opened doors for businesses to connect with their consumers in many
ways. Social media provides businesses with the power and influence
to change their company, for better or for worse.
A hidden power found within social media is what is known as
social CRM (customer relationship management). Social CRM provides
the ability to communicate clearly with clients and improve the ability
to win business; social CRM allows the audience (fans, followers,
readers) to become familiar with the brand, which consequently causes
familiarity and trust with the brand, which can lead to higher closing
rates and generating faster revenue (Erffmeyer & Johnson). Social
media deems a difficult task especially for B2B businesses, as their
social media isnt for directly advertising to consumers, but it can be
used to generate a greater brand presence. Many companies assume
social media is not worth investing in because there isnt a visible R-O-I
(return on investment) directly from its posts. However, the effect of
social media goes far beyond ROI, as social CRM can be powerful
enough to influence customers that the company may not need to
invest in meetings with that client to win them over in ways their social
media already has.

As of March 2014, Shadow Productions had a social media

following of 129 Facebook followers and 3 YouTube subscribers.
YouTube and Facebook are the primary platforms that Shadow will be
focusing on regarding their social media efforts. This paper discusses
how positive and persistent social media posts from Shadow
Productions can increase brand recognition, fan count, and most
importantly, business.

Keywords: Social Media (SM), small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs), content marketing, social marketing,
media content distribution

An Argument that active social media uses will lead to better

customer engagement, brand presence, and business.

The power of social media

Social media is an incredible tool that has been booming since
the beginning of the century. Apart from personal updates and
interactions, social media has become an effective marketing tool for
large corporations as well as small businesses. Social media, through
proper handling, acts as a facilitator to involve fans by offering them
a virtual space to manifest themselves in company-related issues and
updates. Social media in a wider perspective is a pool of various twoway communication platforms that enables the free flow of ideas,
information and values on the Internet (Csordas). Social media
networks provide a perfect opportunity for businesses to investigate
the usefulness of social capital. Sharing, rather than selling your

audience, is the principal to successful social media. When businesses

adhere to a build a network before you need it premise, they create
relationships with potential customers which may lead to easier
tractions when they become clients, as opposed to references or cold
calling. In essence, the prior social connectivity between buyers and
sellers can potentially affect outcomes based on networked familiarity
and trust, all created through a simple social media presence of a
business (Baehr & Brown 2010).

Handling that power

Facebook currently averages approximately 10,000 posts per
second, which means it is going to take strategical efforts to make sure
posts are not buried in the virtual world (Thompson). With that ease
and fluidity comes responsibility to properly manage a companys
image. For example, SONY capitalized on social media when one of its
clients, Chris Brown, went viral in a video of a wedding dancing to his
song. This happy-go-lucky video created positive reviews of the
company and the artist, despite the surrounding bad press at the time
regarding domestic abuse charges. SONY plugged the stint on all of its
platforms and it logged over 4 million views in just two days (Mills). On
the contrary, companies like United Airlines have damaged their
reputations from their social media use. One incident of the company

sprang up when they argued with an amateur artist whose guitar was
damaged while being handled by the airline. The debate sparked
outrage and went viral, eventually costing the companys shareholders
$180 million as Uniteds stock dropped 10 percent due to the bad
publicity (Freeman).

Misunderstandings
Many companies underestimate the power of social media, and
spend little to no time cultivating a presence for their brand. One
mistake made by companies is their search for R-O-I in social media.
What they dont understand is social media usage is not to generate
sales, but more to support other aspects of their business. Its not
how much you sell in social media, its how much you engage your
customers. The R-O-I is in the information thats out there that leads
to change and process improvement. Most companies use Twitter to
quiet people down; instead you should take the information customers
are providing and bring tangible improvements from that to your
business (Weiguo).

Shift from traditional marketing to social marketing

When it comes to marketing, traditional advertising (emails,

advertisements, mail, etc) is often a one-way communication flow of
material. This prevents the opportunity for businesses to engage with
their consumers and get the response or feedback theyre looking for.
With social media, that one-way barrier opens into a two-way
communication flow. Social media turns businesses into a broadcaster,
with their fans being the audience who can weigh in with their opinions
and engage with the brand. Social media can help firms who are on the
long tail end of the advertising industry as traditional methods may
bear too many barriers of entry such as lack of capital, patent and
license requirements, or lack of distribution channels. Small businesses
are therefore left with social media to creatively and cost-effectively
communicate with their target audience (Csordas).

Common goals with social media

As stated many times in this paper social media is a powerful
tool, but what exactly can it do? Studies of B2B businesses surveyed
that the top incentives for social media are to build brand awareness
(claimed by 81percent), increasing traffic to a website (claimed by 77
percent), generating leads (claimed by 67 percent), providing deeper
engagement with customers (claimed by 66 percent), and improving
search results (claimed by 57 percent) (Maddox).

In this study conducted by Maddox, when asked how social

media efforts have affected their business in said categories, 44
percent claimed it has had positive impacts, 28 percent claimed
neutral impact, 27 percent claimed they could not tell, and only 1
percent said it had a negative impact.

A positive persona approach to social media

B2B businesses have a tougher time with social media, as they
are not marketing a single product or service to a wide range of
customers. Therefore, they cannot track conversion rates from clicks to
purchases. However, with proper execution of even the simplest social
media campaigns, a companys image can be redefined and improved
through posts containing positive information and positive feedback.
For example, the company Maersk Line, a vessel shipping company,
decided to engage in social media to get closer to customers. The
companys management originally had doubt in the plan, as they saw
their business as boring and, in perspective, posts about giants cargo
ships dont seem all that appealing. But, the small social media team
developed areas of emphasis to connect with their customers. The four
areas were communication, customer service, sales and internal usage.
At the beginning of their campaign, they launched Facebook photo
albums of their ships, separated by specific categories. They had

current ships, old black and white photos, and often posted about their
subtle accomplishments. Despite the seemingly boring persona, after
the campaigns first 11 months, Maersk Line attracted over 400,000
likes to their Facebook page. They noticed an incredible increase in
customer engagement as well as employee interaction with the site
and each other. After one year, over 67 percent of Maersk Lines
following claimed they had an improved perception of the company
due to their social media presence alone (Katona).

What works
The process of beginning a social media campaign can seem
overwhelming, but with simple observations of a companys strengths
it can easily be executed into a powerful campaign. One of the greatest
strengths of social media is making the invisible process quasi-visible.
This means posting the behind-the-scenes of the business, whether its
a chef in the kitchen, a designer in the lab, an artist writing, etc. For
Shadow Productions, mentioned earlier, this could include pictures of
actual production scenes, staff around the office, or personal updates
on projects and other endeavors related to the business. This allows
the company to open its arms to those following; it also gives the
audience an inside look on the business which will create a greater
bond in the community. Studies have shown that content posted not

directly related to the firm, but filled with positive or unique messages,
has left a positive impact on the firm (Csordas).
Another genre of content often implemented is humor. A
humorous post can be a graphic, picture, quote or short video poking
fun at a light hearted topic. This type of social media, again, creates a
bond within the community and is a fresh mix-up from posting prosaic
information about the company. Another positive non-related post is
media content created specifically for holidays and events. This could
be a branded Valentines Day message or a post celebrating the
changing of seasons. Although completely irrelevant to the company, it
has been proven that these posts generate buzz, as many followers will
simply share a post created by a company as opposed to creating one
themselves. In fact, the non-informative posts are often the posts
creating the most likes, comments and shares from an audience.

SPIN Method
To obtain the best results, the SPIN method should be followed
while creating content. The SPIN method suggests these four key
factors to make an ideal campaign: Spreadability, Propagativity,
Integration, and Nexus. These sum up the spreadibility of the content
based on personal factors, the propagativity of content based on media
type, the integration of multiple media platforms and the successive

reinforcement of messaging (Mills). The SPIN method is a conceptual

model to design viral-prone content on social media. In todays digitally
magnified world of advertising having a campaign go viral is one of
the highest level of achievements any marketer can attain.

The social media operator is in full creative control when

constructing the content, however, no feedback can be received until
the post is released. Once its released, it comes down to the SPIN
factors to determine how effective the post will be.
The goal of releasing content is for it to be spread beyond the
first circle. The first circle is your immediate following who will
automatically see the post because it will show up on their timeline.
However, in order to expand your community, content must be
released that is likeable enough for the first circle to share it with their
first circles, which is considered your second circle. To reach outer
circles, though, content must be created in accordance to the SPIN
method to make sure each post is viral prone.
Spreadability: In order for a post to be passed around and
receive attention, it must have a high level of likeability and
stimulation. The message needs to appeal to the customer and be
something they, too, would be willing to share. This is why boring
analytics or pressing advertisements do not do well. A customer will be
much more willing to share a happy irrelevant post, which will not
directly benefit the business, but it will spread the brand and build the
audience.
Propagativity: This refers to the ease in which the consumers are
able to redistribute content. The reason social media exists is because

it is difficult for humans to walk around person to person trying to

promote the same product that can be promoted to thousands in a
single click. Now, despite the ease of social media, the platforms and
methods of releasing content may be the reason the post does or does
not get shared to your second circles. For example, re-tweeting can be
done with one click, while sharing a YouTube video takes 4-5 clicks,
which may discourage the audience from doing so.
Other important factors
It is important to make sure once a social media campaign
begins, it continues for a long period of time. Generating an audience
base takes time and the best way to generate an audience is by
releasing material periodically over time. If a campaign includes video
clips, which it will for Shadow Productions, it is more valuable to
release the series over a given period of time rather than all at once
(Mills).
Most importantly, it is noted to make sure the brands social
media channels are not strictly marketing. Research shows that people
are twice as likely to interact with companies over social media for
customer support than response to marketing (Thompson). As stated
earlier in the paper, there should be a small variety of posts coming
through the feed. A good rule of thumb, according to Thompson, is
generating 90 percent of posts about relevant audience needs,

regardless of whether they promote your service or not. The other 10

percent can be self-promotional, but be careful not to be too boastful,
as the audience will often have a negative reaction that will hinder the
companys presence.

Metrics
Many companies using social media do not understand which
metrics are valuable. Between page likes, comments, shares and
impressions, it is difficult to determine if the page is successful or not.
To start, it is very important to determine the quality of your followers.
Right now, Shadow Productions is at 127 followers,; however, even if it
changed to 10,000, it doesnt mean the followers are actually helping
your business. It is important to connect with an audience that is in
your demographics such as location, age, or class. For the average
business audience, 98 percent of their followers are spectators, 75
percent are critics, and 56 percent are creators who post and heavily
interact with the page (KATONA). When it comes to consistency, the
top brands with strong social media presences post an average of 17
times per month, or essentially every-other day. See picture below.
Metrics important for Shadows social media plan will be covered later
in this paper.

What should be tracked are visits to a website, the number of

fans, followers and likes, the number of mentions about the company
on such platforms. Diving deeper into analytics, other metrics that
should be tracked are organic search rankings, number of inbound
links, search volume for brand or keyword phrases, and search
marketing conversion rates. This can be tracked using Google

Analytics. And a majority of companies monitoring their social media

use software such as Hootsuite, SocialMention or Radion6 (Maddox).
Shadow Productions Social Media Process
As stated earlier in this paper, Shadow Production currently tolls
129 Facebook followers and three YouTube subscribers. Facebook and
YouTube will be Shadow Productions primary platforms to focus on, as
Facebook allows the greatest reach to an existing and a new audience
of clientele, local businesses, and fans. YouTube is the best platform to
display Shadows multi-media work, which can easily be intertwined
with Facebook posts.
Small businesses have fewer resources, including financial and
human resources, which is why expanding and adjusting their
customers bases are key factors to long-term survival. (Toombs)
suggest that small businesses will benefit from long-term, strategic use
of social CRM in which there is genuine customer and fan involvement
rather than customer manipulation. Social media can give a small
business with a modest marketing budget an active community of
potential customers, making the business more competitive in a local,
regional, or global market (Baird, C & G. Parasnis). However, social
media must be properly produced and delivered to both captivate the
audience without using too many resources from a business as small

as Shadow Productions. (Fischer, E. 2011) suggest the following

conditions for a company to produce their social media:

Access: Allow for each employee to gain access to the platforms.

This means providing a company-wide username and password and
following the social media plan that will be explained later in this
paper. Also, an essential part is discussing social media posts in a
group discussion, which for Shadow Productions could easily be a short
topic in the bi-weekly Wednesday Skype meetings.
Acknowledgement of expertise and interest: During these
discussions, it is good to clarify who is good at what topics. Also, a
company must be cautious not to force unenthusiastic employees to be

enthusiastic, as their posts may lack the energy or positivity that their
colleagues may be presenting. For example, Doug who is more behind
the scenes, may project a different voice than Leah who is constantly
in the playing field, so it may be good to balance posts more towards
Leah.
Create a voice: With that said, one unique voice should be
decided on to implement throughout all social media. For Shadow
Productions, it seems a satirical, upbeat voice would best fit what the
company already represents through their voicemails and other niches
that shows the company is fun and takes everything with a grain of
salt. This is a contagious way to engage fans and create buzz.
Reassure participants of their security: This is simply to inform
staff members of the security and expectations of their online
behaviors. Shadow Productions is a very tech-savvy company, so most
members probably understand the logistics of online posting, but it
would be smart to dive into it just to clear any questions or concerns
that may be in the air.
Balance social media roles: At Shadow Productions, here is the
breakdown of employee expertise:
Leah: gatekeeper, informant to rest of staff
Matt: historian and strategist

Alex: frequent poster of online material, knows creative aspects

of company
Doug: behind the scenes technical advisor, less likely to be
posting
It is important for these roles to be noted and taken into
consideration when dividing up the social media plan so the certain
members do not get unfitting levels of responsible when it comes to
contribution.
Develop a content schedule: This is a very important aspect,
especially since Shadow Productions does not have the resources to
waste on aimlessly wandering social media. This paper will construct a
plan for the next year of social media use for Shadow Productions.
Shadow Productions will have an intern until the end of April, and then
again in the summer or fall. This plan with incorporate interns as much
as possible; labor is free and will not hinder the business by using up
other human capital.
Content Schedule
Shadow Productions is currently in its 25th year of business, which
is essentially an excuse to re-launch their social media and reconnect
with all of their clients, inevitably expanding their social media
presence in pursuit of all the goals this paper has discussed.

In retrospect, 129 likes and 3 subscribers is not going to mean

any valuable business for Shadow Productions through social media,
which is why the following plan is slow and steady, aiming to increase
Shadow Productionss presence long-term with minimal resources
used.
Starting April 1st, Jack the intern will do the following to relaunch Shadow Productionss social media. Using new 25th anniversary
graphics, Shadow Productions will add all previous clients on Facebook
and request a like in return. The same methods will be used for all
associated businesses in Burlington, including media outlets such as
The Burlington FreePress, WCAX, 7Days, etc. A small email newsletter
will also be released to Shadows contacts, with a primary goal of
getting the receivers to like Shadow Productions Facebook page.
Shadows Facebook page will also begin pumping content on a
regular basis. The goals will be engaging the audience, informing the
audience of current projects happening at Shadow Productions and
presenting their own version of the phenomenon, Throwback
Thursday, which will feature an old piece produced by Shadow that
will be embed from their YouTube page.
An intern, or a chosen staff member, should be responsible for
posting a minimum of three posts per week in the voice established by

the company. The three posts should fall into one of the following
categories (one of each every week):
1. Throwback Thursday: Every Thursday, one archive should be
posted to Facebook with a caption that states the title, year,
client, and one fact or thought about the project. These pieces
will be picked from a bank of material from Shadows YouTube
page. Jack will prepare this bank of material. After Jack leaves,
this can be easily be managed by Leah or Matt, who know most
about the history and facts about each project. This post should
not take more than five minutes to complete.
2. On the site update: Once per week, a staff member should
upload a picture of a piece being produced whether it is a talent
in the booth doing a voiceover, an on-site video project, or even
a staff member editing a piece. This will give a lot of personality
to the company and give the audience valuable insight to what
Shadow Productions really does and keep them interested in the
companys work.
3. Topical post: This post should be a link, picture, meme, or just a
simple status regarding a topical issue not related to Shadow
Productions. As stated in this paper, humor is often a way to
connect with audiences, maybe weighing in on current issues
(without giving too biased opinions, a company should always
stay neutral). This can be beneficial to connect with your
audiences and create buzz on the account. Any staff member

who decides to weigh in when they come up with an idea can

accomplish this post. There should be a minimum of one of these
posts per week, but there should be no more than three because
although they are easy to produce, you do not want the page to
become too irrelevant. This post can really capitalize when it
comes to holidays and special events. It is easy to create a
Shadow Productions Happy 4th of July! picture, which will easily
be spread around by the fans who do not want to create a picture
themselves.
This frequency should be continued for the next year (April 2015
April 2016). This frequency requires minimal maintenance while it
should have positive effects on the brand and goals that this paper has
discussed. If successful, this plan should continue beyond April 2016.
However, determining success is the next challenge which we will
break down here.
Metrics
At this point, Shadows 129 followers will not be bringing in big
numbers in regards to analytics. However, it is still important to track
analytics to see what sort of impact the new social media strategy is
having on the audience, and if and at what rate the companys online
presence is growing.
There are six key metrics for tracking Facebook analytics:

1. Fan reach: Fan reach simply corresponds to the number of fans

of your Page who have seen any given post. This is organic
reach, which means that it only records the views that occurred
directly, and not through an action of a friend of a fan (such as a
like, share or comment). The views that result from a friends
actions are recorded in viral views. The fan reach metric is
available for Excel file download via Facebook Insight.
2. Organic reach: Organic reach corresponds with the number of
people, fans and non-fans, who have seen a given post. As with
fan reach, organic reach only records views that are not the
result of a friend of a fans action (which is counted in the viral
reach). The main difference between organic and fan reach is
that organic reach includes views from people that are not
(currently) fans of Shadow Productions on Facebook. These stats
can easily be found right in Shadows Insight interface.
3. Engagement: Engagement is the number of people who clicked
anywhere in your post. Which simply means, they interacted with
your post, liked or commented on the picture you posted,
watched the video you embedded, etc. You can find your
engagement rate right next to your organic reach.
4. People talking about this: This is data also referred to as
storytellers. This metric is based off of people who like,
comment, or share your post. This is different from
engagement as these fans did something to show your post to

their friends. This metric can be found right with Engagement

and organic reach in your Facebook Insight.
5. Click-Through Rate: This is important for Shadows content to
measure those who clicked through the posts to end up on your
YouTube or website. This can also be found in Page Insights in
Facebook Insights. This is an important number to track,
although it can also be tracked by Doug on the other end from
the website.
6. Negative Feedback: Shadow will not be exposed to out-loud
negative feedback, as you are not promoting a product or service
directly to customers who may only have Facebook to express
their opinion. However, Facebook still tracks negative feedback
through the likes of your fans hiding certain posts, hiding future
posts from your page, unliking Shadows Facebook page, or
reporting it as spam. This is important to track as the more
negative feedback you receive, the more Facebooks internal
metric system, Edgerank, will hide your posts from future fans.
When you receive negative feedback, it will become clear which
types of posts fans like, and which types of posts fans dont like.

Discussion

The literature collected for this paper revealed the power of a

consistent social media presence for even small business like Shadow
Productions. A lot of trial and error tactics by companies in social
medias relatively short lifespan have provided us with enough
information to curate an effective plan to boast a businesss online
presence. (Csordas) made clear how social media is the bridge for
communication between consumers and business. Also covered is the
power of positivity and how even irrelevant posts can benefit a
company. (Mills) was the driving force behind the power of viral
marketing, and how it can affect companies for better or for worse all
while elaborating the SPIN method which is essential for creating
powerful content to make a campaign successful.
This paper gives a broad outline of the route a company could
take to revamp its social media presence and take advantage of the
opportunity the platform offers. Through careful execution, Shadow
Productions will be able to boost their presence and make better
connections with their surrounding areas that will benefit business in
more ways than just sales. The greater purpose of this paper is to
make sure social media operators are not seeking immediate R-O-Is,
but that social media is used to connect with consumers, receive
feedback, and reach circles beyond their current contacts.

References:

1) Baehr,Craig,andKonstanzeAlexBrown(2010),AssessingtheValueof
CorporateBlogs:ASocialCapitalPerspective,IEEETransactionson
ProfessionalCommunication,53(4),358369
2) Baird, C. & G. Parasnis (2011). From social media to social
customer relationship management. Strategy &
Leadership, 39(5), 30-37.
3) CSORDS, Tams, and Mirk GTI. "The New (Marketing)
Role Of Firms As Media Content Providers - The Case Of
Sme's Strategic Social Media Presence."
Vezetstudomny / Budapest Management Review 45.2
(2014): 22-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb.
2015.
4) Crumpton, Michael A. "Accounting For The Cost Of Social
Media." Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances 27.3
(2014): 96-100. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb.
2015.
5) Erffmeyer,RobertC.,andDaleA.Johnson(2001),AnExploratory
StudyofSalesForceAutomationPractices:ExpectationsandRealities,
JournalofPersonalSelling&SalesManagement,21(2),167175
6) Fischer, E. A & R. Reuber (2011). Social interaction via
new social media: How can interactions affect thinking
and behavior? Journal of Business Venturing 26, 1-18
7) Freeman, Becky, et al. "Digital Junk: Food And Beverage
Marketing On Facebook." American Journal Of Public
Health 104.12 (2014): e56-e64. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
8) Katona, Zsolt. Maersk Line: B2B SOCIAL MEDIA Its
Communication, not marketing. California Management
Review (2014) Business Source Complete. Web 19 Deb.
2015
9) Maddox, Kate, Marketers working toward social, search
integration (2010) Academic Search Complete. Web. 18
Feb. 2015
10)
Mills, Adam J. "Virality In Social Media: The SPIN
Framework." Journal Of Public Affairs (14723891) 12.2
(2012): 162-169. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18

Feb. 2015.
11)
Ramsaran-Fowdar, Rooma Roshnee, and Sooraj
Fowdar. "The Implications Of Facebook Marketing For
Organizations." Contemporary Management Research 9.1
(2013): 73-83. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb.
2015.
12)
Rodriguez, Michael, Robert M. Peterson, and
Vijaykumar Krishnan. "Social Media's Influence On
Business-To-Business Sales Performance." Journal Of
Personal Selling & Sales Management 32.3 (2012): 365378. Business Source Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
13)
Toombs, Leslie A., and Rachel Martin Harlow. "More
Than Just "Like": An Entrepreneurial Approach To Creating
A Social Media Ethos In Small Firms." Academy Of
Marketing Studies Journal 18.2 (2014): 275-286. Business
Source Complete. Web. 11 Mar. 2015
14)
Thompson, Mike. The Definitive Of Dos And Donts
Social Media Marketing. (Cover Story). Econtent 36.7
(2013): 18-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb
2015
15)
WEIGUO, FAN, and MICHAEL D. GORDON. "The Power
Of Social Media Analytics." Communications Of The ACM
57.6 (2014): 74-81. Business Source Complete. Web. 11
Mar. 2015.