Social Media Strategy: January 2016

Gemma Ferrier
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1. Introduction

2. Social Media Strategy

2.1 Social Media Objectives

2.2 Strategy

2.3 Media Channels

2.4 Measuring Success

2.5 Content Pillars

3. Campaign Calendar

3.1 Media Channel Guide

3.2 Strategy Implementation Timing

3.3 Calendar

4. Three Pieces of Content: Health Pillar

4.1 Facebook Post

4.2 Blog Post

4.3 YouTube Video

5. Development of Digital Portfolio

6. References

10

1. Introduction
Social Media has quickly become an imperative element of any brands development of customer
relationships, allowing businesses to capitalise on the two-way communications model it offers.
Using social media as a brand positioning tool can enhance brand equity and awareness through
connections, conversations and content discovery (Ouwersloot & Duncan 2008). Active Life
Fitness (ALF) is a health club in the Everton Hills area primarily targeting the Mummy Market:
local mothers aged 25-40 with young children and a middle to upper socio-economic standing.
This group of women are avid users of digital media, relying heavily on social media to feel
connected, informed and entertained. The current ALF digital strategy focuses on building and
promoting a supportive, like-minded community beyond the basic functionality of the gyms
facilities. However, an audit of the ALF digital portfolio previously carried out revealed
inadequacies in their online engagement with customers, quality of content posted and the
diversity of their digital platforms.
This report will outline a social media strategy plan for ALF to implement in order to enhance and
expand their online presence. The strategy will be constructed drawing from the valuable
consumer insights gathered from the initial audit that are listed below.
Insight #1:
Aussie mums realise the importance of taking time for themselves and use digital media to
feel supported and connected.
Insight #2:
Being involved in a supportive and like-minded health community would nurture the
Aussie mums positive mindset, sense of accomplishment and ability to adequately care for
her family.

2. Social Media Strategy

2.1 Social Media Objectives
The pivotal objectives of the social media strategy are to heighten brand awareness, enhance brand
equity and increase customer retention. Increasing brand prevalence on social media will influence
ALFs social visibility which ultimately drives traffic to the website and increases content
distribution (Murray, 2013). According to self-brand congruity theory, online social networks and
communities are conduits to grow social capital (Kelly, 2016). If the target market perceive the
content to be congruent to their self they will be more likely to connect with and share it.
Therefore, the chosen strategy should focus on making online content relevant to and influenced
by the consumer insights.

2.2 Strategy
Social media posts will be created for the purpose of being shared and linked, inadvertently raising
awareness of the ALF brand, increasing web traffic and encouraging community engagement.
Analysing the online behaviour of mothers offers insights into the most effective channels to target
them with and times for maximum utility. Posts will adhere to the consumer insights found in the
digital audit and focus on themes around health, community, positivity and other lifestyle related
content. The Australian motherss prevalence on social media has resulted in their ability to filter
out endless digital advertising and thus posts need to be of high quality to effectively engage
them (Weber, 2015). According to Forbes (2012) mothers respond more positively to social media

posts that encourage a sense of accomplishment and delivers on social responsibility (Gernert,
2012). During the busiest time of their lives Aussie mums manage their me- time into smaller
periods, leading to information consumption being the most prolific when posts are structured and
succinct. It is important to note that while the mummy market is the primary target of ALF,
majority of the posts should be relatable to all segments to avoid being perceived as a mummy
gym and alienating other market segments of potential clients.

2.3 Media Channels

To maximise the potential to connect with clients across all platforms, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter,
YouTube and blog accounts will be added to their digital portfolio. ALF currently has a Facebook
page and website that, according to the initial audit, have mistakenly been used purely for
channels of communication rather than connection and engagement. It is important to alter content
to suit each social media platform, using appropriate language and messages for that specific
channel. Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform used by mothers, with
almost all Aussie mums having a Facebook page with consistent daily activity (The secret life of
Aussie mums, 2014). Facebook offers a wide range of entertainment, news, communication and
information for the target group to engage in with mothers more likely to look to Instagram, blogs
or Pinterest for other inspirational or visual content (Marketing Mag, 2014). As modern society
becomes more accustomed to ingesting information online, there has been a shift towards
visualisation of information and an increase in the popularity of video, particularly Youtube
(Connecting with Mothers When It MattersMost. 2016). According to Foster (2015), it is important to
diversify use of media channels to deliver a mix of videos, guides, infographics and other styles
to effectively engage the audience.

2.4 Measuring Success

To measure success of the health clubs online activity, social reporting tools such as Facebook
Insights, Hootesuite and Social Mention can present an in-depth view of how effectively the social
media initiatives are being received. Reach on its own is not an adequate marketing objective as it
is not always indicative of a positive response to the digital initiatives (Baer, 2016). Increased web
traffic, likes and shares are an effective indicator of social media success, however, ALF also needs
to listen to their online community in order to continually monitor and improve the quality of their
online performance (Connecting with Mothers When It MattersMost, 2016). More specifically,
tracking membership signups and website redirections from social media will be indicative of the
success of the strategy implementation. Google Anlaytics can measure the length of time spent on
web pages which will show whether the customer is engaging with the content and whether they
are easily navigating the site.

2.5 Content Pillars

Three content pillars, that are listed below, have been created to guide the social media strategy
implementation. Each post that falls under one of the pillars will be relevant to the consumer
insights and appealing to the mummy market.

Content Pillar

Description of Content

Health (Supportive)

Mothers know the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the impact
it can have on their ability to care for their family. These posts will include
healthy recipes, fitness regimes and wellness related content.

Lifestyle
(Entertaining)

Mothers rely on social media for me-time, to be entertained and feel

connected. These posts will include some humorous, child-related and
entertaining content.

ALF Products/
The vast majority of mothers rely on online research before making a purchase so
Services (Informative) it is important for the information about the health club to be available online
(Roy Morgan Research 2015). These posts will include pricing details, sales
promotions and information about ALF services.

3. Campaign Calendar
3.1 Media Channel Guide

Information sourced from: Bennett (2015) and Weiss (2015).

3.2 Strategy Implementation Timing

The four-week social media strategy will begin in the last week of December on Monday the 26th
and finish on the 22nd of January 2017. Google Trends reveals that searches for gyms or other
health related services significantly peaks in the month of January (Google Trends 2016).
Australian Gyms record a 33-50% increase in volume in January and the second week of January is
continually to busiest time of the year (Beattie 2012). According to Beattie (2012) the significant
factors contributing to this spike in membership is a combination of wanting to get healthy after
Christmas, fulfil New Years resolutions and improve body image for Summer. January is also
back-to-school time for families which could be an effective theme to strategically engage the
mother segment.
Stay-at-home mothers with younger children are more active online during the day whereas
Facebook traffic was higher at night time between the hours of 8-10pm for mothers with older
children. Thus, it will be important to post during the day so that both segments of mothers are
effectively reached.

3.3 Calendar

4. Three Pieces of Content: Health Pillar

4.1 Facebook Post
The Facebook post was constructed around the consumer insight that mothers use digital media
to feel supported and connected. The Buddy Up post encourages clients to work out with a
partner and includes a call-to-action by asking the audience to tag their workout buddy.
The copy was structured to evoke excitement and boost engagement. The copy was deliberately
casual and according to Bennett (2015) the use of exclamation marks can increase engagement by
2.7 times.

4.2 Blog Post

The 5 New Year Goals For the Whole Family blog post appeals to the Aussie mums positive
mindset, sense of accomplishment and desire to adequately care for her family. Online publishers
such as BuzzFeed have changed the digital landscape considerably, with an increasing demand for
content to be richer, more succinct and easily absorbed. Jack Shepard, the editorial director at
BuzzFeed, states that their list articles receive the most shares and views even though a list is just
scaffolding for a story (Griffith 2016). The New Years resolutions theme will be topical during the
January campaign and will encourage engagement and charing of the article. Once the article is
posted on the blog, links to the post will also be shared on Twitter and Facebook.

4.3 YouTube Video

2016 has seen video in content marketing become one of the most important elements of any social
media strategy (Buccini, 2016). Videos average 62% more engagement than photos due to their
ability to deliver information in a way that is efficient and enjoyable to consume (Griffith, 2016).
The Facebook cooking channel, Tasty, whose videos regularly get tens of millions of views inspired
a recipe for healthy Bliss Balls to be created for the ALF YouTube channel. The healthy recipe will
help the mums feel involved in the like-minded health community however, the video will also
appeal to all market segments. Links to the video will be shared on Twitter and Facebook to
encourage more shares and views.

5. Development of Digital Portfolio

Digital Portfolio link: www.gemmaferrier.com

6. References
Active Life Fitness. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.activelifefitness.com.au/evertonhills/
Baer, J. (2016). Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps. Retrieved from http://
www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/social-media-strategy-in-8-steps/
Bennett, S. 2015. What are the Best Times to Post on #Facebook, #Twitter and #Instagram?.
Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/best-time-to-post-social-media/504222
Buccini, M. 2016. 4 Social Media Trends You Need To Know Going Into 2016. http://
www.brafton.com/news/social-media-news/4-social-trends-you-need-to-know-going-into-2016/
Connecting with Mothers When It MattersMost. (2016). Facebook IQ. Retried from: https://
insights.fb.com/2015/03/16/connecting-with-mothers-when-it-matters-most/
Duncan, T. & Ouwersloot, H. (2008). Integrated marketing communications (European edition).
London McGraw-Hill
Foster, J. (2015). How to Build a Social-Media Strategy That Works. Retrieved from https://
www.entrepreneur.com/article/246085
Gernert, B. 2012. Listen To The Mums: 3 Brand Marketing Insights For 2012. Retrieved from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/01/04/listen-to-the-moms-3-brand-marketinginsights-for-2012/#79263db12d65
Google Trends. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/trends
Griffith, F. 2016. BuzzFeeds Foodie Channels Are Blowing Up on Facebook. Retrieved from
http://fortune.com/2016/01/19/buzzfeed-tasty-proper-tasty/
Kelly, L. 2016. AMB330 Digital Portfolio: Module 5 [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved from https://
blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?
course_id=_123272_1&content_id=_6158372_1
Murray, P. 2013. How Emotions Influence What We Buy. https://www.psychologytoday.com/
blog/inside-the-consumer-mind/201302/how-emotions-influence-what-we-buy
Roy Morgan Research 2015. Roy Morgan Single Source Australia: Oct 2010 Sep 2015 [Data file]
Retrieved from Roy Morgan
Stokes, K. (2012). Mums turn to Facebook for me-time. Retrieved from http://
www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/mums-turn-to-facebook-for-me-time/storyfnet0he2-1226505656932
The secret life of Aussie mums. (2014, September 15). Public Relations Institute of Australia. Retrieved
from http://www.pria.com.au/priablog/the-secret-life-of-aussie-mums
Weber, K. 2015. Consumer Insights: The Illusive Millenial Mum. https://www.dunnhumby.com/
consumer-insights-elusive-millennial-mom

Weiss, G. 2015. Here Are the Best Months, Days and Times to Publish YouTube Videos. Retrieved
from https://www.facebook.com/events/131724987235328/