Valerie Calandrino

Professor Reynolds
Research Paper
Spring 2017

Introduction

Social media has come a long way since Facebook was introduced in 2004. A recent
study by Pew Research Center revealed that 69% of all Americans are using social media. This
information is revolutionary in so many ways and it is the job of marketers to adapt to this
digital age and define their presence in the social media world. Behind any successful
marketing campaign is a strong strategy. This paper will unleash the process behind developing
a social media marketing strategy and some best practices. There are several ideas of what the
perfect strategy is composed of but there are a few key components that are standard for
success. The big question in social media marketing is how success can be measured. A piece
of this paper is dedicated to analyzing data and using information about a campaign for future
success. Americans of all different demographics are using social media but thats not to say
all Americans are using social media in the same way. Understanding an audience will be
another component of this research.

Foundations

Social media didnt evolve overnight but with

76% of users on Facebook everyday it sure
feels like it did. Lets take a look at the
evolution of social media.
The networks were focusing on are
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest,
Snapchat and LinkedIn. A pioneer in the
social media era, Facebook, was introduced in Figure 1 - Source: http://www.booksaresocial.com/social-media-timeline/
2004. Facebook was originally a platform for college graduates but it didnt take long before
users of all ages created their profiles. So, why should you care? Well, to sum it up, your 83-
year-old Grandmother is on Facebook posting pics from Easter, your 60-year-old father is
tweeting at NHL network about how awful the Rangers are doing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs
and your 6-year-old niece is on Snapchat using her favorite dog filter sponsored by LOreal
and without even realizing it you and everyone you know are being exposed to countless
marketing efforts. Everyone is using social media and, as a marketer, thats something to
value. Everyone is using social
media because its accessible
and the best way to keep up
with friends, family and news.
Pew Research center reports
Figure 2 Source:http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/ that 68% of all Americans
using social media are on
Facebook. It is up to the marketer to take this wide but broad population and figure out how to
reach their own audience within.

The Process

By googling social media marketing strategy you will find thousands of results in
seconds. After reading a few different sources youll probably find yourself confused like I
did, but, eventually I came across Hootsuite. Hootsuite is actually a service that Im
embarrassed to say I didnt know about before starting research. After surfing their site, I found
a cohesive article about developing a social media strategy that wraps up all of the information
I found to be most valuable. The guide is composed of:

Objectives and goals

Social Media Audit
Improvement
Inspiration
Planning
Evaluating

So lets get into it!

*A little side note about Hootsuite the service is a social media dashboard that actually
allows the user to plan, schedule, manage and track social media campaigns through one hub.

Objectives and Goals

Objectives and goals if youre a marketer you know

that these two things are at the heart of every marketing
campaign. The reason behind this is pretty clear once you
think about it. What drives any promotion? Is it sales?
Exposure? Cleaning up a PR disaster? Whatever it may be, its
the foundation and driving force for the whole campaign and
without them youll have a hard time tracking success.
Hootsuites guide notes that with a social media campaign,
goals should go beyond likes, retweets and comments.
Goals and objectives should follow the SMART
Framework, meaning that each objective should be
Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-
bound.

So going back to goals and objectives. Whats the

difference? Goals are broad and directed towards desired
outcomes whereas objectives are the specific and
measurable outcomes in a given situation. For example, Airbnb is
well known for their mission to create equality among their users. Their most recent campaign
is for marriage equality amongst the LGBTQ community in Australia. The campaign rests
upon a promise ring that does not fully circle around the finger. The gap in the ring
symbolizes the inequality in marriage and by purchasing one through their site you are
supporting the cause. The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness for marriage equality in
Australia, but the objectives of this campaign are to sell a set amount of rings by a certain date
and have a set amount of pledges through their campaign site. Since launching on March
17th there have been nearly 44,000 rings sold.

Social Media Audit

The second step of any social media marketing strategy is to complete a social media audit.
The purpose of this audit is to:
evaluate how well your platforms are delivering to the audience
make sure there are no fraudulent accounts
see what platforms your target audience is using
understand the competition
To do this audit you must log on to each platform and search for results that represent or
claim to be your business. Youll want to conduct these audits often because if a fraudulent
account is representing your organization, theyre most likely sending out the wrong message
to your stakeholders.
Once youve fished out all fraudulent accounts/activity it is a best practice to step back and
create a clear mission for each social media platform. For example, Snapchat should be used
to share the lighter side of out company and connect with younger prospect customers
(LePage, Hootsuite.) Pew Research Center is a great resource when it comes to understanding
media habits across the globe. Their data offers a great insight on how you can use each
platform to target the correct audience.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lets use Targets swimwear collection as an example.

Goal: Introduce new swimwear collection and create a body-positive campaign to support
women and men with different body types.
Objective: Increase swimwear sales by 35% and have 15% off all followers tag us in their
swimsuit photos using our hashtag #MyTargetStyle

Social Media Mission Statement:

Facebook: We will use Facebook to target women aged 45-59. Our swimsuit campaign
will feature women of this demographic feeling confident in their Target Swim.
Instagram: We will use Instagram to target women and girls age 19-39. Our swimsuit
campaign will feature young women of this demographic enjoying the beach and feeling
confident in target swim
Snapchat: We will use Snapchat to Target young girls aged 16-18. Our Swimsuit campaign
will feature a special Snapchat filter emphasizing beauty in all shapes and sizes.
 Twitter: We will use Twitter to target a broader audience, women & girls aged 16-44.

As you can see, each platform targets a different group of women based on age. This is
because of the media habits I found through Pew Research. 61% off Facebook users are adult
women, and Snapchat holds the youngest audience.
The best way to keep track of this information is to use a spreadsheet. Hootsuite offers a
template that makes it easy to plug in information based on what platforms/accounts you own,
who uses them and whether or not there are fraudulent accounts under control.

Creation & Improvement

According to Hootsuites guide to the

social media strategy, the next step is to use
the information from the audit to create
and/or improve social media platforms for
your organization. If theres a platform that
you arent already present on or theres a
social media account that isnt up to date
this is the time to create and improve those
accounts.
Combing through existing accounts like
Facebook or Instagram for improvement
means checking for any information that might be incorrect about your organization. Does
your bio still say your store opens at 8 am? Is your biography accurate? Are your posts sending
the right message to your stake holders? These are the questions to answer when looking where
to improve your existing presence. Marketing Expert, Brandon Gaille, put together a Path to
Social Success that sums up how to become successful with social media over the course of
a year. One key idea I took away from this path was that when entering a new network you
should always start with assessing your social fitness, revisit social goals, and establish ways
to measure success (Gaille.)
Jia Wertz wrote an article for Forbes titled Which Social Media Platforms Are Right for
Your Business? In this article Wertz supports the Hootsuite guide and emphasizes that finding
where your company fits on this spectrum and spending majority of time on the two or three
platforms that will yield the best results is a far more advantageous option than trying to
capitalize on all platforms and getting mediocre results.
Inspiration
After you have created and implemented your social
media channels it can be a challenge to come up with ideas and
content to fill your feeds. Hootsuite suggests checking out
competitors and industry leaders for
inspiration. Lets say Ace Hardware is
looking to enter the realm of social media.
A great way for them to get started is to
observe the media habits of Home Depot
and Lowes.
The other advantage of observing
competitors is that you can see how
followers and customers interact
throughout different social media
platforms. Since these are your
competitors you are likely sharing the
same target audiences and understanding how specific groups
within your audience are interacting with your competitors can
give you a great idea of how you should be interacting on social
media. For example, Home Depot
posts an image of a dog in their
orange uniform and you see that
theres 5,908 likes and 395 comments this is where you should
be paying attention to detail. What are followers commenting? Do
they like the content? Are people turned off to this post? If people
are responding well to a specific piece of content that your
competitor posted, you will likely benefit from similar practices.
But hey not every piece of inspiration needs to come from
competitors! There are several organizations who are a perfect
example for every business making their social media debut. Taco
Bell, Dove, AirBnb, and Red Bull just to name a few. Dove has
devoted their social media to inspiring women to feel beautiful
and comfortable in their skin. Their content and positioning on
social media has helped them stand out and distinguish
themselves as a leader in the social media marketing realm.

Planning

Now that youve been inspired its time to put everything together and plan strategy
execution. Creating a content calendar is an excellent practice in order to stay organized. The
whole process of a social media strategy can be confusing and time consuming so you want to
make sure that you have everything together and ready to go. Hootsuite notes a few important
questions to ask yourself before creating your content schedule:
 What types of content you intend to post and promote on social media
How often you will post content
Target audience for each type of content
Who will create the content
How you will promote the content (LePage, Hootsuite)

Once youve figured out the answers to these key questions you can be confident that your
content will flow seamlessly. The best way to use a spreadsheet to monitor activity on social
media is to set up a weekly calendar that is sectioned off by different platforms (Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook,) and to add time slots in which you will be scheduling the content to
post. This sheet is also a great place to keep track of how many dollars you are spending on
each post.

Hootsuite talks about a powerful

tool in social media called the rule of
thirds. This concept is based on the idea
that content should be

One-third of your social content

promotes your business, converts
readers, and generates profit
One-third of your social content
should share ideas and stories
from thought leaders in your
industry or like-minded
businesses
One-third of your social content
should be personal interactions
with your audience (LePage, Hootsuite)
 Evaluating

The final step in the social media marketing strategy

is evaluating efforts and making improvements for
future campaigns. Theres several ways to monitor
the success of a campaign. Was your goal to have
more website traffic? Coupon redemptions? Email
registrations? These goals go back to the planning
stage where each campaign has a specific mission.
You can use Hootsuites analytic platform to
monitor results from linked platforms or you can
send out surveys to your followers. The data
received from these results should be added to your
content calendar for easy access in future
campaigns. Social media is always changing as new
networks are entering the digital world everyday.
The social media strategy should always be
reevaluated to keep up with the latest trends.

Transparency & Communication

Two best practices when using social media to represent your organization are transparency
and communication. Being transparent on social media means being authentic. In an interview
with Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Bloomberg, he stresses the importance of authenticity when
using social media. He describes how he developed his style of social media marketing when
he worked in a liquor store and studied the behaviors of customers and how they interacted
with different brands. By paying close attention he was able to use his twitter account to relate
to customers and use social media to form a bond with them. A lot of organizations make the
mistake of using their social media platforms as another way to throw their circular or specials
on the internet but that generally isnt what the public wants to see. Social media should be a
more personable approach to getting a message across to customers.

Conclusion

Now more than ever it is important for every organization to have a presence on social
media. There are several components that make up the social media marketing strategy but
each piece is well worth the work. The key takeaways of this research are to understand the
audiences that reflect your organization, analyze campaign results for future success, and to
always be authentic on social media. The world as we know it is moving into a digital age and
individuals of all backgrounds are adapting to these changes. It is important to always keep up
with new trends in social media and to stay on top of how your own channels are preforming.
 Works Cited

Gaille, Brandon. "27 Marvelous Ways to Improve Your Social Media

Presence."BrandonGaille.com. N.p., 26 Apr. 2016. Web. 22 May 2017.

GaryVaynerchuk. "Bloomberg Interview with Stephanie Ruhle: Social Media Mistakes & Best
Practices." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Dec. 2014. Web. 22 May 2017.

Greenwood, Shannon, Andrew Perrin, and Maeve Duggan. "Social Media Update 2016." Pew
Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. N.p., 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 22 May 2017.

LePage, Evan. "How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan In 6 Steps." Hootsuite Social
Media Management. N.p., 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.

Wertz, Jia. "Which Social Media Platforms Are Right For Your Business?" Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 19 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.

AirBnb Campaign
https://untilweallbelong.com/