Social Media Marketing and the measurement thereof is always a hot topic. In part four of this exclusive 7-part series we'll be discussing Strategic Development.
Hello, everyone and welcome to part 4 - Strategic Development - of the exclusive 7-part series on Social Media Marketing Analytics.
I last left off at Competitive Research. For those who have not read part 3, I suggest you take a few minutes to do so. If you are short on time, below is a brief recap:
Part 3 Recap
In part 3 I covered:
- The definition of Competitive Research
- Why is it important?
- What are the benefits?
To reiterate, just as you do for your own brand, it is YOUR job to be on top of what your competitors are doing, LISTEN and be attentive of what is being said about them. YOU need to be aware of what they are doing well and what they are doing not-so-well.
Conducting proper research and having the essential tools to do so is essential to...
Strategic Development
Now you have all of this great information about your competitors. What's next?
Leveraging the insights you gathered...
Why? They enhance your ability to make better business decisions and develop a soundstrategic foundation.
Excuse the brevity when I say this but, do what the findings tell you!
BUT don't bite off more than you can chew.
As I tell every client that comes into our agency, when developing a strategy in the social media arena, simplicity and incremental implementation is key.
Here is a scenario for you:
After doing your diligence, AKA your competitive research, you find that your main competitor has a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook. They are avid bloggers putting out a lot of rich and engaging content, all of which results in high awareness, great search engine visibility and substantial lead generation.
Please, please, please don't ever think that you can just decide one day that you are going to start from the ground level, do the same and do it well.
This game is not for amateurs and will chew you up and spit you out.
REMEMBER: simplicity and incremental implementation is key.
Start off small and gain momentum such as building a Facebook Page. Then roll in some nice applications as tabs, develop a content calendar and possibly try some promotions such as a sweepstakes. Then dive into Twitter, look into the investment of building a blog as well a backing everything up with some Search Engine Marketing to boost visibility and traffic to your assets.
Even though the above is more tactically oriented that strategic, I'm sure you get the point.
If anyone has questions, comments or concerns or would like to discuss this in further detail - because rest assured this is only scratching the surface, please feel free to post them here, our Facebook page or via Twitter.
And stay tuned for Part 5 - Strategic Connections - coming next Thursday!
If anyone has questions, comments or concerns or would like to discuss this in further detail - because rest assured this is only scratching the surface, please feel free to post them here, our Facebook page or via Twitter.
Stay tuned for Part 3 - Strategic Development coming next Thursday!
And if you're just "tuning in" and want to catch up, here's links to the previous posts relating to this exclusive series on Social Media Marketing Analytics:
Social Media Marketing Analytics - First Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Brand Monitoring, Part Two Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Competitive Research, Part Three Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Image Source: Google Images