How do you create social media strategies for your business? Do you jump into the newest platform or create campaigns simply to increase Facebook 'Likes'? Here's a suggestion: quit throwing darts and start using social media research to drive your strategy.
To illustrate this concept, I'm going to use a fictitious brand along with real social media research. My fictitious company, Brand X, sells popsicles and is interested in running a summer social media campaign. The goal for this campaign is to keep the brand top-of-mind for moms and ultimately sell product.
Step 1: Understand The Target's Mindset Using Themes
First, I want to know what mom's mindset is during the summer. Using Netbase, I can see what moms like and dislike about this time of year based on their online conversation in blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and forums.
Step 2: Read The Personal Narratives
Next, I want to read actual personal narratives to better understand emotions expressed by my target audience. Simply looking at key themes, tag clouds, or top phrases won't give you the full picture.
Step 3: Identify Consumer Problems and Brand Solutions
After looking through a significant number of personal narratives (such as the two listed above), it's clear that moms have three strong emotions around summer break.
1. They enjoy spending time with their family.
2. They have a hard time keeping their kids entertained the entire summer.
3. They feel like the dreaded back-to-school time period comes too quickly.
These last two emotions are consumer "problems". Brand X can potentially create solutions for these two areas via a social media strategy.
Step 4: Know Where Your Target Is Online
There are a number of consumer research tools out there that can tell you which social media platforms your target uses. Some of these tools (MRI or @Plan) can cost a pretty penny. I use Google Ad Planner, because it's easy and free. Not surprisingly, Facebook has the largest reach against moms versus other social platforms.
Step 5: Create Your Strategy
Given the problems identified in Step 3, I would recommend creating a custom Facebook application called "Savoring Summer". This application would provide moms with useful content to help keep their kids entertained and allow them to savor each day via an online summer journal.
Let's not forget our initial campaign goal of keeping the brand top-of-mind and ultimately driving product sales:
- Keep moms engaged with the brand by providing useful content and a journal they can use every day
- Drive trial by providing a coupon within the application or suggestions for incorporating popsicles into daily activities
While this example is simplified and not completely flushed out, the bottom line is this: Social media research can help you make strategic, sound decisions for your social media efforts.
Do you have other examples of how using social media research can help shape strategy? Comment below.