Social Media Optimization

A Personal Learning ProjectBy: Taylor Spilak

Purpose of this study:

To gain knowledge and a better understanding of how social media is portrayed in the eyes of the consumer and ways in which I can maximize its potential with respect to business related opportunities and my own personal benefit.

I. Determine through research the overall impact of social media from a marketing perspective with respect to real statistics such as brand recognition and market share.

II. Discover and gain an understanding of social media platforms outside of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and my own personal knowledge.

III. Learn new and untraditional ways in which social media can be measured and optimized.

Learning Goals

Determine through research the overall impact of social media from a marketing perspective with respect to real statistics such as

brand recognition and market share.

I. Learning Goal:

According to the2013 State of Inbound Marketing: 27% of total U.S. internet time is spent on

social networking sites. (Source: Experian)

Social media produces almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC. (Source: HubSpot)

Approximately 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase decision. (Source: Nielsen)

A Few Intriguing Statistics

52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook in 2013. (Source: HubSpot)

43% of all marketers have found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013. (Source: HubSpot)

36% of all marketers have found a customer via Twitter in 2013. (Source: HubSpot)

Customer Acquisition

The impact of social media with regards to leads, traffic, and revenue is undeniable.According to Jayson DeMers, Contributor to Forbes, the benefits of social media include: Improved social signals Company branding Improved brand awareness Word-of-mouth advertising Increased customer loyalty and trust Improved audience reach and influence

Analysis

Part of my learning goal was that I set out to find “real” statistics such as brand recognition and market share that were linked to social media. Instead, I realized that while improved statistics of that nature are undoubtedly the result of social media marketing, it is difficult to directly tie increases (or decreases) from them with respect to actual numbers. This is because of how many other aspects go into a marketing strategy outside of online activities.

Analysis cont…

Discover and gain an understanding of social media platforms outside of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and my own personal knowledge.

II. Learning Goal

Click icon to add picture

Google+ has obtained 359 million active users since its launch in 2011 according to Business Insider.

A Google+ account offers the ability to:◦ Manage a personal profile that may include a profile

photo, cover photo, story, work history, places you have been to, and basic contact information.

◦ Build Authorship Authority – achieved by linking your Google+ account to other web based content you have created using different blogs or media outlets.

◦ Create pages for your business related to either local, product, brand, company, institution, organization, arts, entertainment, or other.

◦ Get your business listed under Google+ Listings which was formerly known as Google Places.

◦ Post updates from personal or business related pages that will drive traffic and conversation.

◦ Target specific groups via the “Circles” feature.

Cont.

◦ Follow or be followed by certain people and businesses like that of Twitter or Facebook.

◦ Join Google+ communities to get involved with specific groups or topics.

◦ Live video chat with up to 10 participants via Google+ “Hanging Out”.

◦ Integrate with Youtube.

◦ Analyze results from Google Analytics Social Report.

Cont.

“Today, the site is visited daily by more than 1 million visitors who can’t stop pinning their favourite photos and images that depict style, recipes, craft, children, pets, recipes etc.”

-Emily Williams Overview:

◦ Pinterest is like that of a huge, virtual pin-board◦ A variety of different pictures and documents are

posted, then pinned so that others can view and/or comment on them.

◦ Pins or re-pins can generate traffic and lead people back to the more popular and talked about images

Creating Boards◦ A unique board name with help to differentiate from

commonly used board names and generate interest.◦ Featuring original content will help fans to come back

to future boards and even share with others. Using Quality Images

◦ Size and resolution of pictures can determine whether or not images are liked and essentially pinned by others.

Keywords◦ Using specific words or phrases to caption pictures will

help to garner traffic and appeal to a targeted audience.

Marketing with Pinterest

Reddit is an online community mainly consisting of news, links, and conversations.

Accounts achieve “karma” ratings based on user submitted comments or links posted throughout Reddit. They are a good indication of someone’s credibility with others on the website.

Sharing interesting photos and videos, or creating meaningful discussions are great ways to achieve status and good standing amongst other members.

Interacting with others is key Comments can be deemed helpful or relevant

by getting UpVotes. These can result in good karma for those that perform the action appropriately.

The front page can be customized to filter out unwanted information and cater to a users needs and interests.

If used properly, Reddit can help to generate interest and conversation about an individual or company from targeted groups of choice.

Cont.

Learn new and untraditional ways in which social media can be measured and optimized.

III. Learning Goal:

Tips that can help boost Social Media Strategy1. Plan – Determine which social media platforms

will work best for the strategy and assign specific tasks and roles for each person involved.

2. Goals – Know what you are striving to accomplish and how you are going to measure success before starting out.

3. Audience – Understand what type of people engage in each particular website. i.e. LinkedIn users engage in different activities than those who are on Twitter or Facebook.

Social Media Marketing

4. Customer Service – Online has created new touching points and a different aspect of customer service that must be dealt with accordingly.

5. Owning Your Mistakes – Turn negative feedback into positive outcomes. There is no such thing as bad publicity, just make sure to have a “nothing to hide” mentality.

6. Listen – Customers will be engaging in conversations about products or services at the click of a button. Learning how people are perceiving you or your company can help along the way to providing exactly what they want.

Through my research I was able to accomplish most of my learning goals while coming across a few grey areas that I was unaware of before. In realizing the benefits of social media, I am now aware of the difficulty in measuring certain offline marketing statistics. Social media is its own beast in ways that traditional marketing methods are not only expanded upon, but it has created new ways to come in contact with customers and provides for a different dynamic that was never available to us prior to the internet. I have a new found understanding of social media platforms I was unfamiliar with before, and an appreciation for everything that goes into each and every social media strategy. With my newly acquired knowledge of how to optimize and get the most out of marketing digitally, I can only see myself being an asset to any organization that is willing to give me an opportunity to use these skills in the future.

Conclusion

DeMers, J. (2013, September 24). The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2014. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/09/24/the-top-7-social-media-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2014/

Hines, K. (2013, June 14). The 2013 Google+ Marketing Guide. Retrieved from KISSmetrics: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/2013-google-plus-guide/

Jacob, S. (2011, August 22). KISSmetrics. Retrieved from A Marketers Guide To Reddit: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/reddit-marketing-guide/

Kim, L. (2014, March 12). These 7 Tips Will Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from Small Business Trends: http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/03/tips-supercharge-your-social-media-strategies.html

Soskey, G. (2013, April 30). 18 Fresh Stats About the Current State of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from HubSpot: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/18-fresh-stats-about-social-media-marketing

Watkins, T. (2013, May 1). Suddenly, Google Plus Is Outpacing Twitter To Become The World's Second Largest Social Network. Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-plus-is-outpacing-twitter-2013-5

Williams, E. (2012, May 1). A Brief Guide To Pinterest Marketing. Retrieved from HONGKIAT.COM: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/pinterest-marketing-guide/

References