MIB605- Lecture 11 Strategic Planning with Social Media Prof. Cui Learning Objectives Strategic Planning and Social Media Marketing Planning Three phases of social media marketing maturity Social Media Planning Process The social media policy Develop a Planning Structure in the Organization 1
Strategic Planning and Social Media Marketing Planning Marketing Planning is a written, formalized plan that details the product, pricing, distribution, and promotional strategies that will enable the brand in question to accomplish specific marketing objectives. Strategic Planning is the process of identifying objectives to accomplish, deciding how to accomplish those objectives with specific strategies and tactics, implementing the actions that make the plan come to life, and measuring how well the plan met the objectives. Social Media Marketing Planning Most Social media marketing plan is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Most of these social media platforms have their own built-in data analysis tools, which enable companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of social media process. On a strategic level, social media marketing plan includes the management of the implementation of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone". identify the overall objective develop the specific tactics they will use reach goals Corporate level Business level Functional areas of the organization 2
Characteristics of social media marketing planning Social media can be a communication tool to create buzz and e-word of mouth communication, which deliver promotion offers to customers. Consumers interact with the social website directly, which can be more popular to users. Of the top ten factors that correlate with a strong Google organic search, seven are relate to the social media. If brands are less active on social media, they tend to be less on internet search. Social media also serve as an efficient way to manage customer service relationships and build relations with loyal consumers. Structure of marketing plan VS social media marketing plan Typical marketing plan Internal environment External environment SWOT Social media marketing plan Internal environment External environment SWOT Set marketing objectives Gather target audience 4P Strategies target and positioning product pricing promotional supply chain Implement plan Manage and measure Create social media zones and vehicles community zone strategies publishing zone strategies entertainment zone strategies commerce zone strategies Create an experience strategy Establish plan Manage and measure 3
Social media marketing maturity in three phases Many marketers currently use social media marketing tactics without that level of maturity. Many just experiment with infant stage (like creating a Facebook page) rather than include social media as a fundamental component of their marketing strategy. A major study of marketers in both Europe and North America found huge differences in the level to which respondents use social media and integrate it with their other initiatives. Social media marketing maturity in three phases Companies are eager to jump into the social media game, but many still in the process of figuring out just how these approaches can go beyond the novelty stage and actually help them to meet their objectives. In 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmarking Report surveyed 2,300 marketers. The findings suggest that marketers are spread among three phases(trial, transition, and strategic) of social media marketing adoption. Trial Phase Transition Phase Strategic Phase 4
The Steps of Building a Strategic Social Media Planning Situational Analysis: LU an example! Review the firm s environmental and SWOT analysis The internal environment refers to the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The external consists of those elements outside the organization-the opportunities and threats currently occurring in the whole industry. Reviewing the existing marketing plan and any other information can be obtained about the company Review the competitors approach Reviewing the firm s objectives, strategies, and performance metrics 5
Situational Analysis: Benjamin Moore With a history going back to 1883, recognized as a manufacturer of high quality premium paints and finishes, Benjamin Moore has weathered many changes in the build and home improvement industries. However, the recent past has been difficult for the brand as it faced a challenging external environment and limited internal resources for brand building. As the United States dealt with a debilitating housing and construction slump, sales of paints and finishes declined. Not only did demand fall, but buyers were more price-sensitive. As a premium paint brand, the company was hesitant to discount on price-though the leading competitor offer big discount for customers. To add salt to the wound, other premium paint brands had much bigger budgets for promotional spending. But here s a case where an apparent weakness presents an opportunity: Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. Because they had high budgets to buy advertising in traditional media, competitors had not yet tapped social media as a promotional channel. For instance, Duron Paint and Valspar both had Facebook pages, but both brands had under 200 friends and low levels of activity. SWOT Analysis Benjamin Moore s SWOT Analysis Strength: Loyal customers High brand equity Unsolicited testimonials from design community Quality products High levels of earned media in traditional media outlets Weakness: High price point Limited media budget Opportunities: Social media as a cost-efficient channel Do-it-self mentality Competitors focused on traditional media or in trial stage of social media marketing Threats: Declining demand in hard-hit industries Competition with large media budgets and lower-priced products 6
Identify Social Media Marketing Objective and Set Budgets Increase brand awareness Improve brand or product reputation Budgets Objectives Against which to be measured! The characteristics of a well-stated objective Be measurable Include a time line Be specific (what, who, when, where) Specify the desired change (from a baseline) Be consistent and realistic (given other corporate activities and resources) Increase website traffic Amplify or augment public relations work Improve search engine rankings Improve perceived customer service quality Generate sales leads Reduce customer acquisition and support costs Increase sales(sales revenue) Identify Social Media Marketing Objective and Set Budgets Social Media Objectives Phase I: Trial Phase II: Transition Phase III: Strategic Increase sales revenue Reduce customer support cost Reduce customer acquisition costs Increase lead generation Improve customer support quality Improve search engine rankings Improve public relations Increase website traffic Improve brand or product repuation Increase brand or product awareness 6% 8% 8% 8% 15% 11% 18% 14% 22% 17% 19% 30% 24% 23% 33% 27% 28% 34% 33% 33% 33% 34% 40% 42% 43% 49% 52% 52% 47% 63% 7
Set Social Media Marketing Budgets Online display advertsing Search 6% engine optimization SEO 10% Other online marketing 6% Social media 11% Social media is not free? Email 19% Website 27% Where will this money be spent? Paid search 21% Marketing Budget Allocated to Social Media Components of Every Social Media Budget Software and tools An all-in-one social media management Management The person or team management fees Creative and Branding Design the look and feel of your online presence Content Hire freelance copywriters and copy editors Paid advertising Promote social message performs well Cost per click (CPC) Cost per a thousand impressions (CPM) Campaigns and promotions Hire an agency or consultant to help launch and drive the campaign Campaigns and promotions Paid advertising Software and tools social media budget Content Management Creative and Branding 8
Software and tools - Hootsuite How should it allocate? 1. Variation method allocates a percentage of online marketing funding to social media. 2. Competitive parity method uses competitors spending as a benchmark. 3. Objective-and-task method considers the objectives set out for the campaign and determines the cost estimates for accomplishing each objective. Start-up costs Planning and development $25,000 Training for blogger $10,000 Ongoing costs(annual) Blogging platform $25,000 Brand-monitoring service $50,000 IT support $3,000 Content production $150,000 Review and redirection $20,000 Total costs for first year $283,000 An Illustrative Budget for a Corporate Blog 9
Profile the Target Audience of Social Consumers The target market for the brand will have been defined in the brand s marketing plan in terms of demographic, geodemographic, psychographic, and product-usage characteristics. It will include the market s social activities and styles such as their level of social media participation, the channels they utilize and the communities in which they are active, and their behavior in social communities. The strategic planner must assess what it means to speak to the audience in the social media space. Who is the core target? How can we describe the key segments of that core target? To whom will the conversations in social media be directed? How do they use social media? How do they interact with other brands? The insights from the consumer profile that was done for brand s overall marketing and marcom plans will be useful to understand the overall profile of the target market. 10
Profile the Target Audience of Social Consumers Industry Professionals Architects Contractors Premium choice: paints & finishes End Consumers Do-it-yourselves (remodeling, renovation, construction) Interested in working with designer Planner should understand: Differences Two existing markets Platform Strategy How and when to interact in communities Select Social Media Channels and Vehicles Link(off-site) Industry Professionals End Consumers Facebook Post 11
Select Social Media Channels and Vehicles Industry Professionals SMO (Flickr photostream) Select Social media channels and vehicles Industry Professionals SMO (Flickr photostream) 12
Paid media Drive traffic Owned Media: BenjaminMoore.com Living in Color blog Facebook profile and Experts Exchange posts YouTube channel Retail storefronts Paid Media: Magazine ads Co-branding with other brandings Social Media platform and seeding technologies Earned Media: Influence impressions generated throughout social web Influence posts shared via Benjamin Moore s social experts Questions and comments posted by brand fans to Facebook Wall and to Experts Exchange, and as comments to social publishing on blog. YouTube, and Flickr. You are seen as an important source of information and an influencer! Select Social Media Channels and Vehicles Once the organization understands who it wants to reach, it s time to select the best social media mix to accomplish this. The zones of social media make up the channel and vehicle choices available for social media mix. 13
Create an Experience Strategy In Benjamin Moore s case, the brand s position is the choice of experts and the social persona that supports that position Invite experts to do endorsement for this brand Establish Campaign Timeline For social media, though, campaigns are not necessarily events with fixed start and stop dates. Conversations in communities continue over time, and a brand s social media marketing presence should do this as well. This is particularly true for brands that rely on social media for customer service and customer relationship management. 14
Establish Campaign Timeline Brand implements a social media marketing campaign for a specific period of time. Consider the movie actress Julia Roberts with great fanfare in 2010. The timing of the social media marketing strategies and tactics were tied to launch date for the movie in theaters; this allowed time for people to spread the word, talk about the book, and make plans to see the movie. Execute and Measure Outcomes The initial imperative is to have a presence in the community of interest Brand assets are underutilized and underperforming in terms of the objectives set for the campaign To take it successful, the brand must be active in the space Staffing Content The failure to introduce new, fresh, relevant content and develop interactivity, respond to visitor feedback Require an ongoing human resources commitment to make it success. Take months to build awareness or fail. The overall effectiveness and efficiency of the social model can be well worth the patience and resources required. Time Horizon 15
Execute and Measure Outcomes Focus on desired outcomes rather than action steps. Take a short-term tactical approach rather than longterm strategic approach. Social media-the value lies in accomplishing marketing objectives. Focus of objectives Benefits to Users Social media lives or dies on the quality of the content Increase How will we engagement distribute our content? by responding How can we toengage comments target on Twitter audiences? and Facebook within 24 How hours can of we posting, develop an posting ongoing three stream status of relevant, updates fresh content? per business day, and adding links to social media accounts on the corporate blog. Emphasizing the growth and popularity of the media as reason enough to develop a presence in the space. Measuring outcomes ensures that the organizations is learning from what worked and what didn t. Measurement The social media policy A social media policy is an organizational document that explains the rules and procedures for social media activity for the organization and its employees. If you plan to tweet about any professional matters (such as about the business of Microsoft or other companies), in addition to referencing your Microsoft email address, whenever possible use the service s profile or contact information to assert that you are a Microsoft employee and/or affiliated with a specific group or team at Microsoft. Whether in the actual or virtual world, your interactions and discourse should be respectful. For example, when you are in a virtual world as a Sun representative, your avatar should dress and speak professionally. We all appreciate actual respect. Consider content that s open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. You can broaden the on vernation by citing others who are blogging about the same topic and allowing your content to be shared or syndicated. If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront, and be quick with your correction. If you re posting a blog, you may choose to modify an earlier post-just make it clear that you have done so. 16
Standards of conduct At a minimum, all online statements about about the business be honest and transparent. Further, good manners must be used in social communities. Disclosure requirements When using posts on social networks, It is recommended that the poster use hashtags #ad #sponsored to disclose the nature of relationships reflected in the posts. If they are receiving material compensation or gifts in exchange for posting, this must be disclosed. Disclosing affiliations ensures that readers can still find the posts credible and trustworthy. 17
Respect for and Protection of Consumer Privacy and Customer Data Not to be monetized without consent! Develop a Planning Structure in the Organization Who owns social media within an organization? A discipline silo (marketing department) A center of excellence model that pulls people with different kinds of expertise from the organization to participate. (Intel and American Express) Three basic organizational structures to support social media marketing. This eliminates the internal political issues relating to who in the company has primary responsibility for social media. Businesses should take decisions on the level of resources to dedicate because social media is an ongoing conversation. Some businesses dedicate multiple employees to manage the conversation calendar whereas others assign a single person to improve social media situation. 18
Three basic models for social media structure The social media department function at a senior level that report to the CMO or CEO and is responsible for all the social media activations. Risk: customer care may not be good if social media marketing is under marketing department rather than customer service department. Centralized structure Distributed structure No one owns social media. So all employees represent the brand and work social media i n t o t h e i r r o l e s. T h i s i s implemented by training. Rish: Tools can end up off message. 19
This involves both centralized practices and decentralized process. The brand establish a committee of social media leaders to make decisions on the social media position and v o i c e, and spread in the company. Combination structure The L Oreal Case: L'Oreal encourages its staff to use the hashtag #lifeatloreal to showcase the culture of the organisation. The fairly obvious thinking is that this organisational transparency will help with recruitment but also retention, by putting all the perks of the job front and centre. This is an incredibly simple tactic, and one that other brands have adopted, too (see Oracle, Google, Deloitte and many more). 20
The NASA Case: NASA s social media is just as inventive and compelling as their space missions NASA has over 500 distinct social media accounts. It s a bottom-up approach, where all those accounts and programs work directly with their center leads. When new content comes in, we have a really strong calendar to tell us when stuff is coming down the pipes. 21