Social Media Marketing involves everything related to managing social media accounts, including social content, leveraging analytics, engaging with your audience, and staying adaptable to frequent algorithm changes. Businesses can maximize the impact of their social media presence with effective planning and measurement of their strategy. This is a presentation on social media marketing for the UCLAx course Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy (MGMTX 466.05)
2. Lecturer: Valters Lauzums 2024
Overview & Strategy
Developing a comprehensive content strategy, leveraging analytics, engaging with
your audience, and staying adaptable to changes, businesses can maximize the
impact of their social media presence.
3. Creating Social
Media Strategy
In the fast-paced, ever-changing landscape of social media
marketing, having clear and well-defined goals is more than just a
good practice—it's a necessity.
4. Setting Goals
Example & Comparison
Direct and Specific
Social Media Objectives
Audience Growth
To attract new followers, it's important to introduce your brand to those
who haven't encountered it yet. This involves identifying and
participating in conversations relevant to your business and industry.
Using social media monitoring tools to track specific keywords, phrases,
or hashtags will help you engaging with these discussions
Brand Awareness
This goal revolves around increasing your brand's visibility and
familiarity among potential customers. Instead of just pushing
promotional content, it's more effective to share material that
showcases your brand's unique personality and core values. This
approach helps in building genuine and enduring brand recognition.
Engagement
Social media thrives on user interaction. Creativity and innovation
around your social posts is a crucial part of building engagement.
Given the ever-changing nature of social platforms and their
algorithms, maintaining high engagement levels can be challenging.
Simple tactics like posing questions can significantly boost
engagement.
Website Activity & Sales
Social media is a powerful tool for driving website traffic and generating
sales, whether it's through online platforms, physical stores, or directly
via your social profiles. Tactics like promotional posts or targeted social
ads, especially when tracked for conversions and URL clicks, can
provide insights into your social media RO
5. A brand's use of a social media strategy is pivotal for
effectively using social accounts, aiming to connect with its
audience, enhance brand visibility, and ultimately reach you
goals. At the core, understanding your audience's needs,
preferences, and online behaviors is crucial to overall
strategy and building content plans.
Innovation should be at the heart of a social media content
strategy. Experimenting with new formats, platforms, and
creative concepts in addition to emulating successful
content, will allow a brand to outperform competitors and
Strategy Factors
Many brand social media accounts do not perform well or
contribute meaningfully to their bottom-line business.
6. Brand Voice
Establishing a clear and consistent brand voice helps
in building brand identity and loyalty. Whether your
brand voice is professional, friendly, or playful, it should
reflect your brand's personality and audience.
Visual Branding
Consistent visual branding across all social media
platforms enhances brand recognition. Using a
specific color scheme, logo placement, and visual
style can make your content instantly recognizable.
Engagement
Actively talking with your audience through
comments, messages, and interactive content builds
community around your brand. High engagement also
boost your visibility due to algorithms favoring
interactive content.
Platform
Choosing the right social media platforms is essential
for reaching your target audience effectively. Each
platform has a unique demographic profile and usage
pattern. LinkedIn, for instance, is more suited for B2B.
Consistency
Regular posting is helps maintain visibility and
engagement on social media platforms.. Platforms like
Facebook and Twitter have algorithms that favor
accounts with regular activity.
Trends
The ability to adapt to changes in social media trends,
algorithms, and user preferences is vital. Being flexible
and willing to adjust your strategy will improve your
marketing efforts effective over time.
Audience
Demographic data can help tailor content to meet the
preferences of your target audience. Instagram is
highly popular among 18 to 29-year-olds ideal for
brands targeting younger demographics.
Collaboration
Collaborating with influencers can amplify your
brand's reach and credibility. Influencers with a strong
following in your industry can introduce your brand to
a wider audience in an authentic manner.
Social Analytics
Utilizing analytics tools to monitor performance and
make informed decisions is critical. Analyzing data on
engagement rates, click-through rates, and
conversion rates can help optimize your strategy.
Social Strategy Factors Considerations & Inputs
7. Social media management encompasses the continuous
process of crafting and scheduling content to develop
and engage an audience across various social platforms.
Social Media
Management
The average small to medium-sized business posts 8 times per
day across all its social media platforms.
Businesses using social media scheduling tools report a 30%
reduction in the time spent on managing social media.
Efficient management of social media requires
coordinating content scheduling, cross-team
collaboration, and maintaining a consistent brand voice.
8.
9. Strengthening
Connections
By engaging directly with individuals, responding
promptly to inquiries, and showing genuine interest
in their needs and feedback, businesses can foster
a sense of community and belonging among their
audience.
This is compounded with relevant content that
speaks to followers through their unique interests
and values. Trust and consistent engagement turns
followers into brand advocates.
10. Platform Landscape
Overview & Audience
Facebook
Facebook remains the largest social
platform with over 2.9 billion monthly
active users. It's a hub for connecting
with friends and family, sharing news
and photos, and discovering content.
Instagram
With over 2 billion monthly active
users, Instagram is a visually oriented
platform for sharing photos and
videos. It's popular among younger
demographics, and
TikTok
This short-form video app has over 1
billion monthly active users. It's
particularly popular with Gen Z and is
known for its viral trends and music-
driven content.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn boasts over 875 million
members across more than 200
countries. Unlike other social platforms
focused on personal or casual content,
LinkedIn is tailored for professional use,
11. Platform Landscape
Overview & Audience
Twitter or X
Twitter has a user base of over 450
million monthly active users globally.
Renowned for its real-time content
and brevity, with posts limited to 280
characters, Twitter serves as a critical
space for public discourse and news.
Pinterest
Pinterest has 450 million MAUs and
differentiates itself by focusing on
inspiration, discovery, and the curation
of personal interests through visual
content. Users can find ideas for topics
like home decor, fashion and design.
YouTube
YouTube remains one of the most
influential and widely accessed video-
sharing platforms globally, with over 2
billion logged-in monthly users. It
serves as a primary source of
entertainment, education, and info.
Snapchat
Snapchat is popular among younger
demographics, with over 500 million
monthly active users globally.
Snapchat is known for its ephemeral
messaging feature, where photos and
videos disappear after being viewed.
12. Organic social media, characterized by content shared without paid
promotion, fosters genuine engagement and community building. It
allows brands to establish and nurture relationships with their audience
by providing valuable, relevant content. Organic strategies enhance
brand loyalty as they rely on authentic interactions and storytelling, which
resonate deeply with consumers.
Organic Social Media
Paid social media campaigns offer the ability to measure and track
performance in real-time, allowing for the optimization of strategies to
maximize ROI. The immediacy and precision of paid social media can
lead to increased brand visibility, website traffic, and ultimately sales.
Paid Social Media
Paid vs Organic
13. Social Media
Legal Issues
Legal issues in social media are often related to user-generated
content and the platforms that host or disseminate this content.
User Rights vs Societal Interests
Social media law encompasses a complex interplay
between content regulation and privacy protection,
reflecting a dynamic balance between users' rights
and broader societal interests. On the content side,
laws aim to regulate issues such as copyright
infringement, defamation, and illegal content,
ensuring that social media platforms operate within
legal boundaries while fostering free expression.
14. Takedown Notices
To protect your rights on social media, you can use
takedown notices as an effective strategy against
infringement. This legal tool serves as a formal request to
social media platforms to remove content that unlawfully
uses your intellectual property. However, it's important to be
mindful of the concept of fair use both for yourself and
others before proceeding with such demands.
Understanding the nuances of fair use is crucial; not every
instance of content sharing constitutes infringement. In
some cases, what might seem like a violation could actually
fall under fair use exemptions.
15. Qualifying for Fair Use
This examines both the quantity and the importance of the
portion of the work used. When sharing content on social media,
such as a brief excerpt of a video on Twitter, it may fall under fair
use if the shared segment is a minor fraction of the entire work
and doesn't disclose its essential elements or plot points.
Amount and Substantiality
This considers the economic impact of sharing content on the
original work's market value. If the dissemination of content on
platforms adversely affecting its marketability and potential
revenue streams, this often falls outside the scope of fair use, as it
directly competes with the original work for the same audience.
Effect on the Market Value
This factor scrutinizes the purpose behind content sharing and
holds particular implications for brands and businesses operating
on social media. Non-commercial, educational, or transformative
uses of content are typically more favored in fair use.
Purpose & Character
This aspect of fair use evaluation takes into account the inherent
nature of the content being disseminated on social media.
Content that is inherently educational or academic in nature, like
a quote from a scholarly article easily qualifies as fair use.
Nature of the Copyrighted Work
16. Transformative Use
In social media, what is defined as the "transformative" nature of how
content is used plays a pivotal role in determining its eligibility for fair use.
When shared content is altered to introduce new expression, meaning, or
message, such as remixing a music clip with unique graphics or
commentary for a YouTube video, it often qualifies as transformative.
This kind of creative modification can shift the original work into a new
context or provide a different perspective, making it more likely to be
considered fair use. On the other hand, merely reposting content from
another user, without adding substantial change or insightful
commentary, generally doesn't meet the transformative criterion. This lack
of transformation is especially relevant on platforms like Instagram or
Twitter, where reposting without modification is common.
17. In the United States, Defamation is generally defined as a
false, published statement that is injurious to the plaintiff's
reputation. An online posting, even on an obscure website,
will likely be seen by a few people, thus satisfying the
publication requirement. In most US states, publication
requires only that the statement be seen by one person,
other than the maker and the subject of the statement.
Most jurisdictions maintain that for a statement to qualify
as defamatory, it must not only be seen but also
understood by others as damaging to the reputation of the
subject, thereby making the impact and reach of online
communications critical factors in defamation cases.
Defamation