Social Media Marketing for Dummies

In class on Thursday, the presenting group discussed the importance of social media in a brand's marketing strategy. BUT- they made it very clear, as did the author of our Brand Media Strategy course trade book: Social media is NOT a strategy. It is wrong to refer to it as that.

Social media plays an important role in a brand's marketing strategy, but it is not THE strategy. Our professor accentuated this statement and made it very clear. No longer is social media considered a cutting-edge, new, trendy marketing strategy. It is just another necessary element of a company's regular communication mix. We also discussed how years ago, companies were fixated on web pages and that was the "hot" marketing tool. If a company had a website, they were ahead of the game. Then, it turned into social media being the marketing "fixation".

Our Professor said something that really stuck with me in class- "If you treat social media as a strategy, you're only focusing on the outer layer". Only focusing on your brand's outer layer will never allow you to emotionally involve your consumers. Standing out from other brands is important to be able to do, especially in today's day and age. By using social media as your main strategy, you aren't differentiating your brand.

Just having a presence on social media isn't enough- but having a strong and creative presence on social media? Now we're talking. Brands need to focus on the inner layer. Giving your consumers content and marketing that digs deep into the meaning and purpose of your brand is important. Don't just tell your consumers why your product is the best- make them believe it through creative copy (always going back to that Empirical Generalization).

Another social media marketing tip I gained from our course reading is this: "Instead of collecting additional new fans, brands had to think about how to keep them engaged and bring them back to their page" (156). When I thought about my interactions with brands on social media, I found this to be extremely true. How many brands do you "like" on Facebook once, and never interact with their page again? For me, the answer is a lot. Marketers can't judge their success on social media based on how many likes they are getting on their page- it has to be by how many of those "likers" are actually engaging with it. It's about quality, not quantity, and this holds true for social media as well.