Why are you using social media channels?

And what is the purpose of your social media marketing in your business?

When I pose these questions to people managing these channels the answers are somewhat general:

  • “so we can share our events”
  • “so we can get more fans”
  • “Everybody has one”

These are valid starting points but not defined strategies that can assist you in achieving tangible marketing objectives. The more concerning response is,

  • “It’s just a fan page and doesn’t really do anything for our brand or product”

These responses highlight that the full potential of social media platforms are not being utilised, and more specifically that clear strategies have not been defined in the context of a marketing plan.
Social media channels are marketing platforms that should contribute to the goals of your overall marketing strategy. They are not there merely to get more fans / likes / followers/ connections. Most people successfully use Facebook as an interactive social platform to converse with their fans – posting events, sharing news, commenting on posts and generally staying in touch with their fans. However, an assessment of the growth rate on brand pages indicates that not many brands / companies are seeing any significant increase in their fan base which tells me they are not generating continuous momentum to drive their fan base beyond a certain point. I’m not advocating here that this should be the only key objective – as this is focused on the brand or product and not on your client or consumer. Further enquiry into the depth of what they know about their fan base highlights that little or no analysis is being done to understand the interests or social patterns about their audiences. (more…)