There is N such thing like “social media

strategy”

N

Social Business

Strategies

Social Corporate strategy

Online Strategy

Social Marketing Techniques

Promotion Strategy

Content Strategy

Platform Strategy

There are however, things like social corporate strategy, online strategy and social marketing techniques…

Co-ops/Non-profitsNot profit driven, The goal of the company

is transforming society by educating

and empowering people

Very Social Corporations

Has own social media platforms, social media is

the main focus of the brand, uses crowdsourcing as much

as possible, Value co-creation is the main focus, Business model is based on

a social premise

Social CorporationsUses crowdsourcing and

value co-creation occasionally, very active in social media, has some CSR

activities, allocates a significant amount of

budget for social media

Ordinary CorporationsUses social media because competitors are using it,

uses only major social media tools, does not allocate a significant

amount of budget for social media

Some B2B companiesThese companies do not openly engage with their clients in social media. They are not concerned

about not being “social”

Social As a Corporate Strategy

Coca-Cola and Toyota

They use social media as much as possible and they use various

platforms but for them social media is just a tool to drive

sales.

Starbucks, Tom’s Shoes, Etsy, Danone

All these companies have a very clear social mission and they cannot function well if they don’t actively

interact with local communities and their

customers

Grameen Bank’s goal is reducing poverty

not giving dividents to investors. It is

owned by the poor people and the goal of the corporation is

not profit maximazation

Value Co-creation and Social Corporate Strategy

Customers are

happier and feel more positive about the brand when they get involved with the creation and production of goods and services

Value Co-Creation marketingGoods are indirect services. Any purchase can be turned into an experience or a customer journeyValue should be created together with consumersMarketing should be relationship based (brands and consumers establish relationships)Brands should initiate conversations and dialogsBrands should teach new skills to consumers, community membersKnowledge and know-how are the biggest assets of brands

Companies should sell goodsMarketing should be transactionalMarketers should run promotional campaignsMarketers should educate customers

Crowd-sourcing as a corporate strategy

Low-cost access to experts and enthusiasts in any areaMore new and creative ideasFaster business solutions

Lack of controlLack of traditional business structureQuality of the outcomeOwnership of intellectual propertySecurity and privacy

Crowds market it

Crowds support

it

Crowds test it

Crowds build it

Crowds design it

Crowds think of

it

Crowdsourcing means outsourcing the company’s problems and needs to people (mostly the customers of the brand, people interested in the area or anyone in the world)

Source: Social Business by Design

Crowdsourcing ExamplesMyStarbucksidea.com

A special social network that creted by Starbucks. Members can 1- Share their ideas about Starbucks’ products 2- Vote for other members ideas 3- Discuss about currently

available ideas 4- See the feedback from oher members and the results of their ideas.

IBM Idea JamIBM employees, customers and the familiy members of employees help IBM solve its

problems and come up with new ideas on a platform called IBM Idea Jam. In some

occasions IBM posted the problem and pledged to $100 dollars for the solution of the problem.

InnocentiveStarted as a solutions for chemical problems. Chemical companies post their problems and people provide suggestions. If idea is selected

by the sponsor company who posted the problem the solver gets a cash reward.

Secretlondon.comPeople were asked to share secret tips and their

photos and their photos of London on a Facebook page. After the initial success the page became and independent website and

replicated for other cities.

PepsiAsked its fans to come up with a new design for its cans. The wining design won a $10,000 cash

prize and also used all around the world.

American Express

Although company sponsored forums are not rare, American Express created the OPEN forum for small business owners (to promote its small business credit) which was like a social network

that allowed small business to friend other small business and exchange ideas. It became

very popular in a short time.

Loreal

Created a Facebook toolkit for the stylists create a personalized Facebook site very easily and set up appointments with their customers.

Owens & minor

A healthcare products supplier company created an open social network platform for its suppliers where any suppliers can see the flow of supplies , submit documents and can easily

contact one of the 7000 employees of the company.

HP

HP tests its printers , both during the concept phase and the post concept phase by giving the

task to its customers who sign up for the trial service.

Vision: 3-10 year goals of the company

Values: The desired behavior and culture of the company

Mission: The purpose of the organization

How important is it for the company to interact with customers as

much as possible. How social is the mission of the company?

Does the company pay special attention to value co-creation? Does the

company want to be socially connected and socially integrated

REGARDLESS of profitability?

Does the company think business transactions will be socially

determined in the future? Is having a social platform one of the future

goals of the company?, etc.

Social As a Corporate Strategy

Social Media Strategy

Business strategy (Priority)

Using social media for Direct Sales

People already know about this

Using social media for CUSTOMER SERVICE

If this is the priority, then use social media for CRM and educating customers

Using social media for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

If this is the priority then generate interesting

content and make people click on the links

Using social media for PUBLIC RELATIONS

If this is the priority then post every single

company activity in social media and promote it

Using social media for HUMAN RESOURCES

If this is the priority then use applications to reach

potential new hires

Using social media for RESEARCH/SOCIAL

LISTENING

If this is the priority use social media fans as a

focus group or a research panel. Ask fans questions about new proudcts, etc.

Social as a business strategySocial media can be used for many different business purposes and ideally companies should have priorities. Companies should not say we will use social media for everything and everything is our priority.

Brand’s Blog

Generate Content (e.g. useful

information about your category)

High ranking on search engines

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

linkedIn

Google+Mixi

Pinterest

Cookpad

Cosme

Nico Nico Douga

Hatena

More referrals from

search engines

SEO-Focused Social media strategy

Social media can be a very effective tool to drive traffic to a brand’s blog or website. When many people click on links in social media to go to a website, that web site’s ranking increases among the listings of search engines. This is also known as search engine optimization.

Other social media

Social Listening Based Social media strategy

• Understand mind-sets (peoples ideas, lifestyles, way of doing things)

• Profile customers and prospects (Use of consumer insights to create new consumer segments)

• Sense early market shifts (Spotting marketing trends earlier by assesing what kind of messages are posted publicly)

• Detect problems (Analysis of public messages about a brand can identify branding problems)

• Analyze competitors (tracking competitor activity and what people are talking about competitors are very easy)

• Uncover sales drivers and predict sales (Analysis of reviews on Amazon showed that not the price but comments about “ease of use” and product features were better predictors of future sales.

• Test concepts & co-create value: Crowdsourcing of new ideas and having people to decide the future products.

• Develop and evaluate messages (Before mass marketing practitioners can sense what kind of brand messages are shared and what kind of messages are not cared by customers)

• Identify threats to reputation (PR crises can be easily handled through social media before they become bigger problems)

• Identify which voices to listen (not everyone, not every platform and not ever comment can be tied influence sales. Some platforms, some influencers and some comments about certain types of product characteristics may be more important)

Post volumes (total number of mentions on the internet)

Tweets & status updates (sentiment analysis, RTs, mentions in social media)

Search trends (of the number of searchers for a certain brand or a product category is increasing or decreasing)

Tracking the advocates of own brand and competitor brands online. These people also can be found offline by asking the customers “how likely are you to recommend our brand or

the competitor brand to your friends”

Product reviews (sentiment, reviewer influence (e.g. top reviewer, etc.), specifity and objecitivity of the review 8this product is bad vs. this products’s X function has Y problem)

Understand consumer needs

and market shifts

Listen online conversations

More effective brand

communications

Develop targeted messages

Source: First Listen

Content Strategy

Brand Priority-Brand Awareness-Image building-Community building-Web traffic generating-Sales promotions-Improving customer loyalty

Brand typeBusiness :B2B, B2C, non-profitCategory: Service, consumer goods, etc.Audience :male, female, mixed, young, old, experts, novices, etc.Audience expectations: Learn, enjoy, interact, etc.

ContentWhat to post? Information, entertainment, etc.When to post? Once a day, once a week, etc.Where to post? One platform, multiple platforms, etc.What to focus on? Products, users, CSR, deals, etc.

Answer these questions first

Then Make sure to post -Recent things (what happened recently, what is happening)-Brand’s social mission-High resolution photos-Desires or concerns of the category users-Emotional and surprising messages

Information about the brand/product,

brand attributes, etc.

Image(s) of a product

Benefits of or feeling of using the brand in a fun/interesting/uniqu

e way

The results of using the brand (e.g. a picture taken

by the Nikon camera, a testimonial by a user, etc.)

Brand’s advertisement or brand’s promotional

or informational video/image

Brand, package logo or branded material is an art form or part

of nature

Brand serves community, brand supports a person, people, a cause.

Sponsorships, events organized by the brand, events related to the brand, TV program related to the brand or mentions the

brand etc.

Suggestions, recommendations about the brand or the product category (recipes, fashion

tips, etc.)

Expert advice, interviews with

experts, experts picks, experts’ favorites.

Behind the scenes (how the product is being made, the

research lab, how employees are preparing,

etc.)

Brand is part of users’ life (e.g. a user has a coke

tattoo on his arm, user is holding brand’s logo, or

coke bottles in ones room)

News, blog posts, videos related to the brand, corporation,

product category, etc.

News, blog posts, videos unrelated to

brand/product category

Questions: fill-in-the-blank

either Or, which one polls

Questions:Related with the

brand, brand’s historyUnrelated to the brand

Photo question (where’s this photo taken? Come up with a caption for this photo. what goes well

with this t-shirt? Etc.

Reminders about campaigns,

promotions, events offers

Celebrations, holidays, happy birthday, special days,

congratulations, cheers, related with celebrations

(happy 4th of July, happy Friday, etc.)

Cute , funny, humorous, interesting, relaxing

image/text unrelated to the brand or product

Quotations, Cartoons, Sketches

Appreciation, gratitude (thanks for following us)

Sharing a fan’s or another user’s post

Intriguing posts (share this if you feel happy today, like

this if you can spot the elephant in this photo,

etc.)

Featuring the company’s employees, employee’s

favorite products, employees picks, etc.

Brand in the media, brand covered by the media organs, blogs,

etc.

Spotlighting partners,

spotlighting fans

News (what is going on, what

is new)

New profile photo, new

profile cover

User tips, tricks, How-to’s

Over 40 types of posts:

Platform Strategy1- Social media is very important, spend as much money as needed.2- Always be the first on new platforms. Be the industry model for creative usage of new platforms3- Be active on all major platforms. Use all platforms for the same purpose with similar content 4- Use paid advertising and paid promotions to promote the fan page and the posts in social media.5- Use multiple accounts and build multiple brand communities even on the same platform6- Create own social media platform 7-Use offline media to support social media activities8-Generate content in house 9- Mobile and offline touch points should be combined with social media activities10 -Work with influence-marketing companies, influencers, paid bloggers to expand the reach

1- Social media is not that important. Social media should be free, the brand should not spend any significant amount of money on it.2- The brand should not waste time and money on new platforms.3- the brand should only focus on what works (clicks, referrals, sales, etc.)4-The brand should use all platforms for the same purpose with similar content5- The brand should not have multiple accounts and build multiple brand communities on the same platform.6- The brand does not need to spend time and money on creating new apps, APIs, customized tabs, etc.7- The brand should use social media to support offline activities8- The brand can outsource the content or promotion management9- Mobile and offline should be independent from online social media activities..10-No need to work with influence-marketing companies, influencers, and paid bloggers.