Actionable Marketing Advice

Social media marketing

Improve your Social media marketing with our hub page..


You may have heard of this! It’s transforming marketing, for the better most would say. We’ll help you navigate social media with a strategic approach sharing approaches from the leading commentators and companies.

Primer - Social media marketing

Many companies use social media without a plan in place. Our resources on social media and content marketing focus on a planned, managed approach to get the most from social media. We also have in-depth practical guides to each of the main social networks packed with examples. Members who are logged-in can check-off the resources they have reviewed.

Social media marketing answers

Get answers and help others by joining the discussion.

Social media marketing quick guide

Social media marketing success factors

The success factors for developing social media marketing are summarised through the different parts of our 7 Steps to Social Media Success Guide:

1. Set business goals for your social media – it’s best not to experiment without a clear idea of how social media will support your business goals.

2. Create a social media strategy. A strategy will help you to deploy social media in the best way to reach your goals by prioritising on the channels in our RADAR which are most effective.

3. Active social listening and reputation management.  Most advice on social media marketing strategies advises to start by listening to your conversations. We prefer the term coined by Brian Solis in his book Engage of “Active Social Listening” since this shows the need for a feedback cycle within social media marketing.

4. Define content and engagement strategy. We’ve noted that encouraging engagement and participation are the biggest challenges to social media marketing, so clear strategies are needed to show how to achieve these.

5. Define communications strategy. In the social media era, a continuous communications strategy is necessary to engage your audience through the many channels available. Key issues here are defining the types of content value you offer through different social channels and the frequency. Integrating different digital channels including email marketing through a social media marketing hub is also a key issue here.

6. Deploy best practice approaches for the core social media platforms. Each social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has unique characteristics and audience needs. There is also a bewildering array of tools to deploy and etiquette to follow so you won’t be seen as a spammer.

7. Social media optimisation. You may have a presence established, but this is only the beginning in your journey to optimise your presence to deliver real value for your business.

Social media marketing definition

We think the CIPR Social media panel defines social media marketing well:

Social media is the term commonly given to Internet and mobile-based channels and tools that allow users to interact with each other and share opinions and content. As the name implies, social media involves the building of communities or networks and encouraging participation and engagement.

Their definition emphasises that we need to use different digital media channels to encourage our prospects and customers to interact to form communities. It also hints at the challenges of encouraging engagement.

  • To help you develop a strategy for social media we’ve identified these key types of platforms in our social media marketing radar

Related statistics

Tools & Software

Best websites on Social media marketing

  • Altimeter Group Analysts – It’s definitely worth following the thoughts of Charlene Li, Brian Solis and Jeremiah Owyang for their analysis for social media strategy
  • All Facebook (www.allfacebook.com) – useful to subscribe to for the commentary on the new features in Facebook
  • Inside Facebook – As the name suggests better for covering strategy and staff moves than All Facebook which focuses more on the features
  • Mashable (www.mashable.com) – the most popular site to keep up-to-date on all social media marketing developments
  • Social Commerce Today – a good round-up of developments in social commerce
  • Social Media Examiner – In-depth, analytical articles on social media marketing
  • We Are Social – We subscribe to their enewsletter for the weekly updates on what’s new in social
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