Social Media Marketing (SMM) in marketing cost cutting

Dr. Sotiris Zygiaris URENIO- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Email: sotzig@urenio.org May 2013

Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool.

The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer

reach

Social Media for business Two types 1. Presence (not recommended), just a website link with social media without any specific marketing objective 2. Social Media Marketing with spesific marketing objectives (another sales and marketing channel that intergraded into business operations)

No SMM Presense SMM

Greece 93% 6.8% 0.20%

Bulgaria 95% 4.8% 0.20%

Europe 82% 17% 1%

USA 65% 31% 4%

Survey on 350 business sites

Website traffic and user behavior (external and internal tracking) Conversion and sales tracking Growing brand awareness (a softer value, takes longer to build) Creating a positive brand association and keeping it there (reputation management) Business development and a broader customer reach Social Costumer Relationships Management CRM

Examples of SMM marketing objectives

Focus on Brand promotions & microblogging (140 characters).

Build strong & powerful relation ship with prospective customers.

Educate them with our new product their uses, advantages etc and

create an awareness and necessity

Use search.twitter.com & twellow.com to find more users.

We will get followers by following the followers of experts, gurus or of our

competitors in twitter.

We can post a product, link etc and ask for opinion and reviews.

We can use affiliate marketing & micro blogging.

We can post promotional codes for products such as discount coupon, buy

3 get 1 etc

Examples of how social media can be used in business marketing

We can include our new product details - banner

We can create page for products, organization, celebrity etc

We can upload photos, post links that direct to our site/blog.

We can create events like recent activities, upcoming events

etc.

Create advertisements about the new & existing & upcoming

products (adds are paid based on click & rate /day).

We can send links, products details to the members, groups

for getting opinion , reviews etc

We can create a professional network ask for opinion and reviews etc.

Increase your visibility.

Improve your connect ability.

Improve your Google Page Rank.

Gauge the health of a company.

Gauge the health of an industry.

Track startups.

Ask for advice. (LinkedIn Answers)

Sharpie is the permanent marker company. Through social

media and other marketing efforts, this company has taken an ordinary commodity and turned it into a common noun.

Smart businesses know that satisfied, loyal customers drive their business. One way to increase loyalty and retention is to focus attention on your customers’ creativity. Sharpie does this through sharing samples of customers’ artwork.

Evian, Evian is the bottled-water company. They have developed a highly

sophisticated YouTube page that is worth studying. One of the smart things they’ve done is create a pervasive campaign with the “Live Young” motif. All of their images and products reinforce this through the idea of fueling the Evian baby inside (which, of course, needs to drink Evian water).

Starbucks, Mystarbucks.com got to know about the company and their

customers through various social sites. They also used social media in order to promote their ideas. Moreover, the company has forums where the customers can directly interact with Starbucks representatives.

The application of SMM in the Cross-Inno-Cut programme: Chemical Food Marble Printing Electronics

Businesses have identified marketing need for: Development of new markets or Enlargement of prospect client base or Reactivation of inactive customers Or Branding or reputation management

BARRIERS

HIGH COST

Personnel

Travel

Marketing cost

EXPERIENCE

Knowledge

Processes

Businesses have identified marketing need for: Development of new markets or Enlargement of prospect client base or Reactivation of inactive customers Or Branding or reputation management

Marble sector examples Marble and Granite, USA

THE Cross-Inno-Cut SMM methodology

To connect social media with customers, prospective clients and opinion leaders in order to increase the prospective sales capacity. To optimize information flow for prospective clients to customers by increasing the target spectrum through social media.

Decision for the social media marketing mix

Social Media Marketing

Presence

Client base

SMM Step 1: Create Your Executive Overview Business Plan Spell out your business in a one-pager to realize why you need social: Your Business Mission and History Your Business or Revenue Model Descriptions of your Products & Services Details of Your Target Audience Review of Your Current Marketing Efforts

SMM Step 2: Define Your Specific Social Media Goals You need to go a step beyond to define specific, actionable, and (most importantly) reasonable SMM goals. Here are some specific SMM goals you might use after completing your business review: Validate a new product or service using social as a research platform. Develop buzz and interest around a new product. Engage users in social to generate relevant and targeted traffic to your site. Gain market share by leading customer/client service through social. Generate registrations to branded events through social.

SMM Step 3: Find Your SMM Voice One of the keys to ensuring your success in social is to create and implement a voice that resonates with your specific target audience. For each audience type, break down and research age, income, location, and reasons for possibly buying your products/services.

SMM Step 4: Choosing Your Social Tools Appropriately Choosing your social tools appropriately is an essential piece of your online communications plan, so choose wisely. Let’s do a short review of the leading social sites to assist you in your selection: Facebook:More than 955 million users. Majority between 18-25; 60 percent female. Best opportunity for community building with customers. Twitter:More than 555 million users. Majority between 26-34; 57 percent female. Best tool for interacting in real-time. Google Plus+:More than 170 million users. Majority between 26-34; 63 percent male. Platform for driving visibility around a brand. LinkedIn:More than 150 million users. Majority between 26-34, directly followed by 35-44. The number one B2B social networking tool.

SMM Step 5: Plan & Execute Content & Delivery Now to the hard part – finding, creating, and delivering engaging social media contentWhat you need to define: Your frequency of content delivery & response to social engagement. Your types and specific topics for content creation. Ways to increase audience engagement. Events that can drive social. Your social success metrics (number of followers, number of fans, volume of traffic back to site, number of retweets, etc.).

Caution: ethics (etiquette) is important in using SMM A flash poll done on 1225 IT executives from 33 countries revealed that social media mishaps caused organizations a combined $4.3 million in damages in 2010. The top three social media incidents an organization faced during the previous year included employees sharing too much information in public forums, loss or exposure of confidential information, and increased exposure to litigation. Due to the viral nature of the internet, a mistake by a single employee has in some cases shown to result in devastating consequences for organizations

Social Media Marketing (SMM) in marketing cost cutting

Dr. Sotiris Zygiaris URENIO- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Email: sotzig@urenio.org May 2013