How Do I Utilize Social Media for Marketing Purposes?

When you get the marketing bug, sometimes it’s tiring to feed it alone.  For this post, I got the chance to work together with a partner to and explore marketing on Social media.  

The game of telephone can be avoided...Communicate your brand on social media instead.

What's the big deal about social media?

Social media is now the fastest growing channel for a business to communicate with its customers.  According to the magazine Fast Company, 93% of marketers use social media for business. Social media is a two way channel that helps marketers not only send messages to customers, but it also enables marketers to receive immediate feedback from customers and non-customers. A successful social media campaign can increase brand awareness among a potential consumer group and may help strengthen your brand with your current consumers.

 

Company Nike tell a story of innovation through social media on YouTube.

How can I make social media work for my business?

Get specific to you.  Identify what industry that your business is in, then try to better understand your target audience which should be the same as your target consumers.  Then use the same social platforms as your target audience. Adjust your communication style to the social media platforms that you use in order to meet or exceed your target audience’s expectations. For our marketing purposes, since my partner and I both have entrepreneurial minds (and have our own small businesses) we are choosing to explore social media from a Consumer Product Goods industry (CPG) point of view.  We have some personal knowledge of this industry and we are further researching the CPG industry in regard to social media as our starting point to build a good digital marketing portfolio.  

Do you have an example of CPG marketing on social media?

The picture of Oreo Delight is an example of a CPG product placement on the social media site Pinterest.  This recipe on Pinterest could have been pinned by Kraft the company that owns Oreo or it could have been pinned by a consumer, demonstrating that social media is capable of giving a voice to the consumer.  The consumer voice could ultimately benefit or harm your company.  In this Oreo example, it's a consumer that is helping to drive sales of the Oreo product. A lot of consumer goods companies are using social media.  There are many ways to engage your target consumer audience such as launching a #hashtag contest, using social media for social good, etc.  In order to succeed as a digital marketer at your company, you need to show that you have the ability to build a successful campaign and engage the audience within your social channel.