Much of the hype has focused on the potential influence of social networks and how social media marketing is a new form of marketing. In fact it simply presents new platforms for accomplishing the traditional marketing tasks of finding and targeting new potential readers and subscribers and increasing the engagement and loyalty of existing subscribers. There is no secret handshake needed to join the social media marketing frenzy. Anyone can participate. There are no special rules. In this context, publishers can ill afford to neglect the power of social networks and social media marketing. However, simply joining the fray does not equal or guarantee success. Here are eight tips on how to successfully integrate social media into your own marketing presence:
1. Remember that Social Media is Just One Tool in the Marketing Toolbox.
Use social media as a supplement to the rest of your marketing efforts. Do not expect social media to replace your traditional media efforts. It is not a marketing saviour, as some of the hype would lead us to believe. It is a power booster for other forms of marketing, because it is multi-directional when most traditional marketing is focused in a single direction. Although social network users come from every market segment, the social media audience for your publication is not necessarily the same audience that you reach with your other marketing media. There are gaps as well as overlaps. Social networks can help fill the gaps. If email marketing has been your primary channel for subscription growth, then look for ways to boost its effectiveness through social media. If events have driven your marketing efforts historically, look to enhance their effectiveness with social media. Every component of your marketing needs to have a social element. Build it in and you will boost the overall effectiveness of your marketing.
2. Set Realistic Expectations for Social Media Efforts.
When you set your marketing goals, you will want to be clear on the role that you expect social media to play in your marketing efforts as well as what specific contribution you expect your social media efforts to make. Do you want to use your social media efforts to drive more subscribers to your publication or to create more engagement with existing readers? Do you want a mixture of social engagement with existing subscribers and reach to new, potential readers? If you want to engage existing readers, it will be important to develop your fan page on Facebook and to provide a continuous stream of information and special offers and supplemental information for existing readers. If you want to increase your reach, you will want to make sure that you give ample quality content that Twitter followers will want to Retweet. You must couple both of these with follower acquisition strategies to boost your Facebook fans and Twitter followers, or they will not be able to fulfil the role that you expect.
3. Develop your Metrics.
Once you have in place the specific role(s) that you want social media to play and expected results from your efforts, you will need to set metrics so that you can judge the success of your programme. If you want to expand reach through retweets, you will want to measure not only how often but also what content gets retweeted. You can use this information to ensure that you continue to provide appealing content. Much of this information is readily provided if you use URL shortening services such as bit.ly or ow.ly. The number of metrics providers and the sophistication of social media metrics are rapidly growing; however, when setting metrics, the best rule-of-thumb is to select measurements that are: easy to collect, relevant to what you want to accomplish and easy to interpret. If you follow this rule-of-thumb you can avoid getting lost in a blizzard of meaningless, but often interesting, data.
4. Set an Adequate Budget.
Just because the tools for social media participation such as a Twitter account and Facebook fan page are free does not mean that social media marketing is free. One of the hallmarks of social media is the immediacy of the medium, so it is essential to provide a constant and consistent stream of new information. Untended or poorly maintained accounts can have a negative instead of positive impact. Creating, managing and maintaining the river of information is time-consuming and requires a substantial commitment of resources.
5. Assign Responsibility, Not Just Tasks.
Because social media marketing is time-consuming and tactical, there is a tendency to assign an individual with specific tasks for handling the tactical interactions on social media. This can defeat and reduce the potential impact. Consider that instead of having a single point of contact for social media, that everyone in the organisation should be empowered to participate. The social media manager then provides the guidelines and oversight for social media campaigns that leverage a broad constituency within the organisation.
6. Build Corridors, Not Silos.
By empowering a broad constituency to participate in the organisation’s social media efforts, you build horizontal corridors of communication, not just vertical silos. The quality of the information will directly reflect the diversity of the providers and will be stronger. Inherent in social media is the notion of community. Members of the social networks used for social media marketing are real, genuine people. Your communications in these networks, while orchestrated by marketing, should not come off as thinly masked advertising or as yet another marketing ploy.
7. Put Down Your Marketing Trumpet.
Social media marketing is subtle marketing. Your social media marketing efforts are going to be directed at subscribers and potential subscribers, individuals that you would like to have as “friends” and “fans” of your publication, not repelled by your marketing. Consider how unpleasant it is to be at a party where a single individual constantly talks loudly about himself or herself. The typical response is to avoid the person and tune out the loud message. Poorly executed social media marketing that blasts a marketing message in every interaction, and does not socially interact by sharing or engaging with other network members, is going to elicit the same effect. Be polite. There are rules of etiquette as to what is appropriate discourse. If you follow the rules, you will be rewarded. On a similar note, don’t plan your campaign to impress other publications or marketers, plan a campaign that engages your readers.
8. Create Meaningful Content, Not “White Noise”.
To effectively market in social media, you have to be constantly providing value to your readers, followers and fans. Although you will want to maintain a consistent marketing message across all of your social or traditional marketing, you should craft your message for each network. This will ensure that you provide a personalised and human response. You should avoid just blaring a marketing message that is just so much digital white noise. So, as you craft your social media marketing campaigns, remember to be genuine in your communications, valuable in your content, and diligent in providing a steady stream of new and valuable content. If you obey the rules, you will be rewarded by your fans.
Publishers are in a unique position to take advantage of the power and potential of social networks and social media marketing. This is because they are accustomed to meeting the demands of creating and sharing compelling content on a regular basis. The long term viability of their publications is based on a solid understanding of the changing demands of their readership. This gives publishers a built-in bias for success with social media marketing. The keys to success require establishing a marketing framework, goals and processes whereby the marketing message can be personalised, packaged and shared via social media networks.
