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Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social Media Marketing is an engagement of genuine conversation with your customers online. Expecting a more complex definition? Not necessary!

Sure, social media’s first impression was about novelty. It was the shiny new toy and market metrics reflected that. The “me-too” mentality of marketers and entrepreneurs alike drove adoption up at a breakneck pace and new social media sites were popping up out of nowhere. After this period of social media madness, there is a return to normalcy for marketers AND users. The story has shifted from action (i.e. join sites, try them out) to behaviors (i.e. how much time people are spending on social media sites, what they are doing, et al). Among the biggest behavioral shifts is that consumers are expecting to talk with companies online. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter or any other social utility, consumers are at the “customer service” desk ringing the bell.

Are you answering?

The eBoost Way

There are very few shortcuts in social media marketing. Fortunately, you can streamline your efforts by establishing the correct foundation. This requires a systematic approach to social media marketing strategy. eBoost Consulting uses the POST method, as invented and popularized by Forrester Research.

P is for People. eBoost Consulting researches how your customers use and respond to social media. For instance, if your company is looking to reach business travelers, you might want to hang out more on ratings and review sites than social networks like Facebook.
O is for Objective. There can only be one objective. Is your company looking to build brand recognition to an existing business unit? Is it launching a product and wanting feedback on its ease of use? Do you want to identify a core group of brand evangelists? Whatever the objective, companies would be well advised to tie it into their broader business goals.
S is for Strategy. Begin with the end point in mind. Whether this be a date when the objective is achieved, or a performance metric, this is where you will describe what the picture of success looks like and how it can be reached with a realistic scope, time, cost and resources expectation.
T is for Technology. This is where social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, wikis, MySpace, Twitter, et al, should be decided on.

Often (unfortunately, more often than not), companies and agencies start at “T” and say “Hey, let’s create a Facebook account,” or “I’ve heard blogging is the new thing to do, let’s sign up at Blogspot.” It’s that type of thinking that produces embarrassing social media snafus and non-strategic, haphazard, resource-wasting social media programs. By going through the POST method, we make sure we’re making the right decisions for the right reasons.

We’ve realized from consulting, training, and executing on social media strategies for clients, that this sounds simple. And it is. But the work that goes into it is demandingly focused. The result of diligence in this process is a strategy that acts more as a social media marketing action plan that will evolve as your customers do. Every plan is tailored specifically to the client for its customer-centric communication goals.

SMM Case Study

Situation

A Southern California-based message-driven fashion brand needed a strategy to increase awareness of its name and its socially responsible mission.

Challenge

The brand had achieved national distribution through retailers such as Nordstrom, but had not experienced the grassroots customer evangelism that had fueled its growth locally. It recognized the need for brand loyalists nationwide to help spread its message of Hope, Grace, Encouragement, Forgiveness, and Love. The critical question became how do we build an online community as a platform to turn nationwide customers into brand evangelists?

Approach

Our team set up a series of in depth focus groups to accomplish the following 3 objectives:

Identify what the brand means to customers.
Create a larger dialogue around the heart of the consumer.
Identify how the brand can fulfill its consumers’ motivations.

The focus groups identified an opportunity to build a community that involved customers in the product development process built around a culture of giving.

Using Forrester’s POST method and the latest in social technographic research, we developed an online community and social media marketing strategy through MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, a corporate blog, and, of course, the community site which resides on the company’s main website.

The consultants recommended hiring a dedicated staff to market and foster the community. Once hired, the team trained the new staff to become digital marketing rockstars and set KPIs to measure their effectiveness and the community’s progress.

Leading up to the launch the team consulted with the staff on the action plan and continues to do so on a monthly basis.

Results

The community launched on February 1st and as of February 17th had grown to 515 members through its social media marketing initiatives. All KPIs have hit stretch metrics with triple digit percentage growth as the brand’s message continues to spread nationwide.