I had the opportunity to watch two Stukent webinars regarding the use of Social Media. The first webinar featured Adelyn Biedenbach, who is the Director of Digital Media for the Florida Panthers hockey team. Adelyn talked about Social Media Planning and how important it is to a business. There is so much more to the effective use of social media than just having an account and posting every now and then. A business must be intentional about what content they are sharing out and when they are sharing it out.
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| Adelyn Biedenbach, Florida Panthers |
Having a Social Media account means that your followers have 24/7 access to your business and although it may not be on your mind to post at 3am, customers might be. Knowing when you customers are active and what they are interested in seeing is an important step to building a lasting relationship through social media. It is also important to keep the content relevant. One way to help with this is to develop and utilize a calendar system. Using a calendar, the company can not only schedule posted content, but they can differentiate between media types such as pictures, video or promotions to mix up the content and keep it fresh. When it comes to planning, it is critical to remember that you are posting to appeal to your target group and you must understand what they want to be relevant.
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| Bree Nakatani, Wishpond |
The second webinar featured Bree Nakatani who is the Success Lead for Wishpond. In her webinar, she discussed the process for soliciting leads through social media. There are several ways that companies can utilize social media to connect with new customers and ultimately make conversions. One way of doing that is to run a sweepstakes. In this scenario, the company will offer up a good or service from the company for free of charge, all they have to do is enter the sweepstakes and agree to the terms. The terms of the sweepstakes usually involves the customer authorizing the social media platform to automatically add them as a follower and tweet a message on their behalf. The tweet will be shared with the customer's followers and spread the desired content of the company.
Other ways to use similar tactics involve holding an Instagram hashtag contest where users are presented with a photo from the company and they have to come up with a creative hashtag to describe the picture. And another avenue would be a Facebook photo contest where users can upload their best photos representing the company and ultimately be chose to win a prize. All of these marketing techniques are used to draw people into the social arena of the company and hopefully convert them into sales. Understanding the use of social media tools and techniques like these will set businesses apart from the rest and develop relationships with their client base. After all, grounded relationships are integral to the success of a business.
It’s so true that social media is a revolving door, staying open for whomever to see 24/7. I think it’s pivotal for a business to know and understand the times that consumers are active and trying to be engaged. Like you said, this is a major step in creating a long standing relationship. I think the calendar system you spoke of would be a great option. It’s easy and convenient, it takes the pressure of having to go in and post the content, as well as knowing ahead of time what will be posted, so there no confusion. The second video, in which I watched as well, was very informative. Her tips on utilizing social media to gain new customers and converting them into buyers were very interesting. Her idea of using sweepstakes, I thought was very cool. It seemed as if it effective and engaging, this is something I can see myself participating in. You gain followers, get your product out to people who actually like them and also turn potential buyers into actual consumers. This is simple but very effective and I understand why this would be interesting to buyers.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2015). Internet marketing essentials: a comprehensive digital marketing textbook. Idaho Falls: Stukent Inc.