3 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media for Marketing

Meaghan Alvarado

What’s working in social media marketing; isn’t that the magic question we would all like to have answered? While we may not include all of the tips and tricks to thriving in social media marketing, this Social Business Journal created in partnership with Cision sure covers a lot. By looking to large brands like Humana, NASA and Walmart who we interviewed in this Journal, you should be able to glean some insight and tactics to apply to your social media marketing.

Three components of social media marketing that were predominant in our findings are the needs for:

Defined Goals

Knowing why you’re sending out Tweets and regularly posting to Facebook is a must. If your goal is to get more sales, then your use of social media will be a little different than a non-profit raising awareness.

As John Yembrick from NASA pointed out, “measuring results is a tricky business in general on social media.” NASA’s goal for social is to reach and inspire as many people as possible.

Employee Advocacy

A recurring topic, employee advocacy has been covered on here multiple times in the past, and I’m bringing it up again because it’s that important. Today the B2B buyer wants to engage person-to-person and by enabling your employees to talk about your brand on social you’re increasing your chance for a sale.

In the Journal, Humana’s Lewis Bertolucci discusses how their Associate Advocacy Program increased mentions of their brand on external channels by 10% in the first month. Through their Enterprise Social Network, Buzz, they’re able to target possible brand advocates among their employees.

Dell is another major proponent for employee advocacy. Just take a look at their hashtag #iworkatdell, and you’ll see what I mean. Employee advocates rarely blossom on their own in the way the brand may want them to, hence the creation of SMaC U (Social Media and Community University). SMaC U allows Dell to train their employees on how to properly use social media on behalf of Dell. They also have a governance team in place to ensure the policies and strategies are abided by throughout Dell.

Strategy for the Future

As with anything, you must have a plan for the future. The constant invention of new social media channels is enough for a person to go cross-eyed if you try to tackle them all. Focusing on only a handful of channels and having a plan on how to decipher new platforms is a must. Walmart tackles new platforms by determining if their audience is using the network before hopping on board.

You’ll also read about the history of social at Southwest Airlines, as well as their content strategy for the future in this Journal. Southwest, like any other brand thriving in social media marketing, knows they need to be constantly evolving to be a social business.

These are only three of the topics addressed in this Journal. To discover more from these well-known brands about What’s Working in Social Media Marketing for them, download Social Business Journal, Volume 4.

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