Seven weeks ago, I sat here struggling to keep track of my new passwords and logins to all these new social media cites required by class. Anxiety ridden over fear of monitoring and managing more than a personal, work and school email, and wondering why number signs were everywhere (#), I envisioned the weeks ahead. Not only were we supposed to preform class readings, papers and midterms, but we were also expected to practice different social media skills. Over the past few weeks we have liked, tweeted, posted, blogged, replied, #hashtaged, and @'ed. Not only did we need to figure all these hip newer communication trends, but we also had to envision the best way to communicate with a target audience in a way that increases brand loyalty.
As Professor Stevens notes, there are many different philosophies on social media analytic. As your read this week, I was wondering if you see strengths or weaknesses in different methods. Is there one you use at work? If you are not using one at work, is there a way your organization could benefit from the using them?
and/or
In honor of the final go around, how has your perspective, use, and or understanding of social media as a marketing/ communication tool has evolved.
As Professor Stevens notes, there are many different philosophies on social media analytic. As your read this week, I was wondering if you see strengths or weaknesses in different methods. Is there one you use at work? If you are not using one at work, is there a way your organization could benefit from the using them?
and/or
In honor of the final go around, how has your perspective, use, and or understanding of social media as a marketing/ communication tool has evolved.
My response:
Hi Kate,
I also had great anxiety at the prospect of having to keep up with the ongoing discussions on blogs and tracking the different social media sites. However, after these last several weeks, I discovered it wasn't so bad - with the goal of having all the social media sites point to our blogs. Learning about social media strategy and tactics really helped make the experience less daunting. I almost wish I could go back and apply what we've learned over the course of the class, so I could implement a better strategy right from the start ;)
I was also very skeptical of using social media as a marketing tool. The company I work for doesn't put much effort into social media, as it is an engineering company, working in the private sector. However, with the right goals, strategies, and policies in place, social media would be very beneficial, both internally and with current/potential clients.
Of the different analytics methods, the one I feel would provide more valuable information for upper management in an organization would be the ROI method, using CLV and CAC calculations presented by 60 Second Marketer (2013). The other analytics tools mainly focus on comments, tweets, mentions, likes, etc., but don't translate into dollars and cents - which is what managers want to see. That may be the most likely factor of why my work doesn't put much effort into social media.
60 Second Marketer. (17 November 2013). An in-depth guide on how to calculate the ROI of a social media campaign [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/
