When and How to Create a Social Media Campaign

Before creating a social media campaign, consider your objectives. Do you want to improve brand recognition by engaging your target market? Are you launching a new product and want to use the Internet as an awareness-building channel? Do you want your employees to interact with one another or do you want to invite customers’ feedback?

Social media efforts are broad-reaching and an increasingly popular trend in product, service and brand marketing. A well thought out social media plan can address many of your marketing objectives at once. For instance, a Facebook group or application encourages users to interact with the brand (brand recognition/management, guerilla marketing), to share the application with friends (viral marketing) and to buy the brand’s products (increased sales). A blog advertises and builds awareness for new products and services, invites feedback, and is quickly published and edited.

Along with determining your marketing objective, also identify the target audience. Is the audience your current customers, your employees, new customers within the target market or new customers outside of the target market? Doing so will determine what social media sites and tools to use and what applications and information you offer in those tools. 

When the target is identified, figure out what social media that audience is most likely to use. Are they Digg visitors, Facebook, MySpace or Linkedin users or blog contributors/readers? Do they enjoy sharing free downloads or engaging in peer-to-peer programs? Are they early adopters of Internet technology?

If your audience is roughly under 30 years old and you are looking for improved brand recognition through viral marketing or social networking, consider creating a Facebook group. On June 25, The Washington Post reported that for the first time, Facebook had more visitors than MySpace in the month of May, reporting that, “Facebook had 123.9 million unique visitors and 50.6 billion page views worldwide, according to research firm ComScore. MySpace, meanwhile, had 114.6 million unique visitors and 45.4 billion page views.”

With Facebook, your audience can interact with the brand by reading company news, viewing and adding (if you permit members to do so) pictures and videos and participating in forums and discussion boards. Informational, entertaining and advertisement videos can also be added to the group.

If your audience prefers the opinions of other users before making an online purchase, consider participating in industry blogs and forums as an expert/opinion leader. By doing so, those reading your posts will learn about your brand and possibly review and comment on your products. Reviews and a positive third party web presence will encourage visitors to go to your ecommerce site and purchase your products.

If you are a business service company, you should create a personal Linkedin profile and encourage your employees to do so as well. A Linkedin profile allows clients to investigate and familiarize themselves with your company’s experience. You can add contact information to your Linkedin profile, inviting potential clients to contact you directly. Other Linkedin members can recommend your services, helping potential clients decide whether to do business with you.

If you have a great new product or service that you would like to create some buzz around, write a compelling article about it on your blog or another site where you can publish the article, then submit it to Digg.com, which allows users to share content. If you don’t have a blog, create one for free at www.blogger.com. You can use the blog as a microsite specifically focused on your new products. Link to the blog from your main Web site to help visitors find it. A blog is a good marketing tool because it allows visitors to leave comments, giving you free marketing research from your target market.

Remember to stay true to your brand. Web users value this over all else. If you try to be something you’re not because you think doing so is necessary to connect with savvy Internet users, don’t do it. Your customers connect with your brand offline for the same reasons they will online.