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5 Must Read Perspectives on Social Media Marketing Strategy

Lee Odden
Lee Odden
Online Marketing, Social Media

social media marketing strategy

The eternal debate in marketing: Strategy before tactics vs. Tactics to develop strategy.

So many companies have become comfortable reacting to industry trends and competitors with tactics, that they end up with wasted effort, poor performance and plenty of frustration. This is especially true in the world of social media marketing as companies roll out social media tactics only to be left wondering in 6 months what the ROI is.

Answering Why, for Who and with What tactics is essential for any marketing initiative. A confident and clear sense of purpose is highly motivating and inspires more meaningful and effective marketing.

I’ve always put stock in taking what you know (data, experience, research) and developing a hypothesis about how you will achieve business objectives for a certain audience using a set of tactics. Then conduct proof of concept experiments while you roll out the larger strategy. The data you collect will help optimize the larger strategy as well as the effectiveness of your tactics.

But that’s just me. What about other social media marketers? What do they think about social media strategy? Here are strategic perspectives from 5 social media smarties you’ll really want to listen to that are presenting at this week’s Social Media Marketing World conference:

Mark Schaefer

Mark Schaefer @markwschaefer
Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

Where is Social Media Going?

We can debate the pressures on platforms, distribution of content, and the resources needed to keep up with the latest technology, but I think there is something very simple, something very fundamental, that will set a chosen few apart:

Are you human?

Isn’t that the essence of how this online world started, why we love social media, and what people expect if you are going to build trust and loyalty? And yet, this is getting increasingly lost in a world preoccupied with traffic, search rankings and automated marketing software.

Can you make a real connection that will stand out in an increasingly noisy world? That is a key to business success in the future, as it always has been in the past.

Matt Gentile

Matt Gentile @mattgentile
Global Director, Social Media, Century 21

Learn & Manage Your Brand Voice

How do you learn the voice of a brand and how do you manage it?

It starts by understanding the culture, history, mission and vision of the company.  It is the people who make up the brand’s voice from the mailroom to the boardroom. To do it well, it requires commitment, time and the ability to listen. Today’s consumer demands authenticity, you can’t fake it.

Understanding your audience is key to managing the brand voice. If you understand your audience, then you will understand what your message means to your audience on each social network where you engage.

Use a social media management platform to optimize your efforts and empower everyone in the organization to use it.

Justin Levy

Justin Levy @justinlevy
Director, Social Marketing, Citrix

Guide Your Social Foundation

Don’t forget about social media guidelines.

These guidelines provide the foundation for your employees as they engage through social media channels. They shouldn’t be too long or hard to understand.

There are a number of great examples, including from respected brands such as Coca-Cola and Intel, that you can use as the basis for developing your guidelines.

If you represent a global company, consideration will need to be provided for how these guidelines are received in various regions.

Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pulizzi @joepulizzi
CEO, Content Marketing Institute

Find Your Purpose

For true success in social media, find your higher purpose.

First, ask “why” you are using the channel, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or SlideShare.

Second, find your sweet spot – the intersection between what you know as a company and what your prospects and customers need to know.

Once you find your purpose, this becomes 100% of the content you create and share with social media tools.  It will, over time, position you as the leading informational resource over that particular area.

You will be a true helper and make real impact in your customers’ lives and jobs.

Marcus Sheridan

Marcus Sheridan @thesaleslion
President, The Sales Lion

What Customers Care About

In every industry (It doesn’t matter what you sell), there are 5 subjects that move the needle, as they are the 5 subjects consumers are most concerned with. They are:

  1. Cost/Price questions
  2. Problems/Issues questions
  3. Vs/Comparison questions
  4. Review-based questions
  5. Best of questions

When consumers research, these are the 5 subjects they care about, yet most companies are afraid to address them.

The moral: Don’t be afraid to address topics that consumer truly care about as eventually they’ll move the needle more than any other content you could produce.

There’s no doubt, that developing a social media strategy, or how social media fits in your overall marketing and business strategy is essential for the success of modern businesses. If you follow the advice of these 5 smart marketers, I think you’ll find yourself far ahead of the competition still debating Pinterest vs. Instagram or Snapchat vs. Texting.

What strategic approach do you take to social media marketing? Which of the above perspectives resonates most with you?

Get even more social media smarts from our latest conference eBook featuring 38 of the speakers from Social Media Marketing World:

About Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of TopRank's B2B Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he's the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he's likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Comments

  1. Krista Dial says

    March 24, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Thanks for sharing these perspectives, Lee. I’ve been following your blog since about 2007, I guess. Wow. Time sure flies. I’ve learned a lot from you and the folks you’ve featured over the years and just wanted to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight. At the end of the day, social media is about having a conversation and fostering dialogue…there will always be shiny new social media gadgets to play around with…at the end of the day, it’s not figuring out the gadgets…it’s figuring out the dialogue and showing your audience you care. You’ve done that well, Lee.

    • Lee Odden says

      March 25, 2014 at 8:33 am

      2007? Wow is right @dialkrista:disqus – thank you! I really appreciate your comments and insights – of course I agree 🙂

  2. Ryan Biddulph says

    March 24, 2014 at 7:16 pm

    Mark’s question resonates with me. At times ego gets caught up in marketing speak. People do not care about marketing speak; they need to see you are human. I build my social platform on sharing what I do each day as I travel the world; wins, losses, failures, successes, neat things I see. I intend to be authentic, and helpful, and let my social channels do the work for me 😉 Thanks Lee, power read!

    • Lee Odden says

      March 25, 2014 at 8:31 am

      Thanks Mark, I think it’s the balance of persona/professional that’s tricky for many. So many people stress the “mechanical” vs. the “meaningful” under pressure to scale. They miss the human part of being social.

  3. CJ Creative Solutions says

    March 25, 2014 at 10:49 am

    I believe a combination of each of these 5 points will bring it home. Beginning with Matt’s theory on knowing your brand. This is where it must begin to be authentic and well received by the desired audience. If you don’t know who you are as a brand and organization, you wont make real connections. I employ a HIRE strategy to build brand awareness based on our knowledge and confidence of who we are as a brand. Humor, inform, relevance and engage – connecting and building dialogue to let an audience see who you are. Keep transparency and carry on.

  4. Barbara Mckinney says

    March 25, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    For me,determining the key goals of your social media marketing campaign and then targeting your efforts in a way that reaches the correct audience is critical at the beginning so you don’t end up in a free for all effort that ends up being a time suck.

  5. Sam Fischer says

    March 27, 2014 at 12:59 am

    Your business always needs a bit of personalization. When you start caring about people(potential customers) then you have figured out the the concept of social media marketing.When people get want they want they will definitely open their wallets.when customers are happy then sales figure rises upon itself. I would say SMM is the next generation’s marketing phenomenon.Giving us insight into all social media giant’s perspective was a great idea.thanks I feel enlightened.

  6. Tiffany says

    March 27, 2014 at 3:26 pm

    Great tips! The one that resonated with me the most was “find your purpose.” Once you know what your purpose is, I find that helps with really developing a strategy. I believe all 5 are essential and makes sense.

  7. Jayanta Dey says

    April 1, 2014 at 3:39 am

    Really, it’s
    very helpful and informative also. I’ve been surfing online more than three
    hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. Thanks to
    you, I came to know more about social media marketing. Thanks again. Keep it
    up.

  8. Sasa Garelovic says

    September 5, 2014 at 11:25 am

    Very useful thing for business.

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