SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND TACTICS FOR BUSINESSES

The Internet has changed the launch process, now companies seed products with influencers, leak information to reporters, bloggers, and consumers, live-stream launch events globally, and reward brand advocates with exclusives. The new launch landscape levels the playing field for brands of all sizes and industries when reaching consumers. Yet the ability for consumers to share their opinions
freely on social media can provide huge hurdles for brand messaging.
Schneider Associates 2014 Most Memorable New Product Launch survey found that each generation uses a unique media mix. Seniors, Boomers and GenXers still like to curl up with a magazine. Millennials are turning to Facebook and Twitter, while GenZ, or the iGeneration, is skeptical of brands and places more value on peer-to-peer reviews even from strangers. Consumers now look to six or more sources for information before buying a new product. 

This fractured media consumption trend makes it difficult for brands to build brand awareness, earn
consumer mind-share, and drive sales. Facebook is now the second most used source for new product launch information behind TV commercials. Brands are using social media to provide exclusive, limited-time opportunities to fans, closing the gap between virtual and in-store retail experiences. It allows people to experience anything virtually through live video streaming on their smartphones. Brands using social media marketing in this region have yet to go mainstream, although it is one of the world’s fastest growing regions for personal social media usage.

There are many reasons explaining cautious adoption of social media marketing, helping prepare companies to adopt the medium is an equally important discussion that will drive the region’s marketing habits to change. Firms should consider the following aspects:

• Differentiation- As the most recently established marketing discipline,social media involves an entirely new set of influences and standards to traditional marketing techniques. Message and focus will need revision for the medium to ensure it is compelling and valuable to the audience. High level buy-in and understanding of social media marketing is crucial to the future success of social media strategy.

• Prepare a set of social media operating processes and guidelines- With

the Internet a source for instantaneous news and information, actively engage in social media conversations in and around social networks.

• Like all other communications channels, social media marketing requires patience and time for genuine results and progress to be made. While specific activities and campaigns can raise the visibility and reputation of the company, long-term, sustainable returns require a patient approach. 
• Online communications is easily measured given the unprecedented access and levels of data on the Internet. This ease of measurement could lead to an obsession with quantitative figures. A qualitative approach represents a better basis for analysis that will present takeaway points with greater resonance and use for your ongoing communications or campaign. Social media marketing is about developing lasting relationships, not hitting numbers. Content is the currency of social media marketing, so your firm must be ready to have something meaningful to say if it is to resonate and standout amongst your competition online. Starting a Facebook page or Twitter account means nothing if you provide no value to your audience. Ensuring your company has valuable content is essential. 
• This region is hugely diverse comprising differing cultures and languages. What may work one way in one culture, may be the total opposite in another. Equally, while it is true many social networking sites have a strong presence across a number of markets, they have different uses or value in different regions. 
• Many companies confuse social media marketing’s potential to provide excellent value for money with being cheap. Though social networks themselves may be inexpensive or free to join, a dedicated, specialist team, implementation, planning, measurement, analysis, and other essential, dedicated functions are not. 
• Social networking penetration in the modern world means regardless of the nature of your business, employees, customers, partners, key media, and others are likely to be found on one social network or more. With the Internet a key resource for news and information gathering, business conversations and opinion gathering is increasingly taking place online with social networks as a key platform for seeking opinion and providing it. 
• Don’t plan ‘viral’ - No list of digital do’s-and-don’ts would be complete without reference to ‘going viral’, perhaps the most clichéd marketing term today. While many companies are right to plug in to social networking users to spread content and campaigns, they must accept that ‘viral’ is an effect not an objective. There are a huge amount of arbitrary and subjective factors that determine whether a message or content goes viral, being in the right place at the right time with the right message may not be enough without a little bit of luck.