social media and content marketing as a part of an effective online marketing strategy
DESCRIPTION
The thesis is focused on creation social media and content marketing strategies. Also provides analysis of techniques, activities and software tools used in these marketing fields. Theoretical knowledge is explained in several case studies.TRANSCRIPT
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF INFORMATICS
Social Media and Content Marketing as
a part of an effective Online Marketing
strategy
Diploma thesis
Michal AUGUSTINI
Brno, 2014
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Declaration
I hereby declare that this thesis is my original copyrighted work which I developed alone.All resources, sources, and literature, which I used are quoted in the thesis properly,
stating the full reference to the source.
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Resume
The thesis is focused on creation social media and content marketing strategies. Alsoprovides analysis of techniques, activities and software tools used in these marketing
fields. Theoretical knowledge is explained in several case studies.
KeywordsSocial Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Strategy, Online Marketing, eWoM,
COBRAs, Social Business, SEO
Thesis Supervisor:RNDr. JUDr. Vladimr md,CSc.
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Acknowledgement
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Vladimr md, forhis guidance and valuable comments.
My sincere thanks also goes my family and especially to my brother, Martin Augustini,
for his valuable feedback and proofreading.
I thank my friends for their support and positive energy.
And also my thanks go to those who will read this thesis until the very end.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction ................ ................. ................. .................. ................. .................. .................. .... 62 Marketing Definitions ................ ................. .................. ................. .................. ................. ..... 8
3 Online Marketing Basics ................. .................. ................. .................. .................. .............. 12
4 Social Media Strategies .................. ................. .................. ................. .................. ................. 34
5 Content Marketing Strategy ................. .................. ................. .................. .................. ........ 44
6 Black Hat & White Hat in Social Media Marketing ................ .................. .................. ..... 55
7 Software Tools ................. ................. .................. ................. .................. ................. ............... 63
8 Case study VideoFlot .................. ................. .................. ................. .................. ................. ... 67
9 Conclusion................... ................. ................. .................. ................. .................. .................. .. 76
Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 8
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1 Introduction
Looking for the Holy Grail. This is how todays marketing times may be called. Onemight argue that in the past it wasnt much different - true. Nevertheless, today with the
technology, social media, big data, analytics, marketers got new powers, a new way that
has shifted marketing to another level and may be closer to the Holy Grail. Other fact is
that these technologies enabled people to easily spread their ideas and opened up
possibilities to transform these ideas into a business. Some say that traditional forms of
marketing are obsolete and becoming successful online is easier and cheaper, but often
the opposite is true.
1.1 Motivation
In late 2012, I started to work as a Social Media Specialist for Axiory, a forex broker, and I
gathered a lot of valuable experience. As this was my first job in marketing, it was the
time when my knowledge that I gained from books and blogs, was tested and compared
to the reality. There are many articles, many books and people giving presentations about
online marketing, social media and other new areas of marketing, but the enormous
number of these materials creates a huge clutter. I chose to write a thesis where I will use
my working experience combine it with the theoretical knowledge and create a set of bestpractices how to approach social media and content marketing. I found it really difficult
for some startup projects to understand the use of social media for the right and profitable
purpose not just because everyone is doing it.
My vision of this thesis is to help companies and individual entrepreneurs to understand
the potential of social media and content marketing and help to find the way how to use
them in an effective way. To accomplish this goal analysis of various tactics, techniques
and tools is needed supported by customer activities theory.
Online marketing is a synergy of the world of information technologies and the world ofmarketing. Successful businesses are excellent in both of these areas and as a student of
SSME at the Faculty of Informatics I find it very appropriate and actual to write about this
topic for non-technological marketers as well as for IT professionals without many
experiences in marketing.
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1.2 Outline
The thesis starts with basic marketing definitions because I found a lot of confusion when
studying the online marketing topic. This confusion many times caused serious problems
and misunderstandings.
In order to focus on social media or content marketing it is needed to understand the basic
principles how online marketing works (Chapter 3.1 ACT Methodology) and where is the
core of its success (Chapter 3.2 Zero Moment of Truth). Another confusion emerges in
terms social media and content marketing, because for many these are just two term
naming the same thing. This is explained in chapters 3.3 to 3.5. Online marketing brings
companies and customers closer together and for understanding this relationship and
customers behaviours there are chapters about COBRAs and eWoM. For a better
overview, Ive created an infographics that connects described theories with marketing
and customer activities together.
A lot of literature about social media strategies is only dedicated to the platform usage but
forgets about the whole goal and principle of social business.
Social media platforms update very quickly, thus I focused on how to grasp social media
as whole (Chapter 4 Social Media Strategies), not just to describe few of the platforms. Ive
put emphasis on social business concept (Chapter 4.2) because I find it very interestingaccording to my experience when Ive met with concept where social media were used
just as a marketing tool alone.
More specific solutions are outlined in content marketing strategies (Chapter 5) where I
focus on quality of the content, its creation, distribution and evaluation.
Next there is a chapter about black hat and white hat marketing with emphasis on black
hat techniques examples and its effects that are demonstrated in a case study.
I also provided a brief overview of software tools (Chapter 7) that are used in onlinemarketing today.
Finally I conclude the thesis with a case study (Chapter 8) based on my work experience
in an IT startup company VideoFlot where I analyze their social media and content
marketing activities.
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2Marketing Definitions
The way people communicate was always a fundamental driver for our evolution.Technological advancement in last years is changing how we get, evaluate and use
information. For marketers, this doesnt bring only new possibilities, but also new
challenges how to use and control these technologies. There are more than 2 billion
people using the internet and it caused that marketing is online and new forms of it are
being created faster than ever. For many people, even professionals, it is nearly
impossible to keep track of all these new online marketing terms.
Before diving into the waters of online marketing lets first look at the marketing itself.
2.1 Marketing
In 2010 Scott Brinker, marketing technologist and CTO of ion interactive, wrote down a
list of 131 kinds of marketing [1]. And the number still raises. Not only because of new
technologies and dynamically evolving marketplace, but also marketers are creating new
types of marketing to promote themselves. Inbound Marketing for example is a term
created by HubSpot company in 2006 *2 and its practically synonymous to Seth Godins
Permission Marketing from 1999.[3][4]
Therefore, there is a large number of different definitions of marketing. According to the
American Marketing Association (AMA) Board of Directors: Marketing is the activity, set
of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. [5] Seth Godin defines
marketing as the art of telling a story that resonates with your audience and then spreads.[6]
And a very popular definition of marketing is: Marketing is everything you do[7]
2.2 Digital vs. Online vs. Internet Marketing
There is a lot of confusion in the terminology when it comes to digital, online, and internet
marketing.
Digital marketing is a broad term that describes a set of marketing processes that utilize all
available digital channels to promote a product or service or build a digital brand.[8]
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As the main digital channels we consider the Internet, TV, radio, mobile. This sets Internet
marketing a subset of Digital marketing.
Difference between Internet and Online marketing is just in the name itself. Its all aboutthe trend which word works better with search engines. In the US, Internet Marketing
holds a 2-1 ratio to Online Marketing in monthly search queries according to Google
Adwords Keyword Generator from April 2013. But globally Online Marketing appears
in searches 9 times more than Internet Marketing.
Note:there is also a difference between marketing and advertising [10]. One might argue
that companies producing viral videos or pay per click ads are not doing marketing rather
advertising. But from the online point of view all this Online Advertising tools and
techniques are considered to be a synonym to Online Marketing.
Online Marketing is the art and science of leveraging the Internet to get your message across so
that you can move people to take action.*11] The major channels of Online Marketing are:
Web site
Search marketing (SEM) - includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid
Search Advertising (PSA)
Social media marketing
Content marketing
Email marketing
Mobile marketing
Display advertising
2.3 Online and Traditional Marketing
Access to a world of infinite information has changed how we communicate, process
information, and think.
Traditional marketing ways of reaching people like print, TV, radio are being repressedby the Internet. For a long time they were a guarantee of a marketing success. And there
were 3 main reasons for that:
1. Marketing was a one-way communication channel. Customers didnt have any
viable way to communicate back.
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2. Easier targeting. People were more alike. Diversity in activities, habits and goods
that people owned was very small. Marketers knew who and where the buyers
were.
3. People werent fed up and believed advertising. The marketing clutter was
significantly smaller.[11]
Traditional marketing has evolved through the Internet into the new era of marketing.
Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) said that The amount
of change in marketing over the past three to five years probably equals the amount of change over
the past 30 years.[12]
The lightning speed evolution of marketing has brought many opportunities but also
chaos. Many marketers started immediately applying traditional principles into online
marketing and so they produced even bigger clutter then it was in the before-the-internet
era. Another problem was, and still is, the investment into the online advertising with
very vague estimate of the return of investment (ROI).
In April 2012, Gartner's interviewed 98 marketing executives in companies with revenue
greater than $1 billion. The survey showed that 54% of interviewed marketers invest in
digital marketing because they believe it's strategic to their competitiveness. But they are
not certain of their ROI.[13]
Figure 1 Position on Investment and Impact of Digital Marketing [13]
However, another survey from Gartner, shows that companies spent 10.4% of their
annual 2012 revenue on marketing activities that include both traditional and digital
marketing. Whats more, 2.5% of revenue is spent on digital marketing and is expected to
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increase by 9% in 2013. That makes digital marketing the fastest growing area of
marketing. [14]
Traditional marketing on the other hand is no longer the top priority for a lot oforganizations. 28% of marketers have reduced their budget for traditional marketing to
fund more digital marketing.
Interestingly, it is getting harder to differentiate the marketing spendings as digital and
traditional marketing techniques are merging. Nowadays over 20% of companies
reported that they no longer separate budgets between digital and traditional.
There is no right or wrong answer to the question about investing in traditional or digital
marketing. The well-balanced combination is what will bring the success to the
companies. The top 3 digital marketing activities that will drive success in the nearest
future are corporate websites, social media and online advertising.
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3Online Marketing Basics
3.1 The ACT Methodology
From the definition above online marketing is about delivering a message via the Internet
to real people and make them do something - in most cases it is to make them spend
money.
According to Shama Kabani, author of the book The Zen of Social Media Marketing
[11], successful online marketing basically works on a simple framework called ACT
Methodology that can be broken down into 3 three distinct components:
A - Attract
C - Convert
T - Transform
Figure 2 ACT Methodology [11]
3.1.1 Attract
To attract means to get attention or stand out. The goal of this phase is to get traffic to thewebsite by standing out from others. This happens mostly by using Social media and
Search Engine Marketing. To be visible and remarkable there are 3 essential elements
needed:
Brand:What is your brand? Use one word or phrase.
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Outcome: What do you do? Sum it up in one line.
Differentiator: How are you different from your competitors? What is that makes
you more special than others?
If you dont have the right elements, you cant stand out from the noise. If you dont
stand out, you cant attract people to do business. *11
3.1.2 Convert
Converting strangers into consumers or customers. Primary focusing on attracted users
who are ideal fit. These people are more likely to buy your product and spend money.
There two types of conversion:
Stranger to Consumer
Consumer is a person who is consuming your information for example from your
Blog, Twitter or Facebook. These people dont spend money yet, but it is more
likely that they will. Consumers are somehow binded with the brand and with
that they can attract their friends and acquaintances to the brand. Social media are
suited to this kind of conversion.
Stranger to Customer
Converting people become paying customers. This happens via the company
website .
3.1.3 Transform
Transforming companys successes into attraction tools. It has two key parts:
1. Doing a good job and provide a perfect service and customer support.
2. Spread the word about success with clients. Share their stories of what they
achieved through service or product.
Successful transformation tools are for example video interviews with customers, casestudies, clients testimonials.
3.1.4 Case study Chytra Zed
Chytra Zed (Smart wall) is a company providing service that will turn ordinary material
i.e. wall, wood to a white board by using special paint. Company launched their Facebook
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and Twitter in March 2013 and started to post simple pictures with only one sentence and
link to the website as shown in the picture below.
Figure 3 Chytra Zed Picture Facebook Post [16]
They immediately started to attractpeople to their website where the visitors watched the
explanation video and provide the brand their email address so that they can get newsabout the product launch. People not only provided the brand their email but also started
to follow their Twitter and like their Facebook page. Strangers were converted to
consumers. In fact, the company could not convert them to customers yet, because they
launched the service after 7 months as they waited for product supply.
More than half a year the company was focus on attract and convert (to consumer)
phases. They gathered more than 1000 likes and 20 followers.
On 20th September Chytra zed started to sell their service. Consumer were converted tocustomers. After few successful installations of the smart walls they immediately started
to publish pictures of places and people using the walls as white boards - transformation
phase. As the picture started spreading, more strangers became attracted and the circle
continued.
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Figure 4 Chytra Zed Picture Facebook post 2. [16]
3.2 Zero Moment of Truth
In 2011 Google published e-book called Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. It introduced
new perspective of online marketing and defined new center of focus. The Internet and ITtechnologies changed customers and their process of making decisions. There has been a
classical mental model in marketing that had three critical moments:
Stimulus - an instant when consumer sees an advertisement for a product and
gets interested in it.
Shelf - The first moment of truth, when consumer visits the store where he sees
the real product, gets the necessary information and answers to his questions from
employees. Finally he buys the product.
Experience- Consumer uses the product, is satisfied with it and enjoys the value
of the product - the second moment of truth.
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Figure 5 Classical mental model [37]
The Internet era brought a significant change to that classical marketing mental model.
New critical moment has emerged between the consumers first exposure to
advertisements and the ultimate purchase decision. The zero moment of truth (ZMOT) as
Google calls it, is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired
device and start learning about a product/service (or potential boyfriend) you're thinking abouttrying or buying. [37]
Googles research from 2011 showed that average shopper used 10.4 sources of
information to make a decision. Further it revealed that 84% of the shoppers said that
ZMOT is the critical moment that shapes their decision. [37]
Figure 6 New mental model with the zero moment of truth [37]
The zero moment of truth
happens online and typically starts with a search on Google, YouTube, Yahoo or
any other search engine
happens in real time, at any time of the day through any type of device whether it
is mobile, laptop or tablet.
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is consumer driven. She decides what kind of information she will consume rather
than have it pushed on her by others.
is emotional. The consumer makes emotional investments to find the best solution
to satisfy her needs.
is multi-way conversation. Brands, friends, strangers, websites, all compete for
consumers attention.
Consumers have many more choices that theyve ever had before and they use them to
look for information about companies, their products or services. They use trusted third
party sources to check the consistency and credibility of companys messages.
We now have to engage people in a way thats useful or helpful to their lives. The consumer is
looking to satisfy their needs, and we have to be there to help them with that. To put it anotherway: How can we exchange value instead of just sending a message? Kim Kadlec, worldwide
vice president, Global Marketing Group, Johnson & Johnson [37]
The new way of thinking about traditional marketing mental model gives a strong
emphasis on brand related content produced by company as well as consumers. This also
made the trend shift from basic social media marketing to content marketing.
3.3 Social Media Marketing
In its simplest form social media marketing is the marketing process of gaining attention
or website traffic through social media websites. It is used for promoting products or
services in different social networks in form of advertisements or in form of content. The
basic most general goal is to increase sales of a product / service or to build brand
awareness. [7] [15] [39]
Social media isnt just a new marketing platform or channel. If we look at it this way we
unnecessarily limit the scope of the opportunities just to one segment. Primary social media entails
a change in ways of communication. It is (mostly) not a conversation but a real many-to-manycommunicationAdam Zbiejczuk [40]
For companies to be a recognizable part of the social media communication is much
harder that it might seem at first. Neither it is cheap. In 2013 Facebook is dominant social
network with 1.200 million users and the number is still increasing. [41] Companies try to
engage with as many users as possible by spreading their content and extending their
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social media presence to other platforms. This produces a larger and larger clutter where
marketing messages are getting lost. Facebook nowadays offers a solution with their paid
advertisements and post promotion, but many companies doesnt often have a budget to
pay for such services.
Another way is to focus on organic non-paid reach, that is connected to the type of
content and brands social media communication approach. This of course differs
depending on the social media platform and companys character, but generally there 4
ingredients that are nowadays the basis for social media success [40]:
1. Cool factor, humor
2. Usefulness and advantages
3. Immediacy and novelty4. Personal approach
The biggest enemy factor is boredom. Official impersonal PR messages and marketing
statements are not type of content for social media.
3.3.1 Social Media Platforms
The evolution of social media is really fast and so are the updates of social platforms. The
number of these platform is still rising and the popularity of each platform depends on
mainly on the country or rather geographical location.
3.3.1.1 Facebook
Largest social media platform with more than 1.2 billion registered users [41]. Solution for
businesses:
Facebook page - possibility to share content in form of links, photos, videos and
polls.
Paid promotion of the content Paid Facebook ads
Event creation
Geo Location
Directly engage with consumers
Key metrics: Likes, Posts, Shares, Engagement, Reach [77]
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3.3.1.2 LinkedIn
The world's largest professional network with 250 million members. Businesses have their
own pages and individuals can be identified as their employees or just follow the updatesof the company. It is used for business promotion from a professional site and hiring. [78]
Key metrics: Followers, Group members, Discussions, Recommendations (for
individuals), Skill Endorsements (for individuals)
3.3.1.3 Google+
2nd largest social media platform and identity service [80], owned by Google. Used
nowadays for:
Search engine optimization
Sharing content
Hangouts - video conference chat often used for webinars
Event promotion
Key metrics:Circle members/followers, mentions, +1 [80]
3.3.1.4 Twitter
Microblogging social media platform, globally 3rd in percentage of internets users. [81] It
is used by companies to:
share information about the services
gather real-time market intelligence
build relationships with customer partners and influencers
Key metrics:Followers, mentions, retweets, reach, number of lists, posts [82]
3.3.1.5
Other
On Wikipedia there is a list of more than 200 social networking websites. Here are other
recently popular:
Pinterest- Online pinboard for organizing and sharing pictures
Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon- Bookmarking and Tagging
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YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion- Online video sharing
Instagram, Vine- photo and short video sharing
SinaWeibo, TencentWeibo- microblogging - Chinese
Foursquare- geolocation
SoundCloud- music sharing
3.4 Content Marketing
Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world youre a rock star. Content Marketing
is showing the world that you are one.[42]
Content marketing is the process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable and engaging
content to a target audience with the goal of acquiring new customers or increasing business from
existing customers.[42]
It has become the latest trend in the PR & marketing industry. Content marketing is to
2013 what social media marketing was to 2007.[43] Social media presence is today just not
enough. Consumers decision making process has changed and new critical moment - the
Zero Moment of Truth - has emerged. One of the core elements to win the ZMOT is
content. Successful content marketing establishes company as an expert in a specific field,
and that sets the groundwork for a long-term business relationship.
Therefore a radical shift is occurring in marketing budgets as companies shift spend from
focus on advertising to investments in content. The trend is toward producing a quality
content for consumers rather than only pushing marketing messages. [46]
This content is then published on owned media channels - both fully owned (e.g.
websites, blogs) and social media channels which companies control.
Types of content that are usually part of content strategies are: Blog post, Podcast, Video,
Micro-video (e.g. Vine, Instagram), Images, Infographics, Case Studies, Ebooks,
Presentation slides, Webinars, White papers
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3.5 Difference between Social Media Marketing and Content
Marketing
Many people tend to confuse social media marketing with content marketing as social
media are heavily involved in content marketing and content is being published by social
media marketers. Both terms are very close and there is plenty of overlap between them,
but they are actually two distinct entities. For effective online marketing it is essential to
have clear in mind the difference and following elements may help to understand it.
3.5.1 Centre of Gravity
In social media marketing the focus of the marketing activity is stationed in the social
networks themselves. Produced content is placed inside of Facebook, inside of Twitterand inside of other social networks.
For content marketing it is a brand website or microsite for brands specific product.
Social sites are distributors of links leading back to the website content. They are not
containers of the content itself. [15]
3.5.2 Type of Content
Type of content in social media marketing depends on the context, restrictions andlimitations of the specific social platform. As example Twitter allows to post messages
that are 140 characters long. Instagram for instance is for posting only squared format
photos and videos lasting maximum 15 seconds.
In content marketing context of website provides more options of content type. Brands
can publish longer forms of content with emphasis on quality, especially blog posts,
videos, infographics, case studies, ebooks. [15]
3.5.3
Objectives
There are two main objectives that SMM tends to focus on:
Brand awareness- creating activity around the brand.
Customer retention/satisfaction - companies are using social media for a direct
dialog with customers to provide them support.
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On the other hand content marketing is more focused on demand generation. Quality
content on websites can build a relationship with potential clients and nurture them
towards a lead conversion or purchase. [15]
3.5.4 SMM and CM in ACT process
Social media is an attracting tool. It works best in getting attention in the first phase -
Attract and also in spreading success stories in the last - Transform phase. It doesnt often
turn stranger straight into customer rather the focus of SMM is aimed on converting
people to consumers.
Content Marketing work great through the whole ACT process. Its strength is, compared
to Social Media Marketing, that it more successfully converts strangers directly tocustomers. [11]
3.5.5 Conclusion
In brief, social media marketing is about promotion and content marketing is about
creation. The two work together in harmony and can generate fantasticresults.
Content marketing should be the starting point of all online marketing campaigns and the
next step is social media marketing that is the number one way to promote a website or
brand online.
3.6 COBRAs
Web 2.0 and subsequently social media websites have changed users and their online
behaviour. Opportunities to interact, express, share and create content about anything
gave them significant powers which have important consequences on companies,
products, and brands. Their interactions are strongly influencing brands and their
consumers behaviour, even more than traditional forms of marketing and advertising.
[17]
Watching brand-related videos on YouTube, posting photos of products on Facebook or
commenting on brands statuses are examples of consumers online brand-related
activities (COBRAs). COBRA concept is a behavioural construct that provides a unifying
framework to think about consumer activity pertaining to brand-related content on social media
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platforms.[18] It is essential to understand peoples motivations to engage in such
activities to effectively anticipate and direct the consequences.
3.6.1 COBRA Typology
Based on usage typologies of social media and on ones level of involvement with brand-
related content, COBRAs were categorised into 3 dimensions:
Consuming
Type with the lowest level of online brand-related activeness. People are
participating without actively contributing or creating content. They watch brand-
related videos, read product reviews or comments on brand profiles and forums.
These consumers also play branded online video games and download contentfrom brands websites such as ebooks.
Contributing
Contributing is the mid level of online brand-related activeness. User-to-content
and user-to-user interactions fall into this category. Here are a few examples of
these activities:
o Rating products or brands
o Engaging in branded conversations
o Joining a brand profile on social network site
o Commenting on blogs, pictures, videos and any other brand-related
content that others have created
Creating
The highest level of brand-related activeness is creating content. People are
actively producing and publishing the brand-related content that others then
consume and contribute to. They write product reviews and blogs, produce and
upload branded videos, music and pictures.
[18]
3.6.2 COBRA Motivations
There are several reasons why and how much are people being involved in a specific
COBRA category.
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Firstly, lets look at the general social media use motivations, why people consume social
media and what satisfactions they eventually receive thereof.According toMuntiga et al.
[18] study there are six categories of motivations for social media use, plus second-order
motivations - called sub-motivations:
Entertainment - considered as overall motivation. It covers gratifications that have
a connection with escaping or being diverted from problems or routine, emotional
release or relief, cultural enjoyment, passing time and relaxation.
Integration and social interaction - This motivation covers media gratifications
that are related to other people. Connecting with friends, looking for (emotional)
support, affiliation with like-minded others are examples of sub-motivations.
Personal identity - covers media gratifications that are related to the self, like
reinforcing personal values, self-fulfillment or gaining recognition from peers.
Information - Most common sub-motivations are opinion and advice seeking,
information exchange, voyeurism, surveillance.
Remuneration - involves people using social media because they expect to gain
some kind of future reward like money, prize or personal wants such as specific
software.
Empowerment- is a motivation that refers to people using social media to exert
their influence or power on other people or firms.
These motivations also drive customers online brand-related activities but each category
is driven by a different (sub-)motivation mix.
3.6.2.1 Motivations for Consuming Brand-Related Content
Information
Entertainment
Remuneration
Information is an important motivation when it comes to consuming brand-relatedcontent. It is the driver of reading product reviews or threads on brand communities in
order to make good buying decisions. It also gets people inspired, for instance when they
look at the new fashion collection pictures.
Entertainment is present in all COBRA types. Sub-motivations like enjoyment, relaxation
and pastime are specific for consuming brand-related content. It is consumed also by
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people who expect remuneration, for instance, playing social media-based video game to
win a valuable prize.
3.6.2.2 Motivations for Contributing to Brand-Related Content
Personal identity
Integration and Social interaction
Entertainment
The personal identity motivation is a driver of both contributing and creating. Specifically
for contributing to brand-related content there are sub-motivations: self-expression, self-
presentation and self-assurance. For example people tend to like brands Facebook page
in order to show others that The brand is their favourite.
Integration and social interaction also drive both the creating and the contributing
COBRA types. Regarding contributing to brand-related content it covers three sub-
motivations: Social interaction, social identity and helping. People contribute to brands
social media sites in order to meet and interact with others with the same interests. They
also try to help and get help from each other.
3.6.2.3 Motivations for Creating Brand-Related Content
Personal identity Integration and social interaction
Entertainment
Empowerment
Creating and contributing is driven by the same motivations except of empowerment that
is specifically related to the creating COBRA type. Ones blog can change other peoples
perceptions, get them to buy a product or get a company to change course.
When creating marketing strategy it is essential to anticipate and stimulate consumersonline brand-related activities. Knowing which motivations drive particular COBRAs
could be very effectively used when setting up campaigns.
This was used by Nokia in January 2012, when they were introducing new smartphone
(Lumia 800) to the Czech market. Few weeks before the introduction, Nokia identified top
Czech opinion makers and exclusively gave them the new phones. Practically, few
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minutes later, these people started posting first-hand reactions and writing brand-related
blog posts. This caused, that others started to ask questions about the new Nokia phone
and contributed to the brand-related content created by the opinion makers.[19]
3.7 Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM)
Traditional Word of Mouth (WoM) was defined by Johan Arndt in 1967 as oral, person
to person communication between a receiver and a communicator whom the receiver
perceives as non-commercial, concerning a brand, a product or a service. *20 There are
three important parts in that definition:
1. WoM is interpersonal communication apart from mass communication such as
advertising.2. Content of the communication is commercial, focused on brands, products and
services - or even on their advertising.
3. Communicators are not commercially motivated - or at least they are perceived
not to be.
WoM is considered to be more effective than other marketing tools. [23] One of the
reasons is that consumer-created information is more credible than seller-created
information. Sellers present their product with strong emphasis on good aspects and try
to hide (as much as they can) the bad ones. Consumers, in contrast, provide honestevaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of a product from the users viewpoint.
Another reason is that this consumer-created information is more consumer oriented than
seller created information. It is more understandable, familiar, and focused on the usage
situations and product advantages from consumers perspective. It can be subjective
information, consisting mainly of emotion expressions, or it can be objective information
just like seller-created information. [22]
The Internet has upgraded WoM to electronic Word of Mouth (eWoM) by providing more
possibilities where the communication can take place.
eWom is defined as any statement based on positive, neutral, or negative experiences made by
potential, actual, or former consumers about a product, service, brand, or company, which is made
available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet (through websites, social
networks, instant messages, news feeds. . .).[21] [22]
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The difference between traditional WoM and its new electronic version, is that eWoM is
measurable, since comments are written on the websites and also some types of eWoM
messages are controllable. For instance, it is decision of marketers whether online
consumer reviews are shown on their website or not. Finally, there is credibility
difference, while traditional WoM messages are direct messages from familiar people
(family members or friends), eWoM content is created by unknown authors. But if an
eWoM message, such as online consumer review, is persuasive and logical, consumers are
more likely to believe that message. [26]
Nowadays eWoM, also called online referrals, highly influences purchase decisions.
Customer know-how exchange has an impact on consumer perceptions of product value
and likelihood to recommend the product, but is does not influence consumer repurchase
intentions *21]
3.7.1 Factors of eWoM
There are number of factors with an impact on eWoM that need to be taken into account
when designing online marketing strategy and afterwards managing eWoM, namely:
Type of eWoM - Matter of disconfirmation
Type of experience
Platforms Quality vs Quantity
3.7.1.1 Type of eWoM
Basically there are two types of eWoM based on the effect it has on brand: positive and
negative. Both are important when it comes to managing eWoM, but it has a larger impact
in cases of negative eWoM, which it is greater for established websites than for
unestablished ones and more influential for experience goods than for search goods. [21]
[24]
3.7.1.2 Matter of Disconfirmation
From aforementioned definition of eWoM, motives to create eWoM content are
dependent on positive, neutral, or negative experiences related to a product, service,
brand or company. In other words, motives are based on emotional reaction - degree of
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satisfaction. This could be measured as the difference between a customers expected
performance and her perception of the actual performance of a product, service, or brand.
If consumers expectations are exceeded, they lead to a satisfied consumer; unmet
expectations lead to a dissatisfied one. [21] Thereof disconfirmation of expectations
dramatically affects consumer satisfaction and so the likelihood to create eWoM.
There are three disconfirmation outcomes:
Positive disconfirmation = Expected performance Actual performance
Neutral confirmation = Expected performance =Actual performance
Note:We can consider eWoM as a part of the creating brand-related content COBRA type.
Thus, the motivations for creating brand-related content can also drive the creation of
eWoM.
3.7.1.3 Type of Experience
Customer experiences could be divided into two main categories:
Brand Experiences with product itself, visual identity, advertising and
innovativeness of product or service compared to previous versions or
competition. Customer interface experiences - dynamic exchange of information and service
between the consumer and a company face-to-face, online, via phone, email or any
other way.
According to Kietzmann et al. [21] research, consumers tend to create eWoM about all
brand experiences more, when they are positively disconfirmed. This suggest, that people
like to be positively surprised and share this experience with others. On the other hand
the negative disconfirmation must be very strong in order to motivate people to create the
negative eWoM about their brand experiences.
When it comes to customer interface experiences the trend is different. In cases of
negative disconfirmation, when the interaction with the brand was worse than expected,
the likelihood of negative eWoM creation is very high, especially in personal-but-distant
communication via email, social media and phone.
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3.7.1.4 Platforms
Another important factor is the place where consumers share eWoM. This is influenced
by peoples perceived ease of access to a competent contact person, the firms expectedability to handle feedback efficiently, or degree of comfort and experience with a
platform. *21
eWoM is mostly shared on social media platforms. Kietzmann et al., who looked at the
two biggest social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter, showed that Facebook is
mostly the choice for sharing better-than-expected experiences. Twitter on the other hand,
is the place to share eWoM from negatively disconfirmed consumers. One of the reasons
might be the nature of the social media platforms. Facebook provides users with control
over their postings while Twitter has a strong public nature.
The findings of Kietzmann et al. [21] study are not very much applicable to Czech
republic, because of the number of users of mentioned social media platforms. While
there were 3.8 million Facebook users in Czech republic in April 2013, only 150 000 people
were using Twitter.[25]
Consumers share their experiences not only on traditional platforms like website or
Facebook. But constantly increasing number of social media platforms gives consumers
opportunities to share eWoM wherever it is comfortable and effective for them. This factadds tremendous complexity to any marketing strategy. [21]
3.7.1.5 Quantity and Quality
We can assess the quality of eWoM content on the basis of relevance, understandability,
sufficiency, and objectivity. Product review, as a form of eWoM that has noteworthy
influence on purchase decisions, can be considered as high quality when it is logical,
persuasive and gives reasons based on specific facts about the product. In contrast, low
quality eWoM contains emotional, subjective, vacuous, no factual information that is
simply making a recommendation.
Quantity, when talking about product reviews, represents the products popularity
because it is related to the sales volume of the product.
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Parks et al.*26 study showed that quality of online consumer reviews has a positive
effect on consumer purchasing intention, and furthermore, this intention increases along
with the number of reviews - quantity.
3.7.2 Managing eWoM
As eWoM plays a major role for customers buying decisions, it is necessary to effectively
manage it. How firms respond to eWoM has an effect on customers intention to
repurchase and to provide positive referrals. It is important to be aware of the variance in
eWoM types and pay close attention to eWoM to:
minimize the risks of harmful comments
maximize the impact of helpful eWoM
For eWoM managers the key to manage eWoM is to prioritize attention: what, where,
when to read and respond to eWoM and how much time to devote to any individual post.
This could be done by using the knowledge about eWoM factors discussed above.
3.7.2.1 Managing Positive eWoM
Many companies are not paying enough attention to positive eWoM. They appreciate it,
but they dont use it effectively. For eWoM shared on social media, it is essential to create
a dialog with the consumers, thank them for their activity and use the eWoM content for
further campaigns.
3.7.2.2 Managing Negative eWoM
As negative eWoM has a larger impact on the company it is usually priority number one.
To handle negative eWoM it is necessary to understand customers problem, try to solve
it and so transform the negative eWoM into positive one. To do that it is needed to have:
Friendly customer service - Do unto your customers as you want to be treatedwhen you are a customer. *28
Boundaries - it is not possible to accommodate all negative eWoM. It requires rules
to set boundaries and agenda, then it is necessary to strictly follow them.
Prchal [27] in his presentation suggests 4 steps to transform existing negative eWoM:
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1. step - Find out motives and causes of customers problem by sending her a
personal message via email or via social media private message. It is good to use
the type of sentence: Please tell me something about yourself. The message should
contain also truthful information about yourself, the company and its situation.
2. step - Communication exhaustion - if the customer will communicate with you
directly, he wont produce any more public negative eWoM that might do harm to
your company or brand.
3. step - Cooperate with the customer and provide exclusive benefits and advantages
only for her.
4. step - Involve the customer into a project and give her an agenda and
responsibilities.
An example to demonstrate the success of these steps is Prchals *27 informational
campaign for Pragues transport enterprises (Dopravni podnik hlavniho mesta Prahy).
Fundamental changes in public mass transportation in Prague were made in September
2012 and they needed to be properly communicated to the passengers. A massive
campaign called: "Vdy to jede jinam!"(Cmon its going wrong direction) helped people
to notice the changes and also made them to post eWoM and questions on the special
Facebook page dedicated to the campaign. [29] In the first month of the campaign there
were hundreds of questions asked by more than 1500 people. Everything went well, strict
boundaries were set and there was a friendly customer support that replied to consumers.
But there was an unexpected problem. One consumer (specifically, his name is Martin
ubrt and he became quite popular during the campaign) started to repeatedly post
negative eWoM that was full of professional knowledge about the public mass
transportation in Prague and appeared to be unstoppable. After tens of negative posts
that were posted on Facebook timeline, one of the team members of the campaign (Marek
Prchal) contacted Mr. Subrt directly via email (1. step), thanked him for his professional
criticism and asked him to reveal more about himself and his carrier. Mr. Subrt replied
and continued in the email communication (2. step). He was then invited to join one of thecampaign events in the tram, where he also met the director of ROPID (Regional
Organiser of Prague Integrated Transport) (mix of steps 3. and 4.). It all went public and
photos of Mr. Subrt in the tram with the director were posted to the Facebook page. This
was the moment when all the negative eWoM was transformed and then perceived by
others that their opinion and criticism (if it is relevant), really matters to the enterprise.
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Figure 7 Mr. Subrt (Left) with director of ROPID (right) in tram during the campaign [27]
After this sequence of events, Mr. Subrt didnt stop posting critical eWoM (as mentioned
above, you cant satisfy everyone), but the regularity decreased and content was written
in a different, more positive-thinking style. [27] [30]
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3.8 Online marketing infographics
Figure 8 Online Marketing Theories Inforgraphics
To better understand how the basic theories and parts of online marketing come together,
I have created an infographic where on the top there is the new mental model with the
critical Zero Moment of Truth. Then there are approximate boundaries indicated between
the model and the online marketing types and techniques. And on the bottom there are
the ACT methodology phases to show how these are connected to the ZMOT model and
online marketing techniques.
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4Social Media Strategies
Despite the fact that many businesses have a social media presence, they still strugglewith low effectivity in these field. For many, setting up a social media strategy, may look
like an easy task ask at first, but then the results are not very satisfying. According to
research conducted by Constant Contact, over 50% of small businesses need help with
social media. [32]
4.1 Social Media Strategy Failures
From my point of view, according to the experiences gathered in online marketing
business there are certain myths or illusions that are causing issues to the companies:
Building up a social media strategy is easy, simple and could be done by everyone
who has at least one social media profile. It might sound little too extreme, but yes,
there are business owners who still think it will this way.
There is no need of technical skills. Its enough when one has basic internet-
browsing skills and can manage his social media account.
Many companies think that they dont need to change anything just add some
social media platforms to their current strategy and let one person to manage it.
Social media marketing is cheap since you dont need to pay for social mediaaccounts (at least not for the three most popular Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn)
Or the other extreme, the success depends only and only on how much money will
company invest to social media advertising (pay-per click ads etc.)
These mind-sets are the first causes of social media strategy failures.
Another problem, that occurs far too often, is that businesses dont have social media
strategy at all, or they just think they have, but the only thing in their strategy is
expanding their social media presence without any solid purpose. And this is the mostimportant part, these so-called social strategies are not innately linked to business goals.
Or even if the goals do exist, social initiatives face challenges in the form of a lack of
defined strategy, governance, and funding. [34]
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Nowadays, social web is transforming how people interact, how relationships are being
formed and developed and this is changing the way people socialize, work and engage
with companies.
The new normal is that customers are leading the conversations that define your brand,
competitors are crowd-sourcing ideas to bring new offerings to market and employees are using
social media in all facets of their lives. [33] This shift presents an opportunity. Social
Business. [36]
4.2 Social Business
Altimeter company defines Social Business as: The deep integration of social media and social
methodologies into the organization to drive business impact.[34]
In other words, Social Business takes social concepts like sharing, rating, reviewing,
connecting, and collaborating to all parts of the business including customer support,
marketing, the executive team and more. These days when a company has a social media
strategy its concept usually looks like this:
Company has a Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts that are managed
together, meaning they are posting the same posts (sometimes with slight changes
because of for example Twitters 140 character limitation) on each social media. They have also a YouTube channel to upload their videos.
They use content calendar to plan what to post a week or maximum a few months
ahead.
Finally they measure basic metrics as number of likes, retweets, views and
engagement.
This strategy is maybe building some engagement, but definitely its more alike to the
interruption marketing [3] and goal of these kind of strategies does not correspond with
the business goal of the company.In case of Social Business the business goals are the main focus also with customer and
customer relationships that are being the core. Every social media activity helps to meet
customer expectations and achieve business goals furthermore. From a higher
perspective, it helps to establish a competitive product or service. [36]
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4.2.1 Engagement in Social Business
Customers engagement or consumers online brand related activities (COBRAs) are one of
the key elements in every social media strategy. Basic strategies are focused only on thefirst phases of engagement (or COBRAs) that are consumption (e.g. number of views of
video) and contribution/curation (e.g. number of likes/retweets). Effective Social Business
place emphasis on the creation phase and specifically on the collaboration element
between customers and company, and between customers and employees.
Figure 9 Structured engagement [31]
For instance company can measure the number of submitted ideas from customers that
then will help to enhance their product or service. To increase such a metric number it is
necessary to know the motives of the customers to create such ideas, support them and
make it easy for them to share these with the organization. It all requires collaboration
with the company, with the employees throughout the whole company. Engagement in
Social Business is about about connecting your customers and stakeholders with thebrand, product, or service, and then tapping their collective knowledge and connecting
into the organization to drive innovation and beneficial change. *31
4.2.2 Marketing and Operations
Social media marketing or marketing as a function inside of the company, many times
stands alone or is only vaguely connected to the other departments. Generally we can
consider marketing as function or discipline within an organization that defines and
shapes the customers expectations. On the other side, Operations, the functional teamthat develops or is responsible for the product or service, shapes and delivers the actual
customer experience. The difference between what is expected and what is delivered (the
matter of disconfirmation) is one of the important factors in customers content creation
(eWoM creation). Social Business is the connection of marketing, operations and
customers. Social media marketing is most effective when the entire business is
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responsible for the experiences and everyone within the organization is visibly
responsible for the overall product or service. *31 Organization, as a social business,
operates as a holistic entity rather than a collection of insulated silos. *31
Figure 10 The Marketing - Operations connection [31]
4.3 Social Business Strategy
Social Business strategy is defined by Altimeter company as:The set of visions, goals, plans,
and resources that align social media initiatives with business objectives.[34]
The strategy to be successful it requires:
1. Alignment with the strategic business goals of an organization
2. Organizational alignment and support that enables execution of that strategy
Its substantial to realize that a fully formed, coherent and integrated social business
strategy needs time to develop. The strategy changes as company goals and vision evolve
over time. [34] [35]
4.3.1 Example of Social Business Strategy - Royal Dutch Shell
Shells primary channel is Facebook, but they also have LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
Their goal is to showcase the personality of Shell in operations, drilling, retail, andcareers. As their key metric is reputation that is evaluated by asking a random population
on Facebook and other (also traditional) media two questions:
1. (On a scale of 1 to 5) To what extent do you think Shell is actively addressing
future energy needs?
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2. To what extent do you think Shell meets its customers energy need in socially and
environmentally responsible ways?
Shell seldom replies or engages with people on the Facebook page. This may seem wrong,but the Shells strategic goal priorities are different than engagement without purpose.
They measure Facebook daily to see how their reputations is trending in Facebook versus
other channels. Thus they can say what impact Facebook content has on their reputation.
This way they can connect a measurable key performance indicator (KPI) to a business
goal. [35]
4.4 Factors of Social Business Strategy
Before developing a strategy towards social business, realization about the currentposition and the future goal is needed. Its not good to compare the companys position to
others very much, rather focus on the success factors of social business. There are 7
factors, that will make social business strategy successful, proposed by Li et al. [35] based
on their study about how businesses were developing social media strategies and whether
or not strategists aligned strategies with business goals.
The 7 factors are namely:
1. Define the overall business goals
2. Establish the long-term vision3. Ensure executive support
4. Define the strategy roadmap
5. Establish governance and guidelines
6. Secure staff, resources, and funding
7. Invest in technology platforms that evolve
Benchmarking against these factors will help organizations invest in the efforts to evolve
social media strategies into meaningful social business transformation. [35]
4.4.1 #1 Define the Overall Business Goals
The social business strategy should be based on the specific goals the company business is
trying to accomplish, for instance making more revenue or increasing customer
satisfaction. A good place to start is to take the companys vision and mission statement,
current strategic plan and long-term goals and think about how social media activities can
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contribute to reach these goals at a high level. Instead of just measuring likes, share,
tweets etc. it is necessary to develop social KPIs and tie them to companysbusiness KPIs.
Example:Organizational Strategic Goal:Decrease costs
Strategic Metric:Reduce customer service costs by 10%
Social Business Goal:Respond via social media to deflect from call center
Social Business Metric: Decrease number of inquiries addressed via call center by 20
percent
4.4.2 #2 Establish Long Term Vision
It is not enough to have goals in place, a long-term vision is needed. The vision clearlyexpresses the future customer, employee and stakeholder relationships and experiences
that will be the result of the social business strategy. It also helps to reset culture and
minimize politics - but it requires careful thought to ensure that the statement builds trust
rather than engender fear and skepticism. *35 Properly done, the vision is formulated as
a future state that is around 3 years ahead. Such period is long enough to envision a
significant change and short enough to create a plan to achieve that reality.
Just like a good message, the strategy has to be memorable. [35] So the vision has to be
something that employees, shareholders and customer can stand behind, a story that willbe inspirational.
4.4.3 #3 Ensure Executive Support
In March 2013 Altimeter study showed that only 52% top executives, of surveyed
companies, were informed, engaged, and aligned with their companies social strategy.
[34] Many executives dont understand social medias potential for business impact,
because they simply dont have experience with social media themselves. It is not
necessary for them to understand specifics about social media, rather is important is toshow them the types of relationships, experiences and outcomes that they can bring.
Executives are instrumental in granting additional budget and resources to scale strategic
social media. Depending on the scale and scope of the strategy, the engagement of
executives may be just minimal, but at least at informative level.
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4.4.4 #4 Define the Strategy Roadmap
A work breakdown structure is needed to achieve the long-term vision along with
business goals. Developing a roadmap means to list all potential ideas and compare themagainst company's readiness and ability to execute, then define what and when will be
done. What company will do is equally important as what it wont do. This kind of
roadmap will then add clarity and discipline to the social business strategy.
Brainstorming social business initiatives is the first step in building a roadmap.
Example:
Initiative name:Proactively address customer support issues
Business goal:Reduce customer support costsDescription:Look up customer conversations related to product or service issues on non-
company sites (forums, blogs) and address with customer support team.
Next step is to categorise these initiatives in order to find possible dependencies and tie
them better to business goals. There are 5 categories suggested by Li et al.[35] where most
of the social initiatives often fall into:
Learn- Glean insights from social engagement.
Listening to customers, employees and partners, by social technologies, to get
know them and their needs. These are actionable insights that can be used to makedecisions. Customers increasingly expect organizations to be listening and
responding, thus learn-initiatives are a must for most of the companies.
Dialog- Deepen relationships with conversations.
Building relationships with customers by listening to the conversations and
adding value to it. In larger companies its important not to forget about
relationship development with employees by using enterprise social networks
(ESNs)
Advocate- Enable the fans to speak on behalf of the organization.Turning customers and employees into enthusiastic fans and encourage them to,
for example, post reviews to third party web sites, engage actively in social
channels or participate in company made advocacy programs.
Support- Assist people and create great experience in the process.
Provide customers support through social channels in (near) real-time.
Innovate- Tap the energy and ideas from others.
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Enormous opportunities to use social technologies to gather ideas and innovate
and form the product or service.
After assembling all the social business initiatives, it is essential to prioritize themaccording to:
capabilities of the company to accomplish them
value that it will bring to the company.
This could be done by simple denotation of high to low values or by using a five-point
scoring system. Those initiatives with high capability and high value will have also the
highest priority and should be executed among the first. Low capability but with high
value initiatives will be considered as areas of investment. Initiatives with high capability
and low value might need a closer examination to possibly increase the value for the
company over time. Lastly, those with low capability and low value initiatives are not of
immediate concern, but that may be activated later.
Figure 11 Prioritize Social Initiatives by Capability and Value [35]
Discovered by Altimeter, social media campaigns and activities are usually planned for 6-
12 months. For successful social business it is needed to have a strategic roadmap
designed for a longer period - around 3 years. This might be good to divide to 6 month
parts and fill them with social business initiatives according to the priority.
It is good to create a Gantt chart where in first year there will be initiatives with high
value and high capability, but if there are any dependencies it is needed to properly
address them.
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Then fill in the next two years of the chart until there are included the low-value, low-
capability initiatives. Finally phase is aligning all dependencies and prerequisites. It is
also important to move up and label the initiatives that are strategic to the key
organizational goals.
4.4.5 #5 Establish Governance and Guidelines
With strategy roadmap in place, a good governance is needed. Otherwise, everyone will
want to use social media in their own way and for their own purposes. Without
organization and centralization, this will create chaos among employees and particularly
among customers.
Social business companies have established a hub called centre of excellence (CoE) thathelp the rest of the company to understand and scale social activities. The key is to give
authority and executive support to someone who will have the responsibility to set
processes and policies for social activities throughout the company. Moreover the CoE
will provide support training and education to the employees.
For social business strategy governance it is essential to define following guidelines and
processes:
General social media policy/guidelines
Specific playbook for social business practitioners with best practices and a
description of your brand personality
Engagement triage process - a system for managing messages from followers
Risk management and social media crisis response plan
Agreement on who has decision making power
4.4.6 #6 Secure Staff, Resources, Funding
Social business strategy needs to include details about resources needed to execute the
strategy. One of the crucial question here is how to get right people to the core social
media team. In the early stages of social business maturity, one way is to outsource to an
external agency that will then help to build develop strategic capabilities in-house.
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The first position to hire for is a social strategist, skilled in both social media and business.
Implementing training programs in the organization can make then everyone helpful
with social media.
Regarding funding, it is good to test strategies with pilot programs to see the results they
bring but it is vital not to get stuck with them and keep moving forward.
4.4.7 #7 Invest in Technology Platforms that Map the Strategy
Everyday technology innovation often makes companies to jump immediately into
technology selection and implementation. In other words it makes them to choose tactics
before setting up strategy. Then these companies find themselves doing and investing
into something that is beyond their interest and goals.
For organizations to make such decisions there are two basic types of tools related to
social business that will help them:
Monitoring Platforms
Social Media Management Systems
Putting the success factors into practice is more a journey than a destination.*35
Important is that social business strategy always stems from companys business goals
and it should be constantly evolving. This doesnt require a full -on examination of theentire strategy but rather a quick check to make sure that all elements are still in
alignment.
Some may argue that these factors and the whole concept of social business is only
suitable for large companies, but the other side is true. Startups and small companies
often strive with social media and this provides them a good framework for getting the
wheels turning. When their business and number employees will grow, properly defined
social business strategy will become more coherent and consistent.
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5Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing is a very essential part of social business and it is necessary to have asolid strategy to understand what content is being produced and how it supports overall
vision of the social business. When building such a strategy, it is important to always have
in mind all the social business strategy factors. All content has to work together; all the
groups need to work together *44
There are 6 essential components of content marketing strategy [43]:
Creation
Curation Optimization
Social Media
Amplification
Analysis
5.1 Creation
Creating engaging content on a consistent basis is probably the hardest part and it cannot
be accomplished by accident.
5.1.1 Know your Audience
The number one rule here is to know the audience. *45 Its good to start with gat hering
demographic and behavioral information from Google Analytics, Facebook Insights or
other analytical tools. Then analyze COBRAs motivations and try to find what type of
content does the audience consume. When distributing content such as ebooks or white
papers a great way to get more sophisticated information from the consumers is by
getting them to fill out forms or questionnaires in order to get access to the content.Another important way is to communicate with the audience and ask them for their
opinions and ideas.
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5.1.2 Deliver Real Value
If you deliver to your audience a value they cant get anywhere else, they will keep coming back.
[43]The content must be a lot of things at once:
Timely and relevant - it has to address an issue, trend or problem that affects the
reader
Varied and consistent - the subject has to be fresh, newsworthy, actual, but
publishing style and frequency has to be consistent and stable.
Well written and well produced - it has to add value and include a certain
expertise that is unique for the organization.
Call to action - it must somehow engage and call the audience to action such as
subscribing for further content.
5.1.3 Type of Content
Besides the specific types of content mentioned in previous chapter, there are 2 general
types of content depending on time and resources needed for the production:
Brick content - larger content productions such as research papers, case studies,
applications etc. It requires a larger budget, more resources and time. But this kind
of content has a large payoff in terms of better SEO rankings, lifespan and metrics. Feather content- smaller content often in form of simple text or photo content that
is posted to blog and social media. It requires less time and resources to produce,
but has a shorter lifespan and diminished SEO potential. [43]
5.2 Curation
Content curation is form of content marketing where company editorially collects the best
content related to a specific topic, enhances that content by adding personal opinions and
expertise. This kind of content then delivers added value to the target audience whoconsumes it after it is published. Well-executed content curation isnt just a recyclation of
content that was already published but rather a personalized retelling of a story. It is good
to start with reading blogs and following experts in the companys industr y on social
media and keep up with new articles and trends.
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By promoting these external stories, it allows company to get in front of their audience
and be seen as a thought leader and not just someone who always promotes their own
brand. [43] [44]
5.3 Optimization
Great content can only meet its true potential if it can be easily found and consumed. *43]
Optimization of the content for search engines will help to get the content more in front
for audience searching for related topics. Increasing readability and availability of the
content will engage people with it and make them share it further.
5.3.1
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web
page in a search engines natural orun-paid (organic) search results.[43] SEO helps search
engine algorithms and social sites figure out why your content is relevant to your
audience.
The importance in getting found in search engines is undeniable. There are people trying
to get their websites to the first positions since first search engines emerged. SEO as a
topic is huge, changing and innovating every day therefore only some parts and simple
basics of SEO will be covered in this thesis.
5.3.1.1 On Page Optimization
One of the most important element in optimization for search engines are keywords. In
the process of creating content is it good to use an analytical tool, such as Google
Keyword Tool, to identify the most relevant keywords. Once these are found it, there are
three important to places in content and in html code where the keywords need to be
integrated:
Title tag
Headline tags
First paragraph of the content
There are also other places that can be easily covered:
Using ALT and TITLE tags with images
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Figure 12 ALT tag
Building links to other content with relevant anchor text
Figure 13 Relevant text as a link to other content
Integrate Meta description into HTML code that is then displayed in Google
search results
Figure 14 Google Search Result
5.3.1.2 External Search Factors
According to Google there are over 200 factors that affect how well the page ranks. And it
is always good to look at few of the basic ones:
Number and quality of inbound links- hyperlinks that link from a webpage back
to the company's website. This factor strongly determines popularity andimportance of the content.
Domain name
Google Authorship - links authors google+ profile with him created content and
gives it extra credibility and visibility. In search results authors picture is
displayed next to the search result.
Using multimedia - such as pictures, infographics, videos etc.
Sharing button - it's important to make sharing as easy as possible and integration
of social media sharing buttons will help.[43] [46]
5.3.2 New Optimization, New SEO?
There is a certain amount of necessity for basic SEO as mentioned above. Other more
complex techniques and factors cost a lot of time and money and are often outsourced.
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SEO companies are very good at on page optimisation based on keyword placement,
keyword density, inbound links etc. All those are still markers of relevance and quality,
but increasingly Google and other search engines are optimising their algorithms to look
at social signal as a truer measure of quality and relevance. Content that people choose to
consume and share within their social networks is driving higher organic search rankings.
And this is leading to a new form of content marketing which is about producing high
quality, engaging, compelling content that is share-worthy and that people want share
within their networks. So Google and other algorithms are looking at things like original
authorship and consumptions patterns, content thats followed, content thats l iked,
content thats shared. This is causing a broad change in optimization of content. Content
shouldnt be optimised for search engines but rather for people. [46]
Investing in nowadays SEO techniques to get better rankings is not a long term solution
because Google (as the leading search engine) is constantly changing their algorithms
how it rates websites so it can provide more accurate results. The best way to improve the
ranking is to produce great content that people link to and this is produced better by
company in-house rather than being outsourced to an agency.Before spending money on
an SEO company, it necessary to be sure that the basics are in place first. [47]
5.4 Social Media in Content Marketing
As mentioned before social media play a huge role in content marketing. If a good and
quality content is produced it needs to get to the right audience. Social media nowadays
are the most effective tools to shout a message to the world. The effectivit