soical media strategy - fac

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

FINE ARTS CENTER - UMASS AMHERST

FINE ARTS CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERST

CHANNELS▸ Facebook▸ Twitter▸ Youtube▸ Instagram▸ Pinterest ▸ Yelp▸ Google+


WHAT WE USE THEM FOR ▸ The Fine Art Center

mainly uses Facebook to: ▸ promote event pages for upcoming

events at the FAC

▸ promote event pages for upcoming local events

▸ share pictures and videos of the FAC

▸ share historical FAC media

▸ share other general articles related to the FAC or the Pioneer Valley


TWITTER - 1,843 FOLLOWERS▸ The Fine Arts Center mainly

uses Twitter to:▸ promote upcoming events at the FAC

▸ share media (pictures and videos) from upcoming performers

▸ promoting other local events or opportunities - both Western MA and Umass related

▸ sharing general Umass or Pioneer Valley news


YOUTUBE - 24 SUBSCRIBERS▸ The Fine Arts Center

mainly uses Youtube to:▸ promote upcoming FAC events

▸ share videos of upcoming performers

▸ provide updates for FAC galleries and series


INSTAGRAM - 425 FOLLOWERS▸ The Fine Arts Center

mainly uses Instagram to:

▸ post pictures and video from around the Fine Arts Center

▸ capturing moments at FAC events

▸ promoting upcoming shows at the FAC and other venues


PINTEREST - 45 FOLLOWERS▸ The Fine Arts

Center mainly uses Pinterest to:

▸ post media that fans of FAC event would be interested in

▸ create a virtual bulletin board for the local community


YELP & GOOGLE REVIEWS

▸ Yelp and Google Reviews vary a bit from the afore mentioned social channels because the majority of the content is posted by the general public. The interaction that we have with these posts usually consists of a comment back or a simple like. I will keep this in mind when considering social media management platforms.


SO WHY SHOULD THE FAC USE A SMM TOOL?▸ Over the past decade, the importance of maintaining multiple

social channels has come to the forefront of maintaining a brand

▸ People want the businesses that they use to interact with them online just as another person would, answering their questions immediately and providing up-to-the-minute updates.

▸ In order to stay relevant and to stay on people’s radars, the FAC must have the ability to oversee all of it’s social channels in a way that is comprehensive and easy to run.

▸ That is where a social media management platform comes in


WHICH PLATFORM WOULD WORK BEST FOR THE FAC?▸ By researching the most popular platforms, I have

compiled a list of the top 13. In an effort to learn which would best suit the FAC, I will now provide an in-depth analysis of each. In the end I will explain which platforms will work best and why, taking into account our needs, the general public’s needs and cost.


THE PLATFORMS▸ Hootsuite▸ Agora Pulse▸ Social Oomph▸ EveryPost▸ Sprout Social▸ Buffer▸ Oktopost

▸ IFTTT▸ Brand24▸ Cyfe▸ Sendible▸ Sysomos▸ Zoho Social


▸ Well developed and complete list of analytics tools

▸ Comprehensive social monitoring

▸ Clean and easy to read social media reporting

▸ Cost for extras adds up quick

▸ Most advanced functionality reserved for enterprises

▸ Publishing and curating content could be more intuitive

Pros Cons

▸ Hootsuite has established itself as the premier social media management platform. What it lacks in affordability, it makes up for in user experience and integration. The price for additional reports and features is quite expensive. All in all, a great platform but can get a bit pricey.

Base price:

$14.99/mo


▸ Single dashboard approach to simplify management

▸ Monitoring competitors’ social activity

▸ Ability to create social analytic reports for free

▸ Real time synchronization

▸ User interface is a bit underdeveloped

▸ Some features either don't work at all or don't work properly

▸ Not possible to customize reports

Pros Cons

▸ Agorapulse is very comparable to Hootsuite in ability and features but chooses to charge extra for different features. This platform is ideal for businesses with a small team but with the need to produce many different reports. Agorapulse offers many of the same features at a lower cost.

Base price:

$99/mo


▸ Advanced Twitter analytic reports and features

▸ Tracking keywords, reusing drafts and using multiple accounts

▸ Ability to create custom reports

▸ Boring and cluttered interface

▸ Mainly focuses on Twitter, recent addition of other channels

▸ No smartphone app

▸ Auto-follow feature can lead to spamming

Pros Cons

▸ Socialoomph is a fairly new platform that has its roots in the Twitter marketplace. It has grown in the last year to include Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin but those features are still growing. It is fairly cheap but lacks in interface design and integration.

Base price:

$40/mo


▸ Interface is clean and easy to use

▸ Quick and easy posting feature


▸ Not compatible with Instagram

▸ No analytic features

▸ Only available for iOS and Android currently, but a web version is coming soon

Pros Cons

▸ EveryPost’s free feature is definitely a valuable tool. It allows for quick and easy posting to all of the major channels. The pro version however has some tough competition. They do not offer any analytic reports or information and their only support is through email. All in all, a good resource but not to pay for.

Base price:

$9.99/mo


▸ In-depth social media engagement analytics

▸ Data filled dashboard that maintains clarity

▸ Well designed discovery feature that inspires new interactions

▸ Expensive

▸ Does not integrate with Pinterest or Instagram

▸ Compose feature is difficult to locate

Pros Cons

▸ Sprout Social’s dashboard is quite comparable to Hootsuite while maintaining a much cleaner dashboard. Though the platform costs quite a bit extra, it provides a great deal of analytical reports. The fact that it integrates with fewer channels is a drawback that makes it difficult to justify.

Base price:

$99/mo


▸ Personalized network analytics

▸ Time-centered posting platform

▸ Google chrome extension that is useful and easy to learn

▸ No monitoring for mentions

▸ Can’t directly view feed or interact with followers

▸ Bare bones layout that lacks some vital tools

Pros Cons

▸ Buffer’s time oriented posting is what sets it above the rest. It automatically analyzes your network and content then decides when to post it. Buffer is simple and quick but it lacks in user interaction.

Base price:

$50/mo


▸ Advanced customized messaging feature

▸ Simple post scheduling

▸ Analytics allow for lead monitoring and generation

▸ Few learning resources and support documents

▸ Analytics can be difficult to understand

▸ Reusing content is tedious

Pros Cons

▸ Oktopost is a platform bred for B2B engagement but has adapted to the B2C market well. It excels in pinpointing potential leads within the network but lacks in usability. It is a good resource for the price but many of its competitors offer better deals.

Base price:

$65/mo


▸ Integrating services that don't usually interact

▸ Automates easy tasks


▸ Free

▸ Can only connect two services at a time

▸ User experience can be clunky at times


Pros Cons

▸ IFTTT stands for “if this, than that” and offers a free platform for social media management. It allows for cross platform integration that is not offered by many of the other services. It lacks in user experience but it definitely a useful free tool.

Base price:

$0/mo


▸ Advanced listening, mention and influencer analytics

▸ Ideal for small/midsize businesses

▸ Intuitive pricing tiers

▸ Not a publishing tool

▸ Some functions cost extra

▸ Only archives a year of data

Pros Cons

▸ Though Brand24 does not support publishing and curating content, it is a great tool for listening to the market. It would work well for understanding what our audience wants to see but not for telling them when its happening. Useful tool but perhaps not exactly what the FAC is looking for.

Base price:

$0/mo


▸ Ability to integrate all facets of online business - not just social

▸ Unlimited team usage

▸ Pre-built widgets to help gather data

▸ Not compatible with Instagram or Pinterest

▸ Dashboard can be confusing at times


Pros Cons

▸ Cyfe’s major upside is that it has the ability to bring in data from a variety of other services like Paypal. Also, you are not limited to the number of people that can use the platform at a time. Aside from the confusing dashboard this is an all around good platform.

Base price:

$19/mo


▸ Integrates Dropbox and Google Drive

▸ CRM manager (added cost)

▸ Mobile app

▸ Cost for extras adds up quick

▸ Confusing pricing structure

▸ Constant issues tagging and mentioning on social

Pros Cons

▸ I would classify Sendible as the knock-off version of Hootsuite. They have similar pricing structures and similar specs. Though it does have widgets that integrate with apps like Google Drive, they are sometimes difficult to use.

Base price:

$99/mo


▸ Strong social listening and influencing features

▸ Innovative graph and data features

▸ Comprehensive social campaign management (with sister app)

▸ Data visualization can take some time to load

▸ Pricing adds quickly, especially when adding users

▸ Base price is high as well

Pros Cons

▸ Sysomos is the whole package. Combined with its sister app Expion, it is able to listen and gauge the audience as well as cater content to them. Sysomos’s biggest downside is its very high price but it will no doubt perform.

Base price:

$1000/mo


▸ Clean, responsive interface

▸ Very reasonable pricing

▸ Discuss tab encourages collaboration among curators

▸ No Pinterest or YouTube support

▸ Social listening and analytics cannot communicate with each other

▸ Cannot attach videos to posts

Pros Cons

▸ ZoHo Social is an easy to use platform that offers a clean and organized data without sacrificing quality. It is very reasonably priced for the services that it provides. Its biggest downfall is its inability to attach videos to post.

Base price:

$50/mo


SO WHICH ONES WOULD FIT US BEST?▸ I’ve narrowed it down to my top three, each with a

different selling point▸

▸


▸ Agorapulse simplifies the messaging world. They have a single inbox for all incoming messages so that you never miss one.

▸ Though it has a higher monthly rate than Hootsuite, it will end up being cheaper in the long run because of all the additional costs built into Hootsuite.

▸ For me, Cyfe is the best option. It has the ability to produce many different reports, all nicely visualized.

▸ It is much cheaper than Hootsuite and Agorapulse and offers many of the same features.

▸ Another plus, is that it allows for unlimited team usage.

▸ Sysomos and its sister app Expion, form the ultimate social listening and engagement platform. It is essentially the combination of Hootsuite and Brand24.

▸ The price is where this one falls, at $1000/mo base. This is so much higher than the other platforms that it is difficult to justify. Although it would most definitely fulfill our needs.


SO THE SHORT ANSWER IS….

THE END

soical media strategy - fac

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