Assignment #2: Social Media Participation
Introduction
Social media participation can be interpreted in many different ways. Nonetheless, in all aspects, it is very crucial for any business to succeed. First, and foremost, social media participation is exactly what it is, getting users to be active participants on social media. Though it may sound simple, it is actually quite complicated. There are several components a company should consider when aiming to increase its social media participation. These components include but are not limited to, developing a structure for social media, allocating marketing resources, the general content in which the business decides to share, and the conversation the business is trying to stir up among the users.
Social Media Channels
First, to decide if the business should adopt one platform as its main social media channel versus utilizing several channels. From my perspective, it is best to utilize several social media channels to ensure that the social media reach is being as spread out as possible. Another important thing to note is that even if a business chooses to be active on multiple social media platforms, it should still customize its content based off of each platform (Stokes, 2018). For example, Twitter is a more restrictive social media channel in terms of text. On Twitter, you can only tweet out a limited amount of words. Therefore, it is important that if a company is sharing an important message via Twitter, it still has to find a way to get the same message across with fewer words. Instagram, on the other hand, is not so restrictive with its word count but is more of a visual-based social media platform. So, if the company could find some way to incorporate the text into an image like an infographic, that would be ideal to get the users engaged and become active participants.
Engagement
The idea of getting the users engaged and becoming active participants leads to the next component of social media participation which is allocating marketing resources. At times it is not enough to depend on the internal resources of a company and to see progressive results, one must seek external resources. Marketing resources can vary in many different forms, but deciding which ones will be the most ideal for the company be tricky at times. According to Bluleadz, there are top 20 digital marketing resources that every business needs in their arsenal (See Figure 1). This top 20 list includes HubSpot, Google Analytics, and Google Ads Blog which are all social media marketing resources that have been covered thus far in the Digital Marketing Communications program (Previte, 2019). For this reason, they must truly be effective options for additional external marketing resources. From my own experience, using these marketing resources does indeed allow more insight into how the company is performing in terms of social media presence and engagement.
Content
Moving along into the actual content that the business is intending to share, this is essentially the product of all the strategizing that the business has been deliberating. Those in charge of the social media marketing at the business have to determine what type of content will spark the most dialogue and create a call to action. To give an applicable real-life example, I am the Marketing Coordinator at PEER Consultants, P.C. and my job is essentially brainstorm, create, and produce social media content that is going to engage the viewer and drive them to our landing page. The goal is also to expand our reach which can also be done by getting more users engaged. The more users are participating in the content that we produce, the more reach we can have. With that being said, within the content itself, there must be a conversation that the users can easily join.
Conversation
Now the debating factor is what is exactly will encourage users to join the conversation. As mentioned in the module readings, you want people to make a noise, store and share things, love your website, visit more frequently, refer the company, buy into the brand, and buy the products. These are all the desires and in essence the needs of a company. However, attaining these desires and need is certainly a challenge. One approach that I have taken in sharing content for PEER Consultants, P.C., and sparking up a conversation is by always including a question or leaving the posted open-ended so our viewers can easily contribute their answers and ideas.
Ultimately, I do very much believe that content vs. conversation factor into the decisions regarding social media participation. I also strongly believe that it does not necessarily have to be one versus the other but the two intertwined in some shape or form. Social media is a very trial and error type of tool so it is better to try out all the options in many different ways even if it means combining the options.
Applying into Real-Life
Furthermore, taking all of these components into consideration, I can have a better grasp of applying this to my daily tasks for work. Thus far, I had been primarily focusing on the content of our social media channels and not so much on the marketing resources. Though it is the marketing resources that will confirm if the content I am producing is in fact effective for sparking up a conversation amongst our users. From the content and conversation, we can see our social media participation increase along with our overall company success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media participation can be interpreted and attained in many different ways. There is no end-all-be-all in terms of getting users engaged with the content that a business is sharing. It is very much a trial and error process. Nevertheless, there are still components that a company should take into consideration when aim to increase their social media participation. These components include but are not limited to, developing a structure for social media, allocating marketing resources, the general content in which the business decides to share, and the conversation the business is trying to stir up among the users. After analyzing these components, I am now motivated to apply them to my work and see what overall improvements and success PEER Consultants, P.C. can achieve.
References
Previte, J. (2019, October 11). 20 digital marketing resources every business needs in their arsenal. Tampa Inbound Marketing Agency. https://www.bluleadz.com/blog/15-places-to-get-the-best-digital-marketing-resources.
Stokes, R. (2018). P.109. In EMarketing: The essential guide to marketing in a digital world. (Sixth ed.). Cape Town: Red & Yellow Creative School of Business.ences
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