Mediaboss Marketing

Any social media strategy before you tweet, before you pin starts with listening PHOTO: William Iven

Social media marketing leveled the playing field for marketers in companies of all sizes.

When done right, it offers a direct connection with your customers and insight into their needs, their attitudes towards your (and your competitor's) brand and their context.

When done wrong, it's amazing the outsized headaches 140 characters can make.

In this four-part series I'll be sharing the eight mandates that set your social media marketing strategy up for success so you hopefully avoid those headaches.

I believe that listening is the single most important key for marketers who want to be successful in social media.

Although the average person spends about 45 percent of his or her waking hours listening, most of us are simply not very good at it. Various studies conducted over the years have shown that we comprehend and retain only about 25 percent of what we hear.

With that challenge so prevalent, applying good listening strategies and skills in the social media environment becomes even more critical.

"Intentional listening," as my friend and colleague Eric Fletcher calls it, should be front and center in your social media marketing strategy, as it plays an integral role in ensuring that you can find your target audience, hear and understand their wants and needs, and then effectively communicate with them in such a way that establishes trust and strong, long-lasting relationships.

At the outset of your social media marketing program even before implementing your listening tactics do your homework. Conduct surveys and focus groups. Gather responses and evaluate. And spend some quality time "lurking and learning" on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media channels to find out what your target audience has to say.

Finally, make sure you're carefully monitoring your competitors as well. Are they listening to their constituents or just broadcasting marketing messages? You'll have to do a little old-fashioned detective work, but remember that with social media, the playing field truly has been leveled. You don't have to guess about who's doing what just listen.

Too many marketers jump right in and start using various social tools such as Twitter, Google plus and blogs before they've even developed a strategic plan or thought about how those activities might impact the rest of their marketing initiatives.

Don't make that mistake. Take a little time to determine how to best integrate social media into your existing marketing strategy and mix. It'll pay off for you.

Step one in the planning process is to nail down specific social media objectives, based on the listening activities detailed in the first mandate. Now that you know what your constituents care about and are discussing on social media, how does that impact the messages you need to communicate to them? Step two is to integrate your social media strategy into your overall marketing strategy to ensure you can leverage your resources efficiently and effectively and that common goals can be more easily reached.

If you work for a large enterprise, you have two significant advantages over a small business when it comes to planning and budgeting for a social media marketing program. First, your company's DNA most likely has a built-in "think strategically" strand, and second, it also probably has a fairly large wallet.

If, however, you work for or own a small business, you have an advantage as well. You most likely can make strategic decisions and launch new marketing programs fairly quickly. That can be a huge benefit in the fast-paced social media world.

Finally, be sure you're prepared to monitor and measure your impact and progress. Establishing benchmarks and other metrics that can be tracked over time will help you better understand what's working and what's not, and thus be able to make whatever adjustments are necessary to ensure the success of your social media marketing activities.

Check in next week for the next post in this series, where we will discuss developing relationships and establishing trust.

Kent Huffman is a fractional/on-demand CMO at DigiMark Partners, which offers strategic and tactical marketing services to CEOs and owners of small and mid-sized businesses. He is a growth-oriented B2B and B2C marketing and branding executive, C-suite advisor, change agent, and published author with expertise in virtually all aspects of the marketing discipline.

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The Rules of Social Media Marketing Success: Listen and Plan - CMSWire

That is up more than 10% over the 2016 study. Social received the highest rankings for engagement (59%), ROI (39%), and customer service (38%).

Meanwhile, video platforms ranked highest for measurement and reporting features.

"Following our previous digital video survey conducted last June, we accurately predicted social platforms would continue to exceed video platforms as the preferred partner for decision-makers," said Rich Sutton, chief revenue officer of Trusted Media Brands, Inc. "At Trusted Media Brands, we embrace this shift by consistently adapting to what our consumers want. Ultimately, what consumers want, is exactly what advertisers want as well."

Other interesting findings from the report include:

28% of budgets are earmarked for video 58% of those look to short-form content 28% look to premium video 36% say measurement/reporting is a top priority for pre-roll campaigns 34% say engagement is a top priority 33% say viewability is a top priority

Researchers polled more than 300 decision makers from the Advertiser Perceptions Omnibus Panel in April to come to their results.

Tags: advertising video content, social marketing, social video, Trusted Media Brands Inc, video advertising

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Study: Social key for video distribution - Social Marketing - BizReport - BizReport

Pure Barre plots expansion. Credit: Pure Barre

Pure Barre is beefing up its previously gaunt marketing with the hire of its first agency-of-record. The 16-year-old fitness chain, which teaches a ballet barre-based workout, recently hired its first chief marketing officer and is planning a robust branding campaign as part of a business strategy to more than double its locations in the next four years.

"The company has successfully grown to date without any real brand identity, any national or paid social campaignsjust word of mouth," said Scott Breault, who joined Pure Barre as CMO two months ago from a marketing stint at fitness competitor Orangetheory. But now the brand is in "evolution" he said, noting that "the goal is to find a long-term brand identity."

Fort Lauderdale-based Zimmerman is tasked with building a strong branding presence across Pure Barre's more than 450 locationsthe majority of which are franchises. The new push will include a branding identity, new website, digital and paid social marketing and user-generated content. TV may come later, but will not be in the immediate future, Breault said.

"This year, we want to reach the largest audience in the most cost-effective way and that's through a strong digital and paid social campaign," he said. He declined to say how much Pure Barre is spending but noted it is "significant." Last year, the brand, which maintains a dual headquarters in Denver, Colo., and Spartanburg, S.C., spent $307,000 on measured media in the U.S., according to Kantar Media.

Playing up user content could be a wise strategy, as fitness enthusiasts often share their experiences socially, according to a recent interview with Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

"There's an overarching trend of social fitnessdoing fitness activities with a group and sharing that experience with your friends," said Powell.

Pure Barre has about 550,000 members for its U.S. and Canadian locations. It's planning to increase the number of studios to over 1,000 by 2021. To that end, the company hired new executive leadership earlier this year, tapping David Keil from the Honey Baked Ham Co. as chief executive as well as a new chief operations officer and chief development officer.

"Pure Barre is a brand with a cult following because of their commitment to transform people's lives," said Michael Goldberg, CEO of Zimmerman, in a statement. "Our job is to help them pave the way for new members, new franchise locations and new profit centers that accelerate that growth."

Of course, the fitness landscape, even for boutique brands, is increasingly competitive as fickle consumers ping-pong between the latest and greatest fads. Last month, SoulCycle, the spinning chain that has been gearing up for an IPO, debuted its first branding campaign, an effort with Laird & Partners.

Rick Caro, president of sports consultancy Management Vision, recently spoke with Ad Age about what brands need to do to differentiate in order to maintain growth momentum.

"What you need to do is reinvest in the brand and make sure everyone sees it the way you do," he said.

Originally posted here:
This Fitness Chain Is Adding Muscle to Its Marketing With New AOR Zimmerman - AdAge.com

Pepsi Fox News Uber. Look at recent headlines, and youll see the impact social media can have on a brand. In todays 24/7 news cycle, responding quickly and appropriately to customers on social media can be the difference between success and disaster.

Why do brands still struggle with social media? Its complex: new social networks and touch points are constantly emerging, its hard to scale and integrate multiple departments and martech systems, and its unpredictable. You have to be ready for anything to go viral.

Join our social marketing experts from MMI Agency and Lithium as they show how to improve social engagement and go from broadcasting to conversing with customers. Youll hear best practices and results of a recent research study on the social engagement of 70 global consumer brands across hundreds of social channels.

Register today for Start Listening! 7 Real-World Tips for Better Social Engagement produced by Digital Marketing Depot and sponsored by Lithium.

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Start Listening! 7 Real-World Tips for Better Social Engagement - Search Engine Land

Kristina: What do digital brands need to know about the influencer trend?

Ted Dhanik, CEO & Co-Founder, engage:BDR: Influencer marketing is a great way to connect with audiences in a genuine way (when executed properly, of course). One of our most unexpected tips is to not underestimate micro-influencers. Working with genuine content and very relevant influencers is really key to success in this channel, and micro-influencers are often a great way to achieve that, since they maintain niche audiences and see great engagement. Obviously, scale is important, but we're aiming to help marketers ensure that that scale is reached in a way that doesn't sacrifice engagement, relevance, or tone.

Kristina: How can influencers help digital brands?

Ted: Many people think of influencer marketing as a way to drive sales, but influencers can also be incredibly effective in helping to build an online following for a brand. If a brand has a quality digital presence and is creating great content, being able to own their audience is huge. Brands like Glossier and Fashion Nova do this super effectively. Their products are exposed to audiences through influencer collaborations, but they're also driving people to opt-in to follow the brand account. This works because they are pumping out fantastic content, which creates a win-win for consumers, who are self-selecting to receive the brand messaging, and the brand, who now owns an audience they can message directly.

Kristina: Is this the time for brands to try to build relevance through influencers?

Ted: Absolutely! More and more people are connecting with their favorite influencers online, so the opportunities for marketers are growing. Additionally, new tech is allowing the process of influencer discovery, campaign planning, transaction, execution, and validation to be streamlined, making this type of marketing accessible to brands who may not have the resources to dedicate a team to it.

Tags: engage:BDR, Iconic Research, influencer marketing, instagram advertising, social marketing

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What brands need to know about the Instagram influencer platform ... - BizReport