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Today, the LUMI pre-exascale supercomputer was inaugurated in Kajaani, Finland. LUMIwhich currently weighs in around 152 Linpack petaflops, but is expected to soon exceed 375represents the largest success thus far of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, Europes concerted supercomputing play. LUMI marks the beginning of the end for the first phase of EuroHPC, but the second phase (keywords: exascale and quantum) is already underway. Here, we cover the state of EuroHPC systems and initiatives both past and future, informed by both anHPCwire interview with Anders Jensen, executive director of EuroHPC, and his session at ISC 2022.

In June 2019, EuroHPC selected eight supercomputer centers across the European Union to host its first eight systemsfive decidedly petascale systems, and three pre-exascale systems designed to rate in the hundreds of petaflops. Five of those octuplets have already been delivered.

Vega, the first EuroHPC supercomputer delivered, is a 1,020-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs that launched in Slovenia in April 2021. The system has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its 960-node CPU partition (3.82 Linpack petaflops, #131) and its 60-node GPU partition (3.10 Linpack petaflops, #172).

MeluXina is an 813-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs that launched in Luxembourg in June 2021. MeluXina also has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its 573-node cluster module (2.29 Linpack petaflops, #306) and its 200-node accelerator module (10.52 Linpack petaflops, #48).

Karolina is an 831-node HPE-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs (along with a handful of Intel Xeon CPUs) that launched in Czechia in the summer of 2021. Karolina, too, has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its CPU partition (2.84 Linpack petaflops, #202) and its GPU partition (6.75 Linpack petaflops, #79).

Discoverer is a 1,128-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs that launched in Bulgaria in October 2021. At 4.52 Linpack petaflops, the system ranked 113th on the spring Top500 list.

LUMI, the first of EuroHPCs pre-exascale systems to be delivered, is a 4,112-node HPE-built system with AMD Epyc Trento CPUs and AMD MI250X GPUs (the same architecture as the new Frontier exascale supercomputer) that launched in Finland today. Currently, LUMIs main 2,560-node GPU-accelerated partition (LUMI-G) rates at 151.90 Linpack petaflops, earning third place on the spring Top500 list, while its 1,536-node CPU partition (LUMI-C) rates at 6.30 Linpack petaflops and placed 84th. LUMIs power is expected to dramatically increase in the coming weeks, eventually exceeding 375 Linpack petaflops.

Deucalion will be the last of EuroHPCs first five petascale systems when it is delivered in Portugal later this year. Deucalion, interestingly, will consist of three partitions: a 1,632-node Arm partition based on Fujitsus A64FX processor (expected to deliver 3.8 Linpack petaflops), a 500-node x86 partition powered by AMD Epyc Rome CPUs (1.62 Linpack petaflops) and a 33-node accelerated partition with both AMD CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs. [For] Deucalion, were waiting for the datacenter to be finalized, everything else is ready, Jensen said.

Leonardo will be the second of EuroHPCs pre-exascale systems when it arrives later this year in Italy. The Atos-built supercomputer will include a 1,536-node data-centric module with Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPUs and a 3,456-node booster module with Intel Xeon Ice Lake CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs (240.5 Linpack petaflops). Leonardo is being constructed as we sit here and I hope and expect that we will see an announcement on the November Top500, Jensen said.

MareNostrum 5, the long-awaited successor to the MareNostrum 4 system at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), is EuroHPCs problem child. In October 2020, Jensen had said to expect an announcement on the procurement in the coming weeks. That did not come to pass; the tender was canceled in May 2021 amid much purported drama before being reissued in late December. That second tender closed at the end of January 2022.

[For] MareNostrum 5, we went through the process of the procurement, weve closed that, and with a little luck, within the next week or so youll be able to see an announcement on that moving forward and with a timeline, Jensen said. Were in the final rounds of contract negotiations. (It has now been two weeks since that interview, and we eagerly await further news on MareNostrum 5.)

MareNostrum 5 is aimed at delivering at least 205 Linpack petaflops.

All eight of those systems are covered by EuroHPCs first regulation from the European Commission. That first regulation covered the slate through 2021; now, the Joint Undertaking has a new regulationand a new budgetfor the coming six years. That budget (around 7 billion) consists of around 3.5 billion from the Digital Europe Program, the Horizon Europe Program and the Connecting Europe Facility, all of which is expected to be matched by national contributions from EuroHPC member states that host forthcoming systems and facilities.

Europes first exascale systems (and more!)

Speaking of which: included in that budget are at least two exascale systems, with the site selection for one coming very, very soon. Shortly before Christmas, we went out with that callwhich countries would like to host essentially the first European exascale system? Jensen said. And weve had the responses back, weve evaluated them; now, I cant disclose any more than that other than that its on the agenda of our governing board meeting, which takes place in Kajaaniweve colocated it with the inauguration of LUMI. So, on the 14th of June, the governing board is to decide who will host Europes first exascale machine along with also a number of new mid-ranges.

Its clear were going to continue to invest in machines, but its also for geographical diversitywe want to get more users on it, we want to increase the knowledge within HPC, he added. So I think youre going to continue to see new countries joining the HPC scene and wishing to have machines of their own so they can grow the ecosystem within their country.

As far as when we can expect to learn the outcomes of that meeting: I think you can expect some announcements shortly following that [meeting], Jensen said, and then starts the hard work of actually delivering.

Quantum

Quantum computing is also part of EuroHPCs second phasewith an asterisk. With the new regulation, quantum was added to the EuroHPC agenda, and it was added heavily, Jensen said. So weve gone out again with a call where were asking who wishes to host the first EuroHPC quantum computers. That call has not yet closed. Jensen did, during his session on EuroHPC at ISC 2022, clarify that much of the research and innovation on quantum technologies still rests under the purview of the European Commission; as it stands, EuroHPC has been tasked with delivering quantum infrastructure for scientists and coupling quantum technologies to HPC.

The aim is to provide access to quantum computers to the European community just like were providing access to HPC systems, he said. We are focusing on diversity in technology, so what we would like to have is as many quantum technologies available so that scientists and any potential users of them can get to know what using quantum is all about and we can enrich our knowledge on that.

The Joint Undertaking, he said, was also looking to federate and interconnect its existing machines. Right now, were buying a number of systems and were making them available, but we cant help but think that putting them together, some of them, into bigger systems, could have potential, Jensen said. And vis-a-vis federation: as the number of EuroHPC systems grows, Jensen said, we cant keep on managing them as individual machines.

The far future

The regulation also dictates post-exascale, but we have yet to define what post-exascale means, Jensen said.

Jensen also stressed the importance of building HPC talent and technology in Europe. I think the whole Covid situation and different geopolitical situations have led Europe to wake up to the factand its not just in HPC, its just in generalthat weve become very reliant on other parts of the world supplying what we may not realize [are] very critical components, Jensen said. And then all of a sudden you need it, and thats when you realize its critical.

We have a very ambitious agenda of wanting a significant European technology footprint within the second exascale system that were going to fund, Jensen continued; in his talk the following day, he specified a processor built by the European Processor Initiative (EPI). Like EuroHPC, EPI entered its second phase this year; that second phase aims to finalize EPIs first-gen low-power processors and develop second-generation processors. In parallel to that, you have the whole [European Chips Act] thats come to life via the Commission, and all the interesting things that thats going to bring, Jensen continued, and on the EuroHPC side we have already a placeholder for research and innovation calls in and around RISC-V and other processor technologies.

Europe needs to regain some self-sufficiencysome ability to do things ourselves, Jensen said. That doesnt mean we dont want to play with others, it just means we also want to be able to do things. And on the technology side, something like a European processor is an extremely important component in order to be able to rest assured [that] we would be more self-sustaining. But also, its not just about thatits also about regaining that knowledge of how to do it so that we have the expertise and we can build an ecosystem around it.

To that end, Jensen said that EuroHPC will also be issuing a number of calls to further increase the knowledge of HPC and the skills within HPC.

Alongside that emphasis on homegrown European technology, non-European companies like HPE and Intel have also been investing heavily in establishing fabs, factories and innovation centers in Europe in recent months.

What weve seen from a number of players is a willingness to play with Europe, to be part of this, Jensen said when asked about these developments. What were saying as Europe is: we want to be part of it! We dont want just to buy something off the shelf that we ship inno, we want to be part of the process. And I think what a number of manufacturers and non-European companies have seen is: there is some expertise within Europe that they can also tap into.

Weve clearly seen a change in a number of non-European players, which I really welcome, he added, and Id like to think that the engagement of EuroHPC had at least a little to do with it.

Header image: LUMIs new datacenter. Image courtesy of CSC.

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As LUMI Launches, a Look at the State of EuroHPC - HPCwire

As quantum computing race heats up, EvolutionQ secures $7 million CAD for quantum-safe cybersecurity.

Led by a group of cryptography and quantum computing experts from the University of Waterloo, EvolutionQ wants to help organizations ready themselves for quantum computers.

The Kitchener-Waterloo startup has raised over $7 million CAD ($5.5 million USD) in Series A financing led by Quantonation, a Paris-based, quantum technology-focused VC fund, with support from Torontos The Group Ventures, to scale up its quantum-safe cybersecurity tech.

The price of being too late is far too great.-Michele Mosca, EvolutionQ

Existing cybersecurity infrastructure is built on cryptographic puzzles that traditional computers struggle to solve. But according to experts, quantum computers, which promise to deliver massive jumps forward in processing power, could breeze past these roadblocks.

EvolutionQ co-founder and CEO Michele Mosca believes that amid recent advancements in the space, the time is now for organizations to future-proof their systems and ensure they are ready to weather the threat of quantum computers by migrating to quantum-safe cryptography. He should knowprior to launching EvolutionQ, Mosca co-founded the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, where he also worked as a professor.

Quantum computers are getting closer and closer, said Mosca, in an interview with BetaKit. Theres a lot of awareness of this nowyou can already get access to the current prototypes. Now, we know theyre not cryptographically relevant today, but given how long it takes to get cryptographically relevant, we need to be getting ready.

EvolutionQ aims to ease this process. Founded in 2015 by Mosca and CTO Norbert Ltkenhausa pair of University of Waterloo professors and quantum computing experts-turned tech entrepreneursEvolutionQs all-equity Series A round marks the startups first external financing.

The Group Ventures Managing Partner Chanda Carr told BetaKit that the firm was attracted, in part, to the strength of EvolutionQs leadership, calling Mosca and Ltkenhaus second to none in the industry.

Quantonation Managing Partner Christophe Jurczak echoed the sentiment. He described EvolutionQ as the most remarkable team of academic founders in the field of quantum-safe cybersecurity, with seminal contributions in the sector and a unique viewpoint; giving them the ability to understand the threat that emerging quantum computers represent for companies, governments, and individuals.

RELATED: D-Wave hopes to raise $431 million CAD as it prepares to go public via SPAC

Jurczak added that he was particularly impressed by EvolutionQs focus on reducing expenses for customers by minimizing tech-switching costs between hardware vendors. They are providing the missing component to build technologically and economically effective quantum networks, he claimed.

EvolutionQ was bootstrapped up to this point, getting its start providing advisory services and risk assessments, which Mosca said helped EvolutionQ grow and educate the market for quantum-safe cybersecurity, and provided the firm with revenue during its early days.

Through this process, Mosca said EvolutionQ identified a gap that we knew we could fill better than anyone else. Three years ago, the company built and launched its flagship BasejumpQDN software product, which allows organizations building a network based on quantum key distribution (QKD) devices to deploy and manage quantum technologies throughout said network.

According to The Group Ventures Managing Partner Sion Balass, while there are a lot of players supporting quantum safety, many operate in the post-quantum cryptography space, whereas EvolutionQ serves the QKD solution space, which he claims is significantly less competitive.

RELATED: Xanadu secures $120 million CAD led by Bessemer to build photonic quantum computer

According to Mosca, the stakes are very high given that almost everything in todays world is connected by technology. Its the entire economy, he said. Its not just information security and safety Its operational technology, cyber-physical systems, driverless cars, implanted medical devices.

While the development of quantum computers has been slow moving, given that it takes time to ensure systems are quantum-ready, Mosca says organizations cant afford to wait to update their cybersecurity. We cant tolerate much risk herewe need to be ready, he said. The price of being too late is far too great.

To date, several companies have developed quantum computer prototypes, from big tech firms like Google and IBM, to startups like Toronto-based Xanadu.

Xanadu, which is reportedly raising $100 million USD led by Georgian at a $1 billion post-money valuation, recently hit an elusive milestone with its Borealis machine, delivering a result beyond the practical reach of a conventional computer system, according to a paper published in the research journal Nature.

RELATED: The Group Ventures secures $20 million for Fund II to invest in Canadian, Israeli tech startups

Meanwhile, Burnaby-based quantum computing pioneer D-Wave is planning to go public on the NYSE as part of a $431 million CAD SPAC deal that is expected to close during the second quarter of this year.

While VC funding has cooled in recent months amid a broader market slowdown, cybersecurity investment has remained high, benefitting firms like EvolutionQ and Vancouver and Mountain View, California-based LimaCharlie.

EvolutionQlike D-Wavehas a presence in Germany, where the company opened an office in 2020. The startup plans to invest the fresh capital in sales, marketing, and engineering, as it looks to grow its presence both in Canada and internationally, and expand its product.

From a customer standpoint, the startup targets its tech and advisory services towards financial institutions, which Mosca said have a high degree of cybersecurity maturity, resources, and talent, and have been amongst EvolutionQs earliest adopters. EvolutionQ also works with parts of government, and players in the information technology and healthcare spaces.

Feature image of EvolutionQ CEO Michele Mosca, Chief Cryptographer David Jao, CTO Norbert Ltkenhaus, and VP Brian Neill, courtesy EvolutionQ.

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University of Waterloo quantum expert-led EvolutionQ aims to help orgs prepare for the quantum age - BetaKit - Canadian Startup News

What is social marketing, and how does it relate to the media? In order to understand how the media work, you first need to understand social marketing. The media is a subset of social marketing tools that allow people to connect and share information. In the past, people used the media to passively receive information, but now people are using the media to actively engage with each other.

In this article, well explore social marketing and how it can be used to achieve desired outcomes. Well also discuss how the media can be used to support social marketing objectives.

Social marketing is a process that applies commercial marketing techniques to promote changes in human behavior. But unlike traditional commercial marketing strategies, which have purely financial motives, social marketers aim to influence behaviors that will improve peoples well-being.

Social marketing is a means of influencing the behavior of large numbers of people for the common good. When using this method, businesses dont aim to alter peoples opinions for their own benefit; instead, they aim to bring social transformation.

It is concerned with stimulating awareness, influencing behavior, and assisting the environment in which people live. When individuals are ready to change, it is possible to achieve these objectives. According to statistics, 80 out of every 100 persons are willing to participate in social transformation.

Sustainability should be peoples first concern since there are an increasing number of social and environmental problems. Negative environmental and social changes worsen the quality of life. Some businesses utilize social marketing to avoid this.

They tackle global issues such as hunger, poverty, education accessibility, air pollution, water scarcity, and noise pollution. They encourage people to be more aware and caring of the environment by raising these problems. In turn, the environment and society improve, and the businesss reputation is enhanced.

The media can help social marketing in many ways. Social marketing efforts can be used to raise awareness of issues, it can be used to influence behavior change, and it can be used to support marketing objectives.

When using the media to raise awareness of issues, businesses should consider using multiple channels such as television, radio, newspapers, podcasts, and the internet. They should also create catchy slogans and jingles that will stay in peoples minds. In addition, they should use celebrities or other well-known figures to endorse their products or services.

The media can also be used to influence behavior. For example, if a company wants people to stop smoking cigarettes, they could run ads that show the negative effects of smoking. They could also sponsor programs that help people quit smoking.

Finally, the media can be used to support social marketing objectives. For example, if a company wants to reduce littering, it could run ads that show the negative effects of littering. They could also sponsor programs that teach people about the importance of recycling.

One cool feature about the media is that it can always be re-purposed in multiple ways. This simply means that the media can be used repeatedly to support different objectives.

Your content will continue to live on while earning you credibility and helping to drive sales. In addition to repurposing the content from your media placement on all of your social media channels, you can put the media outlets logo on your website and marketing materials. This 3rd party validation separates you from your competitors and can also help drive sales.

There are numerous ways to effectively implement a social marketing strategy. Because the effectiveness of your campaign is based on the chosen strategies, well give you five fantastic tips on implementing:

Understanding your target audience helps you figure out what to do. Data-driven research allows you to see through the lens of your audience. As a result, youll choose the appropriate approaches and methods for interacting with these individuals effectively and expressing your ideas.

Before starting a social marketing campaign, you should have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve. This will help you measure the success of your campaign and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Some common objectives for social marketing campaigns include raising awareness, changing behavior, and supporting a cause.

In addition, it is important to set realistic goals that can be achieved within the given time frame. Otherwise, you run the risk of disappointing both yourself and your audience.

Its also worth mentioning that your objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This acronym is used in project management to keep track of progress and ensure that goals are being met.

Your social marketing campaign will only be successful if you can convince your audience to take the desired action. This means that you need to have a clear and persuasive message.

Some ways to make your message more convincing include using statistics, telling stories, and using strong visuals.

Its also important to remember that people are more likely to take action if they feel like theyre part of a community or if they feel like theyre making a difference.

Therefore, you should focus on building relationships and creating a sense of belonging. Only then will people be convinced to take the desired action.

Emotion is one of the most powerful tools in persuasion. When people are emotional, theyre more likely to act without thinking things through.

This is why its so important to use emotion in your social marketing campaign. If you can make people feel something, theyre more likely to take action.

Some ways to evoke emotion include using stories, using strong visuals, and focusing on the positive impacts of taking the desired action.

People are more likely to take action if they believe that its in their best interest to do so. This is why its important to appeal to self-interest in your social marketing campaign.

Some ways to do this include focusing on the benefits of taking the desired action, emphasizing how easy it is to take the desired action, and highlighting how taking the desired action will make people feel good about themselves.

A slogan is a short and memorable phrase that sums up your message. Its important to choose the right slogan for your social marketing campaign because it will be one of the first things that people see, and it will stay with them long after theyve seen it.

Some tips for choosing the right slogan include making it short, making it memorable, and ensuring that it conveys the desired message.

One of the best ways to ensure that your social marketing campaign is on point is to build focus groups. Focus groups allow you to get feedback from a group of people before you launch your campaign.

This feedback can be invaluable in helping you fine-tune your message and make sure that its convincing. Additionally, focus groups can help you identify any potential objections that people might have when taking a desired action.

Now that weve gone over what social marketing is and how to do it, lets take a look at some examples.

One example of social marketing is the Be The Match campaign by the National Marrow Donor Program. This campaign encouraged young adults to register to be bone marrow donors.

Another example is the Tobacco Free Florida campaign, which encouraged Floridians to quit smoking

A third example is the No More campaign by domestic violence prevention organization, No More. This campaign used public service announcements and social media to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Finally, an example of social marketing that you might be familiar with is the Got Milk? campaign by the California Milk Processor Board. This long-running ad campaign encourages people to drink milk for its calcium content.

Each of these campaigns used different strategies to achieve its desired goal. However, they all had one thing in common: they were able to convince their audience to take action.

No, social media marketing is not the same as social marketing. A social media campaign uses online platforms to build relationships and interact with customers. Its a way to connect with potential and current customers using various digital channels such as blogs, forums, discussion boards, microblogs, wikis, podcasts, images, videos, and social networks.

On the other hand, social marketing is a process that uses commercial marketing techniques to promote changes in human behavior.

Social marketing is a powerful tool that can be used to achieve various goals. By understanding the principles of social marketing and using them in your own campaigns, you can create persuasive content that will convince people to take the desired action.

Thank you for reading! We hope this article helped explain social marketing and how we can use it to achieve our goals. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

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Social Marketing: What Is It And How Does It Relate To The Media?

Posted By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab on 4 Oct, 2021

Social marketingis the branch of marketing that aims to promote social causes or general interest. Social marketing will notably play on thesocial valuesof targets to convince them. Philip Kotler summarized the challenge in the title of hisbookpublished in 2008: social marketing: changing behavior to do good.

The term social marketing wascoinedby Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in 1971. At the time, it was used to describe marketing actions that could change social behavior.

Social marketing should not be confused with social advertising or even social communication. In the words of Kotler and Zaltman:

Social marketing is the design, implementation, and monitoring of programs designed to influence the acceptability of social ideas and that embeds planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research considerations.

Logically, Kotler and Zaltman developed the concept of social marketing in 1971 according to McCarthys 4Ps (for more information, see our article on the marketing mix).

In a classical business framework,market researchis conducted, a product is developed to meet the targets needs, and then marketed. This ad hoc development dimension also exists in social marketing but is not limited to a specific product. Selling the social idea (dont drink and drive, respect speed limits, sort your waste) requires that different products be developed to make the actions possible. In the case of prevention against drink-driving, we must amend specific laws to increase the penalties incurred. We must adapt insurers policies, develop vehicle starting mechanisms coupled with a breathalyzer, and introduce disposable breathalyzers to the market.

Promotion is also a central aspect. It is not limited to traditional advertising. All channels can be used to sell the social idea. To take the previous example of the fight against drink-driving, Belgium offers an excellent example of successful promotion with its Bob campaign. Launched in 1995, it has been adopted by 17 European countries. It is available in various ways: radio, poster campaigns, animations, awareness-raising during controls by the police. At each touchpoint, the famous Bob key ring is handed out to extend the communication effort and materialize the individuals commitment to the social cause.

For social marketing to be effective, you have to empower the targets to act. This is where the problem often lies. While the product is well-designated and the marketing is well-thought-out, the target and its desire to serve are entirely forgotten. The question to be answered here is: What do I need to do to get the individual to take action? For example, if you want to promote waste sorting, what do you need to put in place to enable everyone to take action?

In theory, the price is zero for the individuals targeted by social marketing. But every action has a cost, and the idea here is to reduce it as much as possible to encourage the individual to practice his good resolutions. A good example is an implementation of donation boxes in airports. Their presence in places where people are captive and non-exchangeable coins in their pockets is a perfect combination to lower the cost of participation.

Alcohol abuse and tobacco consumption are societal scourges. As such, they are fought against by society, notably by applying a socially oriented pricing strategy. The sale of tobacco is thus burdened with high taxes to dissuade smokers, and alcohol is subject to an additional levy in the form of excise taxes.

As Kotler and Zaltman (1971) point out:

The art of selling cigarettes [] may have some bearing on the art of selling social causes.

As provocative as it sounds, this statement is, in fact, not far from the truth. The tobacco industry has implemented a marketing strategy specifically aimed at women seeking emancipation. Theadvertisements, an integral part of themarketing mix, perfectly reflected this objective. Women started smoking because of the use of social marketing techniques. As early as 1929, they were convinced that tobacco would allow them to emancipate themselves and serve feminist interests. The publicist Edward Bernays is at the origin of the operation Torches of Freedom, which will make the cigarette pass as socially acceptable among women.

Below are a few diverse examples to illustrate the concept of social marketing.

Bernays, E. L., & Bazon, I. (2012). Propaganda (1928). Alexandria Publishing House.

Kotler, Philip, and Nancy Lee. Social marketing: Influencing behaviors for good. Sage, 2008.

Kotler, Philip, and Gerald Zaltman. Social marketing: an approach to planned social change. Journal of marketing 35.3 (1971): 3-12.

Originally posted here:
Social Marketing: Definition, Implementation, Examples [Guide 2021]

You can create devoted fans of your business through your social media strategy.

Social media marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses social media to promote your business online.

When you market your business with social media, you use different social media networks, like Facebook or Instagram, to connect, engage, and communicate with your target audience, as well as promote your products or services to drive brand awareness, website traffic, and sales.

It sounds easy enough, but there is more to social media marketing than meets the eye.

Want to watch a video about the basics of social media? Weve included one below.

This guide serves as your partner for getting started with social media. Use it to learn how to bring social media and marketing together. Plus, get inspiration from real-life social media marketing campaigns.

Hit this button to learn how the pros succeed on social media

Social media success doesnt happen overnight. It requires time and dedication, as well as some strategic know-how, to launch a successful marketing and advertising strategy for social media. Thats why, before creating your social media plan, you want to learn its core components (or action steps).

Five critical components make up social media marketing:

A successful, long-term social media initiative depends on a strategy. Spontaneous posts are great, but you want a plan driving your overall routine decisions, like how often you post, what you post, and more.

Build the foundation of your social media marketing plan by answering these questions:

Using your answers, you can create an outline for your social media strategy.

For example, you may decide that you want to focus on Facebook and LinkedIn, based on your audience research, versus Instagram and Twitter. Or, that you want to invest in a tool forscheduling your social media posts, as well as responding to users.

While this step involves a lot of thinking, dont skip it. Its essential to your strategys success.

Content powers your social media marketing, whether youre sharing blog posts, launching ads, or posting videos. You need to provide your audience with content to interact with thats how you engage your followers.

As a part of planning your strategy, answer the following questions:

Creating a hypotheticalcontent calendarcan help your business work through these questions. You can use the calendar to see how much content you need to produce, as well as outline what content would get posted when. A content calendar can also help you see the value in investing in a scheduling tool.

In addition to brainstorming a social media content calendar, you should think about ways to repurpose that content. If youre creating content for your blog to share on social media, for instance, think about optimizing that content forsearch engine optimization (SEO)to attract more traffic to your site.

Researching when you should post your content will also maximize the success of your social media marketing strategy. While you can do some initial research, you can also use data (after launching your content) to determine the best posting time for your business.

Social media marketing involves more than sharing it also involves one-on-one interactions.

When you decide to invest in social media, you choose to interact with your target audience in a new way. From public comments to private messages, social networks offer you a whole new channel (and toolset) for communicating with your market.

A couple of questions youll want to answer before you get started include the following:

Listening, engaging, and responding to users is one of the most critical parts of social media marketing.

Invest a significant amount of time in this step. For example, if you decide to create a guidebook for answering and responding to users, great! Itll become a beyond-useful reference for your team and help you make the most of every interaction.

While you dont have to use tools for social media, its often recommended to invest in at least one especially for social media listening and engagement. These tools can help you monitor activity across all your channels, as well as respond fast. They make your life easier and your strategy stronger.

A few examples of some go-to tools for social media listening and engagement include:

Many of these tools offer free trials, so experiment and see which one works best for your team.

Even though theyre optional, social media ad campaigns dont seem that way. Thats because social media algorithms prioritize content from users versus businesses. Instead of seeing your companys post, a social media network like Facebook will give priority to a post from a users friend.

Thats why its worth considering a social media ad campaign, which helps you:

If you want to try advertising on social media, answer these questions first:

The advantage of advertising on social media, as well as other digital ad networks, is that you have complete control over your budget. You can spend any amount you like. Plus, you only pay when users take a specified action, like clicking on your ad.

Think about includingsocial media advertisingin your strategy, because it can help you succeed.

Social media marketing offers your business a helpful amount of action data. Via your data (or analytics), you can gain insight into your audience. That insight can help you make informed changes to your approach, resulting in more brand awareness, website traffic, and sales.

Again, youll want to answer a few questions before getting started:

Free tools, like Google Analytics, can get you started.

Most social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, will also provide you with some initial data.Google Analytics works well because it can help you see the impact on social on your website, like by revealing the amount of traffic social brings to your site.

Many businesses use social media marketing in conjunction with other marketing channels to develop an interactive, multichannel plan. Some campaigns, however, stand out in their own right, accomplishing the companys goalswithout the assistance of traditional marketing. Here are a few examples of successful social media marketing campaigns.

One of the reasons social media is so popular is because it gives users a chance to join in the conversation. A good social marketing campaign should let them be active participants. Thats exactly what Lays did with itsDo Us a Flavorcampaign in which loyal customers submitted their ideas for a new potato chip flavor for a chance to win $1 million from Frito-Lay.

The company set up a dedicated website and then asked people to submit their ideas onFacebookand Twitter. Nearly 4 million people responded, and Lays tested the most promising choices. After narrowing the field to three options, the company produced the finalists, sold them in retail outlets, and asked consumers to go back to social media to choose their favorites.

Sales of Lays Potato Chips increased by 12 percent the first time the contest ran, but it generated so many mentions that Frito-Lay ran the contest again in 2014. That year, 14 million people submitted ideas and the Lays Facebook page generated 6 million likes.

For-profit companies arent the only ones that can generate money from a great social media campaign. Make-a-Wish Foundation proved the power of social media in nonprofit marketing with one of its biggest gifts ever. In 2013, Miles Scott, a 5-year-old who had been battling cancer most of his life, wanted to be Batkid for a day. The foundation put together an event and sent an email a month beforehand to enlist a few volunteers to help out.

The story went viral thanks to supporters on Twitter and Instagram, and 12,000 people ended up contributing their time and talents. In fact, the story generated so much publicity that the entire city of San Francisco turned into Gotham City for a day. Although the campaign was meant to make one kids dream come true, national interest in the story helped the Make-a-Wish Foundation increase donations by 26 percent.

Some social media marketing plans succeed because of buy-in from other businesses. Such was the case with Purple Your Profile, a joint project by Chevy and the American Cancer Society that was created to raise more money for cancer research.

The campaign actually began on TV with aSuper Bowl ad, but it quicklymigrated to social media. Viewers of the ad were asked to color their profile pictures purple to show they supported the fight against cancer. For every purple profile picture, General Motors donated $1 to cancer research.

By the end of the campaign, 1.3 million Facebook users and 700,000 Twitter users responded, helping to generate more than $2 million in donations to the American Cancer Society. Meanwhile, Chevy got 5x the number of likes on Facebook, and the story appeared 45 million times in news feeds.

Social media marketing requires the same basic element as any other channel: the right message sent to the right person at the right time. What differentiates it from other channels is the level of power consumers have over your message.

In most marketing channels, you control the communication. You decide when and how to reach out, and consumers have the choice of responding or not. Those parameters dont exist on social media. Consumers are going to talk about your business (and your competitors) whether you want them to or not.

In other marketing scenarios, this would likely motivate you to ramp up your campaigns and send out even more promotions. However, social media audiences arent sharing adstheyre sharing content that interests them, regardless of where it comes from. The way to get into their conversations isnt to talk more loudly about your products and services, but rather to talk about the things that interest them.

That doesnt mean you have to abandon your goals of spreading the word about your business and increasing revenue. It just means you have to take a different approach towards meeting those goals.

Social media marketingrelates to search engine optimization, also called SEO, by influencing search results. While Google does not use social media as a direct reference for its rankings, social media indirectly affects Googles rankings.

People use social media in a lot of different ways, including to share content.

When people share content, like an infographic, it sometimes goes viral. People move from not only sharing the content on social media but also websites. A news site, for instance, links to the infographic and the site hosting that infographic.

Thatlinkserves as a trust signal to search engines like Google. Since links play a significant part in how Google ranks websites in search results, that link can help improve the rankings of the website hosting the infographic.

In this all-too-common scenario, social influences search, which is why its a component of SEO.

Social media is just one element of an overall digital marketing strategy, but it can be one of the most effective if you use it well.

Still wondering, What is social media marketing? Check out any of the additional resources weve linked to on this page.

If you want to start using social media to grow your business, or improve upon your current profiles and strategy, contact us! Our dedicated team of social media experts is more than happy to help you reach and engage with potential customers.

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Social Media Marketing: What It Is and How To Get Started