Essentials of Social Media Marketing: Chapter 13

Believe it or not, we are nearing the end of our textbook! This week is Chapter 13, which is about Social Media Marketing Campaigns. 

In general, , a social media marketing campaign is a coordinated social media effort to communicate with a target audience so that a business can achieve some kind of marketing or other business goal. Social media marketing campaigns usually have a start and end date, as well as a strategy, specific goal and time frame to dictate day-to-day activities. 

The most in-depth portion of the chapter discusses launching a social media campaign. Below are the steps that need to be taken before launching your campaign:

1. ESTABLISH GOALS: establish what you want the campaign to accomplish using specific business goals.

2. CHOOSE A CAMPAIGN IDEA, THEME, AND TYPE: make sure to start with simple, customer-centric, and emotionally engaging idea. Then, choose a campaign name and theme as well as a detailed overview of your goals. Finally, choose the type of campaign that will be the most effective for your brand such as a sweepstakes, photo/video contest, or Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/etc. contest.

3. IDENTIFY TARGET AUDIENCE: include detailed information such as demographics, interests, location, most-used social networks, etc.

4. DETERMINE BUDGET/RESOURCES: determine the total budget and resources you will need to run the campaign, as well as account for any additional costs for hiring extra employees/acquiring social media tools.

5. OUTLINE PARAMETERS: include things like contest submission instructions, hashtag use, how personal data of participants will be included and used, contest guidelines, rules, how winners are selected, etc. 

6. CHOOSE INCENTIVES: can include prizes, coupons, discounts, etc. These are the best ways to guarantee participation.

7. DETERMINE WHERE THE CAMPAIGN WILL LIVE: this is where the campaign will be hosted, it could be within a social media network itself, on a company website, a microsite, app, or all of the above. Make sure that all of the above sites are up and running before launching the campaign.

8. SELECT SOCIAL NETWORKS: make sure to do some research before choosing which networks to use so that you will bring in the most engagement for your campaign.

9. CHOOSE A TIMELINE: this includes a start and end date, and any other important stopping points during the campaign.

10. DEVELOP ASSETS AND CONTENT CALENDAR: choose campaign hashtags and color schemes, create header images, post images, videos, a calendar for when everything needs to be posted and any other assets of this type that will be needed throughout the campaign. 

11. SET UP LISTENING STREAMS: also known as monitoring streams, used to track conversations around the campaign including hashtag use and brand mentions.

During the campaign, be sure to continuously promote the campaign across all channels, monitor all activity and engage with participants by liking/commenting/sharing their posts, and adjust strategy, goals, budget, incentives, and parameters as needed. 

After the campaign, announce the winner(s) or share the results, follow up with all entrants, and report an analyze the campaign. Some ways to gain even more engagement are announcing the winner through a live video or asking followers to vote on top candidates as well as thank participants by offering a coupon or promo code. You also will want to gather all of the social media metrics so you can report the success or failure of the campaign.