The Context

?Blog by Andres Utrera #marketing #socialmediamarketing #socialmedia #blog #okmarketeam

This is a series of blog articles that I start today with its first season, to talk about social media marketing. In each chapter I will explain a little about how Social Media Marketing works, as well as tools that you can use.

Our chapter today

"The Context"

According to Wikipedia... "A social network (in plural, social networks), is a social structure composed of a set of actors and one or more defined ties or relationships between them."

In my opinion, social networks are nothing more than the evolution of the traditional ways of communication of the human being, which through years of technological advancement, we have used new channels and tools that are based on co-creation, global knowledge and widespread trust.

So, what have we changed?

It can be said that a lot and little; a lot because they are new ways of communication and little because the essence remains the same (sender, receiver, message).

But, what does it have to do with Marketing?

Surely on more than one occasion you have heard about the famous 4P of Marketing:

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

We used to think that for a product or service to be successful, these 4Ps should be applied, that is, have a product, set the right price, have a place to sell it and then promote it. And in a certain drowsiness it worked for many years. But as we mentioned earlier, we have evolved and technological advancement gave us access to Marketing 2.0.

Marketing 2.0 brought us as a gift the sales by e-commerce (Ecommerce), thanks to E-Bay and Amazon, with it, the 4Ps began to move to the 4C of the Marketing Mix:

• Consumer
• Cost to satisfy
• Convenience
• Communication

As this new digital era, it was necessary for the customer, now called a consumer, to be satisfied and convinced of the electronic sales process, with a fluid communication, since it was not physically in front of us and separated us thousands of miles and a monitor.

But the world continues to evolve and now more than ever our topic is social networks, so what happens?

The big brands begin to show up on social media platforms, they observe that it is the great sale to the consumer, in an easy and direct way. We focus our marketing efforts on people who are really interested in our product, so the 4Cs of the Marketing Mix grow and expand to 4Cs of Social Media Marketing:

• Content
• Connection
• Communication
• Community

Content + Connection + Communication + Community = Users

Users generate a large amount of relevant content that is located in a certain context, which leads it to establish good connections between related people and that leads to the creation of a community around it, so large brands get their target audience in those communities.

Brands now know that it is easy to show a product or service, to the people who are really interested and thus millions of dollars in advertising expenses are optimized.

According to this, as a company or brand we must have a presence on social media platforms as an integrated strategy, but we must do it in an effective way, and for this, it is mandatory to have a clearly defined strategy that helps us achieve our objectives, so as not to lose focus, which can make us lose time and money. To do this, you must ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you want to communicate content to new customers?
2. Would you like to work in a network with like-minded people and companies?
3. Do you want to create a community of followers?
4. Do you want to involve your customers in the development of your business?
5. Do you want to position yourself as a reference in your sector?
6. Would you like to know what is said about your company on social media?

If you have answered "Yes" to some of these questions then it is that you are convinced that your company will continue to be profitable and grow in the coming years, so get ready because here begins your path and that of your company to be on social media platforms.

Before starting, let's reflect on something important, when users join social media platforms, they do it because they want to "socialize" with people or groups that have the same interests and not because they want companies or brands to sell them something, it must be made clear that users are not there for commercial issues.

Social networks are tools that allow us to share information with others and this information can be text, audio, video and image and we do it through publications.

Publications are platforms that allow us to share content with anyone connected to our network or who may have access to it not being connected, in such a way that we provide value in the content we publish.

To be successful as a company or brand, we must determine, according to our objectives, what audience we want to be with? Where do we want to interact? Where do we want to be seen? A strategic Social Media Marketing plan must be established and these questions answered.

Social media platfortms can be classified according to their function and usefulness, and according to these, you can choose the type of ecosystem where you are most likely to be successful:

• Horizontal social media platforms: they have been designed for all types of users.
• Vertical social media platforms: they seek to create a connection with people.
• Professional social media platforms.
• Leisure social media platforms.
• Mixed vertical social media platforms: professional and personal profiles can be developed.
• Social media platforms with shared content.
• Blogging and microblogging.

Already understanding a little "The Context", objective and classification of social networks, as we mentioned earlier, the company and brand must be strategists. Define the tools that should be used on social media platforms that help us listen and establish conversations with our customers, which will be transformed into concrete relationships oriented to the sales cycle. It is not advisable to be active on all social media platforms, since you spend resources, in places where you will not really reach that audience.

On the other hand, being on the right social media platforms, allow you to make the most of the user information that comes to you from social networks, this will be vital to manage marketing actions according to the 4C of Social Media Marketing.

When you have a presence on social media platforms, you must take into account four important factors to consider, for the success of your company or brand:

• Integration:

Do not treat social platforms as something isolated and different from the rest of your marketing actions, but it should be something else in the company's global strategy, and therefore you should reflect your social channels in all those places where you can.

• Amplification:

Use your social media actions in all those places where you can. 2.0 actions should not be limited to any particular format, on the contrary, they should be open to everything you use to promote your brand, in such a way that you can maximize the "Noise 2.0" of your company.

If you usually carry out email marketing actions or send a newsletter, you can integrate a social media platform such as Twitter into it, so that readers can directly from the newsletter retweet that content or share it directly on their Facebook wall in such a way that you get greater visibility.

• Healing:

Why not take advantage of what is already done and use "content recycling" for the benefit of our brand and adapt those contents to other formats?

If, for example, you have held an event and have subsequently created a press release that you have posted on your corporate blog, you may also have created a video with what happened at this event, which you can distribute for example on YouTube and also the sound of that video can be converted into an audio Podcast so that people can download it and listen to it wherever and whenever they want.

If you realize the content is the same (or practically the same) but we take advantage of it to give it more dissemination in different formats and make it easier for our followers to be able to make use of it as they want and when they want.

• Lead generation:

Many companies want to find potential customers on social media platforms, but there are very few who really get it in an effective way, or don't get it.

They usually wonder why the customers don't follow me? Why don't you interact with me?

It's never the client's fault, he's not doing it wrong, but probably your way of communicating with them doesn't work at all right, so if this happens to you, change your strategy.

The secret to generating potential customers lies in offering something valuable to our followers, something that catches their attention or that for some reason is interesting to them, and to discover it a good exercise is to put yourself in the minds of your customers for a few minutes.

Remember that social media platforms are the personalized window to millions of customers, but we must think and work strategically on the way to approach them, that a connection is created between them and your company or brand, once you have loyal customers, your sales goal will be easier.

Our next chapter will be "The Reach" where we will develop more the type of social media platforms and demographic factors that affect them, which is important so that you can get to know your audience.

04/12/2023