In their book “Marketing on social networks”, Mélanie Hossler, Olivier Murat and Alexandre Jouanne offer 12 modules to build a social media strategy. In this second extract, the authors decipher the so-called “generalist” social networks.
How to integrate social networks into your marketing strategy? Which platforms to choose, how to manage them but above all how to control interactions? The book “Marketing on social networks”, written by Mélanie Hossler, Olivier Murat and Alexandre Jouanne intends to answer all these questions.
A real practical guide, it offers 12 modules to build a social media strategy . The authors guide the marketing managers in their approach using in particular numerous commented cases and methods adapted to each objective such as the management of its online reputation, the development of its notoriety, the management and the loyalty of its community or even customer relationship management.
Find an extract from "Marketing on social networks":
Number of users: 1.1 billion worldwide, including 29 million in France since 2004. Users spend 400 minutes per month there.
Facebook brings together a broad, involved target and many marketing tools that allow brands to gain visibility and carry out effective advertising campaigns. The rapid growth in the number of Facebook users since 2004 has quickly led them to create discussion spaces; then it's the companies' turn to create accounts for their brands. At first, Facebook did not distinguish between a private user and a company, but quickly specific spaces were created for brands, called "Facebook page" which are distinguished by small nuances of "Facebook profi les".
Company pages or celebrity pages:the Facebook “profile” is your personal profile or that of someone you know. You become a “friend” with another profile or you can “subscribe” to updates from another profile. For brands, a user can "like" a page and subscribe to its news, but a user who does not like a brand can still trade with it. Facebook offers companies and brands to create a page; a brand which does not respect this constraint could see its account closed and would thus lose all the "friends" gained. The official company pages are recognizable by a small blue badge in the form of a check which is next to the name of the page. This badge is assigned by Facebook and cannot be automatically requested.
The creation of a company account:to create a page, just go to the following URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create/. It is then necessary to fill in various information such as the type of company, the name of the company or brand, the sector of activity; it is advisable to add a profile photo, a cover photo and a quick description of the company. It is also possible to customize the page URL on request and depending on availability. From a hundred fans on the page, the URL and the name of the page will no longer be editable. Thus the Evian Babies page (648,000 fans) bears the name of an advertising campaign and Evian may encounter difficulties in changing the name of its Facebook page the day the advertising campaign changes;
Personalization of the social space: several elements on your profile can be personalized:
• the cover photo of the newspaper which must respect the following dimensions: 851 × 315;
• a profile image which must respect 200 × 200 pixels;
• you will also have the possibility of creating a timeline of your story by creating key moments which can be accompanied by an image: 843 × 403 pixels.
Facebook's privacy policy and conditions of use change frequently, as does the design of profiles and pages, so it is necessary to consult the conditions of use available on the following link on a fairly regular basis: http: // www .facebook.com / legal / terms.
The functionalities offered: Facebook provides several free tools for businesses:
• the possibility of posting on the wall of the statutes, photos, photo albums, videos, polls, milestones (important events which are highlighted in the newspaper of the page) or events;
• private messaging that allows users to contact the brand - but it is not possible for companies to contact a user who has not done so beforehand;
• the use of Facebook groups, private, semi-private or public;
• an API allowing developers to create Facebook applications or social functionalities to integrate into the site.
Cost: if the presence on Facebook is free, the network offers many solutions to gain visibility, gain more fans, get more interactions and expose the content and the brand to a broader target. There are two advertising formats:
• Facebook Ads: a classic advertisement that will be displayed on each page visited by the user, on the right of the screen.
• Sponsored stories: a social advertisement that will be displayed on the home page of each user, directly on their news feed.
For now, Facebook is the only media to have really developed an offer for all budgets; it is possible, simply, to advertise for less than 1 euro; other media always have a higher entry ticket (the relative cost is similar, but it is mandatory to carry out large media campaigns). From sponsored publications to targeted advertisements, there are many ways to boost your visibility on Facebook, but a good strategy requires a substantial budget.
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