To kick-start your quest for Social Media solutions, here are some media insights from Top Marketing and Media experts.
Alas! Another Social Media Campaign request without a clear strategy? Despair no more! You are not alone. I asked 10 Marketing and Media leaders about the Social Media challenges in their industries, and what would they recommend if budget was not an issue. This is what they had to say:
Joni Fernandez Marmo – Senior Vice President, Consumer and Corporate Marketing at Univision Communications Inc.
“The biggest challenge that most industries face when marketing on social is to ensure to create the right content that will generate the most engagement. Just because something works for the television screen, does not mean it will create excitement on the social media platforms. If I had an unlimited budget, I would invest in creative development of new content with videos, music, graphics, etc. I would hire influencers to represent my brand and I would invest in buying key advertising placement on the best sites to garner more impressions.”
Eddie Urrutia – Trade Marketing Director at BBC Studios
“One of the main challenges of any Social Media campaign is being able to quantify the objectives when your strategy is focus on creating brand awareness and fan acquisition. The data collected is priceless, even when it is very difficult to come up with a tangible Return on Investment figure. If budget was not an issue, I would invest in media buy. Organic engagement is key, but it can only take you so far. I would also invest in talent acquisition. Training creatives with experience from legacy media could be a solution to find professionals that understand and are able to curate the social media strategy of products whose priorities are excellency, and preserving brand equity.”
Silvina Moschini – CEO & Founder SheWorks!
“In startups the main challenge is budget, there is never enough money in a company that is growing, and all the areas are fighting for the few dollars that are available. Also, participation is key. One of the main challenges that must companies have in Social Media is that they broadcast content instead of engaging their constituencies in the joint creation of a community. I would invest in high quality content tied up to a cause that is relevant and meaningful for your audience. We are supporting women empowerment, and we drive the cause further using social media to connect and to engage people in the creation of this type of initiative. I would use Social Media dollars to make sure that this content is amplified across different platforms, not only at an organic level but also using Social Media amplification techniques to effectively manage visibility in the most important platforms where our audience is. For example: Paid Advertising in Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but also pay a lot of attention to platforms such as Medium. Invest in community managers, and brand activation to create activities that engage your audiences and generate discussions.”
Lance Rios – Co-Founder at Supreme Digital & Founder at Being Latino
“There is still a great deal of learning that Hispanic marketers have to undergo when approaching social media strategy. With that comes lack of budgets to efficiently engage in strong strategies, inclusive of team development for organic strategy and various paid media strategies to pursue. Many Hispanic marketers are still undergoing a sense of uncertainty with how to reach the ever-changing, non-monolithic group. Language is no longer a strategy, but rather a tactic used depending on which segment of the market you’re looking to hit. As a result, many marketers are toying between how to reach Hispanics both through Hispanic-only initiatives as well as through their “total market” approach. One huge challenge is that many Hispanic marketers don’t clearly define, in a realistic way, what their benchmarks of success are when pursuing the social media space. Without a realistic, detailed and targeted objective, it’s hard to measure “success” of social strategy.”
if budget was not an issue, “Hire the pros who live and breathe this space. If you’re going to pursue a social strategy, stop doing the one-off campaigns, social media is an ongoing process that needs ongoing, non-stop efforts, just like your other strategies. If you want serious results, you have to take it seriously. Be brave to push the envelope, test and revamp strategy according to results. Without risk, there is limited opportunity for success.”
Lili Gil Valletta – Entrepreneur and Founder, CEO CulturIntel and CIEN+
“Today’s challenges are presented by the expectations and “impatient” nature of today’s users and audiences who want instant response, personalized and custom content and relevancy and useful content over pitches. That said, the traditional rules of media or marketing must graduate from the “selling” into “sharing and telling.” This new reality calls for a mind shift in strategy in which brands and organizations need to think like editors not brand marketers or advertisers.”
If budget was not an issue, I would recommend “personalization at scale with relevant content that feel like tailored made for me! That is achieved by using the power of analytics and big data to inform in real time the topics, needs and content prioritization of users based on their interactions, mindset and profile so content is tailored by need and content segmentation. This also calls for nimble and real-time production capabilities and an editorial approach to all we do that puts the user and human at the center.”
Bruno Alonso Boza – Manager, Research & Insights at BBC Studios
“There are a couple of hurdles that our Media industry must overcome in crafting an effective Social Media Strategy however the most critical include identifying/correcting target audiences and demonstrating the ROI of your social media campaigns. Living in hyper-connected world ultimately means living in a more distracted one and it becomes more difficult to fight for the attention of your audience. It is impossible to just cast a wide net and see what happens, as marketers we are trained to understand our audience and target them with pinpoint accuracy. The most amazing creative can be crafted but you will miss out on maximizing your efforts by not placing it in front of the correct audience. This factor also ties into demonstrating ROI. Having clear objectives, setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, and tracking performance metrics are necessary to show that value of all social media initiatives. The KPI’s defined must align with corporate strategy and we, as marketers must ensure that our social media strategy drives our organization’s objectives.
If budget was not an issue I would enhance our capacity for audience measurement. A perfect marriage of media consumption, consumer attitude and purchase behavior would allow us marketers to help our viewers find exactly what they’re looking for across all channels and platforms. The future of our industry is hyper-personalization and as tech continues to advance exponentially, we as marketers will be better equipped to respond to needs of the future consumer.”
Wendy Guess, PhD – Marketing Educator at Florida International University
Consultant, Speaker, Author
“Too often, an organization’s social media efforts do not reflect enough attention to detail and can negatively impact your viewership. Going beyond just being relevant, means having the right metrics in place that help focus on quantity of posts over the quality of posts. Today’s audiences want relevant and personalized content provided at the speed of “now” that’s delivered consistently, regardless of the type of device. Utilizing the ability to customize content via various social media platforms, is a good first step for capturing the right audience in the right way.”
Debra Cabrera – Marketing Faculty at Florida International University
“There’s a good opportunity to invest in developing a multicultural and multi-generational team. I would recommend creating strategies to incorporate seasoned employees, and not phase them out. The age diversity could bring the best of both worlds: The maturity to speak to a target that has more disposable income, and the enthusiasm needed to communicate to younger audiences.”
Laxmi Rodulfo – Marketing Strategist and Leader at Florida International University’s Master of Science in Marketing and Sales Administration Manager at NBCUniversal
“One of the biggest challenges we are having with social media is being factual with what we report, as well as being careful with what is written or said and how we are representing our company through this casual way of giving information to our audience. With an unlimited budget I would probably try to get a lot of micro influencers in Latin America to spread the word about our movies locally. Sometimes some of our more obscure movies get less attention, and therefore less box office. I would also create more online contests for our clients to engage them more all year around in order to continue the relationship with them.”
Emily Perez – Marketing Leader at Florida International University’s Master of Science in Marketing
“One of the most critical aspects of a successful Social Media Marketing Strategy is consistency amongst social media platforms, visual themes should remain consistent, but content should be tailored towards the specific platform. In my industry, it is understood that a consumer may sit through a 30-second video on Instagram and is willing to read a locker room report on Twitter but the opposite, a video on Twitter and an article on Instagram, not likely. Having an unlimited budget, I would immediately implement more “behind the scenes” footage, giving the consumer more in-depth content which in turn builds brand loyalty.”
You heard it from the experts.
Social Media should not be a casual tool in your organization, it is the new marketing normal. And as an integral part of any organization’s lead marketing strategy, resources should be allocated to be on top of the exponential changes and trends.
As Veronica Villafañe, Editor & Publisher at Media Moves defines it for the media industry:
“Social media has become an integral part of linear television promotion strategy, as engagement with viewers has become important in attracting and holding on to audiences in a fragmented market, where consumer habits have changed due to the wealth of options and the popularity of video streaming.”
Veronica Villafañe – Editor & Publisher at Media Moves / Contributor at Forbes
With all this in mind, is time to sit down an elaborate a proper plan to take advantage of all the benefits that only a solid Social Media strategy can deliver. Always remember what the experts here say. Remain consistent and adjust to the style your audience is using across platforms. Be bold, be brave, don’t play it safe. Pay attention to the metrics and deliver relevant and personalized content. Keep it real, think like an editor and not just like a brand manager or advertiser, and don’t forget to target the young without alienating the other generations. Younger audiences might seem more digitally engage, but there’s a big segment of the audience with more experience (…and money!) waiting for brands to speak to them in their own language.
If you are reading this to learn from marketing experts about those habits, you or your organization need to change for the new year, consider this list, a guide of opportunities. It may be the season to make some new year’s resolutions, but in reality you don’t need to wait for a new year, it is always the right season to explore positive Social Media strategies.
About the author:
David Gamez is a Media and Marketing professional. Winner of 3 Emmys as Executive Producer and Director of Content Development for CNN en Español. He has worked for organizations such as CNN, Univision, and Spanish Broadcasting System.
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Tralala Media 