Sites used for social media marketing strategy

http://www.facebook.com/RallyAgainstPlannedObsolescence

The Rally Against Planned Obsolescence Facebook page has been my primary resource for my social media marketing plan.  I have posted statuses mainly to inform people of my cause.  So far with only 11 likes, I do not think people are very interested.

Youtube.com

I have been posting videos to help explain what Planned Obsolescence is and why it is a problem by way of my Facebook page.  I am doing this because I feel like videos are the best way to inform people and get them to be engaged.

Twitter.com/nolanchuck

I have tweeted links to my posts on Facebook and the page itself.  I feel like it has been more difficult to engage people via Twitter because it is hard to find the right time to tweet when most of my followers are on Twitter.

Sometimes it's best to keep opinion's to yourself...not for Facebook

This past election has got plenty of coverage from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook with both political parties taking advantage of these tools.  However, other social media users are using these sites to voice their own personal opinions as well.  Here is an example of someone upset with the President Barack Obama and probably wished he had kept their comments to himself.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/christopher-castillo-obama-facebook_n_2137360.html

Christopher Castillo, a Florida man, was arrested by the Secret Service after a Facebook post he had posted on November 1st.  In an apparent response to Obama's views on health care, Castillo posted: "That's the last straw, if he gets re-elected I'm going to hunt him down and kill him watch the life disappear from his eyes."

When the Secret Service came to investigate reports from a concerned citizen about the post, they asked him if Obama was here in the room right then what he would do?  Castillo responded with saying that he would slap and beat the president.

There are some people that wish they could take back the violent or threatening things they say on Facebook.  It is apparent that Castillo is not one of these people and it is a good thing he is behind bars.

Steve Boucher taught us all a lot this past week during his presentation.  His use of the "no bull business" blog he had created before he joined Southern New Hampshire University shows just how hands on he is as a marketer.

His demonstration on the secrets to success was what I found most interesting and most impressive. He explained that the five things you need in social media are fresh content, creativity, synergy from within, a call to action for an audience, and understanding your audience. I also liked how he explained how controversy is not always a bad thing and can create awareness.

Overall I thought it was a good opportunity to listen to someone who is really involved in social media at our SNHU.

White Paper

The State of Social Media Marketing Report: 7 Major Findings & In-Depth Analysis is a report published by Awareness Social Media Software.

In the report, one key point was that organizations' social marketing goals are mainly just to engage with customers and not to focus on increasing revenue.  This means that organizations are using social media only by means of communicating with their customers instead of driving revenue.

Another interesting point in this report was that the top social marketing challenge for organizations in this study was measuring ROI.  Organizations are unable to determine how much they are actually getting out of their work with social media and are unsure how to measure it.

One other key point made was that 50% of the respondents in this study wanted tighter integration between social and the rest of their marketing department.  That means that only half of the organizations wanted social media to be its own department and the other half wants it to be a closer entity

Most marketers are yet to tap into the true potential of social media.  Only 16% of marketers who responded to the survey are currently using a Social CRM system, while another 21% plan on using it by year's end.  This will provide insight for marketers to be more effective and efficient in this social age.

Lastly, social marketing budgets and resources are too insufficient to drive real value.  54% of respondents in this study said that they do not have an allocated budget for social marketing and are relying on human resources.  With a low budget, it is difficult to drive a high revenue.

Social CRM- Social CRM is customer relationship management within social marketing.

Social targeting- Targeting certain audiences based on research of behaviors in order to engage with users.

Tight Integration- Centralizing departments in an organization into one entity.

This article did give me some insight I did not know about on organization's use of social media.  I did not realize how much research has been done based on ROI with social media.  Most of the points in this article were for businesses and how they use and should be using social media.  For my social media marketing plan, I am promoting awareness and not actually selling a product.  However, reading more information on Social CRM will only help with me trying to enlarge my audience.