Cincinnati, Ohio Social Media Services

Social Media Marketing: The Creative Department’s Approach

Thousands of blog posts reflect daily on what social media marketing is … what it is not… and where it is going to take us. (We know – we monitor them and contribute from time to time.) And, while the learning, sharing and debate continues, The Creative Department moves forward proving that Social Media Marketing – as an extension of business strategy and an element of a larger marketing platform – helps businesses better connect with their customers, their clients, their communities and their internal stakeholders to generate stronger awareness, trial opportunities and brand advocate retention in real time.

Our process is one of fluidity grounded in principles that industry analysts have come to project as a “a good way to go.” It involves planning, listening, execution, feedback and evaluation and trust. It supports the human need to connect and share while working to bring about the most sincere form of advertising known to humans: word of mouth recommendation. It evolves as learnings evolve and trails are blazed. It is current.

The Creative Department believes that social interaction yields what Forrester Research has coined “Social Intelligence.” We work to gather that intelligence and use it strategically to create campaigns and messaging that drives a call to action and gets people talking – sharing more so that we can learn more and do it all over again. We work hard to help our clients build deeper relationships and engagement with targeted prospects. We see each channel conversation (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, FourSquare, independent blogs, etc.) as a step forward in meeting this goal.

The Creative Department also believes that in order for Social Media Marketing endeavors to be a success, they must each be built with the right people, processes, platforms and purpose in mind. We do not crash into Social Channels without first crafting a plan with our clients. While each plan is unique, they contain similar elements:

Discover: We sit down with you to better understand your overall business goals and objectives. We discuss your current strategy and identify ways in which social participation can be incorporated to help move your plan forward.

Listen: After learning more about you from you, we go out to the social web and track down first-hand what is currently being said about your brand and your company. We begin to identify who is participating in this conversation and why. We gauge sentiment. We identify gaps. We note opportunities.

Plan: Per our understanding of your goals and our learning of where you currently stand in the social scene, we present a phased approach of strategic social participation including metrics of success. In this, we help identify who the social participation should engage, the right voice and character your product or brand should use and the right frequency and messaging tactics. We also confirm who will be executing the messaging and what their individual roles and responsibilities will be. We establish an internal conduit of communication for all involved.

Execute: For most clients, we actively push out the messaging against plan and interact with their customers on a daily basis. We monitor response and community growth. As social intelligence is gathered, we look forward to see how future phases of the plan can be enriched with this learning and alter plan accordingly. We share our key observations as they come in and general findings on a monthly basis. We strive for organic participation from all parties within this new social relationship.

Evaluate: While monitoring and reporting of activity is for the most part, a real-time activity, we also provide a year in review of the key findings and business shifts as they relate to social participation. We work with you to uncover new opportunities and plan accordingly.

If you want to see what’s possible in the space of Social Media Marketing, check out our Yagööt success story. This was a brand we helped build and develop from scratch without our client spending a dime on traditional media. While we believe traditional media would be advantageous to the continued growth of the brand, their current rising success is a testament to the power of a wonderful product, strategic social media, and the voice of the people.