Upon seeing the title of Jenn Herman’s blog post, 8 Types of Holiday Content To Boost Your Social Media Strategy, I was ready to read and critique an article that I assumed would be full of holiday gimmicks that companies seem to be so fond of throwing out during this time of year. Instead, I found a well-thought out article with excellent advice. You can click on the link above to access the specific article, but here I want to focus on why this is good advice for companies.

1. Jenn focuses on maintaining brand identity
   Many companies jump on the holiday bandwagon this time of year, running so far with a holiday theme that they are no longer even on the same continent as their original brand. Jenn makes the point that whatever companies do, they need to make sure that their efforts are consistent with their brand the rest of the year.
2. Jenn introduces customer engagement during the holidays
   The best way to develop your online presence is to create additional value for visitors. There must be a reason for people to engage with your brand; that is, you should be offering a gift in some form. Whether that’s in the form of additional shopping discounts or even ideas for holiday-related projects that relate back to your product, the more value you can gift a site visitor with at this time of year, the better.
3. Jenn recognizes that content is key
   At this time of year, we’re overwhelmed with marketing messages. A simple text ad on your page wishing visitors “Happy Holidays” isn’t enough to even begin to engage the overwhelmed consumers. Statistically, photos receive ~4x as much engagement as text posts, and videos receive ~10x as much engagement. Considering that, the viral success of WestJet’s holiday surprise videos makes sense. This also highlights that the type of content posted is key – WestJet’s videos didn’t become popular because they were giving “awesome deals”. They went viral because they gave viewers those holiday “warm feelings” that we’re all seeking this time of year. Successful brands will not simply focus on selling additional product, but instead on creating those holiday feelings for their online communities.

The Cactus Club simply put an advertisement onto a holiday-themed background. They didn’t even use the same font as the rest of their branding, and as a result received very little engagement with the photo.

Coca-Cola does an excellent job of maintaining their brand identity while still introducing a festive mood.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at Hootsuite and whether it would be useful to continue using for our client afterwards. While the company itself is arguably the biggest name in social media management, it’s not suitable for all – and thus I present some Pros and Cons of Hootsuite.

The Pros
It’s great with Facebook and Twitter
Hootsuite is fantastic for scheduling Facebook and Twitter posts – the calendar feature is incredibly valuable, the user interface is neat and easy to follow, and the analytics give small businesses some analytics data for free. If your target market is primarily engaging with your brand on these platforms, then Hootsuite might be a good choice for your organisation.

Scheduling
As mentioned above, the calendar feature and the ability to schedule posts is one of Hootsuite’s best features. Basic Facebook analytics can tell me the most effective time to post for maximum engagement, but I’m not always free at 2:00 pm to run to my computer and post whatever the day’s content is. Hootsuite takes care of that with an easy-to-use scheduling tool which I can use to set up posts for my organisation and also to schedule a full month’s worth of personal tweets for participation credit.

The Cons 
It doesn’t integrate with Instagram
It seems strange that this is the case – Facebook owns Instagram, and yet while there is a well designed Facebook management platform, Instagram can only be found as an App that you can monitor. There aren’t any analytics or posting abilities to be found. Considering that Instagram is now the most popular social network for Teens, if you are catering to a younger demographic then Hootsuite doesn’t have much to offer.

Too much focus on Twitter
While Instagram gains in popularity, Twitter is starting to fall behind. The once-great social network is being surpassed by the likes of Pinterest, SnapChat, and Instagram, with many more “localized” apps such as YikYak gaining popularity as well.  Yet Twitter is still easily Hootsuite’s key social network, with more analytics and features available for the network compared to others. If Hootsuite isn’t careful, they risk becoming obsolete as they themselves fail to keep up with the trends in social.

I’m going to come right out and say it: not every company needs a social media strategy.

GASP.

I probably just offended legions of marketers who are taking to the streets armed with the shield of Facebook, the sword of Twitter, and the stallion of Instagram.

Sorry about that. No offence meant. Just put the sword away.

The truth is, when you look at your company’s social media strategy you need to consider the trade-offs and what you are looking to gain from having a social media presence. Sometimes, the time and effort put into managing digital media can be more effectively used elsewhere – and there is one fantastic big-name example of this.

Apple. The iCompany has developed the strongest iBrand in the iWorld (although admittedly they’re moving away from the iMovement now), all without dabbling in social media. Their Facebook page only went up in August of 2013, and has seen very little traffic since that point compared with the popularity of the brand itself.

So why did Apple not invest more time into its social media?

It didn’t need to. Social media is about engaging in conversations with others, leveraging the power of those brand communities to communicate with others – Apple is about enabling those conversations through innovative technology. It put its time and emphasis into a strong customer service program and developing innovative products as opposed to simply spending time and money responding to Facebook requests. They let their armies of fans build the communities themselves – displaying that trust that I’ve mentioned before. They trusted their fans, and their fans did the work for them – allowing Apple to do what it does best.

None of this is to say that it isn’t worth investing time or energy into social media. For most companies it most definitely is. However, it’s important that your organization consider why you want a social media strategy, what you’re hoping to get out of the strategy, and whether those goals could be more effectively met elsewhere. You might just become the next iTrend.

Congratulations! You are the proud Vice President Public Relations for that new club on campus…

Now what?

Once the adrenaline fades, you’ll realize pretty quickly that marketing is not as easy as it looks, especially with the $10 budget of most new student clubs! Thankfully there are plenty of resources to help you out along the way – but with an overwhelming amount of information, where do you begin?

#1  Define Yourself
Talk with your organization about your branding. What does your organization stand for? What words, images, and concepts are important to it? Create a document summarizing these ideas into a consistent message scheme.

#2  Exist
Thankfully social media gives organizations a chance to get their names out even with a low marketing budget! Start by simply creating the online profiles you’ll require. The basics are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – but consider what other sites might be useful. There are many “niche” social media sites online that your group might have greater success with!

#3  Write Stuff
Now that you’ve defined yourself and started existence, you need content to fill that space! Start writing, tweeting, re-tweeting, photo-taking, and/or selfie-ing anything that fits into that document you created back in Step #1. Upload it, share it with the world. Announce that existence that you so nicely started back in Step #2.

#4  Sharing Is Caring
The next step needs your whole team to be sitting in meeting with their phones out. Ready? No, it’s not selfie time. It’s sharing time! The team needs to get behind your efforts to build your online brand, and that means sharing, liking, and cover-photoing (is that a legitimate verb yet?) everything. Annoying, yes. Effective, absolutely. Now is the time to build awareness about that announcement about your well-defined existence. Use the networks you do have access to and grow your image.

#5  Build a Home
If you felt the need to create a club around the topic, chances are there’s a group of people at your university who are just as passionate as you are and are looking for a home. Provide these poor lost puppies students with a place where they can talk and engage with your community. Post questions that spark discussions among your followers to build engagement. Actively answer information requests, and encourage followers to start their own conversations. Using the main admin account, create a space online where people feel like their opinions are welcome and valued.

#6  Call To Arms
Chances are that if you’re a leader of a student organization you have some sort of goal in mind. Whatever that goal is – increasing membership, having more people out to your events, or increased donations to that charity you support – you now have a community of followers who are loyal towards you, your organization, and your ideas. Give them a call to action, a call to arms, and they will respond.

So you’ve watched all the videos from my previous post, and have decided that relinquishing some control over your social media is the way to go. Unfortunately, management doesn’t feel the same way. How do you convince them that this is the right direction for the company?

#1  Highlight the fact that giving up control means gaining trust
Customers are like teenagers. They complain more than they compliment, they balk at being treated like children, and they demand trust and control over their own decisions – loudly. Also similar to teenagers, a funny thing happens when you give up some control: they begin to trust you more. When Group A demonstrates trust in Group B, Group B develops more trust in Group A. Teenagers are, on average, more well behaved when parents demonstrate that they trust and respect them. Customers react positively when companies demonstrate trust in them.

#2  Emphasise that marketing is about getting the word out about who you are and what you do…
…and your customers are in a better place than you to do so. Think about it. You have a built-in network of brand ambassadors out there who want to engage with their peers and convince them to go with your brand – all for the low, low cost of $0 + a bit more autonomy. A bit more freedom will have multiple new networks buzzing about your company!

#3  Relinquishing control allows the company to spend more time on creating strong, positive content
When you don’t need to spend time validating each comment and searching the web for every opinion, your time is freed up to do other things for the company – opportunity cost, plain and simple. With all this extra time, you could be building truly engaging posts that help direct the conversations about your company the way you want them to be. You could have extra time to spot check messages being sent from the company to check that they are appropriate and in line with company branding. You could even (gasp!) be actively responding to posts and directly engaging with your customers. The possibilities are endless.

TED Talks have risen to fame over the past few years as a method for the best and brightest minds of our world to convey their thoughts in a simple way that the rest of us simpletons can take in and learn from. Aspiring social media marketers have the opportunity to go online and watch content created by the cream of the crop. Here are my top 4.

#1  Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash on social media
In under 4 minutes, the creator of Reddit takes his audience through the story of Mr. Splashy Pants’ rise to internet fame. While created back in 2009, Ohanian’s point still stands strong: to succeed on social media, companies need to be willing to relinquish control. Messages no longer proceed through a controlled, top-down hierarchy – and that’s a good thing for us.

#2  Evan Williams: The voices of Twitter users
While the creator of Twitter focuses on examples specific to Twitter, he brings to the forefront an important concept when looking at social media: it is user-generated, user-created, and user-directed. What implications does that have for your social media strategy? It means that you need to be willing to let others generate and direct the content. Evan might not be the most engaging presenter, but his points are still valid for anyone looking to engage their online community.

 #3  Tim Leberecht: 3 ways to (usefully) lose control of your brand
In this talk, frog CMO Tim Leberecht takes his listeners through 3 practical ways to take advantage of the fact that you cannot control what others say on social media. Focusing on the idea of control – letting go of it, taking more of it, and applying strict processes to encourage more engaging social interactions. Applicable to both human resource professionals and marketers, Tim makes his point in a visual, engaging way with examples spread throughout.

#4  Seth Godin: The tribes we lead
Although less “concretely applicable” than the posts above, Godin does an excellent job of walking his audience through the ways people and companies have interacted through the years. From the era of the factory line to mass TV marketing, we’ve now evolved to a point where companies need to be seen as innovative leaders. Marketing is no longer about top-down messaging; truly successful companies develop full brand communities and let those communities do the marketing for them.

There you have it – my four favourite social media TED Talks. Of course, there are plenty more excellent talks floating around the internet on this topic – send me a link to your favourite in the comments below!