The reasons you need to be on social media may surprise you. Many experts refer to social media as social media marketing. However, the term Social Media marketing is much too narrow. Social media is many different things in one. Social media is an intersection between customer service, customer reviews, ads and interaction. Businesses need to use social media because it involves the key elements in the customer relationship. Advertising is one of them, yes. Yet, the value of reviews, customer service and interaction cannot be overlooked.
These platforms are difficult to figure out because they’re all different. Step back for a moment. Think of advertising and marketing in a more traditional sense. With traditional advertising you pay the company, place an ad and reach customers. Whether it was your local newspaper, tv station or radio the format was the same. The retailer pays for an ad. The ad runs in the paper. Customers see it. As a form of advertising, social media is the same basic concept. There are only slight differences and nuances.
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter all make money through ads. Businesses place ads on their platforms. In a traditional sense you are advertising on a platform. We’ll cover how this works more throughout this chapter.
Placing ads is one aspect of social media marketing. A retailer needs a multi pronged approach to social media. There are several different goals you need to achieve.
Introducing BASE
These goals are to:
- Be a Star
- Advertise
- Serve
- Engage
My Acronym – the BASE Strategy
Our acronym for this is BASE. When it comes to social media it should be your goal as a store to set up a BASE on the platform. Let’s explore each of these items in more depth.