Sprout Social

Social media marketing was seen as the irregular route for advertisers. Marketing on social media was a starting point for most, a place where they could experiment and suffer little to no negative consequences. Despite the start up phase, social media marketing is now maturing. Social media still represents brilliant field for trademarks to think outside the box however there is still assessable influence on an organizations bottom line. Therefor, social media marketing cannot be thought of separately but incorporated into the rest of the business plan.

Sprout social has put together a seven step guide to walk you through the steps, assuring your social media marketing efforts are benefiting your trademarks overall purpose. I will highlight the seven steps and comment on each although I encourage you to follow the link and read all Sprout Social has to say about social media marketing.

1. Ensure social goals solve challenges. Goal setting is a staple of all marketing and business goals.
   
    Social Media Examiner lists 8 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy. Both lists from the two different sources have the same number one. "Every piece of your social media strategy serves the goals you set." The other seven goals Social Media Examiner lists are set marketing objectives, identify ideal customers, research competition, choose channel and tactics, create a content strategy, allocate budget and resources, and assign roles. I encourage you to visit this source and see what insight they have on these strategies
2. Extend efforts throughout your organization. sales, customer service, human resources, research and development, marketing.
3. Focus on networks that add value. Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Google+
4. Create engaging content. Videos, guides, info graphics.
5. Identify business opportunities through social. Brand mentions, industry terms, competitor info.
6. Engage instead of ignore. Their research shows that 5 in 6 messages on social requiring response are not answered.
7. Tack, improve, and market your efforts. This final step is actually a step back, letting you figure out whats working and whats not. 

I would like to highlight Jack Threads apparel as a company who does a great job marketing on social media. There ads are persistent, They put effort into the markets they pursue and drill the top trends of their products into attention.