Social media managers have to know and consider a lot in their job! First of all, there is your own homepage, your own online shop, various promotion and affiliate opportunities and finally, the social networks to publicize and strengthen your own brand. Successful social media managers combine all of these – with an eye for the big picture. If you’re new to the industry, you’re always looking for the first places to start, ideas and best practices from the business world. In Lukinski’s Social Media Manager Guide you will find many interesting questions and exciting answers that you can quickly apply to your business model with a little skill.
Social Media Manager Strategies & Tips – Now New & Every Sunday!
A little over forty years ago, the Club of Rome published its highly regarded author’s work “The Limits to Growth”. They drew their conclusions for trade volumes and the world economy. They then drew the central conclusion that “if the present rate of increase in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and exploitation of natural resources continues unabated, the absolute limits to growth on earth will be reached in the course of the next hundred years”.
Is growth in online trade a fact of life? Despite the widely acclaimed work “The Limits to Growth”, global trade in goods and commodities of all kinds knows no bounds. The current trend, at least in terms of growth in commerce, is clearly moving towards further growth. Networking, attention and reach on social media is everything! You can always find new, exciting articles in the Social Media Manager Guide to Digital PR & Online Marketing Strategies! Interaction, the magic word for successful social media content. Interaction means active participation. Interaction means spontaneously increasing reach which ultimately leads to the grail of social media management: Virality.
New concepts and approaches in social media management
The Crowd – Social Commerce and Crowdsourcing as a new source of recommendations and data
Terms like social commerce or crowdsourcing are becoming important buzzwords for companies. Social networks enable a new, more open form of communication between companies and (potential readers, brand fans, interested parties) customers. Don’t forget, just like in the local store, customers’ wishes, feelings, interests, ideas and opinions are freely available on social networks. The much-praised dialogue with the customer is made possible with the social web – simple, location-independent and spontaneous. An active community is therefore the best way to optimize your own brand. But it is also essential for successful social media marketing. Listen. Think. Act.
The brand – fans in various networks and individual communication strategies
24% of internet users in Germany are fans of a brand or product. Over 13 million people. Brand fans are active users, they spread messages, share content and media. Brand fans are the basis for success in social media. Both worlds – fashion and social media – thrive on sharing, emotions, fads and trends. The average Facebook user spends at least an hour a day in chats, commenting on friends’ posts, sharing (to him/her) relevant content, etc. But wait, it’s not just Facebook. More and more competing models from small and big competitors, like Google+, Twitter, Pinterest or Vimeo, are entering the social web and establishing themselves. While Facebook is golden for all actions among twenty-somethings, more and more younger internet users are using social networks like Tumblr and Instagram.
Social Media Guide: Foundation, Understanding and Reach – This is what it’s all about
What is news? Businesses and social media only live through actively acting people and group dynamics. Both areas have many synergies that are highlighted here. “Do good and talk about it”
My focus: fashion & lifestyle as the best indicator for speed and virality in social media
Nothing works without a good foundation. It can be said in advance: fashion as a cultural and industrial asset lives in particular from the brand status of its company – as well as from change and novelty. That’s why fashion and lifestyle companies are a uniquely good indicator of fast, worldwide news…. For all companies, where there is sun, there is also shadow. Conversely, a lack of presence on social media means a negative impact on a company’s brand awareness – and subsequently your market share, PR and sales volumes. If you want to read more about the fashion industry, you can find my article Social Media Manager in the Fashion Industry here.
Marketing
Social media marketing as a new field in the classic marketing mix
Social media marketing in general is a relatively new field in the marketing mix. German-language specialist literature on the topic of social media marketing only appeared in recent years around 2010 and 2011. Nevertheless, marketing in social media has quickly become a multifaceted topic in marketing. Due to the numerous options for action on the social web and the various networks within it, online marketing is complex. So is measuring success, because apart from ROIs (return of investment), KPIs (key performance indicators), there is still no concrete measurement of success for actions in SMM. This lack of concrete performance measurement keeps many companies from investing in social media marketing. However, SMM should be used in every customer-oriented company. The impressive number of German Internet users has already been mentioned. According to the ARD/ZDF online study, there were over 61 million in 2013. And almost every second of these users is active in a social network, a total of 24.7 million German users (14 years and older). Facebook is and remains unmatched – nine out of ten community users are registered with a personal profile on Facebook. And on average, seven new members are added every second.
The focus of this topic is to find out, analyse and evaluate the relevance and the meaningful application of SMM, in the special context of target groups and contents, for companies, retailers and brands. The aim is to explain social media management for fashion companies and to show perspectives for successful SMM in terms of interaction rates in social networks based on research and interview results. The research, as well as interviews, dealt with the topics of multi-channel management, social media management, social campaigning and crowdsourcing.
Extra
Philosophical and social approaches to social media management
For those who want to go a little deeper, I will also write articles that go even more into the complexity of society in digital media. With the increasing reach of the social web, companies have an interesting additional, virtual marketing and communication channel to acquire customers and prospects and to retain them as brand fans. But the relationship has changed. The classic 1:m sender-receiver model is hardly used anymore in the web of user generated content. In social networks, on blogs or in rating portals, Internet users discuss, rate and comment. Back, Gronau, Tochtermann (2009) aptly describe this circumstance as a shift from consumer to prosumer. That is, Internet users produce and reproduce content of the Web themselves. That is, they write – whether they like it or not – product reviews about their pants, give recommendations about the current collection or use their rating options on Amazon, eBay and Co. According to Back, Gronau, Tochtermann, this paradigm shift requires new forms of marketing messages. Messages that can be quite different as the later chapters and examples of labels like Asos and Yves Saint Laurent show. It is the communication that has changed, the level of communication, m:n instead of 1:n. Very abbreviated: equality?
The constant change in the media is similar to the rapid changes in Web 2.0. Fashion, like the social web, is strongly influenced by individuals and their group dynamics. There are opinion leaders and trendsetters who have a strong influence on the rest of society or internet users on the social web. Both worlds – business and social media – are governed by a fundamental dynamic. For companies, the social web with its constant change is therefore an optimal promotion platform, because it functions in a sociologically similar way.
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Sources
Inspiration, sources and small quotes
Back, A.; Gronau, N.; Tochtermann, K.: Web 2.0 in der Unternehmenspraxis – Grundlagen, Fallstudien und Trends zum Einsatz von Social Software. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag 2009
Duden. Die deutsche Rechtschreibung: Das umfassende Standardwerk auf der Grundlage der aktuellen amtlichen Regel. Bibliographisches Institut, Berlin 2013
Grabs, A., Bannour, K.: Follow me!, Galileo Press, Bonn 2010
Greskamp, F.; Michelis, D.: Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell). In Michelis, D., Schildhauer T. (Eds.): Social Media Handbook. Theories, methods, models and practice. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2012, pp. 67-81.
Fleischer, C., Merck, J.: Strategische Positionierung durch Nachhaltigkeit am Beispiel der Otto Group. In Riekhof, H. (Ed.): Retail Business – Perspectives, Strategies, Patterns of Success. Springer Verlag 2007, pp. 115 – 129
Heinemann, G.: Der neue Online-Handel, Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010
Heinemann, G., Haug, A. : Web-Excellence in E-Commerce, Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010
Hettler, U.: Social Media Marketing, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2010
Hilker, C.: Successful social media strategies for the future. More profit through Facebook, Twitter, Xing and Co. Linde, Vienna 2012, p. 65-82
Korbien, M.: The Cluetrain Manifesto. In Michelis, D., Schildhauer T. (Eds.): Social Media Handbook. Theories, methods, models and practice. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2012, pp. 81-90.
Levine; Locke; Searls; Weinberger: The Cluetrain Manifesto. The End of Business as Usual. Perseus Books, New York, 2009
Meckel, M. ; Stanoevska-Slabeva, Katarina (ed.): Web 2.0. Die nächste Generation Internet. Baden-Baden, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 2008, pp. 13-38.
Münker, S.: Die Sozialen Medien des Web 2.0. In Michelis, D., Schildhauer T. (Eds.): Social Media Handbuch. Theories, methods, models and practice. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2012, pp. 45-56.
Simmel, G.: Philosophie der Mode. Kant, Goethe, Schopenhauer and Nitzsche. Suhrkamp 1995
Weinberg, T.: Social Media Marketing. O’Reilly Verlag, Cologne 2010
Zarrella, D.: The Social Media Marketing Book. O’Reilly Verlag, Cologne 2010
Media, videos and online resources:
ARD/ZDF Online Study 2013 (Issue 7-8)
http://www.media-perspektiven.de/uploads/tx_mppublications/0708-2013_Statistik.pdf (as of 12/07/2014, 2:13 PM)
Baltner, U.: Social media strategies of fashion labels: from the catwalk to Web 2.0 for SMO14 (2010), p. 4 at http://de.slideshare.net/UweBaltner/socialmediastrategien-der-modelabels-vom-laufsteg-ins-web-20 (as of 04.04.2014, 12:58).
Bitkom: Social networks – third, expanded study (2013) on
http://www.bitkom.org/de/markt_statistik/63995.aspx (as of 06/06/2014, 15:53)
Bit.ly Study (2011):
http://blog.bitly.com/post/9887686919/you-just-shared-a-link-how-long-will-people-pay (as of 07/15/2014, 11:18 AM)
and http://blog.bitly.com/post/22663850994/time-is-on-your-side
GfK (2010), The web as a key element in retail purchase decisions.
at http://www.forum-einzelhandel.de/doc/Studie_Yahoo_Vertical_Study_Retail.pdf (as of 06/06/2014, 12:56 PM).
Greene, J. (2008): How Nike’s Social Network Sells to Runners.
at http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=43087 (as of 08.06.2014, 10:46 a.m.)
Schmidt, H. (2010): Das Internet auf dem Weg zum Leitmedium,
at: http://fazcommunity.faz.net/blogs/netzkonom/archive/2010/10/18/das-internet-auf-dem-wegzum-leitmedium.aspx (as of 06/06/2014, 12:49 PM)
Statista: Number of smartphone users in Germany from 2009 to 2014 at http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/198959/umfrage/anzahl-der-smartphonenutzer-in-deutschland-seit-2010 (as of 10.05.2014, 16:58:52)
Knop, C. Before the IPO – The value of Facebook. Article from 03.02.2012 on
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/vor-dem-boersengang-der-wert-von-facebook-11636569.html (as of 02.06.2014, 09:04)
http://www.cluetrain.com/auf-deutsch.html (as of 10.05.2014, 16:58)
– Fig. Q2 in the list of sources
