The Future Challenges of Social Media
Introduction:
Social media has the potential to create a multitude of issues for organizations and has so already, from politically incorrect posts, inappropriate jokes, and the common spelling mistakes. These issues have surely already impacted organizations and will continue to do so. Organizations have had to make adjustments and dedicate additional attention to their social media marketing strategies to avoid these issues. These issues will continue to haunt organizations in the future but with strong emphasis on detail and accuracy, these can be avoided. However, these are most likely not the most important issues that a organization will face in the future. As social media continues to change and grow so rapidly, organizations will certainly be faced with a great challenge of deciding which social media platforms to choose. One of the primary challenges will also be connecting all the social media platforms and maintaining congruity between them. With such, organizations must ensure that they uphold the congruity between their multiple sites. Organizations will also need to determine how often to post and the content that will be posted.
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1. What social media platforms will organizations choose?
Organizations will have to choose which platforms best fit the needs of their organization and which will reach their targeted customers. The most important role of social media is to create an actionable audience (Schaefer). For example, if organizations feel that their customers would be interested in videos on their products or services, placing emphasis on YouTube marketing may be beneficial. However, if they feel that quick, short messages will be the best way to reach their target audience, Twitter should be a higher consideration. Market research will play a crucial role in determining which platforms will reach the largest target audience. Choosing the most appropriate social media platforms is one of the most important decisions that the organizations make, as this will create the foundation for their social media identity. Social media will undoubtedly be a key manner for these organizations to gain followers and turn leads into customers.
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2. How often and when should organizations post?
A common question for organizations is how often and when should they post content on social media. The key to social media is the interaction with the consumers. Organizations should make sure to be active on all social media sites that they operate. There should always be new content available for their consumers to see and interact with. As organizations are able to monitor the activity of their followers on their site, organizations can determine the frequency of their posts based on the activity level of their followers. If organizations do not regularly post congruent with their consumers, this will result in losing key interactions with their consumers.
It is also extremely important for organizations to determine when they should post. For example, world-wide organizations should consider the time zone of their consumers. Similarly, if an organization has learned that their consumers are mostly business men and women, they might choose to focus on posting later in the evening when those individuals are more active on social media. As mentioned, social media is all about interaction with their consumers, and it is exceptionally important for organizations to post regularly and timely on the correct sites so that they can create the most profitable and beneficial interactions with their consumers.
3. How do organizations integrate their marketing plan?
One of the most difficult aspects of social media marketing is ensuring that all social media platforms will operate similarly and will display the same messages and content. Organizations can not have contradictory information on their social media sites. If this happens, it will certainly create confusion among their consumers and diminishes their trust towards the organization. Organizations must ensure that all social media advertisements or posts are aligned with the current status of the marketing plan. For example, organizations such as Jeep try to connect with their consumers through photos and experiences on social media. For instance, Jeep carries a strong focus on wanting to hear and see what their consumers are doing with their products with the intentions of building a sense of pride and loyalty to their brand. Jeep, throughout all of their social media sites, is focused on the adventure of the individual’s life, which is displayed throughout their sites.
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Conclusion:
As social media gets broader and broader, organizations will continue to have issues with choosing what social media platforms to participate on, remaining active and engaging on all platforms, and integrating their marketing plan throughout all the social media sites. Organizations will have to continue to conduct studies to understand what type of information reaches and appeals best to the customers. Based on this information, they will then need to choose what sites are best for their organization. Once they have chosen platforms to market with, organizations will also need to be invest a great deal of time with these social media sites to make them marketable and to gain a following. Organizations will have to regularly post on all social media sites that they are active with so that they can keep the lines of interaction open with their potential clients. They will also need to ensure that their messages on each social media site carry the same facts and beliefs, as differing messages across different sites will create confusion and consumers will lose trust in the organizations. Interaction is key within social media, and if organizations can continue to create quality content that continues to be shared, their following with exponentially increase.
