Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Understand the role of social media in digital marketing.

Uses: raise awareness, acquisition, retention, increased click through to website, perception change, promote brand awareness, etc.

Factors: targeted to audience, appropriate social networking site, appropriate call to action, time constraint, design, content, budget, multi- channel campaign targeting and analytics.

Reasons for measuring outcomes: refinement and adaptation of marketing activities, budget allocation.

Tools for monitoring: dashboards, aggregators, web analytics.

Key metrics: hit rate/visits (total), unique visitors, bounce rate, exit rate, dwell time (stickiness), click-through rate, download rates, visitor origin (country/region), time of day, top page views, Pages Per Visit (PPV), Daily Active Users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Return on Investment (ROI), customer satisfaction and engagement, customer trends, Cost per acquisition (CPA), sales, retention rates, win back, engagement, re-engagement, perception, customer satisfaction, brand awareness, average revenue per user.

Assessment Criteria

• 1.1

  Explain the use of social media in digital marketing campaigns

• 1.2

  Explain the factors to consider when creating social media marketing campaigns.

• 1.3

  Explain the importance of identifying and measuring outcomes from marketing campaigns.

• 1.4

  Explain tools for monitoring and measuring social media marketing campaigns.

Be able to implement and measure a social media marketing campaign.

Types of digital media:

• Paid media (organisations pay to deliver content to an audience): paid search advertisements (ads), social media ads, sponsorships, display/banner ads.
• Earned media (organisations try to earn coverage and exposure from reporters and influencers: viral marketing, social media conversations, blog/vlogs, user-generated reviews.
• Owned media (under the direct control of the organisation): websites/mobile sites, newsletters, catalogues, blogs, email lists, applications (apps) and software.

Channels:

Website: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), influencers, chatbots, Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, trusted feeds, podcasts, widgets.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), organic search marketing, paid search advertising, pay-per-click (PPC), banner adverts.

Social media: Online Public Relations (OPR), photo, video and slide-sharing sites, viral marketing, blogs and vlogs, brand blogging, influencer marketing, social media advertising, social media endorsements.

Email for attracting and retaining customers: opt-in email, cold email, co-branded email, conversion emails, e-newsletters, event triggered/behavioural emails, email sequencing.

Factors to consider when deciding on appropriate channels: reaching target market, accessibility of information, speed of communication, communication with the customer, cost to the organisation, choice for customer, competitors’ activities, brand image and development.

Tools: tracking codes, pixel tracking, first party and third party cookies.

Assessment Criteria

• 2.1

  Plan a social media marketing campaign to meet organisational goals in line with requirements.

• 2.2

  Select and justify appropriate channels and digital media for a social media marketing campaign.

• 2.3

  Create and implement a social media marketing campaign.

• 2.4

  Add tracking tools to measure the success of a social media marking campaign.

• 2.5

  Select data to determine the success a social media marketing campaign and provide recommendations for improvement.

Understand the challenges, legal and ethical issues and how they impact on social media marketing.

Challenges: changes in SEO algorithms, digital platforms becoming obsolete, new digital platforms being introduced, cross-platform compatibility, increase in digital channels, big data (handling large data volumes), cyber security.

Legal issues:

Data protection: privacy and data collection, security and storage of customer information.

Intellectual property: trademarks, copyright.

Advertising: unfair/deceptive advertising, spam.

Ethical issues: opt-in/opt-out procedures, permissions, tracking customer behaviour, marketing to minors, alcohol, religion, decency, discrimination, regional variations.

Assessment Criteria

• 3.1

  Explain the challenges in digital marketing and how they impact on social media marketing activities.

• 3.2

  Explain legal and ethical issues relating to social media marketing campaigns.