Report
Subject: Marketing / Advertising
Topic: Social Media Advertising Strategies
Introduction
Social media continues to become one of the best ways of enlarging a
company’s market share in as far as marketing is concerned. Many
organizations have successfully built their brand awareness through
the social media as it ignites conversations and interests globally
almost at once. One of the reasons leading to this is that consumers
are using a lot of their time visiting the social media and web
sites. Approximately 90% of social media users make an attempt of
sharing the information available in the social media with other
consumers. This creates some form of network. According to
statistics, 98% of the people between the ages 18 to 24 years engage
in some form of social media (Pentinah & Koh, 2012:293; Powers et
al., 2013: 479). This encompasses the target audience for the Thames
Valley Training and Development. Even with this great percentage of
potential customers visiting these sites, the main aim is to ensure
that the consumers not only see the brand advertisement but they also
engage with it.
Brief Task
When banner advertisement emerged in the 1990s, a lot of attention
was drawn to them which made internet users to highly engage with
them. Unfortunately, their impact on advertising has continued to
plummet over the years (Halligan & Shah, 2010:25). Plastering the
advertisement on a banner and assuming that this will attract the
needed attention on the brand is a fallacy. For such inadequacies,
other strategies need to be established and implemented in order to
make social media advertising effective. This task entails creating
other effective social media advertising strategies that will bring
the needed attention on TVT&D. This not only incorporates laying
out the strategies, but it also includes setting out the specific
steps to take through the use of advertisement models in order to
make the project a success. The follow-ups strategies are also
included in this task in order to ensure that the needed amendments
are made for utmost successful results.
Project Amendment (Management Exception)
As noted so far, banner advertisements are not making the needed
impact. Since TVT&D is a young but developing/growing company, it
needs social media strategies that will be as effective as possible.
The planned results were that the other forms of media advertising
with the incorporation of banner advertisement through the social
media would have worked. These results do not depict our anticipation
so far. The next appropriate thing is to incorporate as many
strategies that will boost the advertisement on the banners. The
market share targeted encompasses the young people. Young people are
not as attracted to the banners as compared to the older generation.
Since the young people have a higher probability of getting a college
education as compared to the older people, the management exception
here is to find other strategies that will accompany banner
advertisement.
The other management exception entails limits aligning with the
number of strategies that were to be incorporated. Previously, the
idea was to come up with as many strategies as possible. However, it
was evident that incorporating all these strategies was making this
task cumbersome as it enlarged the scope of work (Choi, 2011:55).
These many strategies also compromised the quality of work expected
by the client. There is also the aspect of time limits amongst other
relevant resources. The appropriate amendment to this challenge is to
cut-down on the number of strategies to be presented to the client.
Instead of delivering as many strategies as possible, the team will
deliver three strategies. These three strategies will be further
explained and thoroughly expounded on through models and steps in
order to present three effective strategies that will make
significant impact in the targeted period.
The team has decided to divide this work. Instead of working on one
big project that will be of effect in the next decade or so, the idea
is to make small projects that can be easily monitored and analyzed
when need arises. For this project, the team plans to present three
social media marketing strategies as earlier indicated. After the
targeted period elapses, the project’s assessment of its success
will determine the scope of the next project. The next project might
entail adding other strategies that will increase the results gained
in this project or it might include taking another direction if this
project emerges as a failure. In the long run, the company will have
as many strategies as it can handle. The team’s policy so in this
amendment is to take one step at a time.
Progress to Date
As identified, the main aim is to come up with three comprehensive
strategies that will make the needed impact in advertising the TVTD
in the social media. There are various steps involved in this
project. However, the team has reached a given point so far. The
first step engaged identifying the target market. The client targets
all types of consumers. However, the higher concentration is on the
youth as they are in great need of leadership skills in order to
strive in the rapidly globalizing market. The youth also constitute
the larger market share that constantly engages with social media
(Sterne, 2012:65). Accomplishing this step would engage doing a lot
of research in the internet and other materials that would enlighten
the team on youth participation in social media and their engagement
with advertisements. This part has already been accomplished so far.
The second step entails scaling the various social media advertising
strategies advocated by the numerous materials available through both
soft and hard copies. The main aim of going through this step is to
identify the strategies that can apply to our client. It also
includes comparing the resources needed to make a strategy effective
with the client’s limited budget. Additionally, there are
strategies that are extremely effective in other scenarios but quite
limited when it comes to some consumer-based environments. This step
is also accomplished.
The next step involves picking out five most appropriate strategies
that can work out with the client. However, these are not the final
strategies. The team will further analyze each of the strategies in
order to find the three final most appropriate to be undertaken in
this project. The other two will be incorporated in the other project
to follow. This has also been accomplished so far. The team came up
with these three strategies:-
The other step involves assigning a number of tasks to the team
members. The first step engages a lot of research. The effort of the
whole team is needed. Two members were assigned tasks of researching
the soft copies while the other three researched the hard copies
since it is the harder task. After two days, the team came together
to compare the notes and come up with the most appropriate
strategies. The team also split when finding the appropriate
strategies. While every team member became creative in finding the
appropriate strategies, two team members sorted out the relevant from
irrelevant strategies while the other two team members came up with
steps needed to expound on these strategies. One team member acts as
the overall supervisor and coordinator.
The team came together to choose the three most effective strategies.
Various amendments were made through the incorporation of other
created strategies by the team members in order to come up with the
most appropriate strategies for the client as the team can present.
At this point, the team is in the process of incorporating the
various steps or sub-strategies that will be engaged in the
implementation process of the strategies. The various criticisms will
be made and then the corrections will be made through the presented
recommendations.
Annotated Presentation of work Covered So Far
Research on Target Market and Strategies (5 days)
This part of the task took five days. For two days, the team did
some research on the target market and the people’s perception of
social media and leadership development training programs. This
research entailed asking questions to a number of people and
analyzing the information available in the hard and soft copies. The
team members were assigned different tasks. While two members
researched on the internet and the soft copies available, the other
members researched on the hard copies. On the third day, all members
went out to ask questions relating to the same. The participation of
all members allowed the team to interview as many people as possible.
On the fifth day, the team gathered in order to sort out and analyze
the information gathered in the research activities.
The team members found this part challenging especially when it came
to the physical part of interviewing consumers. One team member felt
that he could not carry out this part due to the negative response
from the potential interviewees. However, a few encouragements from
the chosen team supervisor and coordinator as well as the other team
members enabled the full participation of all the team members in
this activity. There were other challenges found when researching
the hard copies. There are limited books and journals that highly
give the needed information regarding social media advertising.
However, the team members assigned to this task found some
information that was quite useful.
Sorting and developing the Strategies gained (3 days)
This part of engaged discussions which sometimes would bring forth
debates. The various team members had to present their views on the
various strategies presented and the other strategies proposed. Team
members analyzed the strengths and weaknesses pertaining to every
strategy. At this point, each team member was given one or more than
one strategy to research on in terms of its strength and weaknesses.
The team had to come up with five most appropriate strategies for the
client company. Further research would then be carried out on these
five strategies. The team came up with these five strategies on the
third day.
The challenge was agreeing amongst us. Every team member made strong
points relating to his or her argument relating to a given strategy.
Moreover, every information or argument presented by a member had to
be taken as relevant. The members had to learn how to criticize each
others’ works and presentations without disrespecting or
disregarding their works. The members had to do further research in
order to find the most appropriate strategies. Additionally, managing
time was another challenge. While some members were quite quick and
efficient, other members needed constant reminders of the deadlines
aligning with their tasks. Making maximum use of the available
resources is not only relevant to the client but it is also relevant
to the team.
Picking out the Three Final Strategies (2 days)
The team came up with three most effective strategies for social
media advertising as related to the client, TVTD. This was another
daunting task as all the team members found these five strategies all
relevant. Each team member was given a strategy to research upon as
extensively as possible. On the second day, the team came together
and compared the notes. Finally, the team came up with three most
appropriate strategies. However, the team needed to vote for an all
majority vote in the areas where there was division of the strategy
to be picked over the other. This is because everyone felt that all
the five strategies were relevant. Unfortunately, time limitations
would allow the team to work on all the five strategies effectively.
Two strategies had to be pushed to the next project.
As identified, the team experienced challenges in picking the three
most effective strategies. The members could not agree on which
strategies to drop or the strategies to pick. This led the team
members to improvise the voting technique. Finally, the strategies
were chosen and the team members embarked on expounding on these
strategies.
Expounding on the three strategies (2 weeks)
This is the task we are working on currently. This will take
approximately one week or seven days. This is because it is the most
relevant part of the task. The team intends to engage further
research on these three strategies. This includes researching by
interviewing the consumers and including literature review of the
chosen strategies. There are steps to be included in order to make
the implementation process effective. These steps include:
This is a daunting task and so the team members are expected to
encounter a number of challenges. The client expects the team deliver
the most effective strategies. In order to achieve these results, the
team has to put the utmost input and effort in this task. There are
challenges expected to arise when finding the consumers to be
interviewed. As mentioned earlier there is limited credible
information available on issues related to social media advertising.
The team intends to tackle the various challenges as it carries on
with the core assignment.
Criticism, Recommendation and Corrections
This period is limitless. The team intends to gather as many
criticisms and recommendations as possible in order to present the
best work possible. The team intends to contact a number of
professionals who will guide in the criticisms and recommendations.
The appropriate corrections will be done accordingly.
Review of Working Agreement
The team has already reviewed the working agreement. However, the
team intends to present some discrepancies before embarking on the
main part of the work. The team intends to sought out legal advice
from a lawyer as some terms are quite complex for the understanding
of all members. Additionally, the TVTD seems to put the terms in a
manner that favors it. There are no established neutral grounds.
Additionally, there are no provisions put as may be needed in this
line of work. As put earlier, the team intends to seek legal guidance
in order to gain enlightenment in the areas of discrepancy.
Conclusion
The task execution is going according to plan so far. In addition,
the team has made a provision of one week to the time table in case
of delays, prolonged tasks or unexpected occurrences. Although
criticisms are welcomed and the period for such is unlimited, the
team intends to evaluate the criticisms. Additionally, the team
intends to avoid last-minute changes as they are hurriedly put with
limited assessments. Overall, the team intends to deliver the most
effective strategies needed for social media advertising.