– REPORT Best Practice Guide Social Media Strategy This report aims to identify best practice approaches, techniques, measurement considerations, challenges and opportunities for creating your social media strategy. Social Media Strategy Best Practice Guide Published August 2019 Econsultancy London Econsultancy New York Econsultancy Singapore 4th Floor, Wells Point 205 Hudson Street, 10 Anson Road No part of this publication may be reproduced or 79 Wells Street 7th Floor New York, International Plaza #36-01 transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic London, W1T 3QN New York, 10013 Singapore, 079903 or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any United Kingdom United States Tel: +65 6909 9150 information storage and retrieval system, without prior Tel: +44 (0)20 7970 4322 Tel: +44 (0)20 7970 4322 permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2019 Email: [email protected] Website: http://econsultancy.com Contents 1. Introduction 4 1.1 About this report 4 1.2 Research aim and methodology 4 1.3 About Econsultancy 5 1.4 About the author 5 1.5 Expert contributors 5 1.6 Executive summary 6 2. Defining Social Media 8 2.1 What is social media? 8 2.2 Characteristics of social media 9 2.3 Categories of social media 9 2.4 The evolution of social media 12 2.5 Key trends in social media 13 2.6 Facebook Apps and WeChat’s developing ecosystems 13 2.7 Social media payment wallets and cryptocurrency 14 2.8 The changing face of social content 15 2.9 Rapidly evolving advertising 20 2.10 Content saturation and platform algorithms 21 3. A Broad Framework for a Social Media Strategy 23 4. Challenges and Opportunities in Social Media 27 4.1 Integrating customer service and customer experience 28 4.2 Global, regional, local 29 4.3 Pros and cons 30 4.4 Reputation and risk management 34 4.5 Emojis, visual social media listening and reputation management 39 5. Organising for Social Media: Typical Operating Models 43 5.1 Operating hours 45 Social Media Strategy Best Practice Guide 2 5.2 Resourcing for social media 47 5.3 Insourcing and outsourcing 49 5.4 Policy and processes 51 5.5 Tools 53 5.6 Categories of social media tools 53 6. Activity Planning 57 7. Aligning to Content Strategy 69 7.1 Governance 69 7.2 Legal considerations 70 7.2.1 Intellectual Property (IP) 70 7.2.2 Law of Confidence 71 7.2.3 Defamation 71 7.2.4 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 71 7.2.5 Data Protection, privacy and cookie laws 72 7.3 Regulatory or sector guidance 73 7.4 What this looks like in practice 73 8. Measurement 77 8.1 What are you measuring? Identifying goals, objectives and KPIs 78 8.2 Measuring offline conversions 78 8.3 Metrics for social media 79 8.4 Using campaign tracking 81 8.5 The attribution challenge and dark social 83 8.6 A framework for putting it all together 84 8.7 Reporting and user-based reports 86 8.8 Social media dashboards 87 9. Conclusion 90 10. Further Reading 92 Social Media Strategy Best Practice Guide 3 1. Introduction This guide has been written to complement Econsultancy’s Social Media Platforms Overview. Its purpose is to provide a framework for developing a social media strategy as well as a summary of the main considerations for marketers when developing a strategic approach to social media marketing and communications. 1.1 About this report In the last few years, social technologies have had a disruptive effect on many organisations, making them rethink their ways of working and communication and the relationship they have with their customers and other stakeholders. As social media touches so many areas of the organisation, the process of getting it ‘right’ has been transformative for many. Social media is a fast-moving area of digital but also one that touches most internet users. Globally, there are 3.534 billion global social media users. That’s 46% of the world’s population.1 The platforms continue to evolve at a rapid rate. The knowledge and skills required to ensure social media success have broadened. Marketers still need to be brilliant communications, community, content and comms specialists, but more sophisticated ad offerings, the need to manage data and the developing s-commerce functions on the platforms requires a very mixed skillset. As the platforms evolve and social media moves beyond the domain of brand marketing/communications and further into research, innovation, customer experience and commerce, organisations need to rethink their structures, skills and support and approach social media in a highly strategic way. Social media is a vast topic. To make it more manageable, Econsultancy has created complementary social media guides as recommended reading: ● Social Media Platforms Overview ● Social Media Advertising Best Practice Guide ● B2B Social Media Best Practice Guide 1.2 Research aim and methodology The aim of this research is to identify best practice approaches, techniques, challenges and opportunities for creating a social media strategy. The methodology involved two main phases: ● Phase 1: Desk research to identify relevant issues, examples and models. ● Phase 2: A series of in-depth interviews with a range of senior digital and non-digital marketers, communications leads and social media strategists. Interviewees for the research covered sectors as diverse as manufacturing, software vendors, publishing, arts and culture, retail, aerospace, charity, business services, hospitality, public sector (including government), SaaS, FMCG, non-profit, agency, financial services and media. 1 https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2019/07/global-social-media-users-pass-3-5-billion Social Media Strategy Best Practice Guide 4 1.3 About Econsultancy Econsultancy’s mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing and ecommerce through research, training and events. Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore. Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning – all focused on helping individuals and enterprises get better at digital. The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability programs, training courses, skills assessments and audits. We train and develop thousands of professionals each year as well as running events and networking that bring the Econsultancy community together around the world. Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence. Contact [email protected] to find out more. 1.4 About the author The lead author for this social media guide is Michelle Goodall. Michelle is an experienced consultant. She has more than 20 years’ of B2C and B2B experience, client and agency side, providing digital transformation and social media strategy advice and support. She has worked with a wide range of clients, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2012, BBC, Viacom, Direct Line Group, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Barclays, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, the US Embassy and many others. 1.5 Expert contributors The author and Econsultancy wish to extend sincere thanks to the following respected professionals who have contributed to the report: ● Florence Adepoju, Founder, MDMflow ● Annie Andoh, Social Media Manager, Victoria and Albert Museum ● Richard Bagnall, CEO, PRIME Research UK & SVP PRIME Research Europe ● Tom Barker, Head of Digital, National Trust ● Sophie Brendel, Director of Marketing & Communications, Victoria and Albert Museum ● Martin Carter, Social Media Manager, University of Leeds ● Albert Hogan, Director, Group Marketing, Audience & Digital Development, Penguin Random House ● Will McInnes, Chief Marketing Officer, Brandwatch ● Anna Rawcliffe, Digital Manager, Social and Engagement, National Trust ● Alison Spray, Director of Data and Insights, H&K Strategies (AMEC Board Member) Social Media Strategy Best Practice Guide 5 ● Kerry Taylor, EVP, MTV International and Chief Marketing Officer, Viacom UK at Viacom ● Pete Wallace, Commercial Director, GumGum ● Helen Wood, Planning Director, H&K Strategies ● Ingrid van der Zalm, Director Small Business Marketing and Communications, UPS Europe Region The author and Econsultancy would also like to thank contributors to the previous report whose contributions are still highly relevant today: ● Mark Frankel, Social Media Editor, BBC News ● Jeff Semones, Managing Partner, Head of Social Media, MediaCom 1.6 Executive summary ● Social media platforms continue to evolve at a rapid rate. Recent considerations for social media strategists include: data and consumer trust issues, growth in private messenger platforms, improved ad targeting, richer visual content experiences, live, immersive and long- form video, social commerce and evolving methods of working with influencers in social. ● Social media is maturing. A mature strategy considers broader business objectives outside of typical brand marketing/communications. ● Planning social media activity should mirror any strategic element of the business and align to multiple departments’ and teams’ needs, whether that is to support research and innovation, product development, sales, HR, marketing or communications. It can create both business value and efficiencies. ● While all organisations are different, the most common operating model for social media is ‘hub and spoke’ and the most common social media role is Social Media Manager. ● Audience segmentation and customer journey planning is critical in the development of the optimal mix of social channels, messages, content etc. Effective social media without an anchoring content strategy simply is not possible. ● Reorganising, developing internal skills, integrating teams and clarifying agency and internal support is required. Global organisations must consider global, local, or a blended ‘glocal’ approach to content and social media. ● Alignment to crisis and issue management is a critical part of a resilient social media strategy. ● Alignment to a content and content marketing strategy is fundamental to doing social media ‘well’. ● Social platforms have developed tools such messaging to improve customer experience and customer service design.