This document discusses social media objectives and content topics for social media marketing. It begins by explaining the importance of having a variety of content types and topics for social media posts. It then lists and describes different types of social content that can be used, such as link promotions, thought leadership, user-generated content, and product information. The document focuses on identifying social media objectives and provides a detailed list of common objectives like sales, lead generation, brand awareness, engagement, thought leadership, and reputation building. It emphasizes the importance of having a clear primary objective and targeting posts to a defined audience persona.

1. Social Media Objectives & Stories
The Power of Social Media Engagement
in New Marketing Roles
J. Aull
GSU

2. • Identifying Social Media Objectives
– & Social Content Topics
• Social Media Engagement
– Understanding its Role & Value
• Trade & Social Media
– Traditional trade
– Difference in social media
– Communities and trade
• Causes Online:
– Priceless Stories & Experiences
– Empowering Visitors & Donors
– The power of mystique…
• Incentivization Online
– What’s your target and positioning?
– What’s your primary role and offering?
• Community Empowerment & The Social Trade
– Create, adapt and customize your digital map and plan
• Via ongoing measurement and monitoring
Contents

3. & Social Media Content Topics
Identifying Social Media Objectives

4. • There is a high importance for brands to have a
variety of content types for social media posts.
• Brands want a variety of content to keep
audiences interested and to keep their social
feeds from appearing static.
• We search for these when doing brand social
media audits.
• If a brand doesn't have a good mix of social post
content, then these can be points for specific
social media marketing recommendations
Social Content Topics

5. • Here are types of social post content topics (we’ll go
through examples and more detail later in this
presentation):
– Link promotion or lead gen (e.g., driving users to a lead-gen
website landing page and form)
– Thought leadership posts (e.g., content presenting the brand as
"industry experts;")
– Relevant industry content sharing or trade news
– Viral/fun content (for pure engagement purposes as opposed to
relevance; e.g., a viral video of a cat playing keyboards to get
likes and shares)
– Industry influencer content
– UGC shared posts (user-generated content)
– Special offer promotions
– Cross channel promotion (e.g., "If you like our Tweets, you'll love
our Instagram! @cocacola )
– Product or service specific information
– Testimonials
Social Content Topics

6. • Many of these content topics are indicative of
actual social media marketing objectives.
• Although having a variety of social content topics
is important, having a clear objective in social
media marketing is even more important.
• And with smaller businesses who post less
content than major brands, social objectives can
come through a lot clearer in the majority of their
posts.
• Of course businesses can change their social
media marketing objectives over time – and they
should.
Social Media Marketing Objectives

7. Here are some things to look for when identifying social media marketing objectives – a brand’s posts
should have more of one of these topics than the rest:
• Sales/coupons – Social media posts with special promotions such as coupons, or which are
promoting sales, have a “Sales” social media marketing objective. This could be a common
objective for restaurants or retail stores. However keep in mind that this is not necessarily a great
marketing objective – as marketers, we recognize that coupons often “dilute” the brand and
degrade its perception of quality.
• Lead-Gen form/landing page promotions – Social posts which feature an incentive to drive
users to a landing page and contact form represent a “Lead-Gen” social objective. They are
attempting to generate “leads” in their “marketing funnel,” and plan to continue to market to those
leads via email or other contact methods (and of course they hope to ultimately convert those
leads to sales). Such social media posts will often incentivize users to fill out a form in order to
access more product info, download a white paper, access a video, etc. This could be a common
objective for business-to-business technology brands as an example. We’ll talk more about this
later in this presentation.
• Brand Awareness – When you see social media posts that don’t seem to have any clear message
or CTA, but do mention the brand, the objective is most likely simply “brand awareness.” This is
good for big brands who want to keep their name top-of-mind in the consumer, or for businesses
just starting up. Coca-Cola is an example of a brand that would do a lot of brand awareness
posting. Brand awareness is one of the most common marketing objectives.
Social Media Marketing Objectives – A List

8. • Engagement – A common social media objective is engagement. Engagement can be a very
vague concept, but there are greater benefits to this, and savvy social media marketers do this for
a reason. On the surface, getting user engagement (likes, follows, shares) increases brand
awareness and audience size for future social posts. But engagement even has deeper value in the
marketing funnel. The concept of the marketing funnel is to move a large number of consumers
from the point of eyeballs and awareness through to the few who become sales and exhibit
customer lifetime value. The power of social engagement is that it can display social followers’
brand consideration and persuasion of purchase. So social engagement helps move consumers
through the middle of the marketing funnel to purchasing. We’ll talk more about this later in this
presentation.
• Thought Leadership – Thought leadership is a valuable stigma for any brand. It means that a
brand is the expert in their field. Businesses often have thought leadership as an objective in social
media, and they portray this by disseminating an immense amount of industry information in their
social posts. Car companies and legal firms might be good examples focusing on thought leadership
as their primary social objective.
• Influencer or Opinion Leadership – This is a similar social objective to “thought leadership,”
except this focuses more on promoting the brand (or the person behind the brand) as an influencer
or opinion leader. Meaning, the brand or person behind the social posts desires to be portrayed as
extremely popular with a specific audience. Therefore, their social posts would be about popular
topics, opinions, pop culture, sports, fashion, etc.
Social Media Marketing Objectives – A List, continued

9. • Crowdsourcing – It seems everyone these days is aware of “crowdfunding,” but few are aware of
“crowdsourcing” – which came first. Crowdsourcing is a social media strategy which has been
around since the birth of social media. The idea is to capitalize on the “groundswell” – the
audiences of social media - to contribute to a brand’s promotion, product or other objectives. It
means to harness the ideas and interest of normal users to help a brand. For example, brands like
M&Ms and Wheat Thins have used social media in the past to obtain consumer ideas or preferences
on new product flavors or colors to be released. By asking consumers for input over social media,
not only do these brands achieve solid information on what consumers want (and consequently
what products should sell well), but all of this generates consumer buzz, excitement, engagement,
and helps spread the brand’s message. In this manner, brands can improve their products as well
as receive more free promotion via social media.
• Reputation and Reviews – Some businesses might run into PR problems and need to improve
their reputation. Or businesses might just want to grow their reviews in general and use social
media primarily to solicit or display their reviews. Of course some channels are better for reviews
than others – Facebook and Yelp are great channels for reviews. Restaurants might use social
media frequently to grow their reputation and reviews.
Social Media Marketing Objectives – A List, continued

10. • CLV and Rewards Communities – We know from studying marketing that CLV (customer lifetime
value) is one of the best marketing objectives to focus on, because you want repeat business and
you don’t want to continually have to “buy” new customers – that’s expensive. Also, “rewards”
communities and programs are a great way to achieve that – they incentivize customers to
continue purchasing. Credit card companies often promote their rewards programs. We’ll talk more
about these later in this presentation.
• Lack of clear primary social media objectives – If a brand doesn’t seem to have a majority of
consistently themed social media posts exhibiting objectives such as those listed above, then the
brand is probably operating without a clear social media marketing strategy and objectives. This
brand needs social media marketing help!
Social Media Marketing Objectives – A List, continued

11. • For the most part, brands should have a primary social media
marketing objective revealed by the majority of their social posts
and their content.
• However, larger brands may use different social media channels to
segment their target audiences and social media marketing
objectives.
• For example, Bank of America might post a simple video in TikTok
for younger audiences just for brand awareness objectives.
• And Bank of America might also post investment information in
Facebook or LinkedIn for older audiences for thought-leadership or
even lead-gen objectives.
Social Media Marketing Objectives

12. • As social media marketers, it is critical to identify our objectives
before we do a major posting campaign.
• It is also essential to identify a method of social media
measurement to prove the success (or even failures) of our
campaign objectives.
• But once we nail down our social objectives, and before we begin
social campaign posting, we want to solidify our audience – and
be able to identify audience members in such a way as to create
social media posts targeted to them specifically.
Social Media Marketing Objectives

13. • To do this, we create an audience member persona.
• Here’s a persona example from SurveyMonkey:
Social Media Marketing Objectives

14. • When social posting, it is very important that the content,
keywords and #hashtags are consistent among all of these
elements:
– The social media teasers
– Short-length promotional posts as well as full content (e.g.,
between a Tweet and the video it promotes)
– Keywords used (e.g., in a blog post being promoted in social
posts)
– Content descriptions (e.g., for a YouTube video)
– Titles (e.g., a blog post top headline (H1))
– Alt tags (e.g., accessibility descriptions for images in a blog post)
– Closed-captions and transcripts (e.g., for YouTube videos)
– URLs (e.g., integrating keywords within URLs for blog posts)
– The consistency is vital among these for social media content for
high-ranking search results and display in social feeds.
Social Post Content

15. • You can actually analyze all these important
social post properties on pre-existing social posts.
• More and more social media channels have been
allowing transcripts or captions to be displayed
for videos and even images.
Social Post Content

16. • FYI, here’s how you can analyze some of these
properties in YouTube:
– At the bottom right of a video in YouTube, there are 3
dots – click there
– Click “Open Transcript”
– If it doesn’t have that option, then either you’re not
logged into YouTube, or the video was turned off of
Closed Captioning, and you may have to pick another
video.
– Note that the video and channel descriptions and
“About” content are also very important and should be
consistent.
Social Post Content

17. Understanding its Role & Value
Social Media Engagement

18. • “Stories” are a very common content type in
social media - and for good reason.
• Stories drive engagement in social.
• What is engagement good for?
Social Media Stories & Engagement

19. • Frequently in
digital and social
media marketing
we talk about
marketing
funnels.
• A conceptual
marketing funnel
model:
https://www.uptimiser.com.hk/the-new-digital-marketing-funnel/
Digital Marketing Funnels

20. • Engagement drives the “lost
center of the funnel:” points
such as consumer “interest”
and “consideration,” which
couldn’t be measured by
traditional marketing.
• While most marketing
funnels are defined by the
customer journey from
awareness to sales, this does
not mean that the center of
the funnel is irrelevant.
Digital Marketing Funnels

21. • The “center” of the marketing
funnel in this common model
can cover important stages
such as consumer consideration
and preference - as well as
social media engagement.
• After all, if consumers are
engaging with a brand in social
media, such as with “follows,”
“likes,” “comments” or
“shares,” they are theoretically
“considering” that brand for
potential purchase.
• Digital marketing funnels are very important and are covered
in more detail in other presentations of this course.
Digital Marketing Funnels

22. • So stories as content in social media often
achieve consumer interest and engagement.
• Keep in mind however that social channels, more
and more, are hiding irrelevant content and
clickbait.
• Therefore the onus is on social media marketers
to create compelling content and stories that are
relevant to the brand.
Social Media Stories & Engagement

23. • But Sooner or later, you’re probably going to
need some kind of a Lead-Gen or Sales strategy
as part of your social media marketing – as the
spout of your funnel - even if it isn’t your only or
primary social content.
• The story can be the driver to the lead-gen page.
• Or, the full story (such as a video) can be the
incentive to fill out the landing page form, in
order to access.
Lead-Gen & Sales Landing Pages

24. This is a sample
landing page,
on a website,
for a lead-gen
marketing
objective.
Lead-Gen & Sales
Landing Pages

25. Digital ads or
social posts can
drive traffic to
this page, for
info capture, for
future email- or
tele-marketing
and eventual
sales.
Lead-Gen & Sales
Landing Pages

26. How Users Trade Dollars & Activity for
Experiences & Stories
The Social Trade

27. • Stories make up a poignant part of the variety of
organic social post content topics - and objectives
• But why?
• What’s so valuable about social stories?

28. • Social Commerce
• Digital Exchange
• Social Capital
• Social Currency
• Socialnomics
• Network Effects
Social Models

29. • Top-down, one-way communications (traditional
models) are insufficient today
• Communities
• Two-way dialogue
• Grassroots-driven growth
• Companies are no longer separated; it is the rise
of the “prosumer” (the mergence of the
professional or producer, and the consumer or
customer, in the social media era).
What does Social Media Mean?

30. • In commerce, customers exchange:
– capital & goodwill
– For organizations’ brand/product/service “experience”
– Think perceptions and desires; not true needs…
– At its highest level, they seek the “church” of the brand,
with all that mystique…
• It means becoming a “cult” member of Harley-Davidson or
Apple brands…
– (e.g., the Harley logo is the single most common tattoo
in the U.S.)
Traditional Trade

31. • So, we know social media means organic
communities and two-way communications, but
what about the end-customer benefit
perspective?
• Don’t forget the WiiFMs
• Remember Social Media’s “RIBS:”
– Successful online communities contain for the user:
• Remuneration
• Influence
• Belonging
• Significance
• From Design to Thrive by Theron Howard
Digital Experience & The Social Trade

32. • In “The Social Trade”:
– Customers are buying a digital &/or social experience
– This can be understated, or as elaborate, as you can dream
– Think badges and perceived psychological benefit (Waze
and Facebook) and product rewards (redemptions)
– Think album covers in your public “music” (Spotify)
– At a simple level, what if your product purchasing was
synonymous with the blog you visit regularly?
• Think collectors and hobbyists
– Even think MMOs and virtual worlds and purchasing within…
Digital Experience & The Social Trade

33. Social Communities integrated with Brands & eCommerce

34. Priceless Stories & Experiences
Empowering Visitors & Donors
Causes Online:

35. • Stories can have even more importance for
promoting certain industries than others.
• In marketing we often talk about the difference
between “hedonic” and “utilitarian” purchases.
• “Hedonic” purchasing is more about buying for
impulsive or emotional purposes, whereas
“utilitarian” purchasing tends to have more of a
logical and researched role for customers before
purchase.
The Power of Social Stories

36. • For example, insurance or stocks are typically
more utilitarian in buyer behavior than hedonic.
• While vacations and music might be more
hedonic in buyer behavior.
• Social media “stories” can help influence both
types of purchasing.
The Power of Social Stories

37. • However emotional stories might have an even larger
effect on hedonic purchasing.
• For certain products, people are “buying stories” as
intangibles.
• For example, for donations to non-profits, people are
really hoping to achieve those stories as return for
their dollars.
• Think about donations to “adopt” children in
developing countries, or animal shelters.
• Non-profits such as these often use stories to promote
their causes - and to gift to donors as “intangible
rewards” for their donations.
The Power of Social Stories

38. • Non-profits through social media marketing:
they’re selling stories in exchange for donations
• Vacation/travel companies: they’re selling
transportation & lodging in exchange for personal
experiences & stories (just look at Instagram)
The “Social Trade”

39. • A good feeling?
• An experience?
• Where’s the end-story?
• Social sites can give a complete story
– Before and after
– Photos (Instagram)
– Video (YouTube, TikTok)
– Integrated media and written stories (blogs)
– Merits/badges/points for “good”/donations (Facebook)
What do Donors “Buy” from Non-Profits?

40. • A child is born with a cleft palette.
• Photos/video are shown of the child.
• A donor gives for the child.
• The child is cured.
• Photos/video are taken of the recovery.
• The complete narrative can become a true, full online
experience (on a social site).
• At it’s best – individual profiles can be programmed
for each specific donor’s “ROI;” or stories…
Here’s a Non-Profit’s Story

41. • These “stories” are “collected” and “treasured” (even
“Liked”) on the non-profit’s social media sites.
– With collaborative responses
• This is the best of digital marketing today
– Social media, SEO - all rely on freshness and relevancy of content
– Collaboration supplements organization’s content quantity
– Content is king! (& stories fulfill these content needs)
• Story snippets are continually dished out in social media,
presenting these narratives (think customer-experience
benefits)
– …drawing interest (developing buyer/donor desire and demand)
– Pulling brand community visitors and buyers/donors
– Drawing conversation (two-way social media dialogue)
Purchasing Stories & Experiences…

42. • They are the dream, the abstraction, the
intangible
• They are the mystique, the lure
• They create the social media “digital church”
• Demand at this point becomes limitless
– Mystique is priceless and can’t be capped…
Stories Become Personal

43. Incentivization Examples

44. • Member-
focused
(individual
donor stories)
• Stories
everywhere
• “Community
powered news”
• Various tags
(cause topics)
• Focus on
petitions
Care2.com home page

45. • Clear story
• Hooks (in
copywriting)
• CTAs
• See community
representation and
involvement
• Ways to share the
info and join the
community
The Care2 Hook

46. • Theme-relevant
incentiviation
• Game/contest
incentivization &
retention
(credits)
The Care2 Hook

47. • Member-
focused
(individual
donor stories)
• Stories
everywhere
• “Community
powered news”
• Various tags
(cause topics)
• Focus on
petitions
Care.org home page

48. • Member-
focused
(individual
donor stories)
• Stories
everywhere
• “Community
powered news”
• Various tags
(cause topics)
• Focus on
donations
Care.org home page

49. The Road Map & Tactical Implementation
Plans & Guides
Community Empowerment
& The Social Trade

50. • Objective/”What”: Achieve revenue/donations
• Mission/”Why”:
“Advance the town’s children health and improve the town’s future.”
• Target Incentivization/”How”:
Trade donations for “stories/experiences”
• Target Landing Page/”Where”: community of stories and media
– Traffic drivers: Facebook, Twitter, anything to pull visitors
– Note: This is also a “hub-and-spoke” model – an important concept to digital and
social media marketing which is also covered in other class presentations.
• Measurement KPIs/”How much”:
– Opt-ins/leads
– Payments
– CTR (click-through rate)
– Referrals
– Shares
– Comments
Tactical Sample Plan Layout

51. • Web community (like Care2.com or Care.org)
– (narrative & pictures/video)
– Story (blog post) 1 – cleft palette
– Story 2 – small pox
– Story 3 – village well
• Facebook page
– Facebook posts; snippets of blog stories
• Sample photos
• CTA (call to action) to click-through to see full story on website
• “Share” with a friend (community empowerment)
– Facebook lead-gen incentivization posts/tab
• (“sign up to receive your _____”)
– Click through (to the landing page) to donate…
Tactical Sample Plan Layout

52. • Twitter (to be pushed in 1 or 2 days)
– Tweet 1: Blog Story 1
– Tweet 2: Pull CTA (call-to-action) to join community
– Tweet 3: Tell a friend
(“Net Promoters”; community empowerment)
– Tweet 4: Story 2
– Tweet 5: Request donations/purchasing
– Tweet 6: Incentivize lead-gen (e.g., subscribe to
newsletter on tax benefits and history of long-term
cultural advancement for the needy location)
– Tweet 7: Story 3
– Tweet 8: “Like” Facebook
Tactical Sample Plan Layout (“When”)

53. • What’s pulling, what’s not (content/CTAs)?
• What channels see the most traffic/CTR?
• Marketing funnel/clickstream/customer journey?
• Change over time? Why/attribution?
• What do people share? And comment on?
(community empowerment)
Ongoing Measurement Analysis

54. • Identifying Social Media Objectives
– & Social Content Topics
• Social Media Engagement
– Understanding its Role & Value
• Trade & Social Media
– Traditional trade
– Difference in social media
– Communities and trade
• Causes Online:
– Priceless Stories & Experiences
– Empowering Visitors & Donors
– The power of mystique…
• Incentivization Online
– What’s your target and positioning?
– What’s your primary role and offering?
• Community Empowerment & The Social Trade
– Create, adapt and customize your digital map and plan
• Via ongoing measurement and monitoring
Review