Social Media for Manufacturers and Organizations

Social media is evolving–and the approach must, too

In the past, the most popular social media platforms were dominated by news feeds. Within this context, there were two primary objectives: get as many followers as possible so you show up on their feeds, and post with a high degree of frequency to stay on top of their feed.

As social has evolved and new platforms have risen to prominence, the news feed no longer dominates the landscape. Now, depending on the platform, users are encountering content via search in addition to—and sometimes instead of—their news feed. And news feeds themselves are increasingly being seeded with sponsored content (i.e. paid advertising.) This has signaled a major change in the opportunities represented by different approaches.

Starting with a social media strategy

Establishing a social media strategy is an important foundational step that provides a starting point for executing the work required monthly to accomplish established goals.

Our strategic process begins with an audit of existing social platforms. We’ll look at how each channel is being used and whether that aligns with the channel’s best practices; what content is being posted and in which formats; how many followers are engaged with each platform and which content is most successful on each; what types of follows are engaging on each platform; where opportunities are being missed, etc.

Included for consideration within the audit and subsequent strategic development are:

  • Channels
  • Handles
  • Hashtags
  • Tagging
  • Paid posts

From there we will:

  • Confirm which elements of the existing strategy are working optimally and plan to continue executing against those strategic elements
  • Evolve those elements of the existing strategy where we see opportunities to improve, mapping out how and when those improvements should be implemented.

If no coherent social strategy exists or if the existing social strategy is not compatible with the client’s goals, Stoner Bunting will develop a strategy and plan.

Social media execution

Like any of our strategic plans, clients have the option to use the social media strategy we develop as a roadmap for internal resources to execute against, or to engage Stoner Bunting’s team on a monthly fee basis for managing social media channels.