Avionics News November 2014 - 64

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MARKETING

REPORT
C RD

Email Marketing
S T O R Y

e've saved the best marketing report card topic for last:
social media. No matter how
many years of marketing experience you
bring to your position, everyone started as a newbie. Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and a dozen other venues call you
to use them for your marketing purposes.
Of course, the upside is social media
is free - no printing bills; no postage;
and it's instant with no lead time. Post
a message, and your customers see it in
seconds. The downside is social media
can take a whole lot of time, and if you
make a misstep, it can be seen around
the world.
Here's an example. Recently, you
couldn't go online, watch the television
or pick up a newspaper without seeing reports of domestic violence. It was
everywhere in the news. Twitter had a
trending topic called "#WhyIStayed."
For those unfamiliar with Twitter, anyone
can respond or comment by including
the hashtag in a tweet. You also can do
a search for this particular topic. In this
case, "why I stayed" was intended to
elicit personal and heartfelt explanations
as to why a person would stay in an abusive relationship.
But rather than respect the serious
nature of #WhyIStayed, DiGiorno Pizza
used Twitter to promote pizza sales and
sent a tweet that read "#WhyIStayed
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P A T R I C I A

L U E B K E

You had pizza." DiGiorno Pizza was
attempting to cash in on a popular topic
to make a light-hearted joke - "I stayed
in an abusive relationship because of the
pizza" - and it backfired. We'll give it an
F for that tweet.
So how are you doing with social
media? What grade have you earned?
You're an F student if: You and your
company have ignored or ridiculed the
whole social media scene.
You're a D student if: You feel a tug
and some guilt to get involved with social
media, but you just don't know where to
start and have done nothing.
You're a C student if: Your business has a Facebook page and a Twitter
account, but after a few initial bursts of
activity, you really haven't done much. It
doesn't seem like a priority, and you have
100 other things to do.
You're a B student if: You are active
on Facebook and Twitter in fits and starts.
When you work these social media tools,
you seem to get good results. You try to
remember to add Facebook, Twitter and
other social media icons to your website and electronic mailings. You have
a social media policy as part of your
employee handbook. Although there's no
one person responsible for social media,
the task falls to the marketing department. You know you could do better, but

at least you're doing something.
You're an A student if: You understand how social media works and it produces results for you. You are not drawn
by the siren call of "free" but rather
use social media as one vehicle in your
strategic marketing strategy. You plan,
in advance, programs and campaigns to
reflect your company's activities around
shows, conventions, new product introductions, holidays and product cycles
while still allowing for spontaneous activity. There is one main person responsible
for social media with a backup person in
reserve who can step in immediately and
knows the passwords and communications strategies. Although you may have
spent a great deal of time initially getting
familiar with social media, the function is
now routine, just like updating your website or reading email. You have perspective on exactly what social media can and
can't do for your organization.
GETTING WITH THE SOCIAL
MEDIA PROGRAM
One underlying truth about social
media is that it does not drive revenue
directly. Unlike an ad where you may
be able to directly trace a sale, social
media is more for branding and bigpicture advertising. Don't underestimate
the power of social media with customer
service - your customers are engaged

Avionics News November 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2014