Assignment 2: Required Assignment 1 —Developing Communications Policy
Running Head: DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIONS POLICY 1
Developing Communication Policy 2
Developing Communications Policy
Argosy University
September 12, 2018
As we all know, communicating the policy is the key to compliance. All policies should be reviewed annually and employees should receive annual refresher training. Your discussion of your organization showed that you understand the importance marketing your company through social media – but the focus of your paper should be on communicating – a communication policy which is far more than marketing. You should develop a comprehensive communications policy that covers a variety of communication media, most of your focus was on social media and how to market your goods using social media. What other communication medias are available that you should discuss with your employees? You overlooked the importance of discussing organizational strategic changes, procedural changes, information important to organizational subgroups, confidential information, and unwelcome information, in your policy.
You overlooked the importance of explaining the necessary approvals that are required. You explained the tools that you use in social media to market your goods, but I could not locate the communication tactics used in the organization. Remember, not only must changes be approved, but also all new policies must be approved by HR. You provided sources that were not found in your paper – remember all citations must be found in your reference list and all references must be found in your policy as in text citations – remember to fix this. Remember to use the course text book by Barrett to support your weekly research papers. She provides excellent communication ideas to use in your paper. Remember to end the research paper with a summary of key points.
I especially appreciated the following from our readings: Many companies are now using text message, email, social media, video chat (Skype) and face-to-face meetings to communicate to their employees (Barrett, 2013). There are many types of personalities out there and everyone prefers a different type of communication outlet.
I appreciated what others had to say about keeping records: Keep a conference journal. Record the date, time, reason, and key points discussed in the conference (Teich, Frankel, Kling, & Lee, 1999).
Gervertz (2011) reminds us that monitoring employees’ social media is an effective way to ensure compliance with communications policies and codes of conduct. However, this monitoring should fall within the employee’s right to privacy according to laws and regulations. We always must remember to ensure laws are complied with.
See blue highlighted comments in your paper. Yellow highlights are problems/errors.
References
Barrett, D (2009). Leadership Communication [VitalSouce bookshelf version]. Retrieved fromhttp://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu/books/0077435176/id/ch03
Gervertz, D (2011). Labor: The nuts and bolts of a robust social media policy. IC. Retrieved from:http://www.insidecounsel.com/2011/08/08/labor-the-nuts-and-bolts-of-a-robust-social-media?t=copyright-trademarks
Teich, A., Frankel, M. S., Kling, R., & Lee, Y. (1999). Anonymous communication policies for the internet: results and recommendations of the AAAS conference. Information Society, 15(2), 71-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/019722499128538
Developing Communications Policy
As an entrepreneur, getting one’s brand and products can be quite difficult when starting fresh in a business. I started a t-shirt company, Humble Flourish Brand, as a hobby, but quickly found out that my since of style and fashion was in demand. This company has been in existence going on 7 years, which each year gets better for products, profits, demands, and distributions. However, what made my company so successful was a communication policy on social media. t-shirt company is doing well, I need a platform to reach more consumers: social media. Top of FormBottom of Form
This is not a marketing plan assignment – this is a communication policy assignment.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a powerful means available to companies and organizations of any size to find and connect with regular or potential customers. Marketers thus create corporate Facebook pages and accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and other major social networks. Few of them, however, have clear objectives and strategies and have a deep knowledge of how these digital media interact with consumers to increase brand awareness, drive sales and profits, and generate brand loyalty.
Knowing the ABC of social media marketing, understanding exactly what social media marketing is, how it works, what it requires in terms of time, human resources and budget, is the fundamental premise for those who want to do social network marketing effectively. So let's get a little 'clarity starting with giving an exhaustive definition of social media marketing.
Social Media Marketing: Definition
Remember – this is not a marketing plan – this is a communication policy
Social media marketing is known as social network marketing and social web marketing of which is a form of internet marketing that exploits the ability of social media and web applications to generate interaction, engagement and social sharing to order to increase the visibility and notoriety of a brand. It includes activities such as the promotion and sale of particular goods and services, or oneself (Personal Branding), the generation of new business leads and the increase in traffic to a brand's website.
For promotional purposes, it is good to integrate this with other forms of online marketing and visibility such as search engine marketing, social media optimization (SMO), and social media advertising (SMA) or social ads, and digital or digital public relations. Social media marketing together with social customer service, social selling, and others, is considered a component of Social Business.
How Social Media Marketing Works
Companies and organizations create (or connect) to "networks of individuals" ( communities ) that share interests and values expressed by the Company on social networks. These subjects are offered relevant content in various formats (text, images, videos, etc.) capable of generating discussions about and with the company, on specific issues.
If managed correctly, user/customer interaction with this content can result in loyalty and social media advocacy. Users/customers with their "likes", "comments", "shares", activate online word of mouth by individually involving their network (friends, fans, followers) in the discussion. This greatly increases the possibility that a fraction of these, in turn, end up becoming a fan/follower of Humble Flourish Brand.
Social Marketing or Social Media Marketing
Sometimes on blogs, podcasts, and other content, it is wrong to use social marketing as a synonym for social media marketing. In reality, social marketing is a popular discipline in the early '70s thanks to Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman (not in references), in which the "product" that must be promoted is not a good or a service but is "human behavior". For example, the goal of a social advertising campaign is to encourage people to protect the environment.
Benefits of Social Media
In expressing opinions, that are many benefits of social media marketing.
Cite source
· Improvement of customer satisfaction
· An increase of customer loyalty
· Improvement of the Customer service
· Increase of commercial contacts (sales leads) and sales
· Increased web traffic to the site or a blog
· Better site ranking (ranking) on search engines
· The increase of awareness or brand awareness (brand awareness)
· Connection and development of interactive relationships with your target audience
· Development of a reputation as an expert or leader in the sector of belonging (brand authority)
However, social media marketing also has disadvantages as well. For example, due to need of resources, social platforms are varied and different, consequently the various forms of content (text, video, podcast, webinar, etc.) to be published and shared must be adapted to the specifics of each of them. In the same way, a social media marketing campaign cannot be launched and left alone. It too, as in the first case, requires time and human resources dedicated to it. A certain relief then, especially for many micro-enterprises and SMEs, assumes the availability of financial resources to which, however, you can partly cope by implementing strategies of influencer marketing. Another aspect is the nature of social media. A negative post of a customer, or worse badly managed, can become viral and in doing so seriously damage the reputation of a brand.
Why Invest in Social Media Marketing
One huge reason is low costs. Create profiles on social media is free as well as create and manage with your own social media management, social networking campaigns. Another reason is high ROI (return on investment) from advertising investments. The ROI generated by social media advertising is the highest among the various forms of paid advertising. Moreover, social ads are a type of advertising that allows a high profiling of the target and personalization: the "ads" will be shown only to users who are really interested in the products and services promoted by the advertiser. Another reason is high conversion rate (CR) or conversion rate. The more than 51% of social media marketer’s state that the development of meaningful relationships with customers has a positive effect on sales results. Lastly, improvement of customer insights. Unlike the contents shared through private channels such as e-mails, instant messaging tools, and apps, and therefore difficult to measure (Dark Social), different social media marketing tools allow precise monitoring of activities on the various social profiles business. By analyzing the numerous data collected (insight) through tools such as Google Analytics, it is possible to obtain important information on the "sentiment" towards the brand, as well as on demographic composition, interests, behaviors and customer needs. Cite sources
How to Do Social Medial Marketing
There are various ways in which an enterprise/ organization can do social marketing. All activities of social media marketing carried out to be incisive cannot. However, disregard the implementation of an effective social media marketing strategy. But how to define and set up a successful social media marketing strategy? As in any digital marketing strategy, this develops through the definition of a social media marketing plan that consists of some precise phases:
Phase 1: Conducting a social media marketing audit (cite the sources of your information
In this first step, the audit activity is aimed at evaluating the digital assets (blog, site, app, etc.) of which, in relation also to the competition, in order to detect on each social channel what works and what does not work. Great questions to as is: On which social platforms is the brand currently active? Which social networks bring greater value? Competitors, what kind of content do they post? What is the tone of voice that they have chosen? How much traffic to the website brings each social channel? This list can go on and on.
Phase 2: Definition of the objectives of social media marketing (cite the sources of your information
Analyzing digital assets, audience, and competition, the next step to set an effective social media strategy is to define goals and results that we hope to achieve (leads, retention of clinicians, increased sales, brand awareness?). These goals must be aligned with the overall communication and marketing strategy so that social media allows the achievement of business objectives. In setting the objectives to ensure that these are valid, it is good to follow the SMART method (specific, measurable, implementable, realistic, as a function of time) used for the first time by Drucker in 1954, in the book "The practice of Management". Not in reference
Phase 3: Identification of the target audience (cite the sources of your information
You need to be clear who your target audience is so that the message you want to convey on social media is effective. Developing customer profiles ( buyer personas ) is essential for the development of a social media marketing strategy. The collection and analysis of data on the web or from the conduct of surveys allow the marketer to achieve a high profiling of the typical customer. Once the audience is defined, through Listening activities, they can understand on which social platforms the customer (real or potential) is present.
Step 4: Creating a social media content strategy (cite the sources of your information
The contents are very important in order to create engagement and to achieve the pre-established marketing objectives. With this in mind, it is essential to follow a strategic approach focused on the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content (Content Marketing), aimed at a clearly defined audience.
In order for the communication strategy on different social media to be effective, however, it will be good to plan the management of this content. Choice of content and images to be published according to the type of social, choice of the Tone of voice with which you want to attend the network, find a summary in the drafting of a social media marketing editorial plan. The definition of the days, times in which publishing topics, keywords or links are the main features of another important tool: the social media marketing calendar.
Step 5: Pay attention to the Influencers (cite the sources of your information
Research conducted on Twitter shows that 49% of consumers rely on the advice of Influencers in making purchasing decisions. Finding those who have a large following on social media for advice on the products and services you sell is therefore very important. One way for a company to gain visibility with social influencers is the sharing system suggested by Joe Pulizzi and the Content Marketing Institute (not found in your references), known as Social Media 4-1-1. For every 6 contents shared via social media, 4 must be relevant for their target audience but written by influencers; 1 must be an original content created by us. Also, the content must relate to the sale
Phase 6: Choice of the social media marketing platform (cite the sources of your information
A social media marketing strategy must also be planned to take into account the market in which the company operates (B2B or B2C), the decision-making phase ( social consumer decision journey ) in which the customer can be found (research, consideration, decision ). Knowing then the differences between the platforms and identifying the best ones to support corporate marketing objectives is essential. So let's take a brief look at the most famous social networks, not focusing on "what social media is", but in relation to the marketing activities that can be implemented with them. Focus on the communication policy for your organization – follow the rubric. You are missing key sections for an effective communication policy – there is more than just social media for communicating in an organization.
References
These were not found as in text citations in your paper. Remember all references must be found in your paper. References must match in text citations.
Buliř, A., Čihák, M., Šmídková, K., Detragiache, E., & Everaert, L. (2014). Writing clearly: ECB's monetary policy communication.
(2015). Communication Law and Policy, 12(3). doi:10.1207/clp.2007.12.issue-3
Kuo, E. C., Chen, P. S., & East-West communication institute. (2016). Communication policy and planning in Singapore. London: K. Paul International.
Mansell, R. (2014). The handbook of global media and communication policy. New York: Wiley.