Pursue & Persuade Social Media Strategy
By: Mackenzie Henke
Client/Campaign Goals
Pursue & Persuade is a blog site dedicated to digital marketing advice and social media marketing ideas from a course taken at Duquesne University. While present on multiple social media platforms, the goal is to double the amount of traffic and increase the time spent on the blog site for better performance analytics. The target audience are digital marketing students who have the opportunity to participate in this class, and small businesses that could benefit from the digital marketing information being provided.
Target Audience/Insights (Digital)
Overall, a social media strategy needs to be implemented in order to achieve these goals and obtain the desired results. With Pursue & Persuade targeting two different types of audiences, it is important to focus on the groups in varying ways depending on the platform. Digital marketing students typically range between the ages of 18-22, and are most consistent on Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok. An article published on the Pursue & Persuade blog site gives an insight into the best digital marketing practices when focused on Gen Z. Since the goal is to persuade students to invest in this course, the targeted location for this audience is in the Pittsburgh region. On the other hand, small businesses would be considered to be more professional and can be reached through platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or X. These businesses can be located in any region as long as they have access to the internet and are able to consistently keep tabs on the Pursue & Persuade blog site. While it is important to market to these specific audiences; according to Think With Google, it is equally as important to create a consistent user experience across all channels. Therefore, while some minor changes may be made depending on the platform; the message and branding remains the same.
Overall, understanding the concept of Digital Marketing and the different categories that fall within its realm is essential to producing a social media strategy that will be effective.
Digital Marketing Insights/Research
While digital marketing is becoming more and more apparent as social media, internet, etc. become increasingly utilized into the industry; it is important to understand the trending topics and what the internet is most interested in. Another article available on the Pursue & Persuade blog site highlights the mobile habits amongst social media platforms, specifically Instagram. Understanding such habits will help marketing tactics as well as target audience specifics. According to Google Trends, over the past month ‘digital marketing’ has kept interest with a consistent value falling between 70-100. With 100 being peak popularity, it is evident that digital marketing is a growing market.
In addition to that, social media marketing is also a highly sought after topic with several social platforms being the main form of marketing in today’s day and age. According to Answer The Public, the term ‘social media marketing’ alone has acquired a search volume of 40,500. This falls in the top percentile of search volumes according to the site. With insight into these analytics, it is clear to see that digital marketing and social media marketing go hand in hand and will highly benefit any businesses/organizations that decide to utilize the tactics surrounding these marketing techniques.
Competitive Summary/Examples
Competitors within this industry can fall under a few different categories. Whether it be another digital marketing blog with information regarding similar topics or another university in close range with a similar digital marketing/social media class being offered; it is essential to understand the possible competitors in order to compare and contrast what they are doing. With digital marketing continuing to grow, it is important to remain distinctive and authentic. According to PEW Research, “In 2022, according to eMarketer estimates, digital advertising grew to $245 billion, an increase from $221 billion in 2021 and $161 billion in 2020. It was estimated to comprise nearly three-quarters of all advertising revenue (72%), compared with 70% in 2021 and 64% in 2020”. As the industry continues to grow, each individual brand that is utilizing digital marketing needs to focus on their personal branding in order to separate from the competition. First, it is crucial to understand what digital platforms the competitor is currently active on and analyze their content to see what they are excelling in. After going through any social media platforms, one of the most important steps is to figure out the type of content they are posting and succeeding in. If their content/operational aspects are very similar, it is important to understand this and differentiate in terms of putting out blog posts, social media posts, etc. that are unique and offering content that other competitors are not.
Strategy Summary
In order to pull the entire social media strategy together, it is important to have a basis in which the summary is built off of. With Pursue & Persuade, it is important to focus on Instagram (for the target audience regarding digital marketing students) and LinkedIn (for the target audience regarding small businesses). An article posted within the Pursue & Persuade blog site explains the importance of Instagram when working on building up a business. While it is important to stay active on all social media platforms to reach the largest amount of people, focusing on these two will attract those who will provide the best end results. According to an article by Mashable, “Social media marketing involves leveraging one’s social accounts to build a business”. The plan will be to utilize both paid and organic posts. Paid posts will ensure a wider reach and provide the enhanced brand awareness that Pursue & Persuade is looking for, while organic posts will maintain credibility and a positive brand reputation. The paid posts will help to reach the goal of doubling the amount of traffic onto the site, while the organic posts will help connect with the small businesses by remaining authentic. By tying these organic posts in as well, it will ensure trust from the audience; a topic that is discussed in depth in an article posted on the Pursue & Persuade blog site. The type of content being posted on these platforms will range from embedded links to eye-catching pictures and videos regarding the topic of each blog post; which will encourage the audience to continue onto the Pursue & Persuade blog page to continue reading/engaging in the topic at hand. User-generated content will be the prioritized option with students who are currently taking the class sharing their ideas, posts, testimonials, etc.
Messaging Matrix
While there are two audiences being targeted in this social media strategy, the messaging matrix will work with the similar goal of promoting the Pursue & Persuade blog site.
Channels and Tracking
The channels and the content type for each channel ultimately makes up the recipe of how the strategy will be executed.
Examples:
-Instagram reels of students talking about their experience in the course
-LinkedIn landing page post of blog site
-Instagram paid advertising towards college/university students
-LinkedIn post highlighting the topics/information posted on site
-Shared blog posts/class projects on Instagram/LinkedIn
Digital KPI’s include viewing the insights, engagement rates, reach, etc. on social media platforms (LinkedIn and Instagram specifically); and analyzing the page views, time on site, bounce/exit rate, etc. on the Pursue & Persuade blog page.
Timeline/Next Steps
The timeline and next steps of implementing this social media strategy include a variety of things that need to be done. First and foremost, the client needs to approve of the ideas and give any feedback to incorporate needed changes, revisions, etc. After that, some creative samples can be developed of specific social media posts to visualize examples of what the new content will consist of and look like once shared with the public. Once the plan is formed, it will be essential to update the social media platforms to reflect the new branding/strategies that will become available on the platforms. Once all of these steps are verified, the strategy can officially be launched in order to obtain the desired target audience.