Stephany Rodas, Collective Avenue Account Manager
In this currently evolving digital age, it is very easy for us to jump to the immediate conclusion of incorporating a social media strategy for all campaigns. But the truth of the matter is, a social media strategy is not effective for every campaign.
There are numerous things to consider when developing a social media strategy, or any kind of strategy for that matter. Below are a few:
- Target audience (i.e. Millennials 18-34, children 7-12 years old, adults 35-50)
- Habits of your target audience (i.e. Millennials are avid consumers of content digitally while older audiences tend to rely on traditional methods such as television or print for information)
- Range of your campaign (is it a national campaign with a goal to attract as many Millennials as possible, or is it a local campaign designed to get particular groups of people within a certain district involved)
While there are many other factors to take into consideration, one thing is for sure, you cannot make a generalized assumption based off what you hear in the media or in your current surroundings, without doing the proper research. By implementing a social media strategy without research or evidence to verify that your audience engages with social media, you are making an assumption that all individuals within that population have access to technology with digital capabilities. Many folks tend to forget that many communities across the United States and, even more so, globally do not have equal access to technology. While urban areas are in the era of smartphones, laptops and tablets, many other countries and communities within the United States are still utilizing flip phones and relying on traditional media such as print, radio and broadcast to receive information. This disparity in access to technology can result from a number of things including socioeconomic status or location.
This does not, however, mean that communities with lower socioeconomic status or who live in urban/rural areas do not utilize social media or lack access to it entirely. The complete opposite could be true. Ultimately, there is only one way to find out and that is through research. Moral of the story: never make assumptions and pursue a trend because it’s popular. One size does not fit all.