R. Effing and T. Spil (2015) , summed up and identified as well, some frameworks to classify social media best practices and key elements, in the existing literature and exploratory researches that could add value to the social media strategy within an organization: Target audience, channel choice, goals, resources, policies, monitoring and content activities. R. Effing and T. Spil (2015) define and summed up the key elements, taking as support the existing literature:
• Target audience: is critical defining the target groups that social media channels is going to be addressed. “Companies must be able to segment their priority populations, that is, be able to identify, isolate, and know the degree to which these …show more content…
Klang and Nolin (2011) affirmed that “affordances and limitations are set by the technological infrastructure”. Dutta (2010) highlights that “different target groups have to be addressed by different social media channels”.
• Goals: in order to measure social media activities in the business impact, firstly is vital setting real and valuable objectives: “In order to be of value, social media should be aligned with business goals” (Bottles & Sherlock, 2011; Gotterbarn, 2012; Thackerayet al., 2008; Dutta, 2010; Larson & Watson, 2011). “Social media should have a clear purpose to be effective”. Klang and Nolin (2011) “stressed the importance of concrete and measurable goals as part of social media plans”.
• Resources: Valuable resources, as economical and professional expertise, should be assigned to be successful in social media. Dutta (2010, p. 130) insists that: “the success of your social media strategy will depend on your resources and the quality and authenticity of your message”. Burkhalter, Wood, & Tryce, (2014) have taken into account the employees value: “Some employees should receive training and education to obtain the required skills to work with social media channels” Furthermore, “to fully reach the professional potential of social media as a professional user it is important to use the paid advertising …show more content…
In addition, Barnes (2014) exposes the schedule relevance: “it is important to make a schedule of content posts, based on a predefined timeframe, to warrant frequent contributions to various social media channels”. Additionally, DiStaso & McKorkindale (2013) highlights the pragmatic approach of content activities: “The schedule should be very practical and should also provide organizations with an indication of which content is appropriate, authentic and is written by using a human voice”.
Stages in the social media strategy
R. Effing and T. Spil (2015) , took the model of “infrastructure and processes” (Renken, 2004) as a starting point and supplemented, with “the strategic distinction in level model Mergel and Bretschneider (2013). Based on interviews, experience, success cases in social media, R. Effing and T. Spil (2015) construct “three stages of maturity for social media strategy development” :
1. Initiation stage. In the first stage, organizations usually start making decisions defining the target audience and channel choice.
2. Diffusion stage. In the second stage, organizations focus on goals, assigning resources and generating policies and guidelines.
3. Maturity stage. In the final stage, Organizations is dedicated to all key elements. The emphasis is the monitoring and