Section B: Planning and managing a social media campaign.

Aim: to investigate the impact social media has had on human interaction. 

• Section B is worth 30 marks out of 60 
• You should spend 45 minutes on this section - half the exam time. 

Things you might be asked about: You will always need to justify your choices and decisions made. 

• Social media channels. (main channels that will target your audience) 
• Ideas for creative content.
• Gaming feedback and evaluating responses from the audience. 

Ideas to respond with: 

• Ways the objectives and core messages could be promoted through short videos on instagram/ snapchat or vox pops. 
• key activities of marketing campaign 
• content could include different social media platforms - twitter, facebook. With interviews of local people about the campaign and awareness of it. 
• social media and online distribution channels used to reach the audience 
• how each of the social media channels would be used in terms of updating the game progress and production, advertising and testing of the product, USP and availability 
• how social media aggregation tools form part of the marketing campaign planning
• how online comments can be used (where, when) 
• how audiences might respond to social media content. 
• include dates, timescales and key milestones of the campaign plan e.g. release teasers prior to the main event to draw people in. 
• legal and ethical considerations (data protection act, IPSO)
• content ideas that could be used to promote the release
• choice of social media channels to promote the release to the target audience 
• main advertising and marketing channels that will target your audience to make them
• key content of the campaign, including use of synergy and key sponsors
• distribution channels used by the marketing team to reach audiences to promote the launch
• 
  

June 2018 

Checklist:

• Target audience 
• Content
• Social media channels 
• Blended synergy
• Milestones and timelines 
• Personnel 
• Legal and ethical issues 
• Feedback from audiences 

Aims, purposes and targets of social media campaigns:

Target audience: due consideration must be given to what the product is, what the aims are, and who the target audience is. Are you targeting a mass or niche audience. Subcultures, NRS social grades, psychographics. 

Subcultures: Linked to the idea of niche audiences is that of subcultures. Youth subcultures are especially important in the digital age, because their participants are digital natives – people who have grown up with digital technologies, never knowing any different. Subcultures are often defined by taste in music and clothing (Goths, for example). However, older people are increasingly adept at accessing social media – for example, a number of church groups around the country used social media (mainly Twitter) to galvanise support for Extinction Rebellion, and to organise protests.

E.g. social networking sites catering to just one subculture to help people expand their social networks. 

Some may decrease in popularity overtime...

USP: 

EXAMPLE: AVENGERS ENDGAME

With such a proliferation of online and social media content in existence, it’s important to consider originality of material, and what the USP of the product is.

Social media can be used to create brand identity, and the functionality of many social media channels allows brand logos, banners, graphics (etc.) to be uploaded and changed almost instantaneously. 

For this reason, it’s important that the social media campaign is organic; that it evolves over time as a means of reinforcing the brand’s identity. A campaign cannot be static in such a fast-paced digital environment, otherwise it will stagnate.

Folksonomy: Whereby users of online and social media technologies use tagging in order to position their content in others’ web searches to aid collaboration and sharing of ideas. Folksonomy can be helped to reinforce a brand’s USP.

Case study: Etsy 

Etsy is an example of an online platform that has used social media to its advantage, partially by (initially, at any rate) targeting a niche/subculture audience – namely, hipster-types who are into arts, crafts and vintage. 

Etsy is an online market place that allows them to share their work with others online. Distinct from Ebay, its USP is that it’s a more ‘friendly’ market place – users can comment on others’ work, and former closer bonds with clients and vendors. Etsy formed, initially, through the (predominantly) female-driven arts and crafts movement in the US, exploiting the newfound fascination with knitting crochet, textiles etc. At first, the company went ‘offline’ as a means of generating word-of-mouth interest in the platform – they visited craft fairs in the US and talked to stall owners, most of whom were keen to use an online platform, as Ebay was considered “impersonal”.