When it comes to marketing, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have the opportunity to level the field between them and their bigger corporate rivals online.
However, with resources more limited for SMEs, making the most of digital marketing means being savvy about what platforms they use.
Social media
In a recent blog post, online marketing solutions company HubShout’s President and Co-founder Adam Stetzer said that SMEs are likely to have been told by marketers, customers and even friends and family that they need to have a presence on whatever the the latest social network is, despite many SMEs struggling to implement a social media strategy beyond the occasional Facebook post or tweet.
While social networks like Facebook and Twitter are an important part of any social media strategy, corporations are now focusing on image and video-based apps and websites such as Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Vine.
That is because the most successful exponents of these platforms know how to create relevant, relatable content for the tweens, teens and 20-somethings that make up their audience, and big companies are now exploiting this for their own gain.
WWF
Stetzer uses a ‘The Last Selfie’ campaign by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) as an example of a perfect match between for and social media function. The campaign saw followers sent photos of endangered animals carrying the caption “don’t let this be my #lastselfie”.
Snapchat’s last only ten seconds before disappearing, giving the messages an urgent and chilling dimension. The WWF encouraged users to save the pictures and share them, getting across the parallel of save the picture, save the species.
WWF Communications Officer Tuba Ugur said: “The urgency to act and Snapchat’s dynamic were the perfect match to disseminate our message for species. The continuity of our conservation work is vital for success.”
Vine
The essence of Vine, which is based on six-second video productions, is regular people posting content based on everyday situations, and Stetzer believes this can give SMEs an edge.
He said that in marketing SMEs are the regular people and that, with a bit of creativity, any SME can go viral.
