Social Listening, Leadership, Virtual Communities, ROI and others: SOSTAC Approach for Digital Marketing (Example Included)

(Note: you can review this post in spanish)

Recently, Kent Huffman published in his blog a serie of posts referring to eight mandates that set the bases for the success of the digital marketing strategy of an organization. These mandates are:

• Start social listening and plan carefully.
• Develop relationships and establish trust.
• Demonstrate leadership and build communities.
• Ensure value (ROI) and continue social listening.

Huffman's approach is simple and straightforward by identifying these key elements in the structure of a digital marketing strategy. The purpose is for these elements to be aligned so that the organization obtains a direct connection with its consumers or users and a greater understanding of their needs, expectations and attitudes towards the brand, organization and competitors.

In that way, to align these elements it is necessary to have a methodological structure that defines the order in which the activities suggested by Huffman will be carried out. In the digital marketing world one of the best known methodologies is the SOSTAC approach developed by Dave Chaffey. This methodology is based on a six-step model and it is my interest to show how these steps can integrate the activities suggested by Huffman, as well as incorporate the concepts of virtual communities and online reputation management (part I y part II) that I presented in previous postings.

Initially, to be clearer with this integration, the six steps of SOSTAC must be grouped according to the three types of strategic plans that make up the digital marketing strategy: digital marketing (general framework), content and communication. Figure 1 shows the details of this grouping.

  Figure 1. SOSTAC methodology and digital marketing plans

Then, by incorporating Huffman's mandates into the scheme of Figure 1, an integrated structure can be obtained that covers both the necessary aspects of the strategy as well as the key factors driving its success. The result of this integration is shown in Figure 2.

 Figura 2. Metodología SOSTAC, planes de marketing digital SOSTAC y factores clave de éxito

Finally, I would like to share the Final Project (in spanish) that I developed in the specialization (online) Marketing with Social Networks of Tecnológico de Monterrey. In this project I could incorporate many of the concepts that appear in Figure 2, in the context of a company that provides products and services for the construction of data centers.

Escucha Activa, Liderazgo, Comunidades Virtuales, ROI y otros: Enfoque SOSTAC para Marketing Digital (Ejemplo Incluido)

(Nota: ud. puede revisar este post en inglés)

Recientemente, Kent Huffman publicó en su blog una serie de posts referidos a ocho mandatos que establecen las bases para el éxito de la estrategia de marketing digital de una organización. Estos mandatos son:

• Empezar con la escucha activa y planificar cuidadosamente.
• Desarrollar relaciones verdaderas y establecer confianza.
• Demostrar liderazgo y construir comunidades.
• Asegurar valor (ROI) y continuar con escucha la activa.

El planteamiento de Huffman es sencillo y directo identificando estos elementos clave en la estructura de una estrategia de marketing digital. El fin es que estos elementos se engranen para que la organización obtenga una conexión directa con sus consumidores o usuarios y un mayor entendimiento de sus necesidades, expectativas y actitudes hacia la marca, organización y competidores.

En este sentido, para engranar estos elementos es necesario disponer de una estructura metodológica que defina el orden en que las actividades sugeridas por Huffman se llevarán a cabo. En el mundo de marketing digital una de las metodologías más conocidas es el enfoque SOSTAC desarrollado por Dave Chaffey. Esta metodología se basa en un modelo de seis pasos y es mi interés mostrar cómo en esos pasos se pueden integrar las actividades sugeridas por Huffman, así como incorporar los conceptos de comunidades virtuales (español e inglés) y gestión de reputación online (parte I y parte II) que presenté en post previos.

Inicialmente, para tener más claridad con esta integración los seis pasos de SOSTAC se tienen que agrupar en función de los tres tipos de planes estratégicos que componen la estrategia de marketing digital: marketing digital (marco general), contenido y comunicación. En la Figura 1 se muestra los detalles de este agrupamiento.

  Figura 1. Metodología SOSTAC y planes de marketing digital SOSTAC

Luego, al incorporar al esquema de la Figura 1 los mandatos establecidos por Huffman, se puede obtener una estructura integrada que cubra tanto los aspectos necesarios de la estrategia, así como los factores clave que impulsan su éxito. El resultado de esta integración se muestra en la Figura 2.

 Figura 2. Metodología SOSTAC, planes de marketing digital SOSTAC y factores clave de éxito

Finalmente, me gustaría compartir el Proyecto Final que desarrollé en la especialización (online) Marketing con Redes Sociales del Tecnológico de Monterrey. En este proyecto pude incorporar muchos de los conceptos que aparecen en la Figura 2, en el contexto de una empresa proveedora de productos y servicios para la construcción de centros de datos.

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES: THE NEW PUBLIC OBJECTIVE

Technological changes often bring new terms of use that often fall into linguistic contradiction with the terms used in traditional technologies. These contradictions must be clarified so that they do not become an obstacle in the implementation of the new solutions. This is the case of the term audience.

Audience in the traditional technologies of diffusion of messages represented by mass media like radio, television and press refers to a public that receives the message of a passive way, without being able to express an opinion or critic to the sender by the content of the message. This form of use of the term audience fits perfectly into the linguistic definition of the term ⁽¹⁾. But what about the new technologies of message diffusion such as social network web platforms?

In digital social networks users dynamically exchange the roles of sender and receiver of messages, talking about the content message. In this context, the term audience is contradictory, being virtual communities the term that really describes the characteristics of the public that interacts or talks about a particular topic.

Thus, it is necessary to have a clear definition of virtual communities. The revision of several articles and documents allows me to propose the following definition:

It is a group of actors (people or organizations) that have an intensity of conversations between them that is greater than the intensity of conversations that they have with the rest of the actors of the social network. The intensity (low, intermediate or high) will depend on the common interests (hobbies, goals, projects, lifestyles, etc.) that exist between the actors, regardless of whether they belong to a formal or informal network structure

This clarification is important, because the correct identification of virtual communities is a vital element for the implementation of a digital communication plan that is part of a digital marketing strategy, since it will allow the design of precise message contents that seek to promote the achievement of strategic objectives such as: increase the demand for products and/or services (commercial marketing), increase the social benefits of a location (social marketing), increase the voters of a candidate (political marketing), etc.

In this way, through the digital communication plan, the message will be placed in the virtual community and actions will be carried out that will encourage conversations around this message, which will generate feedback that will be useful to evaluate and control the performance of the strategy of digital marketing.

Likewise, it will be of great value for the digital communication plan to know how these virtual communities are grouped (polarized-unified, fragmented-grouped or diffusion-support), since with this information one can have a clearer idea of the segments that compose the target.

Identifying the common interests underlying virtual communities as well as types of communities corresponds to an organizational process called social listening. In future blogs I will comment on some of the works I have developed in this topic using social network analysis.

Leopoldo Martínez D.

Links:

 ⁽¹⁾ http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/audience