How Marketers can keep up with changing consumer tastes in social media.

Adjust to Changing Consumer Landscape

In a previous blog, we discussed how to adjust your Marketing By Objectives tools for changing corporate goals – such as a new executive team.

Such an event may require you to craft a new strategic approach.

But when the consumer landscape changes – as it seems to do daily – you usually can respond nimbly simply by changing tactics.

After all, the corporate strategy remains intact – you are selling a known set of products and services, generally to the same types of customers.

But the way those customers consume your marketing message may change dramatically.

Fortunately, your MBO tools are equipped to keep pace.

This is why it makes more sense to keep your goals and objectives “media-neutral.” Instead of a goal like “reach 10,000 consumers per month through Facebook,” use wording that gives you more flexibility – such as “social media.”

Then when the next big things comes up, you’re ready to plug it into your mix and evaluate its performance as normal.

Here are some key points to take into account:

-       Weighting. Some media channels will produce a better response than others. These should receive higher weighting to help guide your investment strategy. However, be ready to adjust these “tactical” weights quickly, because your consumers won’t be wedded to any specific channel for long. If performance is dropping in one specific social medium, but its weight is dropping as well, you’ll know you needn’t make it a priority.

-       Wheat from chaff. Social media’s fluid nature requires you to be just as responsive. Watch for the performance curve to level off and start to drop. That’s your signal to re-evaluate the mix. Don’t be more loyal to a channel than your customers are. Data is your friend here.

-       New customers. Things get more serious if your customer mix starts changing. This usually will require you to revisit goals, not just tactics. Communication with your counterparts in Sales and Planning will help immensely.

You can’t stay ahead of social media trends – unless you have an unlimited budget. If that’s the case, congratulations!

But for the rest of us, it’s sufficient to remain nimble, watch for red flags, and be ready to shift investments quickly. That argues in favor of avoiding long-term commitments, even at the risk of paying slightly higher rates in the short term.

An investment that’s not producing customers – no matter how cheap the price – is money wasted.