Inventory of Social Media Presence
To develop a selection of relevant assessment criteria for the choice of social media channels, it is necessary to consider the findings of recent academic studies. According to Schlagwein and Hu (2017), the most effective social media channels are characterised by the following qualities: “broadcast, dialogue, collaboration, knowledge, management, and sociability” (p. 194). The authors suggest that Facebook and Twitter are channels with a high degree of versatility in their use that can increase the absorptive capacity of a company’s social media strategy (Schlagwein & Hu 2017). The use of Twitter makes it possible to locate pertinent online conversations, which is a key step in establishing large following bases (Ashley & Tuten 2015; Bik & Goldstein 2013).
It is clear that the selection of the most relevant communication channels should be based on the criteria of broadcast and engagement since they lend themselves to an analysis of empirical metrics (Bredl, Hunniger & Jensen 2014). According to a recent report on the state of global social media use, the number of monthly active users of Facebook reached almost 2 billion in 2017 (Social media 2017). The company has the most significant social reach and owns 18 percent of the market (Chaffey 2017). Figure 1 shows the number of active users of the top social media networks worldwide.
The focus of this section of the report is on a social media audit. Conducting the audit is essential for determining proper marketing actions with respect to social media content (Frick & Eyler-Werve 2014). In addition, the social media audit is central to developing a working understanding of the purpose of each communication channel employed by HWCS (Frick & Eyler-Werve 2014). Table 1 presents the social media audit for HWCS.
Table 1: Social Media Audit of HWCS.
To address the temporal component of the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) approach, it is necessary to specify a time frame that will be used for implementing the strategy: 11th April-11th June 2018 (Basri & Siam 2017). The time frame has been selected under the assumption that positive time-lags can increase the chances of a project’s success (Greenwood, Perrin & Duggan 2016). This assumption is backed by empirical evidence showing that constrained scheduling is connected to the diminished productivity of key stakeholders involved in a project (Hanzalek & Sucha 2017). Table 2 presents SMART goals for a social media content strategy for HWCS.
Table 2: SMART Social Media Goals.
By following these actionable and measurable goals, it will be possible to help the advisory body to perform its primary objective of delivering career guidance to graduate students with the utmost efficiency. To clearly define whether a goal can be accomplished, it is necessary to connect it to empirical measures of success. Furthermore, goals should be time-bound to create a sense of urgency, which is essential for achieving successful outcomes. There is ample empirical evidence suggesting that the success of administrative work and resource planning activities hinges on the creation of a sense of urgency (Basri & Siam 2017).
Survey of the Competitive Landscape
To arrive at a comprehensive view of HWCS’s social media use, it is necessary to consider the current state of the competitive environment in which the advisory body operates (Kim et al. 2014). To this end, the study conducted an audit of competitive career services, which is presented in Table 3.
Table 3: Social Media Audit of HWCS’s competitors.
Preferences and Behaviours of Target Audience
The average age of alumni at any university amounts to 25 years old. Today, these people belong to the generation Z. Therefore, they prefer to be different from their parents or other people who are older than they are. Their behaviours sometimes can be characterised as that of introverts. Fortunately or unfortunately, contemporary young people do not like to spend much time together. Instead, they would rather stay home (studio, university, or office) and work on their hobbies or professional activities. The youth wants to develop and reach new horizons in the modern world. By the age of 25, almost every person knows what he or she wants to do for living. Therefore, there is no need for them to seek new acquaintances in public places anymore. Nevertheless, these statements are not applicable to all individuals. However, the majority of alumni are highly-educated people, which means that they are interested in some sciences.
Conclusions from Audit
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the three social networks that are designed to help various businesses develop and expand. Moreover, the audience that uses these web sources consists predominately of the age category of people that is discussed in the given work (the average age of alumni in the USA is 25 years old). These individuals sometimes have problems with finding decent jobs after their graduations as all the most preferable positions in popular or developing firms are already occupied by older professionals. Hence they need to monitor all the new opportunities regarding their future careers (Chan et al. 2017). However, they might not be able to read all the news online. Therefore, it would be beneficial for them to follow the HWCS’s Facebook profile or read the service’s updates on its official website.
It would be proper to mention that many students seek someone to help them with their future jobs in universities. However, alumni are interested in such services as this question is actual for them at the present moment. Indeed, it is somewhat hard to find the best jobs for the representatives of Generation Z because they focus on both personal development and satisfaction with their social statuses, working conditions, and so on.
Facebook and Twitter are considered to be the best social media choices to address the category of people described in the previous paragraph. Instagram appears to be an ineffective tool for a bureau because these businesses cannot present any entertaining content to its followers. Instead, the target audience would be interested in news, surveys, or other facts related to their process of job seeking.
Content Strategy
Engagement Strategy
To begin with, it is necessary to state that the term of engaged audience can be interpreted as a group of people that likes the content that a certain profile posts, shares its news with friends, relatives, and colleagues. Also, an important element of social media engagement is confidential relations between the author and his or her followers. As stated in the appendix, if people do not trust a person who publishes updates on the page they are subscribed to, the audience is likely to leave and find more friendly content makers instead. Therefore, it is necessary to share only credible information and think about its benefit to every subscriber of the Facebook page or Twitter account. Moreover, it is important to follow certain rules to maintain the growth of the virtual community intensive. Some of the suggestions as to the engagement strategy will be listed below:
- Analysis and assessment of every action or progress. It would be proper to analyse what pieces of content gather more likes from the HWCS’s subscribers on Facebook. The results of the evaluation should be considered in every next post to attract as much audience a possible.
- Classification of all the publications made on the profile. There must be several types of publications that are aimed at both entertainment of the audience and provision of some information that people seek. For instance, humorous pictures can be published to make raise people’s moods and demonstrate the loyalty of the web source. However, some compilations of new vacancies or innovative services available at HWCS also must be presented. It appears that people appreciate pages on social media that help them resolve certain problems.
- Demonstration of services. This element is necessary for people who want to use the job service for the first time. To show them how the system works and what the firm can offer to its clients, it would be advantageous to release some tutorial videos or instructions.
- Promoting HWCS among the target audience of alumni. New clients should be attracted by some unique offers or ideas that could help them. It is essential to launch an advertising campaign to make the Twitter and Facebook profiles more popular among the discussed population.
- Increasing posting frequency to let people see that the business is prospering is essential at the level of its development.
- Motivating clients to share their impressions with their friends, relatives, or colleagues. This will popularise the service among people of the target age category.
The use of Twitter and Facebook will be valuable for posting short messages notifying the subscribers about upcoming job fairs, internships, and other messages necessary for both achieving the primary goal of social media use (the provision of job recommendations) and attracting additional followers. To improve engagement among the members of the follower base, regular humorous messages will be posted through the main and additional channels. This strategy is closely aligned with a study by Fraustino and Ma (2015) whose findings point to the fact that the use of humour in social media campaigns has the potential of quickly spreading information to new audiences at a fraction of the cost. The results of research conducted by Whiting and Williams (2013) also justify the use of this approach to gaining a larger following by showing that social media users receive gratification from entertainment, which reinforces their interest in the consumed content.
Proposed Editorial Calendar for One Week of Activity
A One-Week Content Strategy for HWCS.
Table 5: Editorial Calendar.
Suggestions for Integration with Other Communications
Although Facebook and Twitter are perfect for the promotion of services, they are not designed to consult and communicate with clients. Therefore, it would be proper to create a WhatsApp account for HWCS. People could see the phone number in the information section of both Twitter and Facebook accounts. This method is beneficial for the management of conversations with new clients and for people who want to receive immediate answers to their questions (Raghavendra 2016). Another integration suggested in this paragraph is YouTube channel. By posting videos on this hosting, the firm can attract new customers and educate permanent users of its services.
Critical Evaluation of Strategy
The content strategy presented in this section of the business report is successfully used by many other organisations in the entire world. There is no need to invent new approaches to the process of content making as all the sound and effective theories were already invented and used by many social media profiles. However, it would be proper to mention that it is necessary to make all the publications regularly (Moreau 2017). Otherwise, informational overload or the lack of updates will make subscribers confused regarding the structure of the web source. In general, the strategy described above implies both interactive and one-sided communication with customers (Pansari & Kumar 2017). This will give people an ability to choose the most comfortable methods to gain some knowledge about HWCS’s services, which is beneficial for the company as the audience become aware of its offers.
Suggestions for Tracking Social Media Performance and “Tweaks”
As it was mentioned above, all the publications and social media activities of HWCS must be analysed. Moreover, it would be beneficial to assess competitors’ accounts to avoid the common mistakes these companies make in managing their web sources. The program that is called Twitonomy can help regular users to see the statistics of different pages on Twitter (Liu et al. 2014). Another tool that is called WordPress SEO Plugin gives people an ability to optimise their posts and makes it easier for subscribers to find them. This “tweak” is essential for beginner firms that are not popular yet as it improves the rate of awareness of its services or products (Goddard 2016). To conclude, it is necessary to state that all actions on social media have to be planned, organised, and analysed. These three stages will help account managers to take all the advantage that Twitter and Facebook can give to their users.
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