Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
1
,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
2
,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
3
,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
Developing a plan to use social media in a business to meet
requirements
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 5
B1 Social media planning processes...........................................................................................6
Business requirements................................................................................................................ 6
Content planning and publishing..............................................................................................6
Developing online communities................................................................................................6
Enforcing social media policies................................................................................................6
B2 Business requirements........................................................................................................... 7
Matching social media websites to business............................................................................7
Research.................................................................................................................................. 8
Working with a client................................................................................................................9
Email........................................................................................................................................ 9
Meeting.................................................................................................................................. 10
Timescale & Responsibilities..................................................................................................11
Platforms................................................................................................................................ 14
Purpose.................................................................................................................................. 14
Target..................................................................................................................................... 14
B3 Content planning and publishing...........................................................................................15
Target audience......................................................................................................................... 15
Linking type of content to target audience..............................................................................15
Keywords and creating keyword strategies to help users identify content..............................16
Best time to publish content and creating a publishing schedule (type of content, frequency,
day and time)......................................................................................................................... 16
Researching best time to post................................................................................................16
Scheduling the Best Time to Post Content:............................................................................17
B4 Developing an online community..........................................................................................20
B5 Developing a social media policy..........................................................................................22
Company philosophy.............................................................................................................. 22
Promotion of honesty and respect in posted content..............................................................23
Ways to ensure confidentiality of information.........................................................................23
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,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
Employees When it comes to confidential data being leaked its most often insiders who are
the biggest threat for a business. This is because they can access, leak or even steal
business data. Not even that, they all have the capacity to make mistakes which is inevitable
and just one wrong click of a button is all that’s needed for a disaster...................................24
Methods of dealing with security issues.................................................................................24
Separation of company and personal content........................................................................25
Malicious hackers and users..................................................................................................25
Legal and ethical considerations............................................................................................25
B6 Reviewing and refining plans................................................................................................26
Gathering feedback from the client and potential users..........................................................26
Scheduling and documenting meetings..................................................................................27
Agreeing and adjusting timescales.........................................................................................28
Refining ideas and solutions...................................................................................................37
Introduction
The Local Chamber of Commerce has asked me to develop a social media campaign for a
business. For this task, I will plan and implement the application of social media for Autohaven.
To do this, I have to identify Autohaven’s aims and keyword strategy to produce a plan and
identify their target audience. Additionally, I need to develop a posting schedule with timescales
so that it improves their efficiency of content.
Synopsis
Business name: Autohaven
Type of business: Private limited Company
Company number: 7678987
Autohaven is a car dealership specialising in supplying cars
to clients. Their main purpose is to become a world leader in
providing new and used vehicles to customers by using
marketing campaigns in order to stand out against
competitors, while at the same time delivering customer
satisfaction and quality. Likewise, they also aim to provide an
outstanding level of personal customer service. As an
independent business, they expect relationships with their
customers to be high as they form the foundation of their
business. Additionally, they ensure that these values are kept
within all areas, whether it’s car sales, MOT's, servicing or accident repairs.
5
,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
B1 Social media planning processes
Business requirements
The main reason why Autohaven uses social media is to promote their vehicles and services.
Many social media sites allow businesses like Autohaven, to pay to display adverts as clickable
banners and on timelines, and on most sites, any business can create a profile page, and create
posts for free. This is good as it helps Autohaven to keep their costs down in order to make a
greater income.
Creating an image or brand is another reason for Autohaven to use social media. Through
making frequent social media posts, Autohaven are able to build a certain identity that can
encourage consumers to choose their vehicles and service over competitors. This is because it
helps consumers to easily identify their advertisements.
Content planning and publishing
In order to implement this, Autohaven must have profiles on various social media sites like
Facebook and Instagram as it increases the likelihood of reaching more customers, but in order
to maintain a consistent brand identity, all posts must have a familiar look and brand identity.
Using social media helps Autohaven to communicate with customers, on aspects not always
directly linking with their product or service. These posts would generally be in the form of public
posts and could be about a trending topic like road taxes, or a topic that Autohaven believes
their audience likes. This is good as makes them stand out against their competitors also
engages their audiences
Developing online communities
In order to develop an online community, Autohaven must try and attain followers that are willing
to see their social media pages and posts. This is done by making sure their content is
appealing enough to satisfy their target audience. Moreover, they can enhance this by
responding to users’ comments as it shows that their opinion is valued and are taken into
consideration. Doing this will help them to generate a large audience who appreciate their
content and possibly share them to others who may be interested.
Similarly, a large audience will prompt potential customers to follow Autohaven social media
page as they can be liked by others. However, in order to establish this, they must continue to
update their content to attain and grow their online community so that it remains relevant for
users and customers.
Enforcing social media policies
Autohaven must implement certain social media policies whilst working on social media. This is
because they need to ensure that their employees conduct themselves appropriately whilst
using social media in order to have a good brand reputation. This can be done through
6
,Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
addressing employees to understand the importance of their values and by making sure they
represent the company in a good manner.
Furthermore, implicating a social media policy helps enforce what they need to include so that
its appropriate. For instance, Autohaven should provide accurate information about the vehicles
and services they sell in order to reduce potential confusion or misperceptions between
consumers.
B2 Business requirements
There are different social media platforms accessible to Autohaven. These days, numerous car
dealership compromise on employing social media like Facebook and Twitter to boost sales or
increase brand awareness.
In order to imitate this, firstly Autohaven needs to find out their target audience. Doing this will
help them to distinguish what social media platform will engage their target audience.
Matching social media websites to business
Facebook
the Facebook demographics show that most
of its users are reasonably distributed
amongst their age. Evidently, this has been
proven by the table showing above 60 %
between 18 to 65+. This is good as using
Facebook enables Autohaven have a large
number of audiences with a diverse age
range which helps them to sell more
vehicles. Due to the fact, that they can target
customers with different needs.
Instagram
Instagram helps Autohaven get more
attention as it’s mainly male dominated
by 9%. This would help them to increase
their brand awareness as men are more
likely to show interest in cars.
7
, Name: Coursework2u
Subject: IT
Unit 3: Using Social Media in Business
Twitter
Twitter is good to some extent as it has
stayed popular with people in their 20s.
Also, the micro-blogging platform which
provides to the younger demographic
ranges.
Conclusion
As they are a car dealership their target audience will be those aged between 17 to 60-year-olds
as they are more likely to buy a car. Therefore, I suggest they should utilise Facebook and
Instagram as it is used mainly by older and younger demographic. This means most of their
content will be short videos clips and images as both of these social media sites are mainly
used for posting these types of content.
In contrast, If Autohaven decides to utilise Twitter, then they can communicate with their target
audience via text but this might not be appealing for some users.
Research
Autohaven has many competitors who use social media to promote their businesses. In this
case, there are two similar companies that I have found and explored how they use social
media to promote their businesses.
Car giant
The screenshots on the right show how Car
giant makes the best use out of their Facebook
posts. They employ polls asking users whether
they’re more likely to choose a BMW 7 series or
Audi A8 as a luxury saloon. This is a good
example as it allows them to gain insight into
customer preferences quickly. Because of this, it
helps Car giant to make the choices based on
polls. Therefore, suggesting that polls and
quizzes can help business to make more
immediate decisions in order to have a specific
outcome.
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