Determining Which Social Media Channels to Use And Resource Allocation

 There is a multitude of social media channels available, both mainstream and niche. So, how does a business decide what channels to participate in? How many channels is enough? The answer depends on a number of factors, including identifying your customers, knowing which social media platforms they use and if they are open to hearing from you in those places (Collier, n.d.).

It is also important to evaluate your own capabilities, such as the time and staff to participate in social media, and the availability of content that you have to share. Can you generate fresh content on a regular basis? Does the content generate conversation (Novak, 2010)?

Budget is another topic entirely. One way to determine a budget for marketing and advertising is to find out the advertising-to-sales ratio for the industry by looking at the annual reports of public companies (McKee, 2009). Unfortunately, this may not work for small businesses. McKee recommends another option is to start at 5% of the company’s sales numbers and then adjust as needed based on the media costs, how much competitors are spending and how quickly the business hopes to grow. In the case of a small business that wants to focus in social media rather than paid media, the budget can be less. McKee says:

The important thing is intentionally and deliberately to set aside some rational percentage of your sales to get out there. That way, the question you have to answer isn't "How much should we spend?" but rather, "How do we spend most effectively" (McKee, 2009)?

Businesses with few employees may not have the resources to dedicate one person solely to social media, or even to marketing as a whole. It is important that businesses do not overextend themselves with regard to social media involvement. As social media consultant Mack Collier says, “The worst thing you can do as a business is to spread yourself too thin with social media” (Collier, n.d.). 

One ice cream shop’s experience

To explore the question of how much social media a business should use, consider a small business that produces frozen desserts in Philadelphia. According to the company’s website: “Little Baby’s Ice Cream produces Hand-Made, Super-Premium Ice Creams and Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts for open-minded, convivial Philadelphians” (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-a). The company started out in 2011 with a tricycle, “The Flavor Blaster One,” that pedaled and peddled sweet treats throughout Philadelphia (n.d.-b).

Little Baby’s Ice Cream does not advertise, but they do use a variety of social media channels to connect with customers. This variety presents options, but they have overextended into too many venues and it is too much for the company to maintain.

On August 3, 2012, the Little Baby’s world headquarters (WHQ) opened, as announced on the Little Baby’s blog (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-c), which included a link to the grand opening event on their Facebook page (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-d).

In addition to the company’s Facebook page, which has 5,880 likes, Little Baby’s has a Twitter feed that is active with questions from some of the 4,267 followers that are answered within a few hours (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-e).

The brand also maintains a YouTube channel featuring videos produced by Little Baby’s, clips from local news stations, and even an episode of American Hipster Presents (Little Baby’s Ice Cream. n.d.-f). This social media channel furthers the brand’s unique personality. One video ad features a man covered in ice cream who begins to eat the ice cream off the top of his head while staring straight into the camera (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, 2012).

http://youtu.be/erh2ngRZxs0
This ad was shared by the Huffington Post in article titled, “Little Baby's Ice Cream Shop in Philadelphia releases terrifying commercial,” and includes the line: “If the idea was to destroy viewers' ice cream appetites forever, they may have just succeeded” (Guarini, 2012). The video has nearly four million views, and the store continues to succeed despite this gory presentation. Unfortunately, although the video content is creative, no new content has been added in five months.

Little Baby’s also has a SoundCloud profile where the company posts mix tapes of ice cream-related tunes (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-g), and a Flickr site featuring photos of the shops and of happy customers (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, n.d.-h). Like the YouTube profile, these channels are not updated frequently. The last time a mix tape was posted on SoundCloud was five months ago, and Flickr was last updated in October 2013.

Little Baby’s is off to a good start

Little Baby’s Ice Cream broadly defines its audience as “open-minded, convivial Philadelphians.” When you consider the local neighborhoods where scoop shops are located, the audience is more defined as residents are in their twenties and thirties, artistic, college or graduate school students, hipsters, vegans, anarchists. Little Baby’s knows its audience and has built a social media plan that meets customers where they are.

The messaging presented by this company follows guidelines set by Greenberg: “Have something to say. Say it often. Be interesting” (Greenberg, 2009). Little Baby’s may have a marketing calendar, as Greenberg suggests, or they may simply have established the cadence to offer information to consumers at appropriate intervals. Content shared by Little Baby’s via Facebook and Twitter includes store hours, flavors and upcoming events. When followers message the company on these social media sites, they receive a response within hours.

The social media representative(s) who represent Little Baby’s follow many of the best practices recommended by Brian Solis (Solis, 2010). A few of the items he mentions are listed below in bold, with notes about how Little Baby’s does it well.

·      “Determine the identity, character, and personality of the brand and match it to the persona of the individuals representing it online.” Little Baby’s is fun, nontraditional and creative, and that personality is evident in Facebook posts such as:

o   World Headquarters 2311 Frankford Ave *Closed* Today. Philly Public Schools are *Closed* Today. Councidence? (sic) (Little Baby’s IceCream, 2014a.)

o   Tomorrow going to be so cold that we're doing BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ICE CREAM CONES at World Headquarters. Cedar Park Embassy is closed srry. (Little Baby’s IceCream, 2014b.)

·      “Earn connections through collaboration and empower advocacy.”

o   Little Baby’s partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in January 2014, as reported in a blog post (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, 2014c). Customers could purchase a “Paper CHOP Icon” to “Help Little Baby’s help little babies”.

·      “Establish and nurture beneficial relationships online and in the real world as long as doing so is important to your business.” In February Little Baby’s is partnering with next-door neighbor Pizza Brain for a speed-dating event, as noted in this tweet:

o   *Fri 2/7* First Friday "It's Just Pizza & Ice Cream: A Speed Dating Event" @LittleBabysIC & @mypizzabrain Matchmakers http://ow.ly/sIBjD (Little Baby’s Ice Cream, 2014d)

Small businesses should keep it small

Catherine Novak suggests that businesses that want to engage with consumers via social media have to be conversation starters, not merely informers (Novak, 2010). So while it is appropriate for Little Baby’s to tweet shop hours and post special events on the Facebook page, it is also important that the company engage customers in conversation. That does not happen on these channels, which may be the result of being a small business with limited resources.

Mack Collier says that small businesses should do less with social media because once you are on a social media site, customers expect you to be engaged (Collier, n.d.). As noted above, Little Baby’s has profiles on YouTube, SoundCloud and Flickr, but it seems they have been forgotten. YouTube and SoundCloud are creative channels that require time to share content. This company just doesn’t have the time to generate that. Posting new photos on Flickr could be easy, but leaving the site unattended appears careless.

I would recommend that a small business focus on two or three social media sites to build relationships and have conversations with customers. For this particular example, Little Baby’s Ice Cream should maintain its Facebook page and Twitter account. The brand should also continue to use its blog as the main communication channel.

In addition to limiting the number of channels it uses, a small business should focus on establishing a conversation with customers. For Little Baby’s that means moving beyond responding to comments posted on the company’s open Facebook wall or questions tweeted about store hours to offer more meaningful content.

Returning to Solis’ list of best practices, there are a few areas that Little Baby’s could focus on to increase the success of its social media marketing (Solis, 2010). Once again, Solis’ suggestions are in bold with notes related to Little Baby’s following.·       

“Consistently create, contribute, and reinforce service and value.”  Little Baby’s currently offers information about its stores and events. The brand could increase engagement by offering more content about products or recipes. The brand could also ask customers to share input or ideas via social media channels.

·      “Un-market” by becoming a resource to your communities. Little Baby’s has some relationships with other businesses in the communities surrounding the shops, but it does not share a lot of information about those partnerships. The brand could build its connection to the surrounding neighborhoods by offering products for fundraisers, donating to community festivals and opening doors to local events. It could also share information about other events happening in the community.

In conclusion

When a company considers building a social media presence, it needs to determine who its customers are and what platforms they use. Then it needs to make decisions based on resources of people, time and money. A company without any experience in social media can start with one site to gain confidence, and that may be enough. The company should also search itself on social media sites to see if people are talking about it. If there is buzz, the company should set up a profile and join the conversation.

References

Guarini, D. (2012, September 25). Little Baby's Ice Cream Shop in Philadelphia releases terrifying commercial. Huffington Post. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/little-babys-ice-cream-commercial_n_1738616.html

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-a). Little Baby’s Ice Cream. Retrieved January 26, 2014,  from http://www.littlebabysicecream.com/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-b). Who we are. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.littlebabysicecream.com/about-us/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-c). Little Baby’s Ice Cream — The grand opening of our world headquarters [blog post]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.littlebabysicecream.com/little-babys-ice-cream-the-grand-opening-of-our-world-headquarters/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-d). Little Baby’s Ice Cream — The grand opening of our world headquarters [Facebook event]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/events/299800260118720/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream [LittleBaby’sIceCream]. (n.d.-e). Tweets [Twitter page]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://twitter.com/LittleBabysIC

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-f). YouTube page. Retrieved January 27, 2014; from http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleBabysIceCream?feature=watch

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-g). SoundCloud. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://soundcloud.com/little-babys-ice-cream

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (n.d.-h). Flickr site. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlebabysicecream

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (2012, August 1). Little Baby's Ice Cream "This is a Special Time” [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erh2ngRZxs0

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (2014a, January 22.) World Headquarters 2311 Frankford Ave *Closed* Today. Philly Public Schools are *Closed* Today. Councidence? [Facebook status update]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/LittleBabysIceCream?hc_location=timeline

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (2014b, January 6.) Tomorrow going to be so cold that we're doing BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ICE CREAM CONES at World Headquarters. Cedar Park Embassy is closed srry [Facebook status update]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/LittleBabysIceCream?hc_location=timeline

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (2014c, January 6.) Fundraising is a feeling: Little Baby’s Ice Cream & Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia team-up for the little babies of Philadelphia. [blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.littlebabysicecream.com/events/event/fundraising-is-a-feeling-little-babys-ice-cream-childrens-hospital-of-philadelphia-team-up-for-the-little-babies-of-philadelphia/

Little Baby’s Ice Cream. (2014d, January 26.) *Fri 2/7* First Friday "It's Just Pizza & Ice Cream: A Speed Dating Event" @LittleBabysIC & @mypizzabrain Matchmakers http://ow.ly/sIBjD [Twitter]. Retrieved January 26, 2014, from https://twitter.com/LittleBabysIC/status/427510081270595585

McKee, S.  (2009, February 10). What should you spend on advertising? Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from January 27, 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090210_165498.htm

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Solis, B. (2010). 21 rules for social media engagement. Mashable. Retrieved January 2, 2011, from: http://mashable.com/2010/05/18/rules-social-media-engagment/