Subject: Marketing / Advertising

Topic: Social Media Advertising Strategies


Social media continues to become one of the best ways of enlarging a company’s market share in as far as marketing is concerned. Many organizations have successfully built their brand awareness through the social media as it ignites conversations and interests globally almost at once. One of the reasons leading to this is that consumers are using a lot of their time visiting the social media and web sites. Approximately 90% of social media users make an attempt of sharing the information available in the social media with other consumers. This creates some form of network. According to statistics, 98% of the people between the ages 18 to 24 years engage in some form of social media (Pentinah & Koh, 2012:293; Powers et al., 2013: 479). This encompasses the target audience for the Thames Valley Training and Development. Even with this great percentage of potential customers visiting these sites, the main aim is to ensure that the consumers not only see the brand advertisement but they also engage with it.

Brief Task

When banner advertisement emerged in the 1990s, a lot of attention was drawn to them which made internet users to highly engage with them. Unfortunately, their impact on advertising has continued to plummet over the years (Halligan & Shah, 2010:25). Plastering the advertisement on a banner and assuming that this will attract the needed attention on the brand is a fallacy. For such inadequacies, other strategies need to be established and implemented in order to make social media advertising effective. This task entails creating other effective social media advertising strategies that will bring the needed attention on TVT&D. This not only incorporates laying out the strategies, but it also includes setting out the specific steps to take through the use of advertisement models in order to make the project a success. The follow-ups strategies are also included in this task in order to ensure that the needed amendments are made for utmost successful results.

Project Amendment (Management Exception)

As noted so far, banner advertisements are not making the needed impact. Since TVT&D is a young but developing/growing company, it needs social media strategies that will be as effective as possible. The planned results were that the other forms of media advertising with the incorporation of banner advertisement through the social media would have worked. These results do not depict our anticipation so far. The next appropriate thing is to incorporate as many strategies that will boost the advertisement on the banners. The market share targeted encompasses the young people. Young people are not as attracted to the banners as compared to the older generation. Since the young people have a higher probability of getting a college education as compared to the older people, the management exception here is to find other strategies that will accompany banner advertisement.

The other management exception entails limits aligning with the number of strategies that were to be incorporated. Previously, the idea was to come up with as many strategies as possible. However, it was evident that incorporating all these strategies was making this task cumbersome as it enlarged the scope of work (Choi, 2011:55). These many strategies also compromised the quality of work expected by the client. There is also the aspect of time limits amongst other relevant resources. The appropriate amendment to this challenge is to cut-down on the number of strategies to be presented to the client. Instead of delivering as many strategies as possible, the team will deliver three strategies. These three strategies will be further explained and thoroughly expounded on through models and steps in order to present three effective strategies that will make significant impact in the targeted period.

The team has decided to divide this work. Instead of working on one big project that will be of effect in the next decade or so, the idea is to make small projects that can be easily monitored and analyzed when need arises. For this project, the team plans to present three social media marketing strategies as earlier indicated. After the targeted period elapses, the project’s assessment of its success will determine the scope of the next project. The next project might entail adding other strategies that will increase the results gained in this project or it might include taking another direction if this project emerges as a failure. In the long run, the company will have as many strategies as it can handle. The team’s policy so in this amendment is to take one step at a time.

Progress to Date

As identified, the main aim is to come up with three comprehensive strategies that will make the needed impact in advertising the TVTD in the social media. There are various steps involved in this project. However, the team has reached a given point so far. The first step engaged identifying the target market. The client targets all types of consumers. However, the higher concentration is on the youth as they are in great need of leadership skills in order to strive in the rapidly globalizing market. The youth also constitute the larger market share that constantly engages with social media (Sterne, 2012:65). Accomplishing this step would engage doing a lot of research in the internet and other materials that would enlighten the team on youth participation in social media and their engagement with advertisements. This part has already been accomplished so far.

The second step entails scaling the various social media advertising strategies advocated by the numerous materials available through both soft and hard copies. The main aim of going through this step is to identify the strategies that can apply to our client. It also includes comparing the resources needed to make a strategy effective with the client’s limited budget. Additionally, there are strategies that are extremely effective in other scenarios but quite limited when it comes to some consumer-based environments. This step is also accomplished.

The next step involves picking out five most appropriate strategies that can work out with the client. However, these are not the final strategies. The team will further analyze each of the strategies in order to find the three final most appropriate to be undertaken in this project. The other two will be incorporated in the other project to follow. This has also been accomplished so far. The team came up with these three strategies:-

  • Content Seeding

  • Zeroing in

  • Gathering it all together (Gillin & Dobscha, 2007; Holzner, 2012:65)

The other step involves assigning a number of tasks to the team members. The first step engages a lot of research. The effort of the whole team is needed. Two members were assigned tasks of researching the soft copies while the other three researched the hard copies since it is the harder task. After two days, the team came together to compare the notes and come up with the most appropriate strategies. The team also split when finding the appropriate strategies. While every team member became creative in finding the appropriate strategies, two team members sorted out the relevant from irrelevant strategies while the other two team members came up with steps needed to expound on these strategies. One team member acts as the overall supervisor and coordinator.

The team came together to choose the three most effective strategies. Various amendments were made through the incorporation of other created strategies by the team members in order to come up with the most appropriate strategies for the client as the team can present. At this point, the team is in the process of incorporating the various steps or sub-strategies that will be engaged in the implementation process of the strategies. The various criticisms will be made and then the corrections will be made through the presented recommendations.

Annotated Presentation of work Covered So Far

Research on Target Market and Strategies (5 days)

This part of the task took five days. For two days, the team did some research on the target market and the people’s perception of social media and leadership development training programs. This research entailed asking questions to a number of people and analyzing the information available in the hard and soft copies. The team members were assigned different tasks. While two members researched on the internet and the soft copies available, the other members researched on the hard copies. On the third day, all members went out to ask questions relating to the same. The participation of all members allowed the team to interview as many people as possible. On the fifth day, the team gathered in order to sort out and analyze the information gathered in the research activities.

The team members found this part challenging especially when it came to the physical part of interviewing consumers. One team member felt that he could not carry out this part due to the negative response from the potential interviewees. However, a few encouragements from the chosen team supervisor and coordinator as well as the other team members enabled the full participation of all the team members in this activity. There were other challenges found when researching the hard copies. There are limited books and journals that highly give the needed information regarding social media advertising. However, the team members assigned to this task found some information that was quite useful.

Sorting and developing the Strategies gained (3 days)

This part of engaged discussions which sometimes would bring forth debates. The various team members had to present their views on the various strategies presented and the other strategies proposed. Team members analyzed the strengths and weaknesses pertaining to every strategy. At this point, each team member was given one or more than one strategy to research on in terms of its strength and weaknesses. The team had to come up with five most appropriate strategies for the client company. Further research would then be carried out on these five strategies. The team came up with these five strategies on the third day.

The challenge was agreeing amongst us. Every team member made strong points relating to his or her argument relating to a given strategy. Moreover, every information or argument presented by a member had to be taken as relevant. The members had to learn how to criticize each others’ works and presentations without disrespecting or disregarding their works. The members had to do further research in order to find the most appropriate strategies. Additionally, managing time was another challenge. While some members were quite quick and efficient, other members needed constant reminders of the deadlines aligning with their tasks. Making maximum use of the available resources is not only relevant to the client but it is also relevant to the team.

Picking out the Three Final Strategies (2 days)

The team came up with three most effective strategies for social media advertising as related to the client, TVTD. This was another daunting task as all the team members found these five strategies all relevant. Each team member was given a strategy to research upon as extensively as possible. On the second day, the team came together and compared the notes. Finally, the team came up with three most appropriate strategies. However, the team needed to vote for an all majority vote in the areas where there was division of the strategy to be picked over the other. This is because everyone felt that all the five strategies were relevant. Unfortunately, time limitations would allow the team to work on all the five strategies effectively. Two strategies had to be pushed to the next project.

As identified, the team experienced challenges in picking the three most effective strategies. The members could not agree on which strategies to drop or the strategies to pick. This led the team members to improvise the voting technique. Finally, the strategies were chosen and the team members embarked on expounding on these strategies.

Expounding on the three strategies (2 weeks)

This is the task we are working on currently. This will take approximately one week or seven days. This is because it is the most relevant part of the task. The team intends to engage further research on these three strategies. This includes researching by interviewing the consumers and including literature review of the chosen strategies. There are steps to be included in order to make the implementation process effective. These steps include:

  • Keeping it fresh

    • Posting interesting things to attract consumers

    • Posting strong content

  • Maximizing advertising return

    • Creation of a successful online business

    • Company products advertisements

    • Advertisement testing (The Guardian, 2012, BBC, 2012; Precourt, 2013:389)

This is a daunting task and so the team members are expected to encounter a number of challenges. The client expects the team deliver the most effective strategies. In order to achieve these results, the team has to put the utmost input and effort in this task. There are challenges expected to arise when finding the consumers to be interviewed. As mentioned earlier there is limited credible information available on issues related to social media advertising. The team intends to tackle the various challenges as it carries on with the core assignment.

Criticism, Recommendation and Corrections

This period is limitless. The team intends to gather as many criticisms and recommendations as possible in order to present the best work possible. The team intends to contact a number of professionals who will guide in the criticisms and recommendations. The appropriate corrections will be done accordingly.

Review of Working Agreement

The team has already reviewed the working agreement. However, the team intends to present some discrepancies before embarking on the main part of the work. The team intends to sought out legal advice from a lawyer as some terms are quite complex for the understanding of all members. Additionally, the TVTD seems to put the terms in a manner that favors it. There are no established neutral grounds. Additionally, there are no provisions put as may be needed in this line of work. As put earlier, the team intends to seek legal guidance in order to gain enlightenment in the areas of discrepancy.


The task execution is going according to plan so far. In addition, the team has made a provision of one week to the time table in case of delays, prolonged tasks or unexpected occurrences. Although criticisms are welcomed and the period for such is unlimited, the team intends to evaluate the criticisms. Additionally, the team intends to avoid last-minute changes as they are hurriedly put with limited assessments. Overall, the team intends to deliver the most effective strategies needed for social media advertising.
