Glossary

Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of online marketing that uses social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Via social media, brands communicate with customers, fans, employees, interested parties and journalists. This makes them approachable.

A central goal of SMM: To offer content that is highly relevant to the users, which they then share within their network. They help the company increase its brand presence, extend its reach, and generate interactions with customers and fans.

What brands need to take into account on the social web

Companies should pursue long-term goals (about 6 months) in the social media, and those goals should correspond to the company goals. These in turn are supported with specific and measurable short-term sub-goals (one week) per channel (perhaps more likes on the Facebook page).

Every brand has to determine for itself which social media channels are most suitable for it. A B2B company, for instance, might use LinkedIn as a lead platform and Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as support platforms.

It is also important that the entire social media communication matches the brand style and the brand core values, so the company remains credible and authentic.

Millennials love "instagrammable moments"

For millennials, Instagram is the most important channel. Self-presentation on Instagram and other social media channels is part of the lifestyle of these digital natives. They are hungry for experiences, and Instagram serves as their platform for eager and intensive research, such as finding background information about brands. This was revealed by our luxury study Digital Luxury: How The Digital Transformation Shapes Luxury Brands.

People from this generation ask about the "why", the purpose of a brand. Social media help them to compare whether the values of a brand match their own values. They then share what they have found with their online community. Incidentally, the competence of the online community is more important to them than the recommendations of a sales person at the point of sale when it comes to purchasing decisions.

For tourism and destinations it is crucial to offer "instagrammable moments". British millennials, when asked how they decide on a vacation destination, answered most frequently (over 40 %): "How well you can show the destination on Instagram.". One example is the Hotel Riad BE Marrakech, which has 8,000 profile visits per week and 300 homepage visits per day; 50 % of booking requests come in via Instagram.

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