Using Social Media to Boost Your Paid Media Campaigns

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool, especially for advertisers. A positive social media message with authenticity can resonate with the audience in ways that other marketing efforts simply can’t. It can also help you to reach audience members that you may not reach otherwise.

In fact, social media is the most relevant advertising channel for half of those in Generation Z and 42% of millennials. But it’s important to realize that not all social media content is created equally. While extraordinarily powerful, it is still a flawed medium, and its use doesn’t automatically equate with successful marketing—and it remains one tactic of Promotion within the Marketing Mix. The reality is that it must be implemented very strategically and in conjunction with other media efforts.
STARS Marketing and Social Media

As a method of marketing 25 years in the making, the STARS (Surround, Target, Align, Remind, Serve) provides marketers with a powerful approach to implementing their strategy across various channels. When applied to social media specifically, it can serve as a way to ensure that your social media strategy successfully boosts your paid media campaigns.

This is because STARS approaches social media by incorporating all of the elements necessary to make it successful and accounts for the nuances that differentiate social media from other channels.

Surround

Social media provides a way to surround your audience in a way that extends past what other traditional paid media offers. Nielsen recently found that adults spend nearly 11 hours each day interacting with media, and much of this time is devoted to social media. This underscores the importance of incorporating social media as a way to complement the message you are sending out through other channels. It’s impossible to truly surround them if you neglect social media platforms.

Target

In the digital age, targeting customers and being able to determine their preferences is becoming increasingly important. Social media platforms appeal to different demographics and provide information about customers that can help you to determine who to target and when they are going to be most receptive to your message.

Align

Social media allows customers to divide themselves into segments in which their preferences are already defined. This is an ideal scenario that enables your ability to align your message with content that will reach those who care about your product.

Remind

Reminding customers about how to leverage opportunities that should interest them is easier than ever and this is especially true when social media is used to cross-promote your other paid campaigns, such as when you post a TV spot or interview that had already occurred. This reinforces the original message and allows you to expand your audience and remind them why they are watching.

Serve

Ultimately, you are on a quest to learn how to best serve your customers in a way that generates loyalty and invites them to be a part of your community. Social media provides a unique method of communicating with them directly, allowing them to feel important and engaged. These are key elements in forging strong customer relationships.

Compared to other media, social media is relatively inexpensive, and it can pack a big bang for your buck – but it’s no silver bullet. Making it successful requires the informed and strategic development of content that compliments your paid media campaigns.

These two elements can technically stand on their own, but they are far more powerful and persuasive when they work together to create a unified and comprehensive marketing message.