The Importance of Social Media for Business Entities

This report highlights the importance of social media for business entities, emphasizing its ability to facilitate communication with large sections of people in a short span of time. The internal and external analysis required for creating a social media plan is discussed, along with the use of SWOT analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses. The assignment also touches on demographic, geographic, and behavioral factors that shape promotional strategies on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

ENTREPRENEURIAL
MARKETING

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The seed to skin is company which was launched by the Anna Buonocure and Jeanette
Throttrup. With the innovative packaging and quality of product it has gained the attention of
large sections of cosmetic lovers. Main reason as to why this brand has developed niche in the
market is linked to the effectiveness of the products and services. Range of cosmetics is now
being introduced under its theme of nature. The company has a vision to become largest brand in
beauty and skin care. As the company does not operate on large basis, it creates a requirement of
marketing plan. Social media is an effective medium through chosen organisation can promote
their product. In the nick of the time things get viral on social platforms. For this purpose,
analysis is made both on internal as well as external environment. Well-defined objectives is
guiding the company to take measures for the achievement of expanding customer.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Marketing audit:...........................................................................................................................1
Gather insight into target audience..............................................................................................2
Selection of social media zones and vehicles..............................................................................3
Create and experience strategy using selected zone....................................................................4
Establish activation plan..............................................................................................................4
Manage and measure...................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Social media has become crucial part of every individual life, this tool is serving the
needs of all the sections of society. In context to the business this has become source of
communication with the customers. Wide of this mean is the main advantage due to which this is
preferred and used by every single organisation. Even though it is beneficial for the growth of
the business but the expensiveness of this tool makes it difficult for the small organisation to
adopt this method (Boso, Story and Cadogan, 2013). The company which has been considered in
the report is Seed to Skin a medium size cosmetic brand founded by Anna Buonocure and
Jeanette Throttrup. This report covers areas such concept marketing in business, marketing audit,
objectives section of social media zones. In the end experience strategy is created and activation
plan is generated along with discussion about tools of measurement.
MAIN BODY
Marketing audit:
Internal environment of seed skin: Anna Buonocure and Jeanette Throttrup established
this company to cater to the needs of women who wanted healthy skin but were scared to use
chemical products base (Gruber-Muecke and Hofer, 2015). This gave them the idea to build
cosmetics using natural ingredients. As per the information given in the original website the
owner themselves were naturalist they developed effective systems for the production of
products. This is the main strength of the company as while manufacturing all the vitamins and
minerals are added in the products. It has given positive and distinctive image in the market. The
company has adopted corporate social responsibility under which several charity events are
conducted. As per its nature philosophy, the organisation insist on working cooperatively with
the farmers and gardeners. Word of mouth is helping the organisation in gaining strong presence
on social media platforms. The ethical means of conducting activity led to commitment and
loyalty from the buyers.
External environment analysis: The main customers of the company are women who
wants best for their skin. Use of social networking websites like Instagram and tumbler amongst
women who contributes in the marketing of company's products. However, the EU became
increasingly liberal in its trade policies41 and was as one of the largest markets globally able to
negotiate beneficial trade agreements with other countries. Through their opinions and feedbacks
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has effectively helped in improving the position of business. Competitors like By Sarah are
putting similar efforts in terms of marketing their items. Several brands are making contacts with
models, leaders, artists, celebrities etc to under the promotional schemes. In order to effectively
fight competition, seed to skin is consistently following the distinctive product policy (Hallbäck
and Gabrielsson, 2013). After Brexit it is analyse that the frequency of Opportunities for start-up
projects and small business become difficult due to change in formation of new policies and
terms. The UK gained free access to the Common Market but had to submit to traditionally more
protectionist EU policies. Outside of the EU the UK will have more freedom to remove
remaining restrictions to imports and inward FDI. But it will see new barriers emerge to serve
the Common Market.
SWOT analysis:
Strengths: Weakness:
 Production skin care products using
organic ingredients.
 High quality as products being tested in
laboratory.
 Considered as luxurious brand.
 High production cost makes it
expensive.
 Not being well established causes less
popularity
 Product line is limited.
Opportunities: increasing trend of using natural items
will provide good position to company
in market.
Threats:
 Use of aggressive promotional
strategies by competitors.
Objectives
 The company is planning to increase the sales of the company by 10% within the period
of 6 months.
 Planning in relation to increasing website traffic by 25% by the end of the year.
Social Media objectives
 Increase in the followers of company's official account on Instagram by 4% in the period
of 5 months. Promoting with dedicated hashtags, bold the captions on website, creative
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hashtags captions, surfing relevant and trending hashtags, using bio links to most popular
contents.
 Increasing Facebook traffic by 5% by adding kinks to sites, creating Facebook popup.
 Increasing traffic by 6% through use of screen and cards, optimising videos and creating
descriptive video list.
 Increase of twitter following by 5% in the period of 5 months. Designing creative site and
distribution, categorising audience.
 Increase traffic on Pinterest by 15% within 4 months by creating blog more attractive,
uploading images.
Gather insight into target audience
Facebook: These factors divide the market as per gender, martial status and location of
customers. As cosmetics have large group of female users thus seed to skin selected women as
their target audience.
 Seed to skin is mainly targetting females from the age of 15 to 45. Geographic location: Mainly urban audience whose income is higher than £28,855.
Twitter: Under this markets is separated on the basis of psychological characteristics of
people. Thoughts, opinions, beliefs and values of customers differs due to their upbringing, past
experiences. By conducting campaign seed to skin can change the views and perception of
people. This initiative can increase the sales and profitability of business.
 On the basis of this factor those consumers are targeted who are passionate about the
protection of skin. In order to analyse the passion of customers their opinions can be
taken by conducting questionnaire. Based on the answers given by the respondents
strategies can be developed.
 The lovers of beauty wants top try every new cosmetic item that are launched in the
market. Identification of this will automatically open the doors for company to market
their products easily. Also females who highly disapproves use of of chemical on their body. Natural
ingredients will build their interest in chosen organisation (Hartley and Claycomb, 2013).
Instagram and pinterest: Consumer behaviour is analysed by the marketers, under this
consideration is made as per their purchasing patterns, opinions and interest regarding use of
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products and services. The seed to skin tracks the pattern of its customers and take actions
accordingly.
 Followers of beauty pages on social networking sites. Tracking the activities on social
media knowledge regarding prospective customers is gained.
 Views and shares on several online pages with respect to particular product shows their
behaviour.
Selection of social media zones and vehicles
The seed to skin is planning to reach out to large group of audience by using several
social media platforms. The brand will establish the image of caring and responsible and will
aware the audience about new ways that are beneficial for their protection. Company wishes to
change the standards of beauty by shifting focus from beauty to appropriate skin care. For
increasing the customer engagement and brand awareness through Facebook, Instagram, twitter
and YouTube. Use of these media platforms by the target audience are acting as means that are
reducing the ignorance in customers (Hills and Hultman, 2013). Thus tools like blogs and videos
that explains the benefits of organic products would help in enhancing the awareness about the
company.
Create and experience strategy using selected zone
Developing strategy requires commitment and knowledge about the current market
condition. Determining the ways through which knowledge about the existence of product is
essential. Right medium needs to be selected after evaluating the purchasing habits and interest
of customers. In relation to sharing its message of taking care of health of the skin, the theme of
women expressing their desires of having perfect natural skin is used.The zone, which has been
selected for the purpose, is YouTube. The message through YouTube will be “Spreading shine
with healthy skin” The Company will market their content through videos. In these videos
working as well as household women will be used who would share their experiences of
applying natural ingredients on the skin. James Charles trending women celebrity on YouTuber
is offered to promote the product through its social media page. Though Other sources like
Instagram is also considered as part of strategy. Campaigns can be launched in which all age
group of women will participate. The more people joining the events organised by the company
the more traffic is going to be generated. Though due time issues or not having enough
knowledge about social sites can be roadblock. In this case traditional methods can be used.
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Advertisement on television about how the company is getting popularity on twitter, Instagram
etc. would help in generating interest amongst women.
Establish activation plan
In order to implement the plan, all the departments of organisation will work
cooperatively. Contribution made by each unit will lead to improving the effectiveness of plan.
Seed to skin is company that promotes healthy culture working environment therefore activating
plan of action would be easier (Kajalo and Lindblom, 2015).
Facebook Update thrice in a week
Twitter 5 times in a week
YouTube Upload at least one or two videos in a month
Pinterest Keep update by posting feeds on daily basis
Instagram Keep updating feeds with creative captions.
 Firstly advertising agency will be contacted that are available in the market after
assessing their performance based on the past records. Selecting the most appropriate
agency is crucial as the success of the plan is entirely based on how they perform job.
Performing this task will take around 2 months.
 Discussion will be made about what are the objectives of the company, budget and other
goals. As seed to skin wants to acquire the online markets through social media the
agency will analyse the prospects of the business and will give final decision whether to
approve it not. Within the period of 1 month’s contract will be made with the agency.
 Later strategies will be made on what measures are commonly used on social media and
selecting them would be beneficial for the company or not. Opinions and feedbacks can
be taken from social media experts. Eventually by the time of 6 months plan will be
implemented.
 For the purpose of measuring the performance of company, metrics team is set up that
will constantly check the progress made on project. Recognition of deviation at right
moment will save the organisation from loss of resources.
 Setting of budgets will guide the organisation to complete its initiatives in an optimal
manner and at the right time. The budget allotted for this purpose is around $500000.
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Manage and measure
Measuring the objectives of business requires setting use of tools such as KPI and
benchmarks. These are the techniques, which are commonly adopted by the business for the
purpose of managing performance. The objectives of Seed to skin is divided in two parts
therefore, their evaluation will also differ (Morrish and Jones, 2013). The organisers are required
to track the activities of social media as tracking the Facebook, twitter and Instagram accounts
and number of followers. Report against spam accounts and feeds. Keep updating the YouTube
channels add new videos and track daily subscribers.
Business objectives:
Sales revenue KPI: Increase in the sales of company agro based products will be
determined through key performance indicator. Under this revenue generated in each month is
assessed, analysing the increase and decrease in sales revenues will help in measuring the
performance of business. Targets can be set for the individual as well as teams to achieve the
high profits.
Website traffic KPI: For attaining the objectives of increase in website traffic use of
google analytics KPI's can be adopted. This tool analyses the number of times company's website
is visited by the customers. Along with sections are the sections that are highly searched. This
helps in understanding the behaviour of customers online.
Social media objectives:
Social media KPI: In order to measure the objectives of increase in the followers of
Instagram social media KPI's can be used. This allows organisation to track the potential users.
This would track the profiles of users on Instagram, by following their pattern strategies can be
developed to further enhance the interactions. While conducting champaign this metric can be
come useful for the organisation (Zhu and Matsuno, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that use of social media is necessary
requirement for every business entity. Technological advancement has allowed organisation to
communicate with large sections in very short span of time. For the creation of Social media plan
firstly internal and external analysis needed to be made. Use of SWOT for this purpose would
help in identification of company's strengths and weaknesses. Ensuring the targets based on
demographic, geographic and behavioural factors shape the promotional strategy. On social
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platforms Instagram, Facebook, twitter are being used. These are widely considered because
unlike traditional methods, they are less costly and more effective. Measuring and managing the
performance is equally vital therefore, KPI regarding sales and website traffic are used for this
purpose.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Boso, N., Story, V. M. and Cadogan, J. W., 2013. Entrepreneurial orientation, market
orientation, network ties, and performance: Study of entrepreneurial firms in a
developing economy. Journal of Business Venturing. 28(6). pp.708-727.
Gruber-Muecke, T. and Hofer, K.M., 2015. Market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and
performance in emerging markets. International Journal of Emerging Markets. 10(3).
pp.560-571.
Hallbäck, J. and Gabrielsson, P., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing strategies during the growth of
international new ventures originating in small and open economies. International
Business Review. 22(6).; pp.1008-1020.
Hartley, R. F. and Claycomb, C., 2013. Marketing mistakes and successes. Wiley.
Hills, G. E. and Hultman, C., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing: Conceptual and empirical
research opportunities. Entrepreneurship Research Journal. 3(4). pp.437-448.
Kajalo, S. and Lindblom, A., 2015. Market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and business
performance among small retailers. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management. 43(7). pp.580-596.
Morrish, S. C. and Jones, R., 2013. THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING
ORIENTATION ON ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORKS AND
INTERNATIONALISATION OPPORTUNITIES. In ICSB World Conference
Proceedings (Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 1). International Council for Small Business (ICSB).
Zhu, Z. and Matsuno, K., 2016. Entrepreneurial proclivity: its environmental conditions and
growth consequences. Journal of Strategic Marketing. 24(1). pp.20-33.
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