SME’S – Utilising SMACI as a Strategy- Focus on Social

SMACI is becoming an important strategy for every SME in various industries, The term coined by Henley Business School meaning Social Media, Analytics, Cloud Computing and the Internet of things. All of this have become essential business needs as it integrates with all our systems. SMACI provides the 360 customer view to enable businesses to learn and make better judgments about their customers in a bid to also growing their revenue.

Here, we focus on Social in the SME space. Businesses have now realised the importance of putting the customer at the heart of their business especially focusing on data gathering. This can arguably be looked at given the share of how various SME’s or organisations are putting this into practice. It is reported that about 26% of SME’s spend an average of an hour a day on social media and gathering information of how customers interact with their brands. SME’s need to take that longer-term view in terms of technology adoption this way they remain competitive in the marketplace.

For the benefit of my reader, I’ll be looking at a pseudonymised SME here in the United Kingdom known as LYD ANDREWS. A retail organisation that is solely focused on providing catering services such as pastries and cakes for events and the public. It uses Social media as a key driver of its online marketing engagement strategy by ensuring that it stays up to date with customers demand. It operates several stores within the Bedfordshire area, in the United Kingdom and targets people around its surrounding geography.

THE STRATEGY

The business utilises digital social platforms like Facebook to generate campaigns, referral programs and earned media engagement. It also uses video as a major content push for brand engagement by having customers share them in-store experiences. This type of social activity is what is known as social proof and targeted towards audiences with similar preferences on social. The data gathered from social analytics is now processed internally by the team responsible to ensure they are aligning customer experiences with product development. The owners of the business have enbibed the culture of ensuring every employee is a brand ambassador by enabling each employee on how to interact on social media.

RESISTANCE

The digital leader does meet resistance in terms of employee lack of social media awareness and has taken the initiative of creating a social media training program which runs monthly and teaches each participating staff the tips & tricks of managing customer requests or mentions. They run employee advocacy programs which helps to determine a seamless yet consistent brand push-messaging. The Organisation has invested in social tools that also allows clear measurement and monitoring of how prospective customers can find its business by aligning social and SEO this makes it easier for retargeting.

OUTCOMES

The Organisation report shows more requests from social interactions on its digital channels more than direct walk-ins. This is usually even higher during celebrations or yuletide seasons. The team collaborates even more to ensure consistency around how it shares content and respond to customers hence this created an increased positive brand perception. Using Social media as a digital channel within the organisation has massive benefits considering the amount of time most customers spend on social every day, this provides increased opportunity for brands to continually engage with the right product & services.