Often your senior stakeholders will want to know exactly why your brand needs an account on the next up and coming social media platform. It can be daunting at this point to get your point across. You know it is a good idea, so why not? In times like these, creating a business case can be the best way to communicate why in a way that gets results.
Sections to include in your business case include:
Background
This one may seem obvious, but not everyone knows you can peruse beautifully crafted images on Instagram or listen to tailor made playlists on the go through Spotify. Whichever platform it is you are creating the business case for, make sure to start out by outlining what it is, its key qualities and some facts and figures on the people that use it. Here is a good example of a factsheet about Spotify.
Competitor success
Do your research and see if any of your competitors are having success on the channel. If they are, it could show an opportunity for you to do the same. If they are not, it could mean you could set the tone as a trailblazer in your sector. Include visuals for your stakeholders here too.
Your profile
Help your stakeholders to understand how you profile would look and feel. Mock something up to show them and include example posts and guidelines for the channel. Do you have a content series in mind? Include it here. Alternatively, is there a type of content you would not post? Again, include it within your guidelines.
It is important here to assess whether the platform really does suit your brand, and if it does not – it is a safe time to drop the business case. If it does suit your brand, you will easily be able to list many different content ideas that fit your brand guidelines and objectives, so have some fun with it!
Costs, equipment and resources
Although most social platforms are free to join for businesses, there will be financial costs in the form of equipment and people resources.
What device are you going to use to take photographs? Is this an existing piece of equipment or do you need to factor in the additional cost? Who will be managing the profile daily, and how much time a week roughly would you like to assign to the profile?
Having all this down in a spreadsheet means you can easily present and additional costs you may encounter – and then weigh up if it is worth your time. At this stage you can explore any additional app subscriptions you may need to help you with your profile too, for example Hootsuite for scheduling posts.
Objectives
It is important to set objectives for your channel. Is it financial gain in the form of increased sales? Or is it more important for your business to grow brand awareness? Setting these objectives means you can set up reporting and analytics more easily. It also means you are in a strong position to be able to provide positive results, six months down the line after launching your new profile.
Reporting and analytics
One of the most essential steps in your business case is return on investment. Now you have a strong grasp of how much it will cost for you to run this new social media profile, you can weigh up if the return is worth the investment.
You can report on sales conversions by monitoring how many people click through from your social media profile to enter your website and make a purchase. You can do this using tools such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics.
Or if brand awareness is most important to you, set goals for post interactions like comments, shares and likes, and focus on growing an authentic online community. If you would like to add a financial figure into this equation, look at how much your spending elsewhere to gain views (in print for example) and try to create an average cost per view.
Hopefully at this point you are left with a hefty, well researched piece of work that should fill your stakeholders with confidence. Good luck and subscribe for more messages from The Marketing Group Chat.