SEGMENTATION WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Each year in sports, franchises add a new talented player in hopes of getting their team to the championship. But, throughout the season for whatever reason, the players do not find their chemistry and the fragmented team of individuals bring home major disappointment in lieu of a trophy. As we’ve all witnessed, a championship team will defeat a team of champions.
In the social world, a segmented marketing strategy works like a championship team. The corporate parent page (a.k.a. team captain) leads the global strategy, while the child pages (a.k.a. supporting players) are the workhorses that foster smaller and more engaged online communities tailored towards specific elements of the brand. This social ecosystem (a.k.a. a championship team) leads to an overall winning brand experience for the customer.
However, this strategy can work against a brand if the social ecosystem has no structure. “In a fragmented environment, Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, etc. are managed differently, by different groups, with little or no cohesiveness or synergy… Customers should feel as if they are under the brand umbrella at all times, where they can easily browse for topics and products that meet their needs.”
To avoid this, large brands should drive unity between their multiple social pages and accounts (a.k.a. the entire team should be working from the same playbook). Messages on the parent page should speak at a high level to the masses. Meanwhile, child pages should develop a localized content strategy, representing the culture and interests of the smaller, targeted communities while still advancing the global objectives.
As an example, Adobe provides a content strategy to showcase their entire suite with individual Facebook pages and respective posts around product education as well as creative inspiration. They’ve segmented their pages by product, demographic and interest group:
- By Product
Each product page provides educational content around uses of the product. Photoshop followers receive videos on how to experiment with photo filters. Dreamweaver talks about HTML5 semantics and CSS techniques. - By Demographic
Adobe publishes content in different languages, segmenting by regions. They speak in languages their diverse followers can understand, encouraging increased responses since the posts are based on localized content and more relevant to their cultural environment. - By Interest Group
Similar to region, Adobe also has a content strategy for their Youth Voices Foundation as well as Adobe Students. Each page provides a different set of content. The student’s wall promotes contests and educational links, while the foundation wall is filled with inspirational and organizational news.
Adobe’s global page links directly to the smaller Adobe communities. However, each page still speaks to the overall brand and this united approach creates the brand social ecosystem, delivering a highly targeted and positive experience for customers. A segmented Facebook approach builds a championship social strategy.
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford
Global executive, digital marketing and biz dev enthusiast, relationship builder whose golf game leaves a bit to be desired. @Britt_Billings