How to analyze your SWOT and adapt your social media plan from Social Media Marketing: Strategy and Optimization by Martin Waxman
About Lesson
How to analyze your SWOT and adapt your social media plan
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– [Instructor] In one of my other courses, I talked about my dad who ran a fabric and drapery store for over 40 years. Even though my dad never did a SWOT analysis for his business, I’m sure if he had, it would’ve been pretty straightforward and focused on the big picture, for instance, his strengths. Well, that would’ve been him and his fabric selection, weaknesses, definitely some of his staff, opportunities, to sell more fabrics and drapes and threats, current and new competitors. Of course, today the world is a lot more complex, but big picture thinking is still the essence of a SWOT. Your social media audit likely included a SWOT, which is an analysis of the business landscape you’re in broken into four main categories. Strengths and weaknesses, they’re typically used for looking inward at your company. Opportunities and threats, they’re more outward looking. When you are doing a SWOT, it’s important not to sugarcoat the facts and to be honest about where you stand, even if it ruffles some feathers. Just be prepared to back up your rationale with solid examples. Your SWOT shouldn’t be a laundry list of bullet points that go on and on and on. It’s a snapshot that demonstrates where you stand out and what some of your issues, vulnerabilities, and future possibilities might be. Keep it to no more than three or four points per quadrant and make sure your observations tie in with your business goals. Let’s look at Topsy Turvy Cake Design, which has been active on Facebook, putting more emphasis on Instagram, and considering Pinterest and Snapchat and starting a social media audit. I’m going to walk Audry through some of the steps they’d need to take. Audry, tell me your company’s top strengths. – [Audry] I think one of our biggest strengths is our name and how well we’re known in the community. We get a lot of business from referrals and I know customers love our creative designs. – [Instructor] Okay. How about your weaknesses? – [Audry] Well, we’re perfect. So, of course we don’t have any. Okay, if I’m serious, I’d say I have really high expectations and maybe I’m not the best manager in the world. So, we do have more staff turnover than I’d like, also I think we sometimes get too busy to post on social or we just post too much. So, there’s no real strategy or consistency. – [Instructor] Are there any opportunities you’d like to pursue? – [Audry] Well, I’ve been thinking about developing an online recipe subscription business where each month we’d publish and share recipes for customers to try at home. And I’ve been told I’m a good talker. So, I thought I might want to become a baking expert for a local or a national morning show. I don’t know, is that silly? – [Instructor] Of course not. It’s great to have big goals. Finally, I asked Audry about what threats her bakery might be facing. – [Audry] I did mention I’m not a great people person and I did have a falling out with my second in command and she just left to start her own business. I’m really worried because she knows the recipes and has some good ideas on how to improve them. Also, we’ve heard that a national bakery chain with a big budget is about to open up in town and I’m not sure I can compete on price. – [Instructor] Let’s evaluate the results and what all this could mean for Topsy Turvy. We know they’re creative and the founder, Audry Topsy, is one of the company’s biggest assets and has a potential to be a high profile spokesperson. We also know that the staff is talented, but there’s a bit of a revolving door for employees. And we see there’s going to be increased competition from a national brand and possibly a former employee who knows company secrets. So, what should Audry do? It seems like Audry could be more focused externally and position herself as an influencer. Her celebrity could halo on the brand and protect against competition. To do that, the company would probably need to hire a manager and Audry would have to seed some control of the business. That move could also help with employee turnover. And as far as a lack of their social media strategy, Topsy Turvy could work with a small agency to develop a plan. The agency could also train one or two of her employees who would then have social media and content marketing as part of their jobs. Of course, this is just the beginning of the recipe for Topsy Turvy, but it gives you an idea of how to get started by assessing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats honestly and critically, your business can get a clear picture of where you are and what you need to do to get to where you want to go.
