Paid search + social: Teamwork makes the dream work

In the digital marketing world, paid search and social combine beautifully to bring stellar results in an otherwise intensely competitive landscape. To capitalise on this crossover, it is, however, imperative to understand that search and social marketing are not about the investment, the traffic or even the results. They are all about the audience. To be truly successful in this cross-media endeavour, one can no longer think about influencers, users, searchers, clicks or even consumers. Rather, one must think only about people. It is essential to understand their likes, dislikes, background, where they are from, how old they are, how they spend their free time and with whom they like to spend it. Essentially, to become their friend, one must first gather every available scrap of information about them. This paper will shed light on getting to know one’s audience as people before considering marketing to them, as well as explore why a social programme is critical to a brand’s success, across five phases including acquiring fans, on-boarding fans, engaging with fans, retaining fans and, ultimately, creating brand advocates.