Why do you think Maersk Line was so successful in social media? What do you think are Maersk Line’s key drivers of success?Maersk Line succeeded because of 3 reasons:Paradigm shift: It saw social media as a strategic marketing effort in B2B which was traditionally a conservative industry.
It had few competitors who still relied on offline marketing techniques.First mover Advantage: It was the first shipping company to adopt social media marketing on various platforms such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram even LinkedIn and pinterest.Engagement: Maersk Line’s marketing made sure that they had authentic interaction with their customers which made their content more engaging.Q2 Evaluate Maersk Line’s content strategyThey changed the perception of their company from B2B to that of B2C. They focused more on sharing of stories create a connection in the minds of its customers. Real stories tend to engage more audience. The content was created shareable in order to reach a wider audience rather than only the business or sales team.
The type of content was also varied such as time-lapse videos of the loading and unloading of container that grasps the attention of a customer, journalism that made the customer think about the brand as a service provider than just a shipping company, they also showed interesting photos of Maersk on Instagram to gain continuous engagement. It shared both positive and negative content to keep it real for the customers to know everything that went in the company. They also posted updates on the shipping industry which came to use for to other companies as well therefore increasing the audience for them.
They let their employees engage in this activity for sharing content which made them feel that they were contributing towards the building of Maersk as a brand. Such activities create loyalty amongst the customers and the employees.Q3 Evaluate how Maersk Line executed on its social media plan and platforms.They first ranked the social media platforms according to its type from most to least corporate, the carious social media platforms being: facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube and Twitter. They then segmented their target audience into 4 groups: Fans and followers of the company, Customers of the firm, experts in the shipping industry and most importantly its employees. Maersk then developed content revolving around these target audiences for the separate platforms to get most audience engagement on each one.Q4 How do you think Maersk Line’s competitors will react to the company’s success in social media?Maersk’s Competitors will start investing in social media after reviewing success.
They will build a strong foundation which includes a team of focused officials whose only job is to strenghthen the social media activities of the company. Establish conversations to get a presence in the industry discussions instead of just marketing themselves.They should also launch a counter attack on Maersk on their social media activities, come up with better content that grabs the audience’s attention. Content that is shareable so that people who find it relevant can increase the reach. They should showcase their core competencies to differentiate themselves from other companies.
One of the final and most important steps is to measure there activities in order to find out the major source of audience and invest more on those platforms and also create and develop content according to that and also helps us find out which platforms to focus more on.Q5. What are the challenges facing Maersk Line in social media going forward?There are 4 key ideas to improve a grow Maersk’s social media engagementRedefining real time marketing: companies should start focusing on the right customers at the right time instead of targeting everyone to get a more focused and reliable response.Better density of information: Only providing what is relevant and giving what the industry needs to stand apart from the clutter and become a more reliable source of information.Content marketing: Focus on content marketing and provide customers with different kinds of content so that they never go to your competitors for information. Make it as engaging as possible in order to grab the attention. Day by day more and more content is going to be available therefore it is important that Maersk’s content should be the one people see first. Add social media marketing to the strategic marketing of the company and make changes in the organizational structure to accommodate this change.
Visual Content: platforms such as Instagram, pinterest, tumblr are going to gain popularity as visual content grabs more attention and customers when see something tend to retain the information better therefore focus more on visual social media platforms. Implementing technological changes in the social media content, running CRM activities through social media. Also posting content that is in synchronization with the current affairs, this type of content grabs most attention.Q6. What should Maersk Line do next? What areas should the company focus on and why?What Maersk Line needs to do next is to increase the social-media marketing in the overall business. There are two components where it needs to focus on, internal and external.Internal Component: Employee UsageThe role of Maersk Line here is to build employee engagement.
Currently, its employees are content generators.External Component: CommunicationThe role of Maersk Line here is to develop brand awareness. Currently, it has a wide reach across 10 social-media platforms.External Component: SalesThe role of Maersk Line here is to generate leads through expertise. Currently, however, the content is not directed towards leads generation. This needs to change.
External Component: Customer ServiceThe role of Maersk Line here is to encourage customer satisfaction. Currently, however, there is a lack of focus on customer service procedures online. This needs to change.Current social media efforts lack impact on bottom line. Maersk can master its digital journey to unleash full potential of social media.Maersk Line needs to? Share stories and pictures on Tumblr and Pinterest? Share videos on YouTube and Flickr? Increase brand visibility through Instagram? Post business news and press briefings in Google+? Post news updates and humanize the brand on Twitter and Facebook? Post business news and increase customer interaction via LinkedInBy transforming social media marketing into a key strategic effort, Maersk can harvest untapped value pools.Insights and best-practices sharing will drive bottom line growth:? Thought Leadership: Maersk is established as the go-to shipping provider for clients with its expertise? Information Source: Producing useful insights for potential customers to bring down costs and optimize shipping solutions? Value Co-creation: Encouraging sharing of best practices and customer dialogueMaersk should leverage its social media presence with Compass to drive its top-line growth:? Maersk published technical insights and information on industry best practices on LinkedIn? Information is shared though other channels to leverage on its existing fan base? Customers engage with technical insights and recognize the economic value propostion of working with Maersk? Top-of-the-mind awareness created amongst potential customers? Sales team works with clients to propose tailor-made solutions and optimize their shipping processes? Continual outreach through social media to gather client input and share best shipping practices
