1.1 and 1.2Business: Education Development Trust (formerly CfBT) Business Area: National Careers Service contract (North East)Type: Education Charity - Large non-for-profit organisation Vision: To provide the best careers advice service in the UK Aims: The Education Development Trust team working on the National Careers Service contract in the north-east of england have the following aims: To provide high-quality information about careers and skills, and independent, professional advice and guidanceTo provide a focus on specialist careers guidance, built on the principles of independence and professional standardsTo provide information, advice and guidance both to inform and to stimulate demand for further education, work-based training and higher educationObjectives: Education Development Trust and the team working on the National Careers Service contracts have many objectives. Some include: Reaching a monthly target of outcomes Furthering the success of the local social media networking pages in the North-East Improving the quality of our service at every opportunity Goals: To improve the Increasing likes/followers on local facebook and twitter pages by 300 every 6 months Reaching the set number of outcomes needed to fulfill the National Careers Service contract within each month Brand and Values Education Development Trust (EDT) portray their brand and values in the form of 'promises' that they have listed on their website. These values include: Excellence: EDT encourage individuals to make use of their outstanding qualitiesIntegrity: EDT are honest at all times and have strong moral principlesAccountability: EDT believe in taking responsibility for ones actionsCollaboration: EDT believe that working together is key in making the world a better place Below are some screenshots from the website (https://www.educationdevelopmenttrust.com/en-GB/what-matters-to-us)

1.3 There are many marketing tools available to businesses, including the following: Digital Media: Videos, images and sound clips are amongst the many types of digital media out there. They come from social media sites primarily, and are likely one of the most popular ways of advertising. They are easy to view and use, and links to websites can give potential customers quick and conveniant access to more information about the product/service that is offered by the business. Physical Media: Much like digital media but in a physical form, leaflets, posters and flyers are amongst the many types of physical media that are used for the marketing of a business. Posters can be stuck on walls or billboards, flyers can be handed out to potential customers and even items such as branded pens or keyrings can all be used in a marketing strategy to help promote a business and it's product/service. Telemarketing: The means of advertising a product via telephone calls. This tool is used by many businesses to contact potential customers directly via telephone instead of waiting for said cutomers to contact them. This is an aggresive approach but can be beneficial if done in the right way, however it is a popular opinion that most people do not like sales calls. This method is likely to drive some customers away that may have contacted the business in the future, but the technique is good for bringing in a smaller amount of customers more swiftly. Face to face: Often businesses will employ people to use a public spot to engage with the public physically, advertising the product while simoultaneously answering any questions that a potential or existing customer may have. The expertise of a professional salesman may encourage potential customers to try the product or service offered by a business who uses face to face marketing. Surveys: This type of marketing tool is often used to gain opinions and feedback from both existing and potential customers. Survey's can come in both a digital and physical form and can often prove useful when a business needs the opinion of it's audience to make an important desicion about their product or service. Marketing calendars: These are used by members of a business to organise their marketing throughout the year. This is a great tool to influence the organisation of a business when it comes to marketing and gives the business a clear plan for the near-future.

1.4 & 1.5The great thing about social media is that it is free to anyone who wants to access it. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are three hugely successful social media channels and they are all totally free for an individual or a business to sign up. However a budget is always a huge help, as it can greatly improve the quality of social media use by a business.Depending on the type or size of a business, there are different consequences of using social media on a budget. Sole Trader: As only one person is responsible for all of the money going into and coming out of this type of business, they will have to fund the social media budget themselves. Depending on the position of the business, this may not be viable or affordable and any money invested would come out of the owner's pockets. Corporate: As these businesses are among the largest of businesses and each exist as an individual entity seperate from their owners, it is more likely that they will have the means to fund their own social media budgets. As a consequence, corporations may invest heavily into social media and start to dominate certain aspects of it. Public Sector: As this kind of business is controlled by the government, any kind of social media budget would be paid for by the government. The consequence of this is that the government would have to make a desicion as to whether to fund the budget for the particular business. Voluntary Sector/Charitable/non-for-profit: As these businesses make no profit and often have no money flowing through them, they often won't be able to afford a budget for social media. This could be worked around if the business in question were able to accept donations. Optional costs that can enhance performance of ones social media channels exist on these hugely popular sites. For example, you can boost a post on Facebook for a small amount of money so that your post reaches a number of extra people in return. Having a budget for this type of boost could make a huge difference to the page. This process is sometimes known as amplification.There are many other methods of amplification on various different forms of social media. One such example is a feature on Twitter called 'embedded tweets'. This type of amplification allows your 'tweet' to stay at the top of your followers twitter feeds so that they are more likely to see your tweet. Benefits of amplification include: Anything that is amplified is made bigger and more noticable and this is also the case on social media The more noticable something is the more likely people are to engage with it and mention it to othersThe more something is engaged with the more it is seen by even more people, and thus a cycle can ensue until the buzz around the amplified content ceases to continue and begins to wear down Consequences of ampification include: If you don't double check your content before amplifying it, you could invest money into content that has an error with it, such as a spelling mistake or incorrect information The more something is amplified the greater the risk of having someone come along and leave negative critisism about your business or it's product/service If someone responds with something negative about your amplified comment, the negative response may be amplified along with the piece of content depending on what kind of tool or channel is being used.

1.6 Many social media users who do not have access to some form of marketing budget often use other methods to increase their following. The most simple and cost effective way of doing this involves encouraging your exsisting followers to engage with your content. This can be done in multiple ways: You can directly ask users to engage with your content to help your page or channel grow. Many kind social media users may help you out, however the level of engagement you would recieve from this method would be limited without an insentive. You also may acquire a bad reputation if you ask this of your followers too frequently. You can offer some kind of prize draw to people who 'like and share' a post or hold some kind of contest. If there is an insentive then users of social media will often 'like', share or comment on your content. However there are rules and laws around this kind of method that must be followed. You can encourage users to leave their opinions about your content or specific topic. This could create a community around your business on social media which could thereby lead to more and more people being interested in your content and leaving their opinions. However you could also recieve some negative engagement from this, or spark debates which you cannot control.

1.7 & 1.8 Social media is one of the most popular forms of marketing in the world in the modern day and many things contribute to this. It is free and easy to use and widely popular in today's culture which make it the perfect tool for marketing for almost any business. Depending on the size of the business, social media may be implemented into a marketing plan in different ways, but it should always be included in some way apart from in very rare circumstances. Any business should and could benefit from free marketing, and it is up to members of that business to use this tool successfully. For a small business, social media can play a huge part in increasing interest and awareness in their service/product. A small business won't be able to afford advertising time on the television or radio, nor will they be able to pay for advertisment on a billboard in the local town or city. Therefor many small businesses use social media as their primary form of advertisment and create targets focused on their social networking pages. Cost isn't the only factor that weighs into how social media is incorporated into a marketing plan, time is also an important factor. Social networking sites allow businesses to show their work, and as long as the business is doing something, they can share it on the interenet. For example a small car dealer may advertise their new cars for sale, a before and after picture of a repair that they've carried out or perhaps information about a discount on MOTs and other services they may be able to offer. A self-employed hairdresser may post a picture of one of their customers after their appointment, including a compliment from the happy customer or an explination as to how much that particular service costs if it is surprisingly cheap. This is all done by taking a picture of the work you have completed and adding some text to the post and can be done in minutes. A larger business has much more leeway when it comes to creating a marketing plan, often being able to pay for advertising in other forms of media such as television or radio, targeting a larger audience. However even the largest businesses in the world recognise that having a presence on social media is one of the most important parts of any business's marketing strategy. Fore example, Coke Cola is likely one of the largest businesses/products in the world and their target audience is so huge due to the popularity of the product accross all ages, genders and ethnicities. They can likely afford to pay millions to have their product advertised on prime time television and target their primary audience, families watching television after a day at work or school. However even Coke Cola know that a large number of people may not even own a television or watch it during these times, and many of these people can be targeted in other ways, social media being a primary example. Due to their likely large budget they can create high quality adverts and post them on youtube, fund competitions for their followers on Facebook and Twitter and use all kinds of analytical tools to compare themselves to their competitors. When creating a marketing plan, a business needs to take into account many different factors, more than just cost, time and size. For example a business targeting primarily people aged 60+ may assume that their target audience may not use social media enough for them to benefit from creating a presence for them selves on the internet. However they may be surprised to find that around 55% of of pensioners in the UK are active on social media.

The above screenshot is from a study taken in 2011 (http://www.umpf.co.uk/blog/social-media/social-media-usage-in-the-uk-the-findings/) and the popularity of social media has only increased over the last 5 years. Social media could also be used in marketing by having your followers take part in online survey's. This is an easy way to collect marketig information and once again it can be carried out online, at a pace that the customer feels comfortable with.