Mimic Social Reflection
Overview
The past 14 weeks, I along with many other students in my Social Media Strategies class have been working through a simulation called the Mimic Social Reflection. This simulation puts the user in the shoes of a Social Media Strategist, who is tasked with raising the brand awareness of the “OG Line” for a bag manufacturing company called Buhi. The simulation is 12 rounds and provides many different scenarios aimed at imitating real world marketing situations.
Target Markets
At the beginning of the simulation, there is a page explaining the 7 different target markets Buhi has data on. Each of these personas are a collection of information with features such as personalized backgrounds, preferences, and market share. These 7 personas are:
- Back-to-School Mindy
- City-Hopper Sue
- Up-and-Comer Raj
- Energetic Jill
- Seaside Sally
- Daypacker Tom
- Hipster Mommy Kami
Social Media Platforms
Along with deciding which target markets to focus on, I also had to choose where the posts would go. More data was provided by Buhi, this time it was charts filled with information on the audiences using different platforms, and metrics on Buhi’s personal accounts.
Strategy
At the beginning of the simulation I planned to target the Back-to-School Mindy market. My reasoning was that Buhi’s already established channels complimented and lined up well with Mindy. This age group and market share of this persona also fell into a desirable range for Buhi’s sales. The posts during these early rounds were focused on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I created posts having the mindset of not focusing primarily on the idea of selling a product. Not every post had to be a direct advertisement for Buhi bags. Each of the three channels must have their own “type” of post as well. What may work on Facebook, might not translate well to TikTok.
Results
After the initial successes of the rounds 1-4, my posts started to gradually do worse during rounds 5-7, and a change was needed. I looked at the data and found marketing to “Mindy” was not sustainable in the long term. As a result, my new plan for the following rounds was to pivot to Daypacker Tom. This worked out well, and gave me new content opportunities. The influencer rounds also proved to be a major success. Choosing Chris Ronald for the three rounds gave Buhi an enormous amount of engagement and revenue.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I would say participating in this Mimic Social Reflection was very helpful. The life-like scenarios during the simulation taught me valuable lessons on what to do in many different situations. The biggest takeaway I had from this, was having a detailed plan goes a long way for a company to be successful. Cutting corners is not an option, and accurate research must be done to find a suitable audience. I will use the knowledge gained from this simulation in my future courses and occupations.
