Recently, I completed the Mimic Social Simulation, created by Stukent. The scenario of the simulation is this: You have recently been hired as the social media manager by Buhi Bags, a luxury backpack company. Each week, you are given $5000 to spend on social media between content and promotion. Your goals are to build brand awareness, increase engagement, increase sales, and lastly to outperform your peers. That’s the fun of this simulation, you are competing against your entire class, who have the same scenario, and are using the same algorithm.
Although I didn’t finish near the top of the class in profit, I was very happy with my New Follower count, which in a real life setting could translate to sales in the future. My total ROI was $63k over 12 weeks, which I’m certain would be good enough to keep my position at the company if this were real life. There’s a lot of things I would change if I were to complete the simulation again, and a lot of things I would keep the same, so here are some tips and tricks if this is your first time:
#1 Read
Every week you are given a task, and most weeks there is additional reading you can do. Even though reading may take up more of your time, it could change your results significantly.
#2 Try stuff, strategically
The best way to know if something will work is sometimes to do it, especially in a situation like this where there’s nothing more than a grade and potential bragging rights on the line. Try new kinds of posts and take note of what succeeds and what bombs.
#3 Use the personas
Stukent has several preset “personas” or ideal customers already created and researched. Look under the scenario tab at Market and you will see 7 distinct personas, all of whom you can target to. Pay attention to what size of the market share each persona is before trying to market towards them.
#4 Re-purpose material
Real companies do it all the time and you can too. Already used an image on Twitter but want to use it again? That’s fine, crop it and use it on Instagram with a different message, there’s very few people who follow you on both platforms, and those who do are such devoted fans they won’t mind.
#5 Drive Sales
I focused a little too much on social media metrics like engagements and followers, don’t be like me. To climb to the top of the class rankings, focus on what is driving revenue and secure that bag.