This week we ponder, “What is SWOT analysis and why is it important is social media research?” Naturally, we could only playfully title this blog after not swot-ing away the concept when doing our research. Throughout this week’s materials, we are reminded of various aspects of both social media research and the actions we should be taking when actively engaging in a social media campaign, but while reading, it struck me that SWOT Analysis may be one of the most critical components of planning a successful campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, then, if it’s so important, what is it even? Freberg provides a fairly academic definition as “a traditional part of the communication and marketing campaign process” (2022). She further explains that they “can be used to explore and identify solutions to problems, take advantage of new opportunities and ventures, decide which steps to take to help rejuvenate a community or brand online, or brainstorm new ways of engaging online through social media (2022). This post is not simply to repeat what a textbook could already tell us, though. After thoroughly reading what Freberg offers, SWOT Analysis is both a deep, intensive look at an organization’s campaign(s) and also a simple way to make assessments in planning. By breaking the assessment into basic categories, leaders and planners can make decisions faster, adjusting to changes with necessary speed and shifting when the need arises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the simplicity of the categories, each area requires the collection of significant research and the data to back the conclusions. In a SWOT Analysis, we have Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities<\/em>, and Threats<\/em>. I manage a property management firm in Whitewater that is roughly 70 years old and if I were to assess our strengths, what would immediately strike me is that we are the largest firm in the community. This is something students routinely assert without data to back it up. Despite their lack of data, it is easily provent true based on the percentage of property owned and property taxes paid when compared to the City of Whitewater property tax base. As the largest firm, we have the strength of a large number and wide variety of properties. That is the real strength. The size of the firm can also be a weakness as there can be the perception of a monopoly in the community. This can be harmful to our image and makes some people less likely to pursue us as an option, preferring a smaller organization. In that, the opportunity is to provide communication regarding what larger firms offer versus smaller ones, such as full-time licensed maintenance staff rather than having to wait for a third-party vendor to arrive. The threat, however, lies in smaller groups or even individual property owners advertising themselves with the messaging that draws contrast, such as the idea that you will receive a more personal experience with a smaller organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we know what it is, but why does it matter? I suppose in some ways we’ve answered the question through our first answer, but Freberg points to “strategic implications” as the “fifth component” of the SWOT Analysis and this is perhaps the concise answer to why it matters (2022). In using a SWOT Analysis, you are able to make assessments of what you’re doing well, what you’re doing poorly, what others are doing that might undermine your strategy, and what areas you could make progress in. This type of analysis allows you to formulate entirely new plans or pivot within your current one, ultimately helping you to reach a goal that you had in the beginning. Freberg believes you can take the information gathered and address it within one sentence (2022). In so doing, your organization should be able to advance well into the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I can acknowledge I’ve never actually used a SWOT Analysis in my work, but we are in the middle of trying to reassess our social media plans and reach some new, internal goals. After reading and understanding what it is, how to do it, and how to apply it, I am now planning to bring the idea to the owner of our company. I believe it will help us to sit down and do an analysis of this type. As enrollment has changed quite dramatically from its peak, we have had to pivot more toward non-student residents and figuring out how to market to a different audience will require substantial effort on our part. I am looking forward to using this technique in my own work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Freberg, K. (2022). Social media for strategic communication<\/em> (2nd ed.). SAGE Publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Image generated using Canva software. (2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week we ponder, “What is SWOT analysis and why is it important is social media research?” Naturally, we could only playfully title this blog after not swot-ing away the concept when doing our research. Throughout this week’s materials, we are reminded of various aspects of both social media research and the actions we should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18004,"featured_media":21,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/goettlsa01\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}