Boosting Your Business Through the Social Media

How was the world functioning,communication thriving and people interacting with each other before Facebook and the Social Media influx, i think things were pretty much progressing the way they should, companies and clients were communicating in the usual manner and businesses were attracting customers using the normal sales/brand promotion cycles.

What social media really did for us was to create a more efficient manner of communicating brand offerings and content sharing with people not only close to us but also people out of our physical reach, it really didn’t create a new “field” or “branch” in marketing 101 it actually complemented the already existing marketing techniques used for product and brand.

So by using social media and by understanding how  people use social media you can actually derive the most core marketing objectives out of it.

• Marketing aims to create awareness, it focuses at reaching as many people and relevant audiences as possible, how social media helps here; although you may be sending out the message to a handful of people, those handful further have their own friends, their friends have yet another set of friends,so on an so forth, social media helps in dissemination of the message to a broader scope an reach of focused audiences. All content sharing may not convert into promised purchases but if you are sharing content and your friends are further sharing it,it may end up being seen by more people at the days end, interesting,unique,appealing content has a virality and awareness level of its own.
• Sales, the biggest objective behind every marketer,when using the social media to do this create exclusive offers which might catch the eye of influence makers and in-turn allow them to generate it further among their friends, so instead of going to the masses,when it comes to using social media with the objective of generating sales try being as exclusive as possible.
• a very effective way of using social media is for creating loyalty of your brand among your followers,potential market, you need to use social media to promote your page and presence among your customers whenever you have access to it, create engaging content, visual and textual, create apps and mini competitions which would keep all audiences captivated and maintain interest in what the brand is offering.Get customers to engage with your content, it is very important, it helps in creating a deeper relationship with your customer an generate loyalty with them.

 

Marketing strategies relate very much to social media marketing strategies but you should not try to implement on the online front as they are, cater to offerings exclusively, one size DOES NOT fit all here. Brands in the New Age should be regular social media users, and should be helpful to customers in driving content based conversations by providing them the solutions which they are looking for.

How is Facebook Changing.

A while ago Facebook went through a whole new change aesthetically when it introduced its timeline design and a huge space on top of the profile to make ‘cover photos’.

When Facebook had mentioned before that it was going to create greater adaptability for brands on their pages, they really meant it. After changing the way it looks Facebook gave all brands notifications to change their pages according to the new design by  March 31st, a move which brands should consider making at the earliest, why? because the new design provides much more exposure and visual appeal to everything than the previous design did, and brands could really put their Social Media promotion in the next gear if they took care of their old designs asap.

So how has Facebook changed? lets see.

• Prominent Design; the new design change in Facebook allows for a bigger area for displaying images, easier for brands to highlight their product. the timeline provides a good means to look at how the brand story or a particular discussion is progressing over time.
• Personal Messaging; the private messaging option with the new design has allowed brands to communicate with the audience or the page fans on a more personal level, you can make your conversations more personalized now.
• Landing Page; The new design dictates that there will be one single landing page for all the fans, you will no longer be able to create a custom tab as put if up as a landing page for your Facebook Brand page.
• Promo Tabs; in the previous design page owners were allowed to create promo/custom tabs whenever and however they pleased and they would be visible on the left side of the page, the new Facebook design dictates only Four promo tabs to be “featured” or view-able on the main page, out of those 4 tabs the Photos tab is permanently attached and cannot be moved or removed from the page, the rest of the 3 tabs are movable and customize-able, so choose wisely.
• Content Featuring; The new Facebook design allows you to “pin” content which you want to feature on the top of the timeline, there is a yellow “marker” available to page owners so you can take promotions,call to actions, images and blog posts to the top of the page to be exposed more to visitors.

Although the changes which Facebook has brought to itself seem to be beneficial to brands especially in terms of promoting themselves and specific content which they would want their visitors to read, there could however be certain downfalls to it too, what do you think?

Are you Social Media Marketing..or Stalking Audiences?

Whenever we see a new commercial on television, or listen to a product ad on the radio for the first time and like it, we usually want to watch it again soon to enjoy it once more, this happens a couple of times until we grow used to it and then want to distance ourselves from it because we have seen it or heard it way too many times, however if that particular ad still keeps up with increasing appearances on our television, pretty soon it becomes really annoying and at times irritating to your senses, so much so that you just cant stand it and you change any and every channel it is being aired from.

My point here is that the Social Media follows a similar if not the same cycle as orthodox marketing does.

YES social media is all about interaction and connecting with people BUT, in a SANE MANNER. Brand communications need to revolve around creating a positive impression in the mind of all potential and current customers/audiences and not to drive them insane with unnecessary tagging, self promotion and projecting a “Saint” image every 2 minutes. The line between promotion of your brand and cyber stalking your potential market is very very thin and should be understood before your brand/you end up getting on the last nerves of people and face social media boycott for your brand.

With the growing trends in Social Media businesses or “Digiprenuers” as i like to call them especially in growing countries like Pakistan it is imperative for these Digiprenuers to understand how to cater to their online audience, Yes they only have one way of communicating with all potential customers, BUT that does not mean they should be force feeding every bit of their brand to any and every user that stumbles across the Social Network. You need to understand the difference between promotion and stalking, feeding and smothering.

According to Insight Strategy Group in a research which they conducted on how people react to Brands on the Social Media, 58% thought it to be “invasive” when brands use social networking to promote because the Social Network is for people coming in to socialize and not to hear brand pitches, and self promotion of products which 80% of the time turn out to be mediocre. Then there is the problem which they highlighted is face by all new Digiprenuers, if not at,most of them (the anxious ones especially) , They are all trigger happy status/update bombardiers… a big no no like NO. Always remember that if a potential customer finds something of value or something that he likes on your Brands Social Media page he will find you himself, he will become a regular part of the feed HIMSELF, if he doesnt then you try to improve your content and your offering and NOT bombard him with Self promotional updates.

Jeremy Gutsche the best known Trend Hunter in the world mentions that no matter how average your product is YOUR STORY in promoting it should be awesome… but that by no way means that you unload a truck load of updates and picture tags on your online customers every 1 min. Promote NOT bombard and so NOT Stalk.

in summary:

• Maintain a steady stream of updates ( once or Twice a day) or if its something important to promote 4-5 times a day extended over planned regular intervals. NOT after every 1 minute,and not A MILLION UPDATES in 1 min.
• Do not DO NOT SELF PROMOTE yourself. Promotion of the Brand is Necessary but a brand SELF PROMOTING ITSELF obsessively is not cool. if it is that good people will notice it LET THEM be the JUDGE.
• Maintain a distinction between what you update/status through your brand and what you update as an individual, remember THE BRAND cannot have a be-grudging tone on its page, your brand will face criticism,hate comments,and biased remarks, DO NOT take them personally and start fighting with customers on the page, turn it into a positive and resolve it, DONT THREATEN them with claims and brute arrogance.
• I cannot stress on it enough DO NOT BLOW YOUR OWN HORN continuously, people WILL get irritated and they will start hating the brand and you and they will start posting trash around.

This is for all the new Digiprenuers on the Social Media. Sell your cupcakes, take your t-shirts, promote your photographs, but do not tick off the customer you are promoting to,  do not make them hit that invisible “hate” button instead of the “Like” one.

 

Using Social Media for Instant Feedback

In this day and age the only other thing that moves as fast as the speed of light is social media. It has proven to be a superb tool for communicating and connecting with customers/fans,provide Real-time responses to them and maintain a very active relationship with them, another use which marketers should now consider for social media is, collecting feedback.

• Pre-product launch feedback: its has been witnessed time and time again that whenever a product brings in news features or extensions to its existing line consumers show hesitation towards taking up the change, they react by leaving comments on how they don’t want the brand to be doing this and how their life would be made harder than it already is if this change was to take effect,but slowly steadily they do come around to adapting it. What marketers need to look at at this point is that many a times these comments,complaints or discussions bring out elements and points regarding the product which might have been over looked by the brand team or the marketers on a whole. COLLECT this feedback,compile it and store if for further improvements.
• Create Focus Groups:  this is an excellent way of gathering information regarding your product or any plans you have for it. Start Polls, Discussion forums on Facebook or Google+, Tweetboards,Twitter Chats because for gathering good feedback you need to delve deeper into customer interactions, holding discussion forums actually helps in targeting the audience you are trying to capture hence ensuring you receive very focused comments and suggestions. Conducting engaging surveys and polls is always a good idea for generating feedback.
•  Industry Expertise in Useful: One of the basic roles of social media is to expand and strengthen your network, and at the same time it has made it easier for your brand to get in touch with opinion leaders and influencers who drive buying behaviors,get in touch with them hear what they have to say, record and apply those things.
• Use Blogs: try writing once in a while, if you face writers block, visit your social network and ask people around on what challenges they feel when writing or ask them anything,this will help in developing ideas in your head once that is done simply share those ideas in the form of a blog. You can also use a professional approach and start a company blog,share posts on it all around the Social sphere, it will help in generating comments and feedback.
• Develop an Identity: Develop an identity for your brand, a persona of sorts something people can relate with and then use that persona on your Social Network while communicating with your audience, its been seen people respond to personas and similar identities more easily and in a more comfortable manner. Good for extracting suggestions.
• Keep a lookout for your Brand: its not necessary that audience might only be talking about your brand on your Brand fan page,they might be mentioning the brand, or commenting on the brand in other social spheres as well, its your job to keep a look out on related pages, competitors or complementary brand pages to see if your brand is being mentioned somewhere, and more importantly which tone is it being mentioned in.

So if you think there are other ways of gathering genuine and important feedback through the social media let me know 🙂

 

Your very own Social Media Ambassadors…A guide

The main focus of any brand from day 1 has been to be in the mind of the consumer “Its” consumer as long as it can be,in the outside world this is made possible by offering promotions,putting up billboards, getting brand mascots and what not, however,in today’s marketing environment with the inception of social media and online mediums becoming a normal part of all marketing campaigns, companies and marketers should also start paying attention towards how to maintain those online customers and brand “loyals” they have.

As long as brands want to increase their online and social media presence,fellowship and engagement more effectively, they will have to create relevant,genuine and interesting custom based and community-oriented content for their consumers. Another solution is by giving these consumers a chance to be the brand representatives.

Social Media Ambassador campaigns can be very effective,especially if they are run with people who are super active with Facebook,Twitter or LinkedIn and/or they are super bloggers. how a brand benefits from it is ;

• if the representative is super active he would definitely have a vast following on the social media making him an “influencer” so they can spread the “brand word” within the relevant communities.
• if the Brand is successful due to the ambassador, the ambassador is likely to be bestowed with not only a long lasting relationship with the brand,but also a key spotlight by the brand on the ambassador.
• the consumer/target audience wins, when they are provided interesting and exciting content and things to look at/read/experience from the person/people (ambassador) who they listen and like.

so quickly and briefly lets see how we can do this;

how to set up a Social Media ambassador program :

 

• Identifying “talent”: the first step towards starting a social ambassador program is through researching and selecting a whole pool of probable talented candidates who can represent your brand on the Social Media front. Many a times companies tend to take this “recruitment” process on their own so that they could maintain total control. however some brands also leave this process to be open sourced, this way everyone/anyone is allowed to be a part of the process and the brand promotion already starts well before the actual program itself through word of mouth.

• Selecting the “talent”: ok so after you/your brand has identified or shortlisted potential ambassadors,now comes the time when you need to select people out of the shortlisted list. for this you need to look at a few things;
• How good is the social REACH of the person, how far stretched are his existing followers or contacts.
• What is the persons PERSPECTIVE regarding the brand?
• Is he an INFLUENCER within his circle, how much do his network contacts listen to him.
• Would the person be a good MEDIA FIT for your future promotions, for e.g if you wanted a video testimonial from the ambassador to put up on Youtube or FB.

•  Managing the Ambassadors:  once the brand/you are done with the    above processes, you need to put in processes and regulations to monitor and manage the access and activities of the ambassadors, sometimes professional talent comes with managers, but if you are hiring crowd sourced ambassadors then they need to be properly trained in the “ways” of the brand so that they can understand what exactly they need to do for you.
• What to hold back: you need to set filters on how the ambassadors are to communicate with the audience, giving them a free reign over everything can make you and your brand lose control over the communication being disseminated, hence always remember what to say out loud and what to hold back.
• Maintaining Longevity:  with the Social Media brand ambassador campaign almost done and complete, you just have to maintain a long relation with the ambassador or this will not end up well for you,as a followup to the campaign you can do things like,putting up videos by the ambassadors, shooting their testimonials,getting their comments on the product/brand and creating themed competitions around it. etc, this way the ambassadors maintain that good impression about your brand and this way you would be able to keep your “brand call” on for a longer period. 🙂 Cheers