Social Media Marketing: Protecting Your Image, Your Brand

It is difficult not to notice the posts or comments on the many digital platforms that are out there nowadays from those trying to push or preserve their brand identity. Whether it is through Facebook, Twitter, forums or text messages, users of social media do not realize the effects that their words can have on their audience.

While a short and personable comment by a well known and charming designer can have a very positive ROC (Return on Conversation), comments by others may not. Instead comments can backfire. Let's face it, we are not all as charming as Christopher Bailey of Burberry or as interesting as Gianna Frida of Gucci.

So how then can we build our brand or our image through social media? Here, it all depends on what you truly believe makes your brand, product or service better.  What is it about your product or service that you believe is superior to the competition? Maybe it is the after sale service you provide or maybe it is the attention to every detail and showing the client that he / she is important. Perhaps the quality is based on your gentle approach and not your aggressive behavior to get the sale. Maybe your company and staff are avid supporters of a charity that you feel strongly about.

Not many people realize that in social media marketing, "how you are read" is even more important than "what is read."  Poor grammar, aggressive remarks will not do anything to help build your brand. There is nothing worse than reading something that obviously was neither edited nor proofread before publishing. Conversations between you and others regarding appointments, etc are boring and do not help in building your brand. Unless you are a famous designer setting up an appointment for a catwalk, stay away from publicly posting these types of comments.

If you have nothing interesting to say, than don't post anything. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and what would be interesting for them to read. Is there an item on sale today? Is there a new, cool product you are working on? Did you read an article on something that could spark a discussion about a complimentary product or service? Can your audience benefit from your comment or post?

Social media marketing, if used properly, can offer enormous benefits for your brand that will ultimately lead to sales. Good luck.

SIMPLE TIPS ON WRITING INTERESTING & VALUABLE ONLINE CONTENT

The thought of writing valuable content sometimes can be so overwhelming that many of us decide we just cannot do it on a regular basis. Here are a few tips to making it easier:

1. Do use information that you already are an expert in.  You don't have to spend hours and hours researching before writing valuable content. You know your product or business more than anyone else and already possess the information people are looking for.

2. Don't assume the information you are  giving is common sense and everyone knows it already! It may be common sense for you but not for the majority of your audience. Do write about the basics.

3. Chances are that what is interesting for you is interesting or of value to others.

4. You may be an expert in your field but your audience is not so remember to use easy to understand terms.

5. Be generous about offering information. Don't hold back.

6. Keep content short and to the point. If you can get the message across using less words, do so.

7. Keep in mind where your content is being published online and who your audience is accordingly : a wall post on Facebook, a blog post, a tweet, etc.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy: Small & Large Acts of Kindness by Luxury Companies

Consumers are looking at what companies are doing with regard to social responsiblity. They are looking beyond donations and want to know how the companies are getting involved with the environment and society around them. This is especially prevalent with luxury consumers. A luxury brand's corporate social responsiblity makes a huge impact on the consumers choice to purchase its goods. What luxury brands are doing what in terms of CSR?

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton has a program with SOS Children's Villages called Parnership for Children's Futures. The partnership helps children who are orphaned, abandoned or whose families are unable to care for them. Worldwide, SOS Children's Villages cares for over 78,000 children and young people in 500 children's villages.

Bulgari works with Save The Children organization and has been raising millions to help children worldwide.  Gucci partners with the United Nations Childrens Fund and has environmentally friendly packaging.  Burberry has its own Burberry Foundation, which helps young people realize their creative dreams. Burberry also partners with 17 charity groups in Asia, America and in Europe.  Giorgio Armani has supported the following charities: American Foundation for AIDS, Global Fun, UNICEF, and RED to name a few.

Now more than ever consumers are scrutinizing what their favorite luxury brands are doing for others. There is and there will be an increasing social pressure to become more charitable, generous and attentive to society and the environment. The pressure is on and rightly so.

Discussing Corporate Responsibility: Burberry President Angela Ahrendts and Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey at Annual Vendor Conference, London.

CAN YOU CARRY OUT YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ACTIVITIES?

Whether you have a small business or a large company, the question most asked nowadays is if you or your staff can carry out your own social media marketing activities or do you need to hire a consultant.

The answer is largely dependent on what you want to get out of social media marketing and what you can put into it, in terms of time and money.

As anything else, the more time and attention you devote to something, the greater the chances of it growing and developing. You know your product or service more than anyone else but can you devote a lot of time to digital marketing activities?  How much time? I would say you should be able to devote at least 1-2 quality hours daily. This means time devoted to research (staying informed of what is new in your sector, product but also in terms of viral marketing), writing valuable content, contributing to forums or groups and associations and answering questions. It is not easy nor is it fast. It requires hard work and consistency. It requires putting together a strategy with goals, implementing your strategy, measuring what you are doing  and then tweaking and retweaking until you are getting the results you want.
Without a doubt, if you do decide to hire a consultant or agency, you will still have a major role especially because you know your product more than anyone else. You will be working with your consultant and giving him/her the input he/she needs to carry through.  Make sure that the consultant is not just offering you a list of things to be done.  Every product and service is different and the consultant has to understand this. Most importantly, ensure  that the consultant is doing the research to know who your audience is and where your audience is. Good luck.

Understanding Your Online Audience

Your audience online is changing? Are you? Do you really know who your target market is and more importantly, do you know what it wants? Often times we spend and waste time "talking" to an audience that is not our potential consumer. Have you thought about how many of your Facebook fans or followers would actually be interested in your product or service? For example if your content or wall posts on Facebook is geared toward sales in sporting equipment and most of your Facebook followers or friends are elderly people who rarely get out to ski, you are definitely not going to get the results you are looking for. Another example is you own an expensive wellness spa but your followers are all college students that have little to no disposable income. Perhaps you are the CEO of a trendy swim trunk company and your followers are friends that purchase maybe one pair of swim trunks every year. You need to do some reaching out to find an audience that really "fits" your product. You need to find out who your evangelists are and you need to cater to them.

What forums do you actively participate in? Are you offering interesting and valuable information in these forums or are you just trying to make a fast sell? The same holds true for online associations, groups and clubs. You need to find the people that are truly interested in the same product or service you provide.

Understanding your audience takes a lot of research and does not happen overnight. The payoff however is great. The engagement between you and your audience will be a natural consequence and that engagement will lead to future sales.

TIPS ON USING FACEBOOK

DON'T use Facebook for a fastsell. People don't want to be marketed to and it is a quick turn off. If you have a repair shop or store don't post "Get our gift certificates now." This type of marketing via social media is not effective.

DO offer valuable information for your audience and then mention your product or service. It is much more effective. In other words if you have a shoe repair shop or dry cleaning business, tell your audience how to get rid of stains on your shoes or clothes. Then you can tell them about your gift certificates.

DON'T just copy what your competitor is doing. What works for them may not necessarily work for you. Just because Burberry's Christopher Bailey is "talking" to his fans about the brand on its Facebook page and has fantastic results in engagement does not mean Gucci's Frida Giannini will have the same type of success. There are a lot of different factors in play and duplicating exactly the same thing that the competitor is doing, especially for a luxury brand, is like copying another brand's designs. Not good.

DO research what the competition is doing via social media and then find creative ways to make your strategy even better.

DO engage the audience offering interesting information. No one wants to read that you are attending a staff meeting to discuss delivery schedules. Boring.

DON'T  be wordy.  People don't have time to read lengthy posts.

DO provide accurate information and use proper grammar.

DO find an audience that can actually utilize your information.

Managing Luxury Brand Online Content

Managing your  online brand  content can be as common sense as proofreading the grammar and punctuation on all your material to setting and managing the overall tone of the brand throughout all digital platforms.It is surprising how much material gets published without anyone reviewing and editing the content. It is even more surprising how many errors get published even though content was reviewed and edited!

Luxury brands in particular have to be extremely careful and prudent in not only what is written about their products but how it is written. Building and managing the overall tone of a luxury brand is extremely difficult. Typically content is reviewed many times before being published. The tone of the company has to match its message. The personality of the content writer should not come out in his / her writing but rather the personality of the company and brand should be a natural consequence. Luxury brands usually have a subdued tone. Typically, one would not find sarcasism, humor or aggression in luxury brand content. Also as for any content, grammar and punctuation should be precise and there should not be any errors in information given.

Now more than ever branded content is created with mobile devices in mind. What does this mean? It signifies that content should be to the point, not wordy, interesting and valuable. The average person has literally seconds to read and digest the material and decide if it is valuable enough to pass on to others or to utilize. Consumers don't want to be advertised to or pushed to purchase. Rather consumers and fans of brands do enjoy feeling a part of the "brand" family. Burberry for example invited fans on Facebook to ask questions directly to its Chief Creative Director, Christopher Bailey. Mr. Bailey then answered questions live via Facebook, addressing fans by their names. It was a huge success. Gucci, just recently did the exact same thing with its Creative Director, Ms.Frida Giannini.

Everyone and anyone who represents the company and who publishes content has to be onboard and strictly supporting the corporate tone and message. The social media strategy is no longer "owned" by the marketing department and therefore anyone in the company can adversely affect the luxury brand's social media strategy. Not only should there be training sessions to aid employees on how to use new social media tools, but those who represent the company online should publish content that is consistent with the overall corporate tone and message.