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.
Showing posts with label engagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engagement. Show all posts
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Engagement & Perceived Value Through Social Media Marketing
When you think about how to engage an audience, you have to first focus on the message you want to get across. Toms shoes focuses on their message of helping children. Zappos focuses on their superior services and the value of people, both their own staff and their customers.
Apple focuses on selling superior products to their fans. Apple fans are not just repeat consumers but feel they are a part of something bigger. They feel a sense of belonging to the Apple family. The focus of Burberry is to provide high quality luxury products. Burberry fans feel a connection to the historic brand that other luxury brands cannot seem to replicate.
There is no formula in building an affinity through social media with your customers. It takes hard work, committment and real engagement. The message has to be clear and real. How is your brand, product, service perceived? What can you do to change the perception? Consumers are looking for increased value. You neeed to raise your brand's perceived value. For example, you may have a wonderful product but consumers are asking, what have you done for the environment, charities, non profit organizations,etc.
What do your customers value? Is it price, quality, availability, after sale service, etc? What is the most important parameters for your clients? For a dry cleaner it may be extending your hours to accommodate your clients. For a Doctor it may be returning phone calls personally. For a new brand of footwear it may be comfort and style.
Once you know what your customers value you can take steps to reach your audience through social media marketing. You may announce through Facebook your new extended hours or the fact that you personally return all calls. Once you have the perceived value down you need to express it.
Apple focuses on selling superior products to their fans. Apple fans are not just repeat consumers but feel they are a part of something bigger. They feel a sense of belonging to the Apple family. The focus of Burberry is to provide high quality luxury products. Burberry fans feel a connection to the historic brand that other luxury brands cannot seem to replicate.
There is no formula in building an affinity through social media with your customers. It takes hard work, committment and real engagement. The message has to be clear and real. How is your brand, product, service perceived? What can you do to change the perception? Consumers are looking for increased value. You neeed to raise your brand's perceived value. For example, you may have a wonderful product but consumers are asking, what have you done for the environment, charities, non profit organizations,etc.
What do your customers value? Is it price, quality, availability, after sale service, etc? What is the most important parameters for your clients? For a dry cleaner it may be extending your hours to accommodate your clients. For a Doctor it may be returning phone calls personally. For a new brand of footwear it may be comfort and style.
Once you know what your customers value you can take steps to reach your audience through social media marketing. You may announce through Facebook your new extended hours or the fact that you personally return all calls. Once you have the perceived value down you need to express it.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Social Media & Putting Yourself in Your Audiences' Shoes
There is a multitude of information out on social media these days about “thinking from the end user’s perspective.” We tend to forget that the audience is real people with real feelings and real needs.
The people that buy your product, complain about your product, fantasize about owning your product and the people that does not know your product. Who is this particular audience of your business or product or potential customer? What social media circles does he / she visit and hang out in ? Where are these conversations taking place? What problems or needs do these people have concerning your product? For instance are they searching for a particular shoe model to buy and cannot find it? Are the sizes not corresponding to their actual size? Have they had a problem with a product defect? Do they know the different ways they can wear that coat? Do they want to find out the latest trends in shoe heels? One could go on and on with needs but this is the idea. You have to put yourself in their situation considering as many demographic factors as you can gather. Where are these people? Who are they? Mothers? Aged 40-60? Male professionals in their 40’s from the West Coast in the United States? University students? Retirees? You need to do your demographic research and find out what your audience is doing in the social media sphere. You need to find out where their conversations are being held. Are they on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, using blogs or message boards and forums? Wherever they are, you need to start listening and listening more.
The other factor to consider is providing your audience with quality content, quality information. For instance if you have a shoe repair shop, why not offer tips on how to keep your shoes from falling apart. Tell your audience about products they can use to prevent wear and tear. Tell your audience about what to do if their shoes are too big, using particular insoles that will keep your foot from slipping etc. Here the trick is not to wait until a need is expressed but to provide your audience with useful free information before they actually request it. If you are putting yourself in your audience’s shoes, it will be easier to know what these needs are.
Trust and Service. Putting yourself in your audiences’ shoes also means gaining their trust and providing them with quality service. If someone has expressed a concern or a complaint about your product or service, quickly respond to that person thanking him or her for taking the time to express it and tell him or her you will see to rectify the problem. There are no tricks here. The focus is to be real and not on getting the fast sell. This is about wanting to truly create long term relationships with not only the influencers in the social media circles but your audience in general.
The other factor to consider is providing your audience with quality content, quality information. For instance if you have a shoe repair shop, why not offer tips on how to keep your shoes from falling apart. Tell your audience about products they can use to prevent wear and tear. Tell your audience about what to do if their shoes are too big, using particular insoles that will keep your foot from slipping etc. Here the trick is not to wait until a need is expressed but to provide your audience with useful free information before they actually request it. If you are putting yourself in your audience’s shoes, it will be easier to know what these needs are.
Trust and Service. Putting yourself in your audiences’ shoes also means gaining their trust and providing them with quality service. If someone has expressed a concern or a complaint about your product or service, quickly respond to that person thanking him or her for taking the time to express it and tell him or her you will see to rectify the problem. There are no tricks here. The focus is to be real and not on getting the fast sell. This is about wanting to truly create long term relationships with not only the influencers in the social media circles but your audience in general.
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