Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and the Social Media Director for Smashyn.com.
Many companies, startups and well established businesses are frustrated because their social media presence isn’t larger or yet benefiting their bottom line. One of the big issues is that most companies start using social media thinking it’s the holy grail. It takes time, effort, and resources before this new media will have an impact on you brand.
Here are a few tips businesses should consider.
1. Are You Using the Right Platform?
There are many social media platforms to consider when designing an online campaign. Twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube are some of the biggest and most important. While all the social sites should be examined, blindly signing up for accounts can be a mistake. To start, educate yourself on each platform and how they can enhance your brand.
When launching a Facebook presence, consider the various platforms within this medium; Pages, Groups and now Communities. Each have different purposes, tools and limitations. Do some research before making the commitment.
Twitter is a quick and easy way for brands to share updates and ideas with their consumers, and it’s also a good place to watch trends and listen to what your demographic is excited about. Because Twitter is always growing and evolving, it’s important to keep apprised of the latest changes.
Blogging can be a powerful tool for any brand. Unlike static websites, daily blog posts improve search engine optimization and provide a constant source of up-to-date information for consumers. Whether you use Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr, your customers will enjoy reading about your company so long as you make it interesting and current.
Video might seem intimidating, but it’s an extraordinarily powerful social medium. YouTube is one of the largest sources of search traffic, but most companies fail to include it in their social media plan. Video sites essentially operate as a brand’s personal channel and can be viewed by millions.
World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver knows the importance of utilizing video platforms. “YouTube is a great way to get Jamie’s videos out to a wider audience – in some months we have twice as many video views on YouTube as on Jamie’s site,” said Monisha Saldanha, head of online, Jamie Oliver Ltd.
Each social platform has its own “job,” and they can all be used simultaneously to boost success. “Jamie has pages on Facebook, Bebo (), MySpace (), Twitter, and YouTube — people tend to use their own favorite social networking sites, so it’s a good idea to be on all the major ones,” said Saldanha.
2. Provide Messages Your Audience Wants
Consider your brand’s demographic, who they are, and what information they want to receive. In traditional marketing there is a tendency to manipulate the consumer directly, while in social media it’s the audience who truly dictates the message. Successful social media marketing begins and ends with respect to your audience. Understanding what your audience wants to hear is key.
“I try to think of our feed from the point of view of what a fan and a viewer of the network would want, instead of what we want to tell them. If I were a viewer I’d want behind-the-scenes info, I’d want to talk to a real person, and I’d want to have some fun, ” said Craig Engler, the general manager and senior vice president SyFy Digital.
Discounts and giveaways can be useful but shouldn’t be all you do. Consider providing interesting facts on topics that coincide with your brand.
“I explain how the TV business works so viewers understand why things happen, why do we put that show Fridays at 10 p.m. or why didn’t we pick up that canceled show from another network,” said Engler.
3. Listen To Your Audience
Listening to consumers is as important as sharing messages with them. Dunkin’ Donuts makes this a priority on their Facebook Page:
“Because we have over 1.4 million fans on Facebook, we keep several sets of eyes on our Page throughout the day. We make sure our fans are clear on common confusions by selecting important questions posted to our Facebook Page to answer. We can’t respond to everything, but by hand picking those that are representative of common questions we show we’re there, listening and engaging with our fans,” said Ben Smith, their interactive marketing manager.
Consider that there are different ways for brands to monitor what people are saying in each platform.
For Twitter, try TweetDeck which allows multiple columns to be viewed simultaneously. Creating a search column for your brand is easy. Simply create a column for @mentions. This will make it easier to keep track of chatter revolving around your brand.
Facebook platforms can be monitored by watching the wall to see what people are posting, and e-mail notifications can be customized for important alerts when new messages are posted.
YouTube and blogs should also be watched closely for comments and questions. Like Facebook, there are settings that, when enabled, will create e-mail alerts when there is a new comment or connection.
4. Give Your Supporters a Voice
Consumers help define your brand and they want to feel valued. Make sure to ask questions and listen to opinions. When appropriate, implement and share your community’s ideas. This can result in not only great content but even stronger brand loyalty. Popular brands do this regularly and with much success.Jamie Oliver’s online guru Saldanha said, “Jamie is really passionate about his work and thrives off energy and interaction. It’s very important for him to get first hand feedback from people. The recent Food Revolution in the U.S. is a perfect example where the community page on Facebook became a great place for people to share their own experiences with food and cooking.”
5. Be Fun
It doesn’t matter what business you’re in — people want to be entertained. Find fun and fresh ways to keep your audience engaged. Dunkin’ Donuts does this well through Facebook by creating fun and sharable content. For example, Maurice is a cartoon espresso bean who lives on the brand’s Facebook Page.
“Maurice was created to raise awareness about our espresso and latte category. It was done in a way that is fun and light hearted but that drives the emotional connection. Instead of straight product talk, make it fun,” Smith said.
And If you take a quick look around the social sites, you will see fun marketing is happening everywhere. On any given day you can see Syfy using Twitter in a fun and brand appropriate way. Engler said that sharing behind-the-scenes pictures of their shows or when an actor visits the office is always popular.
Brands put a lot of time and consideration into their offline media campaigns and this should also be done with online media. It’s important to have the right people with authority and creativity running these platforms to assure the voice of your brand isn’t off mark. Following the lead of brands who use social media effectively is a good start to informing yourself. If you’re using social media platforms effectively it won’t be long before you start seeing results.
“The payoff is that we have tens of thousands of viewers talking directly to us in an unfiltered way, which makes it a genuine conversation but on a tremendous scale. The byproduct of the conversation is that people will go out there and be ambassadors for our shows and our network, which is fantastic, but it’s never been the end goal. The goal for me is always the conversation itself, a real back and forth with viewers that was just never possible before,” said Engler.
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