Thursday, May 15, 2014

Who Does Your Brand Talk to in Social Media?

Recently, I was guilty of what many of us are doing more and more these days: I was watching television with my smartphone close at hand. Was I watching a specific TV show or was I reading what people were saying about the show on Twitter? The answer is probably not too surprising, and as a result, advertisers that used to spend their dollars solely on TV are now including Twitter in their ad campaigns.

My recent experience started as simply visiting a Twitter account due to a search for a TV ad. But as I read some of the recent tweets, I read a question and replied.


I responded to the question and then focused my attention elsewhere. But lo and behold, there was someone managing the brand’s Twitter account in real time. A tweet appeared with a personal message to me. I smiled and responded…and another tweet appeared.

But it was the theme of the message that stuck with me, and continues to resonate. I was not a customer, but the team behind this brand and this Twitter account believed that a conversation with me was important and worth their time.
 

In today’s era of instant communication, business decisions can be made in a split second and sometimes not even for valid reasons. This is why it’s even more critical to interact with prospective customers at every possible opportunity, venue, and forum.

In the words of Shep Hyken, customer service expert and New York Times best-selling author (@Hyken on Twitter), “Many companies use social media as a way to respond to publicly-voiced customer complaints. But the best companies also use social media as a way to deliver value and engage in conversations. It’s about being a part of – and contributing to – a community.”

So, who does your business talk to in social media? Which networks do you use most often? Do you spend the same amount of time and effort to create positive brand experiences for people who don’t yet pay for your products or services? Do you train your customer service and sales teams how to interact with prospects when sales may not close? Do you have surveys to monitor why customers don’t renew or become repeat customers, and what do you do with the data obtained by those surveys?

In addition, in today's social era (also known as the era of instant communication), social networks (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc) offer a real-time alternative to surveys because they are able to capture the pulse of your intended audience and peripheral or unintended audiences.

How you move forward with this data is up to your company, but if you fall on the mid-size spectrum, you can definitely modify your future product or service announcements, event news, and company direction if you listen to, and engage with, customers and prospects in the social space.

Use all of these questions to learn how to re-energize your business. And in the process, don’t forget to treat prospective customers as if they were VIP customers – because one day, they might be, and you want them to know why they should be enthusiastic advocates for your brand!

Where do you think I will go the next time I’m shopping for insurance?

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To read more about how the marketing function is evolving, read “Marketing Can No Longer Rely on the Funnel” by Mark Bonchek and Cara France via Harvard Business Review:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/marketing-can-no-longer-rely-on-the-funnel/

Image Credits: Courtesy of Twitter 




This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

1 comment:

  1. Nowadays social media is used for branding purpose because all peoples are connected through social media sites. Build brand strategy as per your business and get effective results.

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