Social media is none of your brand’s business—if you want to use it only to sell products. You have no business using social media to sell, push a message or convert prospective customers through traditional hard-sell marketing tactics.
Social media has given the masses an instant communication vehicle. Consumers visit social media to tell a story, read a story, share an experience or talk about extraordinary products. It’s a selfish move. Consumers like to be in touch all the time with like-minded consumers. (Why do you think Twitter has “lists?”) Consumers like to be entertained. They like the emotion social media creates. It’s drama, it’s amusement and used improperly, it’s dangerous.
Your consumers don’t automatically want to be social with your product. They don’t want to socialize with your analytics tool, or your security solution. They want to share their pains, worries or successes.
Your job is to engage with your customers as if you were at a cocktail party. You don’t want to talk just about yourself. You want to talk to your customers about their pains, worries and successes and create connection with them through addressing their concerns. Social media is an extension of your brand, so the voice you use should always reflect your tone and messaging. But for goodness’ sake (reference above) when you react to a customer complaint, DON’T SELL!
No matter how much money you put towards SEO or paid advertising to drive traffic to your social media sites, consumers will find a way to ignore it if it doesn’t relate to their needs and pains. Provide excellent customer service, experiences and product and the windfall will follow.
People will talk, and when they do, RESPOND—quickly and positively.
Social media tells stories. If you’re not part of the story, you’re not part of the game. Period.
The success of your social media strategy has to do with the EXPERIENCE your customers are having with your brand and the stories they are telling. Use the feedback, analyze it, make your adjustments and wait for more feedback.
The future of social media is just being the best brand you can be, creating content that your customers connect with, and letting your consumers do the talking. Personally, as a social media user, I geek out when a company quickly and positively responds to my tweets (which usually share a story or an experience).
Here are two of the many examples I have from my social media encounters with big-name brands. Both ended with a positive experience. You’ll notice that my experience at Lowes was less than favorable, but after tweeting and getting a response, I also got a call from the store’s general manager the very next day, apologizing and asking if there was anything he could do. THAT’S the power of social media.
Contributed by Wendy Sanacore, Agency Ingram Micro.
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