Social media is HOT right now. Everybody is talking about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Digg (among others). Lately I have seen dozens of blogs and articles about how to effectively use social media to give your brand and company visibility. As a marketer like you, here are a few thoughts to ponder as you consider yours social media initiative:
- It’s not free. The tools are free, sure. But no social media strategy will succeed without time, resources and expertise. Invest in it and it will pay off.
- Being there is not enough. Put up a corporate-speak Facebook page and see who comes. Not so many, right? But a Facebook page that has a cause or purpose is interesting because it's meaningful and engaging. Make it (and keep it) “sticky.” At the same time, if you don’t tell anyone about your page, it starts (and stays) all but invisible.
- Be authentic. This is a universal marketing truth, but worth mentioning because too many email and social programs simply lack it. Clients and prospective customers know when they are being sold. Focus on relevance, honesty, believability, and integrity; these are the only things that create value and drive predictable response.
- Integrate, don't imitate. Replicating your website on Facebook does make for a compelling and engaging destination. Posting the same offers and “spins” on Twitter will quickly tire followers. Selling product may not be the best objective of your social strategy. Perhaps your blog should be more about education and driving inquiries. Your MySpace brand community may be about reach for video ads. Twitter can be a great customer service outreach tool. (Examples abound. Google it for hundreds of success stories.)
- Endorsements matter. Social media pulls the marketer off the brand pedestal and drags her into the throes of the messy, wild, unpredictable community. In this equation, social media empowers brand advocates. Beyond a product conversion or sale, the best endorsement you can get in email is to be forwarded. Forget the technology. Content is only forwarded because it speaks to the subscriber and they aspire to “own the message”. Positive commentary on your blog posts fulfill the same, as does a Digg vote. Create content that gets you there.
- Measure twice, cut once. All investments in social media should be linked to a business goal. Look at your marketing plan holistically, considering all your channels, and how they interrelate and interact to enhance your message. And then track and measure it. And then be willing to REVISE it often to “dial it in.”
- Have something to say. This is perhaps most important. Don't start talking until you have something valuable to say. Make the commitment and stick to it. Fund it. Be ready to maintain it.
- Realize that it is (should be) a conversation. Conversation takes two people who do both listening and talking. This is the essential truth of our social Web 2.0 world: Marketers don't own the conversation. Give your subscribers and community members what they want -- engaging, interesting, relevant content and offers that are worth reading and talking about -- and they will give you what you want: sales and loyalty.
“If you can connect to people in such a way that they will miss you if you’re gone and in a way that they will feel missed if they are gone, then you have created a tribe, and tribes are always more powerful than the alternative, which is yelling at the masses (about your brand)” --- Seth Godin, author, marketing maven