What does the term ‘social media’ mean to you? Is it the latest funny video on YouTube everyone was sharing via e-mail? Is it your status updates and photo uploads on Facebook or Hi5? You might be recalling the tones of music you listen to on MySpace, or all the handy information found on Wikipedia.
However, social media has long since moved from being simple entertainment, light news or gossip hotspots. For businesses, it has evolved into a new communication channel to reach their existing audiences and tap into new markets. Social media is transformational, exciting and overwhelming in nature, introducing new tactics which help implement marketing strategies.
It only takes a quick Google search to learn how major companies such as Dell and Starbucks have embraced social media to market their products and reach both existing and new clients.
Starbucks for instance assembled a perfect formula which won them more than 13 million friends on Facebook, over one million followers on Twitter, and almost 8,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. While creating an open communication channel for their friends and followers, Starbucks are continuously answering comments, posting new videos and blog posts as well as photos. Furthermore, Starbucks are shifting the marketing effort over to their client-base, whereby people embed Starbucks videos wherever they like on the web, a strategy that helps scatter positive brand exposure by empowering their customers to become ambassadors of the brand. To make their formula even stronger, Starbucks developed their own social network dubbed ‘My Starbucks idea’, where customers share their own ideas and suggestions. These are further discussed by Starbuck’s team on their blog, ‘Ideas in Action’. Their overall strategy brings various ends together and shows people that Starbucks cares about them. It is indeed a fully-functional two-way relationship!
Social media is not traditional marketing and definitely not classic advertising. It rather resembles an online conversation with more people joining every day and does what social media is there for: spread the word. Social media is dynamic and customer-driven, transparent and sincere, rather than one-sided and controlled.
Seeing all this, how shall businesses choose which media to use and what conversations to join? When compiling marketing plans, large brands are nowadays incorporating a social media plan. The enterprise should study its present brand-positioning, set attainable business and communication goals and devise a list of subsequent actions to bridge the gaps. In doing so, they need to keep an eye on competitors and substitute products; know the reception and underlying potential of their brand; have a feel for their customers’ needs and wants; be ready to explore new and unorthodox ways of communicating; be honest and sincere about involving consumer opinions; and absorb experts recommendations and advice.
Social media is a mostly free channel to be used in the strategy roll-out, however it does cost time. A typical job description of customer relationship executives and even marketing managers today includes tasks such as online chatting with customers, social network page updating, monitoring of campaign circulation and spreading, etc.
To reap the best results from the use of social media, all transmitted messages (status update, blog posts, images etc.) must be transparent and engaging to the extent of admitting mistakes when necessary. Effective communication through social media should always be genuine and most of all honest.
The process does not end here. Track your online conversations using tools such as Google Alerts among others, give feedback and re-evaluate your own social media plan. While social media is here to stay, many of the tools are temporary. Thus, be ahead of the curve and listen to new places where your targets are assembling, so you can continue to play. (ICON)
ICON is a local web solutions company which has been promoting social networking for business for the last couple of years.