23:42
Social media was invented for communication between people – those looking to market their products were not the end user these tools are designed for. Mark Zuckerberg and his associates did not come up with Facebook thinking “Gee, how can we assist big brands in selling their wares?” and Twitter was not conceived to allow brands to blast their products in real time to potential customers. Yes, it is clearly the assumption that where people will go, marketers will follow, but to what end? This continuous chase has some coming earlier, some coming later to the table – each saying “Me too! Me Too!” often forgetting the element that brings sustainability to a brand – are you really connecting with your consumers?
Retail brands, for example, could potentially create accounts, populate them with tools to help shoppers browse products and announce deals and yes, they might come into the store and buy some products. But do they feel better about having engaged with your brand online? Was it really more efficient than other ways of pre-shopping and have you enhanced your customers’ experiential satisfaction? And here is the big question: Will they follow you, fan you, or friend you again? Will they seek you out because you are a brand that they want to be associated with? Or will they allow you to engage them once and engage only if marketing dollars are spent getting their attention?
Your audience must be at the center of your interactions within social media networks – connect with them, engage with them. And make sure they leave with that fuzzy feeling that will have them coming back again based on previous positive experiences. And, as opposed to many other channels, social media could leave marketers with a fuzzy feeling too. Do not require social media users to imagine spending money on your products and services and focus instead on your relationships, you could inadvertently have customers who will loyally return again and again, turning their noses up at other brands.
Here is a simple illustration of what I mean using retail brands on Twitter. Now, as a disclaimer, these brands have come to the table at different times, which does account for some of the difference. On the other hand they are all using different approaches and as a result are seeing entirely different effects.
Safeway http://twitter.com/Safeway
- A few tweets about savings available each day
- 0 following, 197 followers
Future Shop Canada http://twitter.com/fs_connect
- Frequent tweets about tech news and FS blog posts, as well as more personal interactions with Twitter users interested in FS products
- 949 following, 1120 followers
Best Buy Twelpforce http://twitter.com/twelpforce
- Primarily of customer interaction and customer service – watch Twitter to find Twitterers asking questions about products, answer questions, assist after the purchase
- 2152 following, 14906 followers
Zappos http://twitter.com/zappos
- Account “owned” by CEO – personable tweets, interaction with people on a one to one basis
- 395707 following, 1546338 followers
A few lessons about social media from these examples:
- It is easier to like people than it is to like a faceless company – give your brand a face (Zappos) or many faces (Best Buy) and provide them with opportunities for conversation
- Leverage your other assets in social media such as your blog (Future Shop).
- Corporations should never consider themselves too important to follow their customers – if you can’t be loyal to them, why should they be loyal to you? (Safeway)