Social media is no
longer considered a prevailing fashion, popular trend or emerging pattern. It
is now solidly established as a persistent reality of an online presence and
for marketers it is an imperative. The social media environment provides
significant opportunity for brands and businesses to engage with their
customers, prospects and target audience. Social media's potential for customer
interaction and customer retention is also significant. Today's consumers are often
deeply engaged in their chosen social media platforms and they frequently expect
organizations will satisfy their needs, how and when they want (Sklar, 2013) .
Sites focused on social
media are evolving as a key channel to interact with customers to not only
build a relationship, but it also provides an opportunity to build affinity and
following for your brand. A strong and effective commitment to social media
provides a chance to maximize customer engagement and nurture prospects. Today
customers are also more informed and have more choice than ever before, so if
their expectations aren't met, they will often move on quickly. Engaged
customers, however generally reward consistently strong service by spending
more and becoming influential brand advocates on social channels.
Social media
engagements can help businesses build trust and loyalty through communications
and conversations (Brown, 2014) . Among these
exchanges businesses can create opportunities through communications such as storytelling
which offer the prospect to humanize the organization in the eyes of the
consumer and target audience. For example in some cases telling personal
stories about employees can help improve the image of the organization and initiate
differentiation from close competitors.
Deciding
Where to be Active
One of the primary
questions to answer when deciding where to be in social media is defining where
your audience is actually spending time. What social media outlets do they most
frequent and where are they most active? Ultimately the decision of where to be
on social media should be driven by understanding where your customers have
gathered and creating a presence on the platforms that are most relevant to
them. Organizations and businesses should also be mindful of the types of
customers they have and those they consider as prospects, understanding there
may be differences between the two. For example a brand or product may have an
older customer base, perhaps dominated by the Baby Boomer cohort, but the
organization may want or need a younger demographic. In this case marketing in
robust manner on two or more platforms might be an effective strategy to reach
both groups (Jones & Li, 2014) . This strategy also
offers an opportunity to speak and tailor content to different audiences.
For many consumers engaged in the digital
environment, online networking has transitioned into a fixation and a way of
life for a large number of users. Social media is changing the way we speak and
engage with our partners, friends and family, and the brands and businesses we
patronize. Right now there are a number of popular social media platforms and
there are a handful which dominate in the category of registered users (Jones K. ,
2013) .
It is obvious platforms such as Facebook with
its nearly 1.6 billion active users is dominating. Other sites such as
Whatsapp, Tumbler, Instagram and Twitter rank among the highest in registered
users but there are other criteria to consider when making the decision on
where create a presence (Statista, 2016) . These
considerations include the type of social platform and what users are doing
when they engage.
Platforms such as Facebook or Google+ are highly focused on exchanges between friends and family and are constantly pushing interaction through features like photo or status sharing. Other social networks like Tumblr or Twitter are more about rapid communication and are appropriately termed microblogs. Some social networks focus on community while others highlight and display user-generated content
How
does Content vs. Conversation Factor into the Decision?
One of the factors to
consider when operating in the social media environment is the rate of
engagement and dialog a brand or business may expect and its relationship to
the amount of generated posts and communications an organization may
anticipate. In social media both of
these factors are important and a business can and should expect to be active
in both.
Creating and posting
relevant content in the social media environment can help build brand awareness
and assist organizations in constructing brand meaning through strong and
favorable associations with consumers and its target audience. Posting, liking,
sharing and tweeting are often the engagements brands are looking for when they
post content. These actions help perpetuate positive association with consumers
and ultimately build loyalty and affinity with a brand or product.
In generating dialog in the social
media environment consumers can interact with their favorite brands by tweeting
or posting to the company’s feeds or on their walls. Consumers can also
complain about a product, or share their favorite aspects of the product or
business. This conversation provides brands with an opportunity to directly
engage with customers, prospects or just general social media users who have
something to say (Brown, 2014) . When brands respond
and respond promptly they can create an opportunity to educate consumers about
their product, right a wrong that perhaps occurred during a transaction or just
let consumers know there is a voice associated with the business. Social media
presents an incredible opportunity to rethink what it means to connect with and
influence customers and direct conversation gives businesses an opportunity to
speak openly with consumers and the ability to control dialog regarding their
brand (Kaushik, 2011) .
Making
the Choice
It is often the case
many brands and organizations will opt to be active in just a few social media
platforms depending on your brand and its objectives relative to the
relationship with a target audience. For example a retailer focused on women
clothing may choose to be active on Facebook and Instagram to engage directly
with that target audience and showcase its products. Once an organization has
made the decision to become active on one or more social media platforms it is vitally
important to be consistent, remain active and by all means respond when a
customer or prospect engages, has a complaint or simply has a question (Jones &
Li, 2014) .
Once a business is ready to start it should also ensure it has effective social
listening and communication tools in place and an understanding of how to
effectively use them. Brands and businesses should also ensure they have
adequate resources in place to communicate and respond with their target
audience. From this perspective limited resources should also be a decision
factor relative to the number of social platforms an organization can engage.
When an organization
becomes active on social media it can provide a significant opportunity to establish
brand identity and build a breadth and depth of awareness (Keller, 2011) . Effective social
media engagements build affinity, following and loyalty for a brand or product
and acting effectively in this environment can be a significant part of a
balanced marketing communication program. In the end brands should evaluate
which social channels and engagement elements can provide the most value and then
weigh the investment against the potential gains.
Works Cited
Brown, M. (2014, December). Which social media
accounts really matter and why. Retrieved from Kissmetrics:
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/which-social-accounts-matter/
Jones, A., & Li, C. (2014, June 12). Leveraging
Social Identity: know and engage customers better to build more valuable
relationships. Retrieved from Altimeter: http://getcommandpost.com/assets/2014/07/Leveraging-Social-Identity-Altimeter-Group.pdf
Jones, K. (2013, November 15). The growth of
social media v2.0 . Retrieved from Search Engine Journal:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/growth-social-media-2-0-infographic/77055/
Kaushik, A. (2011). Best social media metrics:
conversation, amplification, applause, economic value. Retrieved from
Occam's Razor:
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/
Keller, K. L. (2011). Building customer- based
brand equity:a blueprint for creating strong brands. Retrieved from
Marketing Science Institute:
http://mktg.uni-svishtov.bg/ivm/resources/CustomerBasedbrandEquityModel.pdf
Sklar, C. (2013, March 13). How to use social
media to understand and engage your customers. Retrieved from The
Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/13/social-media-customer-engagement
Statista. (2016, April). Leading social networks
worldwide as of April 2016, ranked by number of active users (in millions).
Retrieved from Statista:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
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