Social in not only a buzzword today. It is a reality that brands need to embrace and move forward.
Right mindset to utilize the immense power of social media is the mindset of participation and community. This is what social media thrives on.
So if you want to take your brand forward using social media – you need to participate in the discussion on your own web bases and your various social media channels.
Right way to do content marketing is not to push sales emails to your email list. It is to ask them questions – about how you can help them, about their challenges and how you can add value to their lives.
If you want your customers to take an action based on your social media content – then be a giver of love, gifts, free ideas and right information.
The right approach for social media is to think engagement before marketing or even better to think only about engagement and no marketing. At some point you may need to ask for the sale but if you are doing it right sales may automatically (without asking). Be commonsensical and decide whether or not to ask for the sale.
Think of social media and content marketing as an open-sourced online application controlled by users. To do things effectively, the brands should listen to what users are saying and look at social media channels are feedback and market research engines.
If you are just starting consider appointing an experienced social media manager to act as your brand’s eyes and ears.
The responsibilities of such a position will include customer engagement, content marketing, online profile creation for various social media sites, blog updates etc.
You can think of social media as a couple’s date before they start to hangout together – before eventually getting engaged and married. Be careful and sincere in your approach when you start to date your customers – and be consistent in your behavior even after you get married (a customer makes a purchase). This will make sure that your relation with your customer will live long and you will raise kids (referrals) together.
Having more Facebook Friends or Twitter Followers does not necessarily mean that your brand is doing it right. Listen to users in community, if somebody tweets asking for help – be there and offer a solution promptly. If there is a delay is helping customer, be open and share the info – with the reason for delay.
You can gain a lot – if you use social media right. You can grow reputation and awareness of your brand, increase sales (really – Dell generated sales of $6.5 million using Twitter).
Be clear in what you want out of your efforts, and be ready to pay the price (in terms of creating effective plans and investing time).
Provide authentic and useful info on your social channels so that your brand is seen as an authentic brand. People find it easy to trust authentic brands as compared to gimmicky brands.
What you do think is “the right way to use social media” and “what are the social media advantages for brands”? Please share your experience in comments to help others reading it.