The difference between public relations, marketing, and dare I include advertising, is that these traditional forms of B2C communication are one-way streets. The blessing, and many who are new to social media would say, the-time-consuming-curse, is that social media a forum for engagement. It’s a two-way street on which businesses and consumers can interact, talk, get to know one another.
The problem is, not all brands/businesses are fully getting it; fully understanding, that is, the gift of social media. Consumers are shouting from the roof tops, loud and clear, “talk to me, interact with me, and if you do, I’ll be so happy, that I’ll tell everyone I know how great you are.” Yet …
According to data compiled by social analytics company socialbakers, social strategies by brands across 80 countries in 20 industries are misrouted. 62% of the brands surveyed said they are in it for customer acquisition while only 29% said they are in it because it’s a forum to take care of their customers.
Therefore, we begin our top 10-list of social media strategies with the rules of engagement.
Tip 1 – Engagement
Conversation directly between consumer and business is one of the reasons that social media is here to stay. If you’re not driving down social media’s two-way street, your consumers will know it. They won’t feel “the love” that they have come to expect in 21st Century B2C interaction. Gone are the days when, if feeling slighted by a company was “impossible” for a consumer to get the attention of a CEO. Now, with viral word of mouth, a consumer can take down a company. Therefore, catering to the customer, virally, is an important strategy. And interacting with those who have felt unjustly treated, i.e. messaging them through that consumer’s “social media complaint desk” of choice, should be a top priority for all B2C companies.
“I’m working on creating more interactions and starting conversations, instead of just throwing things out there,” says Hugh McIntyre, Marketing Manager, BoomBox, Inc. “Social media should be “social,” and I’m going to make ours just that. Also, I’m going to make our posts – especially Instagram – more creative, and make our tweets show off our fantastic company personality.”
Remember, social media is social first and foremost. It’s all about engaging with – and listening to – your audience, which includes customers, experts and brands.
Additional rules of engagement on Twitter pulled from Entrepreneur Magazine:
“Increasing engagement on Twitter requires constant care and great attention to detail. From your bio to the type of content that you tweet each day, the way to engage people is by constantly creating and sharing relevant, interesting and uplifting content that people will want to comment on and share. In order to increase your company’s engagement factor on Twitter, follow these five important steps:
- Stop selling: Have you ever been to a party and there is one person that talks about him or herself over and over? Nobody wants to be around that person. Don’t be that guy. Be the brand that people want to interact with. Be the Twitter account that people can’t help but interact with. Nobody is going to mention you if all you do is talk about yourself the whole time. It gets old.
- Be retweetable: Because Twitter is all about virality, tweets should be composed with the retweet in mind. Write your tweets in a way that compels users to interact with it. For example, @notebook has gained almost 5 million followers — and a verified account — simply by tweeting quotes and photos that its target audience will love. Branden Hampton who runs @notebook said, “By writing content from a consumer’s perspective, you can increase engagement.”
- Be inspiring: Social media is all about inspiring your community and building connections with people who have the same interests as you. This is part of the reason why sports teams do so well on Twitter. Besides providing up-to-the-minute information on players and games, accounts for professional sports give fans the positive experience that they crave from their favorite pastime or hobby. This is part of the reason why@FCBarcelona, Barcelona’s official soccer club, has a Twitter account with more than 10 million followers and is the 62nd best Twitter username in the world according to TwitterCounter. Even if you aren’t a sports team, give your followers a reason to want to cheer for your successes and accomplishments. Lift up others by promoting their success and positivity and you can expect to feel the Twitter love in return.
- Be newsworthy: Although the majority of the top 100 accounts on Twitter are celebrities according to TwitterCounter, No. 36 is CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) and No. 58 is CNN’s official Twitter feed (@CNN). Because Twitter is so reliant on providing the most current information, many people utilize Twitter as a way to get the most relevant news on current events and in their industry. Have your Twitter account do the same by focusing on providing timely information with applicable hashtags and URLs for users to find out more.
- Be interactive: The most important aspect of growing engagement on Twitter is to be interactive with your followers. This is why the majority of the top 100 Twitter accounts are celebrities like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga. One of the reasons why Twitter is so popular with a wide variety of age groups is that it allows them the opportunity to interact with their favorite celebrity. Not only do they have the chance for the actual celebrities themselves to respond to their tweets, users also get to get a peek into their private lives. In response, popular Twitter accounts get a lot of shares and retweets. Brands should think of their Twitter account in the same way. By offering the best ratio of answering and responding to others’ tweets while also sharing interesting articles and information that the company itself identifies with. Whether you are modeling your Twitter account after Katy Perry or the NBA, the key to higher engagement is better interaction, thoughtful content that users make a connection with, and becoming a resource for up to the minute news in your industry.”
Tip 2 – Connect for brand interaction
Study whom your customers really are, find out what they want, make their lives easier and then “stand on the sidelines” and watch them interact with your brand for you. B nice to them and have them speak favorably about you. That’s customer advocacy and it will bring in new customers. Look at your social-content calendars right now. Ask yourself this important question – Have we done enough for the ones who already love you? Take Starbucks for example: Most of the photographs of delicious drinks posted on the Starbucks FB page are uploaded by consumers not corporate SM professionals
Tip 3 – Prioritize but always reinvent the formula.
One social media site does not fit all. Spend the majority of your time on the social sites that drive the most traffic to your business. And know that what may drive tons of traffic to one business may not necessarily be the best place for another. The “Big Three” remain the Big Three – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – but Google+ is pulling in off the horizon.
Change things up often, invest time in new strategies: perhaps a FB contest, a contest for customer blog submissions, Vine videos, a new Pinterest board, a dedicated YouTube channel, a direct messaging campaign on Instagram. Success in social media means reinventing the formula, always. And reinventing the formula means researching new social media platforms. Since the social media landscape is constantly changing we all need to be on the lookout to see what’s the next must-use tool.
“I’ve fallen into the trap of using the same 3 or 4 sites and I feel like exposure to new tools would benefit me personally and professionally,” says Dave Wakeman, Principal, Wakeman Consulting Group.
In the second half of 2014, “I will be spending more time on Instagram and Google+, as I am finding that the community interaction and reach is greater there,” says Becky Elmuccio, Crafty Garden Mama. “Also, Google+ hangouts are a great way to talk with fellow bloggers, and have great potential for brand campaigns.”
Tip 4 – Have a strategy for engagement
Have a strategy for engagement then also do whatever makes sense on a particular day. Have postings strategically set to balance with the world calendar, business calendar, PR and community outreach events and your marketing strategy. But make room – and time – for timely content.
We find that timely content is the most engaging and obtains the highest reach,” says Amanda Sheldon, director of digital marketing and communication for Medtronic, the world’s largest medical technology company. “We pay attention to what our community tells us they like. We offer a mixture of technical support, customer stories, other content the community cares about (i.e. recipes, diabetes community activities), as well as Medtronic news.”
Tip 5 – Promote your customers, not your company.
Build a community for customers. Provide them with a place to share and receive information and/or support.
“I encourage my clients to create more useful content for their audiences and focus on talking about what their customers want and need to hear about,” shares Jeff Echols, Architect of the Internet.
Tip 6 – Be a resource to your consumer and your potential customer by creating great content:
Whether through blogs, tweets, posts, contests and/or e-blasts, great content will always be in style.
“My social media … resolution is to type more,” says Maria Kretowicz, Marketing Manager of Bach to Rock.
“Every tweet, every blog post, and every group interaction needs to be about enriching the lives of our student and alumni population,” says Daniel Sloan, Social Media Manager, Trident University International. “Whether they are tips on military to civilian transitions, a primer on the best way to format a cover letter, or a tweet about Monday Night Football.”
Tip 7 – Spend more time on visual sites. Photos, videos, and infographics are getting more and more popular, so get on board with your visual content. According to Pew Research FB users upload at least 350 million photos every day and generally speaking, content with images receives 94% more total views.
“Earlier this year, we saw a rise in visual social media platforms like YouTube and Pinterest coming in just behind the big three in adoption growth among small businesses,” says Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media at Constant Contact. “In 2014, a picture truly will be worth a thousand words as small businesses increase their adoption of visual-based social networks like Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and Slideshare.”
“I just started creating infographics this year, and with original content and visual content trends rising, it’s clear that using infographics to relay information to consumers will become even more important in 2014,” says Kimberly Lombard, Community Manager, mosaicHUB.
Tip 8 – Never ignore the negative
Do not delete negative posts or avoid an issue. Negative feedback can be an opportunity to learn better customer service for all future and current customers as well as a chance to turn around an individual customer’s feelings about the business. Respond to all questions and feedback online and then take the conversation offline, to keep customer information confidential. Social media has made companies transparent. Therefore businesses need to operate transparently.
Tip 9 – Have a ‘Process in Place,’ i.e, have social media accountability
Smaller companies are often challenged by a staff that is already spread too thin when it comes to job responsibilities. Create an accountability plan. Instead of having one individual responsible for writing and implementing social media posts and weekly or bi-monthly blogs, plan ahead with themes and hand out assignments. If you have a staff of 12, assign two-blogs every six-months. Create a method for editing and uploading so that blog get written, supporting your PR-platform, SEO (Google-ability) strategy and presence as a resource to the community,
Tip 10 – Unplug: Use social media wisely and be more mindful of your time online. In the second half of 2014, think about scheduling unplugged time.
“I am going to be more conscious of how often I’m connecting to my social network, my Smartphone, tablet, and laptop,” says Aliza Sherman, web pioneer and author. “[I plan] to be more meaningful as I connect, and to be more thoughtful about what I am saying and doing while connected.”
“I’m resolved to find ways to support my real-life relationships with social media,” says Michael Waxman, CEO and founder of Grouper. “It’s all about using technology to make offline connections count.”
