What do People Expect from a Brand's Use of Social Media ?
Michael Spencer
A.I. Writer, researcher and curator - full-time Newsletter publication manager.
I was having a discussion with one of my associates about if only we could CSV. export all our "followers" from our LinkedIn corporate page (why does this feature not exist yet?) and interact with them. They had ethical concerns and did not think it was a good idea. We have a SaaS products and are in B2B and my associate was afraid it would 'annoy' them. I tell this story simply to display a point:
I'm of the extreme opposite position. I believe in pro-active social selling. Think about it, a social media account generally has 500 or less followers, as such even if they were to take our PR as spam (which most don't) it's not really that intrusive. By the very fact that they "followed" our brand, they have given expressed consent for further possible communication. What do you guys think about this?
In 2015, social media is not about being a wallflower, it's about actually interacting. This may seem unprofessional if you don't have a sales personality at times, but If your sales and marketing team don't aggressive pursue social selling leads, there is seriously something with wrong with your social strategy, or you are a very old and traditional company.
There is one very simple truth at work here, people actually thrive on sincere social interaction. But don't' take my word for it! Do a survey of your customers.
Do you ever wonder how pro-active to be (rather than just informative) as a brand on a social media channel? Do you find that just having an account is not enough? Well if you do, you are right.
Social media is a social indication of a company’s authenticity, transparency and ability to connect on a human level. Not only are you giving cues about your corporate culture (whether you are old or young, open or hierarchal) with the tone and interpersonal style you use on social media, you are giving cues on whether you are trustworthy, credible and above all, that you care about consumers, your clients and community at large. Since Millennial are the ‘meaning’ generation, old models of just being on Facebook acquiring likes is the equivalent to bad advertising to which they are completely immune.
What do consumers expect of brands, the same as you or I would pretty much like to see?
- To actually be on Social Media (to at least have a page, you would be surprised!)
- That you have a social media brand account on the social media channel that are most popular to THEM (Yes this means YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Slideshare ,Line, Snapchat). Remember, this is not about "is my B2B company appropriate for Instagram", it's about does my potential audience or customer personas potentially notice brands on Instagram. It's about them, it's not about you.
- The majority of sites now have IM chat built into their website or interface, if you don't, consider social media as your IM.
- That you offer customer service there and respond to any comments, requests or issue.
- Brands where the customer is not and Cx (customer experience) is not the focus, are practicing poor branding. If I'm B2B SaaS and my typical persona is female with a master's degree CMO, you better believe I should have quality content on a place like slideshare, pinterest and have a video product review that is classy.
- That you are actually interacting with them to create Customer experience brand resonance. (again, this apparently is not self-evident to everyone).
- To hold promotions, events, deals and introduce gamification layers into your social strategy.
- That you emotionally engage with your followers (that fact that they “follow” you is itself “expressed” consent to interact). Social media is actually a channel to communicate, not just be a wall-flower and produce one-way feeds.
- To create content that is engaging & entertaining (big Three: infographics, giffographics, video or micro-video (under 7 seconds, ironically around the usual human digital attention span).
- Not just to link the content of others, but create original copywriting or preferably mixed-media.
- Build one to one rapport as well as communities with bonuses for participation.
- Hold contests related to user generated content with exciting prizes.
- Offer new media features like video blogging or podcasting to better target mobile users. Everyone has a blog, not everyone has a vblog or podcast.
- The masses expect replies to every customer experience query on social media (this trend is even more prevalent in China and Brazil).
- A majority of consumers respect brands that contribute to discussions about the service their customers have received.
- Increasingly, consumers are more comfortable than ever sharing personal information with brands relevant to them in order to improve service.
I'll leave you with this thought, nobody care about 'likes' anymore, they care about tapping the heart shaped icon. (Facebook vs. Instagram metaphor).
As consumers start to use ecommerce via social media, the idea that they aren't open to a discussion or human rapport building CTA, is a bit strange to me. This is because every brand has a facebook or brand page of some kind, so it's all about how you demonstrate your unique selling proposition on social! This is really just common sense, surprise, amplify and wow me. I just don't care your facebook has 30k likes.
Back to you, tell me I'm far off base, tell me social selling doesn't work and people don't value human contact?
What's your emotional story-telling dream? What social media brand campaign has moved you?
Architectural Woodworking Innovator | Hand Made Furniture, Modern Eclectic Home
9 年Michael, How can brands 'wow' consumers or prospective customers....? For me, I like to start with idea that everyone loves to be challenged and can think outside the box if motivated. Don't spoon feed people, give them enough to run with a concept and come to terms with it in their own space. I'm an artist also, and in my statement I say "I'm not going to let the viewer off the hook easily, I want them to come up with their own meaning around my art". I think that's the ultimate degree of respect to offer. You assume your audience is brilliant! So who does it best? Apple, I'll revisit the iPhone adds over the holidays again. My favorite example of wowing an audience I'll call it "killing me softly". With those adds they reached a milestone in advertising taking you on a very personal journey into vignettes of others very personal moments knowing that that everyone has them and everyone loves to have them. They did this by taking the audio way down to barely audible and giving people glimpses into what came across as dreams states and at the center of it all was the product iPhone. To say that Apple has developed messaging to a cult level speaks all to well of how effective they are. Oh and timing, around the holidays we're primed for emotional response.
Architectural Woodworking Innovator | Hand Made Furniture, Modern Eclectic Home
9 年People do value human contact and those who have something to say by and large do practice social selling quite well, it's in their DNA. I agree, that simply acquiring likes is the equivalent to bad advertising, surprise, amplify and wow me because that's why I'm doing this, to wow you. Put another way if somethings really worth doing, it's worth overdoing, I'm unique and your going to know that, that's what people who practice strong social selling skills understand. I have something worth while to say and add to the world.