Marketing

10 key Elements of a Social Media Strategy

This is an updated post I originally made on the BulbMarketing Blog

Social Media

Facebook has recently surpassed 350 million users, Twitter was the most used word in 2009, in Ireland Bebo is still (for how much longer) top of the social networks, but then there’s Youtube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Authorstream and… the list is endless. There is in existence a social network for pretty much anything, yep even cats and dogs! And I haven’t even mentioned blogs or social bookmarks. But hold on, where does e-mail sit in all of this? and not to mention the money poured into a slick looking company website and in SEO to get good ranking. Interesting read on Coke’s approach to social media.

10 Key Elements of a Social Media Strategy

1 – Customer Focus

Social media breaks down the barriers between the organisation and the customer, be it B2B or B2C. It brings the customer closer to the brand and involves them in the marketing communications. Therefore it is critical for the organisation to be customer focused or customer driven. That is having a proactive attitude to dealing with customers and all that entails, especially negativity, bad reviews or bad experiences posted by customers on the web. Failure to deal with such negativity will only amplify deficiencies in the brand or organisation. If the company has no intention of dealing with such matters, under no circumstances should you engage in social media. I don’t mean to pick on a particular company, but have a look at this link to Imagine WiMax Facebook page from October 28th, full of negative comments from potential customers and clearly visible to all 800 fans of the product. If this was your organisation, how would you deal with that?

2 – The Social Network Barrier

The social network barrier exists between a brand and its potential fans. Knowing what the firm wishes to achieve using this channel and being able to answer ‘why a person would connect with you brand on a social network?’ should help in overcoming this barrier. Think of it like this during TV ad breaks people generally flick channels to avoid the marketing communications, so why would a consumer willing allow a brand into their network to receive marketing communications? Interesting Ikea example here

3 – Control lies with the Customer

If it’s not clear it should be by now. Social media puts the consumer in control of what marketing communications they consume. If they follow you on Facebook, read your tweets, check your profile, it is entirely up to them. Respect their control, too many messages, containing little new information, with a hard sell approach (or poor customer service as seen with WiMax) will terminate that connection.

4 – Brand Personality

Give your brand a personality that suits the brand and target demographics. Ideally, although not a requirement, the person behind the social media strategy will be similar in nature to the brand personality.

5 – Unofficial Pages

Your not going to engage in Social Media? Check if someone has done this already for you. Look at Facebook it’s full of unofficial pages for products. These pages are outside of the control of the brand and their activities may impact negatively on your company. Also many consumers find it hard to tell what pages are unofficial which could lead to much confusion. One positive example is from Top Gear who took a proactive approach when they decided to set up a Bebo page. They realised there was already many pages dedicated to the BBC show, so choose the most popular one and started to supply the page owners with exclusive information that legitimised the page. Top Gear not only got involved in social media, but had a page set up with followers and dedicated fans to run it for them.

6 -Consumer Participation

Encourage consumers to interact and get involved. There’s a lot of debate over the failure of marketing to break through and register in the mind of the consumer. One accepted and understood means of doing so is to get the consumer involved in the process, social media is perfect means of doing this. Check out how Cadbury’s Creme Egg products have successfully done so.

7 – You know the start, but what about the middle?

Social media puts marketing communications into the hands of the consumers who can add their input as to how it develops. So you have a clear start point, it is the day you set up the profile, or send that specific status update or a tweet. What happens next is the middle and it is shaped by the input of the consumer. These inputs could drive the social media effort in a new direction based upon suggestions.

Case in point; ‘For the Love Of Wispa’ campaign.
Start: A request looking for donations of items to feature in a television advert
Middle: Donations of hundreds of different items from fans that shaped the eventual output
End: A Television advert created entirely from customer inputs. Cadburys did not know what the final outcome would be, except it would be a TV commercial. They we’re willing to let the input flow and see what could be developed from those.

8 – However, there is no real ‘end’

Social Media marketing campaigns don’t always have an end point. The end point of the Wispa campaign was clear – a TV advert that will live forever on Youtube. However, Wispa and Cadburys are not resting on their laurels neglecting the thousands of fans that their campaigns have amassed. In this way social media remains a constant marketing communications channel to the customer.

9 – Understand Your Role and the Role of the Consumer

Understanding the rules of social media, the role of the brand within the social sphere and the role of consumers leads to a better acceptance of social media marketing by the consumer. Failure, for example, sending the same message day after day, displays a lack of respect for the control mechanism of the consumer and you will find yourself suitably terminated.

10 – Social Network Death

Failure to understand the consumers role, and the brands role in Social Network Marketing ends in death. Death to your brand, because consumers can terminate all contact with the brand on a social network. What causes death? The number one cause is spam, continued messages of no value that annoy the consumer. Once a consumer terminates a social relationship what are the chances of them returning?

Related posts:

1. 5 Local Businesses Rocking Facebook (& Social Media)
2. Cadbury’s Social Media Success Story (Part 3)
3. Jon Snow on Social Media [video]
4. Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 4)
5. Cadburys Social Media Success Story (Part 2)

© 2009 LAB: Luke Abbotts Blog.