3 Social Media Must-Dos for Brands

Social media is all about leveraging word of mouth. Successful brands follow these 3 key principles to grow their social following:

Finding Compatible Consumers

You need to find the right type of consumers and you need to do this correctly to sustain the community. Many brands put up digital signs that state ‘Like Me’ or ‘Follow Me’, some brands take this further by offering an incentive. This works well in the short-term as it creates an influx of new community members but it does not last too long as many join, for the incentive only.

Intrigue works better than incentive as it draws in consumers having an interest in your brand. Good content and valuable interaction will keep your consumers there.

A major movie rental company grew their Facebook following by offering a free movie. Well, its ‘Likes’ did very well–in less than 6 months it got more than 2 mn–but more than 75% of the list simply came in for the coupon and never came back. By contrast, an international wildlife publication does an excellent job attracting compatible consumers by putting up headlines like, ‘How can birds whistle and breathe at the same time?’ With this, it not only attracted a lot of consumers, but its  consumers actually stayed back and participated in the discussion.

Know Your Consumers Well, Actually…Very Well

You have just made new acquaintances, what is it that you would like to know about them? How much would you like them to know about you? Do you build up on this ‘information repository’ by getting them to fill out a long form or do you build this information up tactfully over a period of time?

Successful brands keep the conversations focused and interactive by asking relevant questions. They try their best to keep track of what their consumers like to have, a personalized conversation.

Brands can collect this information in 3 ways–first, by asking the consumer for some basic information, second–by observing the consumers behavior as this helps validate what the consumers tell you about themselves, third–by making some assumptions. If you want to learn how to make ‘better assumptions’ about your consumers look at Amazon’s approach–“People who liked this also liked this…”

 

Personalized relevance is what will drive social media success and you can only create this environment by paying attention to the preferences of your consumers. Do not forget to inform the consumer about your brand, else you will lose the consumer to a competitor.

The movie rental company continues to err by offering everything to everybody. It could do so much better if it caters to consumer preferences by segmenting its offers. By contrast, a major Indian financial institution respects your time by not asking you to choose your language every time you use its ATM for a cash withdrawal. It now uses the time saved and your respect earned to make you a relevant offer–its consumers appreciate this much more.

Get Your Consumers Talking About Your Brand

What do you think is better–a brand touting how great they are or consumers of a brand espousing the brand? What sounds more authentic? Wouldn’t you be more likely to listen to your peers?

Brands need to assimilate a rich repository of information (user generated content from your peers) and your brand can do this well by collecting this information over a period of time from your consumers. Look for various consumer interaction points–before the sale, during the sale, after the sale. Capture this information through interactive surveys and regular feedback.

A very good friend of mine owns a restaurant in London–he loves ‘Likes’ and his approach to earning the ‘Like’ is very laudable. He walks up to you during the latter part of your meal and asks you if you liked a specific dish, say the Paneer Makhani.

Next, he requests you to get on Facebook and tell your friends that you liked the Paneer Makhani and even encourages you to post a picture. This user generated buzz gets his restaurant the attention of other consumers who want to come in and try the food.

What Drives Success?

Brands will succeed with these 3 fundamentals-finding the right group of consumers, knowing more about these consumers, and turning these consumers into brand ambassadors.

What also matters is a social media site that is full of user generated content, current, and responsive to consumer queries. Successful brands think about longer-term engagement, aka what to do after the ‘Like'.