Social media can be prime drivers of brand awareness and online reputation, and social platforms are currently the favorite places to engage with brand loyalists. Customers who spend a lot of time in social media are more open to new ideas, more likely to switch brands, more likely to relay positive brand experiences, and more likely to defend brands they love. In short, they are the alpha-communicators. And you want them talking about your brands.
However, these platforms are not what they used to be. Facebook, for example was once a great place to get your brand in front of customers without having to pay for it (so-called earned media). That party lasted only 2-3 years. Today, Facebook is a paid media platform, since it has adjusted its algorithms to effectively block brand posts from reaching more than about 2 per cent of fans. Twitter is following suit, and we expect all other social platforms to soon be charging to reach the audiences you have built.
To continue pursuing the same approach as you did last year is simply not productive.
Godfrey is breathtakingly brilliant on social media strategy. He is a limitless source of deep insights as well as being helpful and supportive. He revolutionised my social media marketing approach with fantastic results. James Forson, The Stakeholder Engagement Guy
Social activity is not marketing performance, and brand success will not flow automatically from simply publishing content. Brands have to continually re-evaluate what they are doing to engage customers, and where and how they are doing it. Social media must be guided by a customer-centric content strategy that fits into a clear commercial strategy. And, in the process of defining those strategies, you may find that the big-name platforms are not the most productive places to socially engage your target markets.
Perhaps there are niche networks where the quality of conversation, the ability to add real value, and the capacity to form strong brand relationships, is far greater. Perhaps you will find that on-domain social (such as a blog) should be the hub of your brand’s social media activity – the place to which you can direct your fans, and which you own and control.
Talk to us about developing strategic approaches that save you time and get maximum value from the social spaces where your markets invest their quality time.