I think firstly there are different horses for different courses.
An existing company with a long standing established brand,new
to the online space would need to approach it slightly differently
from a new company launching a product online... so different
strategies would need to be implemented, but at the end of the
day it comes down to getting educated
1) Established businesses need to listen first. They may have a
completely different idea of what their brand is than their customer
base. Mini for example thought hey were selling a neat little run
around that was cheap to run and easy to park. They spent millions
trying to compete in the new car market place.
After they listened to the bogs, tweets and forums they discovered
that Mini owners see themselves as members of an elite community
that belongs together they are far more likely to recommend the
car to their friends and family... a customer community who would
evangelize to the masses.
They decided to move their marketing investment to an online strategy
to target mini owners rather than the general prospective car buyers
engaging mini owner groups. They ran mini owners rallies and then
populated the photos from the events through flickr across blogs and
sharing platform to the public in general as well as the owners
building a real Buzz.
2) Next having found your customers... engage in conversation with
them. Start a company blog and twitter account inviting customers
and staff to comment, and learn from them. Some of the greatest
innovations in our society today have been born from the public’s
feedback on problems they need solution to “I wish it could do
this too!”. Nike or was it Adidas ? found out about a problem
with the glue on a batch of training shoes from comments online.
It immediately sent a notice offering an exchange before it became
a problem.
You obviously need to assign a staff member to do this type of work
for you...to maintain blogs and watch whats happening... they will
need to be highly trained in all types and facets of Social Media
... where do you even find someone like that?
3) Once you are talking to your customers through you company blogs
and updating them of new posts through twitter or face book (where
you can also build a business page) you can start to feed out new
products , specials promotions using fun engaging videos that they
will want to share with their friends.. they may even go viral
like the "Blendtec’s" video where they blended an " I Phone" then
engaged their audience to suggest what they should blend next !
These videos lead back to your bogs company websites or specific
sales funnel for the particular campaign you are running.
So those three short steps again .....
Get educated.... on how to listen, participate and engage you
costumers or prospects to becoming your own sales force the sales
force driven by word of mouth, referrals and testimonials
Get educated... Find a Mentor, someone who understands this space
and hang onto their coat tails …. But hang on tight cos this ride
into the Social Media space is moving at a thousand miles an hour
and it takes effort and commitment to stay on top of it... if you
do you will surely reap the rewards.
Get educated … find a course (as mentioned above) that is
structured, manageable and with measurable results, do it yourself
so you understand it and then put your entire marketing department
through it so your whole team can participate in maintaining your
Brand identity and be part of the ongoing conversation that is
Social Media.
