Social media networks have become an important tool for businesses seeking to promote their products. Here, Tim Palmer argues the case for use of this phenomenon and warns against some of its pitfalls.
Let's be clear from the start, social media marketing isn't a new thing. social media is about having conversations, and having conversations is hardly new. You could say if word of mouth is the original and purest form of marketing, then social media is the next generation. For any business, for any CEO to survive, they must move with the times.
When it comes to advice, we listen to who we trust. We don't completely trust advertising when it comes to purchasing decisions. I'm not saying advertising doesn't work, advertising sparks interest and raises awareness. But as consumers, however, we are not so gullible as to base large financial outlays or behavioural change on advertising alone. We are savvy, we go to our trusted sources and see what they think, just like we always have before advertising and digital, be that our friends and family, acquaintances, independent consumer reviews, or anybody else who has an opinion.
Digital has changed the face of business communication because it has provided a universally accessible platform from which consumers can source independent, trusted information on any given brand or product for themselves. It is live and constantly evolving. The internet is where we connect with our real-world mates, our Facebook-friends, family or even just to eavesdrop on other people's exchanges and recommendations via Twitter, Foursquare, forums, blogs etc.
Live conversations are the single most powerful source of data in the world. Forward thinking CEOs have already tapped into those conversations to learn more about themselves as a brand, and their customers. They have then engaged in conversations, because building a relationship generates business, it's a no brainer. But if brands want consumers to have a conversation with other consumers about them, a positive conversation, the best way is to initiate that conversation, lead it and most of all, nurture it.
How do we start those conversations? And how do we make sure that there are enough people listening to make the conversations worthwhile? And will it lead to sales? Well as always, the answer is not clear-cut. It is important at the beginning of a social media campaign that the objectives are clear. Is it for a brand awareness drive? Is it a sales push? Or a crisis management issue? Or purely a customer service initiative? Or a combination of everything?
Many business leaders are scared of social media because they relinquish every control they have ever known in traditional marketing. Consumers rule, and vocally. Domino's Pizza in America was publicly criticised by customers in a research group, where they slated one of their pizzas. One pizza enthusiast in particular, called Adrien, was very damning.
Rather than sweeping the research group findings under the carpet, Domino's CEO took the modern social media attitude of being completely transparent. Domino's reworked the recipe, rebuilt the pizza top to bottom, filming the process, including all the human stories along the way, and then took the pizza back to Adrien and asked for her opinion. This extreme customer service response garnered huge social media coverage in America across Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, improving their brand perception, product and sales. (Search Domino's Pizza Turnaround)
An interesting way of getting people involved with a product, without discussing the product, is demonstrated by 'The Fun Theory', an initiative by Volkswagen in Europe to discover the influence of play in changing of people's behaviour. The campaign was a Grand Prix winner at Cannes last year, with engagement in the films produced by VW coming in at around 17m views on YouTube. A competition to encourage other people to think the VW way and ultimately a successful branding piece for VW without a single product involved. Will this lead to sales? Again, as peoples' conversations about the brand are positive conversations, when we as consumers go to research our financial outlay and behavioural change decisions, these positive conversations will play a part in us wanting to be part of that brand story. (Search Fun Theory)
How to make sure that you have an audience to start have conversations with in the first place? In 2010 Inferno was asked by Auto Trader to bolster their social media numbers to make the financial outlay they were spending on social media worthwhile.
In short, they wanted at least 20,000 'friends' to be listening and engaged in what they were doing on Facebook, and asked for a creative campaign to help reach that number. I firmly believe in not perverting the social platforms, you have to ask yourself, 'does this brand have a right to do this?' Does it have a right to be 'social'. There is a certain group of people who love to talk about cars, we needed to attract a wider audience, and we needed something that was social enough to involve both your friends and cars. A Road Trip competition to win an all expenses holiday across America with 3 friends later, and Auto Trader secured their target of friends they could actively engage on a regular basis. 20,000 warm leads to push to their product - Â autotrader.co.uk. (facebook.com/autotraderuk)
However, a word of warning, these successes don't mean that social media should be just automatically adopted by all business leaders. There have been numerous failures out there too. CEOs should carefully examine their objectives and decide whether they should even have a place in social media, no one likes a gate crasher, as I said, ask your self if you have the right to be social? Do people want to talk about you or your product? CEOs should carefully consider their tone if they decide to get involved.
Control is an illusion, brands don't make the rules; the consumers are in charge and resistance is futile. Brands must cooperate or accept severe backlash. (Search Nestle Facebook Palm Oil)
Business leaders have always valued and appreciated the power of word of mouth over sales. The key now is harnessing the power online, whether playing the entertaining host or blending seamlessly into the landscape to build relationships with the consumer, be it though 140 characters, video channels, images or geo cached information. All these methods have quickly become second nature to the 1.75bn Internet users worldwide – it's time CEOs caught up. Traditional concepts of communication have been exploded with this advent of instant mass consumer conversation, transcending all geography and removing all traditional controls. For the first time CEOs and their companies are at their most visible and consumers expect meaningful dialogue.
