Are you in a stable and mutually loving relationship?
With your customers and prospects that is. Tim Deeson looks at how social media can build on links with existing customers and how it can establish a rapport with people who don't yet know you or your organisation. The key is linking your media together to form a strong online relationship, wherever they are on the internet.
Get the strategy right and the cost of social networking is the lowest of any media, yet it can and does reach incredible numbers of individuals. Facebook has more than 500 million active users – if it were a country it would be the third largest. Twitter has 190 million members; YouTube is the third most visited site on the internet; two billion videos are viewed a week. LinkedIn has over 90 million users. The key is to understand how and why the users of each networking opportunity use it and what they expect from it.
Tim takes a fictional SME e-commerce organisation, Yummie Cupcakes, selling personalised products as an example, to give you some pointers for a successful social networking experience.
Use a social network mix
The main social networks for business: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are used by people in different ways. Each requires a novel approach. Facebook, for example, is perceived as being a network for friends and family, not businesses, but more and more organisations and companies are using it effectively for engaging with consumer audiences. It is, for example, used very effectively for the marketing of fast moving consumer goods that have a universal appeal and name recognition. Coca-Cola's pages are 'liked' by more than 21 million Facebook users.
Yummie Cupcakes have a Facebook fan page – representing the company and not just one individual – people only need to ‘like’ you to be kept up to date on promotions, launches and all the latest happenings, without the mutual acceptance of being your ‘friend’. They have a captive audience with whom to talk about their new cupcakes, they incentivise sales through promotions, offering free cupcakes, 2 for 1 offers etc – linking to their e-commerce website. They use Twitter in a similar way – linking to new content areas within their website, eg new products, news items and a link to their new film (held on YouTube) about the services on offer for weddings and special events for corporate customers.
Different networks – different audiences
Yummie have chosen to use Facebook for B2C communications, LinkedIn for their B2B marketing and their tweets are gearing to reach all audiences – consumer, business and media. On Twitter the MD regularly comments on interesting stories from the world of cupcakes, building up a personal following of re-tweeters including the media and bloggers who help spread positive PR across the web.
LinkedIn individually allows various members of the company to make professional connections that can lead to market intelligence such as business development opportunities, a recruitment channel and useful business information. Yummie has set up a group for its industry where it posts information about legislation for suppliers and trade clients.
Encourage and take on board feedback
Provide people with the chance to comment, interact and share information with you – through all your online channels. Use social networking as a way to listen to customers. You’ll find out what they want and gain invaluable market intelligence.
Yummie run regular surveys and polls, available on their website and links through Facebook and Twitter. They use Facebook’s discussion boards to start and follow threads.They find out, in real time, reactions to their products and services. Was the delivery of cakes to a major corporate event a success? Did the new lemon and cinnamon flavour work with your clientele? It’s great to find out that Sam in customer service is making a big impression! They allow comments and ratings on their website’s product listings.
Be prepared to respond to negative (or good) comments
Of course you are laying yourself wide open to comment – you are at the peril of your customers and your critics. But if your aim is to succeed at customer service and attain the highest product quality or the most efficient deliveries, then you need to have a frank and open relationship with your customer base. You will learn so much more by monitoring buzz on your company and the industry you operate in, than from any commissioned research. Be prepared to respond openly and quickly to both negative and positive comments.
People trust the opinions of friends (even if they are only virtual) rather than the organisation – this is what makes social networking so powerful. The friends may be members of an online community or forum, who have some expertise and are willing to share it online. They may be strangers who have posted a product review online or responded to a question.
Keep it timely, short and relevant, and part of a joined up approach!
The staff at Yummie Cupcakes don’t spend loads of hours each day on updating social networking, but the key is regularity – don’t post messages for the sake of it either. Try not to post only marketing messages – make posts worthwhile, interesting, funny, poignant or beneficial to your audience. Join your media together – promote your social media on your website – people should be able to ‘like’ your web blogs and products which shows on Facebook, share stories on Twitter links and join a LinkedIn community from your webpage.
It's all about being where your audiences are, joining up the approach and communicating on an appropriate platform and language. Easy as pie really (or cupcakes).