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by Kenneth Rudich  

A well executed social media marketing strategy strives to leverage the potential for three key dividends.  

increased exposure

To most organizations, social media offers another platform for expanding the effort to create awareness, interest, and action.  It can stir a wholesome combination of real and virtual word-of-mouth promotion among people who trust one another, and it can do it in numbers that continually swell with each passing day.  

The critical aspect to making this work is to be absolutely certain your product or service claims match with the customer experience.  Be careful about crafting expectations.  It’s better to have the actual experience exceed the customer’s expectations than the other way around.  The former will build trust while the latter will erode it.  Trust begets trust and that will enhance the sphere of influence engendered by the social media marketing strategy.   

gathering customer, marketing intelligence

Actively following and listening to your customers and prospects is a good way to gather insightful intelligence about them.  Commercial social media monitoring tools can furnish reports that help you to assess the nature, tone, impact, trends, and key influencers of the topics that you care about most.  

You can also gather intelligence by monitoring the chatter in your own social media sites, as well as follow people who become fans to learn more about their other interests (and/or keywords) for use in future communications with them.
    
Be aware that this process offers the internal opportunity to exploit the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to assessing the current value of your brand, and also for creating new value.  A diverse group of people from within your organization, representing multiple functions and disciplines, should be encouraged to participate in the intelligence gathering process, and then share their insights and perspectives among themselves.  The goal is to uncover all the angles and intricacies associated with any joint knowledge that comes to light.  This means bringing in people from all across the value chain, like product developers, R&D, distribution, finance, and so forth.  

customer, prospect interaction

A unique attribute of social media revolves around the ease with which you can interact with customers and prospects.  Anything that motivates them from a passive mode to an active mode, to interact with you or your products, will fuel the process for coaxing them further along the engagement path.
 
There’s a broad array of opportunities for doing this.  Surveys, contests, getting them involved in product development, giving or loaning them some products to evaluate and critique, sending them to a web site that encourages clicking or navigating through it based on something of interest or intrigue, are just a few examples.  

When doing this, consider the different stages of customer cultivation so as to design the interactions in relation to the individual stages, with the idea that most or all of the stages will be separately represented in one way or another.  For example, one activity might be geared toward arousing interest, another might seek to stimulate greater advocacy among the already established advocates.  

the big bang

The big bang is to have all three working in your favor.  Then you’ll be harvesting from your social media marketing strategy more than you’ll ever have to put into it.

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Social Media & Marketing

fun imagery

by Kenneth Rudich              

Part 1 delved into using imagery and metaphors to help establish and communicate your brand.  The capacity to employ them wisely can build a strong emotional tie between your products and services and the people who buy them.             

the creative aspect

There is a creative component to doing this well.  It entails the art of producing imagery and metaphors that vividly and concisely convey an embraceable message, one that people can and will connect with.              

Some folks are more talented than others when it comes to doing this type of work.  A person that is adept at writing good ad copy, for example, will clearly stand apart from someone with a lesser ability.  A graphic artist or photographer with an astute eye will always find ways to create images that make amateurs pale by comparison.    

Never shy away from seeking the help of others with complementary skills, aptitudes, expertise, or experience.  Leverage the collective wisdom of the people you trust.  More often than not it will make a material difference, and you’ll be awfully glad you did it.             

the technical aspect

There is a technical facet to this as well, and it has nothing to do with technology per se.  By technical, I mean executing the communication strategy with clarity, consistency, and continuity.  This is something almost everyone can do as long as they remain vigilant about it.  It requires staying abreast of each key area:              

• clarity: making sure all imagery and metaphors clearly convey the desired message, tone, or image.
• consistency: once you’ve decided on a desired image or message, stick with it; treat it like an ongoing campaign; remember, it takes time and continual reinforcement to firmly establish a brand.
• continuity: make sure the same message is delivered across all your marketing platforms.

While this may seem simple on the surface, be forewarned that it is easy to lose sight of it over time.  We all get busy, and sometimes things inadvertently fall off our radar screen.             

a real world example 

The client is a sports bar and grill located in a city that is a popular tourist destination.  Consequently, tourists represent one important piece of the customer base.  Local clientele, particularly the regulars, comprise another.  None too surprisingly, the owner is interested in generating new traffic from both sources.             

The image or theme he wants to project is: “A Place for Social Interaction.”             

the physical premises

The physical premises reflect the work of an owner with close to thirty years experience in the business, almost ten at this location alone.  Operating from the notion that everything a customer sees and experiences will affect his business reputation, not a single detail has escaped attention:          

• the place is clean and appealing to the eye,
• the menu contains a good variety selection with reasonable prices (and daily specials),
• the staff is friendly (on a first name basis with customers) and service-oriented, 
• the general surroundings provide a veritable haven for sports enthusiasts – complete with modern amenities like 48 new flat screen tv’s, all sorts of satellite reception capabilities, a robust sound system, a billiards area, a rectangular bar with an unobstructed view of everything, a separate dining area, a patio overlooking a park with a small lake and disc golf course, three tabletop shuffleboard stations, and a section discretely set aside for accommodating private groups of up to 40 people.

Ultimately, the diverse clientele offers the best testament of just how inviting it all is.  They run the gamut, from young families to seniors to everyone in between.   And yes, it has a lively social atmosphere.            

the internet presence

The ad copy contains an exhaustive list of the bar’s features, like how many tv’s there are, or that the beer is kept cold, as opposed to focusing on giving customers a sense of why their experience here promises to be memorable.  It seems to say, “We built it so you should come,” rather than, “You’ll have a great time if you come.”  Plus, the landing page looks cluttered due to a poor layout design.
 
Perhaps livelier copy would be better suited for arousing interest:     

Oddly, the same copy neglects to mention certain key features like the capacity to entertain private groups, or how the owner gives back to the community through active participation in local civic affairs (which amounts to a lost opportunity for creating good will).        

And speaking of imagery, the “photos” page is entirely filled with pictures of an empty establishment.  It looks clean and modern, but empty.  Does the sight of empty chairs, empty tables, and empty stools insinuate “a place for social interaction” to you?  The imagery must match the perception you want to create.  In this case, there should be lots of pictures of lots of people having lots of fun in all sorts of ways.
 
Lastly, there’s an opportunity to further advance its socially-driven image through the launch of a strong social media strategy.  Such a strategy could become the virtual extension of “a place for social interaction” and become a nice vehicle for spreading word-of-mouth promotion, for holding contests, sharing information about daily specials and other notable events, and for getting new and current patrons even more invested in the social atmosphere.             

your brand, defend it

 A brand is the sum total of the experiences and exposure people have with it.  It’s in your best interest to always remain vigilant and defend it in every single piece of the marketing and promotion of it.

create interest

 by Kenneth Rudich

Some things are shrouded in secrecy.  This post is not one of them, however.  It comes straight from marketing 101. 

Be that as it may, there remains a chance you’ll still be glad for having read it just the same.  Sometimes it’s good to step back and take stock, just to make sure nothing comes up missing or seems out of place.   At any rate, let me know what you think about this piece, won’t you? 

the power of three

Three words describe marketing better than any others, and they should hereafter roll off your tongue with mantra-like ease.  They are awareness, interest, and action. 

awareness

Awareness amounts to getting the word out and around, and around, and around.  It all boils down to asking: who among my potential prospects is unaware my product exists, and how might I reach them to change that? 

The means and mechanisms for spreading awareness range from old to new.  It’s a dizzying array when you think about it.  Magazines, newspapers, radio, tv, billboards, business cards, fliers, signage, and good old fashion word-of-mouth all carry the well-worn stamp of having been time-tested.  The advent of the internet, on the other hand, has introduced previously unknown opportunities like social media, web sites, email, social bookmarking, blogs, discussion forums, and search engines.  And this is not anywhere near an exhaustive list of every possibility.  Think of the countless trinkets and gadgets bearing names and logos, or all the other points of visibility they’ve somehow managed to assume.   

Each alternative has its pros and cons, and not all of them are equally accessible or usable to everyone.  Some may be cost prohibitive for the sender; others may not reach the right audience.  Some can be carefully controlled; others invariably cannot.  Some lend greater credibility such as word-of-mouth among friends or other trusted sources; others get the nod because of their shock value or amazing ingenuity.   

It’s always advisable to have a clear reason or purpose for choosing the mechanisms you do employ, and to determine whether they should be used only as a one-off or as part of an ongoing campaign.  The term cross-platform marketing was coined to signify the importance of managing message consistency across the different communication channels, particularly if it’s in the context of a branding strategy.  In this case, each channel should be selected with the specific intent of it reinforcing or complementing the others.          

Also be sure to track the effectiveness of the reach of each channel – in other words, how many people is it reaching, does it appear to be reaching the right audience, and is it catching their attention long enough to create awareness?  After all, not even the seemingly free channels are genuinely free when you consider how much time they can consume.  If you’re not getting a good reach among your potential prospects, there’s little point in continuing to use the same channel(s). 

interest

Once you’ve reached your prospects, you have to capture their interest.  As anyone who has ever tried can readily attest, it’s not easy to cut through the clutter of messages that are already bombarding people left and right.    

The objective of creating interest is best served by promoting the benefits your product offers.   Sometimes messages of this kind contain information about the features of the product or service and then fail to mention the benefits.  Knowing about the features is not always the same as knowing about the benefits they deliver.  Insofar as you have only a minimal amount of time to make your message stick – think of your recipient as having a very small piece of it to spare – you must try to maximize the impact of it.  If you do mention a feature, make sure it either also conveys the benefit, or be sure to add that information along with it.  You might even consider whether you can get away with talking only about the benefits alone.  Never assume the recipient will figure out the benefits or automatically see them.  Be conspicuous when drawing attention to them.   

In an earlier post, “Creating Value…or Climbing Up a Waterfall?” I encouraged the idea of learning to speak directly to people’s motives and needs.  The ability to distinguish these motives and needs helps with evaluating how to frame the message for making it meaningful to your particular target audience.   

It also helps to know the difference between the mass communication information capabilities of some marketing channels and the customization capabilities of others.  There is a big difference between broadcast tv and, say, a social media tool.  Broadcast channels literally deliver a carefully packaged message, and they typically try to do so with a broad brush stroke.  Social media involves the nurturing of a conversation with a community of people.  As is the case with any conversation, it can move in various directions and cover a lot of ground.  Information in this channel is more likely to take on the characteristics of customization according to what people are interested in or what they already know and want to share about your product. 

action

After awareness and interest comes action.  In my estimation, there are two facets to the notion of action.  One is the call to action, and the other is the actual experience people have with the product or service while in the midst of using it. 

Once you’ve whet a prospect’s interest, the call to action prompts him or her to take the next step of using it.  It might be as simple as urging them to “act now,” or it might be in the form of some inducement such as a limited time offer, a coupon, or a free added extra thrown in as a bonus.   

You may need to distinguish between new customers, repeat customers, or returning customers in the call to action.  This is particularly true if a returning customer had a lackluster experience the last time around and has reservations because of it.  Or maybe something recently disclosed in the media has threatened to tarnish the brand image.  For instance, Toyota is currently dealing with the issue of a sticking gas pedal and the dangers it foreshadows.  Unless they can convince people they’ve identified the real source of the problem and fixed it, the next call to action is likely to fall flat. 

This brings us to the actual experience people have with the product or service.  Once you’ve created interest by telling them the benefits they will derive, you have to deliver fulfillment.  If that happens, you can then do a new call to action for getting them to come back again.  Or prompt them to spread the word among friends and associates for gaining more awareness. 

the mantra

As you can see, awareness, interest and action do not operate as individually separate or discrete functions.  Strong ties exist between them, and they must be managed in a way that makes them work in a harmonious fashion.  They may be three words but they make for one marketing mantra.   

Please share your thoughts and insights on this subject.  Should we delve more deeply into certain areas while ignoring others, or is there an altogether different approach that would work even better?