Social Media

The emergence of social networks such as mySpace and Facebook, the ethereal “blogosphere”, and microblogging platforms such as Twitter have opened up new ways for brands to interact with their customers – and in the social media environment, “interaction” means dialogue. This presents enormous opportunities for brands wishing to genuinely engage with their customers. Indeed, creating a social network presence in these environments is of increasing importance for marketers wishing to keep their brands relevant and contemporary. At a utility level, it provides unprecedented opportunities to communicate quickly, frequently and cost-efficiently with brand-disposed consumers.

However, this notion of interactivity is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, this new willingness for customers to engage openly presents a range of new opportunities. Just a few to have emerged recently include

• building brand-based communities as low-cost instant focus groups
• Including comments and rankings on key web pages to identify and involve active customers in R&D activities,
• creating corporate blogs and use regular blog posts to keep the brand top of mind, and
• Utilising Twitter to drive awareness and distribute time-limited special offers.

Each week, new ways to save money and harness brand-friendly consumers are reported in various industry blogs.

On the other hand, whilst open and direct dialogue with customers is a marketers dream, it can present some nightmare resourcing issues. not all mentions of the brand are positive – and not all take placce within earshot of the brand. Monitoring and responding to brand references across the blogosphere, managing community traffic and maintaining the currency of a brand’s social network assets often requires new knowledge and differing skillsets, and places additional strain upon already under-resourced marketing teams.

If you are unsure if or how to involve your brand with social media and microblogging, and would like some help, contact me to discuss how I can add value.