Social marketing doesn’t follow the same type of rules that past marketing tactics once did, nor does it feel as formal as they used to. That’s because the new social media is not all one-way, as the old advertising campaigns were. Social media today has opened up a conversation in which customers expect to be listened to and treated with respect.
Never Lose Sight Of Who Your Consumers Are!
The first time people feel they’re being disrespected or viewed as merely a means to the company’s ends, the business could suffer bad publicity through these very same social media avenues.
Using a very basic scenario, lets say you are going to set up a blog, Facebook Page and also join twitter as your social marketing strategy. Facebook allows the company to post updates about services, as well as listing surveys for your customers or even general company notices about events that are taking place in your business, and by asking questions such as, “How would you like this kind of product?” or “What improvements can we make?” As individuals become fans of the company, his or her friends are alerted, and some will probably follow them there. They engage with the company and each other, and the page turns into a social marketing website and having the fans often doing as much promoting as the company.
You Can Compliment Your Social Marketing With A Blog
A blog, including the occasional video blog, allows the company to do reviews of its products or services, while other posts are written to discuss the general use of these products, or the trends in the industry. As long as there is ongoing valuable information here as well as self-promotional material, people will keep returning. If the company also sets up a Flickr photo site to showcase its products, then this social marketing tool could allow customers to send in their own photographs of these products as they are being used. These photos can be linked to in blog posts on Facebook or on Twitter.
Twitter Is Another Essential Social Marketing Tool
Twitter, of course, is another social marketing tool that really highlights the two-way conversation customers now expect from companies, because communication happens in real time. The company social media liaison can search for people’s tweets asking about certain products, and respond immediately. Or new products or special deals can be announced and responded to within moments. A social media strategy involving Twitter keeps company representatives on their toes. However, all of the new media sites do this because they keep the business and its lifeblood, its customers, in close contact.
Always Remember This When Using Social Media Marketing
Everyone has heard the phrase on some company help line: “Your call is important to us.” And they know this is just a business marketing strategy to keep them from blowing their stack as they wait forty five minutes to talk to someone who clearly has no interest in how a product isn’t working as advertised, and who offers little actual help. It may not look like it now, but that corporate attitude is on the way out, as the new social media marketing gradually moves in. The new social media will soon be one of the primary marketing tools of corporations, which involves a genuine two-way conversation between equals and is absolutely required or these companies will suddenly find themselves losing business.
Pace Lattin is one of the top professionals in online advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his ethics and dedication in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the internet industry. Free reprint available from: What Methods To Utilize For Social Marketing.
