How to cultivate personal relationships with your brand
By Jordan Cohen, Director, Marketing & New Media
Most brands treat social media as an avenue to get out their new products and special offers. They post and post and post and push out information as if it were a print ad or web advertisement. While occasional offer and product posts are acceptable, that should not be the sole way your brand reaches out to the social media community.
Consumers are smarter today, and those savvy on social media can be even smarter. The majority of their interaction with your brand on social media isn’t going to be through what you’re posting, but what their friends and followers are posting about your brand instead. They are able to navigate the social highway to find out what others think about your brand and learn about past interactions with both your products/services as well as those who represent your company.
How do you speak for your brand on social media to take advantage of this type of interaction?
Now take the tape off your brand’s mouth and give it a voice on social media already!
The voice created by your brand on social media can be fun, witty, or straight to the point. No matter what strategy you choose, it allows you to personify your brand even further than it already is. Brands are aspirational, and you want customers to become friends with your brand on social media because they would be friends with it in real life (if it were a person of course).
Social media is where your brand finally gets not only a voice, but a real time one. Your brand can have a discussion with current and future customers:
- Jill just had a bad experience with your service and decided to complain about it via Twitter. Your brand can respond to her directly letting her know that your brand cares about her concern and engage in a conversation on how your brand can be better.
- Gary just posted a picture on Facebook of your product breaking after only a couple of uses. Your brand can let him know about how to get a new one and give him usage guidelines so that won’t happen again.
- Andy is looking to purchase a new widget, but he’s not sure which one is best for his needs, so he takes to Twitter to ask his followers which one will fit his needs the best. Your brand can respond directly to him letting him know why you are the best widget brand for him and where he can buy you with a direct link.
The best brands on social media do this regularly. They search out their most vocal critics and supporters on the different social networks and engage them in meaningful dialogue. Others are able to see or search for this interaction, share it, or even decide to join in the conversation. All the while, people are sharing the content with their friends and followers through their Facebook Walls or Twitter Feeds.
I know what you’re thinking; this is easier said than done. The reality is that it’s just an area where marketing and customer service collide. Both are areas that your brand already succeeds in, so it’s just executing them together in a new medium. Now take the tape off your brand’s mouth and give it a voice already on social media!
