Paul Miser

In a recent article, AdAge discusses the use of “special personal relationships” with consumers as advertising fodder for several brands. The idea of using singular relationships with consumers as messaging is a great idea from the outside looking in, but aren’t we setting a standard that companies have yet to practice? Shouldn’t I, as a special consumer, expect the same, if not better, treatment with my experience with a particular brand? This communication sets a precedent of a certain level of expectation… One that many companies can’t or won’t strive to meet.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe this is the direction that brands should travel. I wholeheartedly believe that the future of marketing isn’t marketing at all, but a combination of strong relationship building with awe-inspiring experiences built in. With that said, I’m not sure we’re quite there as brands (or as consumers for that matter).

As these expectations rise, I challenge all marketers to strive to achieve what we are communicating… Personal experiences with each of our consumers.

As I continue on in my new venture, I have to continually take a step back in what I’ve been brainwashed into thinking when it comes to Social Media. As companies continue to quickly run into the space to play catch up with the Starbucks of the world for sheer size of community and thinking of individuals within that community as a media measurement, they are missing out and passing by some amazing opportunities. Real life relationships with customers, real life engagement with individuals, a chance to change minds, an opportunity to support or celebrate, to laugh and cry… That’s what companies are missing. On the quest to 1 million fans on Facebook, the real value has been shot out the window. I’m taking a pledge here to never forget what “Social” media is all about… relationships.

Here’s a list of things that I’m finding again:

• Plan for value – Foundational strategies are great, but the true essence is the value you exchange with the community
• Engage - I mean truly engage… have your community manager really make an effort to meet and greet any new members in the community and try to understand what they want out the relationship.
• Deliver - Make promises that you over deliver on. If someone comes on board to learn, give them something to learn. If you tout your community as a thought leader, make sure you’re a thought leader.
• Take a deep breath – A past co worker had a great picture of a marathoner crossing the finish line to epitomize social media. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. Slow down. Value the people you have in your community. Add value every step of the way. They are your key to social media success.

I challenge you, social marketing ninja/guru/honcho/etc to take a step back and identify what it is you truly are doing? Are you social or are you just another metric on a scorecard? Do you truly engage or are you pushing message and praying for a “Like?” Now is a great time to reexamine what we’re doing.

What could you do different?

Social media is a strong force in the marketing world today. By utilizing the power of trust, sharing and interaction, brands can build personal relationships with individuals within a community to help meet business objectives (increased brand awareness, enhanced conversions, amplified customer service, etc). However, social media takes time and diligence to not only engage a community, but acquire and invite individuals to a value-added community.

The first step to a strong social media strategy and presence is the foundational community. Below are tactical activities a brand can perform to develop an acquisition strategy to build the most targeted, highly engaged community base and foundation. Working with a combination of Paid, Owned and Earned Media strategies, a brand will enhance its digital footprint and build the social credibility necessary to acquire the best community members.

Paid Media

Paid media is the easiest and most efficient way to generate a large number of Fans quickly. By using a combination of current traditional advertising and strategic social advertising, we can acquire and build a strong foundation of highly targeted, highly engaged individuals to our community. Below are some steps brands should take to begin integrating paid media into their acquisition strategy.

Facebook
Engagement Ads. Drive awareness and engagement through the various types of ads that Facebook has available. The more engaging and relevant the ad, the more likely the user is to click and interact with it. Be sure to target the audience accordingly and align ad content with the interests of the user.

Twitter
Promoted Tweets. Promote keywords or hashtags within tweets to drive awareness of an idea, theme or account. Aligning keywords with the brand message will ensure connection with the message.

Promoted Accounts. Twitter allows for accounts to be promoted on the “Logged in” Twitter home page. The promoted accounts will align with the content that the user has posted or has within his/her profile. Build the best following base by aligning content with brand messaging.

Traditional
Use all paid and offline activities to increase awareness of the social platforms through traditional efforts. Examples could include tags on TV spots, print collateral, callouts on digital banners, in-store signage, etc.

Owned Media

As a brand, we own a lot of assets — website, micro sites, emails, other social platforms, etc. Through strategic placement and use of these assets, we can deliver a high level of community activation through owned media. Below are strategic examples of how to deliver results to community activation.

On site. Promote the social platforms on all websites with relevant and prominent calls to action on the page. For Facebook, a brand can use the “Like Box” plug-in to allow the visitor to “Like” the brand’s Facebook Fan page directly from the brand sites.

Email database. As with all websites, all email newsletters can have a callout and a link to the social platforms. When launching a new social platform, sending an email specifically announcing the launch will provide a great response and community growth.

Email signatures. Promoting all social platforms within company email signatures is a passive approach to drive awareness and acquisition to the social communities.

Cross-promote. When possible, cross-promoting the various social platforms on the other platforms in the community could be very beneficial. Promoting the content that is provided on the other social platforms could enhance this cross engagement and acquisition.

Incent community. Engaging and incenting the community that we acquire during activation or content activities can enhance reach and social credibility. Creating contests or sweepstakes that ask community members to upload content, share content or reach a certain number of fans has proven to be highly successful during acquisition campaigns.

Earned Media

Use the power of influential voices and social credibility to drive awareness, traffic and activation to a brand’s social community. Below are some activities a brand can perform to build a strong earned media acquisition strategy and ongoing stream of activation.

Influencer outreach. Use the power of influential voices by reaching out and building relationships with key influencers across channels. Develop a strategy to incent the influencers to discuss the brand efforts and drive traffic to the social platforms.

Content. Content is a strong driver for enhancing engagement and sharing, which in turn increases message reach, traffic to social sites and acquisition of new community members. The social credibility that the content interactions create builds stronger relationships with influential people in the community.

Enhance sharing. Engaging content is the first step to sharing. The second is to simply ask for it. With a strong relationship with our community members, we have enough trust to ask them to share content if they like it, which leads to reach, social credibility and community acquisition.

Third-party content creation. While building relationships with key influencers (both on and off of our social platforms) we can ask them to produce content for our social communities. This strategy will continue to enhance social credibility and increased reach through the influencer’s community and network.

Third-party content distribution. Vice versa. Influencers are continuously looking for valuable content for their network. With relationships built with key influencers, we can ask what type of content they are looking to create for their community and provide that content for them to distribute through their network. Delivering messages in this way will enhance our social credibility and will drive traffic and acquisition to our social communities.

Conclusion

Building a strong community is a strategic combination of advertising, relationship building and adding value every day for the social media strategy. Brands should ensure their digital and physical footprint is connected and cross-promoted to allow the most effective sharing of content and passing of information —all of which continues the acquisition of a community and adds value for its members.

Download the PDF:  How to: Grow a Social Community