Social media is all the buzz these days: from lunchtime business shows discussing the impact of Twitter on local businesses to brands promoting themselves using Facebook pages. It seems that every business, from the local coffee shop to the town's plumber is joining the social revolution either through their own efforts or by hiring a social media agency. So why are so many companies joining these sites and promoting their products and services? The answer revolves around their reach, their ability to reward loyalty and their price-point, which for most is free.
Both Twitter and Facebook are large social networks, both with high percentages of the young affluent as members. While Twitter is more exclusive, their members tend to be opinion formers and influencers within their social groups, leading to promotion being more effective per member. Due to using a system of following, where each user chooses who they wish to read the 'tweets' of in a non-reciprocal manner, some users will have far more influence than others. This leads to the phenomenon of local experts who have large followings in their communities and are thus useful for brands to gain a following by.
The functionality of Twitter and Facebook differs substantially, as does their number of users. Facebook is a substantially larger social network, although it is less suited to gaining new customers than building brand loyalty due to its lack of ability to repost marketing messages. However the ability to post messages to followers is a great way of building brand loyalty and engaging existing customers.
The correct implementation of a marketing campaign on the networks is key for growth of your followers. Without a carefully considered marketing campaign your tweets and posts can go unread as only your already loyal customers will be engaged with your accounts. For many this is a reason to turn towards a social media agency for advice. Examples of promoting engagement which have been successful for small businesses include low-value product give-aways and competitions that focus around rewarding promoting the brand. Using a site like competwition for Twitter give-aways can dramatically increase the number of ways to promote your brand. There are risks with these however and thus factors such as how attractive an offer is and if the dynamics of the offer will lead to followers promoting the offer to their friends or keeping it themselves.
A small Oxford-based chain of ice cream parlours began giving away small numbers of low value ice-cream products to the first few followers of its tweets who showed staff the tweet offering a free product. The cost of such an offer was minimal and often would pay for itself through the purchase of other products by the customer or those who accompanied them. The main effect however was to create a reason for people to follow the brand - followers who weren't able to benefit from the offer directly would retweet it to their friends, who would then start following the cafe and lead to more potential customers seeing the offers and decide to give it ago.
Not every company has a product that can be given away however and for these, competition to win a higher value of product can be more successful. A record shop gained a large positive brand recognition among thousands of Facebook users in its area by implementing a giveaway competition that engaged with the social aspects of these networks. They took their mascot out into a high street and got people to enter the competition by standing next to it and having their photo taken. These would be uploaded to the record shop's Facebook page and the users would tag themselves. The person who got the largest number of their friends to like the photo of themselves with the mascot would win 250 worth of music. The campaign was successful because it encouraged people to promote the brand with a potentially large reward for someone they knew but with little effort required on their part. As the entrants to the competition were limited, there was no disincentive to promote others.
Use of social network marketing isn't without potential pitfalls however. The most oft-cited reason for poor engagement with users is over-posting, which is often seen by your customers as spam. To avoid this think carefully about the frequency and the content of your posts, especially on Twitter which unlike Facebook does not have frequency controls on what users see.
As well as promotion both social networks are great as feedback mechanisms with your customers. Both allow questions from your customers to be posted to you to which you can respond. This isn't without dangers though, as especially on Facebook these questions can be easily seen by your followers and can lead to brand damage if you have an unhappy customer. One of the benefits of hiring a social media agency is that they can monitor your customer feedback continuously and answer questions while you sleep.
Both Twitter and Facebook are large social networks, both with high percentages of the young affluent as members. While Twitter is more exclusive, their members tend to be opinion formers and influencers within their social groups, leading to promotion being more effective per member. Due to using a system of following, where each user chooses who they wish to read the 'tweets' of in a non-reciprocal manner, some users will have far more influence than others. This leads to the phenomenon of local experts who have large followings in their communities and are thus useful for brands to gain a following by.
The functionality of Twitter and Facebook differs substantially, as does their number of users. Facebook is a substantially larger social network, although it is less suited to gaining new customers than building brand loyalty due to its lack of ability to repost marketing messages. However the ability to post messages to followers is a great way of building brand loyalty and engaging existing customers.
The correct implementation of a marketing campaign on the networks is key for growth of your followers. Without a carefully considered marketing campaign your tweets and posts can go unread as only your already loyal customers will be engaged with your accounts. For many this is a reason to turn towards a social media agency for advice. Examples of promoting engagement which have been successful for small businesses include low-value product give-aways and competitions that focus around rewarding promoting the brand. Using a site like competwition for Twitter give-aways can dramatically increase the number of ways to promote your brand. There are risks with these however and thus factors such as how attractive an offer is and if the dynamics of the offer will lead to followers promoting the offer to their friends or keeping it themselves.
A small Oxford-based chain of ice cream parlours began giving away small numbers of low value ice-cream products to the first few followers of its tweets who showed staff the tweet offering a free product. The cost of such an offer was minimal and often would pay for itself through the purchase of other products by the customer or those who accompanied them. The main effect however was to create a reason for people to follow the brand - followers who weren't able to benefit from the offer directly would retweet it to their friends, who would then start following the cafe and lead to more potential customers seeing the offers and decide to give it ago.
Not every company has a product that can be given away however and for these, competition to win a higher value of product can be more successful. A record shop gained a large positive brand recognition among thousands of Facebook users in its area by implementing a giveaway competition that engaged with the social aspects of these networks. They took their mascot out into a high street and got people to enter the competition by standing next to it and having their photo taken. These would be uploaded to the record shop's Facebook page and the users would tag themselves. The person who got the largest number of their friends to like the photo of themselves with the mascot would win 250 worth of music. The campaign was successful because it encouraged people to promote the brand with a potentially large reward for someone they knew but with little effort required on their part. As the entrants to the competition were limited, there was no disincentive to promote others.
Use of social network marketing isn't without potential pitfalls however. The most oft-cited reason for poor engagement with users is over-posting, which is often seen by your customers as spam. To avoid this think carefully about the frequency and the content of your posts, especially on Twitter which unlike Facebook does not have frequency controls on what users see.
As well as promotion both social networks are great as feedback mechanisms with your customers. Both allow questions from your customers to be posted to you to which you can respond. This isn't without dangers though, as especially on Facebook these questions can be easily seen by your followers and can lead to brand damage if you have an unhappy customer. One of the benefits of hiring a social media agency is that they can monitor your customer feedback continuously and answer questions while you sleep.
About the Author:
Visit Branded3.com a Digital Company in Leeds, for help and advice on increasing your online social media presence.
No comments:
Post a Comment