I had an interesting conversation last week with the Chief Executive from one of Ireland's largest media agencies about the increasing importance of social media. We both agreed it is essential for most brands, as they look to connect in a meaningful way with their audiences. Many cohorts of the population in Ireland are now spending more time consuming social media daily than other channel, even TV. In fact, the user adoption rate for social media has been like nothing we have ever seen at any time in history.
However, despite the importance of social media, we both also agreed that brands need to spend a lot more time developing a strategic approach to their use of social media channels. Although it is an improving situation, brands are still not approaching their social media communications with the same level of planning rigour as they do when it comes to offline media. The tried-and-tested process involving a strategic 'big idea', insights gleaned from research, a specific target audience, defined objectives and a scrutinous approach to evaluation, will always deliver the best results, whether your communications are on or offline.
In recent times, brands have been diving into social media without a strategy, with the justification being "well, our competitors are doing it, so we should too". But that's simply not good enough. The blind leading the blind has never been a smart approach. What is a smart approach, is for brands to carefully consider what's right for their brands and their audience. A smart approach is to develop a social media strategy. In doing so, here are 5 'must haves' they should consider.
1. Match the Channel to the Audience
It seems like every other week we hear of another 'fastest growing social media channel in the world'. You just have to take a quick look over the
Brian Solis Conversation Prism to see the number of social media channels at play in the social media-sphere. But, do you need to be active on every single one? Absolutely not. You just have to be active on the ones that your audience is active on. Find out where your audience is hanging out online and be present there. And, don't just lazily share the same content across all channels, because that's not smart either. Adjust the content according to the channel.
2. Identify the Influencers
In his quite brilliant book
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discussed, what he called, the creation of 'social epidemics'. He talked about how to get ideas to spread. Although he wasn't specifically talking about the social media world, he did identify three types of people who are often responsible for creating social epidemics. He talked about (1) salesmen - people who can deliver a message in a persuasive and compelling manner, (2) mavens - people who feel a certain responsibility to share the knowledge they have acquired on a certain subject, in order to help others make informed buying decisions, and (3) connectors - people who, as a result of the massive number of connections they have in their social network, possess 'raw transmission power'. All of these people exist on social channels. Your job is to find them. Whether they be an affiliate organisation with a shared objective (salesmen), an informative blog that your audience trusts (mavens) or an individual with the power to spread influential messages to their couple of thousand online 'friends' (connectors), they can help you spread your message. And, when they spread the message, they will do so in a much more powerful way than you ever could.
3. Give Your Content 'Stickiness'
The thing is, influencers do not spread any content. They only spread interesting content. And, it doesn't really matter if
you find it interesting, they will only share the content if
they find it interesting (and if they feel their audience will too). You have to make sure you give your content, what Gladwell calls, 'stickiness'. The content has to stick to them almost everywhere they go as they interact with others. They must feel compelled to talk about it. Your content must be, as Seth Godin calls, 'remark-able', in other words, it must make people able to make a remark upon. Content that is explicitly promotional in nature doesn't tend to be sticky enough to get shared. Content must be entertaining. Think, what will make people laugh? Would people like to see a sneak view behind the scenes? What is the personality of our brand and how can we communicate that? You must find out what your audience is interested in and talk about that.
4. Be Transparent
There have been numerous examples of companies trying to be too smart about getting their message to spread. Like the Carlton Hotel who ("allegedly") asked their staff to post fake positive reviews on TripAdvisor, in order to boost its online ratings and influence people's decision making. They even asked their staff to use PCs that were offsite, so IP addresses could not be traced back to the hotel group. When
Conor Pope from The Irish Times exposed the story and their cunning plan, it all backfired on them pretty badly. You cannot expect to get away with being false on social media. You will get found out, so don't do it. It's a much better approach to be honest, credible and transparent.
5. Monitor Online Conversations
We know that word-of-mouth has always been important, probably never more so than in today's highly connected social world. But, in the past, when people were engaging in social chatter that was influencing others and shaping their opinions, we didn't have the ability to listen in. Now we do. By means of many social media monitoring tools (
Radian6 being one example), we can tune into such consumer communications and know what messages are spreading and how fast. It would be well advisable for all brands to monitor what is being said about their brand, their competitors, their industry and their audience's interests. After all, it is these conversations that really matter at the end of the day. People are no longer passive consumers of content, they are now active producers of it too. Of this fact, brands need to take note and listen.
In truth, you don't
do social, you
be social. And although you will need to react to what's happening in the news or talk about events taking place that are of interest to your audience, brands really need to work to a structured plan for their social media communications, just like they do with any other channel. In fact, given the rising importance of all things social, this is probably even more important.
Salespeople do need to be good communicators and, in particular, convey messages that are persuasive. However, listening is more important in communication than talking. A good salesperson talks when it is appropriate to do so. They talk when they fully understand their prospect's situation, something they achieve through asking the right open questions and actively listening. And when they do this, people on the buying side feel like they are being guided through the buying process rather than being sold to. So, really there's no need to go kissing the Blarney stone. Keeping your mouth shut is, at times, of more benefit.
