How Engagement vs Marketing
This blog site is devoted to social media marketing, but many of the topics I’ll cover
have more to do with consumer engagement, customer service, and building
brand equity than with direct-response advertising. People participate in social
media for fun. They’re eager to connect with friends and family, and they’re
increasingly willing to bring trusted brands into that circle of relationship. But
there are limits to the connection people really want with companies on social
media. Consumers have intangible but real boundaries when it comes.
receiving promotional pitches through social channels.
One good way to reach your online community with new products, deals, and
offers is to leverage the power of word of mouth. Consumers feel better about,
and place more trust in, the purchase advice they get from friends. Social
networks are a great place to pursue word-of-mouth marketing, build brand
reputation, deepen your relationship with existing customers, and practice a soft
sell.
E-mail and direct mail remain the dominant ways to sell to your customers. Yet,
a surprising 20% of consumers say they have made a purchase in response to a
marketing message on Facebook.
Research has demonstrated a strong correlation between people “liking” a brand
on social media and doing more business with that brand. However, a 2012 study
found that many consumers are lukewarm about receiving promotional messages
from brands they “friend.”
3 While 40% of social media users “like” businesses
in order to receive special discounts and promotions, another 40% say they don’t
believe that “liking” a brand on Facebook entitles the brand to market to them
via the newsfeed. Clearly, the commercialization of social media is a touchy
subject and a rapidly evolving one!
Facebook keeps getting richer, as a user experience and as a place for businesses
to build communities and advertise for customers. The site continues to grow
because new users, merely curious at first, often become addicted to the site.
Contrast that with many other social networks, where curious newcomers tend to
kick the tires, get bored, and quit coming back.
The list of top business Facebook pages, measured by “likes,” is dominated by
celebrities, games, entertainment, and utilities. With buzz, critical mass, and
momentum on their side, these multimillion-fan communities are growing.
media sites. In other words, Twitter is visited less frequently by its members than
are the “stickier” networks, namely Facebook and YouTube.
Twitter users’ minimal time on site could further the impression that the network
is an also-ran. But that impression would be mistaken.
Part of Twitter’s appeal is efficiency: its stripped-down 140-character posts and
messages, simple keyword and hashtag-driven searches, and clean, scrolling
activity feed can deliver a wealth of information in minutes or even seconds.
Twitter is part microblogging service, part social network. It excels as a special-
interest news aggregation tool, a trend-spotting engine, and a vehicle for finding,
following, and connecting with like-minded people.
Twitter is one of the least reciprocal of social networks: unlike Facebook or
LinkedIn, where friends and connections communicate one-to-one, Twitter’s
“followers” model encourages thousands and even millions of users to subscribe
to the posts of the most influential voices in the Twitter community.
Tip Twitter is more of a publishing platform than a social network. To flourish
on Twitter, target a clear topical niche and bring out your inner People magazine
editor—zero in on trending topics in your market and craft headlines that will
grab your readers’ attention.
That characteristic makes some high-profile Twitter accounts more like a brand
page on Facebook—and also something of a “Publishing 2.0” model, the
vanguard of digital journalism. Some of the best fits for Twitter are providers of
news, expertise, tips, insight, inspiration, and gossip.
Major brands, celebrities, and other high-profile personalities are often
impersonated or copycatted by unauthorized, unofficial Twitter profiles. Twitter
combats the practice by bestowing a blue checkmark “verified badge” on
authentic profiles. But don’t expect a verified badge if you’re just a regular Joe
—these badges are mostly added for VIPs on a “don’t call us, we’ll call you”
basis. Says Twitter of its verification program: “We concentrate on highly sought
users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media,
advertising, business, and other key interest areas. We verify business partners
from time to time and individuals at high risk of impersonation.”
7
That said, if you detect fake or misleading profiles of your company or brand, or
of high-profile people in your organization, do reach out to Twitter to see if the
company will verify your username.
Facebook makes it easy to attract hundreds and thousands of fans, but the
platform makes it difficult to communicate directly with them. Twitter, on the
other hand, allows you to publicly message anyone—and to directly message
any of your followers.
The beauty of Twitter is how easy it is to find experts, bloggers, tastemakers,
real-world journalists, specialists, and consultants. By tracking Twitter
conversations, hashtags, and trends for your own keywords, you can speedily
identify influential people in your industry or marketplace. Follow them, retweet
them when you like their stuff, and reach out to them with comments on their
tweets.
If you’re a B2B professional using Twitter, you can boost your profile by
publishing thoughtful posts about your industry. You can follow and connect
with business journalists, conference organizers, professional organizations,
potential vendors, partners, and future customers.
Twitter has developed an API so outside developers can integrate their
applications with it, but the platform is a lot simpler than Facebook—it’s still
basically a messaging platform and news aggregator. Twitter’s mission statement
is clear. It urges users to “Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people
and organizations you care about.”
Twitter’s value proposition to businesses is that the platform can provide “brand
lift,” CRM, and direct sales.
These are the best ways to leverage Twitter’s power:
Develop a publishing presence with an elevator pitch that makes it
appealing to follow. If you can’t squeeze all your messaging into one clear
theme, consider establishing multiple Twitter feeds. Dell Computer, for
instance, maintains dozens of mission-specific handles, for Dell Outlet, Dell
Home, small business, customer care, investor relations, corporate social
responsibility, all its different multinationals, and of course the personal
handle of founder Michael Dell.
Monitor the “Twitterverse” for brand mentions, and follow active Twitter
users in your market. Following others is the best way to gain followers.
Retweet positive brand messages posted by your followers and brand
loyalists.
Run occasional trend campaigns, where you encourage (or even
incentivize) followers to retweet your message if they like or support it.
Customize your profile-page background.
Add Twitter logos and widgets to your site.
Amplify your message with Twitter advertising programs like Promoted
Accounts, Promoted Tweets, and Promoted Trends.
Retweeting is coin of the realm on Twitter, and it’s the best evidence that your
message is resonating with its audience. Here are strategies to get more retweets
and generate viral word of mouth:
Channel your inner People magazine editor. Compose Tweets that are
catchy and compelling, including “top 10” lists, tips, bests and worsts, and
so forth.
Tweet at the right time: day of the week and hour of the day are critical if
you want attention. Your Tweets should appear onscreen when your
followers are awake and most likely to be looking at their Twitter feed
Don’t batch your tweets. Even if you write most of your posts in
concentrated bursts, that’s not the way to publish them—a steady cadence is
best.
Use popular, trending hashtags if they’re relevant to your market. And
invent and promote your own hashtags.
Periodically update, revise, and repost your own Tweets. You may feel
you’re repeating yourself, but 99% of your followers will miss your posts
the first time around. That’s just the way Twitter rolls … er, scrolls.
Although it’s tempting to automate for the sake of efficiency, I don’t recommend
that you put your following or replying on autopilot. There are too many
spammers out there to make it sensible for businesses to auto-follow whoever
follows them. The same goes for “thanks for the follow” automatic messages.
Hold yourself to a higher standard. Big or small, your program should have as its
goal the establishment of real interactions with real stakeholders in (and
potential ambassadors for) your brand. Taking a few seconds to see who each.
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