Social Media Marketing Takes Guts and Commitment
Have you been thinking about adding some social media to your interactive marketing mix but haven’t pulled the trigger? Perhaps something like a blog, or an app on your site to display user ratings or comments? If you’re hesitating, chances are that you’re short on resources to maintain these channels or that you’re feeling apprehensive due to the potential liability that comes with increased transparency. Social media marketing can do well to foster trust and deepen your relationship with customers but it takes guts and commitment to do it right - there’s no way around that.
Overcoming the Challenges
The most common barriers to entry into social media marketing are resources and perceived liability. The resource issue can be resolved to a large degree by hiring 3rd party experts to manage your social media channels for you. Blogs are one exception. They generally require more attention from an individual at your organization because people expect them to be authored by one person, and to demonstrate that person’s unique point-of-view. Getting outside help to generate blog content can compromise their authenticity, and take them out of their intimate context which renders them dysfunctional in most cases. Getting some help from the outside however will never completely replace the need for someone at your firm to own it on your side and provide the outside team with direction.
Resources will always be scarce until something is made a priority. There’s plenty of evidence now to prove the value of social media and the positive impact it can have for brands, so there is little doubt or argument around that issue. It follows then that it should become a higher priority, deserving of a legitimate budget and staff. However, too often firms still treat social media as an after-thought. Until it moves up to a peer level at least with the other marketing tactics in the mix, it will be difficult to execute a sustainable social media marketing program.
Every genuine social media marketing effort embraces the inherent transparency of the channel. Doing so sends a signal to your customers that you have nothing to hide and makes you more credible in their eyes. One company a couple of years ago went as far as displaying live, unfiltered customer comments predominantly on their home page. Needless to say, not all of them were positive. And there were some abuses. But the company stuck to their guns, proceeded with guts, and maintained a confident yet humble position. According to this company, they experienced a significant increase in brand trust, which they measured in a large part by listening to conversations about their brand through social media channels. This level of exposure frightens most marketers. Until recently, marketing has been a controlled environment, through a one-way communication channel. Letting go of that control is scary, but the rewards can be great if done correctly.
Embracing transparency is key. To not do it is to work against the natural grain of social media, so if you’re not willing to put yourself out there then it isn’t right for you. But once you do commit and expose yourself in a social environment to unfettered customer input, it helps to have a plan in place to mitigate the risk that comes along with it. Most companies find it helpful to have a set of social media guidelines that include procedures and policies for responding to negative comments and interactions. There are some best practices that, if followed, can diffuse just about any flare up with grace and dignity.
The Dangers of Doing it Wrong
Once you decide to engage in some social media marketing, there’s a few common pitfalls to avoid:
- Stale, abandoned content is a poor reflection on the brand. This is another place to emphasize the importance of commitment. It’s worse to launch a social media presence and let it die out, than to not do it at all. So make sure you have long-term vision and a sustainable strategy for maintaining your social media channels at the onset, including personnel changes, updates to your products and services, etc.
- Over-censoring user input, such as comments, ratings, etc. can harm your brand by breaching trust. Instead, listen to what your customers are saying and look at any negative comments as an opportunity to learn something and improve your offering. It’s invaluable feedback and once you view it as such, new ways to innovate suddenly reveal themselves. Don’t fear transparency, embrace it.
- Over-selling your products and services via social media is, well, unsocial. It turns people off. Instead, empower your customers with a voice and deliver content and online services to them that is about them, not you. This will cause them to engage with you on a whole new level that is nearly impossible to achieve through traditional media.
Social media marketing is young, the technology enabling it is evolving at a break-neck pace and there’s much we’re learning about it everyday. If you make it a priority, secure the necessary resources, have a solid vision, a good strategy to mitigate risk, and embrace transparency, you’ll be more likely to win your customers’ approval to the point where they’re doing a significant portion of your marketing for you. Because in the end, what’s more powerful than word-of-mouth? It’s a gradual process getting there though and more than anything, it takes guts and commitment.
