How Social Media Has Changed The Branding Game

In today’s world companies don’t have the same control over their brand as they used to.  Social media has, in a relatively short period of time, become a major outlet through which consumers can share their sentiments about brands.  Consumer’s voices can seemingly travel at the speed of light through blogs, bookmarking, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, MySpace and so many other social media networks enabling immediate sharing of brand perceptions. This confounds some companies as their old world methods of pushing out brand messaging as a means of control is no longer as effective as it once was.  Now, companies need to engage social media as a means to promote and protect their brands through direct conversations with consumers.

Companies must understand that social media is the new frontier that offers opportunities that were previously much harder, if not impossible to obtain.  What I mean, is the ability to listen to hundreds of conversations about their brands in real time.  Consumers are online all day, every day, sharing and tweeting away about how they feel.  Sentiment is oozing out of every social media channel and companies should not fear it, but instead, embrace it as the new life blood of branding.  The ability to listen and understand how consumers feel (whether good or bad), what is important to them and what their expectations are, are huge opportunities.

With the ability to listen and understand also comes the ability to have conversations and interact with consumers. If consumers think prices are too high, companies can reach out and ask why. If they feel customer service is terrible companies can ask how it can be improved.  If consumers don’t understand how to use a product, instruction and advice can immediately be offered.  If negative product reviews are posted, they can be found, analyzed and used to make product improvements.  Keep in mind that companies will hear positive feedback as well.  Consumers will rave about products when they like them.  Sometimes they will be specific right down to the features that excite them and in other instances they may tell others to buy products they recommend.  Through social media channels companies have access to all of this feedback and the ability to learn about and interact with consumers.

To take it a step further, companies can create strategies to engage with consumers.   There are many different strategies, depending on a company’s goals, but as an example, let’s consider price.  If a company notices a trend where consumers are consistently posting comments indicating that the price of a specific product is too high, and sales for the product are falling off, a company could offer a discount coupon.  The coupon offer could be communicated through Twitter, direct messaged, posted on blogs, referenced on Facebook, etc.  The coupon could be in the form of a simple code that could be obtained by clicking on a link, visiting a landing page, filling out a simple form (with the ability to opt-in) and then accessing the code to use to make a purchase.  Three major strategic initiatives are delivered through this scenario.  First, from a branding perspective you have sent out positive a message indicating you respond to customers sentiments.  They thought that the price was too high and you did something about it.  Second, sales were triggered by reacting positively to a negative perception.  Consumers weren’t buying because the price was too high, you in effect lowered the price and induced sales.  Third, you were able to build your permission database list as some of the customers that downloaded the coupon opted-in to receive future email communications from you.

In this example, social media channels were used to listen to consumers, understand them, react to them and ultimately turn one negative into three positives.  This is only one example of how Social media can be used to protect and enhance your brand.  The possibilities are truly endless and the value is priceless. As you can see, social media offers companies opportunities to get out there and electronically rub elbows with customers.  No matter what is being said, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, knowing about it and being able to respond effectively is fast becoming a matter of branding life or death.