Corporate Social Media Marketing

Social media is changing the way business is done. More and more brands are experimenting with social media yet it seems as if many are only doing it to tick off social media on their marketing activities list. Very few brands invest time in creating a social media strategy and plan of action and even fewer have someone dedicated to the social media activities of the brand.

Social media should form part of every brand’s communications strategy, although it is imperative that brands realise social media shifts the power to consumers. Anyone can be a publisher and the Internet allows information, whether good or bad, to spread far and fast. Social media is not just another marketing channel to push marketing messages through.

Brands can learn plenty by listening (monitoring) what is being said about their brands on the World Wide Web. Google Alerts is a free tool that notifies you when your brand is mentioned with a link to the original mention. Search.twitter.com is another handy tool to see what is being said about your brand on Twitter.

By focusing on building relationships and not on the number of fans and / or followers a brand can achieve elevated ROI. In order to build relationships a brand has to make connections with followers and fans by engaging with them. Engagement can comprise responding to questions as well as offering advice and assistance.

When your brand is mentioned it is important to have a presence, whether the comments are positive or negative. Things can (and most likely will) go wrong therefore it is vital to have a response strategy in place. If it is a positive comment acknowledge the mention. In the case of a negative comment, you have two options: Ignore the comment and commit social media suicide or respond to the comment. When responding attempt to offer a solution as well as take the conversation offline by including a contact email address. Do not copy and paste a generic response, this is even worse than not responding. Write like a person, one that cares.

It is important for brands to realise that even though some comments are going to be negative these comments create opportunity for the brand to improve and build customer loyalty and brand awareness. All social media can be used to enhance customer service, for example Twitter has been working well for FNB.

When executed correctly social media can positively influence your brand’s reputation, enhance brand awareness, influence purchasing decisions and stimulate positive word-of-mouth.

More guidelines for corporate social media marketing:

- Be consistent with social media activities
- Determine on which platforms your target audience is spending their time and focus on an familiarise yourself with those
- Nurture your network
- Link to industry related articles, not just the brands blog posts, press releases and so forth
- Give content of value
- Always respond to comments within 24 hours
- Speak / write like a person