“We in business are orientated by facts not emotions, while consumers in so many social settings are orientated by emotions not always by the facts.”
Our attention and transactional DNA’s have evolved. Our personal, mobile and business fabric of engagements have morphed. We keep a glowing mobile device at our sides 24 hours a day shuttling across the globe and back in mere nano-seconds. Hyper-changing short product and app-life cycles have caused positive disruption, global opportunities, competitive danger and of course, vast unyielding confusion. We in business are orientated by facts not emotions, while consumers in so many social settings are orientated by emotions not always by the facts. Confusion prevails, opportunity abounds, social-seeding strategies catalyst brand determination, brand infatuation, brand admiration.
We know there is always opportunity in confusion, in disruption but first we find opportunity in reconciliation: smart affinity to command the fast paced social networking world we troll through. We know “the very best opportunities in business lie in danger. Welcome to the danger of missing the opportunity of social networking.” The gambit of competitive predating and preying through social change, through social networking is already here: is already working hard for social centric brands. Today brand awareness, brand “bed side manner” is indeed much more than just a social grace, a social glance.
Opportunity itself is why we conduct phatic brand discourse indispensable to maintaining constant and frequent social connections amongst our most important consumers. All for the purpose of future, more substantial brand communion; for the purpose of ensuring competitive advantage through a changing multi-color, multi-modal precision toolbox of smart social marketing.
Savvy social network actualizing is designed to advantage your brand reaches and engages with your very best, most relevant consumers to gain highly valuable brand relationships, brand communion, brand affinity, product feedback, brand sense: more brand cents than your competition.To be very clear, all B2C and B2-ME opportunities will be advantaged through eight kinetic seeding, planting and growing social principles with:
- More relevant and consumer-centric understanding of your target audience needs, preferences, interests and loyalties.
- A second by second, global and local understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your brand, products, price points and juxtaposed competitive business value allowing for fast course corrections and or stepping up the opportunity fuel.
- Faster more efficient consumer service, guidance, support and feedback.
- Consistency and frequency with core evangelizing consumers, with your competitors customers designed to build interest, preference, life time value; profitable advantage.
- Asking and receiving critical feedback, recommendations and guidance to accelerate your brand and corresponding product affinity, equity and profit.
- A formidable social army of loyal brand fans who will reward you back with their voices, their engagements, their networking, their pocketbooks.
- A CRM and SCRM data-lake dashboard for your most enthused and self-identified brand fans: watch for your next “relevant to me” communication, product and or engagement.
- Setting up a social networking “war room” in your building. The room should contain up to 10 monitor displays each fixated and tuned to your most important and volume based social initiatives i.e. a Twitter display, a FaceBook display, a YouTube display, a display for your own web site, a retail and or distributor site display (with fast bookmarks), etc.
Fighting for a consumers short and long term attention, interest and conviction is not a solitary art form especially in the world of social networking. There is competition behind you, in front of you, around you and even hidden from you as your brand marches into the future of your expected more than fair share of opportunities. The following ten social marketing realities calls for brave re-focus to plant, seed, feed and promulgate your entire company to ensure your brand growth, brand security:
Reality #1: Brands have discovered the sales and marketing power of social networking and are hiring subject matter experts to navigate, harness and capitalize on this highly competitive, less expensive leverage.
Reality #2: The internet is accelerating, is naturally evolving its core one-to-one relevant intelligence creating smart and efficient profit pools book ended between creativity and actionable stimulations, defining and motivating a profitable pylon for any brands potential growth.
Reality #3: ComScore’s four year trend research depicts 82% of our world population is touched by social networking sites, with 20% of online time tied to social engagements: this data changes the value proposition of email marketing, of building your brand.
Reality #4: Social networking is not just for the young. Those with generally the largest household incomes, those over the age of 55 globally are highly internet social as depicted within this recent comScore research chart. This socially engaged demographic represents high value brand building targets for smart marketers.
Reality #5: As much as I consistently view Facebook as a multi-modal window to social engagements, it is also the dominant vista into global opportunity. In point of fact, every brand builder should have a keen and highly motivated strategy to harness and benefit from this social powerhouse.
Reality #6: Social networking is rapidly exploding globally opening a new window to opportunity in every country, cutting through cultural and geographic boundaries. The USA leads with a 98% penetration followed by Australia and China.
Reality #7: “Tweet, tweet, blog, blog, YouTube, YouTube!” Consider that every minute 35 hours of video are up loaded to YouTube placing consumers in control as publishers, as music and video artists. In addition 126 million blogs are available on the internet according to Blog Pulse. And of course mighty Tweeter. Each of these publishing models offer vast vistas of brand engagements, if created and executed in the relevant language of user and consumer valued expectations.
Reality #8: Social networking is highly efficient and more profitable than conventional mediums, if, when and where harvested and implemented correctly.
Reality #9: Ambient marketing is mono marketing if not fully engaged in relevant social sites, social opportunities with competitive rhythm impact.
Reality #10: Lasso, harness and docent your entire organization from the CEO across and down your hallways regarding the competitive value of the new social networking landscape. Social networking cannot be effective nor protracted without internal support.
Welcome to the jungle of socially charged opportunity brought to you by the mammoth heavy weight tools and rules of our worldwide internet. Brought to you by the socially informed, the social savvy, by the brands who have the will, the need and the means to engage in relevant and creative ways to build social brand equity.
Smart brands will live, thrive and grow through well seeded social foundations fertilized daily to reap profitable realities. Unfortunately many poorly social-seeded, undernourished brands may not survive… may simply become social casualties.
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