So, let’s all try to attain the ultimate Nirvana and create the brand and business that we deserve to be!
Social media optimization is a big part of today and an even bigger part of the tomorrow of online marketing. It lends itself to helping you build an online reputation, and done right, it is a great way to build presence and status. The caveat, of course, being that it is also a great way to ruin your reputation, have other users cast you as a spammer and force some very bad press onto your brand. Regardless, the important thing to remember is that you are dealing with “real people” here and not search algorithms! Real people are interacting with you in their “social” time - so you will have to get accustomed to relating with the personalities, their opinions and their likes and dislikes that will be shared with the world and for all to see. Gulp, as you can imagine, this can be quite daunting. The key therefore, is that you should get used to dealing with their personalities, their tastes and their uncensored opinions.
Rule Number 1: Keep it honest, and absolutely transparent. Transparency is critical in this era of online marketing with social media.
Facebook has a staggering 750 million users today (as of August 2011). The number is definitely jaw dropping. To leverage facebook’s population to improve your brand, and create a presence is not just for online marketing. It has become a vital part of the business world today. An interesting topic of discussion is the value of acquiring a new “facebook” user. For all practical purposes, the value is determined by you, the brand. But, in reality, if you do not have facebook user following on your fan page, the risk of the non-presence on facebook can be extremely harmful and detrimental to your brand image and business overall. This fear is what is driving all/most businesses to jump on the bandwagon with no-business-left-behind scenario. What’s more, there are desperate measures being applied by businesses out there using companies such as buybulkfacebookfans or similar that help you acquire “seemingly real” fans to drive the number of fans up, for as little as $50 (500 fans). We question the value of acquiring these fans. We believe that you should focus on acquiring “genuine” fans interested in your brand. Fans that interact with you because they are truly interested in you and your brand. Fans that give you insights and help you drive your business. Fans that have longevity and will help you leverage facebook to acquire more fans.
We recently discussed quantifying the “value” of a facebook fan, with a large bookstore. This bookstore is using their facebook fan page in, what we consider, an extremely savvy and interesting way. Primarily used to draw insights into what their facebook fans want to read with specific emphasis on authors and titles in specific locations/geographies. This is followed by stocking books based on demographics/geography in the local bookstores. The value of a facebook fan to them is quite high. Their goal is to reach a million facebook fans quickly and at their headquarters, a ticker, similar to a stock ticker, at reception greets all staff displaying the number of facebook fans “today”. The stock ticker symbol from the dotcom boom has been replaced with the facebook acquired fan number(s). Go figure. Now, there is a customer case study for you.
Another retail business is using facebook to ensure stocking levels of inventory such as clothes, make-up and shoes is driven by the fan based inputs in specific under-performing locations/geographies. The belief is that by stocking the appropriate and desired inventory levels, the sales and markdowns would be highly reduced thereby improving profitability. There are countless case studies of businesses leveraging facebook pages to gain insights into consumer behavior.
Incenting People to follow you on facebook is like a no-brainer. Most businesses are doing it today with freebies and “value” adds to drive followership. Here is an example of one such brand
A European brand of an alcoholic beverage, ran a facebook campaign, to gauge their audience’s reaction to two options for the proposed packaging of a new beverage being launched. They created a contest where their fans could vote on their favorite packaging. With a deadline and some winning prizes thrown in to entice fans to interact, the contest was a huge success. The “winning” number of votes was used to determine the packaging that was used for bringing the new product to market. This is a great example of the collective power of the 750 million+ facebook users. Brands can really leverage the medium to draw insights to product development, product initiation and launch amongst a variety of other things.
An interesting case study is Smirnoff. They ran a “battle of the bottles” contest to determine which flavor to bring to market.
As you can see, engagement like the above can really get fans talking and not just to you but also to each other. In this case, Smirnoff Watermelon won the “battle”.
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