I was doing some light reading this morning, and stumbled across a great read over at DigitalBeat titled “Five Rules of Thumb for Social Media Advertising”.
In his article, Carnet refers to the following five rules:
- Appeal to what people love the most – themselves
- Measurement is very important, but don’t lose the forest for the trees
- Plan for success, but know you won’t always hit homeruns
- What they are saying is true; Social media is about conversations
- Know thy customer
Now, on the surface I imagine these five points probably seem obvious, however the part that really got me was this:
Learn how to foster deeper and more balanced and committed relationships. Stop trying to bribe and manipulate people to get them to do what you want. This is transactional behavior. Be open to new forms of value. Properly engaged customers buy from a company not just because they like the product or service, but because they genuinely want the business to be successful.
Think on that for just a second. Thanks to the power given to us – and to consumers – via the birth of social media, we can no longer rely on gimmicky give-aways to encourage consumer behavior. These methods are old and tired. In large part, this is due to expectations being different than they used to be. Consumers expect to be able to reach out to brands and people easily and quickly via Facebook, or MySpace, or Twitter, or any other handful of socially-focused online communities. And once connected, they expect to be engaged, and valued as a “follower”.
We can do this in any number of ways, though I’d point to some rather excellent cases by Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Target. These brands gave followers the ability to interact with them, and the chance to get something in return, while reaping the benefits of creeping into that individuals social network, and leveraging the power that is word of mouth.
Today, it’s about empowering consumers by giving them tools that allow them to beat your drum for you. Consumers are looking for ways to engage and interact with brands they value, and it is up to those brands to provide those individuals with the proper tools to do just that. Of course, this comes at a cost: brands that refuse to get involved in the conversation directly, run the risk of being lost in the noise, or even worse, allowing others to manage their conversation for them.
We have two options: sit idly by and be passed over by the masses, or dive in head first and lead the conversation. Where do you sit?
- Written by Jeremy Heilpern
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