The Quisenblog

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Using Social Media to address your pain points.
Tuesday: Use Social Media to give your customers a seat at the table.
Wednesday: Picking a face for the organization.
Thursday: Picking a face, part 2.
Friday: Give away your expertise.

(This is the fifteenth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

Who wants to do business with a soul-less organization? Marketing communications are more effective when they are presented as one-to-one conversations. This is even more true in Social Media. It’s not “the organization” that does the talking, but an individual (or at least the voice of an individual). The more personal you can make the communications, the narrower the gap you have to fill in, the more naturally conversation starts to flow.

Effective Social Media communication isn’t done in cold, calculated “corporate speak,” it’s done in the voice of an individual. No “inside baseball” industry references. Forget about the acronyms. Be transparent. Talk like a human being.

For example, if you come across a customer who is having a problem, it will mean more to them to have an individual contact them (Amy, the Regional Customer Service Supervisor) than to have a faceless “Customer Service” reply.

So who is that individual you entrust your Social Media reputation to? Who is it that will be representing you to followers? Is it an insider? A corporate officer? An outside Social Media “expert”? Any of these could work—as long as there is transparency involved. Don’t create a fictitious personality.

One thing that we would recommend would be to identify your own “passionistas”—people within your organization who enthusiastically embody the values of the company, and are honestly interested in helping customers (don’t restrict this role to customer service). These are the individuals you want representing your company in cyberspace. Let them loose.

Actually, who you pick is not nearly as important as how they do it. It is important to give your “voices” the resources they need to effectively advocate on behalf of visitors. You may wish to include several voices—one for news and events, another for service issues, etc.

It is important to be polite, informed, sensitive and helpful without being apologetic or “selly.” Above all, it is important to be responsive.

Respond to suggestions or comments as soon as they have been added. Effective Social Marketers usually get back to posters within a couple of hours. If you’re unable to give a pertinent response, at least let the party know you’re looking into it, and be accountable for it. The web is real-time. If the user-producer feels that her suggestions or comments have not been taken seriously, or too late, or that no one is listening, then she will be discouraged and will likely never come back. (Plus you’ll start a bad story.)

While many brands never identify who it is that is “talking” on behalf of the brand, we have seen several examples of how personalizing that individual builds a loyal following. One example is Mountain Dew. Their Facebook page wall isn’t just a place for fans to leave random comments; it’s a place where fans can go to get real, human answers from “Dew Insider Angie.” Just by following some of the conversation chains, you get a feeling for who Angie is. And, as a result, who Mountain Dew is.

Granted, Mountain Dew is speaking to an audience that is quite young. But what if you knew someone at every company you did business with? Wouldn’t that make your connection with them stronger and more meaningful? In Social Media, you have that opportunity.

Tomorrow, we’ll focus on anther way your organization’s voices can build engagement.

BTW, if you’d like to follow the Quisenblog on Twitter, you can sign up to follow me here. You’ll not only get links to the posts, you’ll also receive a fair amount of unpublished content you will hopeful find useful.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media brand engagement, communication, company representation, loyal following, Mountain Dew, real-time interaction, responsive, transparent

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Using Social Media to address your pain points.
Tuesday: Use Social Media to give your customers a seat at the table.
Wednesday: Picking a face for the organization.
Thursday: Picking a face, part 2.
Friday: Give away your expertise.

(This is the fourteenth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

For some people, a car is a way to get around town, a breakfast cereal is something you eat in the morning, and a radio station is something you listen to on your way to work.

For others, some of the brands they drive, eat or listen to are as much a part of who they are as the hairstyle they have or the hobbies they love.

Social Media gives brands the opportunity to create a place for those who are passionate about the brand to meet, share and give feedback. It is an opportunity to “look into the lives” of your most passionate users, and engage them in a way that makes your product offerings even more relevant to them.

Here is an example of a brand engaging with its followers on a much deeper level. It is the Facebook page of indie/alternative rock station KEXP in Seattle. By looking at the content provided by fans, it becomes obvious that for the passionate follower, KEXP is not in the music-delivery business, the station is in the “lifestyle” business—interested in the cultural and lifestyle interests of its followers. This helps shape the product of the station itself, and creates a deeper connection within the community. Suddenly being a KEXP person speaks not only to one’s preferences in music, but as a description of his overall lifestyle.

Feedback from visitors and fans can be interpreted as an invitation to engage at a deeper level. It is important to understand what of value your community is getting from you, then find ways to provide more of that for them. And of course, it is important to listen. Use MySpace, Facebook or Twitter as forums for consumers to convey passion for the brands. Monitor the commentary and adjust the marketing messages accordingly. Ask opinions. All this is just another way of saying to your most passionate followers “we hear you.”

Posted by Mickey

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Mickey Social Media brand connections, brand engagement, brand passion, lifestyle, opinions, Value