Tuesday, September 30, 2014

6 Steps to a Stronger Social Media Presence


Having a social media account is not enough. Firms should take advantage of the free traffic by engaging in meaningful ways. Here we share 6 ways to build a strong social media presence.

1. Immediacy 
Real time engagement is the key. Make a habit of searching what customers are saying about your brand and interact immediately. Plan to monitor continuously during key events or breaking news and react quickly by engaging your audience. 

2. Monitor Reputation
It is human nature to be more inclined to write a review or comment when things go wrong, so it is only natural that online conversations always tend to degrade. Don't ignore bad comments or reviews, engage and try to recover the user from a bad experience. Be on top of what is happening and learn from bad reviews to improve the customer experience.

3. "P" for Place
Your social media strategy should include a place where your community can have free conversations, try to allocate strategically wether so you can be able to better monitor 

4. Content
Content should be engaging, in order to win with social media create by using the three most important factors:
Information - Peaks under the curtain, exclusive access, teach something and give a vehicle to teach someone else. 
Identity - Anything that furthers someone's identity is more likely to be shared.
Emotion - Stirring powerful emotions that move people.

5. Community
Give your product a voice, a personality. Community is very important because a big part of the purchase decision is based in belonging to something that enhances your lifestyle. 

6. Think Ad-Hoc
In order to engage your customer base try to customize as much as possible. By creating sub-communities tied by #hashtags you can target and engage different smaller groups with more personalized communications.






Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Brand Newsrooms at the Speed of Social



With the increase usage of Social Media marketing "on-the-fly"or real-time marketing is gaining increased interest. Consumers have higher expectations for responsiveness, participation and relevance than ever before. A study conducted by Edison research shows that 42% of consumers think brands should respond to their questions within an hour; they also expect brands to react to breaking news and engage in conversations about trending topics at the speed of social.

There is 60 times more content from brands in our newsfeeds than just two years ago, as the amount of branded content increases our attention spans keep getting shorter, in fact they have dropped by 58% in the last 10 years, from 12 minutes to 5. Here is where Brand Newsrooms have become an essential part of the modern business model allowing the brand to engage customer with precise content and timing. The poster child and most successful example to date is the Oreo tweet during the 2012 Superbowl blackout, the tweet read "You can still dunk in the dark" "Power out? No problem." that single tweet generated more buzz than their Superbowl ad.

Here we share the best ways to ensure that you create an effective brand newsroom:

1. Define your reader
Clearly define the brand traits into a social persona and create your ideal reader including tone, linguistics, attitude, enthusiasm, humor and cadence. Then every time you create content think about whether he or she would want to read, watch, or share it. Consider their needs and wants. 

2. Have a pulse on your audience
Explore the interests and affinities of your audience, make sure you know what is trending, what is engaging them in real time, most importantly be ready to REACT to breaking news. The more a brand talks about itself, the more likely it is to turn a potential audience off, instead provide news and information that are useful and valuable to your audience. 

3. Develop a content plan
Use an editorial calendar to help you pinpoint and plan stories that connect to your audience at particular points throughout the year. Establish a critical filter for evaluating whether news, events, trends or memes are relevant for your brand and its audience. 

4. Establish no-go areas
Just as important as defining what you will talk about it is critical to define upfront the subject areas that should be never used for newsroom content, or that should be handled with extreme care. 





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