Traditional marketing will never go away- it has a habit of sticking around. I still get random surveys through the mail, physical coupons as well as those oh so lovely hang tags on my door knob.
Internet Marketing started emerging, intertwining and aiding traditional marketing into moving to a new medium. But there’s also a new animal in the 21st century… and that animal is social media.
It’s hard sometimes to reach through to companies who have been around for a long time; it’s hard for them to see the value in having an 360 degree online presence. Some have gotten their feet wet in the past, but it’s only recently that companies are really taking the plunge into internet marketing and social media.
I had an invaluable experience on Wednesday of this week. We launched a contest for our Spring Summit utilizing Twitter as the main platform for results.
When the contest started, I don’t think I was prepared for what happened. I had thought a few tweets here and there would trickle in- nothing major at least until it set in and the Twitter-sphere could pick up on it. Within SECONDS (and I’m not exaggerating) we started getting tweets with #SSSS and a team name. The influx after that was just awe inspiring. I couldn’t stop staring at the Twitter stream in front of me. It seemed like every second, three new tweets would show up.
This truly shows the strength that social media can bring to a campaign and why companies embrace it.
What exactly are some ways to achieve success with social media?
- Diversify your social media. Users have different preferences and you don’t want to lose out on conversions by not appearing on a widely used platform. Social media monitoring of your brand can be utilized across all platforms.
- With that said, don’t ONLY use social media and neglect an actual web presence. A stable website, updated regularly, should always be available. Don’t rely only on Twitter, Facebook etc.
- Engage your followers and fans. Nobody likes a one sided conversation- you need to reply and let them know that you’re there.
- Maintain a constant and steady persona. Social media mood swings are the equivalent of “in real life” mood swings. They aren’t pretty. Keep your personal problems out of your interactions.
- Regardless, you need to humanize yourself as well. Share tid-bits here and there- build your personality. Just don’t be erratic.
- Offer useful information not related to your company or yourself. Sharing is a huge benefit that comes along with the internet.
If you’re interested in seeing a company who has a great online presence, visit Dunkin Dunuts on Twitter.They have great customer engagement; always posting up contests and interacting with followers, as well as posting up helpful information about various locations.
The Redbull Facebook fanpage is also another successful integration of social media into a brand. Often they announce contests and interesting extreme sports events. They also include a tab that has tweets from Red Bull athletes on Twitter.
Social media has a constant learning curve. As new platforms arrive, we’ll have to adapt and learn what works best for ourselves and our business. While it’s hard to go wrong when leaving yourself open to customer engagement- you can lose out by not having that be a part of your brand.
We’re all guilty of doing things wrong on Twitter, Facebook or whatever else we’re using. Sometimes we might flood our followers with tweets and posts every 2 seconds, and other times we won’t even be there at all. It’s like you’re either blowing up someone’s phone every 2 seconds in real life, or disappearing off the face of the planet. Follow the guidelines I put up above and you should have a nice solid foundation for building your company’s brand using social media.
Anybody out there have some interesting tips or strategies that they’ve been implementing? Do share 🙂 I always love to learn more!
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