Social Networking

The issues

Social networks have taken our natural tendency to form groups and put it all online. On the face of it, that’s great news for marketers, as target groups of thousands of consumers identify themselves and magically come together en masse.

The days of the controlled, one-way delivery of marketing messages are over. It’s all about dialogue now, with discussions between brands and consumers increasingly held in the open. And social networking sites are a dialogue-fest.   But where does social networking fit in the marketing mix, how much control can you retain and what impact will have it on your brand?

To avoid making painfully public mistakes in their early forays into social networking, many brands are working their way along the learning curve, improving their understanding of consumer behaviour in the new environment, monitoring what people are saying about them, and then responding openly and honestly.  

Delivery

We work with clients to establish the impact social networking is having or can have on their brand.  Today’s challenge is to focus a brand’s online resources to serve those consumers in a more personalised and responsive way, rewarding the consumer’s attention sufficiently to build a relationship. For many brands, using a social networking site is a great way to help you do this.

Some quick tips for social networking:

Attract attention
Produce a set of tools that help your customer to communicate, or become associated with a tool, activity, sponsorship or event that does.

Reward attention
Demonstrate you’re responding to your customer’s needs by creating experiences that offer real benefits to them.  

One size doesn’t fit all
Select the social network platform that best fits your company’s values, objectives and customer profile.

Start simple
Establish and continually update branded profile pages on all networking sites that are relevant to your business.

Use what already works for you
View social networking as an extension of your existing marketing activity and use the content and campaign materials you’ve already developed.

Build your own community
Follow the example of some leading brands and create your own large-scale social network.

For more information
Contact us