According to a recent research study by The Nielsen Company, “Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs to learn more, to engage and more. Traditional marketing/branding focuses on what brands attempt to portray to consumers. Social media allows consumers to tell brands about themselves, while simultaneously increasing brand awareness by promoting interaction and a sense of community.
Major concerns of organizations, hospitals, senior living, foodservice companies and individual that want to engage in Twitter.
“This could be the greatest way for us to get more sales, engage our customers, have our patients engage, make more money, but are we too late to get started”
” We’re afraid to try Social Media”
“If we start it may be to broad appeal and appealing to a broad spectrum audience as possible might limit our business”
“If we don’t do it several times a day every day we won’t get followers and it won’t be impactful”
To be successful in twitter:
Position your brand to appeal specifically to a certain type of customer, you stand out as different and are perceived as an expert.Twitter is a social media business cocktail party.
- have value added content
- industry news in the form of pictures, videos, press releases.
- show interest in others.
- ask questions of your followers related to your brand/industry.
- comment on tweets you find relevant to your brand.
- have a personality
- each tweet can only be 140 characters so try to be short and to the point.
- A word about following: It is called follow Friday. Some of the hashtag look like this (#ff or #followfriday). the #ff messages to extend the reach community. If you think someone is worth following reach out.
- specific tweets you recommend people/brands to follow with the @ symbol and their Twitter handle.
- talk less, listen more
- build credibility
- monitor consistently
- valuable resources: use free source tracking
- google alert
- igoogle
- rss feeds
Ask yourself this
- Are you in the daily conversation?
- Have you defined your social media “circle of influence?”
- Are you offering regular commentary on trends?
- Can you offer credible information in quick bites?
- Are you a “positive force,” or a “downer?”
- Have you made your credentials organic to the conversation?
- Do you support other credible voices?
- Give links to credible online sources
How Much Is That Tweet in the Window? As for customer behavior, nearly half (47 percent) are somewhat more likely to buy from a brand they follow on Twitter or like on Facebook.
One of the greatest challenges facing the digital media world is the lack of understanding of its power. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, among others, help brands establish thought leadership within their industry and among their customers.
But according to Harrison Painter, director of business development for BLASTmedia, most companies view social media in one of two ways: 1) A waste of time, or 2) a panacea for their marketing woes. Which one are you?
Passionately,
Marsha
MARSHA DIAMOND 