With more than a billion people using varied social networking sites, it's worthless to start with explaining the fundamentals and the mode of working of social networking. If you're reading this post, we are taking for granted that you already use social media either for your business or personal purposes and by this time you've already ceased victim to the 'Like' or 'Follow' button of your favorite brand, business or a celebrity. Many people or businesses judge the success rate of a Social page with the number of Facebook Likes it has, Twitter Follows and Youtube views (and Google +1's if you care about it)
, but are businesses really looking just for your Likes or Follows? Well, definitely not.
Social media marketing, initially, was just a place where businesses used to blabber 24/7 about their products. If you're a business who still commits the murderous crime of using your social page for publishing mundane and product-focused content, then we must say that's quite a waste of time as you'll be just gathering some 'individuals' instead of 'fanatical fans' whereas making your brand social is all about creating a fanatic community. This is where the concept of creating a page not just for 'Likes' and 'Retweeting' comes into picture. Brands should create an engaging design which will keep the audience glued onto their page. We are talking about an appealing page, a place where you just don't talk about your product but promote a healthy conversation with your fans. By conversation, we mean just not your voice but the 'social voice'. Let the fans speak up and then interact with them which will build a better awareness as well as spike up interest regarding your business practices among the fans.
When an individual decides to connect to a brand page, he's just not yet another egg in the basket, but he expects something good in return. The bottom-line - Give him. When you expect the fan to comment or share your post or video each time or vote in a poll, it doesn't work far effectively always. Social media works on 'the word of mouth' and the better you serve your fan, the more efficiently the word spreads. Exploit the social media properties of interactivity, fan base building as well as the ability to be the master of special local offers. The motive here is to send out one happy fan that in-turn brings in 10 more fans with an even stronger faith. That's where the brand recall multiplies and the brand becomes a crucial part of the fans' everyday life.
Know your brand in and out and plan your campaign strategy effectively. Extract your motives from your fans and gather important feedback but at the same time place the horse before the carriage (Do not keep spamming them with your offers or feedback demands each time). Make sure that you strike a balance between being too casual and being too corporate.
Our social media marketing strikes a balance between deepening the emotional ties with the brand and depending upon the fan base we settle on the content which is insightful as well as insider based creating more value for the fans and sends out a better brand recall. Every social networking site is different, with a unique flavor of its own waiting to be capitalized by brands and the way it can delight and influence the fans. So, just go out there and start a healthy conversation. Just a reminder again – It's not about 'Likes' or 'Retweets'. It's about 'Fans'!
