Building a strong brand through Social Media Marketing

In order for us to understand how to build a strong brand, we need to first define some terms. The website businessdictionary.com defines marketing as the process through which goods and services are relayed from concept to customer. This process involves different elements that will affect our marketing efforts, although some of these elements are not directly under the marketing department. For instance the production process, from source of raw materials, through the production line and methods used all the way up to distribution channels, will affect our price. As marketers engage with potential customers, they make certain promises which are affected by all these other elements. Pricing has a direct influence on market perceptions. Our endeavor to attract more customers propels us to advertise. Dictionary.com defines advertising as, "....the practice of calling public attention to one's product.....". This brings us to our third definition, branding; which is defined by Small Business Encyclopedia as, "The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products."

From the definitions above; branding and advertising are part of the marketing process. When we only push advertisements through Social Media, we would have dismally failed our Social Media Marketing strategy. Our efforts should inculcate our uniqueness making it rather difficult to ignore Inbound Marketing as part of our Social Media strategy. When we showcase how we do things internally and preach about our core values, that naturally strengthens our brand. Social Media Marketing should be more than an exercise to canvass for sales.

Any marketing strategy should address the 4 p's of marketing.
Product - discussing the product is literally addressing Content Marketing issues
Price - when we look at price determination we are directed to Inbound Marketing
Place - alludes to distribution channels and this will also be part of our Inbound Marketing
Promotion - this will cover our advertisements. Note that how we cover these four elements influences our brand.

These are the agreed marketing elements and an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy will incorporate all of them. Emphasis on some of the elements at the expense of others, will dilute our marketing efforts and weaken our brand. Paid advertisements will only be effective if we have a strong brand within Social Media Forums. It is not how much we spend on paid advertisements that might generate us more sales, we might actually need to spend more on Content and Inbound Marketing in order to build a stronger brand. Social Proof has a key role in building our brand. Therefore, all the content that we share, must have an engaging effect. When we have a lot of engagement through liking of our content, sharing of our content and direct queries and inquiries including suggestions our brand will have a positive effect on our potential market. This effect will also reduce our advertising spend.

How has your Social Media Marketing efforts affected your brand? Should you need any assistance with your Social Media Strategy do not hesitate to contact us or you can drop your numbers here and we will get back to you.

Using Social Media as a strategy to Re-Invent

The saturation and decline stages of a product life cycle are a nightmare for any entrepreneur. Anything that can be done to re-invent the product and take it back to the stages where sales are growing and keep it at the maturity stage for a longer period, would be a dream come true. The advent of Social Media Marketing, makes this a reality. How? A Social Media Marketing Strategy worth its salt should enable dialogue between the organization and its clients. In all the data exchanged, our strategy should incorporate applications and tools that will aid data analysis which is intelligent enough to help us identify opportunities. This data when analysed appropriately, will arm the business with vital information on product use, product need, distribution channels new markets and possible joint ventures. It will be cardinal also to align our advertising efforts with the information unearthed from this data analysis.

One of the initiators of dialogue is Content Marketing. Through this marketing method you want to share relevant and valuable information about your product. The information has got to be targeted to a specific audience with a deliberate intent to attract dialogue. It is key to note that the targeted audience is already searching for information out there, and our aim is to conveniently avail ourselves as the providers of that information. Embedded in our information dissemination strategy, is a call for the consumer of our information not only to purchase our product but share this information. The availability of various platforms as sources of information through the internet has left almost everyone with a zeal to research. Most consumer will only purchase products that they have adequate information about, providing us the opportunity to share this information. The cyberspace is infiltrated with a lot of 'experts' and some are of questionable repute. There is no better advantage you can have than present yourself as an authority in your trade by sharing product information and professional advice.

Another dialogue instigator is Inbound Marketing. This is a strategy where you want to showcase how you perform internal activities and use that to attract clients. With Inbound Marketing you are literally saying to your target audience....."Hey, this is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we do it....do you fancy?" Since Social Media is designed to propel dialogue, who ever has been targeted with this information is going to respond. They will either confirm that what you are doing tickles them the right way, they might scream at how shoddily you are conducting yourself or they might give indications of how you fair compared to the best within your industry. That you have bared your soul is in itself some form of an evaluation and the responses you get will arm you with a with relevant information on how to keep your product offer high on the performance rung.

Research and development can be very tricky as it is premised on a lot of assumptions. Where sampling is conducted there is no guarantee that the results are harvested from the appropriate potential markets or the results will survive the changes in our fast paced age. With Social Media Marketing, research can easily be conducted through engaging our followers who are our target markets. Not only will the research be a fair representation but our strike rate will be very close to assumptions. When we develop a listening skill, it is possible to pick out from clients new product use or even product diversification. Our clients will provide us with relevant information to purse new markets. It is through dialogue in Social Media Forums that we can as well identify potential strategic partners. Our Social Media Marketing Strategy is as good as our investment on data analysis. With adequate analysis, we can re-invent ourselves from market saturation and product decline, to growth stages either with a new product or with our current product in new markets. It is also possible to identify new product use.

Is your Social Media Marketing Strategy able to re-invent you? We could help you with an evaluation.

How Social Media Disrupts Conventional Business Processes

Social Media is here to stay. Not only will it stay but it is going to disrupt a number of business models. Some of the disruption will be advantageous to some business models whilst others will be negatively affected. Like any change, the introduction of Social Media into the mainstream business processes has got both threats and opportunities. For bold entrepreneurs with an innovative appetite, this presents enormous opportunity for product improvement, penetrating new markets and affirming a competitive edge. Below are five points that detail how Social Media disrupts conventional business models. Each one presents opportunities that cut across most if not all industries.

1. Social Media removes barriers that exists between businesses and their customers. Content Marketing provides organizations an opportunity to showcase products in detail. It is through the understanding of the product; the acceptance of the solution provided by the product, that influences a purchase. Inbound Marketing bares open the soul of the organization. The organization has to demonstrate its internal processes as a way of attracting clients. The main goal is to have prospecting clients engage. The organization should exude a persona that prospecting clients can identify and are comfortable to converse with. Whilst organizations rarely seek a response from their advertisements and marketing efforts, with Social Media Marketing, unless the audience/target market engages, one would have not achieved their objective. Marketing as we know it, is disrupted by Social Media

2. Social Media streamlines internal and external business communication. With Social Media communication can be on real time. Individual business units can communicate with clients. It is possible for line workers to be authorized to communicate directly with clients. Let me hasten to say that we ought to support our Social Media Strategy with communication policies that clarify what can be communicated and what can not be communicated. Traditionally we have Public Relations, After Sales Care and Client Relations handling how we interact with clients. Social Media Forums streamlines these departments and leave clients dealing with the organization directly. This empowers both the clients and organizations. The client is free to converse, ask all questions and even contribute their views or make suggestions. This environment strengthens the relationship between clients and their suppliers. When clients are happy with the service they receive, they share company information with their friends becoming brand ambassadors.

3. Another disruption that comes with Social Media Forums is the opportunity for entrepreneurs to incorporate co-creation. Clients' ideas can be co-opted into the design and manufacture of products. The norm has always been that if you come up with an idea, once perfected you patent it and go through a phase of trial and error where you test your market. With Social Media, it is possible to involve prospecting clients in product design and manufacture. By the time the product hits the markets, the customers are not presumed, they are known by name and location. Co-creation reduces the cost of research and development. Research remains cardinal, but it is done in a smart way which involves prospecting clients and reduces costs.

4. Social Media does not only affect Business to Consumer activities even Business to Business processes are disrupted. System developers are making use of participatory design, to involve clients in the design of systems. Social Media Forums make it possible for this engagement to happen without physical presence of all parties involved. System upgrades and maintenance is also made possible through easy communication facilitated by Social Media Forums

5. Social Media avails enormous data to organizations about their clients. This data is a game changer that does not necessarily bring any disruption to conventional business processes. However it avails information on client behavior, client preferences and client needs. Shrewd innovators have invested heavily in Data Analysis. Data Science is enabling organization to mine information from data availed by Social Media Forums. This information if properly analysed can improve services and be utilized to explore new projects.

Besides marketing, how else have you used Social Media Forums to improve your business offering?

Social Media Marketing Strategy as a Parameter for Performance Measurement

Most organisations have performance measures. Some make use of various systems to manage their performance indicators. I once worked for an organisation that was obsessed with figures. Statistical analysis was the most revered performance indicator. The actual activities of the various departments which had a positive influence on statistics were not paid much attention to. The data that we collected was pregnant with information that unfortunately was not utilized to its maximum advantage. Each department operated independent of the other. When customer complaints overwhelmed us; we hired a Public Relations Officer to spin around the bad word about us from dissatisfied clients. Customer complaints would be channeled to the PRO department and the offending department carried on with life as usual. A Social Media Strategy in this scenario, could have helped us with customer engagement.

Social Media Marketing is premised on Inbound Marketing where we attract customers through sharing valuable content about us. The scenario described above, would have been better managed if we had a way of listening to our clients. Actually, it turned out that one of the issues refereed to the PRO department involved serious fraudulent activities that were affecting both our clients and the company. The information that is shared in Social Media activities is so vital and can be useful throughout the organisation and not only in Marketing. It is critical for any Social Media Strategy to be able to communicate relevant information about us but at the same time listen to what stakeholders say. A Social Media Strategy worth its salt should be a mine of data for all aspects of the organization.

It is very challenging to come up with performance measures that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders. Through the desire to share relevant content with our customers, we will have to set standards meet them. If we share content about our products or our processes and customers prove this not to be true, they will never come back to us. If we are found to honor our word, the content about us will become the best advertisement that will buy us loyalty. In some organisations, departments are viewed independent of each other with some actually having bad faith on others. With an astute Social Media Strategy, departmental activities form the core of the content that we share with clients. Each department has to play a part that will attract potential customers. Performance measurement can then be attached to the communication gathered from customers and potential customers.

Inbound marketing says, look at us, look at what we are doing, what do you think about it. How else can we measure ourselves if not by how our market thinks about us? If you were wondering where Social Media Strategy belongs in your organisation; it belongs in the boardroom where strategies are formulated.