The idea of social media marketing (SMM) for most marketers today, revolves around creating a Facebook fan page, populating it with product or service information, promotions and a healthy dose of self propagation; all in the hope of securing ?Likes?, as a measurement of their ?successful SMM strategy?.
And when that fails, take a short cut to success by ?buying? the ?Likes?. Yes, you read that correctly, you can actually bu, Facebook ?Likes?.
Now before you go running off to implement this purchase as part of your own social media marketing strategy, spare a few more minutes and read on.
Self propagation, as an art, is generally applied to traditional mass media mediums like the radio, TV and print, where the brand in question, speaks about itself and its value proposition; essentially presenting or at least trying to present a reason why the consumer should come to them. This art is rather ineffective when applied to any plans around SMM. The marketer needs to remember that social media is an interactive medium and different from other mass media mediums. This difference necessitates a ?creative? approach to communicating the brand message, in the shortest possible way, and in a way in which it leads to increased sales. That last bit is the key measure ? does your SMM strategy lead to increased business?
Here is a good test of your current social media marketing strategy. If a brand follows these simple guidelines, you?re moving in the right direction. It?s called CET and it stands for the following:
– Community building
– Engagement
– Team games/Platforms
Community Building
First things first; ask yourself this question: ?Does your SMM strategy lead to community building as a targeted objective??
Let?s say you?re the brand manager for a soap product. What has been your SMM objective thus far? Do you have a ?soap page on Facebook? A page where you talk about your soaps and post pictures of your soap ad campaigns? Have you mapped your demographics and planned on a strategy to create a community around your target customers? Have you enabled a platform which will help the community to come together and add value to some aspect of their life?
Most brands today initiate a campaign page. Example: Godrej Fair Glow has a ?No Samjhauta? campaign online which is an extension of their offline campaign. Here is what happens once the mass media campaign is done ? their Facebook page dies with it. This to me is the tragedy. Possibly even a criminal waste of money, time and energy. First you build it, then they come and then you shut it down! It doesn?t make any sense.
There are, however, those that seem to have made sense of the medium ? MTV, Oreo India, Pepsi India, Vodafone Zoozoo, etc. These guys have succeeded in creating a giant community; their ?brand community? not only interacts, but also shares their views, learn new things and connects with other members of the community. This will eventually motivate new community members to join in and build a lasting platform for captive customers.
Lastly, when we think of social media, we have to remember that there is more to this than just Facebook. Let?s not forget mediums or channels or platforms (whatever one wishes to call them), like YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, SlideShare, Tumblr, etc.
Keep in mind, the real ?strategy? is not about creating a better ?honey-trap? it?s about being present where your customers already are.
Engagement
Engagement is usually misunderstood to be the number of ?FB Fans? or ?FB Likes? you collect as part of your SMM plan. Very few marketers understand that it is actually how you connect with your audience with the power of content that truly defines engagement.
When you view the fan page of Hard Rock Cafe on Facebook, you will find that the number of Likes for the page is at a whopping 23,185. But when it comes to interactions and engagements, it?s a whole different story. Posts on the wall garner a meagre 30 Likes and possibly 8 to 10 ?Comments?.
The trick here is to remember that if your fan page has 10,000 Likes, Facebook is not going to show your post to all of them, but will in reality only reach a few and Facebook?s algorithm of natural selection depends on the level of interaction and engagement around the post on your page.
To borrow a line from my television industry friends, content is king! And this holds true for social media as well.
Great, engaging content will drive traffic and ultimately lead to a good amount of engagement on your page. Activities such as polls, trivia, tips and tricks, possibly associating with a social cause will help you to engage your audience and ensure that they come back. Sensational Maybelline, The Bodyshop India, Cafe Coffee Day and Frameboxx are some very good examples.
Team Games/Platforms
So you?ve got the followers and a credible level of interaction among them. The way to up the game further is to introduce a ?Platform? or a manner of a ?Team Game? activity; essentially a platform that can become viral and attract new users and garner visibility.
For example: Most automobile companies organise offline car rallies, where they aim to attract hundreds of drivers and garner publicity. They could be well served by bringing such a rally to the social media platform. Possibly an online 24-hour rally, where groups of people compete across virtual terrain that is visually engaging and tracked and cheered by their group of friends/followers. Imagine the level of engagement and brand recall; not to mention the low cost visibility. This specific type of an idea may not work for all brands, however it is very much possible to create similar Team Games/Platforms that achieves similar objectives.
Conclusion
Follow the basic and the strategic sequence and SMM can be sure fire way to achieve maximum ROI (return on investment) on your marketing investment. The results, you will see, far outweigh any other medium.
The writer is chief technology officer, EBS Interactive