I have good news and bad news for you when it comes to your Social Media Strategy:
The Bad News – Social Media, in general, doesn’t function very well as a marketing and sales channel.
The Good News – Social Media is a great way to make things happen indirectly.
The problem that many companies have with their Social Media efforts is that they are trying to turn these personal communication tools into marketing channels, instead of understanding and accepting how their customers actually use these tools.
The companies that typically understand how their customers use these tools and craft their Social Media strategy accordingly, tend to have better results.
Here’s a couple of examples:
Orabrush – The company wanted to leverage YouTube as a channel to raise awareness for its tongue-cleaner. Now as anyone that’s spent 5 minutes on the video-sharing site knows, videos that are short and funny are wildly popular. So that’s exactly the type of videos that the company created:
http://youtu.be/SVvFD5JFnP4
“To my knowledge, there have been few, if any, products to go from no sales, online or offline, to full nationwide distribution by using YouTube videos in just two years,” said Jeff Davis, CEO of Orabrush.
Orabrush’s YouTube videos have over 46 million combined views. So the company’s strategy of creating the type of content that YouTube users want, has been wildly successful.
X-Box – The brand discovered that a lot of X-Box customers were taking to Twitter to complain about their problems with games and the console. So Microsoft created a full team of X-Box people to provide customer support for their customers that have issues with the console. The benefit to the company is it deflects calls from its call center, which is a cost-savings for the brand. But it happened because Microsoft was smart enough to understand how X-Box customers were using Twitter, and work with that behavior, not against it.
So how does this affect your Social Media Strategy?
Let’s go back to the Orabrush example. Orabrush wanted to use social media and digital content to sell its tongue cleaner. Here’s two ways they could have used YouTube to raise awareness of its products:
1 – Orabrush could have created short videos that demonstrate how to use the product. Perhaps a 30-45 second video showing someone using the tongue cleaner, then a link to the company’s website to buy the product.
2 – Orabrush could have created short videos that use humor to sell the NEED for the product.
The second approach is in line with what YouTube’s users expect from the content there. They aren’t going to YouTube to watch videos of a man scraping his tongue with a plastic utensil. They are there to watch short videos that make them laugh. Orabrush gave them that, and in the context of those videos ALSO explained what their product does, and the need for it.
A second example, what if you owned a business that sells lawncare products?
Let’s say you are wanting to use a blog to sell your products directly, and to also raise awareness for your local store as it competes against national chains like Lowes and Home Depot. One thing you could do is turn your blog into ‘brochureware’, basically making it an online circular.
Or, you could focus your blog on giving your customers content that helps them have a more beautiful lawn. Here’s some post ideas:
10 Steps to Having a Healthier Lawn by Memorial Day
Here’s How You Can Get Rid of Weeds in Your Lawn Without Damaging Your Grass
5 Common Pests That Can Wreck Havoc on Your Lawn and How to Get Rid of Them
The great thing about posts like this is that they not only provide value for your customers, but they also help establish your business’ expertise in lawn care. Which means these posts will not only do well in Google searches (because they solve specific problems customers are having), but they will also make it easier for customers to trust you, because you are teaching them how to take better care of your lawn.
So when you are crafting your Social Media and Content Strategy, think about how you can make your efforts customer-centric. Don’t try to force direct sales, but instead think about how you can create valuable content for your customers that will LEAD to sales.
Mack,
While companies that have people like Scott Monty at the helm obviously have a viable social media strategy, I still see a lack of strategy, or perhaps, a lack of understanding with companies of all sizes. Many “know” about social media and try to employ a strategy of some kind, but much of it is still a crude “lets sell here” approach.
What level of socialization is necessary before the concept of social media as a relationship tool permeates general business conscientiousness?
Dean
Dean, I honestly think we are a long way off from companies truly adopting a customer-centric approach to their Social Media Marketing. Even the companies that do Social Media well are typically trying to bend the tool around their existing marketing efforts.
One thing that I think bears watching is what happens to companies in general over the next decade as the workforce becomes younger and more tech-savvy employees are hired. People under the age of 25 or so don’t call this stuff Social Media, they call it ‘life’. They are incredibly comfortable with these tools, not as marketing channels, but as personal communication channels.
I think as these ‘youngsters’ move into positions within their organization where they can affect change, then I think you’ll start to see some real movement on the idea of creating a truly social organization. But again, I think that’s a gradual shift that will take years to realize on a widespread scale.
What do you think?
Mack,
Sadly, I think you hit the nail on the head. I work for the government as an analyst. All my seniors (senior managers) are my age or older (50 and up). They show not only a reticence to view social media with an open mind, but harbor an irrational suspicion of the platform, as if its a social virus rather than a viable customer relations tool.
Given the segment of the government I function within, the skepticism is understandable but lamentable just the same. We have younger analysts and front-line supervisors who are stupefied by their management’s lack of vision in exploiting this avenue of information.
One of my favorite expressions is you can brand yourself or be branded by your inaction. There ARE companies embracing social media as a relationship tool and as a vehicle for customer satisfaction. These companies will prosper greatly as the youth move up in their strata. I think companies that ignore or even weakly embrace this medium of communication will be seen as hidebound, not “the thing”. At worst, it may be a slope they eventually can’t ascend.
Dean
Excellent post, Mack. This is exactly the approach I take with my customers. We look at what the business goals are, who the audience is, and what their audience wants, and then develop “social offers”–win-win propositions that give the audience what they want while meeting the business goals. Your post describes some great social offers. Customer-centric marketing is where it’s at!
Great approach, Neicole. I think it’s about adding a 3rd leg to the idea of ‘Give the customer the product and they’ll give us their money’. That approach really doesn’t work very well with Social Media. There, it’s ‘Give the customer content of value, and they’ll promote us/etc, which leads to us getting money’.
Create/give away the value, that leads to sales of the product!
Great post. Thanks for the ideas!
This was a great read. I am particularly interested in any articles you may have on customer resolution, like the XBOX one. There is so much power and potential for Social CRM.
Hey Christine, check out the Social Media Case Studies section – https://mackcollier.com/category/social-media-case-studies/
First company I thought of was Marcus Sheridan’s River Pools. I think we are all familiar with his story and how we embraced the concept of inbound marketing. He created a blog that answers every question someone may have about a pool then went on to create an awesome YouTube channel. You dont often think about a pool company being this innovative but when you think about it, it’s really a no brainer. Everyone has questions and we have the tools and channels to give them answers. We need to do this more!
great Read Mack…second time I’ve seen something recently about oralbrush… hilarious vids.
It’s all about the customers – the new channels are doing a great job of helping us differentiate. Love Pinterest these days for a select few customers