Client Area

Talk is Cheep,Cheep:

Written on the 20 of July, 2009, by Rob Bare

The world is awash with talk of social media with sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, YouTube and Flickr interwoven with blogs, posts, tweets, mashups, comments, follows, diggs, and feeds!

How people, their communities, organisations and society at large communicate and connect is undergoing a renaissance – a communication revolution. I don’t think people have communicated this much before in history and it is addictive for those who do, as they express themselves via their messages to the cyber community with a sense of global connectedness. For so long people have felt disconnected from their community and society. Now any digital medium has the capacity to be interactive and highly social.

So without getting too philosophical my point is this: social media taps into core human needs and behaviours – it’s not a fad, but rather a extension and automation of our primal desire to communicate and interact with our fellow man. So what does this mean for your brand?

Well, it means a lot, some good news and some ‘difficult’ news. Some of you may have noticed organisations/media scrambling to adapt to this new communication platform. Bravo for the progressive ones that have. Social media is just another nail in the coffin of traditional communication channels which is all part of the digital revolution. As the focused message of broadcast becomes a diluted and narrowcast message, so too comes the weakening of traditional media worth and power.

So many businesses are confused how to handle this communication revolution. Some have seen it as a soap box from which to try and sell, others have engaged specialist suppliers to maintain their social networks, some have thorough understanding and use it well, and others are just hoping it goes away.

If you are looking at maintaining it in-house this is my advice. Whether you are a very large or very small brand you need to boil down what it means to be in business and why people will want to deal with you. We all know how much easier it is to make a sale if your customer believes in your abilities, if they trust you, know you, if you’re recommended or if they just like you. So how does social media play into this?

If you open a Twitter account and start tweeting “buy from us, we are the best and cheapest” or “our widget is the best widget in the market”, then stop now. You have the wrong idea. You are now part of a community – so you need to communicate in a natural and beneficial way that also is an expression of your brand personality.

Some tips:

  1. Post on topics which are of interest to your market and provide an opportunity to show you know your stuff without the hard sell.
  2. Engage with other people in your network on topics of interest. Two way conversation is always more interesting than one way.
  3. Put some brand personality into your posts to express what kind of business you are.
  4. Give away pearls of wisdom to your network which communicates your expertise and generosity. Asking questions can be a good way to ignite conversation too.
  5. Let key people within your organisation, who know your brand, post to your network. The input will be richer, more varied and more representative of your true brand culture (I believe the return here is greater than the risk).
  6. Track your social network activity through RSS feeds or one of the many applications that aggregate the information so you can stay across what is happening in your network daily.
  7. Update regularly to keep your presence and your last post fresh (at least weekly).
  8. Only follow others who are related to your business and industry or who may be a customer (you can usually tell from their location or recent updates).
  9. Share interesting or entertaining information with your network. It doesn’t always have to be ‘business’, these posts reflect your brand personality by showing what you find interesting or funny.
  10. Spend some time on set up and becoming familiar with those who make up your network to see if there are people you want to connect with directly.

The good news here is that although there is an investment of time and content, you can develop a direct conversation with your market at a very low cost. From a marketing perspective this is immensely powerful as you can engage, entertain, educate and assist your network as if you where face to face with them, whether you have a hundred or a hundred thousand people listening.

If you haven’t yet, try it out (or at least secure your brand as your username!).

The technology is here for your brand to have an open and ongoing conversation each day with it’s market at almost no cost. What more do you want?

After I wrote this blog I found this video, good illustration of the importance of being able to have a conversation with your market through social media.

Related Services »

1 Comment

#1. Written on 22 August 2009 by jeff Licence

That’s good stuff Rob. It will be helpful for our journey into the webosphere. You are a clever fella!

Add Comment or

Want to have your say? Click here to add your comment.

Rob Bare
Digital Director

Director and co-founder of R&B, Rob Bare has worked with technology and design, with a focus on the internet for 10 years. Combined with a proven entrepreneurial record and marketing degree, this makes Rob a leader in the digital services industry.

Read full bio…