According to SocialNomics, only 14% of consumers trust advertisements. This statistic can be a little hard for brands to stomach when they're investing upwards of $300,000 in creative and production costs for just one 30-second commercial spot1.On top of that, creating content that resonates with consumers can be tricky and determining the right vehicle for distributing these ads can also be difficult.
How to address this:
Be transparent, and get social (more on this below). Let your fans get to know you. The more your fans feel that you are engaging with them, the stronger your relationship. Transparency and interaction will earn consumer trust and best position you to establish your desired brand image. The beauty of social media is that you can crowdsource actionable product and service feedback from your followers in real-time.
2. Contemporary Consumers: A Different Breed.
"Prosumers" and their massive social influence are beginning to dominate the current consumer landscape. How they engage with brands and how they leverage social networks to make purchasing decisions differ from traditional consumer practices. The new breed is constantly connected via a multitude of different devices to a variety of social networks, giving them a louder voice than ever before.
How to address this:
Failure to identify and engage with your corresponding group of prosumers is a failure to capitalize on their value and influence. Do not make this mistake. Engage with them as much as possible. Social media, contests, free swag, the works. Cultivating positive relationships with prosumers might be the most valuable investment a brand can make. If prosumers are happy, they will spread the positive word for you, and there's no better advertising in the world than word-of -mouth.
3. Brands Can't Completely Control Their Overall Image Online.
Consumers blog, tweet, and post about the products and services that they love and hate. Should they feel that a company is not addressing their needs, they're going to tell people about it. In real-time, potentially to a large crowd. And anyone within their online networks can pass their sentiments along with little effort. A 2012 study by Nielsen showed that 92% of consumers trust EARNED media, such as word of mouth, peer recommendations, and consumer reviews.
How to address this:
1. Here it is important to remember the Cardinal 3: acknowledge, apologize, act. For the most part, people just want to be heard. Don't be reactive in your responses to negative feedback. This is sometimes difficult in practice, but remember that anyone can share whatever you post. Respond succinctly, professionally and with class. If the individual is being unreasonable, odds are others will recognize this.
2. In order to acknowledge, apologize and act, you have to be aware of the issue first, right? Make monitoring a priority. Check out some FREE social media monitoring tools here.
3. Get active on social media. You can bury unwanted negative content and direct consumers to your intended message a lot faster if you're quickly churning out positive content.
4. Brands Struggle to Unify Their Own Voice.
Consumers are on thousands of different social media channels and connect to them from multiple devices on a regular basis. What does this mean for brands? Should brands use these channels for communication and real-time customer feedback? An avenue for advertising? A blend of both?
Brands sometimes don't know where to begin the conversation with their fans. Anyone can push out content (thank you, Google, HuffPo, and Mashable), but seamlessly integrating the many conversations that take place with consumers across the numerous channels is the challenge.
How to address this:
Omnichannel marketing is critical. Briefly, omnichannel marketing is about seamlessly integrating the consumer experience with your brand across all consumer touch points. Consumers are coming to expect that their interactions on one channel impact their experience on others.
For example, if someone complains about a faulty product on your twitter site, an omnichannel marketing solution might have the complaint forwarded to your service department. The service department would then reach out and coordinate with the consumer via email. The solution might also ensure that her profile were updated so that the next time she paid for something in-store, an employee would ask her whether her issue had been resolved.
There's nothing wrong with having a presence on every single social network to create more touch points, but be sure you have enough resources to manage each touch point properly, and integrate the touch-points to the extent possible
5. It's More Than Just a Conversation Piece.
Back to the prosumers (they aren't going anywhere). These socially-charged customers prefer a blend of consumption and production. They want to acquire a sense of ownership in the brands that they love. This means brands need to get creative and explore other channels that take interaction with their fans a step beyond the conversation.
How to address this:
This is a vastly underutilized pool of brand ambassadors. Prosumers' desire to take ownership in your brand means that they are ready and willing to share how great you are online. Show them your mutual affection by leveraging co-creation channels and contests (heard of Womadz?). The result: deep interaction, beyond superficial contact on social channels. Give your fans the opportunity to help shape and spread your brand's image. Consumers will appreciate your trust and feel a sense of investment in your brand. As a result, they will tend to favor you over less engaging brands.
Social media is still relatively new to everyone, so it's okay to learn along the way, just make sure you are paying attention to trends. Some great resources:
- Social Media Today
- Forbes: 19 Things Successful People Do on Social Media
- Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tips for 2013
Closing Question: What's one social media-related struggle your brand has faced recently and how did you resolve it?
