Thought Floor

The recent past has awakened to the dawn of social media as the buzzword for industries worldwide. The consumer need for constant communication and real time information has attracted businesses to platforms like Twitter, Linkedin and its social counterparts. Manufacturers, these days, are increasingly looking at leveraging them for access to business insights, supplier information, expertise and new product ideas. According to a Gartner survey, vendors ought to position themselves better on the market with ROI messaging.  

A robust social media strategy would help incorporate the voice of customers and fine-tune content strategies by using social media analytic tools. As per global estimates that have recorded over 200mn monthly active users on twitter, 70% users in the US and Europe use mobile devices to access their networks and share updates online. This also hints at the fact that companies need to embrace adoption of mobile friendly content and websites.

It has been observed that for every piece of content created there are 2000 people reading it, which makes for an interesting ratio. Since the marketplace has no dearth of marketing content and subject matter experts, how do you reach out to the scores of prospects out there who might just be interested in what you are saying? You ought to slow down on spending those dollars on mining data, related to consumer behavior and trends, when your customers might be out there voicing their concerns on social media. 

With an increase in content clutter, infographics seem to work much better than words to describe great solutions. And this also seems to be the best way to grab eyeballs for your message. There was an age when we felt that we were getting too old for Dilbert, but now the biggest communication campaigns are built on this wireframe. Ellen's star studded Oscar selfie using Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 broke all previous records on Twitter, with over 3mn retweets and counting, making Samsung's sponsorship worth every single penny. Like they say - 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. After all, not every company opts to spend $4mn on a Superbowl ad which could alternately be used to write 17,000 blogs, potentially generating 10 million shares on social media.

Marketing strategies are constantly formulated around increasing content visibility. These often constitute innovative ways to promote key messages and maximize viewership amidst your target audience. The webinar on 'The Social Employee' by Social Media Today that I attended a couple of weeks ago, discussed how well governed employee advocacy initiatives could bring more returns to the table than you ever imagined. Based on the survey findings of a leading analyst firm, social media engagement will help drive initiatives by leveraging the power of two way communication with the target market as opposed to unidirectional communication alone. This will mark a clear shift from the norm. 

So how social is your brand? Take a step back, listen to your customer's voice and gather your energy to lunge ahead with a renewed purpose.