What are some contemporary strategies to undertake to achieve the success in Social Media Marketing?

Social Media is the recent buzz and expected to be around for a while, well may b for more than a while to be exact. Some present common observations of social media are:

·         Creating a trust is one of the major objectives

·         Stories are the most prevailing key to create and reinforce change

·         Human currency is imperative for the SM success but sometimes against the motto of the company

·         Some businesses are trying to make money out of SM who have a little idea on SM yet are successful at it

·         Businesses are stuck on measurement but using some wrong metrics.

Companies are putting more attention on greater level of metrics which are wrong for example likes, number of fans and followers, etc and are not educating their executives on the real aim of Social media. These metrics can’t provide anything of substance because companies do not link these metrics directly with their customer through measurements such as ‘the net promoter score of social customer’, what products are the customers buying, etc.  Most businesses proclaim to have an ear for their customers but in the reality only few have changed or implemented right processes or products based on their listening which could cash into huge ROI. Unless companies are threatened by any noise, they are too lazy to bring any change. Silence the noise is that they run after. Again social media is not about listening only but about gaining useful insights and intelligence. Traditional marketing is no more that much of effective as it was used to be. People prefer reviews or eWOM more than TV ads now a day as the pendulum has shifted!! Other than advertising, customer service is something that can be provided best through social media. All traditional ways to provide customer services are well swept by this new media. If shutting down the customer voice and trying to expedite resolution are the aim, then that’s not a contemporary customer service and not any metric.

Many businesses run new media efforts through PR or marketing. I have even seen a few that run social media through their outside marketing agencies (talk about being close to the customer). Anyway, I have tried a few of these out over the years. My view is that these disconnected businesses are attempting to placate consumers, to minimize or eliminate the complaint. In order for social media service to scale, change MUST happen. Companies must care. New metrics must surface that place the customer back in customer service.

Companies have not changed the way they run business no matter how much engaged they  in social media today. This is not because the scaling is not possible but because they are reluctant. The trouble is the efforts are not leading to wholesale change in the way companies interact with their customers. If companies are simply placating loud customers, all they are really doing is encouraging others to focus on the channels where they believe resolution awaits.

Dell or Comcast success stories in the early social media days, is due to the amount of work that went on behind Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. The true transformation of these businesses what not in taking to social network, but instead building the back end to start fixing the problems that created negative experiences in the first place. Both Dell and Comcast utilized the power of stories and online conversation to help drive improvements.

Social media is creating change in how businesses conduct themselves and placing still underestimated power in the hands of consumers and employees. If companies truly aim to influence brand perception, companies must encourage themselves to

·         Be more flexible  and not so stuck on processes that prevent change

·         Empower employees (they are the life blood and the greatest ambassadors for any brand)

·         Improve the customer experience, not just through service, but the entire experience with the company

·         Start co production and avoid being afraid of the customer

·      Start maximizing the value of the customer! They are really very influential in this post-commerce phase

The brand of any business is the culmination of shared experiences. Hence, business are to change they traditional way they operate dramatically. The power has already shifter to the consumer side, but only few businesses could successfully connect the dots. The bottom line is that businesses need to have wholesale improvements over the way they interact with customers. These changes are currently being driven by the customer. However, it also must be driven by empowered employees to see success in their business along with processes that support transformation and adaptation which can not be avoided.