YOUR Brand Engagement Social Media?

Brand engagement: How social media is being channeled to provide value for users..

Related Article: 8 Branding Questions For YOUR Social Media Strategy?

Social media is a constantly changing force that is dominating desktops and mobile devices across the world.

No single technological advancement has changed our daily lives and culture so quickly and dramatically.

But the success and popularity of social media also increases competition exponentially. This sparks questions surrounding social media practices, such as which platform’s processes work best and why?

Below, I’ve rounded up some of the practices today's brands are using to make the very most of their social media initiatives and how you can do the same.

Related Article: Grow And Maintain YOUR Social Media Brand?

Following 'The Customer Is Always Right'

Generally speaking, people subscribe to brands that capture and hold their interest, and often for a more specific reason. Whether it's a clothing brand that promotes exclusive offers on social media or a news company that shares breaking stories, successful social media marketers understand that to succeed, there has to be an incentive. Of course, this incentive will vary by what your brand has to offer.

With that said, every brand should understand what their audience wants from following them on social media, and they have an obligation to follow through. Failing to provide what your audience is looking for can cause them to lose interest and look elsewhere -- likely to your competitors. This is why it is imperative to keep your brand’s reputation foremost in their minds.

From a social media perspective, it’s best to test various forms of content and measure which performs best. This could range from engaging videos to graphics to polls and more. Higher clicks and engagement rates should give marketers an idea of what kind of content to share in the future.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Era Customer Service?

Additionally, brands now look to social media as a convenient customer service platform.

Compared to the inconvenience of calling a customer service line and dealing with an automated machine, social media offers a valuable alternative. Don't just look at customer service via social media as an obligation, but as an opportunity to win over customers and to establish a deeper level of brand loyalty. In a digital age where people look for instant solutions, social media delivers.

For example, airlines regularly employ customer service representatives to help customers via Twitter. Was your flight canceled? Tweeting your issue directly to the airline can lead to faster solutions and less airport chaos while offering the peace of mind of having immediate help at your fingertips.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Customer Service Strategy?

Branding Through Quality Content

Social media is unique in that it acts as a personalized content aggregator for users. News feeds are meant to directly reflect the user's interests, making social media a 24/7 hub for personalized news and entertainment.

Brands are being reminded that “content is king,” following various algorithm updates. Users are shown content that they are likely to engage with. This data is harvested by following users’ behavioral patterns when they visit particular pages.

To increase your content’s organic reach, focus more on post engagement to win the attention of your customers and further brand loyalty. Over time, a larger, more engaged audience will result in increased future sales.

Quality content should typically provide a solution or alternative to an obstacle your audience may be facing. For example, a company that sells running sneakers might want to share tips and advice for people who run competitively. In this case, social content might include tips for increasing endurance through cardiovascular exercises or nutrition advice that can serve as a performance booster.

Related Article: YOUR Video Content Is King?

Marketing Through Emerging Technologies

Social media is becoming more about the personal journey or experience than ever before. Fans want to be involved, not just sideline spectators. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have introduced live video features to increase individual participation and to take brand engagement to the next level.

With live videos, consumers can feel closer to their favorite brands than ever before. Live videos are becoming their own genre of content, ranging from brief Q&A sessions to product releases -- all with the intent to increase engagement and further brand loyalty.

If you're looking to take advantage of live video capabilities, make sure to address your audience to make them feel more involved (this is what makes live videos more engaging).

Related Article: Branding And Social Media Marketing Weapons?

This could mean asking them questions or requesting their opinions or suggestions for future pieces of content. Projecting the message that your brand listens to its fans will surely strengthen loyalty.

Virtual reality is another emerging technology that may have a major impact on social media. Over time, as prices for this technology drop, usage will likely become more regular, and brands can align their marketing strategies to further enhance the experiences consumers are seeking. For instance, brands might find ways to integrate VR with live video to give fans a taste of the action. This may also be the case for product announcements. Imagine how much more traction a new car will get when people can virtually experience it.

Guest Authored By Michele Gray. Michele is Chief Operating Officer at Active Web Group, a full-service Digital Marketing Firm located in New York. Follow Michele on Twitter.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Content Planning Tools?

"Social media succeeds because it is a fluid vehicle that can quickly effectuate changes and updates to enhance the user experience and facilitate the sales funnel to achieve a brand’s business goals. Whatever users demand and require for their loyalty, savvy brands will turn to social media to deliver.."

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Overcoming YOUR Social Media Challenges?

5 Social media challenges and how to overcome them..

As a constantly evolving field, Social Media comes with varied developments in terms of algorithms, platform changes and so on. A marketer must be aware of all the advantages as well as the challenges that these changes bring.

Let’s look at 5 social media challenges, and how you can tackle them successfully.

Related Article: 7 Gary Vaynerchuk Social Media Tips?

1. Organic Reach

Every year we see organic reach dwindle away, especially for Facebook. One major reason is, social media platforms are pushing brands to adapt their advertising solutions. To tackle the issue of organic reach, you can start investing heavily in paid ads, but if it’s not feasible for you at the moment, you can adopt the following 2 strategies:

A. Choose Quality Over Quantity: Have a consistent posting frequency, but you do not need to post every blog post you publish. Post only the ace content as this would increase better engagement with organic reach.

B. Focus on the Trending Content Format: There will always be a few content formats that will be trending for a specific time period. A few years back, it was 'images'. In 2018, videos are outperforming the other formats. Therefore, use videos to get noticed in your followers’ news feed.

Related Article: YOUR Organic Social Media Marketing?

2. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a widely used strategy because it is cost-effective compared to mainstream advertising, and generates great returns on your ad spend. However, there are a few challenges that come with influencer marketing. Let’s look at 3 main challenges and how you can solve them:

A. Getting the Best Influencers for Your Brand: You need to find influencers with authority in your niche and with followers who are similar to your target audience. To find out the influencers who will bring value, use tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Followerwonk, Buzzsumo, and Buzzstream, to name a few.

B. Deciding the Creative Freedom: Ultimately it’s the content that resonates with your audience. You need to understand that influencers know more about their followers. Therefore, it’s beneficial to offer a certain level of creative freedom to the influencers, in terms of content. You can do it by giving a creative brief to influencers and some templates around which they can draft the copies.

Related Article: 8 Branding Questions For YOUR Social Media Strategy?

C. Measuring the Impact: Measuring ROI of digital avenues has been a perennial problem for marketers, and influencer programs are no different. To measure the results of the influencer campaign, start tracking reach, impressions, engagement, and conversions. To measure conversions, you can start giving out promo codes unique for each influencer so that you can track the performance of each individual.

3. Follower Engagement

What is the point of social media if no one is there to listen to what you have to say? Building a community on social media is a challenge. Keeping them engaged is an even bigger challenge. Remember, social media is a two-way street. Here are 3 simple ways you can boost follower engagement:

A. Ask Questions: The simplest tactic you can use is to ask questions. Ask questions to get feedback, know what your followers think about a particular trend or just about anything related to your topic. You can ask your followers to leave comments or use the in-built poll feature most platforms provide.

Related Article: Building An Engaging Social Media Presence?

B. Solve Customer Queries Promptly: Whenever a user tweets or posts on your page with a query, try to address it as quickly as possible. Doing this will build trust and encourage the user to interact with your brand more frequently.

C. Run Contests: Asking your followers to participate in a contest by tweeting with a hashtag or commenting or sharing your content by offering freebies in return is a relatively low effort activity for both, your brand and your followers to skyrocket your engagement.

4. Immersive Content Formats

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are still in a nascent stage in their marketing adaptation, but that’s where their biggest potential lies. The biggest challenge with the immersive content format is its low adoption rate. If you use Facebook you might come across Facebook 360 videos, but they too are few. Also, devices required for immersive content formats like VR headsets are still not in the trend yet. As the saying goes, “the early bird gets the worm.” The way to overcome this is to become an early adopter in the field so that when this format finally explodes, you will be there to bank on its success.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Content Planning Tools?

5. Consistent Brand Voice

Brand voice is the personality of your brand. It needs to be engaging, and it should be reflected in your content. Lack of long-term content planning is what stifles the consistency in your brand voice. Also, being unable to convey your voice through the content hampers the communication. To overcome these challenges, you need to start with having a brand guide that details your voice, tone, word usage, dos and don’ts etc.

Also, while creating content or campaign for a specific business requirement, keep the messaging constant and repeat it wherever you can to build a lasting impact.

Guest Authored By Indrajeet Deshpande. is a Marketing professional with 6+ years of experience in managing different facets of Digital Marketing. After working with SpiderG - a Pune based SaaS startup, he is now ready to work as a freelance marketer with different SaaS startups helping them with marketing strategy, plan and execution. His love for old-school hard rock and metal music culminated in taking up guitar and starting GuitarGabble.

Follow Indrajeet on Twitter.

Related Article: 8 Branding Questions For YOUR Social Media Strategy?

"Although consistency is crucial, keep your brand voice young, witty and impactful. Understand your audience well and adopt a language that echoes their thoughts, attitude, and lifestyle. Change is inevitable in social media marketing. The best way to overcome new challenges is to stick to the fundamental – content!" -IndrajeetDeshpande

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

YOUR Social Media Troll Communications?

How to handle trolls in social media..

Conventional wisdom says that companies should respond to everyone on social media. When people take the time to compliment a company, they want to be acknowledged; when they have a complaint, they want empathy and a resolution; and when they have a question, they just want the answer.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Troll Repellent?

But some people who tag companies on Twitter or post on a company’s Facebook page aren’t looking for any of those things. Instead, they are just looking for attention. These odious beasts are often referred to as trolls.

Trolls are nasty creatures that cause sleepless nights for social media marketers and customer service agents alike. Trolls are typically in search of an audience through incessantly negative banter about a brand. This can often be confusing for social customer care agents because they are used to people having problems that they try to solve. But trolls don’t really want resolution; they want attention. Often their “complaint” is so amorphous that it isn’t solvable anyway, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the company (in which case it also qualifies as spam).

The best way to deal with a troll is to respectfully answer the first post by offering to help. It’s also a good idea to offer to take the discussion offline so the person can rant privately instead of publicly. But here’s the interesting part: Because trolls generally aren’t looking for resolution, they are often surprised that the brand has engaged them at all. Many times, this will cause them to leave and go pick on another company.

Related Article: The Costliest Social Media Mistakes?

If, however, the person remains persistent after a couple of back-and-forths, it’s okay to ignore and/or block the person from future communications.

According to marketing and customer service consultant Jay Baer, author of Hug Your Haters, companies should follow the “Rule of Reply Only Twice,” which implores customer service agents to “Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER respond to someone more than twice.”

In the case of trolls, this is a good rule to follow, as there is no benefit in continuing the dialogue.

Baer suggests that even with compliments, there is a quickly diminishing return in answering multiple back-and-forth messages. The tricky part comes when there is a real problem being addressed that may require more than two responses, and the customer seems willing to engage further. In that case, continuing the conversation until the customer is satisfied is appropriate.

Related Article: Feed The Social Media Trolls?

Trolls are also the exception to other social media etiquette questions, such as whether it is okay to delete customer posts on a company’s Facebook page and whether it’s okay to just ignore a post and not respond at all.

The answer in these cases is yes for trolls but generally no for any other post. This also goes for spam posts and any posts that are purely based on hate or filled with profanity.

Guest Authored By Dan Gingiss. Dan is a marketing and customer experience executive who has consistently focused on delighting customers. He is a keynote speaker, the author of “Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences On Social Media” and the co-host of the Experience This! Podcast. His career has spanned multiple disciplines including marketing, customer experience, social media, and customer service. He is currently Vice President of Marketing at Persado, an AI-powered marketing language startup. Previously, he held leadership roles at several major brands: McDonald’s, Humana, and Discover. Follow Dan on Twitter.

Related Article: Fake News, Hoaxes and Hate-Monger Social Media?

"Remember that people with legitimate complaints about your business are not trolls, and should always be treated respectfully with the goal of finding a resolution to the customer’s specific issue and identifying and correcting the root cause of the problem within the company. -DanGingess

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Salt Lake City, UT. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Responding To YOUR Happy Social Customers?

4 Simple ways to respond to a happy customer in social media..

One thing that emerged with the advent of social media as a viable customer service channel was that customers suddenly had a vehicle with which to deliver… compliments.

Related Article: Growing YOUR Social Media Reputation?

Despite all of the bad press about heightened complaints about brands in social media – much of it deserving – an overlooked benefit of the channel is the growing list of nice things that people have to say about their customer experience.

People share their experiences on social media based on a simple equation involving expectations and emotions. If a brand exceeds expectations, customers are happy, and their willingness to share their experience in social media is actually very high. How (or even if) a brand responds greatly contributes back to the customer experience itself.

The idea that somebody takes time out of their day to tweet at a brand or post on their Facebook page something positive about their experience is really incredible. Think about it: That never used to happen before social media became popular. A call center rarely if ever got phone calls where the agent answered the phone and the person on the line said, “I'm just calling to tell you that you did a great job!” It just didn’t happen.

Related Article: Building Trust For YOUR Social Media Brand?

So why do many brands not bother to respond to compliments on social media?

--The traditional role of “customer service” is to handle problems. A recent study by Sprout Social found that 88% of social marketers say customer service is important to their brands, but that isn’t translating to brand responsiveness to positive comments. This is most likely because responding to compliments has never been part of the customer service remit.

--Social marketers have moved on. When social media arrived on the scene, marketers quickly learned that a unique aspect of this marketing channel was that customers could actually talk back. Social media gave customers a voice, and marketers were soon out of their league trying to answer complaints. Initially, they brought in customer service to handle the questions and the negative comments, leaving the fun, positive interactions for the “community manager.” But over time, all customer interactions have moved to the contact center.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Public Relations?

--Lack of resources. Many companies are not properly resourced to handle all social media interactions, and/or social media agents are pulled off that channel in times of high call volumes. This creates stress on responding to all questions and complaints, let alone compliments.

--Compared to avoiding the public relations nightmare of a negative viral tweet, the perceived value of customer compliments is relatively low. Companies believe that fixing problems is more important than keeping happy customers happy.

When someone compliments a company publicly, it gives companies valuable feedback about what they doing right.

It is important to figure out how to do more of that so you can make more customers happy. In addition, positive comments provide that elusive word-of-mouth marketing that many brands are spending lots of money to achieve – even though it is right under their noses.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Brand Engagement Data Science?

Here’s what companies should do when someone compliments them publicly:

--Say “thank you.” This seems obvious but is so often overlooked. After all, a person has just performed an unsolicited nice gesture – telling the world about the great experience he or she had – so the least companies can do is express some gratitude. Including some personalization, like the customer’s first name, agent’s first name, or a fun related GIF will make the experience more memorable.

--Engage with the happy customer. Tell them that you appreciate them as well, ask them questions about their experience, and show some interest in them since they have shown interest in the company. Consumers today want a relationship with brands, but that relationship must go both ways.

--Share or retweet positive comments. Not only is this giving the happy customer a public badge of honor, it is sharing objective feedback about the company with others. Many studies have confirmed that consumers trust friends, family and each other more than they do brands.

--If resources are severely constrained, at least take the time to “Like” or “Favorite” positive comments. This small gesture is still appreciated by power users because they know the brand has at least seen the comment.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Empathy Technology?

Since it is so difficult and expensive to acquire new customers, keeping existing customers happy is paramount.

In social media, happy customers self-identify, making the company’s job easier. So take positive feedback for what it is – a gift – and be sure to respond in kind.

Excerpts from Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences On Social Media, available on Amazon.

Guest Authored Dan Gingess. Dan is a marketing and customer experience executive who has consistently focused on delighting customers. He is the author of “Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences On Social Media” and the co-host of the Experience This! Podcast. Hear more from Dan in his book Winning at Social Customer Care and on his podcast Experience This! Follow Dan on Twitter.

Related Article: A Customer Experience Solution For YOUR Brand?

"In social media, happy customers self-identify, making the company’s job easier. So take positive feedback for what it is – a gift – and be sure to respond in kind.." -DanGingess

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Salt Lake City, UT. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)