What All Brands Crave

It’s that elusive “Buzz”
It’s a disease of groupthink filtering down from the big wigs of corporate America to your neighbor who just started his own business out of his basement,
Like word vomit these “brilliant” ideas keep spilling out of us…”Let’s use social media! We need to create hype! I know, we’ll start a word of mouth campaign!!”
But we’re missing something: relevance & substance.
These vapid, fleeting campaigns we throw together to ride the coattails of the latest viral sensation are getting our brands nowhere.
When it comes to “social media” brands need to be strategic in their planning and execution of these efforts. After all, the ultimate goal of using social media should be to better engage consumers so that their connection to the brand is further developed and strengthened.  You want to build brand advocates.

How do you do this?  Use multiple social outlets, gauge your market—not only WHO are your customers but also WHERE are they.  Find out what type of sites they’re spending their time on, what subjects they are interested in, etc. Then meet them where they are.
Once you have them, discuss.  What issues do they have with your brand, what do they wish your brand did better? What do they like or dislike about your product? What suggestions can they offer that you can use to improve your product and/or brand?
This research will offer much better insight into the type of messages that are most appropriate and relevant to your audience…
After all, if you create an hysterical advert that has literally nothing to do with your brand identity or lacks growth potential as it’s not relevant to the ideal image of your brand then it won’t have any effect on the bottom line.
Okay, so what does this all mean for me? Three things:

1.  Decide what the appropriate benchmark of success should be for your brand.  Then gauge your efforts and results accordingly.

2.  Don’t follow someone else’s model.

3.  Be true to your brand.