Day: June 2, 2011

The Power of Strategic Social Media Marketing

As business storytellers, we have spent the last three years watching, learning, and immersing ourselves in new media. The digital evolution yields immense value in audience reach, messaging power for B2B and B2C companies, and in accessibility to customers and information. The number of participants engaged on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube demand a company’s attention.

How to harness the power of these channels is the key marketing question. In much the same way we begin every marketing initiative, we start with the end zone—what’s the goal and how will we reach it? For our clients, Return on Investment is answered in the larger context of strategic marketing and public relations; social media is not a stand-alone marketing channel with a disparate ROI.

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Authenticity increases Return on Relationship (ROR)

“It’s not authentic if everyone loves you.” – Stephen Strong (Alberto Culver) at theChicago Brand Advocacy Series.

That is a message that every marketer needs to hear loud and clear, especially as the focus on social media gets stronger and recommendations carry more purchasing weight than ever before!  The term “authenticity” gets used a lot now, but how many brands actually subscribe to being authentic, not just saying they are?

True authenticity in marketing requires brands to change their public filters.  It used to be that a whitewashed image was the way to get consumers’ notice and buy-in (literally)…but now, if brands filter out any and all slight imperfections, consumers quickly get wary.  If the only product/service reviews you allow the public to hear are about how amazing your product/service is, you quickly lose authenticity points.

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