6 lessons of Social Media

6 Lessons of Social Media

• New Media as a department.• Requires investments of time, people, and money.• The Role of New Media within corporations is evolving.• Department examples and Dell case study.

1. Give New Media A Seat At The Table

Dell didn’t shy away from embracing social media, instead they’ve gone above and beyond, truly cultivating a cross-platform community. They’ve created multiple Twitter handles, a network of blogs, and are very active on Facebook.

Dell is also one of the few companies to publicly state that they created a return on investment from Twitter. Dell’s social media efforts help create “$1 million in revenue“.

• Half of all New Media campaigns fail.• No off the shelf solution. • Find the sweet spot.• Hope, Change, Action campaign case study.

2. Tools Are Useless With Out A Plan

What Obama did so successfully is that he went to where his customer base was. He could no longer afford to meet with everyone at their kitchen tables, but he could friend them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.The takeaway for businesses. Create a plan to go where your customers are; join their groups, participate in their conversations, and contribute to their communities.

• Map out your Digital Landscape.• Find the conversations.• Easy to find and use. • Starbucks case study.

3. Know The Lay of The Land

To get a better handle on consumer feedback, Starbucks creating “My Starbucks Idea.”

The site allows users to submit suggestions to be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popular suggestions are highlighted and reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes suggested.

• Learn the social etiquette-it varies by network.• Listen.• Be authentic-you can’t fake it. • Comcast and Twitter case study.

4. Build Relationships

Comcast has found a way to offer exceptional customer service to their consumers, but the thing that really makes them stand out is how well they monitor discontent.

Complain about Comcast and you can bet you’ll hear from @comcastcares to see if they can help.

• Have a purpose or a mission.• Online organizing=offline action.• Social media is about sharing all types of content. • Graco case study.

5. Call To Action

Social media is about sharing all types of content, including photos. Facilitating the sharing is easy, but gaining something from it requires a sound strategy. Graco did just that, by building a community around their product using Flickr.

Graco takes their strategy one step further by introducing offline marketing in the form of community gatherings. The pictures from these meet-ups are posted to the Flickr page, further humanizing the community around the product.

• Empower brand ambassadors.• Embrace co-creation.• Let your brand evolve.

6. Give Up Control

Lessons Summarized:Creating cross-platform strategies can lead to the most success, especially when your demographic is already Internet and technologically savvy.

Thinking of ways to build your company are great, but directly asking your consumers what they want, is better. Acting on that information and doing it publicly is key to the success of this campaign.

Being active on Twitter is great but tracking and seeing who’s mentioning you, is the next step. Social media allows for the possibility of great customer service, and with it, better brand loyalty.

Social media doesn’t have to exist wholly online. Blending offline marketing with online efforts can build a community around a brand.