Social Media Basics for Consumer Brands

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SOCIAL MEDIA BASICS FOR CONSUMER BRANDS

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How Brands Won Yesterday

promote

TraditionalCommunications

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How Brands Win Today

enable & support

liste

nresp

ond prom

ote

“Active Feedback Loop”

TraditionalCommunications

Social Media

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Social Media Can Be Powerful

Social Media

Direct Dialog with Customers

Active Branding

Campaign Support

Improved Search

Crowd Sourced Insights

Crisis Manage-

ment

Customer Service

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Social Media Landscape

• Like conventional communications channels, marketers have hundreds of social media properties on which to engage with consumers

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The Social-Industrial Complex

• Unlike conventional communications, social media tools for marketers are complex and intimidating

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Popular Social Media Outlets

• Even social properties which are most popular with consumers can seem overwhelming to brand marketers

• How’s a brand to know what path to take?

FacebookTwitterPinterestInstagramGoogle+ TumblrFlickrYouTube

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Social Impact

• So, you have a facebook page?• You’ve opened the door to consumers engaging

with you directly. Ready?

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Social Impact

• People are talking about your brand without your knowledge, input or control

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Four Key Activities

① Listen• Foundation for SM strategy• ID communities of interest• Capture sentiment real time• Track marketing performance

② Engage• Create a social media

“Playbook”• Be both proactive and

reactive• Support Brand Story

③ Analyze• Consumer Insights• Shopper Marketing Insight• Competitive Intelligence• Trends Analysis

④ Promote• Integrate with offline• Creativity inspires• Multiple objectives

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Initial Metrics Thoughts

• Social Media offers new opportunities to gauge the performance of your investments

• Research methodologies have yet to solidify that empirically correlate social media engagement to CPG sales activity

• Primary SM metrics are designed to track engagement• Remains a proxy for sales impact

• “Likes” and # of followers less important than quality of engagement

• Direct marketing measurements can be leveraged• eCoupons, Contests, Promotions

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A Path Forward

① Align objectives and metrics for Social Media activities with overall brand communications objectives and activities

② Create an “active feedback loop” with broader listening to know where and how consumers want to engage with you

③ Respond as if you were being engaged with in-person④ Develop a brand story and voice as the basis for a

successful communications strategy⑤ Create an engagement strategy/brand playbook as a

foundation for your social efforts⑥ Consider proactive promotion strategies using all

communications channels, proven and yet-to-be-tested⑦ Optimize activities relentlessly

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Key Considerations for Social Media

• Social Media best practices have begun to emerge– Developing a consistent brand “voice” drives familiarity and engagement– “likes” and # of followers less important than quality of engagement

• Integrated communications across channels is important– consumers don’t differentiate where their information comes from,

just that it’s from a trusted source

• Foundational vs Campaign strategies– Social is a “way” of doing business that requires regular, ongoing

stewardship to be effective– Campaign activity is only as effective as the foundation that’s been

established

• Test and Learn approach is imperative to success– What approach will best resonate in which social channels– Evaluate results of activities through the lens of specific measurement

goals.

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For More Information, please contact:

Bill [email protected]@billhewson