Guest comment: Forget going green: it’s all about going social
- Added:
- Nov 17, 2009
As user generated content takes over the web, how can brands integrate this into the rest of their marketing efforts? Simon Bowker, UK Managing Director at eCircle, argues why brands should be looking at long term goals rather than quick returns from social media campaigns.
Everyone’s talking about their social media efforts – or lack thereof – and it seems that social commerce (or the business of monetising social media) seems to be causing marketers to worry that they’re missing the boat because they’re simply overwhelmed by the options. People are talking to their networks about how to live, eat, socialise, date, shop, vote...the list goes on. This dialogue, otherwise known as User Generated Content (UGC), is going on right now, and is an opportunity that marketers can’t afford to miss out on. But for many, opening up a brand to potentially negative feedback is nerve-wracking to say the least.
Taking stock of the new interactive world we live in, there are some equally bald statistics giving weight to the commercial potential for social media:
· 70% of the digital universe will be generated by individuals by 2010 (Source: TechCrunch 2009)
· Facebook is now the 4th most-visited website, with more than 300 million active users of which 50+% are logging in every single day.
· It’s not just the under 30’s who are constantly connected: 33% of 45-54 yr-olds and 23% of 55-65 yr olds are always online, a hugely lucrative demographic segment (Source: Future Laboratory + Virgin Media 2009)
· Bazaarvoice clients using Ratings & Reviews or Ask & Answer UGC products report big increases in conversion (>10% increase for top-rated products on Argos.co.uk; 40% increase for mistergooddeal.com)
In light of this we recently launched a shiny new version of our email marketing broadcast technology eC-messenger to include new technologically advanced features, which along with the groundbreaking Text-to-Inbox tool, One Click Web Analytics Integration and the Advanced Personalisation function, included the Social Media Fusion tool.
The Social Media Fusion tool allows our clients to include links to a range of social communities such as Digg, Delicious, Facebook and Stumble Upon, which increase the exposure to marketing emails as consumers forward them on to interested friends, family and colleagues. Ultimately these tools can help a business to create better integration between different online channels, and through these channels inject their brand with more personality in order to create a real, human, emotional connection with consumers is the first step to a serious social strategy.
However, with this in mind it is important to remember that once the floodgates are open, there’s no going back, so it’s critical to have response plans in place for both negative and positive feedback, with customer service teams, suppliers and manufacturers. There have been examples of ‘turnarounds’ where furious customers, tweeting about a recent purchase or service issue, are spotted by an astute and nimble company representative monitoring their #tags closely, and offer a swift free replacement or discount vouchers – efficiently turning a negative experience into a positive one, which the consumer will no doubt pass on to their followers.
To keep this interaction going, brands must encourage multi-network dialogue and multi-channel distribution of content; share website UGC with your Facebook page and encourage tweets and re-tweets to ensure the conversation doesn’t fade out. In addition to this it’s important to spread the word across other online/offline channels, such as feature reviews in email, brochures and in-store, also known as ‘social syndication’.
These mediums can and should work in partnership and compliment each other; it’s not about bombarding the consumer from all angles, more about capturing their hearts, engaging their minds, and then the wallets will naturally follow.
Instead of focusing on direct returns, through really listening and interacting online companies have a huge opportunity to use all the multitudinous digital tools at their fingertips to create a real relationship with customers.
By Simon Bowker
UK Managing Director
eCircle
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