If you were responsible for the social media management of a recognizable brand (like Pepsi, for instance), would you engage differently than if you managed a small company's social media?
What would be the keys to a successful strategy? Would you follow people back? Would you send direct messages? Would you favor short-term campaigns? What would be the important considerations?
Answers (12)
Anand P.
Social Media, Analytics and Graphic Design Through Creativity and Innovation
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1)
Hey Jim,
Personally I believe that your general approach to social media should be very similar no matter if you are a large or small business. Just because you are a large, international brand, does not mean that the way you engage with your fans should be any different. I am one of those people that believes that if somebody cares enough to follow your brand on Twitter, then you should follow them back so that you can watch their activity and truly interact with them.
Things do change a little when it comes to strategy. Bigger companies mean bigger budgets, so smaller business need to come up with creative yet inexpensive campaigns to run through social media. Although this sounds difficult, with some brainstorming you can definitely create some solid ideas.
When it comes down to it, social media should be used in the way that best suits your brand. If you are a company that truly cares about those one on one interactions then go ahead and follow people back. If you're a national or worldwide brand, then create a robust campaign that works with your company's ideology.
It is definitely a tricky concept to grasp and each person will have a different view on it but hope this helps even just a little!
I have to disagree with the "one size fits all" strategy. If you are managing social media for a brand like Pepsi or Coca-Cola it would be impossible to do it the same way. Could you follow back a billion customers? Reply to a million tweets a day? You would need a "call centre" with a hundred thousand people, and how would you manage a consistent brand message with all that going on? The way to go with a global brand like this is to start or lead the conversations, but allow "fans" or "friends" to do most of the talking. That way, you don't need a huge additional marketing resource to manage, and you don't have the potential nightmare of a "rogue tweet" killing your reputation.
Kenneth L.
Retired Aerospace Contracts Manager, MicroMentor Volunteer and Founder "Smalltofeds"
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I would have at least 3 lawyers and a half dozen VP's around my neck.
I would be complying with a strict company policy to limit liability and control the process.
I would be a very highly paid, but stressed out and unhappy troop.
William T. C.
Facebook Marketing Expert with 1,100,000 Fans
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I would engage social media with slight differences for most industries. For example Pepsi could not engage it's Facebook users the way we do and vice versus. Pepsi is not even engaging their Fan base.
Pepsi has 6,000,000 Fans to our 600,000, yet our Fan base is more interactive (Likes + Comments + Shares). Pepsi needs a Facebook strategy.
I would not do any of the things listed above. To view a proper example on how to engage your Fans, go to:
Links:
Josh H.
Experienced B2B demand generation and marketing automation professional
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Customer Relationship Management (1), Nonprofit Management (1)
Hi Jim,
Social is about having a real conversation with the firm. The companies that do it best don't follow back, but they do respond to DMs, RTs, good and bad press quickly and nicely. It's a more direct way to help people feel connected to the brand and to feel like someone's listening.
I disagree that it would be impossible to track and respond to the right kinds of interactions. The airlines use it well for customer service and so do many firms. There are plenty of tools to filter out the junk.
Erica F.
Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon
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While the basic principles of Social Media: Find, Engage, Reward apply to all clients, there would definitely have to be different tools and different tactics. Pepsi is a globally recognized company, it's way too easy to forget that and try too hard or to be too clever.
For example Chapstick (Pfizer Consumer) just tried a campaign that I imagine they thought was fun, kind of goofy. (See link below) It did not work. Fans of Chapstick on Facebook were annoyed and offended...and told them so. Chaptsick, inexplicably responded by burying its head in the sand, sticking its fingers in its ears and telling everyone to go home. They disappeared posts on their FB wall, instead of just apologizing and pulling the ad. Eventually they pulled the ad, then put out a whiny half-apology statement that showed they weren't sorry at all.
This is exactly why SMO for a big brand can't be the same as for a little one. Big audience numbers means gaffes fly fast and far and any response will be picked over carefully, not just by SM analysts.
So, yes, keep solid principles in mind with any client, but no, there is no one way to do Social Media right. Every client is going to be different - and size/reach/scope does matter.
Links:
Benin B.
3500 + | Online - Offline Marketing Integration | Atlanta SEO Specialist | Atlanta Local Marketing Specialist
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (2), Advertising (1)
I like Erica's answer. I'd also echo the part of Kenneth's answer where he referenced the legal aspect of managing the social media of a large brand.
Another thing that I'd point out is that larger brands that have a firm grasp of web strategy tend to employ entire social media command centers. In many instances the command centers have people that don't work in marketing on them also...And as unbelievable as it may sound the command centers give them the breadth to listen to and see just about every word that is and has ever been uttered about them online.
On top of that there's usually a standard operating procedure that tells the social media team what to do to earn their audience's engagement as well as how to respond to negative attacks.
So while at the core level the fundamentals of social media are pretty much the same whether its a big brand or a little one to say that you can manage a large brand's web presence in the same way that you'd manage a small one is probably more than a stretch. A large brand has so much more at stake...
Benin B. also suggests these experts on this topic:
Susan B.
Webinar Expert - Creating, Delivering, Marketing & Leveraging them to build your business!
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Yes I probably would. Because no doubt the person doing it for a major international brand like Pepsi, would know a whole lot more about *how* to do it than do the typical individuals managing social media involvement for smaller companies.
Arjen R.
Enthousiast, mensgericht, open minded. Iemand die graag mensen en organisaties facilliteert in hun ontwikkeling.
It doesn't matter for me. Social media marketing is best used when you appeal to the individual and not a group. The effect should be the same, the only difference is in numbers
While it'd be a far bigger undertaking.
The whole purpose of social media is the actual interaction with the customer base.
It makes the company real.
You can see countless celebrities successfuly interact with their followers on twitter in a one-on-one fashion. People appreciate this.
Using a simple service like SocialOomph you could set up auto-follow backs aswell as automatic welcome DMs, which in turn many people think these are actually personalized messages that the person has taken the time to write.
With Facebook I would focus on creating polls and interactive iFrames to have more people interacting directly with the company at hand.
If you don't take the time to make it personal - you may aswell just stick to driving traffic with PPC.
Christopher R.
Enterprise Social Business Strategy & Execution (Social Network & Social Media)
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (5), Internet Marketing (2), Public Relations (1), Blogging (1)
Jim, you've sparked a good thread here with some great insights! I'll try to add to it by taking a slightly different path.
From a strategic viewpoint, I agree with Anand and Argen in that the size of company shouldn't be the determining factor in your strategy, although, as several people mention, size definitely comes into play during execution.
My firm has advised large brands on strategy and execution, and we've consistently found these good practices:
1) Forget social media platforms until you define and identify stakeholders (customers, prospects, partners, employees, regulators..). these definitions need to be specific enough to create very granular keyword families to identify SHs online. All SHs aren't created equal, and client/brand needs to be clear on the relative importance of each SH.
2) Define and identify relevant workstreams. In most cases, client/brand is only interested in SHs who are engaged in specific activities, in a certain context in which their brand is relevant. Develop granular keyword families to identify workstreams online.
3) By combining SH and workstream keyword families, you can rank social venues in which SHs are having the most heated conversations about targeted workstreams. This tells you what venues to use (where to engage).
4) Now brand/client has to look in the mirror and ask, in terms of SHs and their workstreams, what *unique* value can we add? The answers here underpin the content strategy for each venue (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+..). Of course, the venue also colors the nature of how we engage.
5) Brands are usually led by marketers, who are still learning how to listen (their DNA is talking). They spew a lot of content. The signal/noise ratio is low (i.e. brand talking, not individuals). Best practice is using the above process and managing the ecosystem of social media venues to add unique value to SHs. For example, Facebook and Twitter are excellent for chit-chat, where blogs and forums are killer for deeper convos. When brands know where to engage in what, they can cross-pollinate convos.
Sorry, that turned out to be long, so hope it helps. The context of your question was general and seemed to imply Twitter/Facebook. Of course, all big brands have presences already, but very few are adding value. By having a robust strategy, a company of any size can be far more intentional AND set up business-relevant results metrics. You can also use this approach to "relaunch" existing social media efforts that are underperforming (the majority).
Lastly, our clients have had excellent results in hiving off more specific presences from general ones (i.e. Pepsi general FB Page starts a campaign to engage high school athletes and hives it off to another page when metrics are met). But key to success is thoroughly understanding SHs and workstreams, engaging SHs and rapidly adjusting when you validate what works.
I've included a trove of case studies, too.
Links:
Clarification added 6 months ago:
Jim, your question got me thinking, so I expanded and published this post in which I expanded how small/large firms approach execution: http://bit.ly/socbus-size
Patrick M.
Director at SiliconCloud.com. Inbound Marketing
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I believe that the point of social media is to help with marketing becoming more personal to the customer. It allows you to constantly engage with them which can improve their view on the company because they know their opinion is being listened to. Here is a whitepaper and webinar on social media which you may be interested in. If you have any more questions feel free to contact me.
http://www.siliconcloud.com/10-tips-on-monitoring-social-media/
http://www.siliconcloud.com/building-a-social-media-strategy/
