Social media is a critical part of your business model in the ever-increasingly connected world, and following these 4 steps will help you create successful social enterprise for your Considered-Purchase Brand.
Social enterprise is important for all brands, but it is critical for Considered-Purchase Brands. When you consider the extremely long purchase cycle and the incredible power that influencers have on buying decisions for CPBs, you would be beyond remiss if you weren’t active in the social sphere.
Your customers expect you to have an active social enterprise; if you don’t, then you are missing opportunities to engage with them and to impress influencers. Potential and current customers are willing to become your biggest asset or your biggest liability. It’s up to you which path they take.
Below are 4 qualities of successful social enterprise you can use to assess your Considered-Purchase Brand’s current situation, or to craft/edit your strategy moving forward.
1. Social Communication is INTERNAL and EXTERNAL.
It is clear that having a presence on external, public social networks is a necessity. However, it has been proven that the establishment of internal, private social networks has increased productivity and collaboration among employees. The free exchange of ideas that takes place on social networks is not limited to external ones, and using this to your advantage in tactical communications is a great strategy.
2. Let’s Get PERSONAL.
Nowadays, if you don’t have an extremely detailed, intricate customer profile, you’re not trying hard enough. With so much of everyone’s life located in the social media world, your customer profile basically fills itself out at this point. Also to consider, actively engaging consumers on a personal level allows your brand to address them proactively as opposed to reactively. This allows a great opportunity to turn negative situations into positive ones. Consider using social monitoring tools, but make sure that you respond directly and personally, a dissatisfied customer does not want to receive a generic response to his unique problem.
3. It’s All CONTEXTUAL.
This is perhaps the most important of the 4 qualities for Considered-Purchase Brands. Your presence on social networks must be regularly updated, maintained and policed. Potential customers are using social networks as information-rich educational sources when going through the purchase cycle. This is your chance to set the tone of the conversation. If you miss here, you might as well count the potential customer as a sale for your competition.
4. Can You Hear Me Now? MOBILE is a Must.
While not as important as the CONTEXTUAL quality for CPBs, your potential customer is still always on the go, and providing a unique mobile experience is a great way to keep the engagement going. Consider a mobile app and/or a social gaming presence in order to keep your brand at top of mind without appearing too overbearing.
While this is a great place to start when analyzing your social enterprise, it is by no means an all-encompassing list. The rapidly evolving social realm requires vigilant attention and continued research into the “next big thing,” which can change daily.
How effective is your brand’s social engagement? Do you have any benchmarks by which to judge effectiveness that I left off here? Please, feel free to contribute your ideas for successful social enterprise and I will share them with the rest of this community.
This article was informed by Mashable. Image Credit: ReadAllAboutIt