Fit or Fad?: Choosing the Right Social Media Networks to Connect with Your Customers

This just in...

Pinterest is now a marketing tool for business. That is, if the chatter emanating from LinkedIn groups and marketing white papers is any indication. Yes, there are already white papers. In just over a year, Pinterest has edged its way up the Alexa rankings to claim a spot on the 50 most visited sites in the world. It has even surpassed such well-established powerhouses as PayPal, CNN, Netflix and The Huffington Post to claim its stake as the #16 most visited site in the U.S. “But what the heck is Pinterest?” you may be wondering. I’ll let this hot new social site pin it down for you: “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes and organize their favorite recipes.” Wait a minute…this bastion of all things bridal, bed sheets and baked goods is now big business? Really? How did this happen? And what does it mean for your business, if anything?

The quick and the dead

Social media is the new wild west of marketing…at least it often feels that way. In just the past few years, we’ve experienced a revolution in the way information about our world, our products and our customers is collected and shared. Connections are raw and direct with little room for error. As a result, it’s no surprise that 140-character faux pas from high-profile tweeters have become evermore commonplace – not to mention the number of noteworthy public scandals brought to light by social media missteps. And then there’s complexity of the social landscape, which changes like the Nevada desert – a few boulders (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) surrounded by a sea of shifting sand, posing a challenge to any business to keep pace. So in this environment of constant flux, how do you remain relevant and cutting edge? How do you balance caution and agility in responding to new platforms? How do you make the most of limited resources? And who’s going to do all this posting, tweeting, +1ing and pinning, anyway? After all, not every business has the luxury of a dedicated, in-house social media guru.

Here’s the good news…

Using the right social media tools in the right way is far more important than using every tool in the box. A carefully curated approach can create stronger ties between your company and your customers while providing the greatest return on your investment of resources. Here’s a step-by-step guide for identifying those networks that are the best fit for your business model, capabilities and customer base.

1. Know where your peeps are.

For major consumer brands like Coke, Nike, Comcast and other B2C juggernauts, it’s important to be everywhere. Fortunately though, they also have the budgets and the manpower to sustain such efforts. Your brand, on the other hand, probably doesn’t need to be everywhere; you just need to figure out where it’s best to be. The key to maximizing the value of your social media efforts is knowing where your customers live online. Just as with all marketing efforts, success starts with knowing your audience, their habits and preferences. If the type of customer you serve isn’t likely to be active on Twitter, there’s no need for you to invest your time there. On the other hand, if your target is young moms, up-and-comer Pinterest is probably a great place to connect with these individuals. Don’t be afraid to stop investing resources (human or monetary) in poor performers. For example, I work for a consulting firm that manages enterprise software projects for utilities. Because the corporate culture of these types of companies tends to evolve very slowly, many of our prospects were still blocking employee access to Facebook and Twitter until just recently. So, historically, those outlets have offered our firm little lead-generation value. However, nearly everyone I meet has a LinkedIn profile, so our firm has a strong presence there, with many of our staff actively involved in LinkedIn groups. Find where your people are and join the conversation.

2. Align social media with your business model.

Every social media site has its own strengths and benefits, so it’s up to you to determine which ones best enable you to showcase and promote your products or services. Full-platform sites like Facebook and Google+ offer the greatest flexibility and the broadest audience, but there may be others that can better serve your unique marketing goals. For professional photographers, sites like Flickr and Instagram make it easy for people to discover and share your work. They’re also where you’re most likely to connect with people who are passionate about great photography. On the other hand, sites like Groupon, Yelp, Zagat and Foursquare are built around local deals and local reviews. If you’re a brick-and-mortar shop, these sites can help boost your traffic – the kind that walks through the door with cash to spend. Consumer products – especially those that are design or taste oriented such as fashion, housewares and tech gadgets – are likely to perform well on sites like Pinterest that let users curate collections of things they like. And if you’re in a B2B business, LinkedIn and Jigsaw are great sites for building your network and working leads while Q&A sites like Quora and Focus offer a platform to showcase your expertise and build trust with prospects by answering questions posted by the community.

3. If you show up, come ready to engage.

With social media, you get back in proportion to how much you give. If your company makes the commitment to join a community, you must be prepared to become an active an engaged participant in it. You can’t expect your tribe to accept you and – more importantly – follow your lead if you’re not willing to put in the work to contribute something of value to their community on a consistent and ongoing basis. It may take a while to gain momentum, but as you get to know a community’s values and style of interaction, your sphere of influence and the marketing capital that comes along with it will grow steadily. Fame Foundry friend Gary Vaynerchuck lives on Twitter. He has over 900,000 followers and can stir a mass of them to action at will. I have experienced this phenomenon firsthand, having watched (and participated) in amazement as Gary went on a one-day Twitter binge to push his book The Thank You Economy to the number one spot on Amazon on the day it was released. Although he did not hit number one on the bestsellers list, he did make it to number six…and number two on the “Hot New Releases” list…and number one on the “Movers & Shakers” list, increasing his sales by over 200,000% within 24 hours. That’s the power of becoming an integral part of a community, a leader of a tribe that speaks and is listened to. What kind of blitz for your business could you create with 500, 5,000 or 500,000 followers?

4. Don’t be lazy.

When you post new content on one site, it’s awfully tempting to syndicate – or rebroadcast – it everywhere else. For example, it takes no effort at all to republish your Twitter feed to your Facebook Page or LinkedIn profile. It’s so easy, and there’s no harm in doing it, right? Not necessarily. Your Facebook fans might not appreciate having their news feeds cluttered with your tweets and retweets. And LinkedIn isn’t necessarily the right venue for all the casual exchanges you might participate in on Twitter. It’s a right time/right place/right manner thing. Let’s be clear: I am not saying that you should post content in only one place. I am saying that it is best to adapt that content to the needs, expectations and etiquette of each community. You must shape and massage your content to make it relevant to both the platform and the people. For example, let’s say your business is hosting a special event. You can live-tweet the event as it unfolds, publish a recap of the highlights on your company blog, post pictures from the event on Facebook (particularly if you’re “tagging” participants in the photos), make the presentation slides available on LinkedIn or SlideShare and host follow-up discussions on a proprietary business forum site. You’re still getting great social media mileage from this one single event. But by tailoring your content to the interests and preferences of each community, you’ll give people a reason to follow you in more than one place while preventing information burnout for those who already do.

5. Don’t overlook the easy targets.

Some social sites truly are “set it and forget it,” giving you invaluable exposure while requiring relatively little active involvement. These are reference and review sites for which the benefits of being represented far outweigh the minimal monitoring requirements. If you’re a local business, be sure to keep an eye on word-of-mouth review sites like Yelp and Zagat. Make sure the information listed about your company is accurate. Check in bi-weekly or monthly to see how reviews are fairing. Respond to negative feedback in order to make things right.

A more difficult but highly rewarding option is to establish a Wikipedia entry for your company. While there are a few hurdles you must overcome in order to make this happen, the benefits are tremendous. In addition to further legitimizing your company in the public eye, a Wikipedia entry is a great way to secure a prominent position in Google search results – no sponsored-listing dollars required.

It's not easy, but it is worthwhile.

The underlying principle for all of these tips is that you must put your customers and prospects first. Serve their needs, promote their interests and conform to their expectations of conduct. Share your time and expertise generously and give your fans good reason to like and share your brand and products with their friends. It all comes down to this: to use social media effectively to promote and grow your business, you must find the right fit and then work hard to fit in.

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Focus, Technology and Personalization: A Master Class in Branding from Apple’s Angela Ahrendts

Angela Ahrendts was recognized as a branding and marketing powerhouse well before Apple tapped her as their senior vice president of retail and online sales. Her eight-year track record at Burberry is very nearly legendary — and with good reason. When Ahrendts came to Burberry in 2006, growth at the venerable company had nearly come to a standstill, but within just a few years, she had re-established the brand as a force to be reckoned with in the luxury market. Through a combination of savvy use of technology and some hard-nosed business moves, she rebuilt the Burberry label brick-by-brick, and by the time she left for Apple, had nearly tripled the company’s annual revenue. And while your company’s marketing budget and resources surely are a drop in the bucket compared to Apple’s or Burberry’s, that doesn’t mean we can’t take a page from her syllabus and learn to how to emulate her innovative approach to branding building. So why don’t we all turn our attention to Professor Ahrendts, and let her teach us how to embrace the principles and practices that brought her phenomenal success at Burberry and got Apple’s attention.

Focus, focus, focus

When Ahrendts became CEO of Burberry, she inherited a brand in turmoil. The venerable 150-year old name was no longer synonymous with luxury; instead it had become the label of choice for British hooligans — so much, in fact, that some pubs refused to allow patrons inside if they were wearing Burberry. Outside the UK, the situation was even worse. Burberry had forged licensing agreements with more than a dozen international companies, and those companies were creating their own inferior products, then stamping them with the Burberry label. While Burberry was foundering, the luxury market as a whole was growing. Ahrendts found herself competing against well-established brands in a competitive market where her company had lost all advantage. Her response? Focus.

The brand

She began by finding what she refers to in interviews as her “white space” — the niche in the market that only Burberry could fill. And she found Burberry had two things that made it completely unique: it was British, and it had a history that spanned 150 years back to a single overcoat. These two features have been the touchstones guiding Burberry ever since in every piece of marketing, every fashion show and every story the brand has told — British models on the runway, British music on the website and in stores, and those classic trenchcoats always on prominent display.

The market

With a clear focus for the brand established, Ahrendts moved into market research to find the white space among consumers. Research told her something interesting – something that competing brands had either completely missed or ignored. The demographic group spending the most money on luxury consumer goods, especially in emerging markets, was the Millennial generation. So she landed upon the concept of “democratic luxury” as a way to bring the Burberry brand to a younger generation, avoiding the stuffy image many luxury brands promoted and making Burberry young, exciting and friendly.

The vision

Her final area of concern was all those licenses that were diluting the brand. Burberry bought back the licenses and established tight control over every single item that carried the Burberry label, from products to marketing campaigns. The new rule was simple: anything visible to the consumer passed through the hands of Chief Creative Officer Chris Bailey, the keeper of Burberry’s brand vision.

Digital first

Ahrendts has said that she views digital technology as a force for driving change rather than a marketing tool – a philosophy that is front and center in all of Burberry’s online outreach efforts. Take, for example, the Art of the Trench and the Burberry Kisses campaigns. Neither is designed as a direct-sell campaign but rather as a way to connect with, engage with and delight consumers. Then there’s Acoustic Burberry — a showcase of up-and-coming British musicians featured online and in Burberry stores. This integration of online and physical worlds is another of Ahrendts’ trademarks, and it’s embodied in Burberry’s flagship store, opened under her direction in 2012. Her stated goal was to make walking through a store exactly like browsing the Burberry website, and that goal is more than met. The store leverages cutting-edge technology to create a truly unique experience for customers. One great example is the use of chips embedded into selected products to activate interactive screens showcasing the story behind each item. Even runway shows blur the line between online and physical reality. Burberry now live-streams their fashion shows and allows online viewers to purchase items they see on the runway — well before they’re actually available in stores. It’s this seamless integration of worlds that has made the Burberry brand unique among its peers.

And always personal

Angela Ahrendts has also pioneered the use of technology to truly personalize the Burberry brand experience. In the stores, associates carry iPads with access to an international database of customers that provide purchase histories and personal preferences in order to allow them to provide their clients with a higher level of service. And online, customers are given the opportunity to customize items with nameplates and personalized technology. Orders placed online are even confirmed by a personal call from a Burberry rep.

Your takeaway

Angela Ahrendts has established herself as a branding genius — and Apple stands to benefit immeasurably under her guidance. Take her philosophy as an example, and reap some of the same benefits in your own market and on your own scale: Keep a clear focus on your brand story. Maintain control over your brand. Find your audience and learn to speak their language, which Ahrendts would say is digital. And discover ways to differentiate your product through presentation and personal service.

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