Social media is a channel that more and more companies have embraced within their marketing communications efforts. If you haven’t already opened up a Facebook page, Instagram profile or Twitter account, you are lightyears behind the rest of the crowd. Businesses use social media ads to introduce new products and generate engagement concerning their brand, and they especially have become fond of using YouTube and celebrity influencers to promote their products and services.
Yes, perhaps you know how to post and schedule content every week, but what most companies lack is tracking their reputation via these social channels. What are your core customers’ opinions of you? How have they changed over the years that you’ve been in business? Perhaps they’ve noticed a change in your quality and service, or maybe your competitors are stealing your customers away from you.
If you’re looking to launch a new campaign for your SME, then you must first monitor your social media chatter. Here’s how you do it.
Understand Your Customer Psychographics
Find out what your core customers are saying about you by using social media monitoring sites such as Hootsuite. All you have to do is track keywords that are sensitive to your industry and company, such as your brand name or a key item in your product line. Then gauge the frequency of customer interactions with your business, and the type of language they use when speaking to or of you. Don’t hesitate to Facebook stalk them. Check out their profile—what other brands are they interested in? What kind of lifestyle do they seem to live or strive after? These small anecdotes can help your company create the most effective campaign come the springtime.
Find Out What Your Customers Think of Your Competitors
Once you’ve discerned the above criteria, now is the time to administer a competitive analysis. Use your social tool to discern the frequency of mentions competing brands receive, and how the social chatter concerning their campaigns differ from yours. Pay close attention to how your loyalists interact with the competition. What complaints do they have? This is an area of opportunity where you can outshine your competitors in such attributes. What do your customers love about your competitors’ products? Perhaps your unique selling proposition is widely different, thus it doesn’t make much sense for you to compete on the same attribute. Or perhaps these customer sentiments will help you identify your company’s weak points. Compile all these answers into one neat analysis in which you can contrive tangible recommendations from.
Set Objectives
Once you know what your customers think about both you and your competition, ensure that you go forth with an industry analysis concerning overall social media chatter. Once this has been done, now is your time to establish campaign goals for the short-term, medium-term and long-term. Your goals may include number of conversions, amount of PR presence, astute crisis management or brand awareness. This is when your marketing team should brainstorm methods for your campaign to reach the required goals.
Overview
Social media isn’t as simple as you may believe. Using it effectively requires consistent attentiveness to how your customers are interacting with your brand. Don’t devalue the importance of these platforms as they make up the face of your company. Track your social media reputation and quickly adapt your campaign to address your issues (this can be done tactfully, such as via a company-wide social responsibility initiatives) and never forget to highlight your strengths.