Social media allows two-way communication between brands and their consumers. How can brands fully unitise the new media and tap into digital marketing for better marketing practice? Kristen Boschma, head of Digital and Social Media of Haystac, a marketing and communication company in Australia recently talks to Retail in Asia about her top tips for brands… and how she helped a client obtain over 19 million twitter impressions in just one campaign!
RIA: What are some of your top tips for brands who want to increase their social media exposure?
Kristen Boschma (KB): First you need to decide what social media is for: which business problem will it help solve. Social media is not a magic solution and so it needs to work with other elements of your strategy for maximum exposure.
Next you need to empower your staff and agencies to be creative and embrace social media in the right way. There is no point approaching social media with a one-way broadcast mentality. For maximum exposure you need to let social media run the way it‘s supposed to; two-way dialogue, personable and full of activity.
Lastly I‘d suggest that you take a strategic approach to channel development. It‘s desirable to have a genuine community who want to truly engage with your brand on social channels. This means that you need to take your time, invest in conversations and always look to give something back to your online audience.
RIA: How does your company, Haystac, build relationships with consumers through social media?
KB: In previous roles, we worked really hard on listening to consumers and giving them what they wanted online. Consumers wanted a customer service channel and a place to talk to other people about their love of technology. So we built an online customer service offering and then launched a blog where all sorts of staff members shared their knowledge and love of technology.
Currently I work really closely with clients to build relationships around other passions: fashion, travel, sport and health. In all these cases we listen to consumers online, work out what they want and give it to them.
Like any relationship, one of the fundamental elements is trust. So make sure that you only deliver what is possible, don‘t break promises and always (publicly) follow up to demonstrate that you‘ve kept your promise. If you do these things, you will kick off your relationship with customers the right way.
RIA: How much budget do you think brands should allocate to social media and content marketing?
KB: Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this. It depends on the problem we‘re addressing, the opportunity we‘re chasing, how your current customers are using social media and how truly committed you are internally to social media. So somewhere above 5 percent and somewhere below 100 percent!
RIA: What should marketers consider when they choose a social media identity for their brand?
KB: Like any other part of the strategy marketers need to consider the environment and how consumers interact within that environment. You don‘t want your brand to be out of place so adopting the language and cultural nuances of your chosen social media channels will be important. Marketers will also need to preserve the integrity of their brand so it‘s important to adopt a personable and warm voice for your brand – but still sound authentic.
RIA: How can a marketing campaign through social media bring shoppers to shops and drive sales? What are the key elements for a successful campaign?
KB: Social media campaigns can be about listening, customer service, sales or thought leadership. If you choose a sales-focused campaign then you will need to invite the customer to do something. This might include a competition that involves going in-store to enter or get a clue or finding a clue or object and bringing it in-store to claim a prize, discount or free gift. If you choose a customer service centric campaign then you need to use social media to get to know your customers better and prove to them in-store that you‘re aware of their preferences. This means you will promise to either save them time or deliver greater value.
It‘s really important that the campaign has the following elements:
- There has to be two way conversation.
- Some element has to be shareable or invite a wider community to input, vote or create content.
- The campaign should be promoted as widely as possible: via your website, marketing collateral, marketing spend, in-store and using your staff.
- The benefit to the customer has to be clear and the effort they need to put in to win the prize/gain the benefit can’t be overly complicated. So don’t make someone like your Facebook page, run up a mountain, collect six tokens and have them stamped in-store to win a prize worth 200 dollars.
RIA: Can you talk us through an example of successful digital marketing?
KB: One of the most successful exercises I‘ve been involved in was the use of social media to review a new mobile handset. We asked 25 people to be "social reviewers" which means we gave them a handset to keep but asked them review it via social media channels. All we asked of them was that they were transparent about being involved in the exercise and that what they said online was a genuinely held opinion. The program worked because it was supported by traditional PR, traditional media, online advertising and then the content we produced was search optimised. In two weeks, the 25 reviewers generated over 19 million twitter impressions.
RIA: What do you see as the latest digital marketing trend? What do you see as the next trend?
KB: People talk about the "earned, owned and paid" marketing paradigm. This means making sure that all your marketing elements: PR and advocates, websites and online assets and paid marketing all work together. Many companies are trying to get this right and it‘s hard because this type of thinking requires companies to transcend internal structures to get it right.
I think that influencer identification, outreach, growth and relationship building is the next big thing. Brands have spent the last couple of years building policies, processes and channels and now it‘s time they focused on getting to know the people who can help their brand in a natural and impactful way. We‘ve built the Haystac Influencer score to help our clients identify who they need to be talking to online, how they need to engage them and how we can deepen relationships.
Kristen Boschma is a career marketer and communicator with over two decades of senior marketing experience. She has worked for The Age, ANZ, Baker Heart Research Institute, Veda Advantage and Telstra. She currently works for Haystac, a marketing and communication company in Australia, as Head of Digital and Social Media.
Taking Stock is Retail in Asia’s fortnightly column dedicated to showcasing opinions from experts in the retail industry.