Branding Through Community Building Beyond Social Media

Introduction:

Brands have always weaved their marketing and communication strategy around consumer behavior. So it was never an option for brands not to try and build strong social media presence. As per statistics available there are 3 billion active Internet users of which of which Nearly 2.1 billion people have social media accounts.* The game seemed simple, be present where your consumer is and try to get maximum mindshare and eyeballs.

Among various social media platforms Facebook has the lion share of user base, there are nearly 1.4 billion active users, i.e. 47% of all Internet users. The rest viz Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest have 316 million, 300 million, 300 million, 100 million active users.** Almost every brand which has a digital presence in form of website, mobile app or otherwise has presence on social media platforms too.

The larger objective of every brand to be on social media, whether it’s said or unsaid is to build a strong community of brands consumers and nurture them into brand loyalist and advocates.

The Bait:

For social media platforms it’s an absolute sweet situation. On one hand they been able to give consumers or their users at large the comfort of creating their own virtual social space and now the user base is completely addicted to the offering. On the other hand they opened up avenues for the brands to create their presence on the same platform and gave them access to the user base.

The Plot Thickens:

For the users of social media it’s a free platform but if you observe closely it’s not the same for the brands. They can set up presence for free but if you wish to reach out to the larger section of the user base on these platforms they have to pay. Well there no free lunches are they?

The Challenge:

It’s a known fact that weather on ground or online consumer is always the king. He or she will and does like and follow multiple brands on multiple social platforms. The way I see it consumers are free to flirt with any number of brands on social media platforms with no necessitated commitment to any one brand in particular.

The flirtatious behavior of social media users makes it even more difficult for the brands to identify who are the true fans. The one you believe is your true brand loyalist might as well be sleeping with your enemy.

For brands these days it’s getting increasingly difficult to reach out to not just the social media platform user base but also their own brand page user base organically.

Sample this:

“Let’s take Facebook as an example to examine this further. Each time a user logs onto Facebook, there are 1,500 stories on average that could appear in a person’s News Feed. Presumably people have lots of friends and Page likes, hence as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time a user logs on.

It is said that the total number of Pages liked by a Facebook user has grown by more than 50% last year. 

News Feed on Facebook is designed to show each user the content that’s most relevant to them. News Feed displays approximately 300 stories out of the 1,500+ stories a user might see whenever they log onto Facebook.” ***

One of the articles suggests that Facebook pages with more than 1 million likes saw average post reach of just 2.27%, with 11.64 % of those users engaging with the post.****

Social media advertising spends are no longer low focus spends, they are more of a mainstream online spend. This spend is coupled with cost of creating quality content to be shared on these platforms makes it even more serious concern.

To sum it up the challenge is two pronged;

• Getting the undivided attention of your consumer on various social platforms.
• So called branded communities on social platform being inconsequential.

So Is It The Death Of Social Media For Brands?

Well I am making no such tall claims. Brands can never take the risk of not engaging with its consumers on the social media platforms. However it’s about time that brands small, medium and large think beyond social media for online community building and engagements.

So How Are Brands Building Community Beyond Social Media?

The fact is a few of the brands are already strategizing and addressing this by building their own customized communities online. Some are calling it forums. I can hear many of you saying that there isn’t anything new about this. Its true concept of forums isn’t new but it’s just that they are now being reinvented and finding relevance.

Social media platforms are ideally turning into hunting and fostering grounds to identify a brands true fan. Once identified you direct the fans to join the brands exclusive community or forums. Once you have been able to migrate them to the forums it’s easier for you as a brand to not only have a more customized communication but also get undivided attention of your fans. Then begins the journey of turning them into true brand advocates.

Source of Statistics: * wearesocial.net  ** statista.com  ***facebook.com  ****adweek.com

P.S: This article was first published by me on my LinkedIn profile with the same title: "Branding Through Community Building Beyond Social Media"

Consumer The Center Of Digital Universe

Businesses across the globe are digital in nature. The question is not, weather are not your business is digital. The right question is, are you doing it the right way?

There are enough reasons and more to believe that not all businesses that are having a digital presence are in actuality able to derive greater benefit than their competitors. So what's that some of your competitors got it right that you still haven't? Well if there was to be a simple way to answer it, it would be the fact that they are doing it the right way and more importantly for the right reasons.

The journey of creating a digital brand presence begins with having a robust user friendly website. It then spins into a long journey of ensuring the brands presence across every other digital touch point possible.

What's largely been observed is that every business is keen to and has created its web identity in the form of website and ensuring their presence across touch points screams out loud. But most seem to ignore that the digital experiences they are trying to build across multiple platforms is for the users and not just to appease the brands ego. Most often than not the content screams loud about how awesome brands offerings are. But they seem to be missing out all together in building a relationship with their consumers on these platforms.

The fundamental principles of marketing have always had the customer as the center of its universe. Every strategic move of a brand should be about appeasing this guy called customer who is the one paying you the dollar that matters.

A positive user experience which can help the brands create a steady pool of digital brand loyalists is what all brands need to strive for.

The ethos of user experience is derived from fundamental user behavior. Now there may not be a single silver bullet to help brands decide what kind of user experience needs to be created. But then we do realize that we live in an advanced digital age supported by smart technologies.

User behavior differs from one brand to another, one device to another; it differs with every passing hour in a single day. But fret not there also exists analytic tools which can capture and study user sentiments and behavior. It’s only wise for brands to make strategic investment to acquire these tools and also invest on right resources to derive meaningful observations which can impact the brand positively.

Brands also need to realize that, if digital age has provided platforms for businesses to thrive, it also has empowered customers to emerge as a much stronger stakeholder whose voice can never be ignored. And if ignored then the brands will end up paying a much higher price for their ignorance. There is no getting away from the fact that consumer is the center of the digital universe.

P.S: This article was first published by me on my LinkedIn profile with the same title: "Consumer The Center Of Digital Universe"

Digital Nuggets

There is an African proverb that I read somewhere... “A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything.” 

I have spent a large chunk of my career in the digital media and marketing space. And the more time I spend working in this space, I realise that there is so much more to learn, apply and excel. Digital media undoubtedly is a forever evolving, dynamic and explosive subject of interest to all. 

I was smitten by the numerous possibilities that digital media unfolded for the mankind. I truly consider myself to be a humble student. 

The idea of penning and achieving all my thoughts, learning, imaginations has always been brewing within. It was about time I put it all to action. I had to start somewhere to assimilate and share my views and thoughts about all things digital. This blog is just an attempt to make it real.