We ran out of time, but two important questions were asked and when we followed up with a written response, I thought this may be helpful information for others… We’d love to hear from you.

My business doesn’t make sense for Facebook

One CEO commented that her audience is not on Facebook and she questioned the value in having a Facebook presence to support her company’s brand and marketing initiatives. The response is that we have to remember that our personal Facebook pages are different than our business Facebook pages, although they have many cross-over usages and also have a common goal – to connect like-minded people with ideas and information about issues that are important to us. There’s a great deal of content coming at us everyday. However, we need to exercise discernment in selecting content that will either serve us or be relevant to us.

It’s the same with social media. If your company has a Fan Page or Company Facebook page, it’s another way to connect your customers with information that is important to them. The big part of a communications plan that we create is to define the audience and look for similar likes and dislikes. We then serve content that is relevant to them. For example, in this CEO’s business, there may be a large portion of people who are interested in innovation in chemical applications and R&D. We can run a keyword search on Twitter that specifies innovation in chemical applications for  manufacturing and begin linking to all the people who are interested in this area. We now have a large audience of people who we may not have reached with a traditional media campaign.

Also on the company’s Facebook page, we can list events and happenings to tie together this community of users. This is one example of how to use social media to strengthen your brand/marketing and connect your audience.

Can I hurt my brand by annoying people using social media?

This is an important one. This CEO’s concern was that he was going to lose customers if he constantly hit them with special offers about his restaurant(s) through social media. The short answer is: Yes, you can hurt your brand by not using social media correctly.

With the evolution of this medium, certain rules and guidelines have grown organically. These rules are born from a user’s tolerance for being “sold” versus having information delivered that is useful to them. We know from our Facebook example that people want information, they want to be “in the know” and current on trends. When a social media plan is executed successfully, a combination of “selling” a product or service is balanced with useful, related information. The percentage for this balance depends on your industry. In this case we have found people to be much more tolerant to messages about entertaining, socializing and eating than to others trying to sell a book or a seminar. Eating and entertaining crosses over into business so in this case, the percentage of “selling” or telling a customer about daily specials can lean more toward 60%-70% split of information.

The important piece of a social media campaign is to have a plan (strategy) that starts with research and an understanding of your audience and the messages that appeal to them. Consistency of tone and content is very important but listening is tantamount. Out of listening comes adaptation. If your users are saying the same thing over and over again – you better listen (good or bad) and respond – or your competition will.

This, to me, is complete and utter poppycock (a word I don’t get to use often enough). People are much more likely to click on an ad, or stop and read an ad, if there is a celebrity attached to it. Take a look at the targeted advertising on Facebook. I realize that some of you don’t see Jennifer Aniston and her proclaimed “beauty secrets” since Facebook has deftly figured out how to target-market to a woman in my age range, but she holds a lot more weight than an unknown. Why? We, as a society, have a connection to her. We grew to love her on “Friends” and watched her personal turmoil with Brad and Angelina. We think she’s cute as a button (okay, not everyone, but a great number of people) and if she’s got a secret that we want to know about, we’ll be more likely to click on the link to find out more.

If we make a connection to a person, know their background, than we are more apt to want to know more. Remember the beginning of “Sleepless in Seattle?” Tom Hanks’ character is standing at a gravesite as the movie is opening. We see him, we understand that he has suffered a loss, but we don’t feel for him because we don’t know him. If this exact scene took place at the end of movie, after we’ve connected to him, it would have a much greater emotional response from us. Or to be specific, put me in a sobbing heap.

Making an emotional connection is huge in marketing and advertising. It’s what Jane (Jane Heft, creative director at enze) and I are always looking for. How do we emotionally connect our audience to our client’s product or service?

Brandweek Celebrity Influence Article