Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content."
Following this definition, we have keep in mind a very fundamental principle; content in social media is full of user generated content unlike other media and that’s the one reason people engage in spreading this content. So when thinking about utilizing the potential of social media in your business whether for brand awareness or brand loyalty or even conversion (sales) always ask this question yourself; ‘how can I make my customers create and spread the message I want’.
As I told, people will be interested in watching or reading the content generated by their friend rather than something created by a third party (companies, agencies etc.). We are seeing it daily in Facebook and other social networking sites. I’m so happy to share a video made and posted by friend rather than a video by a company or some other community.
So it’s become inevitable to create the content that our prospects or target customers like. Think about the chances of making our customers create viral content (or content that can become viral) for us. Don’t you think those contents have a better chance of being passed on? Regardless of your business and industry to which you belong, it is possible and this can bring more brand name to your company.
For this to work out you need to follow some step by step procedure.
- Decide what message you want your customers to propagate.
- Create an environment in which your customers will be intrigued to learn about your product and service profiles. This can be achieved by bringing competitions that require people to write or learn about your product profile. Once our customers are interested in this competition they’ll start learning about your company.
- Now is the action time. They will start creating the content according to your strategies, whether it is write ups or reviews or videos or whatever.
- Along with your company’s postings, all those contesters will also post these contest in their page. You bet! This will get more clicks and likes than your postings.
- Here what becomes viral is your content and your brand name, wearing a cloak of your customer which will never hide your face.
It’s time to reinvent your social media strategies!! Turn to the right experts and gurus. Sell more! Grow your business.
