Following the discussion from a previous article on online marketing going social, it appears that more and more people participating in online communities - social media, forums, blogs, etc. - are being presented with a significant space in which to market. Moreover, because most of these communities are quite niche, the ability to specifically target a desired audience with a particular product becomes a huge possibility with noteworthy potential. Social Fish explains the financial gains of tapping into this vast marketing platform in their latest piece ROI and the Impact of Social CRM.
One main consideration for online marketing, however, with this shift to the social is this specialisation aspect. You cannot simply generate an overall marketing scheme, but must instead create various unique marketing plans that target specific audiences on distinct and often individual levels.
The other very important aspect to consider about these online communities, aside from being vastly different and individual, is that they engage in these social mediums to be just that - social - so when targeting these audiences, one cannot be too blatant about it. People are here to communicate, not to be marketed to.
So what does this mean for online marketing strategies? It means that you need to get personal. Social media channels offer vast opportunities to get to know your customer base, specifically to get to know their values and needs, and as a company you need to not only use this information to your advantage and meet those needs, but you need to be able to respond to it in a personable way. Online marketing, then, has become a social and yet personal endeavour.
Thankfully, like almost everything these days, many different tools exist to help you organise all of your company's social media outlets and to be able to engage effectively with your social client base. These implements are called social CRM tools, and there are many great options out there, such as Brand Embassy and their social customer care dashboard.
Social CRM tools assist to manage customers within social networks by organising a vast amount of data into one coherent place. This not only allows a company to keep track of all of the discussions going on pertaining to itself and its products, but also to analyse and respond to these discussions in a way that creates a unique and personalised dialogue. The company can then maintain a collaborative approach to customer service and brand image.
Word of mouth is still incredibly important to the success of a business, so ideally you want to stay on top of your social brand image and social customer service. Superior customer interaction is the key to brand loyalty. When at any given moment someone can be sharing their terrible or fantastic customer service experience over an unlimited number of forums, blogs, and social media platforms- Word of mouth, it seems, travels faster than wildfire these day>
