Posts Tagged ‘Social media marketing’

• Do you own your brand?

  Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

  In ye olde days, that was a given. But now, with social media and networking on the increase, the answer has changed.

  Whilst you may spend hours carefully crafting your marketing messages and adverts, designing campaigns, implementing and monitoring your branding, your customers can take apart all of this within moments in the social networking sphere.

  One example recently is Habitat, who have spent years and years building their brand, but all that hard work was potentially undone in moments when an intern decided to post for Habitat on Twitter. The actual posts wouldn’t have been such a major problem if it wasn’t for the Twittersphere leaping on the issue, and making it huge rather than just a minor glitch in Habitat’s social media marketing learning curve.

  Whilst those posting in the Twittersphere may not have been actual customers of Habitat products, the impact on potential customers when considering the brand for a purchase could be long-lasting.

  This is a case where the loss of ownership came from in-house, but in many instances, brands are losing ground to user generated content, reviews, forums and so on. Especially when anyone can set up a blog or Twitter channel in a matter of moments that can become home to consumer comments and complaints, become the de facto source for information, reviews etc on a particular brand, and take over search engine rankings for specific search terms quite easily.

  Corporates and companies need to accept that marketing is not the game it was, and fit around the new consumer/prosumer model that is developing rapidly with social media and networking. Otherwise, we will see the same problems the music industry has had to learn to adapt to with music downloads. By burying their collective industry head in the sand, or by employing corporate lawyers to chase down the offenders, the problem actually escalated. Until one day, the music industry woke up and realised it had to change the way it worked, the age old business model and consumer control it had enjoyed no longer existed. It had been taken apart by the consumers and was actually threatening the revenues which the industry had so long taken for granted.

  The same is true of brands, large and small, who are endeavouring to stick to the olde worlde model. Consumer control of your brand is inevitable and you need to accept that and develop strategies which fit the new model.

  The problem is neatly summed up in this short video:

  Tags: Brand, marketing, Social Media, Social media marketing, User-generated content
  Posted in Online PR, Social Media, Stats & Trends

• Social media good for hotels and accommodation providers

  Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

  Whilst this article states that search engine marketing is still the way to go for hoteliers, there are aspects of social media marketing that hotels are still ignoring.

  For instance, a hotel that I recently stayed in (which also provided free wifi not just in the lobby but also in the rooms) sent a tweet shortly after my arrival, welcoming me to the hotel and telling me to tweet if there was anything I needed.

  Why did this make me feel good?

  Because it showed a level of personal interaction that is rare in this homogenous world. There is a person at the other end of that Tweet who I could then talk to if I chose.

  It showed an ingenious use of Twitter to offer a personal welcoming service, rather than the standard automated answerphone message on the phone or through the TV screen.

  Because I could retweet it to show off to other hotels how it should be done. And hence promote the hotel.

  Here was a hotel who had GOT using social media for not just internet marketing, but also for customer relationship management.

  Whether you are in the accommodation sector, or any other industry, think out of the box, and start using social media for more than just promotion. Engage with your customers directly and offer a service over and above that of your competitors.

  

  Tags: accommodation, accommodation providers, business, hotels, marketing, Social media marketing, twitter
  Posted in Blog, Social Media

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