If You’re Not Ready to Participate, Listen
March 1, 2009 by Ellen Ewart
Filed under Marketing
There are so many ways your brand can get online and participate among your customers and would-be customers. The name o f that of that game is transparency and sincerity. It’s not about polling your customers or only conversing when there’s a problem; it’s about having honest, every-day conversations and engaging your community.
If you’re not already online, check out some blogs before you dive right in. If you’re not using your voice or moderating comments about your brand, chances are that hasn’t stopped other people from doing it. A good way to start is to simply listen and gauge what your brand looks like in the online space. Perform a simple Google search to see where you are mentioned.
Listen to what they're saying about your brand. Image: iStock Luis Carlos Torres
Once you discover who’s talking about your brand (and who’s neglecting your brand), you can begin to form answers to these questions:
- How have others perceived your brand? Is it in line with your corporate identity?
- Is your logo familiar or trusted?
- Has anything you’ve done in the recent past been controversial? If so, how have people reacted amongst themselves and has your company responded in any way?
- Is there consistency in how people interpret your brand?
- Are there any consistent keywords associated with your brand? Check keywords between sites that mention your brand.
- Do people believe that you fulfill your brand promise? If not, how far do you fall short?
- Are there any media outlets that don’t cover your news? If so, identify how to reach that audience.
- Are your press mentions positioned accurately?
- Do your employees participate in any conversation about your brand? Do they properly understand your brand’s promise?
- Perform this type of research on your closest competitors to get a sense of how each fares.
Once you map out the answers to these, you’ll begin to know where you need to be begin having a presence. Just remember, social media trends aren’t worthwhile unless you know your customers are participating in that space. Trying to engage your customers via Twitter if they’re not already in that space is less useful to you.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] that is social media-curious but has yet to take the first step towards engagement: listen — If You’re Not Ready to Participate, Listen. If you’re not already online, check out some blogs before you dive right in. If you’re not [...]
[...] that is social media-curious but has yet to take the first step towards engagement: listen — If You’re Not Ready to Participate, Listen. If you’re not already online, check out some blogs before you dive right in. If you’re not [...]
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