Social Brands

Brands are finally starting to see the need to adapt a comprehensive social strategy. You can’t blame brands for being slow to adapt. Social media sites like Myspace were short-lived and Facebook started out as a social networking site for over-privileged college students. It was hard to take social media marketing seriously when it was first concepted. Who would have thought that in a few short years we would be developing detailed social media marketing strategies for some of the biggest brands in the world. Social media has given us the ability to receive and react to issues and news in real time. It gives brands the unique advantage of being able to receive and react to consumer feedback almost instantaneously. Companies of all sizes are already starting to change their way of doing business and infrastructure to adapt to these changes.

My portfolio is growing every day and I am proud to say I have worked with some remarkable brands. They are all very different, ranging from banks to transportation. But the end goal should all be the same, to engage! There are literally hundreds of brands actively engaging via social media now. Social media marketing has proven it’s here to stay, has sustainable ROI and brands are finding ways to accurately define ways to accurately measure their success. I think social media is largely defined by its ability to enable a new form of word of mouth. For brands, social media enables them to embrace this new power of word of mouth marketing and use it to build a powerful bond with their audience.

The new role of marketers is to help customers, fans, members, and influencers to share our products and the “ideas” that bond us with them. It is time for brands to move beyond the question of whether or not to participate in social media and define their social brand and what social media optimization strategies they will use to build their community. Specifically, brands need to look deep into the details of social profiles to better target marketing offers and increase conversion rates. These are just some of my thoughts on how to build brands via social media. There are many more. Can you think of any more good insights?

Photo Credits: Stanford, Foursquare