Northwinds

Social Media Technology: An Online Dialogue with Your Customer

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by ashley in The Strategist

A true subject of my generation I am a social networking addict. Maintaining profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more I’m connected to friends, family and people from all over the world, some I quite frankly don’t even know. As such, I’ve been excited to see companies starting to take interest in using social media technology in order to expand their marketing communications. Many are beginning to develop Facebook pages, encouraging their customers to become “fans.” These fans help spread brand and company awareness through their own variously connected networks. However, this is just the beginning on where this new technology is going to be able to take us from a marketing perspective.

Social media opportunities such as social networking sites, blogs, product review boards, Youtube, and Diggit are expanding our ability to communicate with our target markets like never before. And, not only are we able to talk with them by sending our Twitter updates and company news, but we can listen to them too! Our customers are posting reviews about companies and products right up there on the web. Not only providing companies with free advertising and testimonials, but also providing them with one of the most powerful marketing tools available: information. It’s making it faster and easier to know the best way to add value to our products and services, because customers are telling us exactly what they want and need. With every product review they post, the most valuable features and benefits are pointed out as well areas that could use improvement. By listening to our customers on social media we can develop effective marketing messages that communicate the most perceived value as well as learn ways in which we can gain further business in the future.

This type of research allows us valuable insight into your businesses. And by meeting your customers out in the social media world, you have the opportunity to learn more about them as people as well. Through their own profiles customers are posting demographic and sociographic information like never before. This type of research is providing companies with the opportunity to learn more about the daily lives of their target markets and helping them to focus branding and messaging to better communicate and connect with them. Finding trends in the personal lives of your target markets such as age, marital status, likes, dislikes and hobbies can help create positive and effective campaigns that your customers will truly relate to.

In the past, through print advertising, direct mail, television and radio, companies have been able to spread messaging to targeted markets among the mass population. However, the Internet and social media technologies for the first time make it possible to have interpersonal, or dyadic, conversation with our customers. While companies should be looking at these new technologies for possible means of spreading awareness and communicating to their customers, marketers should also keep in mind the true breadth of information and marketing possibilities that social media is able to provide.

Like all marketing tactics, social media technologies are not the best fit for all companies. There are many things to consider when delving into this new form of communication. Not every group uses the Internet the same. Some groups use it to gain information while others choose to send. Understanding how your target market uses the Internet is essential to creating a successful online campaign. In addition, companies should establish clear objectives so that efforts remain focused and measurable. If social media technology is something you and your company are interested in pursuing, let TrueNorth help you to create a campaign that will help you to expand in a manner that suits your company, your industry and your audience.

Tags: communicate, marketing, social media, social networking