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Social Media Lab
…Why was Obama elected? What made SuBo famous? How did comparethemarket.com increase visits to its website by 600%? The answer to all of the above is through intelligent use of social media.
The proliferation of social media has been staggering with over a billion conversations happening right now through more than a billion blogs, forums, newsgroups, online news media and social networking platforms worldwide. This number is growing exponentially, as is the influence social media has over consumers and the decisions they make over everything, from who to vote for to the choice of detergent brand they buy.
As long ago as 1997, the iconic book ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’ talked about networked societies changing the way we do business. At the time this seemed like science fiction but it is now a global reality that marketers can no longer ignore.
Our Take on Social Media
At Brand Electioneering we believe that social media, albeit an organic, consumer (not brand) driven, multi-way channel can be one of the most powerful weapons in a brand’s armoury if used as part of an integrated marketing mix. Equally, there are dangers too, and if abused, social media can break, as well as make a brand. Social media is not about brands ‘blog bothering’ and trying to bludgeon their way into conversations uninvited. Social media is also about far more than just having a presence on Facebook and Twitter, it needs to penetrate right to the essence of an organisation, its people and its brands.
Social media not only changes the way marketers need to think about brands but the language we have used for decades. In social media there is no such thing as a ‘campaign’ with a start and finish date. It is already out there and has a life of its own and a brand needs to learn how to harness its power and use it to influence decisions people make about it.
At Brand Electioneering, we believe that even the term ‘social media’ is a misnomer. Social it may be, social interaction is one of the most basic of human instincts, but media it is not! Brands cannot simply buy it like a 30 second TV slot and at Brand Electioneering we believe a more appropriate term is ‘social influence marketing’ and we are busy helping our clients integrate this into their marketing effort.
How we do it
Our unique process starts with Social Media Mapping™, which analyses both internal and external social networks, who’s talking to who, about what, where they are talking and who is leading the conversation, who is following and who is lurking in the shadows?
Once we understand this, we develop a corporate or brand voice and point of view, build a ‘news and views’ platform and integrate this with the overall marketing plan. Brand Electioneering utilises a unique mix of consultancy, technology and integrated marketing in our process, which is both measurable and, we believe, delivers an exceptional ROI.
Social Media Mapping™ >
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