Hello, marketers! As promised this is "Rules of Engagement" a supplemental treat to the exclusive 7-part series in regard to Social Media Marketing Analytics.
If you have been following up to this point, the first part - before I get into the "Rules of Engagement" should make perfect sense to you. If not, I trust you are all smart individuals who will be able to make the connection.
Get Ready & Listen
Using advanced social media monitoring tools, like Alterian SM2, which was my choice for the Star Group, has incredible value. They aid in building an awesome foundation by allowing you to:
- Find your audience and relevant communities of interest
- Understand sentiment in regard to your industry or product/service/brand
- Observe the behavioral cultures within each network
- Recognize pain points
- Uncover where your competition is/is not
- Discover advocates or influencers who can come in handy during your campaign
All of which can support your team in building sound strategic direction.
Get Set, Go!
After listening and uncovering valuable insight and planning appropriately, make sure you are set. While you are getting set, and just before you are ready to go, read the following rules of engagement and stick to them!
1. Be Transparent
Being honest and open will be greatly appreciated by your audience. Make sure to fully disclose who you are and what organization you are representing. Transparency builds TRUST, which is key. Dishonesty or misleading people will be quickly noticed in social communities and will anger your viewers.
2. Be Judicious and Smart
Stay out of trouble and respect yourself as well as other brands. This does not mean you should not engage in conversations where competing brands have a presence but like mom always use to say "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all".
Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider your content carefully when you participate in engagement activities.
3. Build Your Personality
Determine the identity, character, and personality of your brand and match it to the persona of the individuals representing it online. Be consistent and reinforce! Lack of consistency leads to confusion and confusion results in reluctance to participate.
4. Perception is Reality
When distributing content on the web, make sure you know what you are talking about. Do not write if you are not totally familiar with the subject or situation. Do your homework! If your audience feels like you are out of context, this can be very counter-productive. Stick to subjects you are exceedingly familiar with. Conveying your knowledge, expertise and experience is a great way to be perceived as being a credible source among your audience and can greatly add value and build TRUST.
5. Add Value and be a Resource
This rule is EXTREMELY important because this builds a sense of community and puts the icing on the cake when building trust. Content should be on point, thought provoking and useful. It should help people, solve problems and keep them coming back for more. If they are coming back, seeking help, contributing and thanking you for it, you have been successful in adding value and becoming a resource.
6. It's a Conversation
Talk to your audience like they are your friends. Being authentic is okay but you should not be responding to questions, comments and concerns as if you are a robot. Don't speak at audiences through canned messages, introduce value, insight and direction through each engagement. Express the personality you are building but do it in a personable manner. Write your content to be open-ended and inviting a response to encourage comments.
7. Learn from Success and Mistakes
Learn from each conversation and engagement. Learn by assessing your successes and failures. This will help you adapt and become stronger. If you have made a mistake in a social community, admit it! Your audience will thank you for your honesty.
If anyone has questions, comments or concerns or would like to discuss this in further detail, please feel free to post them here, our Facebook page or via Twitter.
Stay tuned for Part 6 - Crisis Management coming next Thursday!
And if you're just "tuning in" and want to catch up, here's links to the previous posts relating to this exclusive series on Social Media Marketing Analytics:
Social Media Marketing Analytics - First Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Brand Monitoring, Part Two Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Competitive Research, Part Three Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Strategic Development, Part Four Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
Social Media Marketing Analytics - Strategic Connections, Part Five Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series
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