The past year has seen many successes in social media for my client Littlemissmatched. We've doubled our Facebook community, grown our Youtube following, Twitter following, FlickR, Google+ and Pinterest...and we've done it all organically!
So how did we do it?
1. Review the Data
We have identified the influencers in each social network based on careful demographic analysis. (Silverback Social uses Hootsuite). In the early stages of our working relationship, our assumption was that the demographic on our Facebook page would be Tweens. However we quickly discovered that the majority of interaction came from the Mothers' of said Tweens.
2. Lighten Up
The discovery that mom's were driving the conversation on Facebook allowed us to find our true voice. It has helped to drive our content strategy throughout the past year and reaped many rewards. Some examples include a post that was simple, and spoke from the voice of a parent
"When there is a 3 yr. old in the house and you hear the toilet bowl flush coupled with uh oh, it's already too late"....
This post remains one of the most commented, shared, and liked posts that we've added to Littlemissmatched Facebook page. We continue to learn from the audience and review the data to deliver the most appropriate conversation. The meteoric response to this simple/silly post has set the tone for our interactions with our Facebook community.
3. Mix Silly with Promotional
There is a sense of trust that we will not only push offers via Facebook and Twitter alike. We have been able to strike a balance of humor, silliness, coupled with contests, promotions, customer service, and just plain fun. This balance of content and engagement has become our hallmark. Facebook friends have expected our humor, and share with their communities. When it's time to sell, these same brand advocates share the most and engage/comment.
4. Act quickly
Our ability to react quickly has reaped dividends. This past summer, moments after the earthquake Silverback Social proposed the idea of arranging Tonner Dolls to indicate they had felt he tremor, but were OK. This resulted in huge fan engagement while offering a soft sell of the Tonner Dolls on our Facebook page. See photo.
This dance between Silverback Social and the Littlemissmatched team has facilitated a fertile environment for fan engagement that is appropriate, cute, and effective. This idea went from conception to execution in less than 30 minutes. As we know - in social media timing is paramount.
Facebook has been the central point of congregation for the LMM community, and as a result has become a flash point for customer services issues that arise. Earlier this year Silverback Social was able to "man the Facebook Page" until late in the evening responding to complaints peppered around a LMM promotion code that was discontinued due to certain customers taking advantage. We offered direct emails for them to reach out to, and followed up with phone calls. While the customers were certainly upset, having an outlet on the Facebook page for them to vent and our allowing for this conversation to take place diffused what could have been a colossal public relations nightmare.
5. Make it a team effort
As we continue to seek out more creative ways of engaging our community it's become clear that managing Facebook for Littlemissmatched has evolved beautifully into a team effort. For example; Tori Banu (VP of Marketing) informed the Silverback Social team that there was a puppy on Facebook receiving lots of attention.
Apparently a reality star had indicated that she felt the dog was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. Together we decided to post the attached photo with a reference and page tag to this cool, hot trending puppy. The post received a flurry of activity - 53 likes, 12 shares and countless comments. Being on the finger of the pulse of pop culture, coupled with knowledge of the LMM brand identity and having all hands on deck at all times, has facilitated a perfect storm of execution on our Facebook page.