Social Media Blog

Embracing customers is a very beneficial practice, but it also entails hard work. If you want to embrace your customers, you have to be able to listen, talk, energize, and support those using Social Media. You can embrace your customers and use this connection for the benefit of your business operations only when you have successfully implemented these prerequisites. However, there are two other things you need to remember when you are trying to embrace your customers and give them a place in your company or brand’s operations.

First, you have to realize that your customers can help you whatever type of business, brand, or service you are handling. It does not matter if your product is a video game console, or if your company is involved in consumer service. Whatever it is, your customers will have something to say, and you can use this to help improve your brand and your business. Consumer service operations like a restaurant, for example, have suggestion box placed in prominent parts of their business. They also ask their workers to directly go to customers for their suggestions and their ratings of the restaurant’s service. In a way, this is how it works in Social Media. If you give your customers the proper venue, they will give you the insight and information you need. Unlike energizing the customers (motivating avid consumers to talk about your product) which doesn’t always work for all types of businesses, asking for suggestions is a universal practice.

Just asking for suggestions is not enough, you need to show your customers that you are actively listening and willing to act on their feedback. Your customers should be able to see the feedback and the suggestions they have sent you, and your replies should be visible to the consumers. This gives them the impression that you are actively seeking their input. They will know, once they see the feedback prominently featured in their communities, that you put a premium on their insight. Of course, you do not only present the positive feedback; you have to show them even the negative comments you received as well. When you put the negative comments side by side with the positive ones, you show you’re company is ready to take criticism, that you are willing to acknowledge your weaknesses, and that you are ready to make things better.

Is it wise to prominently include bad comments on your communities? Wouldn’t this give your customers the impression that your service and products are not of quality? As long as there is a balance between the good and bad content, this will most likely be offset. Your customers can still read other negative comments anyway, even if you do not place them on your website or other proper venues. People will criticize your brand regardless; but if you are transparent your customers will see that you are willing to change. Your brand will look more responsive if you are transparent; this, in turn, can also bring more customers your way.

Second, embracing your customers requires you to find the correct balance between skill and humanity. Embracing the customers is proportional to maintaining a stable relationship with your customers; and you need to use a number of strategies in order to make the bond between you and the consumer to work for your brand’s benefit.

By embracing the customers, you promote loyalty among your customers and you compel them to provide you valuable suggestions and insight to help you innovate and develop your product. However, you can make your customers loyal but you can’t process the information they provide you (or you can’t get any information from them at all) without skill. Without humanity, your connection will be all content and no heart. Lacking any of the two key components will defeat the purpose of embracing the customers.

In addition, this does not imply that you are giving complete control to the customers. You need to be able to process what the customers give you and turn it into valuable input. Do not let the customers tell you what to do; instead, use their suggestions and turn it into the fuel that propels your operations. Use their knowledge and your skills to turn this effort into a successful venture.

You need to be humble to effectively listen to your customers and use their knowledge to your benefit - these are two of the things that, if you use wisely, can help you properly innovate and develop products effectively while putting the customers at the center of your operations.

The customers should be in the center of your business. They are, after all, your bloodline, the very thing that keeps your business and your brand running. You should run your business in a way that it directly addresses the concerns of your customers - this is never an easy task. For one, traditional marketing methods and practices in customer service hinder you from making the customers your center. Traditional marketing is concerned not with addressing the concerns of the customers; its main concern is widespread awareness of a certain product. On the other hand, customer service is more concerned with the product than the customers themselves.

This is why going into Social Media is beneficial. When you engrave Social Media into the very core of your organization, you put the customers in the center of your business. This is because it makes you more aware of their needs, their concerns, and their suggestions. This also helps you monitor trends, publicity, and general public perception online. Changes will be implemented due to insightful observations published by bloggers throughout the blogoshpere, and you can directly address questions asked in discussion boards. Engaging your brand in Social Media is like moving with your customers, every step you take is an anticipation of your customers’ needs and wants.

But to become one with your customers using Social Media, you need to remember the following. First of all, this process takes time and effort. Using Social Media, as we like to say, is a complete mental shift. After all, this is a complete change from previous practices. While this may not cost you much (since several tools online are free), you may need the manpower to operate or be in charge in the integration of Social Media into your business. Social Media should be part of your every move, but you should also give your organization the time to adjust. Give your people the time to change their perceptions on how things should work using Social Media. Basically, this just means it takes time and practice, building essential stepping-stones so everyone in your organization can easily follow.

The stepping stone you build in embracing the Social Media should lead you towards a specific goal. Your plans should be towards a particular and specific end result—and this end result should be clear to you and everyone in your company, from the staff to the CEO. The process of embracing Social Media becomes more natural when everyone knows and understands your goal; your progression will seem like an abrupt move towards the unknown if you are the only one who understands your plans. Educating everyone in the company is like creating the foundation of your plan, and these foundations will be essential to the future of your endeavor. Every time you stumble upon a road block, these foundations will become your fortress.

Lastly, you should have support from the people in your organization—from the employees to the CEO. You should carefully explain to your staff how embracing Social Media can help all of you make the brand more successful. The same rule applies when you need to deal with someone of a higher ranking than you. This is because you need full executive support; otherwise, your goals will not succeed and not see fruition. You need to think of ways to sell Social Media, emphasizing how it can prove to be beneficial for your brand.

You use Social Media to put the customers where they belong once you have accomplished these three steps. Afterwards, you can put the customers where they belong—in the center of your operations.

Blogging is all about communicating, although not in the same manner advertising or press relation efforts communicate with consumers. With blogs, the idea is to initiate a conversation with the reader – who could be an existing customer or a potential client. This is not a platform to extend your marketing efforts into social media – instead you should focus on striking up conversation with your target market; not shout at them as traditional marketing is likely to do.

Before you or your brand engages in blogging, you need to assess your objectives. Blogging seems like an extremely easy task, but it actually requires a lot of effort. Once you get used to the strategy and the technology of the whole process, everything becomes easier. First, you need to consider two things: your audience and your objective. If you know who you want to talk to and what you want to achieve by talking to them, you are more likely to succeed in your endeavor.

Also, you need to get someone who wants to talk to your market. Ideally, you are blogging because you want to engage in dialogue with your readers. As in any dialogue or conversation, the speaker has to be passionate and enthusiastic if he or she wants to convince other people. Writing the entries or the content for the blog should not be viewed as a job or a task; rather, it should be something the writer wants to do. This is because blogging, even in a corporate setting, is very personal. If the task of creating content is randomly or mindlessly delegated, the results won’t be encouraging; and the entries in the blog will seem forced.

Here are some suggestions to create and maintain an effective and successful blog.

1.    Listen. Before you do anything, you should start this blogging endeavor by listening to the existing buzz online. Remember that blogging is engaging in a conversation. It is not a one-way conversation where you do all the talking; it is a dialogue, not a monologue. And in an actual conversation, before you talk to other people who are already conversing with each other, you need to know first what they are talking about; otherwise, you will end up out of place and left completely in the dark. Check out the blogs from other authors in your target market and even your competitors – pay special attention to the influential authors in the blogosphere related to your industry. Start up your own in house conversation monitoring system – or hire the services of brand-monitoring companies such as Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

2.    Plan. You may think that blogging is simply about writing any content regarding your company or your brand. Unfortunately, this is not true. You need a comprehensive plan before you start blogging. For starters, what would be the goal of your blog? Will you simply be posting news about the latest develops in your company? Will the blog simply be a repository of press releases? Or do you want it to be something more? Do you want your blog to support your customers? Do you want it to serve as the main base of your marketing tactics? Do you want the writers of your blog to make your brand and your company more human? These goals can be achieved simply by writing and posting the correct content. Without a plan, your blog will look like a mishmash of uncoordinated content. You also need to plan early on how the writing of the entries will be done. Will you have just one writer, or will your blog have a team of writers?

3.    Process. In order to make your blog work, besides deciding what your goal is and how many writers your blog should have, you need to set up an editorial process. Remember that a blog is like any other publication, traditional or otherwise. You will need an editor, someone who will obviously edit and approve the articles and content to be published in the blog. In turn, the editor has to come up with a schedule or a system, such as deadlines, publishing schedule, among others. The editorial schedule of a blog should be lighter compared to a print publication, since a blog should be prompt with updates and timely when it comes to presenting new issues. Your updates have to be fast, without sacrificing quality. In line with this, the people behind the process should know who will serve as the replacement when the head or main editor is not present. This is especially necessary when the blog will have more then one writer, and will tackle more diverse issues. A blog which would serve as a place for press releases or news should not be much trouble to set up, since most of these articles should be already pre-approved.

4.    Rehearse. Before you go live, practice. Do not go live without knowing if your editorial process will or will not work. One rule in blogging is to update regularly - the writers of your blog should be able to write quickly and efficiently. Many experts say that your team should produce at least have five to ten practice posts before allowing the blog to go live. This will give you enough leeway to create more content, as well as think of other topics to write for the succeeding blog entries. If your team cannot create at least five practice posts, they are obviously not ready to blog – make adjustments.

5.    Design. After deciding how you will go about with the posts, you need to decide how you are going to position your blog on your main website. Ideally, it should be incorporated in your main company website. How you feature the blog will play a huge part in its future role in your brand and your business. Feature it prominently if you want your blog to become one of the main players in your online presence and existence. If you place the link of your blog discreetly, readers and visitors will think the blog is not official or that it is not important to you, and in turn in will not be very important to them.

6.    Promote. Once your blog is online, you will need to promote it in order to gain the necessary views you need. Your blog will gain a readership on its own, but it needs an initial push. You can go the traditional route and use traditional marketing means such as PR and advertising. Using the Internet and its tools (such as forums, blogs, and search engines) is also a viable and wise option. Post on forums and other blogs; include the link of your blog on those postings. Also, when you write entries for your blog, include the name of your brand or your company so the blog will appear on search engines.

7.    Maintenance. Most importantly, after everything else, you need to maintain the blog. Besides regularly updating the blog, you need to respond to the comments of your readers. Blogging, as mentioned several times here, needs to be a conversation if you want it to be effective. Respond to comments, especially if these comments pertain to pressing and important concern. You will also need to moderate the comments by removing overly negative, offensive, and off-topic comments. Do not remove the negative comments that are in place with the discussion; instead, use this to improve the operation of your business.

8.    Be honest. You need to be as honest as possible in your blog in order to make your consumer loyal readers of your blog. You have to respect the honesty of the readers of your blog, so you have to value their comments regarding the contents of your blog. You cannot delete negative comments, since these are reflections of your reader’s honest concerns regarding your product and your brand. You should respect to the negative comments rather than delete or screen them. Explain your side without being defensive. If you do this, you will gain the respect of your readers, your customers, and your potential customers.

The popularity of blogs indicates how Social Media has drastically changed the world, and how even the most established institutions are adjusting to fight the effects and the changes it has caused. A few years ago, it was impossible for anyone to express their opinion on the most important issues and be heard or read by millions. It was difficult for anyone to be part of the entertainment industry, an already saturated industry. However, thanks to blogging, the dividing line between the personal and the public has been blurred. And it has ultimately changed media and how people consume news and similar information.

Blogs—or web logs—were first meant to be personal journal entries. They contain thoughts, pictures, and links – and the content found in blogs is user-generated. Blogs were previously only meant for written entries, as a sort of public diary where one can write his or her thoughts (just like in a private journal). But with blogs, anyone and everyone can read your entries; they can even leave comments on the blog’s comment page. As the names of the first blogging services imply, blogs were meant to be personal. But the nature of blogs turned it into something much bigger; people now use blogs to air commentaries on the most important issues. Now, due to advancements in technology, bloggers are able to use videos and pictures in their “posts” (hence the existence of podcasts, and video blogs).

In a survey done in 2007, it was learned that 25 percent of online consumers in America read blogs; a significant segment considering that many online adults are not actively participating in online activities. Furthermore, 11 percent of online consumers in America are bloggers, while 14 percent comment on blogs. A more overwhelming 29 percent watch videos on blogs or on sites such as YouTube, while a less overwhelming but still formidable 11 percent listen to podcasts. The figures are different in Japan and South Korea, with its more aggressive online population. More than half of Japan’s online adults read blogs, while South Korea has the most bloggers compared to any other country in terms of percentage. However, podcasts are most popular in America; it has not gained a huge following in other countries. Everywhere else, video watching is the most popular online activity.

More than being dry facts, these figures show the people involved in blogs and how popular it has become, proving that the number behind this phenomenon is to be reckoned with. These numbers show that blogs and bloggers indeed have the power to revolutionize media, commerce, and other industries.

The fact that blogs became very popular is not surprising; its appeal lies in the fact that people generally want to be heard. Anyone with an Internet connection can go to sites providing free blog service such as Blogger and Livejournal (even social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, or the less popular Multiply or Friendster have blog services). No one is restricting anyone from creating blogs - there are blogs dedicated to a number of interests and topics, from the common (poetry, literature, food, music) to the specialized (a blog against movie critic Ben Lyons, or a blog dedicated to hilarious pictures of kittens, among others). Anyone who has anything to say can create a blog. And depending on how she maintains and markets it, the blog can even become influential in certain fields or industries.

Another appeal of blogs is how it gives bloggers a sense of belongingness. Since bloggers can link to each other, comment on each other’s entries and videos, each and everyone in this field are connected (hence the term blogsphere). They cite each other and make reference to each other. They can comment on each other’s blogs and content. Sometimes, there are certain topics that become prevalent in the blogsphere and several blogs tend to discuss the same topic, with bloggers arguing and agreeing with one another. Bloggers are connected by this process, making them part of a virtual community.

But the power of blogs is not limited to this. For one, due to the interconnectedness of blogs, it is possible for them to discuss the same topic. This can be a boon or a bane for those being discussed, since such discussions can have power over the readers. After all, those speaking are real people, narrating what presumably are real experiences. And bloggers recommending a good product is more effective than a television advertisement.

Blogs have also changed media, specifically news and journalism. Bloggers are often regarded as the new journalists of this age, since a number of bloggers report on various current events the way reporters do. However, unlike journalists, bloggers can fix facts and opinions the way most journalists can’t. This combination is more appealing to many. Furthermore, bloggers are not hindered by time, since they can publish their reports in real time. Of course, bloggers, unlike journalists, do not have gatekeepers (such as editors or proofreaders), so the audience cannot be sure if the information they provide is accurate. But in any case, the popularity of the likes of Perez Hilton, among others, has proven that blogs and bloggers can crossover. And the fact that esteemed publications maintain blogs is a proof that even the mainstream is affected by the blogging revolution.

You can use blogs for your brand, of course, provided that you enter the process carefully. First, you have to read blogs. Familiarize yourself with the blogs that are talking about your brand or your business to learn what people are saying. Blog search engines such as Technorati and Google Blog Search would be your most effective tool here as they can determine the blogs with the most influence.

Nielsen BuzzMetrics and TNS Cymfony, on the other hand, can monitor online content that mentions your company, your competitors, as well as gauge the general sentiment of people regarding your brand.

Lastly, you have to participate and be part of the blogsphere. Create a blog and upload relevant content. Many campaigns used blogs are their main centerpiece, and they produced sterling results. Blogs can be most useful when you use them to garner information about your customers and when you use them to communicate with your target market. Many companies have used blogs to test certain products, to see how their market would respond to it. In the end, blogs have indeed changed the way you will do business, but you can also use blogs to change how your consumers decide and act.