Digital Marketing

Social media and creative story telling for BRANDS

Social media as a marketing and branding platform for brand managers, professional marketers and the new age entrepreneurs today, goes beyond “likes” or “follows”. Social media for such business pro CEO’s and stakeholders is a “power packed marketing, branding, sales conversion & PR tool”. But most importantly, these business leaders know, that it is an amazing tool which when planned, designed and monitored well, can harness the power of story telling in a way that connects with consumers and prospects in real-time and most importantly, in a very personal manner. It helps them leverage the BRAND reach, value and boosts them to ‘humanize the brand’

Story telling using social media means to share the insights of the product, value of the brand, concept behind creating the said service and so much more, but doing so creatively, so as to engage users to interact with the brand.

Its very obvious that in today’s digital world it’s core for every business and Organization to have its presence on digital and social media platform. When we say social media, we are not merely referring to the posts on Facebook, tweets or trends on Twitter or for that reason just another blog post. We are talking about the complete 360 degree social media process by ways of which one can plan, design, implement and measure the return on the investment as well.

To start with the story telling process, it’s important for companies to have well defined and specific goals.

• Goals like increase in leads/ enquiries by 15% in first quarter, or increase in footfalls by 65% etc. depending on company’s requirement.
• Identify your target audience and accordingly choose a social media platform or channels for marketing.
• Set timelines and deadlines in line with your goals. Plan a strategy based on the same and implement and review those strategies. Reinforce the ones that work the best.

Empowering appropriate social networking sites in connect with your target market industry and taking into consideration the fact that your prospects are comfortable interacting with the said channel and platform, the process of story telling using social media begins. But what happens when you add the power of Metrics (Know your SMQ – ~ Social media quotient for BRANDS) . Your social media brand marketing campaign goes beyond mere follows, likes and favourites. It touches astonishing figures when the right metrics are measured and the consistency is seen while engaging users with creative story telling about the brand, products and services.

I am reminded of this power quote from Peter Drucker “The purpose of a business is to create a customer.”

So let us look at the said quote from today’s point of view. Let’s keep in mind that when we talk about brands and consumers today, we are talking about their mindset, their behavioural pattern, their loyalty towards our company products or services etc.

So let’s truly understand the customer’s needs and requirement and here again, a well planned and strategic social media marketing can be a powerful tool in the aspect of consumer metrics. And this, when coupled with engaging story telling process using social media, makes the experience worthwhile for the end users too.

Have you ever wondered why the truly big and successful companies or brands have achieved so much success in creating an impact on customers mind? This is majorly because of the “Trust” that they have been able to build. For eg. when an icon and industry leader like Ratan Tata says “We never compromise on ethics” what rings in our mind is the “trust factor.” In fact, the moment we hear the word ethics in industry or trust in the corporate world, the first word that comes to our mind today is TATA. Why? Because they have been truly able to “Humanize the brand” not by merely sharing services and products, but with really connecting with the end users.

First, we strongly believe that the consumer needs to be made aware of what that product can really do for him / her and a real social media marketing campaign, involves the end users as part of the brand conversations too. But yes, in a well monitored way. Gartner research had shared that they expect global business intelligence (BI) software to pass $17 billion in 2016, more than $4 billion higher than in 2013. What does that tell you? That metrics in a digital media is as important as your Brand goals too.

So make sure, you integrate ROI for Social media campaign for your brand as a key aspect for your SMM results and business goals. Check out our ROI on social media for BRANDS: Live Google Business Group Mumbai event Presentation given by our CEO Mr.Ananth V – Link here

In today’s world, we have the power to leverage this aspect with creative story telling using social media marketing. Look at how OREO is in sync with BRAND story telling and trends at every stage. Creative story telling means something the consumers are inclined to read, something that they are looking forward to or they need to know. It simply follows the principle of “Give and take.” One must follow the simple steps to creative writing viz-

Listen, join, engage and share content that is of real value.

Its human nature to relate to something faster when you are able to engage with the brand and know about the product/ services offered, in terms of information from more than what is already offered in their advertisement or brochure.

Lets look at an example here. Suppose you are looking to invest in Mutual funds but you do not have enough information to truly go ahead and make the decision to invest in it. Then you go online and search for information and in this process you come across a site with all related details of mutual fund and they even help you in real-time with your FAQ’s. Wouldn’t you then be more comfortable in investing with such a firm? Ofcourse you will. Why? Not because it gave you all the information you are looking for, but more so because it was not ‘sold’ to you. You found resourceful content presented to you in a simplified manner and most importantly, you found help to connect to in real-time. Now, its obviously not as simple as it sounds, but you get the idea right?

Thus creating this kind of simplified reach, real-time connect and impact requires professional help and preferably a team of individuals who are experts in this process. Now make sure you do not fall for the “FREE Social media campaign or CHEAP LIKES and FOLLOWS with social media” by any company or professional.

Remember, it’s your BRAND at stake here. Make sure you hand over the social media campaign to an agency or business who understands what YOU need and who have showcased similar results across industries over the years.

Read our case studies on how we have catered to various brands over the years across industries for customized social media campaigns.

• Case Study “ROI on actual SALES” Link1 here
• Case study 2 link 2 here
• Case study 3 link 3 here
• Google Business Group ROI on social media for BRANDS (Event highlights and presentation)

A smart and growing business and brand today will make sure that their marketing and sales team are integrating the appropriate social media tools and process to get the best results for their customized business goals planned for the year 2014. (For industry customized proven social media ROI based brand and SEO integrated campaigns: Reach us here “socialmedia@techdivine.com” Or use our Quick form link here Click here OR you can also Tweet to us @Techdivine (link) and our executive will connect with you at the earliest)

You can also connect with us across our social networking profiles online here  – Techdivine Creative Services on – Facebook – Twitter – Google Plus – YouTube – Slideshare