MAD Perspectives Blog

Social media has been at the forefront of many major events over the past few years. Flight 1549 landing on the Hudson River, the Arab uprisings this past spring, Hurricane Irene's path up the U.S. east coast are just a few. Some might argue that social media has displaced broadcast news as the primary source for immediate news.  They may be right, especially if thinking about the youth audience.  However, broadcast news is not in competition with social media, they are incorporating social media into all aspects of their operations.  The important factor for both social media outlets and broadcast news is that - news is immediate!

Newsrooms recognize this and are leveraging social media for news gathering, public opinion and new content.  Many newsrooms, such as the BBC, have implemented User Generated Content teams to monitor, validate and incorporate news generated on social sites to complement their broadcasts.  Differentiating between fact, fiction, rumor and speculation are the challenges of social news gathering.  (Just consider today's rumors about the potential replacement of HP CEO Leo Apotheker with HP Board Member and former EBay CEO) Meg Whitman.  Newsrooms around the globe are monitoring and listening to online and social news outlets not only to gather news, but to understand how their own news is being received and interpreted.  Social media can provide them with guidance on how to present news, while still maintaining journalistic integrity.

The other opportunity social media presents to broadcasters is the ability to distribute their content to a wider audience, that may not watch their scheduled broadcasts.  In fact, many premium news outlets, such as CNN or the BBC,  recognize the different characteristics of those watching their broadcasts vs. consuming news online vs. following them on Twitter or Facebook.  The ability to share news directly and indirectly (as happens in the social arena) provides news organizations with greater influence.  That influence comes with an ongoing responsibility for impartiality, truth in reporting and meaningful storytelling. 

News content will never go away.  News is now available via apps on your tablet on smartphone.  These devices will again create incremental impact in the presentation of news, if not the actual content.  News will continue to be immediate and relevant because of its immediacy.  News gathering organizations will not disappear as long as they continue to evolve and capitalize on the complementary nature of social and whatever comes next.

What's your perspective?

As part of our ongoing committment to sharing fresh content about B2B use of social media, today we are releasing a new case study!  We enjoyed a 6 week blog series with Taylor O'Brien, discussing the unique and necessary alignment of brand and social media.  

Taylor O’Brien (TO’B) is a creative consultancy providing brand and business inspiration to a wide variety of clients across multiple industry sectors and geographies.  Headquartered in Manchester, England, TO’B is uniquely focused on strategically developing brand messaging that is directly aligned with business strategy.  Projects have ranged from expanding brands into global markets, evolving the business conversation to drive increased sales, invigorating a heritage brand for future markets and creating brand inspiration.

Taylor O’Brien has recently added clarity to its brand and positioning.  With an updated website and initial foray into social media, TO’B is expanding its online reach and sharing best practices with current and future clients.  TO'B has been gracious to share their thoughts on their use of social media.

Learn more about Taylor O'Brien's use of social media, by signing up for MAD Content, here.

What's your perspective?

This is the fourth blog in our 6 week series, with our colleagues from Taylor O'Brien, on branding and social media. 

Your brand strategy has a unique vision and identity.  You identified this strategy by aligning your brand with your business goals, accounting for both cultural identity and customer knowledge.  As you define a social media plan to support your brand strategy, don’t forget that social media is a means of communication.  It brings with it a high degree of immediacy and interactivity.  It allows you to communicate more directly with your customers.

Social media reinforces a need to be responsible, understandable, reliable and genuine.  This is why a social media plan is so important.  You are serving your customers with the information and content they need.  Here are 6 key components of social media plan that supports your brand.

1. Objectives – What do you want to achieve and how will social media help you fulfill those goals?  How are these objectives related to your business strategy? Are they focused on sales, market awareness, customer service or other core business topics? Defining objectives will help you determine what content is needed and which social platforms to use. 
2. Customers – Who are they?  Where are they?  What content do they need or want?  Depending on your customers role (i.e., buyer, influencer, executive, technologist) they will crave different types of content.  Any plan must consider the customer’s need and supply the content needed to the relevant platform and device. 
3. Integrate – How will social media support or expand your overall marketing strategy?  Social media is not a stand alone marketing effort.  It must be aligned with other online and offline activities.  An integrated plan will identify resources (people, content and time) needed to achieve your objectives.   Social media can draw attention to events, reinforce messaging, personalize your brand, capture customer insight or input, create stronger customer bonds, manage your reputation and drive sales.  Social media, perhaps more than other forms of marketing, becomes your online voice.  It must reflect your brand and your culture. 
4. Metrics – How will you measure success of your social media strategy?  All other aspects of your marketing plan have goals and metrics – social media is no different.  Your metrics must support your objectives and can also be tied to your overall marketing plan.  Early stage metrics are usually related to followers and web traffic.  Later stage metrics can include measures of influence, leads, sales, product development or support.
5. Policy – Who will engage in your brand’s social media efforts?  How will they engage?  A policy can be considered the “rules of engagement”.  It is your opportunity to remind employees on how you want to represent your brand.  It is also the means of communicating your goals for social media.  A critical element of any plan or policy is to determine how your brand will address negative comments.  They are bound to occur and it is important to establish guidelines to help your social media constituents understand how to address them.
6. Engage! – Most importantly interact, share, communicate and respond!  Social media is a customer engagement medium.  Be informative and be informed!

Social Media has the ability to expand and personalize your brand in ways not previously available.  It is an opportunity for all brands, be they consumer or business centric, to communicate frequently and openly.  It is also an opportunity for customers to express their likes or dislikes.  Be prepared for both the positive and the negative.  Understand your brand voice, align your social media efforts with your brand strategy, educate your employees on your goals and engage with your customers like never before!

What’s your perspective?

This week we continue our Brand and Social Media series, with our colleagues at Taylor O'Brien, with a disucssuion about aligning your social efforts with your brand.

by Christina Brusendorff

Brands have become an integral part of business from both and external and internal business perspectives. We discussed how consistently delivered, relatable brands have an intrinsic link to business performance. Accessing this value is dependent on brand strategy being aligned with business strategy.

In broad terms this fundamental aspect of branding ensures that the brand promise is grounded in the strengths of a business, reflects the vision and the direction of it and supports business objectives.

A clear and aligned brand strategy clarifies, communicates and enforces the vision, key messages and identity externally as well as internally.  From a corporate branding perspective a truly aligned brand allows a business to more easily create a competitive employer brand, attracting not only the best talent but also the best suited candidates.  These brand strengths also allow a business to more easily engage its work force, build commitment and create brand advocates.  This in turn helps create a more consistent service and fell throughout the business that will help improve its performance and drive revenue.

The marketing mix through which a brand chooses to communicate and engage with their target audiences is diverse and continually fragmenting.  In such an environment brand strategy becomes increasingly important with brands needing to take an integrated approach to communication.  This involves employing diverse channels well aligned to the message, the audience and the brand.

From TV advertising to social media, serious thought needs to be given to the combination of platforms used, how these suite and complement each other, what is communicated, how consumers are engaged through these and, most importantly, what is the ROI (whether financial or attributed to some other value).

This applies to external B2B and B2C communication; Facebook deals, billboards, Twitter and to internal communications; emails, intranets, blogs, posters, events, induction programmes.  But all of them, whether online or offline communication, need to be integrated; cross-promoting and reiterating the core brand.

We believe that success is created by aligning brand business and communications strategy.

What is your perspective?

Christina is an Account Executive at Taylor O’Brien, a creative consultancy based in Manchester.  With a Masters in marketing and a passion for branding and business, Christina builds and inspires brands across a wide variety of industry sectors.

This week we continue our Brand and Social Media series with a disucssuion about aligning your social efforts with your brand.

With all the hype about social media, we may have forgotten that any social media marketing efforts must be aligned with your brand! When leveraging the myriad of social media outlets, it is important to keep the core tenants of your brand in mind. Social media provides you with additional channels through which you can communicate and interact with your target audience. Social media allows your message to be broadcast and shared widely, globally and freely.

With this openness in mind, what do you need to consider when establishing your social media strategy – particularly as it relates to your brand? First, don’t forget what your brand is.  We reviewed this  last week.  Remember, your brand is a promise. Your use of social media should reinforce that promise and provide a level of transparency and authenticity that invites engagement from your target markets. How can social media help?

Social media platforms should visually and contextually reflect your brand.  Consistency of logo, color and voice are important. Of these three, voice is the most critical.  What is the voice of your brand?  Are you fun, knowledgeable, edgy, caring, geeky, innovative. Understanding your voice should drive how you communicate via your social channels. For example, if you are innovative, your social communications should provide insight to market trends that your company is addressing, share your opinions on the impact of these trends and how your company will act to influence a shift in the market.

Now that you’ve aligned your social efforts with your brand and discovered your voice, it’s time to ENGAGE! Do I need to ask why you want to interact with your customers? Engagement with your customers WILL lead to business. It will lead to greater knowledge about what your customers and prospects are thinking and saying about your brand. It will help you become proactive instead of reactive. As you engage, remember what your brand stands for and provide consistency in terms of voice and topic. While it may be fun to share your thoughts on random topics, you are socializing on behalf of your brand. Your tweets, Facebook posts, Slideshare presentations or YouTube videos should be relevant to your brand, your company, your products or your industry.

Just in case you are still wondering why you should consider social media as a key aspect of your brand strategy, check out these data points from Forrester Research and Business Week:

Your brand is your calling card.  Social Media must reinforce your brand. Think about your brand and your voice before you engage – but definitely ENGAGE!

Branding and Social Media are now intrinsically tied together.  In thinking about the importance of your brand and the use of social media channels, we reached out to our friends at Taylor O’Brien for some insight.  As a result, for the next six weeks, our blogs will discuss the importance of brand and the impact of social media. Thanks to Christina Brusendorff of Taylor O’Brien for her wisdom and contribution!

by Christina Brusendorff

Brands were born the day a shop owner first thought to put a name and long on their store front.  Back then they were a competitive tool used to separate a business from the local competition and encourage recognition. Today brands are still employed for such purposes but they perform on a global scale (their reach even surpass the confines of this planet), their use is far more sophisticated and their value has become critical to sales, employment and the financial value of a company.

A brand is often defined as:

The set of physical attributes of a product or service, together with the beliefs and expectations surrounding it - a unique combination which the name or logo of the product or service should evoke in the mind of the audience. - Marketing Institute

While these attributes are all true, it doesn't describe the essence of what a brand is.

In a culture where consumers are empowered through knowledge and choice, engagement is imperative, the construction of brands is prevalent and reality is perception.  Companies need to be more transparent and clear about their offering, value and proposition. A brand helps a business achieve this.

A brand is essentially a promise that a business makes, either to its customers or to its clients, and then delivers through its brand strategy.  Through a visual identity, a clear proposition and strong key messages consistently communicated through relevant touch points, a brand can evoke awareness, loyalty and emotions within consumers, clients and employees.  Such touch points can be anything from an internal publication to a shop floor worker, a TV or radio advertisement or an integrated social media campaign. 

Simply having a rand is, however, not enough. The promise it makes needs to be realistic and grounded in a business' strengths, but most importantly it needs to be aligned to a business' strategy. Only then can a brand hope to deliver its promise successfully.

The importance of aligning brand strategy with business strategy will be explored further in the third part of this 'Brand and Social Media' series.  Next week 'Your Brand and Social Media'

What's your perspective?