The thing about a community is you can't control it. It's like having a child that you give birth to, nurture and love, then suddenly it becomes this unwieldy teenager you can only hope to influence. For many marketeers this is hard to swallow given their modus operandi of one way, single messaging, totally controllable advertising. This is where an Account Planner can come into their own. Instead of developing single-minded propositions, we should be managing many-minded conversations.
Here are a few things us Account Planners can do:
Don't make it up yourself
It's received wisdom that nobody likes to post the first comment. We can't control if, when or how the campaign takes off. However, we must not let fellow practitioners make the fatal error of DIY posts like Kingsmill Confessions.
Nobody buys it.
Instead, facilitate a way of collating genuine consumer views. Many brands survey customers for satisfaction scores and comments. This could be a perfect place to start as long as you have the customer's permission to post their comments, and that both good and bad comments are publicised. This is one of the only ways to achieve authenticity.
Face up to the facts
Mistakes happen. Allow them to be aired within the community, but deal with them promptly, painstakingly and publicly. I'm not suggesting it's an Account Planner's job to deal with the comments themselves, there are Community Managers for that. It is our job to persuade Clients that the good and not so good need to be posted and to ensure they are prepared to handle the consequences.
First Direct customers can now post comments for all to see. This is a brave move especially at a time when bankers are less trusted than politicians. The positive and negative go up. Bravo.
But unfortunately there is little evidence of follow-up from the bank. This is more like a graffiti wall with one way messaging that the bank have little permission to control. This is marketing harikari.
Be seen to be listening
Unfortunately the graffiti wall now feels like a brick wall. First Direct is damaging their hard won reputation of customer-centricity and transparency by not replying to the comments posted.
Account Planners must build into their strategy the ability to deal with comments and also to leverage them. In instances where it needs to be a private conversation, say so, do it privately but keep the community posted.
Many-minded doesn't mean many-sited
When deciding which platforms to formally partake in, brands need to ask themselves the classic marketing questions. Are target-consumers congregating there? Does the brand have permission to be there, or at least have the ability to develop this permission over time? Does being there help to meet marketing and subsequently business objectives?
If planned in this way, your social strategy can be all pervasive yet cohesive.
In short, if you're going to embark on social media marketing be prepared to:-
- Leave your control freak habits behind
- Get the ball rolling with true authenticity
- Listen and react to, and learn from the community
- Be everywhere and only in one place at the same time.
