Social media is a major part of almost everyone's life in this day and age. No wonder why businesses are investing time and money in the medium in order to reach more people to market and advertise their product and services. There are a handful of businesses that adopted the medium for customer service and interaction purposes; and among them all KLM is leading way. Socially Devoted, which analyses the standard of customer service on social media, is the best source to see which brand is doing a good job on social media.
Most businesses spend too much time in strategy meetings and very little on the implementation stage; it seem they see the medium as a sales channel or PR machine. It therefore appears that not that many businesses are able to truly articulate the power of social media and its business value.
Businesses always try hard to sell and market their products and services on social media. However, people often press the mute button on Twitter, skip ads on YouTube and hide updates on LinkedIn or simply unlike brands on Facebook.
As it is evident, people tend to ignore marketers' messages on social media, mainly due to frustration over quantity and sometimes irrelevancy of adverts. Of course this frustrates marketers too. Because despite their effort, they don't reach enough people to hit their business target (stuff that possibly mean nothing to their social media audience, aka fans and followers).
Needless to say, much of such frustration is avoidable, only if brands and their respective agencies sit back and remind themselves what KISS stands for; also listen to and act upon what their customers and prospects say. Based on my personal research and analysis of conversations on social media, I've learnt most people expect:
I called this TART; which practice can boost brand engagement and advocacy as well. Because, people take their voice to social media where their peers will support them and watch how brands response (if they do). Thus, in order to reach more people on social media, in particular on Facebook, engagement is key and often brands need to be proactive. According to Socialbakers 'getting high organic reach depends on how engaging your posts are...'
Although content is king but it is not all about the engaging content that brands produce; it is also about the quality of conversations and interactions that generate word of mouth and user generated content. Every piece of content, every post counts!
Brands on Facebook always want higher reach and engagement with their posts but Facebook has an algorithm in place, known as EdgeRank. Below is a demonstration of what EdgeRank is and how it is calculated:
This is all about relationship building and creating community; which gives brands invaluable insights about their audience. Of course, the gathered data and insights need in-depth analysis and evaluation; which enable brand owners to identify opportunities for further growth and higher reach. Then it will be easier for brands to create appealing and engaging posts that result to better Facebook's News Feed EdgeRank; and less frustration for both people and social media marketers.
It is no longer about quantity but mostly about quality of content. The best quality content is not necessarily expensive to create; but definitely appealing to people. In different words, brands need to act more like human:
