Psychographics of Social Media for Businesses – short & most effective approach
2 is magic number in Social Media
There are only two main group types of social media users business should recognise & two distinguished ways to get to your target group
GROUP 1
Occasional participants group (viewers/readers)
80% of users use group 2 to connect to them. It is your target group which is more likely to be influenced by: 50% influencers, 50% your brand/company image
Majority of social visitors are only interacting with brands if there is benefit from it e.g. Discount & purchase. They DO NOT want to engage with company, however they will passively read content created by smaller group of influencers (below)
GROUP 2
Authors and active users (influencers/authors)
5-20% (or even less) of users, however this is most active group that can influence and generate up to 100 leads per 1 influencer.
1 author might bring 100 readers to your business
This will be group to target as brand ambassadors and other affiliate programs. This is the group which more likely to will interact and comment on brand.
Two ways to get to your target group:
- CRM systems using real-time personalized offers (by capturing data from social networking activities, updates, likes, places etc & analyzing them to use data appropriately before sending an offer in form of an email, personalized PPC ad or search)
- Creating honest & transparent business models where it is easy for publicity to relay and trust the brand.
What to do or not to do (proven to be succesfull best practices):
- 1 like on Facebook = 1$ for charity – “make a noise” brand awareness campaigns targeting general public
- Interesting viral or helpful videos on YouTube, try rather cheaper variety of clips than one expensive.
- Online game and journals (rather for very narrowed target market)
- Give clear benefit to customer if they will decide interact with brand (e.g. discount)
- Gift programme on Facebook
- Discounts & promotions on groupon
- Track content from active members and focus on that Group 2. Try to understand their attitude and metrics, try to engage with them appropriately via tailored programmes such as affiliate brand ambassadors programs and related activities.
Make sure you not giving any excuses for visitors to be concerned. 3 key concerning areas:
- security
- not spam
- interesting
To achieve this you should promote transparent business practices, honesty, healthy company culture, and avoid to be manipulative.
Main result of latest IBM & HBR research clearly shows that majority of customers DO NOT want to interact or engage with brands unless there is benefit for them in doing so. However Online Marketers are thinking actually quite opposite.
It is important to “emphasized the importance of “listening before talking” – every business should start social strategy by learning the conversations going on in their industry, around their competitors, etc., and constantly listen and reevaluate.”
source:
1. IBM CMO C-suite Studies “From Stretched to Strengthened” ibm.com/CMOstudy3
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/cmo/cmostudy2011/cmo-registration.html
2. The Customer Experience Ecosystem in Social Business is critical ( Feb 20)
http://www.scoop.it/t/social-business-social-business-design-social-business-case-studies
3. IBM Institute for Business Value – From social media to Social CRM (What customers want)
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/ibv-social-crm-whitepaper.html
4. Harvard Business Review (Dec 2011) – Know What Your Customers Want Before They Do
Thomas H. Davenport, Leandro Dalle Mule, and John Lucker
http://hbr.org/2011/12/know-what-your-customers-want-before-they-do/ar/1
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