Intelligence

We all know that social media is getting bigger and bigger with every passing day, and more brands are engaging in social media every hour, but what about those brands that are still hesitant to get in the game?  What do you say to them?

If a brand is still afraid to get involved in social, it’s because of one of the following “excuses” (and yes, I mean “excuses” because none of these are relevant reasons to stay out of it):

-  “I can’t control my message in social”

-  “There’s no clear way to engage my consumers – its too confusing”

-  “The return on engagement for our resources isn’t there yet”

-  “It’s still too early for us, we want to see what our competitors do”

I love hearing statements like these, and in the last 3 months I’ve heard a number of people say them.  I love hearing these kinds of statements because then I have something to prepare to respond to, and I thought maybe it would be helpful for me to share my responses with you!

First off, if a brand says, “I can’t control my message in social”, you can respond with “Well, how much control do you think you have by NOT being in social”?  The fact of the matter is that consumers are talking about you whether you’re there or not, and by avoiding the conversation you’re simply allowing them to speak in an unbridled fashion about you, and hope for the best.   Additionally, the world has changed and almost without exception, consumers expect their favorite brands to be available in social for their interaction.  This is the way the world is now, and creating loyalty in the eyes of your target consumer means being in social media and engaging them when and where they’re available.  It’s a competitive marketplace out there and if you aren’t speaking with them, you can certain your competition is.

For those brands that utter, “There’s no clear way to engage my consumers – it’s too confusing” I would respond, “Yeah, that was true 6 months ago”.  In the last 6 months, things have settled down quite a bit and it’s much clearer what you can do in social.  You can advertise in social, you can create sponsorships in social (i.e. sponsored tweets and posts) or you can use it as a messaging distribution vehicle through owned assets.  There are lots of companies offering ancillary services like research, reporting and promotion, but for the most part they fit into these 3 categories.   There are also a number of companies that are packaging together these options and making them plug and play for brands, which was inevitable.  As social matures, so does the marketplace and with maturity, comes simplicity.

What about when they say, “The return on engagement for our resources isn’t there yet”?  My response is also quite simple; the ROI is far more wide reaching than what you’re likely looking at.  An effective social media strategy has implications on SEO (it improves them), customer service (it improves them) and overall brand analytics (guess what – it improves them).  Brands who are connected are viewed more favorably by their consumers than brands that are not, and your analysis of the ROI should never be purely against your advertising budget.  It should be against customer retention, efficiency of customer interaction and other elements of the business!

Which leaves us with the last statement, “It’s still too early for us, we want to see what our competitors do”.   I love that kind of statement because it is so clearly incorrect.  When in business is taking no action at all the right action?  You need to be analyzing, testing and evaluating tactics.  You don’t sit idly by and wait for things to just happen.  The world is in flux right now, and success requires you to think ahead, have a plan of action, and implement it.  If the average tenure of a CMO is between 18-32 months, and the average tenure of an agency relationship is 4-5 years, then how does inaction provide you with opportunity?

Of course, there are lots of other statements made by brands, and these are just a few of them.  Join the Spin Board and share with us some of your favorite responses from clients and maybe we can find a way to help answer those!