How Social Media Strategies Are Bankable

June 22, 2012 / Kagiso / 3 Comments

It’s been a very eventful month and a half for South African companies and social media platforms, which all came at the right time when we were figuring out how to explain the benefits of social media marketing and PR brand management online.

Various companies have seen the power of social media and how quick information spreads through these platforms, which is something we haven’t been able to communicate to our potential clients properly (us being all tech orientated understand its power, but how to put it into simple ROI and ROE form is rather difficult to do).

We’ll go into a few examples we came across and how their own poor social network policies created mountains of problems we honestly wouldn’t be able to manage on social media now. We’ll start off with the #StopNYDA campaign that’s gained a lot of momentum on Facebook and Twitter platforms in the past month or so. What fascinates us about this campaign is the NYDA was also given a platform to retaliate and put its best foot forward to prove how great they understand their demographic and be able to do away with the damage and allegations the StopNYDA campaign started. But alas, on a national debate on national radio (SAFM), a spokesperson for the NYDA dismissed social media management and campaigns as a “friend connecting with friends platform, and this campaign is a campaign by someone with their friends”. Highly disappointing statements that are a norm in South African business circles, and coming from a national organization that should be understanding that Facebook has over 4 million registered users from South Africa alone, and its main demographic is that same exact 18-35 age group Facebook has. Poor planning, misinformation and a lack of preparation when approaching a debate, especially dismissing such a powerful tool that has created so many success stories worldwide, and in South Africa, when they should be the main proponents of using cheaper marketing tools to promote SMME’s in South Africa. Even if the NYDA should decide to embrace social media properly like FNB or Norman Goodfellows, the damage as far as public perception is done, and this is where we come in when PR & brand management comes in, we measure sentiments online to your brand and how to curb conversation and manage it to be more positive or neutral. Then the polar opposite of how the power of social media can cause a little trouble for your brand when offline preparation isn’t in place. Steers had a R10 Rib Burger promotion and underestimated the power this promotion would create from social networks, almost all Steers outlets were out of stock by 9am!!! The backlash by patrons Tweeting and Facebook-ing from queues created some bad publicity for Steers, the campaign was beyond a success as far as ROI, but the brand and PR management is what the restaurant chain has to deal with for the next few months, and hope that their competitors don’t use that to their advantage (knowing Nando’s and their sarcastic advertisements, it’s bound to happen). Social Media if not understood properly, and if the strategies and policies are not managed properly, can create horrendous effects for a brand and its public perception. Companies shouldn’t view Facebook, Twitter or Google+ as toys that kids are constantly chatting away on. These are platforms where people talk, they talk about EVERYTHING, from fashion to food, one of the basic rules of marketing is that people are influencer’s, and these social media platforms, everyone is influencing someone else, be it directly or indirectly. Everything on social media creates the perception your business has on their clients, “saying nothing to a customer is as good as spamming one, and it says everything about how you value them as individuals”. More and more businesses are falling behind on marketing themselves on these platforms mainly because they think social media is not for their business. FNB is a bank, no one can transfer money or deposit money on Facebook or Twitter, they not using social media for their core business, but they understood client focused strategies will allow themselves to push their core brand value, banks are usually viewed as a necessity and not as brands you willingly align to for their values.

FNB went against the grain in the regard, and most people, have started banking with FNB because unlike the other banks, they have actually showed they care about who they doing business with. Gone are the days when just buying into a product and using it were the norm. People buy into your product now, they talk about your product, they converse about your product with a friend, they post pictures about your product, they engage with your page and tell you that your new product is great or leave the old one as is… and most businesses in SA are missing this point. If FNB could create customer-centric connections and gain a huge following in 3 years, where will your core business be in the next 3 years?

UNDERESTIMATE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING & BRAND MANAGEMENT AT YOUR OWN PERIL!