Latitude Social Media
Join the conversation
With the rise of blogs, forums and social networks, consumers now turn to their peers as one of their most valued sources of advice and information.
Something of a Holy Grail for marketers, today peer recommendation, amplified by social media, can be instrumental in your company’s success…or failure.
Not convinced about the power of social media? Here’s just a taste of the measurable impact it is making:
- 250 million people globally belong to a social network (including an impressive 10 million in the UK) 1
- More than 59 million active users worldwide belong to Facebook alone, with an average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan 2007 2
- Technorati, the blogosphere’s search engine, now tracks more than 110 million blogs 3
- A significant part of traffic (7% in October 2007) to UK retail sites comes from the top 20 social networks – that’s more than from email promotions. 4
Isn’t it time for you to join the conversation?
What Social Media means
Social media refers to online content that is created by users collaborating and sharing information. The most recognisable forms of social media are social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, but the term social media also encompasses photo and video sharing websites (Flickr, YouTube, DailyMotion), virtual worlds (Second Life, Habbo Hotel), as well as forums, blogs, and wikis.
Social media is not merely another channel. It is a fundamental shift in the way people engage with and discuss your brand. Technology is making conversations between brands and consumers, and between consumers about brands, much easier. If social media is going to work for your brand you must first understand the communities that are right for you then build on their passions. There’s no room for half-hearted, short-term communications – you need to embrace, you can’t force it.
Why you should care
It’s about reputation management and brand development
Social media is now mainstream, and with Internet users spending 12 hours a week online on average 5, as a business you ignore it at your peril.
Read about the Dell social media crisis....
Negative feedback posted online by a disappointed customer can rapidly spiral out of control when met by similar views from fellow users. At first apparently insignificant, this kind of comment is known to have generated high profile public outcries, compelling some blue-chip companies to drop unpopular products and causing much brand damage in the process.
Learn about students' Facebook triumph over HSBC....
Building up strong relationships with your key online audiences via open and honest dialogue will enable you to know what your customers really want, providing you with valuable market insight. Online brand advocates are great assets to your everyday marketing and can prove to be useful allies if things go wrong.
A positive impact on search engine results and site traffic
Raising awareness of your brand on social media will over time help bring more visitors to your website, and can ultimately attract more customers.
Moreover, search engines keep a close eye on social media 6, increasing your chances to appear in their listing when your product is discussed in the social sphere. The number of external links to your website is also one of the search engines’ key ranking criteria, meaning that the more positive buzz, the better!
How Latitude Social Media can help
Successful interaction in the social media spaces requires more than just posting your page or some banners on a popular social network, such as Facebook or MySpace, or dropping your corporate video
on YouTube. Your business needs to integrate social media into its overall marketing strategy.
Make sure you know where to find your brand ambassadors and how to approach them. Let us know your business objectives, and we will help you define the best strategy for your brand and give you advice on implementing it. Latitude’s social media specialists will track the buzz – negative and positive – around your brand and show you how to listen to your customers in the social media sphere and learn from their comments. We will help you engage proactively and openly with them, as well as address the issues your customers raise about your business.
To help manage your reputation and develop your brand in the booming but volatile social media spaces, we can:
- Research your - and your competitors’ - presence in social media
- Assess the right audiences to target and analysing their social media behaviour
- Define the best strategy to engage with your audiences on their level
- Provide guidance on implementing the strategy
- Ensure ongoing monitoring of the social media buzz around your brand
