Adding value to social media relationships

Social media marketing is all about participation within a community. And, within the community, it is best to play by community rules.

Many brands, as they begin utilizing social media as a marketing channel, may only post content that relates directly to a sales message. This sole tactic may cause a brand to not gain much traction within social media. Furthermore, this approach may also cause others to tune out the brand's content.

As organizations and enterprises define goals around social media marketing, it's a good idea to not over-stress conversions and ROI with the medium. Goals must be appropriate to the channel and audience. Social media is an opportunity to build brand awareness, trust and nurture relationships. Being a community participant helps to build brand reach within social media, as well as trust.

For brands who daftly push out offers and promotions only, consumers may begin to feel annoyed or tune out future messages. Those overly pushy brands may simply be trading a small percentage of short-term conversions for long-term visibility, trust and clout.

Ways to add value

• Provide great customer support - see proactive communications with social media
• Provide resources to benefit your followers
• Engage in meaningful conversation
• Reward and praise customers and advocates
• Provide tips and advice
• Offer data or insights
• Start an active dialogue
• Support, share or rebroadcast social content of others
• Be a specialized filter for your area of focus
• Solve problems or be generally helpful
• Entertain
• Inspire (within the context of your area of focus)
• Share lessons learned
• Be transparent