Tag: Customer

The Brand Spiral of Death

The term branding is thrown around a lot in relation to every facet of marketing and advertising, and as such its’ true meaning has become lost in the shuffle. A company brand is not its’ logo, slogan, or website, these are a product of a brand just like the services or products that a company sells. A brand is the external, and internal, perception of a company and/or products/services it sells. In comparison, branding is a process of defining how a company wants to be perceived by their customers and internal team, as well as how they will go about achieving this goal.

I recently read a very interesting article by Jesse McGowan at Atomicdust titled The Brand Spiral of Death (and other thoughts on branding). Continue reading →

The Influence of Social Media on Sales

Check out this very interesting article by Nick Martin, recapping his recent presentation at the International Customer Reference Program Conference in Boston. In the article he breaks down his presentation into the following two categories:

Impacting the Right Conversations Means Influencing the Bottom Line

Business need to understand the different stages of the customer life-cycle. In order for businesses to target their audience correctly during each stage of the customer, they must:

  • Research top influencers
  • Determine target search terms & phrases customers use
  • Calculate a customer’s desired outcome

Four Common Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don’t assume that your target audience is already following you
  • Focus on building followers
  • Defining social too narrowly
  • Optimizing for search AND social

I highly recommend not only checking out his presentation recap but also the full presentation titled Unlocking the Value of Search and Social for Customer Evidence on SlideShare.

Best Times of Day to Use Social Media

Social media is 24/7 but your customers/fans/followers are not on each social media platform all the time. So, the question becomes:

When is the best time to reach your customers using social media?

There a many factors that will determine the best time of day to use social media, including the platform you are using (i.e. Facebook or Twitter) and where your customers are located. The infographic below by Kissmetrics explains when the best time is to reach your specific customers.

Science of Social Timing Takeaways:

  • Over 80% of the U.S. population is located in the central and eastern time zones
  • Majority of Twitter users are more likely to Retweet after lunch and at the end of the work day. Customers are more likely to see your Tweet if it is scheduled for 5 pm.
  • Since Twitter is a real-time feed, it is important to Tweet throughout the day. This data suggests Tweeting 1-4 times an hour; however, this can be difficult when first starting social media. I suggest aiming for the following 4 times a day when customers are more likely to check their Twitter feeds:
    • Before 9 am
    • Lunch time
    • Around 5pm (the end of the work day)
    • Between 7-8 pm after dinner
  • Facebook posts can reappear in a customer’s feed as likes & shares increase of a post increase; as such, the time between posts can be greater.
  • Facebook posts have the most shares & likes during lunch hours and on Saturdays, these are both times when people are relaxed and have more time peruse Facebook.

Science of Social Timing

How often do you Tweet or post on Facebook? Do you think ideal posting times vary by industry? I would love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment below.

5 Companies Rocking Social Media

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Social media has become one of the greatest tools for companies to build relationships with their customers. While some companies are hesitant to use social media because of the inability to control negative comments, others realize that the benefits extremely outweigh the risks.

The infographic below breaks down how 5 companies were able to leverage the best features in social media and are rocking it!

Check out the social media strategies for:

  • Dell – focused on using social media to listen to what their customer’s wanted
  • Morton’s Steakhouse – used social media to surprise their customers
  • Unisys – focused on the resource sharing benefits of social media
  • KLM – used social media to provide 24/7 customer care
  • ABC – used social media to promote new shows & enhance the entertainment experience

Check out more about social media strategy creation and the future of social media.

Created by Voltier Digital for ScottMonty.com