Social network promotion strategy error? There is another way.

See an article that answers a lot of my puzzles, why many brands invest a lot of money in social media but do not receive the expected return.

Piers Cooper, chief executive of Addvocate, an advertising start-up company, recently published a commentary on the technology website the next Web titled Why your Advertising Strategy is wrong. The author believes that today's corporate social media advertising strategy is completely wrong, the right strategy is to staff as the company's propaganda ambassador.

Some of the world's biggest brands have been spending huge sums of time translating social media advertising into measurable ROI. However, they did it all wrong.

In this new marketing channel of social media, companies are still trying to manage the brand, not the people behind the brand. They have poured a huge marketing budget into social media without actually getting the results.

Ironically, the best way to get people to share their brand content in social media is to run their own employees. Because statistics show that a company's best ambassador is an employee. In fact, corporate employees have started to share their company's brand content in social media:

84% of people trust referrals from acquaintances, while only 42% trust the recommendation of a banner ad. (Nielsen Company, 2013)

50% of employees publish their company's messages, pictures, or videos on social media. (KRC Co., 2013)

39% of employees posted positive comments or praise on their employers online. (KRC Co., 2013)

People often hear the motto: "A brand is not a person (brandsare not arranges)." "It is true. Corporate brand social media marketing channels have subverted the same marketing, it reflects the personality and interests of employees and customers.

However, the reason why people do not see the content of the brand on social media. To a large extent, this is because many brands view social media as a medium between brands and people.

The power of social media is based on communication between people, not on the communication between the brand and people.

A better way

People often say that the best marketing is Word-of-mouth. The same motto runs for social media. Employees are the company's best spokesmen. And they've started to share the company's brand content on social media. It's a better way to use this content to share a more humane brand and make it closer to consumers. People trust people, not brands.

It should be noted that effective employee advocacy requires companies to loosen the reins of control. What businesses need to do is use the right tools to pick the best, personalized, and professional brand content that employees release.

The inherent advantage of social media is the democratization and speed of information dissemination. For businesses, the benefit of social media communication is that their information is accepted in a more meaningful way by the audience, and the effect is more scalable. All employee advocacy tools should allow for the presence of offensive content, and only businesses that encourage the free flow of information can benefit fully from their employees ' advocacy.

Companies need to change their social media strategies and move from an influential strategy to a strategy that embraces every employee. To this end, they need to keep in mind the following points.

1. Social media marketing is not about exploiting potential customers

Consumer share content has been contaminated and they are failing. Paid ads will be filtered or ignored, and traffic is deceptive. It's not going to make a big difference if you're spending 10% of your online marketing costs on social media by dumping replicated advertising content.

Don't expect traditional strategies in social media marketing. Instead, embrace the true power of social media: authenticity and scalability.

2. Online communities are generating real value

Consumers and employees will support and advertise the company's brand even if they are not required. They can provide insights into the product's prospects and main issues.

Once you have established a community, please be careful to nurture it. Of all the participants, no one should be ignored. If someone's post doesn't get a response from someone else, you need to step in.

3. Social media is a great way for consumers to get close to the brand

In most cases, consumer content sharing on social media will receive a quick response. Good news travels fast, and bad news travels faster. Shared content reflects your community, not just your brand, it is an effective way to make your company's brand more humane.

4. Employee advocacy is an opportunity

Businesses need to realize that their employees are already talking about them in social media. They can accept this and give support rather than adopt ineffective social media policies, acting like King Canute to try to block the tide.

The fast pace of social media means that you can't monitor all the content at all times, and that doesn't make sense. Don't overreact. In most cases, it is good not to take action.

5. Multifaceted cooperation

Marketing, public relations and sales need to work together to provide a consistent message and branding experience. Although social media is pounding many businesses, it is still a virgin territory. Leaders face an opportunity to use their workforce as a brand advocate, both proactively and effectively.

The best social media programs focus on people as well as products. Remember this and you will be rewarded.

Reading：

Not entirely in favor of, not completely denied. But some Internet enterprise personnel into the design network into the propaganda does play a role, such as Lei, Zhou, Linan even Zhang Ying, the creation of factory Lee Kai-fu, Xiaoping and so on, our team a lot of business from the source is also from my microblog and micro-trust public platform. And some enterprises, their employees do not use their own brand products are doomed to be difficult to do social network promotion.

It's not that because of these ideas, the business of the social networking company is going to wither, and we're too focused too much. Before social's play is not matched with no audience final foothold leads to unable to evaluate the effect. If the means of communication and the business model of the company are not iteratively updated, the industry is doomed to decline.