Building trust on your brands using social media tools

Social Media Strategy

Building Trust On Your Brands Using Social Media Tools

By Varadharajan Krishnamoorthy

www.varadh.com

© Copyright 2010 www.varadh.com 9/22/2010


Abstract:

Social media and the adoption of social media tools are grabbing significant mainstream

attention as brands realize the importance of harnessing the ideas and conversations with their

customers. Every organization can achieve this by adopting a right social media strategy. One

of the important ingredients of this strategy is the use of right set of tools that will protect the

brand as well as open up new vistas. In this whitepaper, we will explore the importance of

selecting the right set of tools and see how app stores/directories play an important role in

providing neutral and honest recommendations so that organizations can select the best tools

for their social media strategy.

Introduction:

Social Media is a generic term for tools designed to aid online social interactions. To be

specific, it refers to tools that help people have conversations online, on topics that matters to

them. These conversations can be through Blogs, Wikis, Social Networks and many other tools.

Social media tools help businesses establish their presence on the web, optimize their business

processes and interact with their customers.

Even though critics and traditionalists dismiss Social Media as hype, this is not the case.

Social Media is firmly established as an important weapon in the toolkit for businesses in an

increasingly competitive marketplace. Recent reports point out that visits to Social Media sites

has overtaken accessing personal email in the daily activities of internet users and these

numbers are growing fast. Social Media not only helps achieve better communications but also

makes it easy to collaborate with team members, partners and clients in a more productive

way. In short, Social Media is a necessary component to any business' winning strategy.

Businesses have always harnessed the power of word of mouth. Social Media both

accelerates and eases the utilization of word of mouth communication. Since Social Media

involves two-way conversations, a mere presence in Social Media does not guarantee success.

Hence there is a need for a better understanding of the concept and a better strategy to

leverage this new phenomenon. It is crucial for businesses to have a proper Social Media

strategy as it has already impacted results in the market place. To achieve varied objectives

through social media strategy, it is important to select the right set of social media tools as a



part of the strategy. For example, if your strategy is to monitor mentions about you, you

should pick a right tool which can monitor what is being said about you all over the web and all

at once. Another example could be an application that can aggregate and publish with all social

networks becoming an all-round news source. App Stores are market places for such tools and

applications. Hence, for such a selection of tools, the social media app stores could be of great

help making it possible to design a viable Social Media strategy. In this whitepaper, we will

answer some of the questions in the minds of small business owners and top executives in the

enterprise, and show how Social Media app stores can help them with their strategy.

Understanding Social Media and building trust on your brand:

Social Media evokes curiosity and concerns in the minds of business owners and

executives. It is quite understandable because of the conflicting information they receive from

the media. On one hand we have Social Media evangelists promoting the tools as miracle pills

that could bring in overnight success while on the other side we have traditionalists using fear

tactics to avoid losing their existing business. This has led to serious confusion among

businesses and this whitepaper tries to clear some of this confusion through a set of questions

and answers. The questions are selected based on our interaction with various organizations

interested in tapping the potential of social media. We have tried to address these questions

based on our experience in the traditional marketing world and in the world of social media.

1) Having decided to adopt a social media strategy in our organization, where do we

start?

The two way conversation between a business and its customers, enabled by Social

Media, is changing the way we do business including having impact on management practices,

business practices and, indeed, organizational structures itself. Such changes are cultural and

the biggest challenge for the business is in adjusting to this new culture. The traditional

hierarchy collapses due to these two-way conversations. Hence understanding these new ways

and training employees to adapt to these changes is of prime importance. One good practice is

to start using Social Media internally in the beginning. This has a two-fold effect. Firstly, this

helps businesses decide how these tools will fit within the business objectives and strategies.

Secondly it also helps in training employees and makes them accustomed to these tools before

using them externally to an organization. The initial internal strategy will help the organization

adopt these tools without disrupting the existing workflow. In order to encourage internal



adoption, a reward system can also be created with role-models taking more responsibility.

After a successful internal implementation, it can be expanded to partners and customers from

the outside world in a gradual manner.

Before deciding on a Social Media strategy, it is important to monitor how different

businesses are using Social Media tools, especially direct competitors of the business. Such an

exercise will give a peek into the cultural changes the business needs to adopt. It is also

important to study worst-case scenarios to mitigate risks. Since it may impact upon the brand,

it is important to ensure due diligence when planning the Social Media strategy.

As a part of your Social Media planning, it is important to identify a unique name and

use it across all the social media sites. Like the gold rush for domain names in the Web 1.0 era,

there is a rush to grab names that suit various brands. As soon as a name is identified that will

be used for the business, it is imperative to register it across all social networking sites to avoid

any disappointment later. It is wise to claim the identity of the brand in all these sites with a

suitable name and a logo while creating a profile. Profiles within social networks help

businesses to position their brands by adding suitable information, pictures and videos.

2) Of the vast myriad of tools available, how do I choose the right tool for our

needs?

There is no single prescription for selecting Social Media tools. It depends on the

business objectives and other factors such as where the target customers are geography, etc...

Part of the Social Media strategy is to identify the networks where target customers flock, the

nature of the social networks, geography, etc... The Social Media strategy should maximize the

impact on these networks at a lower cost. For example, there is no point in targeting a social

network for gaming teens if the business is selling products aimed at retired people. Even in

general purpose networks, it is important to ensure that there is significant target audience for

the amount of human resources the business is going to commit. Once a business identifies the

networks to target, it is important to select the correct set of applications and services that will

maximize the impact of the brand.

Unlike the traditional software world where big companies dominated the software

market, Social Media applications and services are developed by thousands of single person or



small companies all across the world. This fluidity in the marketplace leads to security and

privacy concerns for users along with concerns about longevity of these tools. On the other

hand, since these applications and services serve as a front-end to the social networking

services, there is no lock-in, like the traditional software world, and it is easy to switch from

one tool to another without any significant disruption to the workflow.

Once a business identifies the social networks they want to focus, it is possible to

identify the right set of applications and services. In fact, there are many tools that work across

many different social networking sites. These tools play a crucial role in ensuring that the

business delivers a consistent message across all networks without affecting its brand. There

are tools that let businesses administer Social Media usage of employees. Such tools play a

crucial role for businesses by ensuring that employees are adhering to the organization's Social

Media policies and, also, in preventing rogue employees from damaging the brand. To select

appropriate tools for the Social Media strategy, it is wise to hire a consultant or rely on trusted

application directories or stores.

3) Are there app stores for social media? If yes, what is their role and why it is

unique?

Yes, there are app stores for Social Media. App stores are marketplaces for applications

and services available for use with different social networking ecosystems. These app stores

offer a trusted place to identify and buy applications to be used as a part of the organization's

social media strategy. These app stores have applications and services listed around categories

with information about the product, the developer behind the application or service, ratings and

reviews by the users, etc. Such a categorization and rating system allows users to select the

tools appropriate for their social media strategy.

To understand the role of Social Media app stores, a comparison to mobile app stores

will help. In the mobile market, we have seen app stores for iPhone, Android phones, Windows

Mobile, Nokia phones, etc. Some of these app stores are completely controlled by the company

behind the phone or operating systems or mobile networks. Some of these companies, like

Apple with the iPhone, exert complete control over the applications that are allowed in their

stores and their financial models. This centralized model, though undemocratic, allows the

company to ensure the quality of the applications that can be used in the phones. On the other



hand, other companies like Google adopt an open model, allowing developers to list their

products without any restrictions and lets the users rate/review them to help other users, using

a concept called crowdsourcing.

Comparatively, Social Media app store trends are still emerging. They are unique in the

sense that these app stores, along with crowdsourcing, allows us to tap into our social graph

(set of friends we have in our networks) to get trusted recommendations. Like in the case of

mobile app stores, we see both a centralized model and an open model. In our experience, app

stores implementing an open process are more trustworthy and can help businesses maximize

their ROI.

4) How will these app stores fit into our social media strategy?

With the advent of social networking tools and applications, there are a myriad of

choices to make. App stores make it easier to select the right set of tools that fits well with the

social media strategy of the organization. The selection of Social Media tools becomes crucial

because it not only helps the organization monitor their brand but also the lack of reliable tools

could have a negative impact on the brand.

App stores fit into the organization's Social Media strategy in two important ways. First,

it helps select the right set of tools with the features that the organization needs via the

categorization of applications and the description provided for each application. The user

review/rating systems will not only help the organization with reliable applications and services

but also aids in mitigating the risks by helping organizations select tools that are compliant with

the security and privacy needs of the organization.

5) Can you use traditional knowledge with social media tools?

The use of Social Media changes the rules of the game in a big way. Traditionally, the

conversations between the business and their customers used to be private whereas Social

Media tends to make these conversations public. Traditional approaches allowed a restricted

dialogue whereas Social media allows a direct dialogue with all participants with no recognition

of hierarchy. Traditionally media results in individual problems remaining singular whereas

Social Media can amplify issue en masse. Traditionally, businesses used to have limited



resources whereas Social Media makes their resources virtually limitless. Hence, traditionally,

innovation was much slower than what it is today with the use of Social Media. Therefore, it is

important for businesses to understand how Social Media has changed their business functions,

fine tune the traditional knowledge and apply it with the right kind of tools.

6) What are the PR challenges involved in social media and how to handle them?

Social media is about people talking to people. Today, customers are empowered by

Social Media. They will talk about products and services all the time and on distributed

networks. Organizations might feel that they are transitioning from complete control of their

brand to zero control. However, it doesn't mean that Social Media is bad for businesses. Even if

businesses ignore Social Media, their customers are going to talk about them and a tactic that

sees businesses ignore these conversations has the potential to be greatly damaging. Instead,

businesses should adopt an agile Social Media strategy to safeguard their brands. To achieve

success, businesses should be sincere in their conversations. They should never try

manipulative strategies to undermine their customer reactions. Instead, businesses should

convert criticism into an opportunity to reach out to disgruntled customers and convert them

into loyal ones. A bad move by a brand in Social Media gets amplified many times, eventually

turning into a full scale PR nightmare. To avoid such nightmares, it is important for

organizations to devise a smart social media strategy that includes proper policies, training,

follow up procedures, etc...

7) How do different verticals use social media? Can you give some examples?

There is widespread adoption of Social Media in the Biotech and Pharma sector. In fact,

the FDA recently held a Public Hearing on the Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products

Using the Internet and Social Media Tools. For example, there has been an explosion of Twitter

users from the Pharma industry. While the FDA guidelines will be welcomed by the industry and

will be used to streamline Social Media usage, Pharma and Biotech companies have already

embraced Social Media in a big way.

Online communities of patient groups are being used for research by Pharma

companies. Some companies use corporate blogs to communicate directly to patients and

customers. Others have setup community platforms to communicate and share within user-

http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/ucm184250.htm

http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CDER/ucm184250.htm



groups. Video based social networks like YouTube are already tapped by Pharma companies

regularly to reach out to customers. Similarly, Physicians have also embraced social media to

connect with patients. Patients are tapping into Social Media to find relevant information and,

also, to form help groups based on their needs.

Real Estate is another vertical where Social Media is used very well. Everyone wants to

know everything possible before buying a piece of land or a home from a seller. Social

networks fit in perfectly to serve this need for information and make it possible for buyers and

sellers to interact directly. Social Media adoption is proliferating in many different verticals from

financial markets to government.

8) Do social media require heavy investment? What are the good practices to get a

higher ROI?

There are no huge capital expenditures but there will be indirect operational expenditures.

Social Media tools don't require any big upfront investment because the tools are either free or

available at a very low cost. However, the cost of hiring human resources to use these tools

should be considered. Without proper planning, these costs could escalate thereby diminishing

the returns. In order to maximize ROI, it is important to follow some best practices such as

Understand that Social Media use is part of the business process and strive to develop a

smart strategy

Set proper expectations by having short term and long term goals

Select the right set of diverse tools suitable to mitigate any risks

Develop a strategy to measure relevant metrics and use a feedback loop to continually

tweak the organization's Social Media strategy

Ensure adequate resources are deployed to engage customers through Social Media

This is not a definitive list but the points are designed to highlight the importance of following

best practices towards successful implementation of Social Media strategy. If the organization

lacks the necessary expertise, we strongly encourage the hiring of reputed consultant.

9) How do we measure the impact of social media? Are there tools available for such

metrics? How do I identify such tools?



Social Media can be used both internally and externally. Internally it can be useful to tap

the vast distributed knowledge available within the organization. It can also be used for

recruiting, training and collaboration among employees. It can be used in projects cutting

across borders and time-zones. Externally Social media can be used for Customer Service,

Customer/Supplier interactions, customer/supplier feedback and for problem solving, etc...

Social Media tools can be used for acquiring new customers and to network with external

partners and experts. In order to be successful in such interactions, it is important to measure

the impact of Social Media and optimize it based on a continuous feedback loop.

Impacts of Social Media can be measured with various metrics depending on the social

networks. Some of these metrics include:

Number of Subscribers (Passive customers)

Number of Customer Interactions (Active Customers)

Number of Referrals

Quantitative mentions ratio (How many times your brand has been mentioned)

Positive/Negative mentions Ratio

Comments/Forwards (also called retweets in the case of twitter) Ratio per post

Number of participative actions

Quantifiable increase in customer satisfaction or Sales

Awareness of Brand

ROI calculations by way of leads, sales, conversions, earnings, goodwill etc. etc.

Baseline and the deltas after implementing Social Media Strategy

Activity Time-Lines and Monitoring Sales with appropriate relative metrics

These are some examples of metrics that can be analyzed while implementing the

organization's Social Media strategy. There are other metrics that can be important depending

on the business objectives and Social Media strategies. Monitoring these metrics will help the

organization fine tune its activities to be more productive, resulting in a positive engagement

through social media. This, in turn, will produce results that can be measured as part of the

organization's ROI exercise. The trick lies in monitoring and reading of the metrics to drive the

business in a positive direction and a positive ROI.



Measuring the Social Media Impact is somewhat difficult but possible. There are many

tools available that can help organizations measure the impact with these metrics. Social Media

app stores make it easy to identify the exact tools needed for the purpose.

10) How secure is social media for brands? How do I protect my brand while using

social media tools?

Security has always and will continue to be the most important part of the business

strategy. Social Media Strategy should also include security at its core. The threats include

employee behavior, spam, phishing and malware attacks, etc... If unchecked, these threats

could significantly damage the brand. With good policies and practices, these threats can be

easily mitigated. For example, employee behavior can be managed by proper internal policies

and by selecting the right tools that offer fine grained access control. Adopting the right

controls, education/training and enforceable policies are some examples of steps that should be

taken to protect the brand. It is also important to establish a reward and penalty system within

the company to help protect misuse or damage, similar to the systems traditionally in place.

Outside threats can be thwarted by following proper security guidelines similar to the

ones followed in IT. The organization's Social Media policy should clearly provide guidelines on

who owns the content, liabilities, providing information about authorizations, etc...

The emergence of app stores will help users and organizations identify bad applications

very early and, thereby, avoid damage to the brand and other potential threats. This makes

such app stores an important part of the Social Media evolution.

Conclusion:

In this networked era, every business should adopt a smart Social Media strategy.

Businesses cannot ignore Social Media because customers are already voicing their opinion on

social networking sites. Lack of Social Media action could lead to loss of market share and

brand reputation. In fact, businesses can leverage Social Media to better position their brand

and reach out to customers. Such a strategy has very high payoffs with higher ROI than

traditional methods. A smart Social Media strategy also involves using the right set of tools and

app stores can help businesses leverage these tools effectively.



Author’s Biography

Varadharajan Krishnamoorthy

Chennai, India

Varadh, a well-known marketing strategist with special focus on using social media strategy,

helps businesses of all sizes with fine-tuned social media consultancy. He believes that every

business organization strives to not only expand and enhance their value but also the personal

lives of all those involved. He also strongly believes that social media can offer the necessary

path to achieve this goal.

Varadh has been an independent consultant for the last 5 years. Before that, Varadh has been

in domestic and international Pharma Marketing and Business Development for more than 20

years including his stint with MNCs and Indian companies with specialization in the India-Latin

America corridor.

During his stint as a consultant, Varadh has developed and fine-tuned strategies for businesses

to take advantage of new tools of technology which includes Social Media and Cloud

Computing. Varadh is also the CEO of CloudsDirect Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd. which offers

personalized IT solutions for businesses of all types. He is also an Analyst in the stealth mode

boutique analyst firm, The Krish group. More information can be found in www.varadh.com.

http://www.cloudsdirect.com/

www.varadh.com