5 Tips to take your Brand into Social arena

Its Free. Its right there. Its simple. Everyone is doing it...........If you are the Brand Manager, YOU DON'T!Not until you have it all properly figured out.


For a Brand, Social Media maybe mostly free, yet it has its own barriers to entry and more importantly, its own set of risks!


Make sure the Brand name is ALL YOURS. 
Make sure you grab your Brand , all over the internet and do not allow anyone to use or misuse your Brand identity. Do it NOW, before you even launch your campaign. On the web, your URL is synonymous with your Brand identity, so its a crucial risk to your brand image, unless you have properly secured your Logo, Name and Brand Identity.


Whats your Goal? 
What are you intending to achieve through your SM campaign? Set your metrics , be clear of your mission and goals before you design your campaign.Whats your goal

• Create a Buzz around your Products/New Launch, Brand
• Create Brand Awareness
• Increase Brand Loyalty
• More traffic to website
• Leads, Orders
• Get the pulse of your customers....

Be sure of what you want to achieve.

Whats your Story
Storytelling is integral to branding. so figure out your story before you step into the web arena with your Brand. Who are you? Remember, once you are out there, you will be , what your story online emerges to be. 


The most successful Social presence is of the companies that have interesting stories to share, stories that up the interest meter of the potential customers and involve them into conversations. So define your challenges, history and mission through your brand story.


Select your turf
It is imperative to create a strong, tightly designed plan and be in all those communities and social sites, that have your potential customers . You would not want to waste all your efforts on sites and communities whose members are not conversing or are not relevant to your Brand.


So choose your turf carefully and then invite those who matter. Build your communities as you move along, to increase your footprints and get more and more potential customers conversing and discussing around your brand.


Engage them
Final, and most critical element is ENGAGEMENT of the members on your communities.Work out your strategy in advance. Once you are out there in public with your  brand as the center-point, you have to be prepared for eventualities

• How will social media be integrated into the company’s core strategy?
• Who from the company will engage? Will there be one voice? A team using one branded account? Personal accounts?
• How much time will be spent on social media?
• How long will the company “test” the different sites before evaluating their success?
• If a serious fire breaks out, what is the proper protocol and who needs to become involved?

Customers matter most. Listen to them. What makes them happy, what is annoying them, what gets them critical , whats making them go WOW.....And finally , it goes without saying, evaluate your success!