With its reach and potential for customers businesses are relying more and more on Social Media to reach their audience and share their brand, but is it a necessity and if so who is doing it well?
Starbucks
This Seattle based company was first established in 1971 and has since grown to almost 18,000 in over 60 countries, according to Starbucks.com. So why would a successful company that's been doing something right for over 40 years decide to use Social Media?
Brand Awareness
We could say that everyone knows of Starbucks, so what's the big appeal, why is it better than Dunkin' Donuts or McDonald's even? Well my friends, perception is reality, just take a look at Starbuck's Facebook or Twitter Accounts and you'll see the same thing, their brand. On the one hand you see a slew of photos involving Starbucks products, coffee beans, that damned logo that makes you think that iced coffee sounds good, on the other hand you'll see people enjoying their coffee in a variety of settings with a variety of products. This shows us a few things, firstly that Starbucks must taste fantastic, for so many people are drinking it. Secondly we see that there are more than a few options for us to drink, so we're bound to find something we like, even if we have to come back a few times. Third we see that its obviously the "in" thing to do.
Know your REAL FRIENDS
Sure they might "like" a status we put up, or perhaps put a picture up of us with their product, and that's cool and all, but we need to know our real friends. Starbucks is a company that chooses to utilize Facebook and Twitter as means for Free Advertising to reach their audience. The companies utilization of Social Media to create a following and continue to grow their brand and Brand Awareness is simply amazing.
T-Mobile
Based Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, T-Mobile, and its subsidiaries, have approximately 150 Million subscribers, putting it in the top 20 mobile phone service providers.
Brand Awareness
Looking at T-Mobile's Facebook and Twitter Accounts we see the tried and true method that Starbucks is using with their Social Media Marketing plan, which leads us to think that perhaps there is a formula to making this all work. One difference that must be noted between the two is that whereas Starbucks is oh so yummy, as the photos would have us believe, it is technically NOT an interactive product. That being said, opposed to saying how we best like our coffee and how we wish Pumpkin Spice coffee was sold all year round, there is little room to really voice the negative with Starbucks. With T-Mobile, being that it IS an interactive product, we have a bit more room to express our distaste for their Marketing Plans as well as more opinions on which product we prefer, or why we hate this phone and whose product were Fanboys of. Another interesting approach that T-Mobile has is that they choose to utilize their Social Media outlooks for building more of a rapport for what you can do with your technology, and how this cool new feature can aid you in your everyday life.
Know your REAL FRIENDS
IS T-Mobile one of your REAL FRIENDS? They'd like to be, and given the chance you just might make one or two with the salespeople, especially if your a bit of a techno buff, and if not hey, you can still talk with them over some coffee.
If You Can't Measure It. . . . . .
Well you probably just need a longer tape measure! So above we have these accounts, bits of information on companies that mean virtually nothing to us, how do we judge effectiveness of these accounts? Is it through likes? Or is it results? Do we gauge our revenue on this, better yet how is our revenue derived from Social Media Marketing determined? Truth be told there is no real way to determine how much of your business is garnered from Social Media Marketing, not exactly, however when used it acts as a catalyst, and with a few different tools we can determine how many we are reaching, and through encouraging and nurturing our relationship with our audience we can grow our business and determine a portion of our business that comes from Social Media Marketing.
The Metrics System
Wait, inches, meters and miles? No not that the Metric system. We need to take a step back and think of our own brand, how this all applies to our own Social Media Marketing plans, and how we can further our own ambitions, as well as monitor the affects of our marketing plans. That being said I never ask someone to do something that I myself wouldn't do first.
