Branding
– A Key to Marketing Success is Enhanced with Social Media
Corporate
branding initiatives seem to typically be in vogue when the economy is robust,
and fall out of favor as the economy dances with recessionary periods. Suspect,
is the perceived cost and effort associated with traditional brand building. With
the growth of the Internet and social technology tools, opportunities have
emerged that find some marketers focusing on online tactics without realizing
that an opportunity exists to leverage branding and strategy.
While
good old fashioned branding is just as important today, one must understand the
nuances and operational tactics inherent in the robust Social Media space. When properly executed, a successful Social
Media Outreach strategy has the potential to drive conversion events that
translate into robust branding initiatives.
Social
Media buzz is designed to add your brand’s voice to a conversation and direct
traffic and awareness to your properties, both online and offline. Converting the
messaging of your brand to social media messaging represents the
art of a high performance outreach program.
Your contribution must be believable and credible within the confines of
your brand identity. Would a Saks Fifth Avenue posting about recessionary
shopping be as believable and relatable as a similar posting from Target?
Your
brand’s voice should be relevant by remaining within context of the prevailing
conversation in that social media platform and affinity group. If you are
contributing a comment to an article or blog posting, your brand image will be
hurt if the post reads mostly as advertorial rather than as a relevant
contribution to the conversation.
Tie
your Social Media programs to these principles and you will soon find that Social
Media Outreach is affording a gateway to vibrant and prolific branding for your
company.
David Alpern (dalpern@interactivebuzz.com)
is Vice President, Strategic Client Services and Stephen Kruger (skruger@interactivebuzz.com) is
CEO and Founder of Interactive Buzz, LLC., an experienced Social Media company
delivering high performance results for the comprehensive activation of Social
Media strategies. The Interactive Buzz team’s
experience includes representing Del Monte, Unilever, The Advertising Council,
and more. Past experience included Proctor
& Gamble, Toyota, Honda, Conde Nast Publications, Scripps Network, NBC,
Disney, Microsoft.