Social Media vs. Brand Experience

As business strategists, a large part of the foundational structure of building and maintaining a successful business is digital marketing. However, digital marketing has undergone a significant change thanks to social media platforms and reviews.

As often as I am able, I read industry and trade articles to keep up with the latest trends in digital marketing and social media and have come to realize small business owners don’t stand a chance in trying to keep up with all of the social delivery systems used by our customers. Just as we get our heads around one platform, our target audience has moved to the newest platform.

One of my staffers was telling me about Snapchat a few months ago and I was totally in the dark. As I researched, I found out more than 300 million photos and videos are shared on Snapchat per day!!

How are small business owners who do not have the funds to hire a social media management company supposed to keep up?

Instead of focusing on having a presence on the latest social media platform, focus on creating a brand experience that makes your company the subject of conversation no matter what the platform. Dedicate time, effort, and resources in your people, products, and processes and you will find more of the “snaps”, “tweets”, and “posts” will be about your company and the exceptional experience customers have had in your establishment.

From a customer point of view, social media provides an honest narrative of how they have engaged your product/service. Companies that provide a high brand experience are reward with loyalty and those who have challenges are held accountable in public. Remember your product/service is no longer what you tell customers they are, it’s what the customers tell each other it is.

Focus on one or two social media platforms frequented by your customers and use superior content to keep them interested in who you are and what your stand for. Deliver high brand experience and it will not only benefit your company in peer-to-peer recommendations, but with consumers like me who uses reviews exclusively for products and services that I have no experience with. Therefore, treat every customer as if they are your only customer and the social media will take care of itself (for a while).

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