Over the weekend, Shiv Singh from Razorfish, sent me an advance copy of their soon to be released report on Social Influence Marketing. Once again, the folks at Razorfish delivered a solid report that captures the essence of what Brand Managers need to be thinking about in a world where “actions speak louder than advertising.”
While I highly recommend reading the whole report, here are a couple of nuggets that really jumped out to me:
- Brands must socialize with consumers: It won’t be enough for brands to craft powerful messages and push them through different media channels. They will need to participate directly in conversations with consumers and provide more meaningful value exchanges.
- Brands must develop a credible social voice: Brands will need to focus on developing credible voices for SIM. These voices will need to be more engaging, personal, humble, authentic and participatory than traditional advertising messages.
- Brands must provide a return on emotion to their consumers: Social media is a great tool for building symmetrical brand relation- ships, in which both the brand and the consumer reap equal returns from their relationship.
- Brands must know the effect of influencers throughout the marketing funnel: It is essential to know how influence changes in each stage of the marketing funnel. That information should drive when to focus on which influencers and how to surface content from those influencers on corporate-owned digital properties.
- Brands lack significant credibility in the digital realm and on social platforms: Brands should explore new ways of marketing on the social platforms that help build trust and credibility first and foremost. It is no use devoting significant marketing efforts to this space unless you’ve already figured out how to serve as a trusted brand. The social platforms require a new marketing language – one that mustn’t be overlooked.
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