What separates social media from traditional? Engagement. Only via social media can a CEO engage with customers on a one-to-one basis. This interaction creates an alliance by drawing consumers in and stimulates their thought process about the brand. Social media engagement turns a brand into a living entity, backed by a real person with a real voice, one that is responsive and most important – responsible.
Of course the social media campaign must be managed carefully by a PR agency like Abelow PR that thinks and acts strategically. Inviting engagement means developing meaningful content, but is also means dealing with disgruntled customers or unpleasant issues. A well-conceived social media program will invite comment and won’t run from controversy. Confronting issues head-on for the entire world to see builds confidence and helps establish the most important ingredient for a brand– trust.
Tackling a thorny issue head-on is often the very best way to build that trust. While management often shies away from sticky situations, a PR agency that specializes in brand building can help a client through the process, and enable them to come out stronger and better in the end.
To Engage Customers Build Trust
But to be effective, a program of serious social engagement must adhere to solid principals:
· Don’t lie
· Don’t speculate
· Don’t run from controversy
· Address issues head-on and offer solutions
· Create a trustworthy, credible ‘face’ for the brand that the public can engage with
We created just such a luxury travel PR and social media program for a Middle Eastern airline a few years ago, designed to go after what we perceived to be our most difficult issue – women business travelers in the Middle East.
Our objective was to:
· First, build the brand as the most luxurious experience in the sky;
· Tackle the misperception that women business travelers might feel uncomfortable or unwelcome when visiting this region.
We created an innovative program of social engagement on Facebook by hiring a young, attractive, and educated Arab-American woman, an attorney, who flew to the Middle East on a regular basis for her clients. She was the ‘face’ of the brand to the American public, presenting an image of professionalism and upscale travel savvy.
We created stimulating content on a weekly basis, which the PR agency ghost wrote for our spokeswoman. She engaged consumers, men and women, on issues of doing business in the Middle East, the differences between travel in major Middle Eastern cities and in more rural areas, and comment on fashion, cuisine, her favorite hotels, what services she can’t do without, and gave advice to all Americans heading to the Middle East for business or pleasure.
Consumers regularly engaged with her, some exhibiting hostility, but mostly asking thoughtful questions. Her confidence and professionalism came through and helped build an audience of engaged consumers whose perceptions of life in the major capitals of the Middle East began to change. They were now seeing this region as one that offers a new level of sophistication and highly evolved cultural development.
Through this campaign we were able to promote our client’s superior services both on the ground and in the air for business and first class travelers, and went a long way in changing public perceptions of the Middle Eastern carriers, which are now considered the best in the world.
Social media campaigns development with a high expectation of engagement is a proven method of changing public perceptions and building brands.