Social media can increase your brand value JULY 10, 2014 BY ADEDEJI BANKOLE Having the best product doesn’t transit to a successful business. Your business might have a fantastic product, yet a big failure. A thriving business can be a struggling business but a successful business replicates success even in diversification and in tough environments.Are you building a business just to thrive or to replicate success? Businesses that have replicated success are the ones that have built their brands over the years. In the digital age, a brand is not just about a logo, an official colour, business name, or business location. In fact, a brand is not built overnight. A brand is a collection of customer’s experiences.Your business was built on an idea. Right? And your business has made a certain promise to your customers. What do you do to promises? Keep your promise by satisfying your customers and with this you would be gradually building your brand.Top brands are what they are today because they consistently satisfied their customers. Interbrand, one of the world’s largest brands – a consultancy company – came up with a list of top 100 brands. It is fascinating to know that all of these companies strive to deliver on their promises to loyal consumers. For example, Apple, co-founded by Steve Jobs, delivered on promises by making personal computers what it is today. It also delivered the first touch screen gadget which other tech companies are said to be imitating. It’s all about promises delivered. What promise have you made to your customers?Today, customers are ‘easily difficult’ to please. Friendly and approachable on the outside but don’t mess with their satisfaction. Often, customers don’t know what they want until you guide them. However, that doesn’t imply you take them for granted or leave their compliant unattended to. A brand isn’t built that way. Social media has taken the way customers relate with brands to another level.Consumers are beginning to get on social media to take on brands that are not delivering on their promises. In fact, customers want more for their money. They long for a relationship with your brand – not you. They don’t care about you; they care about themselves and their satisfaction. So, what is your brand offering to get them coming over again? Sell more than just a product. How? Here:Treat them like humans: I was once asked on air what relationship should exist between a brand and its customers. I simply replied that a person-to-person relationship is ideal. It gives room for both parties to express themselves. Brands can learn from their mistakes. They can even come up with better products as a result of being open-minded. The best way to go about this is using social media to scale up your brand. Social media can help by answering the most important customer questions, delighting them, and offering more than just a satisfactory experience.Kill the negative vibeWhat started offline is taken online by customers and before the affected brand knows what’s happening, it has gone viral. Social media can help brands track negative or bad customer experience and turn them into opportunities. Few years back one of my clients that specialises in online payments had a crisis and before it knew what was happening, what started quietly, offline, had gone viral. In a twinkle of an eye it escalated beyond management control. But in the midst of all this confusion, I saw opportunity. I have learnt from experience that once there is confusion, looking inwards and thinking outside the box are key.Apart from satisfactionYes, satisfying your customers is integral to building your brand but satisfied customers leave all the time because they have no reason to stay. What other reasons can you give a satisfied customer to stay with your brand? Satisfaction isn’t the same as loyalty. As a matter of fact loyalty is expensive. Don’t for a moment be of the opinion that since you can satisfy customers all other things will take care of themselves. Times have changed, likewise customers have changed too. Customers now know they can go about to let out their frustrations about any brand on social media. So, what will happen to a brand that cannot track down these frustrations? Apart from satisfying your customers, make them feel like a decision maker in the company based on their opinions. Build a relationship with them. Do it physically and socially.They say a journey of a thousand years starts with a step. The same goes for a brand of a thousand years; it starts will consistently satisfying a customer.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 07:10:29 +0000
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