We live in a world where brands cannot simply push messages anymore. Today, Brands must do. They must engage with their customers across every platform, channel and device.
The days of corporate monologues are dead. In this new world actions speak louder than advertising, and the relationship between influencers and brand affinity becomes paramount. Online experiences must therefore ensure both the brand and the consumer reap equal returns from their relationship.
It’s clear that brands must socialize today with consumers in ways that increase their relevance and value in the eyes of their consumers — or the brands will be completely ignored. Brands must develop a credible social voice that is more engaging, personal, humble, authentic, and participatory than traditional advertising messages. Today, brands must provide, for lack of a better term, a return on emotional investment to their consumers. The good news is that the more consumers sense a (symmetrical) relationship, the more loyal they will be.
To breakthrough the noise, brands need to create engaging, actionable online experiences and relationships. All of this while leveraging new and nascent technologies to garner unique insights driven by detailed consumer information (including psychographic and demographic analysis, value drivers, lifestyle changes, and behavioral and attitudinal cues).
The secret? Rather than simply approaching Social Influence Media as a list of technologies to be ‘deployed’---savvy brands look to influence, seed, reveal and create a groundswell of “buzz” (above or below the radar).
Brands must find ways to activate and amplify social media to create meaningful digital conversations whether via web or mobile targeting the right message to the right consumer at the right time. The results? Brand Advocates and Evangelists.
