Strategy and Competitive Advantage

Social media is not a fad, it reflects a fundamental change in the way users behave online, both in terms of how people authenticate a brand and the information they seek prior to making a purchase. It should not be considered separate to other elements of the marketing mix, but instead as a key factor to embrace in fostering a clear competitive advantage in your sector. We have many years of experience in pure-bred strategy development with a track record of success and will help you plan and articulate your social media spend integrated with related business programmes.

Research and Insight

The urge to measure social media spend is high in most organisations, particularly where it diverts effort away from other marketing activities, but sometimes the most valuable feedback comes from listening and learning. We help you identify the conversations relevant to your brand, products or services put this within the context of your sector and understand how to influence the sentiment and momentum of these conversations to your maximum benefit. We use social media monitoring tools at appropriate points, but try to keep you moving forwards towards your strategy rather than consumed by data.

Engagement

Any brand wishing to participate in social media must contribute something that becomes the subject of conversation - people will rarely discuss a brand, instead they discuss events, situations and experiences that are meaningful to them. We help you engage in social media by having genuine conversations with people, contributing to their communities and igniting positive word of mouth. We do this through priming campaigns - building credibility, gaining trust and earning the right to participate in user communities. We help you build social applications, advocacy programmes and cross-platform community processes (integrating your conversations across the relevant social channels for your brand.

User experience and Persona development

We aim to deliver the best possible user experience around your brand. To do this, we have to understand the users themselves. Who are they? What they're looking for? What motivates them to share and interact and how you can add value to their experience. For high-volume, high-traffic sites, we gather detailed insight into the user base and understand the journey that a user takes toward a positive experience. Each campaign requires an ideal balance of user personas - advocates on their own (i.e. fanboys) can create imbalance and undermine word of mouth response, so we also help you indentify sceptics, aspirants and trusted influencers.

Social Equity

With social networks and user-generated content forming a major part of the web's fabric, the congruity of your activities are always visible. We work with global brands to develop effective strategies, this requires a deep understanding of individual and collective user behaviour, as well as technical experience of how social media platforms are developed and sustained. Brands cannot capitalise on social networks without first demonstrating a clear benefit to the communities they interact with (i.e. what's in it for them?) and this continual delivery of benefits builds up social equity for your brand which can then be deployed in your sales and marketing campaigns.

Social media is not a direct sales tool - If a brand is seen using social media solely for its own direct benefit, then it's no longer 'social' (just imagine if you made it obvious to your friends and family that their only value to you was based on what you could get out of them?). We understand how to authenticate your behaviour, create sustainable integrity and reap the value of your social equity.