Canadian Marketing Blog

Social Marketing Etiquette

A lot of clients want to get involved in Social Marketing but are overwhelmed with the landscape and simply don’t know where to go or what to do. Some of them fear opening up dialogue because they won’t have enough control over their image.

Welcome to marketing in 2008.

As with any type of community, there are rules and etiquette that must be followed in order to be successful. Generally people on the internet don’t like to feel like they are being advertised to in a traditional way. But if people can provide their feedback, creativity, opinion, or gain some value by interacting with a brand or company, they will be far more receptive to interacting with a campaign.

Here are 3 simple rules for Social Marketing that should always be considered when launching a campaign:

1. Foster Conversation
Whether it’s a company blog, a branded social networking site, a microsite with comments enabled or a video posting site, LET PEOPLE TALK. Even if it means that they might say something negative.

Of course there needs to be some moderation to disallow inappropriate content, but let people voice their opinions and talk openly and freely. This is the only way to build trust in a social marketing environment and the only way to truly understand what your customers are saying, be it negative or positive.

2. Don’t Fake It
Let your employees post content, create aliases or star in viral videos, but don’t ever lie about it or try to deceive the public. People know a fake viral video when they see one and if they think you are trying to deceive them, it won’t fare favourably for your brand.

If you are securing sponsored blog coverage, always be up front if it is a sponsored post, otherwise you will end up looking bad as a result.

3. Reach Traffic with Sponsorship NOT SPAM
The days of spamming out your message to mass groups of people are long gone. People are disgusted with spam these days and anything that even closely resembles it immediately becomes a target for bad press among net citizens.

Sponsorship opportunities on Facebook & other social networks, or branded contest pages on YouTube may cost more, but your message is getting out in a more effective and ethical manner. This also ensures that the individuals who participate in your campaign, do so because they are interested and because it was their own personal choice to do so.

So have fun out there with your projects, be innovative, and let your customers have some fun too. Maintaining an honest open relationship with your customers will give you the sort of PR that you can’t pay to receive.

If you simply aren’t ready to dive into Social Marketing yet, hire a consultant, and let them help you navigate your way through the landscape. You’ll be glad you did.

The days of spamming out your message to mass groups of people are long gone. People are disgusted with spam these days and anything that even closely resembles it immediately becomes a target for bad press among net citizens.

I love this post. These concrete tools to help understand and add value in the right places with social marketing/media was very helpful for me. For those of us just getting into the game, another good publication I have followed is by a marketing consultancy called Torque out of Toronto. Check it out.
http://torquecustomerstrategy.com/publications.php

These are some really great rules to follow when considering to get involved with social media. Good post!

Great post! In a recent conversation I had the question of liability for content came up. Apparently, some companies who wish to create a social media platform hesitate due to their own policies regarding liability. Since social media is open to the public, where there is little corporate control, company liability becomes an issue. They fear litigation if a particpant posts something offensive, inaccurate, libelous, etc. How can we alleviate such corporate concerns?

Social media marketing is indeed a lot of work but it offers great rewards. Just take a look at companies such as Oracle...they have dozens of employee blogs listed on their website. If Oracle does it, it is a good indication that there is great value to it.

Thanks for sharing this guys!