Retro marketing

It is generally of  two types;

1. A genuine re-issue or replica of an original product from the past (Mountain Dew, Classic Coke)

2. Using a modern product that adopts retro styling to make it look and feel different from similar products (Facebook)

Company history and brand heritage is important in any retro campaign. Many companies are keen to stress their history and expertise over a long period. This is usually gn that communicates ’we’ve been doing this a long time, so you can trust us’.   The appeal can either be real or imagined past that conjures up images of a lost age.

Retro marketing can also be in developing campaigns or changing the product itself, to make it look old fashioned.

The retro marketing model leans heavily on a psychology and science of human behaviour that proposes that as we grow older we yearn for ” remarkable positive memories we experienced from the past”. These yearnings of an idealised past provides an opportunity for marketers to provide nostalgic cues (images, songs and messages) that make us more receptive to messages that urges us to take a ‘dose’ from the past.

As these method continues to gain acceptance and elicit reactions, more brands will be joining up in the retromarketing campaign

OMO, Star Larger beer, JIK… which one else can you identify?

1. Know the system in which you operate and identify the gap

He had worked long enough in the journalism industry to realise that the businesss to know that the future of journalism is digital. Sometimes the business idea you need to be successful is all around, tou need to be fufiling a need in the market or else youa re on a stroll.

2. Understand Timing

Timing can just be the only business between a great idea nd a frustrating one. the net.ng started when most people had not considered going online as a veritable option. The execellent timing and the element of luck was responsible for our success.

3. Start small

Cashflow projI had spent 3 years searching for people and organisations who could fund my business idea for NGN10billion. I met the unwilling, relectant and deceptive type of investors whi wasted my time.

It was not until I got someone who told me all I needed was a portal to start the website and gave NGN 250,000 to the project. and so I started, without staff, office i began the journey called thenetng today

4. Don’t borrow, grow organically

Borrowing to an entrepreneur might have its negative effects; it can stiffle creative and also ensure you shift your attention form your attention from growing the business to looking for money.

5. Create a USP, and sell it from the word go

I had decided that our selling proposition was going to be the credible source of information about entertinment news in Nigeria and we stuck to the ethics and principles of journalism. Newspapers that thought online news reporting does not work are copying our work and quoting us on their news report. People call us to confirm news reports because for us, credibility has always been

6. Know the rules and break them

Sometimes rules put a limit on our creativity and those who suceed in impacting the world and find a way to push the limits. There are traditional unwritten rules that people follow traditionally; how to plan front pages, treat important staff members, methods and systems of running a business. While most of them have been based in historical events, the rapidly changing nature of human behaviour and technology makes some rules irrelevant.

We cannot say we have reached our peak but we are well positioned within the industry to move unto greater heights

People might take information from corporate blogs with a pinch of salt but they know it is still authoritative. While some organisations have established social media communication platforms, it is still not enough.  Most people may miss tweets and status updates especially if they are not watching Facebook every second and don’t check the history of their friends’ pages. However, you can certainly take advantage of content management systems like WordPress, Joomla and Tumblr plug-ins to ensure even people on your social networks are able to get your corporate information across to their peeps. But the world of business communication has changed and the blog is the best tool available (when done right) to address the challenges of life in the 140-character news cycle.

It is however not an oppportunity to chun out traditional press releases, blogging should be in conversational english and not the likes of  ” in the light of the foregoing” . Blogging offers a place for conversation and must be seen to be friendly, enhance connectivity and encurage responses. Some of the great advantages include;

Prompt response

Especially in the event of a crisis, a corporate blog becomes a potent tool of timely response. While rumors and false information may travel very fast in this age of social media, people will readily believe an authoritative blog when it releases information. Especially when it has been established for a long time, people will readily turn to official portals when they are looking for authentic information.

Consider during the #occupynigeria protests, information was been passed around that GTBank and Dangote, two of Nigeria’s leading brands were violating the labour union boycott office order, a press release by the organisation would have been 24 hours late. While some organisations were praying that mob action will not reach their ourganisations before the uprising mobilises to attack its offices, some took to Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry outposts to dispel the rumors, a corporate blog would have been a potent tool of response in correcting the misinformation in a matter of minutes instead of the hours it takes to publish a press release.

 Bypass the press

Most times the press won’t get your information out exactly the way you want it. Especiallywhen there are competing interests and for organisations when the corporate communications department whose frustrations are glaring after toasting and courting editors in getting your information into the news, you need to have your own digital press online. Especially when you need to respond to a damaging article in the press, it is annoying your response appears on a tiny segment lost in the middle of the newspaper as against the damaging article which made a page masthead.

One of the first persons to attempt this was the former MD of Cadbury Bunmi Oni who created a .blogspot address (here) in response to the boardroom boots given to him by Cadbury International.

Reach the press

The newspaper press have finally conceeded to trying to catch up with trending news on the internet and social media platforms in general. More and more newspapers are quoting blogs and bloggers as their source of information and even currently rely on social media sites for images and events. More and more reporters are spending their time combing Twitter and blogs for news and use them in reporting.  If reporters covering your industry know you have a blog and it is frequently updated, they are likely come be regular readers. bye-bye to bootlicking editors for media space (*wink)

Search Engine Optimization

With a blog linked to your corporate website, Google will fall in love with your site. It is no news that Google has a way of knowing frequently updated content and tend to rank them well. Done well, your corporate blog will rate you higher on search engines, driving more traffic to your site.

There’s a huge source of business prospects, clients and targets that come from search engine results queries. A large chunk of prospect comes from people who are entering exact phrases they are searching for (keywords) online and are hoping to get results that tally with their queries. Search engines love blogs and blogs will ensure you get the targeted customers.

Before you leverage on this trend, ther eare ponits to note;

1.      Blogging because your competitor is blogging is the first step to suicide for your brand image.  It should be aligned with your core business objectives.

2.     Decide to post regularly. Frequent posts will ensure people will always come for news before they are assured of new content. Linda Ikeji, a celebrity blogger is one of the bloggers who leverage on frequency and timeliness to build her blogging platform

3.    Don’t be busy using every opportunity to sell your products and services; its a likely put off

4.Be very strategic and tactical when it comes to responding to comments and accusations from your respondents

5.Don’t forget again, your blog is not another avenue for news release distribution except your are only reaching out to journalists

6.Know your audience. If the blog is focused on customers, address customer issues or problems. If your company or its product(s) has fans, skew your blog to those fans.

7.Accept comments, you want to communicate with your followers, init? Address comments that need addressing, either within the comments section or with follow-up blog posts.

8.Use a genuine voice. Use simple and straightforward english.  Avoid corporatese.

I will continue on impressive examples of great corporate blogs tomorrow.

Image: Techcrunch.com

The very surprising announcement on Easter Monday in the tech world was the gist that Facebook is acquiring Instagram for $1 billion. To the uninitiated, Instagram is a photo-sharing app that became the darling of Apple lovers in 2011, making it the App Store’s App of the Year. With just the 13 employees working from their San Francisco office thay have built a loyal followership of over 27million. ( You can check their story on inc.com).

With Facebook’s new timeline, its acquisition of Instagram and the powerful growth of another photo-sharing social network, Pintrest; Social media marketing is allowing users and businesses to communicate in pictures, images and photographs. Brand marketing is becoming more visual, a picture is really worth a thousand words.

Visual communication is not just about having a good logo or advert; it talks about a business/brand that has a clear eye for using pictures/images to tell their story – clearly, creative businesses have an advantage here. Businesses will need to create a strategy for consistently creating and generating images, photographs that consistently reinforces their brand story. For entrepreneurs, it is not only about scanning and uploading pictures faster than we can write articles; we need to communicate value. It is not just about being a creative entrepreneur who designs clothes, cakes and stuff. You need to use it to tell a story.

How can businesses leverage on this

1. A strong visual identity

It is no more only about your having to open a profile page, you also need to ensure your corporate identity is well communicated. Apart from ensuring that your letterhead, business card and websites are consistent, there is the need to ensure that the social media platforms bear the same look and feel. Consider that The Beat 99.9 FM has tweaked its Twitter background to share the same feel with its website, Facebook page and corporate colours.

2. Use images to communicate value

Though this confers advantages to photography and creative entrepreneurs, it provides a huge opportunity for brands too. Images, adverts, photomentions can be features prominently on brands’ pages . Social Media managers can teach people and even official photograohers to use images to tell stories.  They can

i. Use split-screen pictures to commnicate benefits ( before-and-after comparison)

ii. Show negative consequences of not using your products

iii. Show the product in use

iv. Do not over-emphasize the  product, scream benefits.

v. Using real people to share testimonies

3. Have a visual thinker (or be one) responsible for generating images

It is no time to get anyone to get images, you neeed to get someone with an eye for using visual images to tell your brand’s story.

You can blast images from the past and use  them to communicate brand value.

Brands like Coke and Starbucks, for example, do a great job of that on their Facebook pages.

Is your social brand visually ready?

I had previously written a post on how brands needed to pay attention to the use of social media during the #occupynigeria protests and begin to prepare brands for such attacks.

Reactions have continued to build up on all social media platforms and several ‘theories’ have been proposed. While some alleged the forceful migration of all subscribers to MTNPulse platform, which seemed thew most reasonable. Some others
have blamed the advertising sign-up of a Nigerian musician, David O and the face off between Nigeria/SA.

Several pictures have been developed for pintrest and blackberry DPs, BB broadcasts are being developed for an #occupyMTN protests slated for the same period.

Let’s see how thimgs pan out

Want to know how to get use Twitter for influence and to drive societal change? Seun Fakuade is one of the people rocking the twittosphere in Nigeria and he’s rocking it hard. In this interview, Seun shares his thoughts and experiences on using social media (especially Twitter) what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to using it to drive social movement. Enjoy!

Q: If you cut away the fluff and celebrity hypes, you are, in my opinion one of the most emphatic people on Twitter in Nigeria,                                       how do you explain your tremendous success on winning friends and influencing people on Twitter?

With all sense of responsibility, I would say I’m humbled to be considered as such. Honestly, one needs a true sense of Identity and purpose not to lose oneself in the present world. I have always been passionate about my country Nigeria for as long as I can remember but Twitter world brought it to the fore in April 2011 during the elections when I started tweeting.  My thoughts in tweets caught the attention of many, and I am honoured and proud of the associations I have on twitter. It’s a family.

I am quick to learn as much as I can. I am also careful and jealous about those who follow me on twitter. I have learnt that “being followed” by many is great responsibility; Moreso when you have heavyweights in the Nigerian political system and even International circles following you. I haven’t changed, and the only thing I hope to keep doing is to keep learning and improving, and most importantly building my Character consistently.

Q:    What’s the most challenging part of having so many connections?

I wouldn’t call what I have “many” (Laughs) when you consider the likes of Elrufai, Eldee, Japheth, etc.  Well, so many times I want to make some certain tweets, but when you consider the likes of Obyezeks following you, you have to modify your thoughts in tweets. (Smiles). I became aware of the huge responsibility my words are, as the credibility one has built in months is very important. I have, humbly, Don Moen, MCHammer, amongst others following me for instance; and you start wondering exactly “what attracted these people to you?”. Overall, the idea however is to ensure you do not lose your head in the whole process; being ONESELF.
Q:    What are the biggest etiquette mistakes you see people making on social media? and what part of this digital lifestyle do you hate the most?

Being energetic and driven, it’s easy for one to observe the outburst of venom and energy in wrong unintended points amongst us. I really detest vanity of thoughts most times, but one is constantly reminded we all cannot be the same. It’s why, regrettably, I have reservations in following people. My timeline, severally have been polluted with much vulgarity I had to unfollow certain people. I think, regardless of how wild people’s thoughts may be, there is an important need to be careful on how one tweets and what one tweets.

Q:    Some people and lately politicians have begun to play down the impact/effect of social  media in driving social change in Nigeria. Do you agree?

Any politician who downplays the power social media in Nigeria today is so much disconnected from the realities of the emerging political scenario in Nigeria. Just recently, I saw the handle of the Kwara State Governor, amongst many other politicians trooping to twitter.  The rate at which Nigerians aggressively engage some of the present and even past leaders shows the power of social media. In August when we started talking about #occupynigeria, it was all presumed as a joke. The rate at which citizens look to twitter for information, engagement and fun; it’s only a matter of time (when the grassroots become activated by further street involvement) before the true power of Twitter is seen.

Q:    You have also done a lot of work in moving from an ‘arm chair commentator’ to being on the  physical work of helping to  rebuild Nigeria. Can you share some of your work?

Personally, I believe that Character is very important in leadership, as this eventually is one of the things that can sustain institutions, policies or measures that we may need to embark on in rebuilding Nigeria. In 2011, at some point in September, I became deeply worried about how ingrained Nigerians were about our inherent corrupt system. You would also find a disconnected and disparate the level of information was on the streets. Also, I was worried that

1.)     Our talks not backed by a formidable strategic action may result in less belief by others in our ideals in the long run

2.)     I felt there was need to complement efforts being made by NGOs and other CSOs in ensuring good governance and that Nigerians adequately knew, understood and were ready to pursue a Nigerian cause.

3.)     I felt CHARACTER was essentially lacking in our leadership institutions in the country and there was need to invest quality time doing that (however painstaking it may be).

This led in December 2011 to the formation of what is ‘BEACONS’ (as is found at www.beacons-ng.org). ‘BEACONS’ is an acronym for Builders Enlightened Advocates of Change Of Nigerian Society. The aim of the organization is to “invest leadership core values in young people by building human capacity through mentorship and community service”. Our main purpose is to build core values in young people, directly and indirectly. At present, we use the CITIZENS PARTICIPATION & The BEACONS CLUB to achieve this.

Character is critical and very much in the deficit given the leaders we have in the nation.

Q:  You are apparently a gadget person. What are your favourite tech gadgets and how do you balance between the your physical day and being on Social media?

I love Apple products (Macbook, iPad, iMac), I love Androids too and the now-fading Blackberry. I have PlayStation systems and the Xbox too. (Smiles).

Q:    Which social media producers / publishers / thought leaders do you admire the most? Who is worth paying attention to?

I admire the intellectual capacity of Elrufai, for me he stands tall amongst many; I love the depth of Dr Ezekwesili @obyezeks (these two are role models I do not joke with); I love Prof (@ayittey) Ayittey’s in-depth analysis and undying passion for Africa. Consider @forakin, @laurestar @futurekash @delemomodu and others as people I constantly learn from, objectively though, any day or time.

I would say my generation is blessed with a load of intelligent folks. These are people I love to read from constantly: Feyi Fawenhinmi @doubleeph, Gbenga Sesan @gbengasesan, Japheth Omojuwa @omojuwa, Chinedu Ekeke @ekekee, Iyin Aboyeji @iaboyeji, @temite, @rosanwo, @kunledee, @okshorty1; @eldeeTheDon is a dear brother to me, @Drkay01 is pretty unknown but quite deep; @KathleenNdongmo, @fowora, @rmajayi (the 419 lady); I can’t exhaust this list (smiles)

Can You List You Digital Touch Points

Twitter: @seunfakze
Blog: www.seunfakze.wordpress.com
Email: seunfakze@yahoo.com

So there you have it. Seun definatewrites more than the 140-character limits on Twitter? what are your thoughts on these?

Sim Shagaya is a serial technology and media entrepreneur who
has worked for Google, RealNetworks, Microstrategy. He holds degrees

from George Washington U, Dartmouth and Harvard. He is the founder of DealDey,
a Groupon kind-of group-buying site that offers its members in
Lagos discounted deals on several kinds of products and services.

He was one of the speakers at the second session of Creative Enterprise Sessions. Steve Babeko (CReative Director, 141 Worldwide) and Akin Adeoya (of M2 and MarketingMix) was there with Steve taking a session on Creatitiy through innovation and Mr Adeoya being his normal self brought a lively balance between these two
business technocrats (lol)

Simdul admits his success is a combination of good timing and good people and it was good to see him publicly ackowledge his staff. He shared that in the past 5 years he’s tried 6 businesses out of which 2 has suceeded. But after working on a startup to sreaming Nollywood movies online,he’s made a success out of e-motion advertising and Dealdey. He shares his thoughts;

why you need one

After getting your killer idea, it is the next important thing. There are times when you need someone else to support you emotionally, spiritually and financially. You will need someone who can balance you with the right energy and synergy of talents and strengths.

Very few one-man businesses become very great. I am presently reading a book on the transformative entrepreneur and a chapter shared the story on Walmart. He had tried 3 businesses and until he involved his brother on Walmart. MOreso, investors are weary of one-man businesses

I found a great partner in Demola.. Even though I have the idea, pursue the idea, even make sales, but Damola brought the balance of following

up on leads, crunching the numbers e.t.c.

How to find one

Research shows successful companies have an average on 2.1 max 3; additional ones are a recipee for crises. But then finding a co-founder is almost like dating a lady. You need to analyse dispassionately and once you do this do anything to get them on board. One test I use is this; can I infect this person with the same passion I have in 10 mins? Can they come up with your ideas refined or expanded?

You can also give assignmnts, not like class ones but a discussion. E.g asking them to come up with the financials. Immediately the person begins to give excuses about time – pls run. One thing you can’t take away is the instintive ‘flow’ with one another.

How to compensate the person

Though there are no rules regarding this. I generally alow the people to work as consultants for a period of time and dont be too in a hurry to discuss money. No great company starts with money in mind, and fewer of those great businesses are being run by one person.You’ve got to take your time and be patient in getting this done.

You can use outright grant of shares/equity, or introduce share options (e.g. giving 40% of the business but phased over a period of time while retaining the right to terminate the deal)

It’a delicate process and you are definately going to meet dissapointments along the way, but it’s worth. Treat them with absolute kindness – even in Nigeria, people respond to this. Though there are lots of tales of woe, Nigerians are good people and you need to find them.

If Mr Wale can drag Steve Babaeko (@steve_eko) and Akin Adeoya back, I think they need to come and share their practical approaches to helping entrepreneurs bootstrap marketing communication

The kind of messages you send has a lot of influence on your personal brand and affects the  perception of others about you.

I have come up with 5 things that these broadcast message reflect.

1. It reflects your intelligence

This is the most prominent of all issues. Have you had to apologise for sending an insanely stupid message? e.g. ‘send this message to update your BB Messenger’, or having to retract a message you sent and later realised it actually happened a year ago?. Do people realise you cannot have additional smileys by sending broadcast messages?  Have you forwarded details of a stolen American vehicle to your Nigerian contacts (lol)?

Your broadcast of a message means you endorse, have thought through and agree with the details of the message. Do you do that? If  you don’t, people will either think you are incredibly stupid or plainly ignorant.

2.   It exposes your values

Messages, pictures, images, jokes especially sexually explicit ones reveal a lot more about you than you think. Have people sent you private messages about a broadcast you sent, telling you they didn’t believe you could have such amessage?

Your messages have a lot of influence in shaping people’s perception about your value system, belief and character. Can you share the message/jokes in a room full of people? If you don’t want to be quoted, then don’t share it.

3.   It projects your image/reputation

If you want to build your credibility/reputation, use your broadcast feature to genuinely add value to the lives of your contacts – the same goes for the opposite. The strength of your reputation is affected by your updates and messages. People use it to promote what they do and the services they offer. Some people use their picture profiles as exhibition platforms for their products and services and they have made money from it.

What are you doing with yours?

4.   It affects your credibility

If you’re always having to retract your messages, apologize over unverified reports and information; it depreciates your credibility. After a while your credibility will always be double-checked and your messages may not even deserve a reading. I once recieved a broadcast of a job vacancy for a bank but the email address of the HR is for another bank? lolz

Your social media profiles are an extension of your personality.

5. If your name is not authentic/ it may have no brand value

This is especially for people who keep changing names. Please how will people find you if they need you? Except I want to be mischevious, no one will want to keep changing costumes at a Haloween party. If you had advertised/promoted a product someone wants but had changed your name from ‘Harry’ to ’34ui cheeks’ or ‘cr8ive’ to ‘Titi’ , what happens? While changing names/nicknames/brand may not be bad in itself, we cannot deny it deprecistes the strength of your brand.

So before you send that message, use the traffic light rule;

i.            Stop! (stop and read)

ii.            Check your right and left (well the message content – the broadcast feature has no ‘undo’ feature)

iii.            Cross – (send)

A lot of these messages can look very urgent and convincing, while its okay if some slip through the cracks,

Please #BroadcastResponsibly

Do you have experiences share? What do you think? Let’s hear you!

TGIF

‘A Negative brand equity is a death sentence’; the Goodluck Jonathan Government should have been listening to Mark Ritson. More rightly put, it can lead to suicide. The #OccupyNigeria train hit Nigeria like a thunderstorm bringing to bear what Nigeria’s foremost humanright’s lawyer, Femi Falana calls Nigeria’s most powerfully organised protest. The #OccupyNigeria protests, which is the simultaneous response of the Nigerian people against arbitrary increase in fuel pump price and #Governmentwaste, is a similitude of the Egyptian and Tunisian protests but named after ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests. It has been a “deregulated protest” spanning Nigeria’s major Cities, Embassies and High Commissions around the world.
What trend is the #occupynigeria depicting for brands?

1. The other edge of Social Media Marketing has been officially activated

With so much talk about social media marketing and its impact to reaching out to social customers, little attention has been given to social media advocacy.If your business/boss has not been taking social media serious, the impact of social media advocacy will jolt you into action. There is no doubt that the ongoing social media revolution will have an enormous impact not only on the way consumers and brands communicate with each other but also the impact of consumer-consumer communication. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.
But marketing via social media channels is not as simple as it is through other channels because of its two-edged effects:
a. Consumers can publicise negative experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes;
b. They can also publicise positive experiences and ideas very widely in a matter of minutes.

The impact of social media as a rallying platform for #occupynigeria cannot be over emphasised. The announcement of the venue of the Lagos rally which cascadingly gathered close to 2 million people in its third day was announced though social media platforms (Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other instant messaging platforms).
The ‘unlike President Jonathan day’ (featured on CNN) and ‘the most cursed president’ (ranked on Google) campaign was widely impressive with CNN and Google helping to hype its veracity. With the tools to quickly rally people around a cause readily available, its time to watch it!
The days of poor customer service and treating clients/customers like thrash are counting.

2. Never Violate Trust – It’s the Currency of Brands not Prices

Brand Equity (the strength of a brand) is derived from the goodwill and recognition a brand has garnered over time as a result of fufilling its brand promise. This translates into higher sales volume and profit margins against competing brands. This is the reason why some brands command high patronage even if they charge premium for their products – it is the intangible asset of all promotional efforts.
In an unprecedented manner, the docile and unconcerned Nigerian populace have been jolted alive – thanks to access to information. The total breakdown of trust between the Nigerian people who ‘massively’ voted for the Jonathan Government can be attributed to the widely spread information available on Government’s spending habits, budgetary allocation and money politicking among its high ranking officials.
It is an important lesson to learn that you cannot gain equity by increasing product cost before improving its funtional attributes.

3. Be Ready to Cope with Impersonation

Especially if your business has no officially identified presence in the digital and social media space, or your boss is one who thinks Blackberry is a popular fruit; you now need to prepare for uncertainties, impersonations, rumors and ‘company leaks’.
Some organisations had spent considerable time and enegy refuting claims that they ”ordered people to resume or face sack” during the Nationwide strike declared during the #OccupyNigeria protests. Brands with extensive and original Twitter and Facebook pages quickly responded while traditional businesses looked for avenues to calm misconceptions. The official Twitter handle and Facebook page of the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala came alive in response to claims that she had threatened to resign from office if Nigerians eventually win the battle of the reversal.
Brands now have to think of ways to guide employees’s social relationships, have a policy and chief responsibility officer in preparation for crisis, and consistently stamp their voice online to crowd out impersonating pages and conflicting handles.

4. Social Media can no longer be left to that junior staff

Brands now know they need more than the ability to read and write to assign social media engagement to anyone. Whether to outsource to a social media agency or assign an employee to handle the platforms. The Social Media Manager is not necessarily for the Senior Manager; the appointment into this position requires a new way of thought. It is important to appoint someone with a natural flair for meandering and communicating through different platforms; someone with tact, intelligent, temprate and intelligent enough to engage a wide and varied number of issues and tempraments.
Improper handling of these platforms can backfire and the ripple effects cannot be directly measured until it impacts on the bottomline. The story of how a Fan Page moderator became intolerant when people began to complain on its Facebook about the use of non-renewable palm oil in their production is already a global case study on how not to speak on Facebook.

5. Listening to these Social Media ‘rants’ is now critical

Citizen’s blog posts , comments, social media and Blacberry discussion trends . . it is no more enough to hear about them, it’s time to listen. The emotional and connectedness between brands and their teeming customers can quickly translate into hate and social media mass action if you are not listening early enough and reponding appropriately.
Sustaining Brand equity is a valuable asset which companies invest huge amounts of money to develop; social media listening is now an avenue to maintain and sustain that social reputation.
The web is awash with various tools to help brands listen and respnd appropriately. Brand equity refers to the intangible value that accrues to a company as a result of its successful efforts to establish a strong brand

6. Despite its uncertainties; there lies the power to raise a tribe

SApart for an avenue to execute a highly targetted online marketing campaign; social media is established as a veritable tool for building brand loyalty.
The best way is to think of it as a party. The same wisdom that applies to any social situation also works with social media: Just be yourself and talk to people. Anyone following your brand is also following his or her family members, friends and colleagues. If your brand fits in with a customer’s personal social network, there is great potential for that person to build an emotional attachment and loyalty for your brand the same way they would for a friend. And when a customer thinks of you as a friend, you have a loyal customer.

There is no doubt that the ongoing and fast-developing social media revolution is having an enormous impact not only on the way consumers can communicate with other consumers, but also on the ways in which consumers and brands communicate with each other. For this reason, social media engagement and relationship management strategies are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for marketers.

However, if you’re looking at taking a huge chunk of the youth market and emerging young professionals, then you need to take a shot at using social media strategy to jump start your business.

Startups are not that easy, they are lean, they are hungry for success and they need to catch up with clients and keep a close eye on their industry. Many more internet startups are dying faster than traditional businesses and it is important to get to know what had been consistent thnigs that the few successful one did.

This infographic by some great guys at Udemy helps to summarise how social media can be used by startups to get off the ground.

by Column Five Media via