seager consulting

Controlling your brand: social media

Social media has shifted the ways brands online are influenced by consumers. Are you listening to your customers? Are you answering their questions about your products and services?

Online brand value is no longer created through a two-way ‘prospect-brand’ dialogue. User generated content (UGC) via forums, blogs, reviews and ratings has given the traditional word-of-mouth marketing tool a digital spin.

The similarities with traditional marketing are that your reputation still precedes you. It speaks volumes about the value of your business and engages the people you need for growth. This affects repeat business and new business.

The differences are that today, consumer decision-making power is much more reliant on a new three-way ‘prospect-customer-brand’ relationship that some commentators call the ‘trialogue’.

With social media advertising revenues forecast to grow to over $1 billion in 2008 by Emarketer magazine, all brands should be working right now to harness the sales power of this trialogue.

Innovative businesses already have their own product and service blog sites. These sites allow these businesses to data-mine UGC about their offerings and generate valuable marketing data that helps develop their value proposition.

It’s important to remember that every new posting, rating or review about your product or service – whether positive or negative - is an opportunity for you to engage with your customers and increase your value proposition.

If you are not listening to your customers, your competitor could be!

Contact us on +31 (0)6 411 892 03 or email us at info@seagerconsulting.com to find out more about how you can exploit UGC and social media to help drive growth.