Social Media Week, part 1: Oh, another Facebook page?
I started my Tuesday morning at the delightfully swanky Charlotte Street Hotel trying to find out the best practices for brands in different social media channels. The panel was called “Not Just Another Facebook Page” and it was hosted by Addiction London. I arrived four minutes late and there was standing room only (a plenty of juicy pastries though).
The hour-long panel didn’t exactly blow the roof off, but was a nice reminder of a few basic things: don’t do social media just because your competitors do it, but only if it’s actually relevant for you. So always ask yourself why. And don’t get caught in the hype or cool or trendy stuff if that’s not what your brand is about. It makes more sense for a bank to expose their angry customer feedback (and responses to it) in social media than offer the latest trend reports (happened in real life to one of the panelists). It’s a god damn bank after all, not Italian Vogue.
Another point that got the panelists excited was how to utilize your existing communities more bravely…
Should our brand go to Twitter or Pintrest? Ask your Facebook fans directly; they are your followers and want to engage and help. Also empowering super fans to act as customer service people was encouraged. This is often a better method of research than monitoring tools.
A key trend in 2012 according to the founder of allegedly Europe’s first social media agency is that the management of social media is increasingly done in-house. Ad agencies’ role will be more of a business consultant and trainer rather than executor. The growing importance of mobile internet requires proper mobile sites and we will see huge rise in location-based apps. No shit for Sherlock here, but it’s good to be reminded that there’s still huge, unexplored potential in that. A credit card app that recognises when you have travelled to Japan and doesn’t expect a fraud when you shop for sushi, anyone? The most praised brand of the morning was ASOS, so if you need a social media idol, look no further.
Well, it was not a bad morning, and there was still a load of pastries left!
