When the many pieces of a social media puzzle are spread out on the table, it can be a challenge to envision the final product. But as you start putting all the pieces together, you may notice they begin to form the words of a broader message: Your social media strategy is all about people.

“It’s not about getting them to care about you, it’s about you caring about them,” said Suzanne Fanning, president of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Suzanne was the keynote speaker Friday (February 20, 2015) at the Madison College Digital Marketing Summit. Social Media Breakfast Madison was a main sponsor of the event, and we switched our normal monthly meeting from the third Wednesday of the month to a Friday this month to be a part of it.

Suzanne said everyone is trying to take all the pieces of the social media puzzle – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. – “and shove them together.”

“What’s the right way to do it? Your strategy starts with people,” she said. “If you keep that in mind you will be a much more successful marketer.”

Suzanne noted that while a whopping 25 billion conversations take place on social media per year, that is dwarfed by the 750 billion taking place offline. Most people are social and love communicating with each other, and the more personal that communication is the better it is.

As marketers it is important that we have those personal communications with consumers, and then get those consumers to carry our message to their friends and family, and social media provides us with that opportunity in ways we never have had before.

Suzanne said 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any form of advertising. When we get consumers to adopt our brand messages through social media, and become our “fans,” they then become our messengers as they have those valuable conversations – both online and offline – with their friends and family.

“Peers beat out all other forms of advertising,” she said.

She said marketing used to try to disrupt consumers by giving them the unexpected, going sideways instead of vertical or black instead of red.

“Instead let’s delight our fans and make their lives easier instead of harder and make them happy instead of annoy them,” she said.

“It used to be about corporate control, now it’s about consumer control,” she added.

She shared the successful social media marketing experiences of several companies such as Honda (getting the unkown band Monsters Calling Home onto the Jimmy Kimmel Live show), Chef Boyardee (sponsoring house parties), Hanes (are you sockless or commando?), and Blendtec (will it blend?), all of which involved personal communications to and from consumers.

These strategies all ultimately result in consumer to consumer marketing: “They talk about the products instead of me talking about the product, because they love it.”

When Potbelly opened a restaurant in Austin, they tracked down their Potbelly fans who had moved from Chicago to Austin, gave them 10 passes each and had them bring friends. Combined with a social media strategy, that drove consumer to consumer conversations that spread a positive message to many potential and new customers.

Here are a few of the other insights Suzanne provided us:

• About one-fifth of your budget should be on social spend.
• When starting your marketing strategy, ask these questions: Who are my fans, where are my fans and why are they my fans?
• A good WOMM program has to be credible – social – repeatable – measurable – respectful. “You have to respect consumers and not use them.”
• Positive experiences are the foundation of a good WOMM program. “Let them have a great brand experience.”
• Give them the tools to make sharing real easy.
• Include visuals in your social media. Page views are 94% higher if you can include a visual element.
• Be personable, make sure people are getting a glimpse into your company and what you do.
• Content is your social currency. It buys you eyeballs, it buys you conversation. It doesn’t have to be deep, meaningful content. It can be humorous.
• You don’t make a viral video; you make a video and hope it goes viral.
• Listening is good, participating is better.
• It’s really important to measure what matters, and you have to know going into your program what you are going to measure.

She concluded with these Top 10 tips:

1. Start with people, not platforms
2. Provide an experience
3. Be creative
4. Find ways to love THEM
5. Ask the right questions and listen to answers
6. Be visual
7. Give them great content
8. Have a sense of humor
9. Make it easy to share: give them ideas and tools to share
10. Measure what matters

Suzanne suggested people visit WOMMA.org: for more tips, including guidebooks and research.

“Don’t ever be limited by your budget,” she said. “Just be creative and you will win.”

Written by Bill Hurley, (@billhurleymedia / billhurleymedia.com / beachmaniac.com) Editor, writer, social media strategist, website developer, digital publisher.  BillHurleyMail@gmail.com, Bill@smbmad.org.

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