Social Media Tip: Make them feel special to you

In an era where Social Media Marketing is really changing every day, there is something that most people miss when developing a long term Social Media Strategy: the customer.

Even if it’s said that Facebook is helping egos and not the others, it is highly recommended to build your social media strategy around what other people want and expect from you, but keeping in mind to add the personal touch that makes your company or profile unique in Social Media.

There are 3 components that I find essential when developing a long term Social Media Strategy:

• Social CRM (Social Customer Relationship Management)
• Reciprocal Altruism
• Reward

1. Social CRM

Social CRM has become crucial for a Social Media Campaign because brands, as well as personal brands have to create a strong bond and create engagement with the social customer or the social audience.

Social CRM is more that monitoring the social activity of a brand, it’s about establishing a connection with the social customer, empowering him to get involved in your product’s life cycle and engaging him in a way that will determine him to recommend your brand to his friends.

I think that the social customer relationship management has evolved a lot past few years and with this benefit, the power of testimonials faded over time. Now, it’s wise to implement a discussion page on your website or a mini-forum that will enable you and your social customer to really bond and build a long term relationship.

2. Reciprocal Altruism, as part of the Helping Behavior

The Helping Behavior is widely used in Social Media Success Strategies because it gives the social customer plenty of freebies without reward constraints. Helping Behavior differs from Altruism because it might include a reward, even if it’s Social Reputation or money.

When properly approached, the Reciprocal Altruism can benefit the social customer as well as the company or your personal brand.

For instance, when you use the Pay with a Tweet system, the customer knows exactly what to expect from your Reciprocal Altruism Act because you communicate directly that he can download your e-Book only after he pays with a tweet that promotes your e-Book. Another method to ask from people to repay your work is the “Join our Mailing List” form available on the site where you promote your e-Book.

An ineffective approach for the Reciprocal Altruism technique is to communicate to your social customer that your e-Book is free and then expect them to press the “Donate” Button, after they used your work. In most cases, that button will never be pushed because you didn’t honor the expectations the social customer or your social audience had from you – that is a freebie. People usually take for granted the useful e-Books they find online, so, when it comes to implementing Reciprocal Altruism, remember that your message should be friendly but honest, in order to avoid misinterpretations or the “freebie expectation”.

3. Reward

Everyone of us likes to be rewarded for the smallest favor. Even if it’s the Social Media purpose to promote the others before yourself, without expecting a reward, we are happy when others, especially companies reward us for that small favor.

Any social media strategy should have a reward system for brand advocates and for the community because it can really make the difference in gaining the loyalty of your social customer.

Personalizing the user experience has a lot of benefits: it’s not only a way to create a bond with your social customer but also the key to maintain his social loyalty.

For instance, on Squidoo, you get Trophies – a set of colored pixels – that play a very smart role: they make you loyal, they tempt you to come back to the platform and, most important, they make you feel special, which is the whole point in Social Media.

Make them feel special! It sounds easy but it takes some work and a dust of creativity to personalize the user experience with your blog or social profile. It’s a commitment but also a reward by itself.

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Facebook Lessons 2010

This presentation is about things I learned from Facebook this year.

Hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends.

Feel free to complete the list of  Facebook Best Practices within the comments!