It’s important to think beyond of the online world when we’re promoting brands in social media. How can we incorporate social into real-world experiences to gain fans when they’re most engaged with our product or service? Here are three ways:
Integrate Social at POP
A poster at Gelateria Granola in Xlendi, Gozo.
First and foremost, who do you want to be your fans? Your customers, right? These are the folks who actually have experience with your brand and products and can probably speak highly about their interactions with your company in the real world. So how do you go about converting customers into fans or followers? Simple. Create some posters, fliers, or postcards with your social links and promote them at your store’s point-of-purchase. Don’t forget your call to action: “Like” us at _______, or Follow us at _________, or Check-in at ________.
Integrate Social at Events
A ‘socialized’ float at the flower parade in Amsterdam.
We just got back from Amsterdam, where we had the chance to see their big annual flower parade. Floats made of flowers make their way through the streets of villages filled with revelers. Amsterdam, in general, is an incredibly social city – in that you see social media represented just about everywhere. But this year’s floats at the parade featured real-time Twitter tickers of tweets using the parade’s designated hashtag, giant QR codes, and even a float that had the logos of the major social media channels designed in flowers. How can you link your event, whatever it may be, to social? Doing so allows you to track real-time feedback from attendees, gain some free publicity, gauge the overall sentiment of your crowd, and get ideas on how to make your next event even better.
Integrate Social in the Post-Sale Experience
Social buttons incorporated into the top of an order confirmation e-mail from Zappos.
Yesterday I bought shoes from Zappos. How do we usually feel after purchasing something that we really wanted? If you’re anything like me, you’re pretty damn happy. At that moment you’re loving the brand that you just connected with to make that purchase. This offers the brand a unique opportunity to convert that happy customer into a fan simply by including social links in any post-sale materials, from confirmation e-mails to receipts.
There are plenty of other ways to connect social media to the various facets of a customer experience. What else can you think of?
