Social Media: The Must-Have Tool for Brands
The rise of the digital age means that social media has become a key player for brands, and Mike Al Naji will tell you exactly how that’s possible. Mike is the Head of Digital Outreach, in other words, he has been helping brands with influential people online, whether they be social media celebrities or influencers. Mike talks to Share This to explain why social media is the must-have tool for brands, while giving advice on how they could be using it to market themselves successfully.
A Meeting with Mike Al Naji
The death of traditional media
While brands were once able to get away with purely traditional marketing, nowadays, it is just no longer enough to grab a consumer’s attention. Mike confirms this when he explains: “the whole marketing game is about attention. On the radio, the minute there is an ad, you’d usually switch the channel. We try to run away from that as humans”.
“I think that is just human behaviour, so people need to go where the attention is, which is social media”, he adds.
“People will pay more for your product just because they know you value them more than anything else”
The perfect relationship
When building a brand online, getting to know your customers is a big part of the process. Mike shares an example of how he has used social media to help brands achieve a relationship with their customers:
“When I was a community manager for a few different brands, I used to reply and interact [with customers] on a one-to-one basis online. I think that the key to my success was that I was able to remember each and every customer that interacts with us and make them feel special”.
Consumers want to know that they are important, and brands that get to know them are the ones that will build a loyal customer base: “People will pay more for your product just because they know you value them more than anything else”, Mike shares.
Brand Advocates
Building and maintaining this relationship with consumers through social media is a massive step towards creating customer dedication:
“When your brand is facing a crisis online or your friend wants to buy something, that’s when the customer comes in and is able to tell them ‘I recommend this brand’”.
“Being able to build the emotional connection with people and add value to their lives is when they become brand advocates rather than just being customers”, explains Mike.
Growing audiences
Brands making use of social media are heading in the right direction towards reaching more people. Mike shares what he finds valuable about brands that use social media to connect with people across the globe:
“A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this page on social media for clothing in The States. I absolutely loved everything and with a click of a button I ordered.
That’s the great thing about the internet, it is just a click of a button away and you can reach whoever, wherever”.
Keeping up with the competition
It's no secret that nowadays, pretty much everything is online, and that includes the competition. Brands need to make sure they are in the centre of where the action is happening to stay ahead.
Mike discusses exactly where brands need to be to reach their audience and stay in tune with their competitors: “I think with social media; the mobile phone is the new television and that’s where everyone is”.
Mike gives his advice on how brands should be using social media to gain a competitive advantage:
“Brands that understand that they need to add value versus just spamming people and actually build one-on-one relationships with their consumers online are the brands that will get a competitive edge”.
Check out what Mike has to say about social media strategising:
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Video Transcript
What would you consider a weak social media strategy to be?
I think it's too much automation and too much, like, not sounding human enough. I think too many brands try to, because of their obviously budget restrictions, they try to ensure that their workload is automated as much as possible.
And I think that’s when it loses the human element. At the end of the day when I’m talking to a brand online, I want to make sure that there’s someone behind that screen that actually cares.
Especially when its like, paint service or some service in paint or something like that, I need to make sure the person behind the screen actually cares, and automation is sort of ruining that for us, and I think that in 2017 right now there's all these spots that are coming out that we’ve been developing, obviously, to automate customer service, and I think that’s gonna be very challenging for brands, as well as brands spamming too much, saying buy my product, buy my product, buy my product.
What should brands keep in mind when marketing themselves via social media?
I think understanding their target audience, and knowing where they should be. I feel there's too many brands that are on all social media platforms but they're not doing well on any platform, just because they think they should be everywhere.
If my target audience is at a certain place then that’s where I need to be. So I can only be on Facebook versus not being on Instagram or SnapChat or Twitter for that matter, or I could be on Twitter but not on Facebook.
The other thing is being able to add value just because, no one really cares about the product, they care about the connection that’s between them and the brand.
