How to Use Social Media Listening to Build Brand Loyalty

Acquiring customer feedback and understanding their wants and needs is an integral part of running nearly any business. Not only is it important for delivering the right products and services, but it plays a big role in establishing a loyal customer base and repeat sales.

Ever since the birth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's been unprecedentedly easier for businesses to connect with their customers and gain valuable information about them. In turn, this has resulted in the rise of social media listening. According to SearchCRM, social media listening is "the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, individual, product or brand on the Internet." Let's discuss how this technique can be utilized by your business to improve brand loyalty, trust, and sales.

Learn What Consumers are Saying

In the pre-Internet world, companies were somewhat limited when it came to learning how consumers felt about their products or services. Feedback was available, but not like it is today. In modern times, social media has made it possible for just about anyone to publicize their opinion. Whether it's a comment on a Facebook business page, a hashtag on Twitter, or any other medium, consumers can voice their pleasure or displeasure in an instant. Consequently, this can be incredibly valuable for businesses when it comes to gaining a more thorough perspective.

If you recently launched a new product, social media listening is an effective way to determine what consumers are saying about it and what their overall experience has been. While there will probably be some people who absolutely love it and others who dislike it, observing social media feedback is a great way to make an initial assessment.

This data can help you pinpoint what you're doing right and what mistakes you're making. Knowing your business's strengths and weaknesses is critical for building brand equity and sticking around for the long haul.

"Listening to my audience helps me write content that they want to read," says Brittney Brombacher, founder & CEO of the video game blog BlondeNerd.com. "And that results in more targeted website traffic, social shares, and followers on my social media accounts."

Product or Service Improvement

Regardless of how great your products or services are, there's almost always room for improvement. Absorbing feedback and making key adjustments to keep customers coming back and spreading the word is what's made companies like Apple and Google so successful.

To grow a solid brand that stands the test of time, it's important to earn a reputation for quality and responsiveness. Social media listening helps achieve this because it offers a firsthand look at what actual consumers think about a product or service and their overall view of a brand. Basically, the feedback you receive through this technique is like getting input straight from the source. Once you spot issues, you can resolve them before bigger problems arise.

Stronger Customer Relationships

One benefit of gaining feedback is that it puts your business in a better position to keep customers happy. Whenever a customer has a major complaint, they may voice that complaint on social media channels. If you're listening, you can address the issue and seize the opportunity to show the world how great your customer service is, while also humanizing your brand.

In some cases, you can even turn a negative experience into a positive one. Regardless of the situation, most consumers will appreciate it when a company puts forth the effort to implement their feedback, which improves brand loyalty.

Reputation Management

Due to the speed at which information can be shared over the Internet, reputation management has become a serious concern for many businesses. Even if negative accusations aren't entirely true, a smear campaign from a few disgruntled customers or a rival competitor can quickly tarnish a company's image. Fortunately, social media listening can help you stay apprised of both positive and negative perceptions, and address them accordingly.

In terms of positive perceptions, be sure to reward and thank people who step up and say favorable things about your brand. This will encourage other customers to voice their positive support as well. When it comes to negative ones, social media listening allows you to identify and appropriately address concerns in a timely manner, allowing you to take actions to avert or minimize it.

Competition Analysis

Besides knowing what consumers are saying about your brand, social media listening is perfect for gaining intel on your competitors. If a competitor has implemented a new marketing technique that's proven successful, you can use this knowledge in your future marketing efforts. On the other hand, consistent complaints about their business practices can prevent your company from making the same mistakes.

Social Media Listening Software

Now that you understand the benefits of social media listening, let's talk about some popular software products that streamline the process. According to David Johnson, VP Agency Sales & Service at Marketwired, "Companies need to look beyond what they need today and select solutions that grow as they mature. Too often clients are focused on a single channel like Facebook. They need to choose a solution that has the depth, breadth and commitment to innovation so that they can capitalize on the markets where their clients/prospects will be."

HootSuite

This is one of the most well-known products on the market, and is trusted by many business owners.

Sendible

This tool is less well-known, but my personal favorite for social media listening because it includes more than just social media channels in its monitoring reports; it includes mentions anywhere across the Web.

SproutSocial

This is another option that has gained popularity quickly, and is currently used by major companies like Nokia, Fender and Hyatt Regency. Some data that this software displays includes:

• Brand mentions

• Unique visitors

• Impressions

• New Facebook fans

• New Twitter followers

• Keyword tracking

One feature that's particularly interesting is the "Assign Tasks" feature. Whenever your business receives a customer inquiry, this will assign messages to the correct team member to ensure a fast response. This can be helpful for keeping customers happy and building rapport.

Conclusion

There are more ways than ever to monitor your business, and social media listening is becoming more important as the rise of social media continues to blossom. Whether it's the performance of a product or service or a brand's reputation, staying in touch with consumers is important to building brand equity, loyalty, and revenue.

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5 Quick, Painless Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Easy

Five years ago, businesses weren't convinced that spending time on Twitter or Facebook would help them find new customers. Now, 77 percent of B2C companies and 43 percent of B2B companies find customers on Facebook. That's a statistic that can't be ignored. And the numbers prove high across other platforms too, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram.

But while marketers can't deny the power of social media marketing, social media users fall into two groups:

● Those who tweet and post updates constantly

● Those who think it's too complicated, and never latch on

If you fall into the second camp, I invite you to keep right on reading -- this one's for you. While you might've told yourself using social media is just too hard, that you don't have time to do it, or some other seemingly reasonable excuse, I'm here to tell you that you can use it, easily and effectively. You just need a few tips and tricks to make it manageable.

Keep it Simple

There's no reason you need to sign up for every social media site under the sun. In fact, it's better if you don't. The more accounts you have to manage, the more your time will be divided, and the more likely it is you'll do a poor job across the board. You might want to reserve your brand name on the major social networking sites -- even if you don't plan to use it -- simply for brand security purposes. Again, just because you have an account doesn't mean you have to use it.

Instead, choose two or three sites where you feel you'll get the biggest return. How will you know which to choose? Find out where your customers spend time and study the demographics of each social platform. Spend more time on fewer sites, and you'll attract followers faster.

Set a Schedule

It's not necessary to spend hours a day on social media. If you're smart about it, you can invest just a few hours a week and still get phenomenal results.

But, do put it on your calendar. Otherwise you'll push the task off to the side, and before you know it, your last social update will have been posted weeks ago. Not a good look for your brand.

Find Tools to Work Smarter

Use a social media monitoring and management platform such as Hootsuite or Buffer to update multiple profiles from one place. Both of these tools make it easy to schedule your content, so you can spend one hour preparing future tweets and posts to get a steady stream of updates all week, as opposed to trying to find time during the thick of the week.

Additionally, you can use these tools to find new people to follow and respond to any questions or comments sent to you.

Integrate with What You're Already Using

Set up your social profile links on your website so people can click to follow you elsewhere. If you use WordPress (and I hope you do!), implement the social share features of WordPress so blog visitors can easily share your content and attribute it to you. See if your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can pull in social updates from customers. One CRM program that does this well is Insightly. Thanks to Insightly's social media integration, you can easily see what your clients or their companies tweet or share on more than 50 social media platforms right from within the CRM system, which can help you stay tapped into their business needs.

Monitor Brand Mentions

People talk about your business on social sites, whether you're listening or not. But if you're paying attention, you'll find ample opportunity to connect with existing and future customers, as well as nip customer complaints in the bud.

Use a monitoring tool to track any mentions of your Twitter handle (@yourcompany) as well as your brand name without the "@" sign, along with any keywords related to your company and industry.

If you take social media one day at a time, it's less daunting. And while it will take a few months to really ramp up your followers and attract engagement with your brand on social sites, the additional customers and stronger relationships will make it well worth the effort.

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How Social Media Is Humanizing Brands

It's simple. Talk to me like I'm a human being. I'm more than an inbox, Twitter handle, or opportunity for a Facebook "Like." I'm your audience. And if we connect, there can be a meaningful exchange that's beneficial for both of us.

In my experience as a user, customer and digital strategist, open conversations mixed with memorable connections are the fastest way any brand can create a meaningful relationship. Sometimes this happens online. Sometimes it happens offline. But no matter what, whether we're talking about good service or better products, in the end it all comes down to how we relate.

I think brands forget this, but honestly who could blame them. In the foggy mix of economic pressure, bosses demanding insatiable amounts of measurable results and the rapid pace of high-stakes decision-making, it's easy to lose perspective and grab for more traditional ways of thinking. We see it all the time. More eyes lead to more awareness which ultimately lead to more success. Well, that's not true. The presumed path to success is paved with brands that have risen and fallen in the pursuit of "more eyes."

What is true, is that each relationship must be earned. Right now, more than ever, brands have the opportunity to blend digital and physical strategies to create authentic relationships with their audience. They can earn it. And they can do it in ways that remind us that we're all human and not just deliverable metrics. To me, this is the path to long-lasting success.

While I'm fascinated with experiences that live at the intersection of digital and physical, I do think it's possible (and fun) to create successful experiences that live independently. But, the brands who are consistently winning and making powerful connections with their audience are the ones that execute fully integrated campaigns. No longer should digital strategy sit in a silo. Invite these strategies into the brand's larger goals and vision. Not only are they at the forefront of fostering authentic relationships with existing consumers, but they may often be your best kept secret for forging new relationships and growing your consumer base.

As I look at social media today and its integration with physical events and products, it proves to be an exciting time for us all. The industry is packed with new ideas, energy and enthusiasm. For example, the Internet of Things is a booming field sure to disrupt many markets and offer new opportunities for entrepreneurs all over the world. All of these factors are driving us toward better connections and more authentic conversations. Now that we're here, let's take advantage of these opportunities and build more meaningful relationships that offer deeper engagement among brands and their audiences. Let's build something that goes beyond the singular focus of quantitative metrics and offers something new! Who knows, we may find the results to be humanizing.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and Social Media Week in conjunction with the latter's Ideas Connected, a three-day event taking place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City on Feb 19-21. Presented in partnership with MKG and Crowdcentric, Ideas Connected is designed as an inspirational, educational and explorational deep dive into the architects, inventors, and collaborators who are shaping our lives in extraordinary ways, accompanied.

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11 Social Media Mistakes You Don't Even Know You're Making

Navigating the Social Media Minefield

Spotting the mistakes of others is easy: The cringe-inducing Facebook status message. The ill-advised "after hours" tweet. Using Foursquare to check-in at an establishment of questionable repute. While social media provides a multitude of opportunities, the flip side is indelicate revelations are always just a click away.

We know, we know... YOU would never do that. But there are other social media blunders that are far less egregious you might be committing. And those mistakes could be holding back your job search or attempts at advancement.

Navigating social media is no "one and done" endeavor. It's all fair game and enlightening information is generally available to all. Privatizing the personal is basic good sense, but consider the following tips as well.

11. Not Getting in the Game

Some people are so afraid of damaging social media mistakes that they avoid the whole scene altogether. But that can be costly too, as social networks have become prime recruiting territory. Therefore, skirting potential issues via non-involvement removes you from too many opportunities to make that a smart option for most.

At the very least, maintain an updated business profile on LinkedIn. It's the first place many employers go to check you out, and if you don't have a LinkedIn profile it likely sends the message that you're not current. If you're in a creative or sales-oriented field, use personality to your advantage with at least selective involvement on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Google+.

10. Having Retweet Regrets

Be wary of the quick click.

You know better than to open an "OMG! Is this really you?!" link. But retweeting or sharing posts you haven't actually read is risky as well. Headlines rarely reveal the whole story. If you're an online influencer, your audience counts on you to be a valid source of information. So before you attach your reputation to an article or photo link, make sure it's what you think it is.

Sharing a poorly written or error-ridden article -- or simply one that misrepresents your actual views -- puts you in an unflattering light.

9. Lackadaisical Social Efforts

Rather than try to be everywhere at once, be selective with your time and network choices.

Having a profile is like turning on a porch light. Non-responsiveness -- "Sorry! I never check that account!" -- sends a message. You may inadvertently communicate a lack of follow through or a lack of respect.

Similarly, an account with outdated information and an old photo, or even worse -- a grayed-out avatar -- indicates half-hearted involvement. Your public profiles should display energy and professionalism, not tepid indifference.

8. Painting an Inaccurate Self-Portrait

Read your story as shared on your timelines. When the tweets and sentences are strung together, who have you revealed yourself to be? Your life on the Internet has a theme. Make sure that your public information is balanced. If your story is punctuated by frequent happy hours, personal woe or is obviously self-focused, that will be the heading under which casual observers (and potential/current employers) will know you.

Only your nearest and dearest (or creepers) will read every posting. So, check your timelines frequently to be sure you are maintaining an overall balance of the You that you wish to share publically.

7. Using Poor Grammar & Spelling

Many unfortunate communication errors can be blamed on autocorrect, but we do have veto power over our phone or tablet's word choices. "It's" does not equal "its," and "your" is an entirely different word than the contraction "you're."

Verbal shortcuts and misfires can look a bit sloppy. While "u" might save a couple of seconds when texting a friend, it's probably better to stretch your fingers toward "y" and "o" first if typing "you" into a Facebook post that could be found by the HR guy who interviewed you last week.

The bottom line is grammatical and spelling mistakes make you look bad. So do your best to avoid them.

6. Being Offensive/Inappropriate

Ah the fine line on social media between being yourself and not making everyone else uncomfortable. It's a moving target, invisible at worst and moving at best. You can do what you can to control who sees your posts by double-checking those privacy settings and using care with political, religious and sexual comments. An ill-advised joke or offhand comment could tag you with an unintended and unfair bias if seen by the wrong person.

Consider who might potentially see your words. Before you click "post," think about your boss, your co-workers and the next company for which you hope to work. By exercising a little common sense, you can build your case rather than sabotage your chances.

5. Not Choosing Your Friends Carefully

Forget about trying to control the people who follow you, and focus on one thing you can definitely control -- who you choose to follow.

Don't friend, follow and collect contacts indiscriminately. Haphazard hoarding is ineffective and tends to cheapen the solid contacts you make. And the more unknown -- yet public -- contacts you add, the more you open yourself up to negative associations. It's flattering to be chosen, but in the end it's not a popularity contest.

4. Failing to Keep Secrets

Be savvy and aware of social media check-ins that might reveal details your company would rather keep under wraps. For instance, broadcasting your visit to a competitor's client might hurt the company's chances for securing new business.

Similarly, on a personal level, checking in to the spa on a "sick day" or sharing your affinity for a competitor's product over the one you're selling, smacks of deceit and disloyalty. Besides, do your coworkers really need to know where you're going to get liquored up or the Foursquare check-in of the public restroom you'll be getting sick in later?

3. Falling Victim to "Tagging"

Perhaps you've gone to great lengths to control every ounce of information that's on your page. Good job. The only problem is, your friends might still be able to sink your ship.

If you are social media friends with some less-than-discreet people who go tag-happy after a couple of drinks or have a tendency to toss "inside jokes" out where they don't belong, you need to protect yourself. In addition to asking them politely not tag you in potentially humiliating photos, you can also adjust your settings so that anyone who tags you in a picture has to ask for permission first. This will prevent those embarrassing pictures of you passed out at a bachelor(ette) party or the time you fell asleep and all your friends drew on your face.

Also, it's smart to search links to your name from time to time. Yes, you can (and should) Google, Bing and Yahoo yourself. Knowing what employers will find when they search for you will help you explain it during the interview.

2. Being Too Negative

Here's a hint: just because you think you're being clever doesn't mean everyone else does.

Gut-check your clever comments to see that they do indeed come off as "clever" rather than silly or snarky. Be engaging and encouraging of others. Your online showcase should include the successes of colleagues, not just promotions of your own.

Avoid negatives, particularly rants against companies and products. Aim instead to praise good service and to query (rather than condemn) the questionable. Show yourself to be honorable and thoughtful. It counts more than you know and enhances your character and reputation.

1. Never Engaging in Real-Life

Turn those virtual connections into coffees and lunches. A face-to-face meeting turns you from a faceless computer entity into an engaging and intelligent, real-life person. And, more importantly,a potential asset to corporate contacts.

We're not saying you need to set up face-to-face appointments with the hundreds (and possibly thousands) of people who follow you. But it's never a bad idea to handpick a few people you want to impress and set yourself apart by creating mutually beneficial relationships that go offline from time to time.

Don't Underestimate the Power of Social Media

Ideally, your social networking skills will enhance your opportunities. But occasionally we all succumb to lack of time, judgment or diligence.

Your online profile in its many and varied forms represents you -- often without the opportunity for response. So, anticipation is key to defining and defending the professional reputation you've built.

Your corporate experience, successes and resume remain strong components of your professional image. But never forget the influence of the candid online view. It's never "just Facebook" or "just Twitter," when it wields the power to impact your career.

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3 Analytics Tools to Gauge Your Social Audience's Pulse

1. Get to Know Your Audience

Want to know what makes your online audience tick? Then check out Simply Measured. In particular, their free reports give you your social audience's pulse on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and other platforms. There's a gold mine of intelligence presented in their eight to 10 insightful, colorful analysis tools. Learn who your followers are, what issues they care about, which posts are firing up your base and what types of content are gaining steam and going viral.

2. Make Your Website Shine

How can you make your web footprint work for you and complement your social strategy? Nonprofits get free access to Google Analytics, a robust tool that tracks what turns your audience on or off when they land on your site. This tool highlights the behaviors that are most important to understand, including where your audience came from, what content they looked at, how long they stuck around, where you lost them and to what extent your base engaged with your content.

3. Monitor Social Conversations

Discover a social treasure of other cause-driven folks like you, connect with like-minded professionals, share content and track followers by analyzing your nonprofit's social media presence. Keep an eye on all your social conversations, wherever they take place, with Sprout Social (think HootSuite on steroids). Nonprofits can save 50 percent on this low-cost tool, which gives you the ability to engage with your base, strategically search for better followers, identify posts that get superb traction and, of course, schedule your posts in advance. (Note: Pre-scheduling posts should only be used for Twitter and LinkedIn posts, but Facebook de-prioritizes posts scheduled via third parties, so that's a no-no. Thankfully, you can now pre-schedule posts on Facebook itself.)

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Why Most Companies Fail at Social Media -- Understanding the Three C's

Every business knows about social media, and many businesses have some sort of social media presence -- but very few have implemented a comprehensive and successful social media strategy that maximizes benefits and mitigates risks. Why is this? The answer is simple: the three "C's."

Most businesses take an approach to social media that is often too narrow. They are far too worried about Content and not focused enough on Context and Conditions.

They view social media solely based on Facebook or Twitter Content, which they believe is just a marketing, PR and website function. But to be truly successful, social media needs to be implemented at the senior level and trickle down into the DNA of the entire organization as a core competence.

Senior leaders must understand the Context of the environment in which social media operates. This means understanding their industry, their competition and their internal environment. Then they must be responsible for creating the Conditions necessary for its successful implementation in their organization.

Of course, Facebook and Twitter will be an integral part of any good strategy, but having spent decades as a business executive implementing technology into organizations, I see a need for a more holistic approach in today's business community.

After all, social media is an ever-changing world of opportunities. Remember MySpace or Friendster? In a short time they have faded and given way to dozens of other useful platforms, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn and Salesforce.com. Capturing this evolution is the key to a winning social media project.

Having a holistic approach will maximize opportunities, eliminate risk and overcome the main obstacles which are, believe it or not, usually people problems, and not technological problems.

People problems can often be hidden from view, much like how an iceberg has 90 percent of its context hidden from view. These invisible constraints can be the most difficult to deal with relating to attitudes, skills, written and unwritten rules and codes of conduct.

Business leaders thus need to create a set of Conditions that will make the entire process a success. They need a step-by-step formula, derived by asking themselves questions such as: How does this help achieve my business goals? What are the benefits and how do I manage the risks? How do I write a social company-wide media policy, enforce it and update it? How do I get everybody on the same page?

Below are 10 overarching tips that will help business leaders understand the three C's and succeed in social media:

• Get with the Program: Social media is here to stay. Think of how far it has come in the last five years and then imagine where it will be in the next five. Embrace it or be left behind.

• Be the Architect, Be the Leader: As the CEO or leader you need to create a vision of what social media looks like for your entire organization -- just like an architect has a model of the building that he is going to construct. Really support social media at the senior level not just the people that look after your web site.

• Understand the Culture and Mindset: Defense contractors, for instance, will have more of a closed culture because of the nature of their business as compared to a company with a Silicon Valley feel to it. Opening a company's culture is perhaps the greatest challenge a CEO faces. Banning social media is not a solution any longer, even autocratic political regimes have failed to do so, but using it within a conducive yet regulated cultural framework is the ideal response to the Internet revolution.

• Create a Common Language: This is crucial so that everyone company-wide knows their part and what they are trying to achieve. Create a common language so that everyone can participate in the discussion, not a just a few experts who know the jargon.

• Achieve Your Business Goals: Create social media goals in the context of how they will achieve the business goals. The organizational goal could be to increase the repeat customer percentage in order to increase revenue by X percent. Another goal could be to have a more effective customer relationship management strategy. You need to develop the social media strategy to support your goals.

• Understand ALL the Benefits: Most view social media as a way to interact directly with customers. In addition to that function, there are other business opportunities that can benefit your company both internally and externally through communication, collaboration, collective intelligence and community opportunities.

• Avoid the Dangers of the Dark Side: Social media can open a company up to danger and risk including security issues, PR issues and HR issues. While these risks are very real, it is essential not to let them inhibit progress. Social media is too important in global culture. The key is to develop a sound social media policy that identifies the risks and mitigates them.

• Craft a Strong Social Media Policy: Work with legal and social media experts to develop a safe and effective social media policy that makes clear what is and is not acceptable. This will protect the organization and the employees while maximizing benefits and mitigating risks. Just because a policy is written does not mean it will be followed. Many "unwritten" rules will take shape and the company needs to be vigilant and continuously reshape policy to match what is happening "on the ground."

• Have a Step-by-step Formula: A winning social media strategy will be one that is adaptable, implemented step-by-step and is an ongoing model within the context of the organization that sets the right conditions for successful implementation.

• Time: Rome was not built in a day, and the same goes with social media. Time is the most significant cost. Implementing a social media project hastily may bring more problems than benefits, which is why CEOs need to weight the time factor properly and make sure the project is carefully studied before and during its application.

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How to Increase the ROI of Social Media Marketing

As a marketer (or perhaps a small business owner), I'm sure that you've read many articles extolling the virtues of social media marketing. Perhaps you've even created a few social media profiles to try it out for yourself. But if you're like most people, social media outreach eventually becomes a lower priority because it doesn't directly generate revenue. Well, no longer!

To create more ROI from social media, marketers need to ensure that they are delivering the right message, to the right person, through the right social media channel. This article will help you to figure out which audience to target, what type of message to communicate and which digital medium will be most effective to deliver it.

Who should you target?

Twenty percent of online consumers are considered High Sharers. They are typically younger, more active on social media sites and use multiple devices to access the Internet (smartphone, computer, laptop, etc.). Typically, High Sharers create original online content. High Sharers are often loyal to specific brands and are almost three times more likely to recommend products/services to others through social media.

The other 80 percent of online consumers are considered Low Sharers. These consumers are not loyal to a specific brand and will constantly search out the best quality product/service through extensive research. Low Sharers don't often use social media sites, but when they do, they typically do not create original content; instead, they are more likely to share other people's content.

Recommendations from trusted sources (friends, family, social networks, etc.) are the second most influential factor for consumers when contemplating a purchase, so it is important that companies design their marketing campaign to appeal to High Sharers, especially if they have a very tight budget, as this outreach will generate greater ROI.

What messaging should you deliver? Which sites are most effective to communicate your message to online consumers?

Tthe seven types of social media sharers and how their sharing style can be leveraged to more effectively target and engage potential customers:

Altruists

Altruists make up the largest percentage of social media users. They share information with their friends and followers because of a desire to help others. Altruists should be a primary target audience for all nonprofit organizations, fundraising-related companies, etc. as these social sharers want to help NPOs help others in need. The most effective way to engage altruists is through Facebook and email.

Selectives

Selectives are the second most common types of sharers on social media. They share information because it will be relevant to a specific friend. Selectives use email most frequently to share information and ideas.

Passionates

Passionates share information because they share a common passion with someone else. They use Facebook most frequently, but are often very active on customer review sites.

Connectors

Just like their name suggests, Connectors share information in order to create opportunities for socializing with friends. Connectors use multiple social media channels to more effectively share information with their friends and followers; the most frequent sites used by Connectors are Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and Facebook.

Trendspotters

Trendspotters use social networking sites to share information in order to show that they are aware of the newest, hottest trends. It is important for these sharers to build their credibility across multiple social media channels; most frequently, Trendspotters use YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare, Flickr, Facebook and Delicious.

These social sharers are very useful for businesses that are looking to increase their visibility and sales to the consumer audience. Interestingly enough, Trendspotters are the most influential in encouraging the purchase of fashion accessories, electronics and baby products.

Provocateurs

Provocateurs share in order to get a reaction from friends and followers. Bloggers often fall into this category of sharers. Provocateurs use YouTube, Wordpress/Blogger, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare, Flickr and Delicious most frequently.

Careerists

Careerists use social networking sites primarily for business purposes. In general, Careerists use YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and Facebook to share information related to their business or career.

It's no longer enough to have thousands of social media friends and followers. If online relationships aren't being monetized, the ROI on a company's social media campaign will be almost non-existent. By engaging High Sharers to generate valuable recommendations and offering content specifically tailored to each target audience's emotional needs through the most appropriate digital channel, marketers can dramatically increase consumer engagement, brand loyalty and sales.

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Social Influence: How 'Friends of Friends' Are Key to Earned Media

With social media marketing becoming the staple of communication between businesses and their customers, content creation and a well-developed and executed strategy is vital in order to increase your brand's social reach and grow your customer loyalty.

A survey conducted by DDB, a leading global ad agency, states that 75 percent of Facebook users who follow a brand have made more than one online purchase recently, and 84 percent of them use the brands that they follow. According to a survey byMarket Force, 79 percent of consumers 'like' a brand page to receive discounts or other incentives, and 70 percent of them are looking for details on sales and events.

These figures should easily tell companies one thing: Consumers on social media platforms like to be informed, and like to receive things in return for their loyalty. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are platforms for brands to have a far more targeted reach than traditional advertising, and when a consumer likes or follows a brand, it means that they want information, and that they intend to take action with the knowledge provided to them.

Consumers apply what they see on a brand's social page to either purchasing decisions, or more importantly for brands, the purchasing decisions of others through personal recommendations. This is a vital insight that marketers should begin to pay better attention to, especially with words like "social influence" and "social reach" becoming more of a marketing objective as opposed to a marketing term.

When a brand posts content and a fan likes or retweets it, it's not just giving an increase to the company ego, it's providing a huge boost to their visibility. Continuing with the Market Force survey, 81 percent of U.S. respondents said that posts from their friends had a direct impact on their purchase decision, while 80 percent of them stated that they tried new things based on friends' suggestions.

With that said, posting unique content for the sake of posting unique content is a trend that ended almost as quickly as it started. It's no longer just about unique content; it's more about how this unique content can add value to your company with respect to your brand's social reach, visibility and most importantly, ROI.

The trouble with a content creation strategy is that it's very difficult to define how much content should be posted in order to promote your brand and how much should be to drive engagement, and maybe even how much should be a combination of both?

Promoting Your Brand

Like traditional marketing and advertising, social media marketing should have an underlying goal of promoting your product, driving website traffic, turning leads into conversions and all of those great marketing objectives. But, how can you do so in a way that is both engaging and not overly "sell-y"?

By giving your social following exclusive access to new products or promotions, such as holiday specials or seasonal product lines, your customers will begin to realize that there is value to them in following your brand. That is the key: They are your advocates and your most loyal customers, so give them something to show your appreciation. This will not only promote your brand, but will drive website traffic, and with every like, comment, retweet or @ mention, your visibility will increase with the hopes that some of the 80 percent of the aforementioned consumers will try your brand based on their friends' social recommendation.

Driving Engagement

The idea of "pull marketing," isn't a new concept, but continues to hold clout for any brand looking to drive fan engagement. Instead of pushing all of your content, why not mix it up and ask users to promote your brand for you? Ask your fans for content in the form of pictures or videos that are unique and relevant to your company, locality and industry.

For example, if you were a retail store in New York City, ask your fans to post pictures to your wall of them wearing the latest summer collection. "We want to see how our fans are keeping cool this summer with our 2012 Summer Collection. Show us how you keep it real in this NYC heat."

Not only is this a good way to show off your customers by featuring all of their posts, or shooting these photos or videos up on your branded blog, but every time a fan responds and posts their pictures, all of their friends will see that they posted or Tweeted to your page, in response to your post. It doesn't guarantee any more fans, but it immediately boosts your visibility to "friends of friends" -- 80 percent of whom might try your brand because of it.

Combining the Two

Social loyalty comes in many forms such as sweepstakes, contests, polls etc. The combination of promoting your brand and driving engagement can come in the form of one of these loyalty tactics. According to Hubspot, 70 percent of those surveyed participated in a brand-sponsored contest or sweepstakes, while 24 percent actually produced content in order to participate in a contest, or in other words, posted a picture or video per the request of the brand contest rules.

Key Takeaway

Consumers looking to follow their brands are doing so mostly for exclusive deals or promotions, the latest news and to be advocates for your brand. Those consumers looking for exclusive deals on social media are very likely to register for contests and participate in them if they see some kind of value in it, maybe coupons or access to exclusive online-only products. Loyalty programs are the best way to drive engagement, promote your products and ultimately increase your brand's visibility.

This should drive home the fact that brands of any size, industry or location should focus on creating a content strategy that produces content worthy enough to be shared or to be interpreted as adding value to the consumer's purchase decision. What your brand is posting on a daily basis will impact not only the consumer who follows your brand, but has the potential to influence all of their friends and followers as well.

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