By Mike Smith, Senior Brand Strategist, Palio
Recently, Viacom Media Networks conducted a study on how its viewers socialize around television content and integrate their favorite shows into their lives. Unlike previous generations of couch potatoes chastised for a sedentary lifestyle, today’s television viewer is active, engaged and essential to increasing a program’s visibility and fan-base.
Instead of just looking at likes or retweets, this study looked socializing from the viewer’s perspective and understanding what it is they want from their social experience. The emerging themes – communication, content and comments – are similar to what individuals want from any social experience. And, for organizations interested in activating their brand on the social channels, tapping into this mindset can yield a following of evangelists who help increase awareness and spread brand messages.
How can you “C’s” the moment and tap into the power of brand ambassadors?
Add in a fun factor – The best social experiences have an element of fun in them. It can be hard to keep things light when you’re hawking cholesterol or diabetes medications, but if you want people talking about your brands or products, dull and dreary isn’t going to do it. Instead, motivate them to say positive things by illustrating how life can be better, and that requires communicating in a way that’s human, energized and easy to replicate.
Recognize that people are a nosey bunch – For every person that couldn’t care less about which Huffington Post article you’ve recently read, there’s another who wants to see what’s got your interest, look at your friend’s photos or cyber-stalk your profile. Keep your network up to date on topics other members find of interest – not just your marketing messages. Not only is this useful for fostering community and keeping the conversation focused on relevant topics, it can provide people with content of interest to their network.
Promote value-driven interactions – With so much information competing for our attention, it’s hard to embrace a less-is-more mindset, but brand fatigue can be detrimental and contribute to brand detractors – people who bash your brand. Make sure you deliver value at every interaction, whether that’s in the content itself or by empowering your ambassadors with information to share with others.
Think like your audience thinks – One size fits all was the old way of doing business. Today, everything is customizable and that also translates to the user experience. If your audience is accessing content on a mobile device (and that will continue to increase), make sure you deliver the best mobile experience possible. If your audience is using a mix of apps, devices, platforms and networks to communicate, broaden your strategy to incorporate a variety of touch points.
The technology has advanced but the concept is the same as it’s always been – humans are social creatures who like to connect, comment and communicate with their friends and the world around them. The conversation is happening whether you join in or not, but rather than wait, isn’t it time you seized the moment?
Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.
