Brands stand out when they take time to be social to people

People want to talk with other people, which is why brands need to break away from stiff, status quo approaches and speak in ways consumers can relate.

As Brooke Sellas would say, “Think conversation, not campaign.”

Sellas is chief executive officer of B Squared Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in “done-for-you” social media marketing, advertising and customer care. Her corporate motto is “Think Conversation,” which is the hashtag she and her company uses regularly on Twitter.

She has written, “Conversations That Connect: How to Connect, Converse and Convert Through Social Media Listening and Social-Led Customer Care.”

Build communities one conversation at a timeLearn what’s new, what’s not and why it mattersblog.markgrowth.com

Together with digital marketing expert Madalyn Sklar, Sellas delved deeper into connecting with conversations. Naturally, they advocated for brands to get involved in Twitter conversations.

“If your audience is on Twitter tagging or mentioning you, yes,” Sellas said. “You should meet customers where they are.

“Today’s consumers are on a self-led journey,” she said. “That means brands need to understand which channels they want to be serviced on and make every effort to meet people there.”

Sellas noted that Twitter has a more open application programming interface than some of the other platforms, making it superb for research.

“The brands that take time to engage with their community stand out above the ones who ignore the tweets or messages they receive,” Sklar said. “It’s important to get involved and be social.”

Say What You Feel

There are various ways brands can share opinions and feelings on social media.

“Share them as they relate to the brand or if they’re adjacent to your industry,” Sellas said. “Are you a social agency that hates the new Instagram updates? Share that, and ask for opinions and feelings back.

“As you share your own opinions and feelings, entice your audiences to share their own,” she said. “This type of conversation leads to the voice of customer data, which can help you make better marketing decisions around content, messaging and product development.”

Gain Great Data from Each ConversationProfit by talking with people who you trust the mostmedium.datadriveninvestor.com

Businesses should truly be a good fit with who they are trying to reach.

“Brands that align their core values with that of their audiences do a much better job at acquisition and retention,” Sellas said.

Polls turn out to be one of the easiest ways to make connections.

“I love polls,” Sellas said. “They’re less daunting than open-ended questions and great for conditioning new followers to converse with your brand.”

Knowing the rules of the road will keep conversations on track.

“It’s smart to have brand guidelines in place regarding what’s appropriate for your brand to talk about,” Sklar said. “Then you can openly share opinions and feelings with your community. Just be aware not everyone will agree with your stance, and that’s OK. Always be kind.”

Align Everyone’s Voice

A key trick to master is separating the social media manager’s voice from the brand’s voice.

“Having very specific brand guidelines are important to ensure the tone and voice of your managers match the tone and voice of the brand,” Sellas said. “This can be so subjective. It’s best to run exercises with your managers to ensure everyone is on the same page.

“Remember that nothing in marketing is ‘set it and forget it,’” she said. “Always make iterations.”

For Sklar, this emphasizes again the importance of guidelines.

“This way, your social media manager knows how to create content that’s aligned with your brand’s voice,” she said.

Pitch right down the middleThe best presentations feel as natural as a conversationmedium.datadriveninvestor.com

Another skill comes to the fore when a brand wants to share controversial opinions without causing backlash.

“This is a hard one,” Sellas said. “You can’t please everyone all the time — or be everything to everyone. The safest way to do this is to know this and stand by your brand’s core values.”

A position worth stating is also worth defending.

“Not everyone will agree with your opinions, so you can’t always avoid backlash,” Sklar said. “The best thing you can do is stand firm in your beliefs and understand that it’s OK if others don’t support what you do. Always be kind and respectful.”

Be Proactive with Listening

A key element of that is paying attention to what everyone says.

“Social listening takes you beyond the basics of social monitoring, which is reactive,” Sellas said. “Social listening is proactive because it helps you see the voice of customer data outside of when you’re being tagged. That proactiveness includes data on industry and competitor conversations.

“Many clients tell us ‘No one talks about our brand’ — which needs fixing,” she said. “Until that can be rectified, you can still gather data around your industry and competitors, including sentiment. This can help with content and messaging plus tactical differentiation.”

Confidence Opens Your World to Much Better EngagementsGreat conversations await when you jump into the social media flowmedium.datadriveninvestor.com

Those elements mesh to produce greater insights.

“Social listening allows you to get to know your community on a deeper level,” Sklar said. “Pay attention to what they’re talking about. Use that information to shape your content strategy and offerings.”

Connecting more strongly with people involves interaction of facts and emotion.

“If you look at the psychology behind how we form relationships as humans, the social penetration theory says we do so by giving self-disclosures about ourselves,” Sellas said, noting four levels of disclosures:

• Cliches: everyday “water cooler” talk
• Facts: must be otherwise unknown to be a fact
• Opinions: starts to reveal someone; “It’s raining” is a fact. “Rain is depressing” is an opinion
• Feelings: reveal a person’s core and is where we build trust

“All of that to say, emotions are greater than facts,” Sellas said. “People want to connect with people like them. You can’t build trust and loyalty without revealing ‘who’ your brand is and aligning those values to theirs.”

Emotions Inspire Engagement

She added that buying is 95 percent emotion.

“Emotions are a powerful way to connect with people,” Sklar said. “If your content can evoke strong emotions in someone, they’re more inclined to engage in some way.”

When trying to build relationships on social media, there are hazards brands should avoid.

“Focus on breadth and depth with the social penetration theory — also known as the onion theory,” Sellas said. “If you’re continuing to grow your audiences, you’ll have to have breadth, but for those who are learning to trust you, you’ll need depth.”

In her view, feedback is a superpower.

“Don’t wait for people to come to you,” Sklar said. “Be willing to reach out and start conversations with people. Do this daily.”

Optimum social listening is possible through several tools.

“Brand24 is great for keeping track of brand mentions so you don’t have to worry about missing something important,” Sklar said. “It’s been my favorite go-to tool for years. It’s a great tool that I love using.”

Forceful Conversations Create ImpactOnline communities have wide-ranging networking benefitsmedium.datadriveninvestor.com

Sellas added her company’s favorites.

“We use and love Sprout Social,” she said. “I’ve also heard great things about Agorapulse and Talkwalker. Mention also offers one free listener. So, you can dip your toes in with that one.

“When demo’ing tools, ask them to show you how their tool can solve your problem or meet your goal,” Sellas said. “If they can’t show you, move to the next demo.”

About The Author

Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.