FranCamp 2012 Follow-Up

Ooooh there's a brand in my stream...

At FranCamp 2012, during my presentation on "Building the Perfect Social Media Campaign",  I posed a few questions.

1. Is there such a thing?
2. If so, how do you recognize it?
3. Do small brands have the same opportunity in social media as big brands ?
4. Do people really want brands marketing to them in their social media streams?

In future blog posts I will try to open up the discussion on these questions in more detail with the hopes of getting your thoughts and creating a discussion.  

But I want to start with the last question:   Do (normal) people want to hear from brands?  And if so, when, how often, in what form, etc?

My conundrum is that all the research would indicate that people don't want to be marketed to in their social medium streams.  They joined Facebook, Google+, Twitter and others to primarily communicate with their family and friends.  

Here's a link to a simple infographic showing some of the research.

But if consumers say they don't want to be marketed to, then why do brands like these have some many followers and likes?

At FranCamp, someone asked the question if this is self-reported data.  It appears so and we all know that self-reported research and actual activity don't always match up

My takeaway and thesis is that there are characteristics that will cause a brand to be followed or liked.  The consumer has to:

1. Really "love" the brand to be liked or followed.
2. Have been incented with a coupon or discount (and the follow-up communication from the brand has been meaningful and/or valuable to the consumer to avoid drop-off)
3. Had a long relationship with primarily BIG brand (which I believe have an advantage in social media)

If you're not Coca-Cola, Red Bull or Starbucks, you should focus on the following:

1. Have realistic expectations for the number of likes, fans, followers (you don't need 20 million "likes").
2. Focus on creating meaningful content always with a focus from the consumers' perspective.
3. Leverage your traditional marketing to grow your social media consumer engagement.

Next blog post we'll dive into some specific big brands mentioned at FranCamp and what we can learn from their activity and results.  

What do you think??  Leave a comment.

Here's the video of my FranCamp 2012  presentation:

And here's the link to all the FranCamp 2012 presentations.