Face to Face With Your Customers with

Facebook

 

 

This is where you need dedicated

efforts of professionals who understand the  dynamics of the medium, which is very different from what conventional media  marketers are generally used to. Facebook can hence help you come face to face  with your customers.

 

 

It becomes extremely important

for you to know how this  medium and conversations should be managed. Communicating effectively with customers and delivering the right message to  the right people has been one of the major challenges for any marketer since day one.

 

Since early days of marketing,

various forms of communication medium  have been evolving with developments in technology as well as its consumers

.

For a long time in the history of marketing communication,

media remained the  stronghold of news makers and advertisers and communication was mostly one way  from the marketer to the reader.

 

 

However,

the trend of this inequality of voice  was broken with the advent of the Internet and further developments within that  medium itself. 

 

Internet and Quantum Change in Media.

The Internet brought about a sea change in the science and practice of mass  communication and hence the process of marketing itself. But much before common users could take control of the content on the World Wide Web, the way we see it  today,

 

there was a time when content creation

was the forte of those well-versed  in HTML programming and web scripting languages. However, with the advent of  services, such as blogs and social networking sites, the power of mass communication moved to the common user on the Internet.

 

Facebook – Front-Runner in Social Media Phenomenon

With 500 million users worldwide, and the numbers growing steeply, Facebook is emerging as one of the strongest mediums.  with users getting totally involved in  creating more and more content on the website.

 

At any given point in time,

millions of conversations take place, with precious customer-related information  seeping through each of these, in the most natural way.

 

Customer Insight… Really

Even before the first television spot or a newspaper advertisement goes live, any company serious about its brand spends a great deal of effort and money on  gathering information. money and insight into what their customers really want and how  they seek to accomplish those needs.

 

A lot of money is spent on brand research 

that delves into the awareness levels of the brand vis-a-vis competition. This information can be readily accessed freely floating on a social networking platform, such as Facebook.

All the answers that a brand may want to seek

are   hidden in the conversations happening through wall comments. photographs, tags,  fan pages, and many such avenues through the same platform of Facebook.

 

 

All of this information is first hand, with honest responses.

Coming Face to Face With Customers Users on Facebook form fan pages and groups pertaining to their interests and  form conversations around topics and brands of their interests.

 

Here are some tips

with how a new age brand manager can keep a tab and also build his brand on Facebook. Do a Brand search on Facebook – Conducting a search on Facebook with the terms  related to your brand .

 

that of your competition throws up

results that include  customers associating with the brand and various discussions, fan pages. where  the brand features. Going through these conversations can reveal the opinion of  the Facebook about your brand.

 

Creating a Fan page:

If you are confident that your brand has the capability of  attracting positive response and drawing fans. it is time you create a fan page  for your brand and watch users “liking” the page and enroll for the same.

 

 

 

The fan page

can serve as an excellent platform to directly engage with customers and create a strong bond.

 

Create branded applications:

Applications can range from entertaining games with your brand to useful tools related to your product.

 

The possibilities

provided by Facebook to reach out to customers are endless, and all of this can be done at minimal cost with maximum impact.

 

But while doing  all of this as a marketer,

you need to remember that the customer and you are on  a level playing field, with both having equal opportunity to express. The customer  is free to share his positive as well as negative experiences with your brand,

 

which can influence other customers watching your brand carefully.

 

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