5 ways to build a strong brand community

Every business needs a base of loyalists and advocates to build it up — a community, a fan club, advocates or a tribe.  I recently read an article with tips that can help businesses that are unsure how to build a following and keep it strong.  I have broken down the 5 ways to build a strong brand community from both my experience and leading experts opinions on the subject:

• Aim for the evangelists and advocates first - When building a following, you shouldn’t be targeting all your current customers, Warner says. Instead you should focus on people who are extremely passionate and supportive of what you are doing. If you create a product or an idea and sell it to a customer who’s really excited by your brand, his enthusiastic explanations to his friends about what you offer will multiply your fan base. Enthusiasm spreads, so always be working to build a web of passionate people.
• Create a sense of demand - A sense of urgency, such as deals that “end in 24 hours,” lead people to feel like they must get involved or risk missing out. Missed opportunities break hearts, and nobody likes the feeling that they can’t go back and change their actions. It’s the same concept that exclusive nightclubs use when they turn people away. You get a sense of fulfillment when you make it in, so you continue going back instead of trying that new bar down the street. Make your brand an exclusive club and people want to be a part of it.
• Don’t let them forget what you’re all about - Never let people forget what your selling or trying to accomplish. Feature your product on every page of your website. Be bold in your requests and be willing to urge customers to take their commitment to your business to the next level.
• Bring in a ringer - Involve someone or something that’s bigger than your brand, then capitalize on the benefits of association.  Partner with a larger brand, service provider or celebrity.  Capitalize on the "big hitter" status - it's a win-win!
• Treat your people well - Their loyalty and appreciation comes from recriprical giving - once you have them, help them enjoy being there.  Special offers, contests and giveaways build advocates, friends and a real loyal following.

Start with these ideas, bring your own to the table and GO FOR IT!  Comment to let me know what other ideas or thoughts you have that have worked for you!

@RikWalters

Five Ways You Can Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Social media and blogs must be a key part to you company marketing strategy.  Here are 5 ways they help grow your business and your brand's awareness:

1. Low Cost - Social media websites and tools are either free or available for a low cost.  You can get started in social media and blogging for very little or no money. Theese are among the most cost-effective methods of reaching your audience.  Like any marketing effort, you must formulate a plan of action and BE CONSISTENT.
2. Instant Inter-connectivity - Working with leading global brands, I know you get all kinds of feedback through the comments on blogs and other social media verticals.  Both blogs and social media can give you nearly instant market feedback - good and bad.  Also, people will leave reviews and other comments for you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other layered SM sites. This insight is available to you right now, for no cost! 
3. Social media drives search results -  I read a recent survey which indicated blogs and social media make it more likely that your prospects will find you online when they search (see my blog from last week).  This is based on the new search model by both Google and Bing.  Over 90% of people searching online, begin their purchasing process in search engines.
4. Inbound Marketing -  Outbound marketing is telemarketing, direct mail, email blasts, Cable/TV and print ads - All the things that buyers are blocking out more and more.  Social media and blogs are essential inbound marketing tools.  Pull marketing and inbound marketing give you amazing information that is at your fingertips (Literally!).
5. It's all about LISTENING! - For blogs and social media, there is a distinct advantage to being accessible and listening in the social media online space. If you don't get involved in the conversations about your brand or business service, your competitors will.   Then you're fighting an uphill battle to become influential in these online conversations after the fact. 

Start now to claim the advantage against competitors and valuable insight into your marketing efforts, your brand's reputation with customers and hear what other have to say about you.

You must reach out to hear your customer...they will tell you what they want!

As always, please follow me on Twitter (@RikWalters) for daily insights and information.

Thanks for stopping by!

@RikWalters

The Top 5 Reasons To Incorporate QR Codes Into Your Marketing NOW!

The easier the accessibility to your product and brand, the better chance you have in that initial engagement and closing a sale.

Link to online marketing assets quickly - Including a QR code in your offline marketing enables viewers to connect with a targeted landing page with a snap of their smartphone.

Create location-based engagement - Get prospects, customers, and the public to interact with you by placing QR codes on maps, windows, and other marketing collateral. Use to supply additional information or to engage in a location-based contest.

Provide contact information - Utilize QR codes in lieu of business cards and related marketing collateral at a conference or event.

Product usage and promotions - Support the already popular use of smartphones for product information and add product reviews. Attach a targeted promotion to the QR code.  Useful at a presentation to give attendees a discount to buy your product or try your service. Customers may be checking your competitors too, so integrate this into your promotional offers.  Allow the customer to get more information with the manual to their new product or for more detailed information.

Use tracking and analytics with codes for ROI measurement – Utilize targeted URL’s to track code metrics.  As with any other marketing initiative, utilizing QR codes matched with incentives builds impressions, more importantly it is the quickest way to engage dynamically with customers, prospects and the general public.

Developed in Japan by Denso-Wave, QR codes (Quick Response) are two-dimensional bar codes that store up to 7,089 characters of numeric code that provide a great, convenient way to enhance marketing and content. 

QR codes have hurdles to expanded usage - namely user behavior - plus, a smartphone with a QR code reader installed and connectivity.

Consumers are finding QR codes offer a diverse functionality that is convenient and they are snapping with more regularity. As a marketer, this is a great time to jump in and experiment to broaden your potential response channels with consumers.

Are you utilizing QR codes now in your marketing efforts?  If so, how are you using them and what is your experience.

Google and Bing Increase Impact Of Social Media On Search Results. How Will Social Search Affect Social Media And SEO In The Future?

The Social Media Future Is Here...Now!

What most of us believed to be true is now showing acceptance by the big boys.  Google and Bing are beginning to increase the impact of social media content and links on their search results, citing social networking activity as an indicator of what might be most relevant to business and consumer searches.   This developing acceptance is likely to spread fast (given social media!), as the positives and negatives begin take shape.

For digital Media & PR, social media and SEO agencies, the changes have the potential to significantly manifest in new key priorities.

How this will affect search and social media?:

Increased focus of social media buzz for brands/businesses – an increased requirement for your brand to be mentioned in social media to benefit from high search engine rankings.  Social ‘chatter’ is important now, but to have an impact on search results, the pressure is will be your brand to develop conversations and be in the mix of online discussions.

Increased importance of social media link strategy:

Buzz quality is important, however the links back to branded assets (website, social media assets) will generate the most traffic and show search engine spiders that a brand is relevant in the social space for matched search topics or terms.

It’s not yet clear if spiders/bots will analyze semantics and ‘social speak’, but perhaps it should be presumed that they do now, which is extremely relevant to social media content.

Brands must, more than ever, monitor online audience sentiment: There are plethora of sentiment tools that analyze social media content to filter out how a brand is perceived in the social ecosystem.  We can then presume that Bing and Google will measure this too.  Very important to maintain positive buzz around a brand, because if it turns negative without monitoring, there could be a risk that the search results of the brand would then be mirrored by its social media perception.

Now the positive - Brand benefit from new search engine results: Your brand stands to significantly benefit from the impact of social media content in search engines.

If your brand has a savvy social media team or manager, they will have a positive impact on the quantity, quality of conversations on social networks involving the brand. 

Are you a part of the conversation about your brand?: The spread of ecommerce into social media is on! Relevance in social media commerce now and the future will depend on your brand’s willingness to commit to social media.  Your business and brand must ensure that any social media commerce platforms developed are well optimized.  Make the most of social media functionality to develop conversations around your products, the new key to achieving more traffic through search engines.

What effect will all of the above have on the online marketing world in the future?  We  need to see how it all develops, but it’s safe to say this will change the way brands use social media.  There are undoubtedly more changes over the social media horizon, brands and businesses must be prepared…now.

Augmented Reality on iPad seen via Vuzix glasses

Always exciting developments in the realm of Augmented Reality.  I saw this posted on YouTube from ARDOORMoscow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1NYVaYv8g. 

There is so much being accomplished in the Augmented Reality area.  Augmented reality allows people to view the physical world with digital content overlaid on top of it.  AR can add information to the world and change the way people interact with it.

So many applications and yes, some are worried about the unintended consequences.  Well, that could be said of what happened with the Google "street view" technology, coupled with satellite photos of their homes and businesses. 
Privacy groups are tracking all of this technology and I believe we will see those groups keep finite uses under control.

The cat is out of the bag on Augmented Reality, so we should find a way to use this great technology for your personal lives and businesses.