Strategic Approach to a Scoreboard for a strong Online presence
When setting your Brand communication objectives today you would naturally consider the digital channel to be one of your key means to engage and build a presence. Because of the nature of digital which provides a two-way communication opportunity as well as a platform for consumers to express their opinions it is vital that the approach is carefully thought through and an understanding of the impact of any strategy that you may embark on.
Your online strategy will mirror your offline approach, the only difference is that online you have to be in a position to effectively contain and monitor your online strategy once you implement.
Consider the following when putting the plan in place:
- Brand/Company Strategy
Building a presence that provides information that is useful to the consumer, it needs to be current and relevant to the local market.
Which platforms are suitable to your brand and target market and how are you going to present your Brand, will it be strictly Corporate or will you apply a more relaxed feel and communication tone with a personal touch. It is important that whichever you choose the consumer can easily relate it back to the Brand. - Objective setting
Protecting your online assets: Know what you have and don’t online. A good starting point is to audit to check that for the platforms/sites that are relevant to your target market and what is registered there. Consider then the various alternatives your Brands/Products need to be registered across and register them. Even if you don’t use them, it is protecting your name and others can then not use it. An example of this is flysaa.com, they didn’t consider this and an angry customer register a site neverflysaa.com. By spending a little more time at set up you can go a long way to protecting your online reputation. Trusted Advisor: You should also verify you accounts, there are certain social media site such as Twitter that allow for this. This builds trust and credibility for the consumers that are following and taking advice from the account.
Open communication: Online is a transparent environment, you need to be sure of how you are going to communicate. If you listen and then respond indirectly with information around the questions and points that followers/fans raise you may not be as engaging as others but it may be more controllable from a resource and continuity perspective. If you choose to respond directly you need to ensure that you have a fully resourced team 24/7 as consumers will soon pick up if there isn’t continuity in tone and timing
Return on Investment: Understand what you want besides building awareness; know how many visitors are arriving at your website from the social media platforms where you have links on articles relating back to the site. It is not only about the awareness but how you can generate leads and sales. It is important to know who the Brands friend and foes are and then building a profile on each platform to establish relationships with for the next product launch. - How you will communicate
Providing honest and up to date feedback is key. People will soon start to doubt where there is no follow through or consistency. Ensure that the Brand is clear and what you are offering on the platform interms of response, for example, you can indicate service levels and why you have the profile. - Get it real-time
No use communicating late, consumers will be so over it. Depending on your strategy, either of not responding directly or answering each direct question ensures that the relevance is there.The best way to monitor is to plan the keywords that you want to track and then subscribe/license a tool to provide this service. There are basic monitoring tools as well as more advanced which offer graphical reporting and analysis. - Trend over time
Yes, it is important to know what is happening on a near real-time basis, but interms of a reputation if you are aware or what is being said. Making interventions and being consistent then you should get a good indication of your brand reputation over time and know what it should be at; compared to competitors and the industry you operate in. Ongoing benchmarks should be established as to ensure that you are on the right track.
Look back and see where you want to improve, drilling down to understand the positive and negative spikes over a period and what you could have done differently for a different outcome.
Being aware and using some of these points will ensure that you have the basic starting point for a well planned strategy.
Trusted Advisor: You should also verify you accounts, there are certain social media site such as Twitter that allow for this. This builds trust and credibility for the consumers that are following and taking advice from the account.
Open communication: Online is a transparent environment, you need to be sure of how you are going to communicate. If you listen and then respond indirectly with information around the questions and points that followers/fans raise you may not be as engaging as others but it may be more controllable from a resource and continuity perspective. If you choose to respond directly you need to ensure that you have a fully resourced team 24/7 as consumers will soon pick up if there isn’t continuity in tone and timing
Return on Investment: Understand what you want besides building awareness; know how many visitors are arriving at your website from the social media platforms where you have links on articles relating back to the site. It is not only about the awareness but how you can generate leads and sales. It is important to know who the Brands friend and foes are and then building a profile on each platform to establish relationships with for the next product launch.
