Thinking Like the Cosumer

Stepping in Someone Else's Shoes

Part of this week’s readings focused on thinking like your consumers. As we all know it is important to know the audience we market to in the fields we specialize in. This helps with the type of language we use, who and how we market to them, and how we use social media to engage with our audience. What Kerpen discusses in chapter 3 of Likable Social Media is putting ourselves in the shoes of our consumers when engaging them through social media, if it’s something I wouldn’t like or pay attention too, it’s likely my audience won’t either. While Kerpen uses these tips directed toward Facebook, they can be utilized for most social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more.

Don’t confuse content marketing with advertising

Bombarding your followers with constant post to visit your website or check out your new product is not content marketing, its advertising (DeMers, 2016). Content marketing is fun, entertaining, engaging, helpful, and customer focused. According to Kerpen, this can be a hard concept for marketers to learn because they have to unlearn much of what they know. “With content marketing, you’re actively building and solidifying a customer relationship” (DeMers, 2016).

Using social media accounts effectively

When preparing to use social media as a form of marketing it should be used as a form of engagement not disruption. This is when a marketer should put themselves in the place of the consumer. According to Kerpen (2015) these are the questions you should ask yourself before clicking the “post” button:

1.       Will the recipients of this message truly find it of value, or will they find it annoying and disruptive?

2.       Would I want to receive this message as a consumer?

If you respond yes, you’re on the right track, but if you respond no, then it’s worth reevaluating your message. The reason these questions are important is because we want the content we post to be shared and our followers to engage. “In the long run, the organizations that will win are the organizations that engage in positive, useful communications with their customers and prospects” (Kerpen, p. 41). Posts should engage, causing followers and prospects to comment, share, and like. This will naturally create brand awareness and start the buying process.

Making sure your post get seen

Here are the questions Kerpen (2015) list to ask yourself to maximize your post viewing and sharing.

1.       When and how often should I post content? Knowing when your audience is on social media sets the guidelines on when and how often content should be uploaded. If you’re targeting teens you wouldn’t post during school hours.

2.       Do these users interact with me often? It is important for users to visit your page because they are more likely to share it, subscribe or follow, and actually view its content.  

3.       How interactive are the engagement with the post? Making your content relevant and relatable causes users to engage. The more users like, comment, and share the post, the longer it stays relevant and more people see it.

4.       Have I boosted the post? Investing money in boosting your post can make it quickly seen by thousands of people. While this is not necessary it can help.

Theses questions are here to help guide you in making an interactive social media base. Understanding communication with your followers should be two-way communication. It is not solely up to the follower to initiate engagement, but the brand should be doing so as well. It is the responsibility of the brand to know its audience, know when and how to engage with them.

Who is doing this right?

In this article 10 Brands Doing an Amazing Job on Social Media shows how brands are using social media to engage users, create relevant content, and most importantly understand and know its audience, please view.

Discussion Questions:

1.       Do you agree with Kerpen, that a company’s social media page should be customer instead of brand focused? Explain.

2.       Find a company that could increase engagement and sharing on its social media sites by putting itself in the mind of the consumer. Explain what changes need to be made and why.  

References

DeMers, J. (2016, May 28). Product Marketing Vs Content Marketing: Which Is Better And Why? Retrieved from forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/28/product-marketing-vs-content-marketing-which-is-better-and-why/#170e90064e7d

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likable Social Media (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.