With all the new media, social networks and technologically-induced ways of communicating these days, it suddenly struck me that there may be a lack of balance between what we are saying and how much we Listen.
More important than reading the responses to our tweets, postings and status messages on Facebook- what are we doing to proactively read and research what our audience is up to- and how we can preemptively satisfy needs before they are vocalized? Being proactive is one of the hallmarks of a superior brand and brands that are on top of the listening game will have extremely loyal followers.
It’s not too difficult, but it does take work. If you are a travel brand for example, go to travel message boards and see what folks are looking for- their desired destinations, their biggest travel bumps in the road- see what the trend is and run a promotion.
What’s great about this tactic is that it translates to so many other categories and now you are not only continuing to satisfy your current customers, you will catch the attention of folks previously unengaged with your brand.
There are some brands like jetBlue that offer updates and receive input from their customers via Twitter, or Starbucks, which launched an entirely separate website to collect new ideas from consumers on how to improve their Starbucks experience. These are great, but it should never stop there. Dig a little deeper, listen a little more closely, meet the needs of more flyers, coffee drinkers, non-flyers, non-coffee drinkers. Seek out and expand your audience, your market share.
So get your branding headphones on and plug in. Everyone should take advantage of the technology and wealth of insight at your fingertips. Right now.
Rochelle Fainstein
The Digital Marketing Manager
Tweet this | Tags: audience, social media
