Social media is easy, free and gets you in front of a mass audience for little effort, right?
Wrong. I see a lot of companies take a stab at social media, they set up a Facebook page and a Twitter account, push out a few standard messages, kick back, relax and expect the ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ to rack up.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way, social media takes investment. Both time and money are needed to do it right, but if it is done right the effect is astronomical.
The thing about social media is that people pick and choose what they want to see. If you don’t choose to ‘like’ a brand on Facebook it won’t appear in your news feed. It can’t get near you. Even if you do ‘like’ a brand and then change your mind with the click of a button it’s gone again and they can’t access you.
So how do you get people to ‘like’ you, and keep ‘liking’ you? Well I found a great example in a very odd place. Tesco on Facebook is the best example of a large companies presence on social media I’ve seen so far. Everything they have included on the page is targeted to the Facebook audience and it really works well.
The landing page of the Facebook site shows an overly full trolley, but its not filled with groceries, nappies and washing powder. It’s filled with games, gadgets, music and electronics. The wall page doesn’t have BOGOF offers but MP3 download vouchers.
But the most important thing they do is interact with their customers. They have thousands of followers, and get numerous enquiries, comments and complaints each day. The thing they do well is respond to every single one. Below is an exchange from earlier this week regarding a new Tesco mobile offer that demonstrates great social media use. It’s a lesson so many brands need to learn.
