THE ABC’S OF GAINING RESPECT IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA SCHOOLYARD A Canuck’s Perspective

Jennifer Zed, Toronto

In this era of Consumer Actionism, we’re constantly reminded of the influence that consumers cast over brands.  And, as consumer marketers, we’re leading the charge in terms of providing constant two-way dialogue with multiple stakeholders on our clients’ behalf.  As a result, we’re often a first point of contact with consumers on the various social media channels.  

While this can feel like a daunting task and responsibility, engaging and playing in this new environment is actually pretty simple, elementary, in fact.  Channeling your inner child and remembering what your teachers, parents and all those grown-ups taught you way back when can come in handy when navigating the new social media schoolyard. And here’s how… 

“ME” as VIP

Although typically understated and modest, there’s no denying Canadians’ domination (well, I’m a little biased because I am Canadian!) of the social networking space. We are online, active, engaged and willing to share our opinions on everything from local mayoral elections to Justin Bieber’s hair. In fact, eMarketer recently reported that Canada boasts some of the highest social networking usage rates in the world with 44.8% of the total Canadian population on social networks in 2010. More than half of the total population is expected to be active on social networks by 2014.                

We also know Canadian consumers are highly engaged with brands online, not so different from the rest of the world of course, but what we’re seeing north of the border is that consumers have definitely found their voice. They want to be heard, and expect brands to listen and respond accordingly, as seen through insights generated from Edelman’s 8095 study and many other studies. They will tweet about a great experience they had with a brand and also tweet about the negative – no matter the origin of that company (even if, and especially in some cases, said company is from Canada).  And we’re seeing more and more examples of consumers rallying together to gain support even if the comments directed at brands are ungrounded. This turns the social-sphere into a game of bully meets victim on the schoolyard versus a congenial game of marbles.  (I know, gasp, aren’t we Canadians supposed to be polite, proud and patriotic?  Well, we still do wear our flag on our backpacks but now we’ll also comment on why the strap on the backpack isn’t what we had hoped it would be.)

Playground Rules

So, where do you draw the line between responding to legitimate consumer concerns and realizing that you’re playing a relentless game of appeasing the complainers? As we develop social media programs for our clients, there are a few rules of civility to consider:

• Know your influencers
• Social Engagement Moderation Policy
• The Bullies
• Know when to engage
• Monitoring tools

Helping our clients navigate their social networking communities will ultimately develop a community of brand advocates and hopefully make some lifelong friends -- or at least ensure we all play nicely together in the sandbox!