Your Brand and The Social Web

When customers put your website address into their browsers they are initiating a handshake with you. It’s important, though, to think about it from the other perspective – how does your brand initiate handshakes? 

Do you send out interrupting messages to your customers and potential customers or are you there when someone raises his or her hand? 

There is a big difference between raising your hand and wanting help or the answer to a question than jumping into a conversation uninvited and shouting BUY MY PRODUCT.
 
The social web allows you to be there when hands are raised. Consumers are willing to allow you to join their lives and conversations if you add value, so stop interrupting them. When the last telemarketer called while you were eating dinner, did you like the interruption and invite them into your home or over to dinner?

When you are watching your favorite television program, do you like being interrupted by a commercial as the plot thickens? As you visit your favorite website, do you enjoy your browser being taken over by a flashing banner ad or page takeover online ad? 

Stop interrupting and start joining the lives of your consumers.

1. The natural question, then, is how to get started. Here are some tips:
2. Start listening to conversations 
3. Set up Google alerts to be notified when your brand is mentioned on the Web. 
4. Join communities and forums where your customers and prospects are talking about you and your    competitors. 
5. Keep tabs on real-time conversations by visiting www.search.twitter.com. 
6. Use www.blogpulse.com to monitor blog conversations. 
7. Subscribe to a paid social media monitoring service to get the full social media picture. 
8. Explore the many more sites that can help. 
9. Engage o Become part of the community you serve.
10. Get out of the boardroom and into the community.
11. Respond in a timely manner to comments and posts.

But before you hit “send” or “enter,” ask yourself, “Am I adding to the conversation or am I just selling? 

If you are not adding to the conversation, you are interrupting the conversation. 

Consumers do not want to be “sold” to as they are having conversations.
o Find a place in the community, be a part of it and don’t interrupt it. 
o Think constancy not episodic. 

Don’t jump into the conversation and then wait for the next opportunity to talk about your brand. Add value to conversations, even if they aren’t about you. 

The more you give, the more you will get back. So, if you have been waiting to engage in social media, know that the boat has left the dock. People are talking about your brand right now. 

Be smart about how you join their conversations and ask yourself, “Am I adding to the conversation or am I just trying to sell?”