The value and power of social media to a brand’s identity

By Simon Cooke 
Social Media Executive

Marketing has had one of the biggest phenomena’s take over its world with the power of social media and how it can make or break a brand in a matter of  seconds. However, what some people tend to forget is social media marketing is not free. Yes the set-up of an account is costs nothing, but running an effective campaign that turns strangers into followers, followers into customers and customers into salespeople comes with its expenses.

The power of social media across all platforms is quite an exciting yet scary thought with millions of users everyday expressing opinions, reviewing a product or service they have received. While running a campaign can involve the costs of staff, advertising and all other external costs, do the benefits of social media really outweigh the costs?

The benefits of a successful social media campaign to a business can reap rewards at a rapid rate, and a brand can learn about its audience with such analytics software like Audiense and Hootsuite. These programs can help a business understand the major demographics and patterns of customer behaviours allowing a business to access a better target audience while understanding customer’s specific needs.

It allows a brand to converse with its customers on an individual level giving them a sense of importance that such a brand is giving them the time of day to take on board what they are saying and rectify any problems they may have. The fact the brand is on a social media platform gives the impression it wants to converse with customers on a platform they are comfortable using, bypassing the old route of sending complaints and feedback to the website through some email system that nobody may ever read.

While a brand can converse with customers on an individual basis it allows them to explore a new customer base locally and globally. YES globally, this is the power of social media and while a brand may only target a small audience, one successful social media campaign can change the fortunes forever. All it takes is one post for people to be intrigued by and that’s it a brand new audience unlocked, increased market share, meaningful relationships that generate new leads. The positives from social media are endless.

The real cost of any social media campaign depends entirely on the size and reach of the campaign itself.

A great example of a successful social media campaign to a brand Is the ‘’Zero to hero on a horse’’ campaign by Old Spice. It has been said to be one of the most successful social media campaigns in 2014 using Facebook and Twitter as a rallying point for these new adopters. The results of the campaign are clear to see with a 2700% increase in Twitter followers, 800% increase in Facebook followers while the 300% increase in traffic to the website.

This campaign was a huge internet success and was followed up by a social media campaign with ‘The Old Spice Guy’ replying to tweets about the brand in his towel. This caught the attention of a few big names prompting interaction with ‘The Old Spice Guy’.

Does this mean the value of a Twitter and Facebook follower is more powerful then you first thought?