photo by HeatherHAL
Here at Social Media Marketing, we’ve talked about the importance of opening up the lines of communication with your consumers. We’ve suggested strategies for creating compelling content, and given you the tools to bring those strategies to life. But more important than any strategy and any tactic in social media is gaining the trust of your audience; if they feel what you have to say isn’t credible, it won’t matter where or how well you say it.
Such is the struggle of small businesses in particular. With a smaller (if any) fan base to help support your brand through word of mouth recommendation and sometimes no brand recognition, some small businesses may find that social media efforts simply don’t catch on. In these cases, it can be helpful to consider the spheres of influence that guide your consumers’ attention and trust.
Consider how spheres of influence work in the brick and mortar world: if you sell computer accessories, one of the best endorsements you can aim for is being chosen as a line to be sold at Apple stores. If you design trendy clothes, you probably aim to be sold in Urban Outfitters over JC Penney. While Incase or Free People still could have sold their lines separate of these larger brands, their distribution and audience reception and trust greatly increased with their presence in those stores. Simply put, the endorsements of trusted brands, sources, stores, and critics may be the strongest form of credibility and biggest influence to incite consumer purchases.
In social media, the same concept follows. While a claim on your Twitter feed might be accepted by a consumer (with a grain of salt,) they may be more likely to trust the same claim or endorsement from a third-party source, one they consider to be either unbiased or have the consumers’ best interests at heart. Companies like Consumer Reports provide information about products and services through unbiased customer research, and many sites review products in a certain category, unendorsed, like Engadget reviews tech products. Therefore, sometimes it might not be the end consumer that your company should target in social media efforts, but a trusted trade source or a critic.
This idea of spheres of influence is also a great exercise in reframing your objectives and the subsequent tactics. If you want to let your consumer base know about a new feature of your product or service, starting a This idea of spheres of influence is also a great exercise in reframing your objectives and the subsequent tactics. If you want to let your consumer base know about a new feature of your product or service, starting a Twitter account may not be the right place to start. But you can absolutely still harness the power of Twitter, and what better way than to gain the endorsement of a relevant critic, brand, or trade source with an existing Twitter audience? Of course, you must also remember that with the trust of a third-party source comes the reality that you don’t have quite the same control of your message. Further, you better be able to completely back up any claims these third-party sources may adopt from your pitch; the old adage that nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising (or good endorsements) is, in fact, amplified in the age of social media. So when you’re considering how to leverage social media, consider the idea of spheres of influence and reconsider how social media can be leveraged for your brand.
Claire Grinton is a brand strategist and writer based in San Francisco. Find more from Claire or contact her at claire[dot]grinton[at]gmail.
Tags: credibility, spheres of influence
