I was out at Sunday brunch last week and a question struck me: Is brunch really brunch if it’s not a buffet? The answer is no. The point of brunch is that you get to try a little of each thing. You wouldn’t order a full serving of huevos rancheros, a burger and fries and an ice-cream sundae just because it’s on a brunch menu. Without the buffet, you are forced into a type of food rather than having the freedom to sample.
Just as in brunch, your social engagement strategy needs to be a buffet…not a menu. With Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook becoming more popular every day, the more and more brands’ customers are becoming acclimated to engaging in a short, direct manner. As a brand, you need to a have a full buffet of engagement options for users to engage in or they will simply order one thing off your menu.
Here are a few tools to think about when creating your online branded community experience.
1. Contests: An underrated way to spread word of mouth and increase engagement around a particular topic. Set the bar low for a barrier of entry (commenting on a blog or uploading an image) and provide social sharing tools for people to share their entries or let their friends know about the contest.
2. Surveys: Keep them short and simple! ComBlu has seen that when simple surveys are deployed into a community, the number of active members raises 20 to 30%. And think of all the data you can get ;). Mmmm…data with syrup.
3. Curate: Make it easy and fun to rate or bookmark content on your branded community. This provides an easy way for members to get active and it provides you with a quality rating of the content from your customers.
Principal
Engaging your customers is at the heart of successful marketing programs. For more than 20 years, Cheryl has been building and executing content and thought leadership strategies designed to do just that. She is excited to be applying that well-honed skill to a help companies like Microsoft, Cisco, 3M, Intel, Capital One and Barclaycard tap into their stakeholder communities and build sophisticated content strategies.
Her experience base spans a range of industries – from technology and financial services to retail, travel, consumer products and healthcare. Cheryl has served as an integral member of her clients’ marketing teams, providing counsel on marketing and brand strategy, thought leadership, media relations, product introductions, and event management.
Prior to joining ComBlu, Cheryl spent 10 years leading corporate marketing for large, complex organizations.