Written By: Marika Gray
Two-way communication is one of the most effective and beneficial ways to communicate in public relations. Social media is often used for this purpose. By allowing the public to engage directly with a company gains trust. This is important because it makes a person feel as if they are a “person” to a company rather than just a number. This takes a turn from what customers are used to, which are advertisements that talk at consumers. Through social media you can have actual conversations and the voice of the customer becomes more tangible to a business. This active engagement with customers makes crowdsourcing ideal. This is defined as “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” This is an awesome way to take your brand to the next level by trying new things. The Social Media Examiner website provides four ways to execute crowdsourcing. One way is to simply ask customers what they want. This will ensure that your company is actually meeting the needs of their public. A great example of this is when the LEGO Company made an online contest for customers. People were instructed to vote on which product they liked the most to be entered into a drawing. What motivated people to participate in the surrey was the opportunity to win a giveaway, while LEGO received insight from real customers. Next is to conduct research on consumer preferences. This can be done simply through sites such as Facebook and twitter. The Social Media Examiner suggests asking customers to vote on the following components “favorite product, preferred product color, best use of your product favorite shopping method (online/ offline/ boutique/ mall) and so on.” The final two options are Hosting a “Name a New Product Contest” or have consumers create a new product variation. Either method will ensure to make the public feel as if they matter and adds to the relationship of customer to management. Either methods listed above are a great starting point for a business to launch a new marketing campaign and can be done solely through social media. References http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-ways-crowdsource-product-ideas-using-social-media-contests/
0 Comments
|