Are you communicating via smoke signals?

In this era of technology and information which is available at user's fingertips, is your brand taking advantage of the playing field and maximizing on available resources? Are you as a brand, brand manager/ambassador taking advantage of latest tools and resources?

With the advent of social media platforms a lot of brands are learning that conventional ATL campaigns can be augmented with social media campaigns.

Websites are no longer the only source of information, the same way newspaper and radio ads are no longer the only option to promote your 'specials'... and calling a press conference is no longer the only option to disseminate news about your brand. Just look at some countries' presidents and governments who have social media accounts. The election of the new head of the Catholic Church actually made me wonder if the church couldn't simply open a Twitter account, do instant updates, and post the outcome of the election.

Mobile web growth

In 2012, mobile web growth had outpaced desktop web growth by at least eight times. This means that more people are accessing the internet via phones and so your brand too, will be accessed via mobile.

The question you should be asking yourself therefore is: "how can I use the tools on the mobile platform to drive the target market to my space?"

Since social media platforms are easily accessible via mobile, this tells you that more and more people are sitting in these social spaces, however, very few of the people online via mobile sit there and think of visiting company websites. So the strategy in this case would be go into those social spaces with your brand and be the pied piper. Pump in the information about your brand they want, and that which they are not aware of, and then have them follow you back to your various platforms.

Source of minute by minute action

Think about how the recent blackout of the game between South African side Orlando Pirates vs. TP Mazembe in the DRC showed just how useful a corporate Twitter account can be. With no live broadcast feed for the game, a lot of people switched on to follow, on Twitter and other platforms, journalists who were at the game.

The Orlando Pirates official Twitter handle became the one major source for minute by minute action. Surely traffic to the Orlando Pirates website and likes on Facebook increased after all those Twitter updates. The same can be said of the journalists and media establishments.

So if your brand does not have social media presence or your current social media accounts are sitting idle, you are as good as communicating via smoke signals in the age of technology. Again, if your social media strategy is not working to augment your other platforms, well, start making that fire.