Social media is the marketing platform of the future

The sum of the trends that are shaping the marketing activities of any business amount to a simple fact: social media is the essential marketing tool of today. This was the point made by Michael Said of Brand Strategy, who was speaking at a media breakfast sponsored by Standard Bank.

According to Said, the seven trends that are influencing marketing are:

• The move towards transparency

Customers are not as naïve as they used to be. They Google everything, know their rights and follow up on claims. Businesses have to build their trust and keep it.

• Customers want less interruption

People are beginning to resent the perpetual intrusion and interruption of advertising. The key to good marketing is to be relevant in customers' lives so that they will choose to engage with your brand.

• Showing not telling

Good marketing is interactive, proving its claims that campaigns should be built with the consumer, not the business, in mind.

• Online video is gaining focus

Video and mobile marketing are set to explode. Businesses must create their own online video content, letting their customers do it for them could have potentially disastrous results.

• Social media

This is the Number One marketing opportunity, but only if it's done properly. The three Rs of social media are regular, relevant and remarkable.

• Integrate

It is absolutely essential that you surround your customers with your marketing message - but in a space where they choose to engage with your brand and aren't being interrupted or overwhelmed by it.

• Focus

Don't try to be everything to everyone. The strongest brands are focused. Build your core and keep it as strong as possible before you try to extend your brand.

Doing it properly

What emerges clearly from all of this is that businesses and franchisees need to explore social media marketing channels urgently. "Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are not going away," Said added. "More and more people are adopting them, and they are the single biggest area of growth at the moment."

Add this to the fact that the only cost of managing a social media platform is the time it takes, and it's possible to see why they provide such a compelling marketing opportunity. However, as with everything, they need to be tackled correctly.
"You need to be relevant, consistent and persistent," explained Said.

The way to measure all marketing activities against this standard is to prepare a brand statement. However, unlike big companies, franchisees seldom have the capacity or budget to employ marketing expertise. The good news is that developing a brand statement is a very simple procedure.

Said explains that by writing down four simple points, a brand statement can be developed against which all marketing activities can be measured.

1. To: To whom are you marketing? Who is your intended customer?
2. Seeking: What is it that your customer is looking for?
3. We offer: What will you provide?
4. Reason to believe: Why should the customer believe your claims?

Once this statement has been created, it can be used to develop marketing strategies. If a marketing activity is at odds with even one of the elements of the statement, it should be rejected. "You have to make sure that everyone in your company understands and believes," he said.

Only then, should companies take their brand message into the social media space. "You want to provide your customer with a platform where they can market for you. You have to respond to them all the time. You want to be top of mind and credible and you want to increase referrals," Said concluded.

In this way, the social media platforms can help franchisees to grow their businesses, respond to their needs and deliver on their brand promise.

These franchise breakfasts are hosted to support small businesses that take responsibility for their brands. "In this challenging economy, we hope that these sessions help the attendees to find ways of doing better business," said Thabiso Ramasike, the head of franchising at Standard Bank.