For those of you who were lucky enough to have been great-great grandfathered into the company you now own, I envy you. Being able to maintain a brand through the last 10 years of our country's economic roller coaster is like running back to back marathons- I tip my hat to you folks. So your brand is international, you have great distribution, profit is great, traditional marketing is holding strong, and now you need to enter the social media world. So just how do you communicate your brands age and reliability when just starting a Social Media Campaign? How do you trick all those youngins' that even though you only have a hundred fans (who most of your employees and family), that you are cool, and they should be into your product/service?
You need to do some blitzkrieg, gorilla, flash growth my friend. I am serious. The second you start telling the traditional media world you have a Facebook Page, you better put on your butt-kicking boots and get ready for the rodeo, because it's about to get wild. If you're some billion-dollar company and some dude making some kind of city bike in his garage has a few thousand more friends than you do, you're doggin' it. Make a ton of Facebook ads; if no one has told you this before, you should probably get some new friends. I don't feel like I need to explain the Facebook Ad platform, I'd like to think since you were intelligent enough to log onto Social Media Today, you are smart enough to figure it out. (I hope).
After populating your page with the right people, some who have loved your brand for years, and some newcomers, you shouldn't have too much trouble looking popular as long as you engage them. Asking people to engage with you through traditional media will reach out to your older and repeat consumers, and help you populate your page with the right people you want to discuss your brand. The opportunity to give your consumers the chance to voice how much they love you, discuss your product, and exchange their ideas is the best thing for your "aged" business. Having existing customers talk about how cool you are, will convince those new comers to the page of your reliability and how valuable you are.
If you are reading this and are completely lost check give me a shout out, and check out some of the other awesome blogs on SMT, if all else fails; I'll overnight you my personal copy of Social Media for Virgins and a bottle of booze.
'Cause we are living in a digital world and I'm a social media girl. XB
Veronica Guzik is an Internet Marketing Guru at fishbat.com. Living life fast and making waves in the Social Media World.