In the mind of marketing consultant Tom Feltenstein, branding is how your brand makes people feel about themselves. In a time when consumers can broadcast their opinions in multiple ways on social media, the CEO and founder of Power Marketing Academy espouses getting out in front of the consumer and creating a “remarkable” experience.
“What are you doing that’s remarkable?” he asked attendees of his breakout session at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. “Your customers can shape your story; they can make or break you. … So you can’t just engage people with your story; you can engage them in your story.”
To that end, Feltenstein offered 10 tips for modern marketing, which seemed to be his code-phrase for fun, engaging social media use:
1. Segment your services.
Consider how you’re going to use each type of social media. Feltenstein suggested that Twitter be used to drive perception, Facebook to focus on people and Google+ to underscore passion.
2. Prepare a great profile.
The biggest key here is being honest with your story.
3. Curate, don’t create.
“It’s too hard to create great content. Find great content and share it instead.” Feltenstein said.
4. Act like PBS.
“Curate so much great content that people don’t mind the telethons,” he advised. Make it worth customers’ while to view your marketing materials.
5. Restrain yourself.
“Don’t promote products or services more than 5 percent of the time.” The rest of your effort should be directed at the development of interesting content.
6. Candify.
Add a photo or video to every post to make it more interesting and worth looking at.
7. Respond.
Don’t just broadcast, respond. “Social media should be a conversation.”
8. Stay positive or stay silent.
Don’t pick a fight.
9. Repeat.
Don’t hesitate to repeat your best posts. Not everyone will have seen them the first time, and a good story is always worth retelling.
10. Do. Don’t plan.
“Planning is overrated. Dive in and figure it out as you go along.”
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