Social media have gained traction as channels of communication designed to drive marketing and sales initiatives to new heights. Today in the Customer Engagement track at ITEXPO (News - Alert), Will Fraser, director of marketing at YUPIQ, discussed some of the strategies that are currently persisting in the space at this morning’s session. The title of the session “Who Cares About Fans?” is certainly appropriate, because these days it seems like everyone does.

The endgame of social media is obviously to generate wins and leads, but figuring out how to do this is more than just getting people to like your posts; it’s about continuous engagement that keeps the customers coming back and gets them talking about your products.

Currently one of the most common practices to accomplish this is known as Fan-gating. Fraser says, “That’s where you say to customers, follow me, or tweet me and I’ll give you something. 95 percent of these people don’t come back; they just want the deal, so strategies like this can build awareness but don’t necessarily bring in repeat purchases.”

Fan-gating is a step in the right direction for companies that lack a social solution; however, to utilize social media fully, companies need to reach out to their bases and utilize them to build customers and engage in conversation. While the appeal to hire a celebrity endorsement is always there, Frazer pointed to examples where attempts to buy endorsement ended in a negative return on engagement. Social customers are uniquely aware of their community and protective of their identities; celebrity endorsement when unwarranted is a fast track to betraying that identity.

The sessions then turned to discuss where the responsibility of social media engagement falls; while it’s historically been a tug-of-war between marketing and operations, the consensus is ultimately that everyone needs to have a part in social media strategy.

“It’s important to think ‘how can we work together?’ We need everything when engaging in social -- the creative end in marketing and analytical from operations,” Frazer said.

Social media are still young, with even the older entries like LinkedIn (News - Alert) being less than a decade old. “They’re still evolving, their interfaces are changing, and all of these things are going through constant evolution. The software you have installed with Facebook (News - Alert) right now will probably break by the end of the month because its changing so much,” said Frazer.

Each point here is sure to come up again in the “Customer Engagement” track at ITEXPO. Stop by room B210 to join the discussion!  

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Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Rich Steeves