- IAB UK Home
- /
- Internet marketing
- /
- Internet marketing guides
- /
- Social media
- /
- Social media handbook
- /
- 10 rules
Ozometer by Play
The campaign was created to celebrate Foster's famous ‘No Worries’ attitude. In creating the campaign, Play searched for some of Britain’s most, and least, ‘No worries’ people, celebrities and places. More on Play's award winning campaign.10 rules to get you started from the IAB Social Media Council
1. Don’t run away: Don’t dismiss social media as a fad or as just a few spotty bloggers writing in a darkened room somewhere. Social media spreads far and wide and further than you think, from Wikipedia to Facebook. Even search engine results are social media of a kind – created in part by users via the pages they create and links they forward to each other.
2. Let go: And by this we don’t mean let go of your brand – people are already talking about your brand online so a lot of control is already out
of your hands. Rather, let go in your mind; stop worrying about losing control and instead look at it for the opportunities it now offers.
3. Get a feel for it: The world of social media may be big and scary,
so don’t dive straight in. Take time to try out small ideas and get comfortable. Free tools such as Technorati and Google Pagerank can help pick the most salient and popular social media sites out there. Don’t just look at what one person says, but what others have said in response.
4. Listen: What people are saying about your brand is, of course, important – both the positives and negatives, but the true art of listening also considers this: how are they talking about it? Is it really engaged with your brand and its online presence or are you barely worth a mention? Then start thinking about what you can do around it..
5. Negative isn’t necessary bad: Not everyone is going to love you or your brand. Be prepared for some criticism, and consider it to be a healthy thing (in moderation) – universal acclaim looks suspicious. Criticism can be an effective way of motivating and rallying your own supporters and evangelists.
6. Join in: Start a blog. Or a social networking presence, YouTube channel or Twitter feed – whatever strand of social media fits best. Look at what your most engaged consumers are doing and make sure they are catered for. If they’re posting your ads, make more of them available and shareable. If they’re dying to sample your latest product on their blog, send them a free sample to review.
7. Let them share you: An all-Flash website with all the content locked makes it hard to share. Ditch the splash screens and intros, make sure your site’s content is directly accessible and has short, easy-to-spread URLs. Don’t break links by moving or deleting stuff.
8. Don’t cheat!: Giving yourself fake reviews on Amazon, a ‘fan’ blog run by your PR team, post your latest ad to Digg saying ‘this rocks!’ won’t wash. Not only will you probably get found out and end up causing more negative PR than positive, but since May 2008 it has been against UK consumer law to ‘falsely represent oneself as a consumer’.
9. Speak their language: Don’t blanket-send bloggers press releases, they’ll just bin them and block you. Read what they have already said about you, then talk to them in plain English, avoid hyperbole and buzzwords. Keep emails short and to the point. And don’t send 10MB attachments without checking if it’s OK first.
10. Have fun: The more you show passion for your own brand, the more
your consumers will as well. Don’t be afraid to experiment or try new
things – the flexibility and agility of web 2.0 tolerates failure a lot less
harshly. It’s better to give something a go than do nothing and let your
competitors take the opportunity instead.
2. Let go: And by this we don’t mean let go of your brand – people are already talking about your brand online so a lot of control is already out
of your hands. Rather, let go in your mind; stop worrying about losing control and instead look at it for the opportunities it now offers.
3. Get a feel for it: The world of social media may be big and scary,
so don’t dive straight in. Take time to try out small ideas and get comfortable. Free tools such as Technorati and Google Pagerank can help pick the most salient and popular social media sites out there. Don’t just look at what one person says, but what others have said in response.
4. Listen: What people are saying about your brand is, of course, important – both the positives and negatives, but the true art of listening also considers this: how are they talking about it? Is it really engaged with your brand and its online presence or are you barely worth a mention? Then start thinking about what you can do around it..
5. Negative isn’t necessary bad: Not everyone is going to love you or your brand. Be prepared for some criticism, and consider it to be a healthy thing (in moderation) – universal acclaim looks suspicious. Criticism can be an effective way of motivating and rallying your own supporters and evangelists.
6. Join in: Start a blog. Or a social networking presence, YouTube channel or Twitter feed – whatever strand of social media fits best. Look at what your most engaged consumers are doing and make sure they are catered for. If they’re posting your ads, make more of them available and shareable. If they’re dying to sample your latest product on their blog, send them a free sample to review.
7. Let them share you: An all-Flash website with all the content locked makes it hard to share. Ditch the splash screens and intros, make sure your site’s content is directly accessible and has short, easy-to-spread URLs. Don’t break links by moving or deleting stuff.
8. Don’t cheat!: Giving yourself fake reviews on Amazon, a ‘fan’ blog run by your PR team, post your latest ad to Digg saying ‘this rocks!’ won’t wash. Not only will you probably get found out and end up causing more negative PR than positive, but since May 2008 it has been against UK consumer law to ‘falsely represent oneself as a consumer’.
9. Speak their language: Don’t blanket-send bloggers press releases, they’ll just bin them and block you. Read what they have already said about you, then talk to them in plain English, avoid hyperbole and buzzwords. Keep emails short and to the point. And don’t send 10MB attachments without checking if it’s OK first.
10. Have fun: The more you show passion for your own brand, the more
your consumers will as well. Don’t be afraid to experiment or try new
things – the flexibility and agility of web 2.0 tolerates failure a lot less
harshly. It’s better to give something a go than do nothing and let your
competitors take the opportunity instead.
