I have been reading about using social media for finding brand evangelists. In a portfolio of likes and followers, not all are equal. The most important followers in social media are those that have the largest networks and actively evangelize the brand.

A growing number of consumers are using social media as a tool for search and evaluation stages when making a purchase decisions. To increase the likelihood of a consumer choosing their brand, organizations need to find and support those that actively evangelize the brand. In a recent blog by Marketing Sherpa, 4 tactics were provided for finding and supporting these evangelists.

1. Find out who they are and what they want- Use tools such as Google Alerts or Radian 6 (see below) to determine where the conversations are taking place, who is starting the conversations and the what is the content of the conversations
2. Humanize the brand and bring it to life- Create a brand story; determine if the brand was a person what would its values, persona, and mission be; and develop a strategy for communicating in a personable way and not corporate-speak.
3. Use what you have learned and enter the market- Develop clear goals and a plan for implementing them.
4. Make your website socially relevant- Websites must be relevant for what consumers are looking for and don’t force transactions to come to website if it is inorganic to the nature of the relationship.

When drawing consumers to the website it is valuable to set up landing pages so that visitors can be tracked to find where they are coming from. This is a feedback loop for the first tactic.

It all comes down to listening. This can be done through free tools such as Google alerts, and old-fashioned manpower. But if you have the money and volume for it, tools such as Radian 6 can also help. Its software can manage the flow of information so that as conversations come in, the sentiment can be assessed and over time the data aggregates. From there it can be determined who the brand evangelists are and where are they communicating. The organization can then make ensure that those brand evangelists have support to be heard and build relationships.

No matter how you do this is will cost either time or money.

Sources

MarketingSherpa 4 Tactics for Finding and Winning Hyper-Social Consumers

Radian 6-Find Your Brand Evangelists