Susan Bratton makes her living by enriching others' lives. As CEO of Personal Life Media Inc., she oversees a platform that produces and distributes podcasts, blogs, virtual workshops, and downloadable training systems meant to motivate and inspire. Handling the content, talent, and monetization of Personal Life Media, Bratton is an expert at keeping her ear to the ground, seeking out valuable trends and tools, and filtering out the noise.
As CEO of a wholly digital publishing system, Bratton relies on social media to help her keep track of her company's reputation, as well as to attract and convert new customers. It has also provided immense personal value. In spite of her enthusiasm, however, Bratton approaches social media marketing with a good dose of restraint and common sense. To her, it is far better to slowly and methodically focus on one platform at a time -- and one customer at a time -- than to spread yourself too far and too thin, or worse, start something and abandon it after one lonely "Hello world!" post.
iMedia spoke with Bratton on social media and consumer trust, building relationships with key influencers, the hottest new apps and platforms out on the market, and how her Facebook page is overflowing with genuine affection from her customers.
iMedia Connection: What should you keep in mind when using social media to build consumer trust?
Susan Bratton: Know what is being said about you online -- use a reliable reputation monitoring service -- and have an escalation strategy for damage control.
Set goals for how you'll measure consumer trust in the social sphere and seek continual improvement of those metrics.
Don't use an avatar. Let real people from your company communicate with your customers and prospects.
Keep in mind the global footprint of social media and consider cultural differences in online etiquette.
Make sure you understand the privacy settings of every social site in which you participate.
Unless you have a big team, I also suggest you start with one feedback loop and make sure you monitor it closely before adding other channels. As a brand it is not imperative to be everywhere all the time; you do get to choose. If you choose Facebook, then get a Twitter account and let customers know they should find you on Facebook. It's OK to pick just one!
iMedia: Have you seen any cases where social media was unnecessary, or even harmful, for a brand or campaign?
Bratton: Scores of them every single day -- mostly in situations of abandon -- blogs that still say, "Hello World!" (the default initial Wordpress post)... Twitter accounts where the last post was a year ago...
iMedia: How do you identify and build relationships with key influencers in a particular field?
Bratton: Use keywords to track customers in conversation via reputation monitoring services. Reach out to them in their preferred medium.
For example, I track "my new podcast" and follow anyone on Twitter who tweets this phrase with my Talk Show Tips account. They follow me back, check me out, and often convert into customers.
Another great service is RapLeaf. RapLeaf will tell you who the most vociferous social mavens are out there tracking your brand (good or bad) and how many followers each of them has. They can also give you a rank order list of your biggest influencers by follower from your own customer database in addition to social nets.
Next page >>
