The age of social media: consumer’s power to influence brands

Social media has increase the power of consumers in business, much greater than we can expect.

In the past, consumers did have power by recommendation and feedback, they were able to communicate with the brands. However, with the age of social media, communication is faster and broader. Consumers now can talk, in real time, with brands and with other consumers. This is something that have never happened before.

As a modern girl, I would buy a lot of beauty products for myself and my friends. As in the traditional way, I would go to a store finding for advices from shop assistant to find a product that is good for me and fit with my budget. The shop assistant can tell the truth or she can lie, I have no way to find out about that. Nowadays, I can check several product reviews before I make my own decision to buy something therefore, I don’t even need to hear from the shop assistant. It is clearly to see how one customer can affect the shopping behaviour of other customers. Before the existence of social media, big brands could pretty much say anything to their customers without much consideration of something bad would happen in written or if there is something, it could be easily fix or sway around. It is not the story of today, since social media has enabled people around the world to connect with each other much faster and broader with the “share” button.

Image: Cosmetic review from Kjagger

Consumers are the content creator of today’s world. Even there are so many debates over whether tools like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube could be huge distraction from is one big example, which enable it’s user to create media content and publish and they can even earn money from that, which create a whole new job that we call “Youtuber”. Let’s look back to the beauty product purchasing example (yes, cause it is the easiest to understand and connect with). The review that I read or watch online are usually from other consumers that had already use the products or they could be asked to do a review by recommendation, which normally are from personal point of view, but many people seem to enjoy them better than reading the product description. 

On the other hand, consumers are moving toward the companies with the higher frequency using level of social media to communicate about current social issues, which has proven that value creation and generation for any business is now a bigger deal. 

Image: Facebook safety check

First steps to start with planning a content marketing strategy

What you should do first? I think this is a good summary of tips and questions and the first steps to take when planning a content marketing strategy. Thoughts are by Sarita Harbour. It's important to figure out and understand to whom you are creating content, where they hang out and what are their interests. With these Sarita’s thoughts and 4 questions is easy to realize where to start and what you should take in consideration in minimum related to content marketing for your target groups. These questions are understandable even for beginners. Important first steps for all companies, the big and small. 

1. What are the demographics of our target audience? Pinpointing the age, sex, marital status and other key demographic information of your customers will help streamline data-gathering for the remaining questions. It may be that you have two or three different customer profiles within a larger group, and this knowledge is helpful when developing customized content and developing different product lines or services.
2. Where does my target audience hang out? This is one of the most important questions to ask when working on the social media aspect of your content marketing strategy. The most cleverly written web content including articles, blog posts, white papers, and tutorials are wasted if they don't reach your target audience.
   
   Which social media platforms do they use and what activities does they participate in when they are on these sites? Are your typical clients or customers Facebook enthusiasts, LinkedIn members, Twitter aficionados or do they prefer Pinterest? Where do they get their news - the Internet, the radio, television, or print media? Gain a clear understanding of where your audience spends their time and focus your social media interactions and content marketing there. Tip: if you don't know where to start, try Facebook. With approximately 1 billion users, chances are your typical customer is among them.
3. What are their day-to-day concerns? Identify the main concerns of your target audience. Look at the big picture, and don't limit this information to just the problems your business can help them solve. For example, a skin care business targeting middle aged women may discover that their target customers are concerned about aging parents, college-aged children, and finding time to exercise. Using this knowledge can help flesh out a profile of your typical customer, and direct content creation on websites and social media communities built around these concerns. Demonstrating your empathy and understanding of what their lives are like can go a long way to building long-term relationships with your target audience.
4. How can we help? Online consumers have questions that need answers and problems that need solving.They want help to do something (often to save time and/or money), to buy something, or to be entertained. Once you answer their questions concisely, help with problem solving or providing useful or entertaining information, they are more likely to share your content with others, bookmark your site, subscribe to your newsfeeds, friend you, pin you, retweet you and connect with you. Ultimately, they will either purchase from you online or visit your store.
   http://www.zerys.com/content-marketing-blog-1/bid/87029/4-Questions-That-Help-Define-Your-Target-Audience