In case you missed it, Where 2 Get It recently announced the acquisition of Brandify—an industry leading platform that evaluates and provides specific recommendations to improve a brand’s online presence. Our CEO Manish Patel had this to say:
“Whether you are a CMO, social media manager, marketing manager, or digital marketing manager, the acquisition of Brandify underscores our commitment to deliver technology and services required to quantify local marketing both nationally and locally.”
Over the past two weeks, we have been introducing our clients and blog readers to Brand Score—the cornerstone of the new Brandify 360 Platform—through a four part blog series titled: Where 2 Get It Presents Brandify 360. In the first instalment of the series we discussed Brand Score & SEO and the effect a proper local SEO strategy can have on your Brand Score. Part two looked at the importance of data quality and the implications of Brand Score & Local Listing Management.
Continuing this series, we plan to further explain how traditional elements of online brand management—like SEO, business listings, social media and reviews—can contribute to Brand Score.
In this, the third instalment of the four part Where 2 Get It Presents Brandify 360 series, we will focus on brand management via social media and the role that social engagement plays in influencing a company’s Brand Score.
As we will discuss in our upcoming eBook (available for download very soon!), combined advances in social media, local targeting, and mobile communications have produced a massive shift in brand messaging and customer engagement. The reality is, customers—both existing and potential—are more likely to turn to social channels (largely from their mobile devices) to interact with brands for various types of customer support.
In fact, a recent study by Deloitte (covered by the Wall Street Journal) clearly demonstrates just how willing shoppers are to turn to their smartphones for in-store assistance—even when a store clerk or manager could be standing just a few feet away!
What’s more, shoppers are not only turning to their phones to gather product information, but they are also seeking brand information. To that end, where do most consumers gather their brand sentiment these days? You guessed it, social media.
Social media provides a forum for consumers to tap the collective hive mind of their social connections to gather insights and make socially informed purchase decisions. It’s imperative that brands facilitate and participate in this social engagement by:
However, scale still remains an obstacle for many brands. How does a CMO or brand manager charged with monitoring the online presence of thousands of business locations manage all this content sharing, engagement and customer feedback at scale? In addition, how does this person (or team) measure the impact of their online marketing efforts across the expansive social media landscape?
With the Brandify 360 Platform, brand managers can track and analyze meaningful social metrics across brand locations and over time. For example, the screenshot below shows the Brandify Analytics Dashboard’s ability to chart Facebook community growth and engagement (measured in Facebook ‘Likes’ and ‘People Talking About This’ respectively) across different store locations.
In addition, corporate brand managers can track real in-store traffic as measured by the check-in feature on Facebook and Foursquare. This dashboard is not only significant in that it measures the absolute level of real in-store traffic, but it also provides insights into the change in growth of check-ins per location over time. This is important because it allows corporate brand managers to easily understand which locations are performing well and which ones may be lagging behind—and then take action to correct these imbalances!
For example, a large divergence in check-ins for one brand location relative to other locations may signal a corporate brand manager that something is amiss. The Brandify 360 dashboard will surface this imbalance quickly and clearly and signal the brand manager to dig deeper. Maybe one location is seeing fewer check-ins on Foursquare because it’s category is tagged incorrectly, ie: it is labeled “fast food” when it’s really a full service restaurant.
At the end of the day, by tracking social engagement through metrics like checks-ins, star ratings and community growth (all measurable through Brandify 360), brand managers gain powerful insight into the social signals that have significant influence over a consumer’s purchasing behavior.
These social signals speak to the collective hive mind of social connections which many consumers tap into when considering purchasing decisions. Monitoring and understanding these social signals allows brands to leverage consumer data to take action and better manage their brand identity. This, in turn, results in a better brand experience for customers.
Sign up to receive your complimentary Brand Score—learn more about how the Brandify 360 Platform and Brand Score can help you take control of your online brand management efforts. Where 2 Get It can help you stay connected to your customers both online and in the store with our end-to-end enterprise local digital marketing suite.
You can get started with a free Brandify trial at brandify.com. There are also two upcoming webinars on Thursday, May 22nd and Thursday, May 29th. Register today!
Team of Marketing Experts
