Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

No one wants to write a blog that only five people read (unless it’s a company with five customers). The same goes for social networks and most other social media; they’re not social unless people are showing up and participating. Building (and keeping) an audience starts with choosing who to target. That meeting should go like this:

1. Everyone forget their preconceived notions of whether they think the company should start a blog, social network, wiki, or anything else
2. What do we hope to accomplish?
3. Who are we trying to reach?
4. Where are these customers finding information now?
5. What tool best fits our goals and the customers we want to attract?

Take note of the fact that the technology comes last. Every social media expert I’ve talked to agrees that the audience and the objectives determine what tool to use. Taking the above a step at a time:

What do we hope to accomplish?

This can be promoting a new product or service, looking for focus group-type feedback, creating a new service channel, or a host of other things. Each one changes whether the site is open to the public, limited to customers, or limited to a segment of customers. What the goals are also drives what metrics to track.

Who are we trying to reach?

Once you know who can access your social media creation, decide who you want accessing it. Should it be only high-value customers, people looking for information about the company who aren’t necessarily customers, or just customers more likely to use the online channel than any other.

Where are these customers finding information now?

Based on who the intended audience is, figure out why they’ll want to interact with you through social media. Have customers been emailing the same questions, and putting an FAQ online isn’t an option? Are other companies defining your brand online and you need to be part of the conversation to clear up misconceptions? Do you have an expertise to share that customers will want to listen to or read? If whatever tool you’re creating doesn’t fill a need in your customers’ lives, they’ll ignore it and make it a waste of time to maintain.

What tool best fits our goals and the customers we want to attract?

Finally after developing a clear strategy, it’s time to look at what social media tool best suits your needs. Decide whether you want to develop the infrastructure in-house or use a vendor, whether you can use an existing social media site like Facebook, and how integrated into the rest of your online presence you want it to be.

Finally, treat your blog, social network, wiki, or whatever it is you’ve created like any other campaign and promote it. Social media audiences build over time, so have patience, and don’t be afraid to tweak things as you’re learning what works and what doesn’t.

Have your own strategy for building a social media audience? Share it below.