Perera and Sons joins the social media marketing world. Signs of things to come?
June 1, 2011 10:52 am
At the time of writing this article, the very well known bakery, Perera and Sons is just 3 fans away from reaching its first 200 on their Facebook page. Given that the page came up only today it’s a fantastic achievement and the first part of any social media campaign which is to create awareness and generate interest seems to be going well for them.
Social media marketing is no longer a new term to any business anywhere in the world. Everyone knows the hype that spreads through Facebook and there are a large number of success stories of brands snowballing the ‘likes’ into an unstoppable popularity run. (A quick refresh of the Facebook page shows 201 likes).
This form of marketing is no bed of roses however. Within Sri Lanka the understanding of this medium is sadly not all that great and there is a long way to go before traditional and well established companies begin making their move over to it as well. What most brands also do not realize is that social media is very much about the consumer rather than the company in the sense that the power to create change lies within your followers. That said it is heartening to see Perera and Sons, which falls into the aforementioned category, embracing this medium and its tools in what seems to be a very promising way.
In this Tech Rumble post I will be looking into the ways Perera & Sons has decided to tap into the social media audience as well as the possible pitfalls in each method followed by a social media tool it seems they may have missed out on.
This has, in the world of social media marketing, become a bread and butter resource for brands to connect with their audience. It’s vital because with close to 700 million users, Facebook is your best chance of tapping into a huge amount of people which can only multiply your presence. Being on Facebook however has its responsibilities and difficulties. Due to the open nature of discussion that happens on the boards, a slip up by the company in any way be it online or offline can mean the death of it. Creating a Facebook page with the expectancy of a company’s popularity growing automatically is the wrong idea (and it is unfortunate to see many brands thinking this way). When a company creates a Facebook page they have to understand that the exchange for tapping into such a large potential audience is that they will be the ones to control your presence online and eventually offline. Online, the company can only guide its followers while offline they must simply ensure that their business stays responsible like never before.
For Perera and Sons a single bun with a strand of hair on it or a single bad experience with an employee will within two minutes find its way onto the brand’s page at which point the company can only watch people begin to comment in outrage whereupon the news sharks will probably tear it apart.
Facebook pages means potential audience and brand growth. It also means handing the keys to the consumers. It means transparency and in the long run, all of this can actually be converted into a good thing for the company since it simply increases its responsibility towards its customers.
A powerful tool which has been almost completely ignored by most companies in Sri Lanka for far too long Perera and Sons has also decided to make use of this. While Facebook pages allow for connecting with audiences in a great way, Twitter is by far the better tool for getting out updates as fast as possible to a brand following. Twitter was built keeping real time data consumption in mind while Facebook was built to satisfy real time discussion. Thus, updates from a brand Facebook page are unlikely to register with a user until he/she checks their news feed specifically. In the case of a Twitter user however an instant update will most likely mean that it will be seen and more importantly, shared almost immediately.
A good example of this is that I discovered the Facebook page for Perera and Sons only through Twitter. Like the Facebook pages however, Twitter comes with its own scary news that 140 character information bursts have to be treated extremely carefully. The frequency at which a company tweets out information has to also be considered because when companies tweet things incessantly this backfires causing the community to stop interacting with the brand. Retweeting every compliment received, replying to every single Tweet may sound like a decent idea in theory. In practice however @kikcolalk proved that it’s enough to become a joke within a community.
The mistake many individuals and companies make alike is that they assume Twitter to be a hyperactive version of Facebook. This is wrong. Twitter is simply a medium of sharing information instantaneously. Building a conversation around Tweets is a terrible idea and wherever possible people should be directed towards blogs or Facebook posts.
Foursquare
An extremely interesting innovation is that P&S has also decided to use location based networks in its social media marketing campaign. This completes the circle well by giving users not only the chance to interact but it by also giving the community incentive to do so. For those who do not know Foursquare is a mobile “check in” service where users can “check in” to a place where they are (in this case, P&S) and share this information with their friends via the Foursquare network, Twitter or Facebook and a few other services if they wish to do so. This may sound intrusive but it is working and people are slowly embracing this form of social updates. The incentive to use Foursquare comes from its gamification where users can unlock achievements or badges based on their activity with the area and can even become Mayor of the location if they are the most frequent visitors.
This is also useful to the brand using Foursquare to promote its business since it knows at any given time who is interacting with their brand the most as well as who is within the premises at any given time. Brands can use this information to reward users for loyalty and to carry out special promotions such as ones where by checking into a location one is eligible for one free item. The real pitfall in using location based services is that people can game the system by checking in when they are not really there and things can get out of hand fast if not controlled well.
Blogging
One piece of the equation that has been left out from the P&S social media marketing strategy is the keeping of a blog. Facebook has its purpose of bringing a community together. Twitter has the ability to share news efficiently. Foursquare gives reason for people to visit locations and interact with the brand physically. What is missing is a way to share complete pieces of news with the community you are trying to build online. The official website should be kept separate from this and only official press releases should find their way on to the website news section. New product line launches and other such information are ideal to be published on a blog using services like Tumblr since they are extremely easy to interact with and share.
Including this tool in their social media arsenal would be invaluable to P&S and any other company thinking of riding this marketing wave.
Final thoughts
Will P&S find success in this medium? Keep in mind that success should be measured by increased revenues proportionate to the effort put into a marketing campaign. Brand awareness sometimes is simply not enough. From their current efforts I am seeing a lot of support and enthusiasm from the online community in addition to plenty of advice. Provided they listen to the feedback and keep innovating it seems that P&S might actually be on to a good thing. Brands in Sri Lanka, pay attention. This might very well turn out to be a case study for many of us.
You can like Perera and Sons on Facebook here and follow them on Twitter here.
To learn more about the author Adnan Issadeen you should take a peek at http://identyme.com/adnanissadeen
