What do you think the businesses in your industry are doing wrong on Social Media platform and what should they really do? Do give relevant examples.

This is a mistake made universally by businesses world over.

They delete the negative comments on their social properties. They should be responded properly as part of a crisis management and reputation management strategy and left on the pages.

Marketers are often challenged by stakeholders who instinctively dictate where a brand should be seen, what content should be posted, etc. But growing your fan base isn't all about going mainstream.

Everyone knows that data-driven strategies are the way to go, because that’s how you understand your customers and cater to them accordingly. So take this into consideration –2 years ago, Facebook was the hottest social media platform in the Middle East. Leading brands invested millions on their Facebook presence to hit their target number of fans. Now, the focus has shifted away from Facebook and the exact scenario is being followed for Instagram because everyone agrees that it’s the fastest growing social media platform. The2 platforms require drastically different approaches because they cater to very different demographics. So where do you draw the line?

The answer is simple – empower your own platform! Because that's the only space that will truly define your brand.

Social media should be used for awareness and customer service but the real customer engagement should be carried out on your own platforms.

If your brand has passed the introduction stage of its life cycle, chances are that you already have a good database of customers who are actively engaging with you. You’re much better off engaging them on your own website / mobile application than moving them around every social media channel that arises, and therefore giving them different messages on every channel.

We as marketers need to acknowledge that each social media platform is designed to cater to its own customers, and that’s the reason why we had to design individual strategies for each platform. But the bottom line is that when a potential customer gets to know your brand for the first time, in the digital space, they don’t care about where they’ve seen you as much as they care about how they can engage with you. Moreover, you will only turn a fan into a customer if your content is customized to cater to them directly, regardless of where you found them, and what the current trends dictate.

The best way to keep your brand positioning consistent and keep your message clear is to stay focused on what your customer wants from you.

Not only will this keep your brand positioning consistent, it will also enable you to gather more customized data to target new customers with the right messages.