3 “C”s of Successful Digital Marketing in the Lightning Fast World of Social Branding

By Mark A. Leon

Why do most corporate or personal brands fail in this ever evolving and explosive medium of social branding and marketing?  Quite simply high volume and low quality.  We all have that deep sub-conscious that reminds us that we must remain relevant.  With that constant pressure, you feel that need to have content every day and often several times a day.  Image, video, Snap, IG, FB, Live….Oh my.

That spells a recipe for disaster every time.

Taylor Swift was named the most influential Twitter Handle of 2018 and here is the most shocking fact, she sent 13 tweets all year.  Clearly, it is not about volume or frequency of content, but quality, relevancy and believability of the brand or individual.  Of course Taylor is an extreme example being a super celebrity, but the same principle applies in the business community. 

Effective brand, first and foremost, is based on trusting the content and the people behind it and building a safe and collaborative environment of mutual respect.  Once that is established, the key to successful growth around that foundation are the 3 “C’s”:  Creativity, collaboration and conscientious. 

3 “C” Breakdown

Creativity:  One that can drive a person to insanity is routine.  In fact, the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different result.  If your social framework is built around the same images, core content and messaging, you will lose your audience faster than you gained them.  Don’t overextend your platform visibility, learn all the ways you can communicate and diversify your content, imagery and video.  For each and every piece of content or comments, ask yourself the following questions first:

• Is this relevant to my audience?
• Am I am respecting the feelings and values of my audience?
• Is there quality in my content?
• Is this exciting and refreshing?

If you can answer yes to at least 3 of those 4 questions, you will most likely put out content with meaning and provide a positive ROI.

A monthly social media calendar can assist in seeing the big picture of how you design, prepare and later execute and measure against that content.

Collaboration:  Social is not a one way street, though most feel that way.  Learn from your customers; don’t just overwhelm them.  If you sell a product or service, or even yourself (ex: model), your sub-conscious leads you to force out one-sided content.  Remember that your customers want to feel like part of your community.  They want to add value, not just as consumers, but brand ambassadors.  That is a critical piece of advice to remember.  Communicate with them, listen to them and incorporate that into your strategy.

Conscientious:  Every word, every image, every opinion is a reflection of yourself and your brand and it lingers for a long time, even if removed from the public eye.  Be very careful not to cross the line between your “personal” values and the values of your brand or company.  That is a common error of judgement where people act on emotional impulse and not subjective well thought out behavior. 

A great example to hit home on the third “c” are holidays.

Holidays are not a means to an end or even a requirement in the social arena.  They are not a promotional opportunity to push your products and services nor do you have a social obligation to acknowledge.  Participating in the social chatter of a holiday does in fact have a tremendous impact on how your followers see you.

If you call out Martin Luther King Day, are you acknowledging the fight for civil rights with unity, feel you have to support all demographics or acknowledging a social obligation as a socially responsible business to put out content?  It is a tricky question and even trickier set of possible answers.  For some, it is one or more and for others, they don’t even know the answer.  If a billion businesses, small, medium, large or individual put out one tweet, what value does that serve?  Also, it sets the tone you are a follower and not a leader.  It turns out there is a lot more to think about when putting out a GIF saying Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

We are fostering a trend of sensitivity in today’s world of instant content.  For every tweet, there are potentially millions that support and millions that disagree.  You have to pro-actively anticipate that as you structure your strategy to reduce the risk of negativity.

If you follow the 3 “c” rule, you will have a high probability of success as you built your brand and take it to new levels.