Part of the Brand experience is how you communicate with your customers. Is your communication style consistent, recognizable and memorable?
If branding involves customer experience, and it does, then how you communicate to your customers says a lot about your brand. Your communication streams need to be consistent, recognizable and memorable.
Consistent Communication Branding
If you are going to open the lines of communication for your customers, they have to be able to reach you on a consistent basis. They also have to be able to reach you without going through a large number of hoops as well. Just think…”Press 1 for Sales, press 2 for Service…Press 1 to talk to a real person”. Get the picture. People want to talk to people, not machines.
When it comes to social media communications, many of us know that things are not instant. But our customers may not. Do we have info posted on what times we monitor our social media channels? I keep my smart phone with me; but I don’t sleep with it. I try to attempt to get back to people as quick as I can though. How do you handle this?
Many police departments are going onto social media. Part of their consistent branding should be a notice of when their social media channels are being monitored. Furthermore, most police services state that social media is not meant for 911 emergencies. My good friend Scott Mills at the Toronto Police Service monitors his social media channels much of the time. But even Scott needs to sleep. Scott tries to be as consistent in his communication engagements as possible.
And consistent brand communication does not mean throwing back to the customer a canned message. If a customer reaches out to you, reach back in a human way.
Recognizable Communication Branding
Do you have a username that clearly says who you are? My user name is Alpha_Computer on Twitter. It is AlphaComputer on many other platforms. The “computer” part lets people know that I identify myself with computers. Now I do not repair or sell computers. I do computer training; and much of that evolves around social media. I show people how to use the “Stuff”.
One of my favorite all time usernames is “@yousuckatkijiji“. The name says it all. I posted a free ad on Kijij and guess who connected with me and told me I had some misspellings on my ad. I fixed the mistakes. I was grateful to the “Dude” @yousuckatkijiji.
Your username, as long as you can still get a good one, should be instantly recognizable. This helps your customers recognize you in all the clutter. So try to get a name that will instantly help people know who you are. The username Asfd12454 does not do it for me.
Memorable Communication Branding
As much as possible, your communications should be positive and memorable, so that customers will brag about their experiences with you. After all, don’t you want your stuff to go viral. Good or bad communications can go viral, all across the Internet.
Some of my most memorable communications have been with the folks at @Radian6. I have had conversations with them that I still laugh about today. The Radian6 team knows when to be serious and when to make me smile. They know how to make their conversations memorable. I love sharing my great times with the Radian6 folks. Shouldn’t your conversations with your customers bring back fond memories and put a smile on their face from time to time.
Being serious and professional is OK most of the time. But making people smile with funny, yet professional comments, connects to their hearts and minds. But don’t be like the Chrysler guy. Keep those frustrating car drives to yourself. That’s not what you want to be memorable about your brand.
So please remember: Part of the Brand experience is how you communicate with your customers. Make sure your communication style is consistent, recognizable and memorable?
And by the way, I’m taking Friday off. This is my Friday post for you to enjoy today. I hope it gets you thinking.
I love that Red Green line…”If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy“. Hopefully you have found this handy. If you need social media training, social media marketing or someone to talk on social media; people have told me that I am handy. You can Contact Me using my contact page or call me at 902-956-2600.
Jeff,
Great read and great suggestions – as usual! Thanks for such kind words. I’ll be sharing them with our team.
Best wishes,
Trish, Community Manager | Radian6
@@Dayngr This is one of the fun things I get to do with my business Trish. I smile every time I think of you and Radian6. You are all so funny; in a good way. Thanks, ^Jeff
@Alpha_Computer I have to say the connections I have made through social media, much like our friendship, have helped me look at the world as a much smaller place!
@RalphBastarache Both you and Trish @Dayngr are way too fun to hang around with. Both of you are representing Radian6 well. They are so lucky to have both of you. ^Jeff