Social Media Marketing is a Process & not a series of Ideas!
If Somebody tells me that Social Media is all about conversations, I would definitely agree. But, if somebody tells me that what is that one big idea to attract new and existing customers, I would say, Social Media is not meant for them. My sincere, apologies to marketers who aggressively look for one big idea or a series of ideas.
There is no big idea in Social Media, its all about processes involved in Social Media. What does a process mean? How about dovetailing your Social Media activities within Customer Services (Its a process!). How about regularly listening to your customers, by integrating Social Media within the traditional marketing efforts. There is a lot of process involved when it is actually integrated within traditional Marketing efforts. How about involving your customers via Loyalty programs? (customers who are regular purchasers use loyalty programs, they collect points, they ask queries, they ask for redemption of their points) Even this is a process which needs to integrated and trigger conversations
Lets refer some of the known brands using Social Media in Hospitality Industry, Starwood Hotels using Social media purely for Loyalty programs which naturally triggers conversations. Also we have known DELL & HP, majority of their Social media efforts are know via their customer Service & crowd sourcing channels which engages users continuously in queries, solutioning. I really don’t see any big idea here! 
Is there any?
I discovered another instance while talking to my friend who is involved into banking. He gave me some very useful insights about how banking process triggers and generates conversations. For eg: customers are engaged with Banking almost on daily basis, (Account checking, Calling up phone banking officers once or twice in a week to ask for queries / solutions, Reversals, deposits, debits, card loss and many more. How many times people would have talked to themselves when they look at their Bank Account Balance, imagine there are some extra charges which was deducted. You immediately call up customer service to know about it. That clearly indicates that Banking itself is a process to be integrated within Social Media channels, for brands to understand and know everything about their customers.
I was reading some Social Media books and I found an interesting aspect by the Author, he says, always look at a community involved in a brand. For eg: a Product like Volkswagen Beetle can and will have community around it. Another product like Royal Enfield. We can see may clubs organizing Himalayan Trips and people join such communities. However, If you don’t see a community in a brand, then Social Media might not be relevant to them. If at all Social Media is all about communities as addressed by some Social Media Gurus!
I have a different aspect to it. I would rather look, if there is a process within the product / offering. If there is a process which binds your customers regularly with you, then utilizing Social Media is very much relevant to you. Because in such cases, there are higher chances of your customer finding you on Social Media and interact with you. Or rather you integrate your Social Media channels in your traditional marketing and give your customers another channel to interact and resolve their queries instantly. Another good example would be for Retail Industries. Consider the amount of Shopping malls are in the rise and trying to attract customers of all segments (premium, semi premium, middle class etc) one can engage their customers on daily basis. As their customer walk-ins are regular and so as their purchases, in such cases integrating Loyalty programs and Customer Service channels would be one of the best strategies for Retail Industries too.
These facts are real and we very well know about all these and most of the times we ourselves are involved in it and hence conversations are generated by various types of interactions. Is this an Idea? or a process which enables continuous engagement and involvement Please share your opinions!
There are many things to consider, to learn and to do in social media marketing and it can not be accomplished over night or couple of days only. I agree that there are processes and took time to make a high performing marketing.
If you are talking about brands like DELL, HP or Starwoods no doubt they have their own loyal customers who naturally involve in community and continuously engage in conversations. There is no big idea really, I agree that it just a process which helps to manage relationship between brand and customers. But what if you have just developed a new brand? No one knows about your brand and there you need take some serious efforts to stand among crowd. I mean it is all about how you present yourself to attract customers, isn’t it?
I really enjoyed your article
though I could not understand why it is not idea?
Yes Atul, You are right in the case of new brands. However, if we agree that Social Media should have long term strategy as it is not an overnight journey. Then you definitely see that there can be an idea in the form of a process
The first & foremost thing for new brands is to get their audience in place and then engage them via processes. But, then one has to think how do they get their audience first, via viral videos, email lists, Some bit of ADs etc. Or, if it is consumer facing brand, all they need to do is to integrate their social media communication with their offline / traditional communication and start retaining their customers!