areas in which smart companies are not only working to shepherd their brands but are in fact benefiting from their social efforts 1 product innovation by tapping social media for product innovation and customer co creation 2 customer support using an active company twitter account to respond to and even seek out customer service issues and work to solve them on the spot 3 lead generation in pgs case a lifestyle approach takes shape through discussions of the things that teen and preteen girls care about ie music games and celebrities as pg engages its audience with topics they care about it subtly places topics your period and ads tampax in the background 4 marketing on the marketing front there are a number of different possibilities such as conducting costeffective market research improving loyalty deepening consideration and preference and increasing advocacy clearly the shift of brand ownership from the business to the customer can be an opportunity here are five tips for getting started on your own path toward reaping the benefits 1 plan align your corporate goals with the types of social activities you plan to engage in this will take time and may cause frustration for folks who just want to move forward but skip this step at your own peril 2 watchlisten where are your customers having conversations about you or the types of products and services you sell what is the protocol for engaging in those channels its important that you engage in these places outside your companys four walls or your web site as you work on shepherding your brand 3 create customers love good educational content if youre not in the habit of creating it think articles webcasts videos courses and other vehicles 4 engage once youve got a plan in place understand the etiquette of the areas where your customers are talking and have some seed content to get you started where you can begin to engage in the conversation be sure to take a conversational versus sales approach if your customers sense that you are trying to sell them something theyll run the other way 5 build if you find that youre gaining traction in the thirdparty social network space think about bringing the party back to your place with an online community the key to success here is following the four steps above an online community is a great place to energise your advocates and create more customised experiences for your customers shepherding your brand in the new world of social media should be a different experience for each company what works for one certainly doesnt work for all make sure you have a plan and youll find out just how rewarding losing control of your brand can be the author is president of the advertising club and former coo ddb mudra et online published on mar 4 2015 at 0809 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment