With a detailed tour of the Social Media Marketing scenario, Lucas Aisa reveals the keys for companies to bet on a presence and active participation in social networks. A clear strategic vision together with a sincere and humble attitude in Social Media will favor a more positive, solid and social customer experience that, far from being enjoyed in private, will be shared, becoming “our best possible communication campaign”.
Lucas Aisa has an extensive professional career linked to Marketing which has allowed him to know and provide solutions to the strategic needs of many companies. From his CeConBe Marketing Services company, he is committed to Social Media Marketing projects that “are integrated and aligned” with the company’s general strategy, far from being considered as independent elements.
During the interviewgranted to Webpositer, sheds in detail and without halftones the realities of the Social Web while dismantling false myths that do not lead to optimal performances. Moreover, regarding the presence and participation of companies in social networks, he believes that there is still a long way to go. In this argument, he cites the latest Everis study where it is certified that more than 40% of companies still do not have their own corporate website. Based on his extensive experience, this Zaragoza of restless soul argues that “there is more presence of small or medium-sized companies than large, as if to these the fear of public exposure still grips them.” However,
Roles of Social Networks for companies: Guidelines for optimal performance
Recognized as one of the great specialists in Social Media Marketing, Lucas Aisa indicates for Webpositer those which, in his opinion, he estimates to be the 4 functions that the start-up fulfills of a correct strategy in social media: Market research, customer service, branding tools and capturing leads.
With the utmost forcefulness, he points out that “unfortunately, there are many companies that focus on the part they think is branding, vomiting content and do not realize that it is still a mere unidirectional action”. Faced with this position, Aisa encourages companies to take advantage of their presence in social networks to discover what their audience and competition say, hence the importance of research. In this scenario, find the right channel to “meet your current customers and learn from their experience.” As a result of this learning, the company will be able to use marketing tools, channels, formats and appropriate languages to communicate to its public the advantages of its products and services, “with the intention of generating those contacts that end up being sales,
In social networks it takes a lot of work and time to achieve the desired notoriety because, as the interviewee argues, “most companies are invisible in their first steps in the networks.” Whoever decides to be in Social Media has to know the characteristics and objectives of their company, clearly establishing what they want to be in social networks. For this reason, it fails to understand “the obsession of brands that in the real world have 100 clients, of pretending to have 100,000 fans”. Although these local brands may achieve certain notoriety and visibility with a lot of effort and constant work, it requires a great knowledge of the applications and a solid business personality to attend and be always within the reach of the audience.
Without a strategy and without objectives, the road not only seems uncertain but leads to negative results. Before making any decision, CalvoConBarba advises that you take enough time to reflect and answer this question: “WHY do we want to be in social networks?”. Sell or think that this presence is free will only report economic expenses and invest a lot of time, “for me, the new money”, qualifies Aisa. But, if something recommends to the companies before taking any action in social networks, it is “to be aware that you have to enter this world with a marked attitude of humility”. The brand or the company are not the protagonists; “the important ones here are the users, whether they are clients or not”. In this position,
Lucas Aisa understands that in Social Media there is nothing established as a norm, but that “we still live a stage of learning in its use”. Leaving aside employment manuals, recycling is continuous as well as the new uses that arise every day making these media more powerful. However, it is firm in considering that social networks alone can not substitute other means. As an experienced consultant in Social Media Marketing, he is committed to “combining all the tools at our disposal to offer the best experience to our clients and adapt to each situation”. In fact, a transmedia approach impacts on a more efficient way for the company to communicate and meet the needs and suggestions of its audience.
Customer (Social) Experience, today,
Critical and scathing, the author of the blog calvoconbarba.com talks throughout this talk about how important it is for any brand to focus all its efforts on finding that desired differentiation. In this line, Lucas Aisa launches one of the arguments that has been highlighted in many of his articles and papers: “In a world of brands that are copied without shame and interchangeable products, the user experience (Customer Experience) emerges as the true differentiating element “.
The value of intangibles (excellence in customer service, simplification of the purchasing process or the sensation that it represents for an individual to be a consumer of a brand) every day are more decisive. It goes further and argues that to this user experience has been added in the current context an essential element: The social. The “exhibitionism” of today’s consumers together with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets with a user always connected and participatory changes the scenario. Lucas Aisa prefers to speak at the present time about Customer (Social) Experience, which consists of “identifying the user-brand contact points and facilitating that this obviously positive experience is easy to share”. It deepens in this argumentation encouraging to the companies that ”
How to achieve the great step: From follower to client? Recommendations to start changing the focus
Lucas Aisa recommends companies to change their path along the path of effectiveness, transparency and respect for the client. Picking up their words, many companies only project the focus towards “their own benefit, forgetting and, sometimes even, belittling and deceiving the client that happens to be a necessary evil,” he declares openly.
Prior to the Social Web that reality was submerged and was not shared. “Today the information flies” and more if it is negative. Faced with this reality, Aisa urges companies to return to classic concepts working with a good product but not from the prism of the manufacturer, but the customer. We must begin to treat the client as a person and not as a mere statistical data, providing a quality service, accompanying him, respecting his times and “being transparent in the processes”.
To get a fan to end up becoming a customer, he proposes two ways. The easy way is to offer economic advantages based on promotions and discounts, “although you will get opportunistic clients who, just as they come by price, will go for a price”, defends this speaker at events such as CongresoWeb or InternetEsTuyo and organizing member of TEDxZaragoza.
The path that implies more effort but more lasting results goes through “listening, accepting criticism, applying what has been learned, being sincere, transparent, accompanying and not forcing, with which you will get higher quality clients, who may repeat and share the experience” .
Among those figures able to gather the public’s feelings, know them and respond to the audience through social networks, Lucas Aisa highlights the important role of the Community Manager. “Possibly one of the most misunderstood figures of the moment”, this leader of online communities has to be, in his opinion, much more than a “state updater”. Although he clarifies that the tasks of a Community Manager of a multinational are not the same as those of a local business, a professional who manages the community of users of a brand on the Internet must be “the link between the company and the real world, that voice that moves the needs, complaints and virtues of the brand from the outside, from the point of view of the user “. It’s more, He maintains that the Community Manager has an essential role in the transmission of the values that define that brand and the proposals that it sends to its consumers. For this reason, far from automatisms that dehumanize the presence in social networks and the “offers to the weight”, only the work, the proximity and the transparency of a brand will have an effect on an optimal and effective visibility in social networks.
The contribution of value with a communication designed to respond to the needs of the client requires an optimal strategy of content generation focused on three axes, “thematic, formats and channels”, which will vary depending on the objectives of the brand and the public to which each communication is directed. In this line, Lucas Aisa is firmly committed to content based on images and videos as they generate greater interaction.
“The brands are invited to this party, not the protagonists”
The future of Social Media Marketing serves as the theme to close this interview. Leaving patent his serious doubts on the evolution of the environment, Lucas Aisa believes that in many occasions the use of social networks is being distorted since, “for me at least, they are born as a space of sincere relationship between equals, between people”. But, in his opinion, more and more brands want to play the leading role to the detriment of users, the raison d’être of social media.
Very critical of the business use of Social Media, he points out that, “when the rules do not favor them […], the brands decide that it is much better to change the rules until they are the ones that suit them. that moment when, instead of listening to and treating the audience one on one, we resort to “bots that pretend to be people or plugins that offer you pre-programmed almost human responses”. These actions show that there is really much to do still to understand how social networks really work.
However, the user will make use of his “selective blindness” by ignoring all that with clear commercial intent, which will force the brands to humanize themselves and show sincerity and transparency in Social Media. To conclude this interview, Lucas Aisa argues that, “if a change does not occur, I would not be surprised if we lived a new separation between the reality of user-level networks, and the commercial reality of them […]. What I do know is that we will continue to share because it is in our essence to be social “.