If you have
yet to adopt a strategy for reaching the multicultural audience via social
media, you can already consider yourself behind the 8-ball. The latest studies prove that Hispanics,
African Americans and Asians over-index for integration of social media into
their daily lives.
It is not
enough to have a social media strategy in place and assume the multicultural
audience will adopt the same usage
habits as the general market consumer. But
the reality of the situation is that social media still has a long way to go to
prove ROI. And many clients simply don’t
have the budgets to hire an entire separate agency to develop stand-alone multicultural
social media strategies.
With this in
mind, here are five ways you can take your existing social media strategy and
evolve it to reach the multicultural audience. Let’s look at this from the
traditional strategic pillars:
Target
Market
The latest
studies show that Hispanics, African Americans and Asians have unique habits
when it comes to social media. However
the common thread running through all of these audiences is that they are
somewhat exclusive. From a targeting
standpoint you can assume that Hispanics are interacting with other Hispanics,
etc. When developing a hub strategy to drive audiences to certain website
landing pages, promotions, offers, etc., this is a key point to keep in mind.
Communication
Objective
When it
comes to brands and the multicultural audience, your objective should never be
to start a conversation between you and the consumer. The dialog you want is
between consumers and their COI (Circle of Influence). You don’t want them
going to your facebook page to comment or tweeting questions to you. You want
Likes, Shares, Retweets, Repins, etc. Your objective is to be an objective
conversation starter.
Product/Service
Benefits
It is wise
to seed benefit messages that are as specific as possible. The multicultural audience already assumes
that brands are not speaking directly to them.
When you generalize your product or service benefits—even to a specific
ethnic group—that assumption still applies. Try to communicate a single-minded
benefit that gets as specific as possible to the individual you are trying to reach.
Benefit
Support
Social media
has allowed consumers almost unlimited potential to research products. Whether
it is word of mouth from a trusted influencer or the latest published data in a
professional journal, it is all there with the swipe of an index finger. Providing support for your brand benefits
that are easy to access will help you get the organic promotion you will need
to make it into the multicultural consideration set.
Tone and
Manner
Often a
throwaway in many strategies, the way in which you speak to this audience is
crucial to success. My mother actually
has a phrase that captures the idea best. When it comes to connecting with the
Hispanic, African American and Asian American audience…”You can pretend you
know me, but don’t pretend you know ABOUT me.”
This means that your communication should be friendly and casual, but
stop way short of empathetic. Pretending
you can empathize with the day-to-day lives of this consumer is bound to trip
you up. And in an age where any misstep
is instantly shared and lives online forever, it’s just not worth taking the
chance.
The
multicultural audience is a great place to build brand advocates who will
create loyal and trusted consumers for your brand. If you don’t take advantage and take the
right approach, you will miss a tremendous growth opportunity.
--And, fade
to black…