When starting to monitor a brand’s social media, a question comes to mind: how to define which topics are going to be monitored? The answer is simple: it’s necessary to understand the pillars of the brand. The pillars of the brand are the ideals of a company which support its values and mission, its rules of conduct expected by consumers based on what it defends.
The pillars are the base to shape the brand’s personality and identity, and they’re the ones that make the company stand out among its competition. A brand with established pillars gets stronger when showing that it has concrete ideals and goals.
The monitoring topics are better defined from these pillars. By knowing the company’s pillars, it’s possible to accurately define the topics that will be monitored, and like that, creating specific reports for each brand.
For example, Santander has newest technology as one of its pillars, as shown on the picture below. When studying the brand’s pillars, it’s possible to create the tags and topics with which the monitored posts will be classified, and in this case, topics related to technology.
SOURCE: Santander Bank
For example, the users report problems with the biometry of the bank. Since technology is one of the brand’s pillars, the topic Tag “technology” must be created, and the brand will quickly be able to see which pillars need improvement. Besides, cases like that should be solved quickly, preserving the company’s image, and establishing the ideals that it defends.
What if the pillars are different? In this case, what you should do is compare them with the values of different brands. We suggest using the Value Pyramid from Bain & Company consultancy.
The value pyramid is a reinterpretation of the Maslow pyramid of human needs to understand how a brand and its main competitors are perceived by the public. The new pyramid is focused on ranking the essential values to any brand according to the customers’ perception.
The value elements to be analyzed will be:
Functional: on the base of the value pyramid. Those are basic elements every brand should have, such as “Saves Time”; “Simplifies”; “Quality”, among others.
• Emotional: they’re values such as: “Reduces Anxiety”; “Wellness”; “Fun/entertainment”, and others that go beyond the functional values.
• Life Changing: those are on the top part of the value pyramid. Those are noble values for a product, such as “Motivation”; “Heirloom”; “Belonging”; “Provides hope”; “Self-actualization”.
• Social Impact: it’s the maximum value for each brand. Which brand among those being analyzed generates a social impact on society?
With the value pyramid it’s easy to compare different brands and adding the same tags according to the values mentioned by consumers on social media.
Start building your social listening project now, ing your brands values!