We cannot evaluate emotions and feelings in the same way we evaluate or measure income
The creative director and current CEO of SrBurns ensures that the price is not the only determining factor in the choice of a brand or companies. According to Gaby Castellanos, the best evaluation of a branding strategy lies in the purchasing decision itself, a direct reflection of consumer loyalty.
When it seems that the reductions in the prices of the article and the aggressive offers become the only selling strategy for brands and companies, the Social Media Strategist & Brander Gaby Castellanos insists that the loyalty of the community and the interaction with it are factors keys to generate customers.
In a recent interview with the agency Webpositer, this opinion leader in the Social Media states that “if you are able to make your consumer fall in love, you can have them choose you against ten competitive products on a supermarket shelf. If you do not fall in love, you will choose the cheapest or most convenient one.
Elected among the 40 most influential people in on the Internet, and the “Most important personality in the advertising sector” in 2010, Gaby Castellanos states that “communities need to be cared for and spoiled, that means time and love. You have to see the consumers as friends, if you are able to see them like that, it will cost you little to make them loyal ».
In this sense, Castellanos recalls that the digital environment has evolved, “has become socialized”, and the user of web 2.0 / 3.0 expects that sites and microsites “connect” with life. Today, an online relationship with the user or client is insufficient through the traditional contact form, according to the expert.
Social Media Manager and Community Manager
The founder of Netthink Carat (Aegis Group) and the agency SrBurn’s advocates that the interactive communities generated around the brands should be managed by professionals with a very defined profile and high doses of empathy with the user .
«Social Media is full of emotions and feelings. If you are a cold and rational person, it will cost you a little more. If you are a close person, who mimics your surroundings, who listens, it will be much easier for you. Emotions have little rationality and feelings less, as well as love, “explains Gaby Castellanos.
The expert in social media and interactivity recommends starting with some basic guidelines to extinguish fires in the network: “Keep calm, think twice, understand that the first reaction is wrong, and a lot of patience” are some of his recommendations. “Common sense” and well-defined business objectives are also essential.
Regarding the Community Manager, the president of Club de Interactivos and the Section of the Social Media Club have affirmed that their functions are analogous to those of an account executive of an advertising agency, that is, «it is the agency in the client and the client in the agency; the community in the brand and the brand in the community; the voice of consumers in the company, who knows what consumers / users feel and has the pulse of the audience ». However, the Social Media Strategist emphasizes that these community leaders must be endorsed by a strategic and creative team in the performance of their duties.
Main misconceptions of the SMM
SrBurns is the interactive producer responsible for developing Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategies for Cuatro, Cacique, Sony Ericson, Vodafone, Lexus, Red Innova, Save the children, Dodot and The Walt Disney, among other brands. The extensive experience of its CEO, who started his career 26 years ago, allows him to detect the main mistakes companies make when they launch into Social Media.
In the words of Gaby Castellanos, many brands consider that Social Media Marketing is an area of marketing, communication, advertising or interactive PR, “when it is simply all of it. It is sociable communication ».
Another extreme with which he claims to run into is that of the companies that consider it to consider a “dangerous” environment, when escaping from the control of the brand and falling into the hands of the consumer, “when it is the voice that users use to say what they need. Perseveres Castellanos in Webpositer.
This conception of Social Media leads companies and brands to discount their importance, dedicating a small budget item or putting the communities in the hands of “scholars”, he says, despite being “the only direct contact with the consumer” in many cases.
Achievement of business objectives
Gaby Castellanos recognizes the difficulty of measuring ROI with the same parameters with which other business objectives are calculated.
“We can not evaluate emotions and feelings in the same way that we evaluate or measure income,” acknowledges Castellanos, who adds that, despite everything, it is worth risking because “emotions, properly handled, result in fidelity,” and the latter is reflects in the purchase decision.
The CEO of SrBurns has received a multitude of awards throughout his 26 years of experience dedicated to the marketing and advertising sector, including those of events such as New York Festival Awards, Cannes Lions Awards and Cyberlions, FIAP Awards, One Show Interactive Awards, Raton Awards, IBEST, ANDA and Honoree Webby Awards.