Is there a role for brand building in social media that is simply reputation building?
EQ: By all means. Let’s say you launched a video in your dance studio and that video gets 100,000 views, because you’re teaching how to tango, and you’ve got some brand messaging in that instructional video. It might be difficult to track exactly who came from that video to actually sign up for your dance classes, but it’s a huge brand awareness for your dance studio. There’s definitely a huge brand play involved within social media. Even before social media, Ben and Jerry’s gave away free ice cream cones hoping to get foot traffic into the store, and people would buy more than just that free cup of ice cream. They gave out free ice cream on election day and their Facebook fan base went from around 200,000 to 300,000, they gained 100,000 followers in just one day. That cost them nothing in terms of messaging because they just pushed it out on Facebook. They still have the cost of giving away the ice cream, they’ve historically always done that, but now they’re able to track it better a
