Way back in 1983 David Ogilvy wrote a book titled “Ogilvy on Advertising” at the time it was a real eye opener for those in Advertising, Marketing and PR. Today there his words of wisdom still very much apply. Six points really stand out and are vital to a brands success in Social Media.

1. Know Your Product Positioning

Before you even consider entering your brand into Social Media you must know how you want to ‘position’ your product. David deinfes ‘positioning’ as “what the product does, and who it is for.’ For your brands sake, please do not enter into Social Media without having a clear idea about your product/service’s positioning. Social Media is ruled by the consumer so if you don’t have a clear idea about your products/service’s positioning, your social media audience will do it for you and it may not be the position your want.

2. Define Your Brands Image

Knowing your brands image or personality is just as important as defining your products ‘positioning’. David believes your brands image is “an amalgam of many things – its name, its packaging, its price, the style of advertising, and, above all, the nature of the product itself”.  When it comes to social media, I believe you also need to consider ‘tone of voice’ as part of your brands image. After all, your will be using written communication on Social Media rather than verbal so how your say/write what is uber important.

3. Understand ‘Word of Mouth’ (WOM)

David states that “It sometimes happens that advertising campaigns enter the culture.” He goes on to say that “nobody knows how to do it on purpose. At least I don’t”. Today this does seem a little naive. These days we understand ‘fans’, ‘influencers’ and ‘brand advocates’. These are the people that can bring your marketing message to the culture. Reaching and activating these consumers can create ‘word of mouth’. In fact, there are now a number of marketing agencies that specialise in Word of mouth marketing. Understand how ‘word of mouth’ happens online before you enter the Social Media arena.

4. Take a Lesson from Direct Response

Whether posting a blog article or running paid media on Facebook, you must know ‘timing’. David believes that we all have a very big lesson to learn from direct response advertising. He says that “general advertisers broadcast their commercials in expensive prime time, when the audience is at it’s peak. But direct response advertisers have learned that they make more sales late at night”. When you think about readership on social media (particularly given the global nature of this media) you really must consider when is the best time to be publishing your blog articles, tweeting and posting status updates on Facebook. The obvious is not always the most effective.

5. Use Headlines That Stand Out

David says “on the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that unless your headlines sells your product, you have wasted 90 per cent of your money”. Today the same applies. Unless your headline sells your message 90% of social media users will read your message. This applies to blog articles, Facebook posts and Tweets.

6. Understand & Use Research

“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals”. Today, more so than ever, this statement rings true. In our social online world you cannot ignore what the people are telling you. This means using social monitoring tools. Don’t do it and your brand will suffer.

If you’re interested in Ogilvy’s current views on Social Media here is a great video from John Bell one of Ogilvy PR’s Global Managing Directors. In this video John talks about how social media has caused a shift in consumer behaviour.

Do you have your own Social Media lessons you want to share? Leave us a comment below and share you wisdom.

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