Limited engagement strategy

The restaurants and Alosra have done a good job at adding social media to their marketing. Alosra in particular has made real progress in this area. But as with all things there is more that they could do, especially in engagement. Next to nothing is happening in this area, especially with the restaurants.

Social media is not just another marketing channel. It is an opportunity to engage with customers and potential customers. While marketing is a broadcast medium, social media is a conversation. An opportunity to get to know the customer and for them to see behind the brand.

But more than that, social media offers the opportunity to build a tribe. To unite people around your brand. For them to engage not only with you, but one another.

This is a powerful approach because it gives customers a sense of ownership over the brand. It encourages them to become brand advocates and make word of mouth recommendations.

So what does BMMI and it subsidiaries need to do to improve engagement and build a tribe among its followers?

Create sharable and engaging content

People wear a Rolex watch or buy an Apple device because it says something about them. People share content online because it makes them look a certain way. The content helps reinforce the image they wish to project. It creates an association, makes them appear more intelligent, witty, caring and so on.

Unfortunately much of the blog content that BMMI Group or GSS produces fails in this regard. A blog post on health and safety or the GSS team in Bahrain is not content that a user would read and would be unlikley to share.

A user is unlikley to read many of the blog posts found on BMMI websites, let alone share them.

We are not suggesting that the content is without value. Prospective clients want to know you're committed to health and safety. It is also good to talk about the people behind your organisation. But these posts do not encourage engagement.

Alosra sets a better example in this area. Many of the posts they share include delicious looking food that exudes quality. People want to associate with that and so will share it.

Alosra do a good job at posting delicious looking food that people will want to share.

BMMI Shops has the potential to adopt a similar approach with cocktails. This is sharable content. Unfortunately there is no built in ability to do this.

BMMI Shops, BMMI Group, the Restaurants and GSS all need to learn from Alosra. They need to focus on creating content that people will want to share and giving them the means to do so. Content that expresses an opinion about some aspect of their business. That or which makes the reader appear in a positive light when they share it.

Gary Vaynerchuck and his website the Wine Library are an excellent example of successful content creation. Using social media marketing, he grew his family wine business from turning over $3 million a year to over $60 million in just five years (source).

A key component of creating engaging content is the choice of title and imagery. Unfortunately BMMI Group and GSS are both demonstratably weak in this area. Too many posts rely on photos of employees. Also titles are more descriptive than engaging.

Take for example the post on BMMI Group about the artwork of Mahmood Mohammed. The post's title is “Mahmood Mohammed displays art in Malja” and leads with a photo of Mahmoud. This doesn’t motivate anybody outside of the company to give the post a second look.

BMMI has stories of interest. They just fail to present them in a compelling way.

But if we gave the same post the title “Accountants can be creative too” it is more engaging. This works even better when the associated imagery shows off the artwork. It is a post that people working in finance would unite around. You could even encourage other people in the company to submit their own artwork and share this in an ongoing manner.

Small changes to the choice of imagery and title can make a story much more compelling.

In short BMMI needs to ask one simple question when writing - why would somebody share this?

Write for prospective customers, not employees

Part of the problem is that BMMI Group and GSS seem to write more for an internal audience than an external one. There is nothing wrong with communicating with your own staff, but a company blog is not the place to do it.

A blog or social media channel like LinkedIn should focus on demonstrating thought leadership. They are the company's opportunity to show that they are leaders in their field. Their chance to communicate best practice. Best practice that the reader can then share. This adds to their own credibility, while also spreading your brand.

Featuring staff is a good idea. But an interview where they share best practice is more compelling.

For example a blog post such as “Yousif Salem visits Ghana” teaches the reader very little. It will be of little interest to anybody outside the company. Instead, GSS could have interviewed Yousif. They could have discussed the role of I.T. in delivering facility management. An interview in which he shares tips and best practice. A post like that establishes GSS's expertise and also provides value to the reader.

Post on a schedule

Another key component in building an online following is posting to a schedule. Whether social media or a blog post, it is important to be regularly putting out good content. Only then will people come to expect your content and bother to follow you. It is also a chance to ensure your brand is front of mind and not forgotten.

Alosra recently increased its Facebook following from 4252 to 16876. This happened when it started posting quality content on a regular schedule. Yet the other BMMI subsidiaries have not followed suit.

Delilah’s has no website. Yet almost three weeks passed between its latest two posts on Facebook. But they are not alone. Both Café Amsterdam and La Vinoteca Barcelona are inconsistent at best.

The BMMI Group blog tends to publish posts in batches. At one point, they released four posts within minutes of each other. This was after almost three weeks of silence. The most recent post under the recent post section of BMMI Shops was released over a year ago.

This is not an exercise in pointing fingers. This is not the fault of any one individual. Instead it is representative of how the organisation as a whole views digital. How there is a lack of commitment in terms of time and people to make effective use of the platform.

BMMI Group often publishes posts in batches.

Encourage interaction

As we have already said, it is not enough to push content out to followers. To build an engaged following you must encourage interaction. Interaction between the brand and customer. But also between customers. This stimulates sharing and encourages loyalty.

As a general rule of thumb, there appears to be little attempt to encourage followers to interact. The exception is Alosra. But even they have had limited success because of limited opportunities. They have not been able to establish that kind of relationship with their followers.

Even Alosra is rarely able to engage customers in conversation.

Take every opportunity to ask users to contribute. Encourage them to post photos of their meals at one of the restaurants. That or share their advice on supply chain management. Alosra could run a competition for the next recipe they publish. The possibilities are endless.

Even better, give users a sense of ownership by asking them to contribute to your products. Ask them to vote on which new meals to add to the menu or what products they want stocked at Alosra. The more engaged and listened to they are, the more loyal they will become.

Always respond

Another area of weakness in BMMI’s approach to engagement is they often fail to respond to users who do post. Across the majority of subsidiaries there appears to be little commitment to responding to users comments.

Often they fail to respond at all. This makes users feel unappreciated and discourages others from bothering.

Even when BMMI does respond they often take too long to do so. This kills any momentum around a potential conversation.

Finally, there is a tendency to only respond to complaints. This is particularly true on Trip Advisor. This is encouraging people to complain. BMMI shouldn't ignore complaints, but neither should they ignore positive comments. BMMI should acknowledge anybody who takes the time to contribute.

There is a tendancy to focus on negative comments. But it is just as important to repond to the positive ones.

Recommendations for building an engagement strategy

From reviewing BMMI social channels and blogs it is obvious that there is a lack of training and resources to utilise these platforms to their full potential. We would therefore recommend the following steps are taken:

BMMI provides training to everybody posting content to social channels and blogs.
BMMI creates a social media policy outlining best practice and requirements of those posting to social channels and blogs.
BMMI provides tools to content creators allowing them to schedule posts and manage interactions with users in a timely manner.
BMMI appoints a social media coordinator to create standards, provide training and support the regular publishing of content.

Limited engagement strategy