If your audience participates in one of the popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare, then it is important to be engaged in that online environment.

The easiest and most effective way to gain and keep a social media following is by providing value to your audience. If you can provide value to your audience in these new social environments, they will become loyal followers.

Here are some of our favorite examples of companies using social media to engage their audiences by providing value.

1. Lululemon

Lulumon is little known in Europe, but has taken North America by storm. The luxury-priced high quality yoga and sport apparel is fashionable and has taken over gyms and airport waiting areas. Part of their success can be attributed to how they stealthily became part of every twenty to thirty-something’s lives through social media.

Lululemon has corporate Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts, and then each store also has their own. The value provided by each is different. The corporate brand accounts provide value in uploading pictures of soon to be released products, and by sharing information and special stories about the products, fabrics and about the people who work with Lululemon. Each new employee gets a bio and a warm welcome over the internet to their 175,000 fans on Facebook or their 37,000 followers on Twitter. The corporate pages also have contests where fans or followers submit pictures of themselves and friends doing various challenges in their Lululemon apparel. The best entries are then featured on the main pages, and on the website’s blog.

The Lululemon store pages provide value to customers in a different way. Any time you enter a Lululemon store, you could find 10 or even 30 people stretched out on mats all over the store participating in a free yoga class. The stores also offer free yoga classes outdoors all through the year, which provides a great deal of valuable information for followers. New products in store, new employees and answering local yoga and sport questions allows each Lululemon store’s social media presence to be successful.

Some examples

As you can see, there is a team dedicated to ensuring that each reference of @Lululemon and Lululemon in Twitter receives a reply. Lululemon’s Facebook page is as equally successful.

As you can tell, there is a great deal of discussion on the main page, which is every companies dream. This subculture has such a devoted following that although the page is moderated and you can expect an answer from the company within an hour during working hours, fans will stick up for the brand and will ensure that any negative comments get put to rest.

Ok. I guess you’re sick of Lululemon now.

2. Old Spice

Old Spice sticks to their brand, and provides value to customers through humour.

This type of humour is geared towards their target audience, and is mimicked on Old Spice’s Facebook page.

Although it may seem cheesy or silly, each comment that is posted on the Facebook page is “liked” by well over a thousand people, many of whom also make comments. On Facebook whenever someone likes a page, unless they have tweaked their settings, all of their friends will receive a notice in their news feed indicating that “John” has just liked the comment from Old Spice. Not only are Old Spice creating value, but they are also maintaining top of mind awareness with all of their fans and with their followers on Twitter, and with many people who are friends with their followers and fans.

This low cost brand reinforcement is certainly strengthening the brand relationship between this audience and the company.

3. Dell

On Twitter through @DellOutlet and @DellOutletUK, Dell provides value to their target audiences that are on Twitter. Although @DellOutlet the US version, has many more followers than the UK partner site, both provide value by offering refurbished one-off discount computers for sale. Both these social media sites also provide codes for discounts off hardware and software products, which keeps customers engaged and keeps them planning about their next Dell purchase.

One interesting thing that Dell also does with these two outlet sites, is it has the picture and information of the person who will be responding on their Twitter background. This ads a personal touch, and it helps to remind customers that you are not speaking to an automated system- you are speaking to Stephen or Stephanie.

4. Disney

Although their Twitter feeds are simply news and don’t provide anything special to fans (I guess Disney’s audience aren’t on Twitter- their parents are!) they do have a Facebook page that can keep fans occupied for hours.

The value that Disney provides to their audience in Facebook is providing a new way to interact with their favorite characters. Showing trailers for upcoming movies and letting fans share them with friends, they creating a custom Disney experience where their audiences are.

5. Oxfam

Oxfam has created a unique Facebook page, recognising that their supporters are spending time in Facebook. This interactive page allows fans and visitors to get information about races and marathons.

The Sports Events page on the Oxfam Facebook page is an example of a utility very fit for the medium. Using such a social online platform such as Facebook, it provides an easy way for teams to get together, for friends to plan, without sending e-mails, without making calls. It can all be arranged in Facebook.

These are some of our favorite examples of companies using social media to create value for customers. Just to have a page is not enough if you really want to take advantage of the medium and really engage with your audience.

Taking advantage of social media platforms to reach your audience, as in the examples shown, really strengthens brand relationships, and can help to clarify a brand personality to the audience. Showing brand personality to an audience is best demonstrated by the funny, quirky Old Spice messages. What is your brand personality? How are you providing value to your audience?