Whether you are creating a Facebook fan page to help create awareness about your brand, using Twitter to publish links to news stories about your partnership with an animal rescue organisation or posting YouTube videos of an entertaining television commercial for your product, social media is becoming an increasingly important marketing, public relations and communications tool for pet product companies.

Global social media developments

In fact, research by the New York-based media-marketing consultancy firm Universal McCann shows that participation in social media is on the rise across the globe, and that active internet users – people who use the internet every day – are increasingly focusing their online life around social networking sites such as Facebook, as opposed to other types of social media, accordingly to a spring 2009 Universal McCann survey of 22,729 active internet users – the largest –ever global social media survey. The survey showed that 78% of active internet users in India, 73% in China, 63% in Korea, and 50% in Germany had managed a social network profile. Online in general, and especially within the context of social networking sites specifically, video usage has grown. For example, the Universal McCann survey found that about 80% of active internet users in the United States, Spain and Korea had watched a video online. “Social media is a very fast-evolving landscape, and one that is taking an increasingly important role in consumer’s digital lives,’ the Universal McCann survey stated. “Brands that want to engage with consumers in these spaces need to understand how and where and why they are using the many different platforms that enable content creation and sharing.”

Opportunities for the pet industry

Some social media experts familiar with the pet industry say that the combination of a large number social media consumers who are interested in pets and the small number of pet-related companies actively involved in social media provide an opening for pet-related businesses to jump in. “There is a huge opportunity for pet manufacturers and pet companies to get into this space,” said Michael Ayalon, CEO and Founder of Petwebdesigner.com who specialises in pet marketing and social media and started a pet online marketing group on the professional networking site Linkedin that has more than 1,000 members. Though he specialises in the pet industry, Ayalon points to companies outside the industry, such as the airline JetBlue and Domino’s Pizza as examples of companies that do “a great job on social media.” Here are some tips from experts – and clues from social media research on how to grab that opportunity and use social media for marketing pet products successfully.

Listen first to find out what your customers want from the social media experience. For example, according to independent technology and market research company Forrester Research, which has conducted extensive social media research, 42% of online US adults want a social application from their favourite brands – but one-quarter of those adults want discussion forums from those brands while one-third of teens want a profiles on social networking sites.

Avoid the hard sell, and focus on relationship building instead. “Nobody wants to be beat over the head with advertising – otherwise they will stop following you on Twitter or not be a fan on your Facebook page anymore,” Ayalon says, comparing the hard sell on social networking sites to walking into a party, shaking hands with each new person you meet, and immediately telling them to buy your dog food. “(On social networking sites) people get to know you through your posts, and once they like you they will be more than happy to share your business. It is a much softer sell.”

Provide relevant information and value your readers. For example, research by social, search and viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella, author of The Social Media Marketing Book, shows that the word ‘you’ tops the list of the twenty words most likely to be ReTweeted – forwarded on by a Twitter user to his or her followers. Other top words and phrases include ‘please ReTweet’ (or, in Twitter shorthand ‘please rt’) , which Zarrella holds up as indication that calls to action are effective. Another word on the list is ‘free’ – which, accordingly to Zarrella, shows that importance of providing value. In that vein, Twitter is a great tool for providing simple coupon offers to your followers, says Noah Mallin, Director of social media for New York-based search engine marketing firm Reprise Media. “If they are exclusive (for Twitter followers) that will help you build followers –people will feel they are being taken behind the scenes and given access that other consumers are not.

If you blog, do not just blog about your products. According to Forrester Research, only 16% of US internet users who read corporate blogs believe them to be a credible source of information. That does not necessarily mean blogs are a waste of time, but they should be more than a promotional tool, and should fit in with a larger strategy, researchers say.

Make a commitment. Experts recommend hiring a social media director, or at least devoting part of an employee’s time to social media, to make absolutely sure that customers – fans and followers – are being engaged and responded to in a timely manner. The use of social media can backfire if a company starts up without viewing it as a long-term commitment, and then stops its efforts. Mallin gives the example of a car company that set up social profiles around a game to support the launch of a new car model – then abandoned the project as soon as the launch was over, leaving thousands of fans hanging. Instead, the company should have found a way to keep those followers even as the company moved on to a new goal or project. “That way you are not doing the same work over and over again,” Mallin says. “If it is done right, you turn people from being casual fans to being evangelists who are really going to spread the word about your company and your company’s values.”