Manfrotto, the professional camera equipment manufacturer, has become increasingly aware of the digital evolution and has begun to develop a new strategy and brand positioning to broaden its customer base.

The company is adopting the brand position “Imagine More” and will launch a range of products and accessories for camera enthusiasts and “social recorders”. The company says that the surge in digital photo sharing across social networking and photo-sharing websites will help it broaden the brand appeal through strategic digital PR and marketing.

Being aware of the fact that trend chasing and random leaps into social media will not enhance their bottom line is a must, and rather strategic social media participation – specifically the alignment of social media activities with their business objectives and target demographics will better serve the company.

Believing that there is crossover potential for its brand from the professional photographer to people involved in amateur sports clubs and wildlife photography enthusiasts, for instance, will allow the company to formulate a strategic social media plan.

Manfrotto, owned by Italian company the Vitec Group, will launch a new product range next year that includes camera tripods, bags and lighting equipment targeting the wider audience. However, if they have successfully established a connection with their target demographic they cannot merely deliver a pushy sales pitch. Instead they must engage effectively through the use of constructive and engaging content.

Manfrotto must remember that while content creation is fundamental, it will not be successful on its own. Just as with traditional PR, digital outreach is a key aspect of an effective social media campaign. Online PR is all about excellent relationship management – understanding the needs and wants of key “web influencers” in your market, and the best approaches to use with them.

Nevertheless, a must to be remembered in all cases when referring to social media, there is only one rule: The consumer rules. Individuals decide what content is worth sharing, discussing, rating, downloading, joining. And they base these decisions largely on what their peers are doing online, and on the opinions of “web influencers” – thought leaders with many people following their blog, podcast, forum, video channel, network, etc.

And so for companies, including Manfrotto, to take advantage of this they must be aware of all angles of the social media triangle: content, strategy and engagement.

“Luxury brands are the IDEAL brands to be using social media and that social networking, microblogging and online content creation represent big opportunities for these brands to really stand out, improve their customer loyalty, drive sales and, in fact, maintain the image they have worked hard to create for their brands”, says Ogilvy Digital 360’s Rohit Bhargava.

Positive benefits can be achieved through several online PR approaches.

1. Monitor and listen to understand customer needs.

Listening to what customers are saying online, whether they’ve purchased your product or not, is imperative.  Not only shows brand where their current customers are, it exposes new markets.  Community monitoring provides real-time consumer sentiment and perceptions of a brand’s products.

2. Start off by using sharing tools.

Sharing tools enable customers to share corporate-created content such as videos, blog posts, images, and contests.  Good start because it simply extends the corporate approved and created content to the social realm, explains Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Research Analyst.

By adding social sharing buttons, a brand or retailer with an e-commerce site needs to make the sharing barrier as low as possible to encourage customers, potential customers and citizen fashion journalists (aka bloggers) to share products across their social communities or taken further and make sure you add fashion-site-specific sharing icons if the fashion communities that a brand’s engaged with or sponsoring. Also the perfect time to explore if a brand should develop its own widgets.  Interactive widgets boost website traffic and increase the ROI on social media initiatives.

3. Highlight consumer-created content from “preferred” customer segments.

If celebrities are using your products and talk about them, echo it back and highlight them.  Owyang suggests highlighting users of your products in your blog, from Twitter, or other social technology and allow users to share and spread this kind of news to their own websites using simple tools like ShareThis.

Though celebrity product lines have started to lose their luster, celebrity endorsements still hold weight with many consumers and their aspirations. User-generated content from fashion loving consumers, independent fashion bloggers and digital fashion celebrities are powerful word-of-mouth marketing and sales tools. User-generated content is a gold mine, and there are thousands of people sharing and spreading retailers products across the web. Estee Lauder examplified this by their in-store product demos linking up to profile pictures on social networking sites.  This is a perfect example of a brand using their online marketing and PR to drive awareness to in-store events. The best part is that the in-store event tied back to the online social media efforts.

4. Develop or sponsor lifestyle communities.

Branded communities, social networks, or bloggers can all be reached using traditional media relations tactics.  Not unlike traditional sponsorship and spokesperson product trial programs, you can develop brand affinity in the social space through formal programs.  The trick, however, is understanding how your products can become a platform to uplift their voice –not just to insert your own.

Luxury brands can actually take social media a step further.  Many luxury brands are developing their own social networks or even invitation-only communities.  Sponsoring communities can be a chance to develop brand affinity and establish authentic consumer-brand relationships.  Not all of a luxury brand’s social media strategies should be about mass awareness. Quality over quantity still has its place.  Sites such as MyItThings, LadyLux, LuxuryCulture or Just Luxe can have a better ROI as their audiences are more likely to become paid customers. And while some may not agree with me — when it comes to luxury brands, social media ROI does extend to sales.

Nevertheless, one should also draw upon that “not all of a brands social media strategies should be about mass awareness.”  When we think about the viral nature of the social web it seems a common misconception that its all about going viral..how many people we can reach…how fast something will spread…how many clicks?  Luxury brands need luxury social media.  They have to be especially strategic and find segmented ways of addressing their top customers as well as their aspirational fans.