marketing

Monitoring, listening and engaging with social media is a hot topic for brands with their ongoing quest to get closer to customers, build trusted relationships and extend their customer lifecycle. There is a conference for that which I would have liked to participate in: Monitoring Social Media
I personally have been involved in monitoring the social media sphere for clients at Headstream as part of the listen and engage methodology from the Social Media Strategic Framework.

From my own perspective what each audit has highlighted is not only the wealth of conversation taking place about individual brands within social media, especially on certain platforms; but the need for organisations to place more importance on customer service and online reputation management.
In short organisations looking to be more successful need to become customer centric and take into account the social consumer – pretty obvious. You can read my thoughts on social CRM and online reputation management.

Back to the post in hand… Today I received latest the research conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Tealeaf that looks at the social customer and the powerful effect they have on a brand’s reputation. More specifically how customers respond to their experiences of online transactions. Do check out the slide deck and if you require further information visit http://www.tealeaf.com/harris-uk

The research was carried out amongst UK consumers who had participated in online transactions and those who had experienced online problems with transactions.

The findings for those who closely follow the social media world and indeed marketing in general are not ground breaking, but they further re-affirm the importance of digital marketing, social media marketing, online reputation management with regard to consumer purchasing decisions. I have extracted some of the key findings from the research below:

• When customers experience problems attempting to conduct an online transaction, 78% share their experience with others.
Furthermore 46% of those customers would then abandon a transaction entirely or switch to a competitor.
I am certain that you have witnessed many a tweet complaining about airline ticket bookings which is why in the UK profiles such as @easyjetCare exist to respond to customer issues. I do not need to mention @comcastcares or @zappos

• 51% state that social media has influenced their online transactions.
This finding further supports research from DEI Worldwide in 2008 that I have referenced within client presentations particularly for the consumer electronic and game verticals placing importance on search and social media.

• 74% said when they read a negative comment online, it influences their likelihood to do business with the company.
Would love to know what the sales figures were like around the @HabitatUK backlash which scattered across all social media. Out of curiosity it would be great to see if the figures underpin the above findings and understand brand perception through the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

• 52% used a particular website after reading good reviews.
Encouraging result that supports the need for brands to identify key influencers and form trusted relationships with them.

In summary the underlying message from the research is to monitor, react and respond. This focuses on listening to the conversation within social media, reacting to the conversation in the appropriate way through a considered response.

Going back to basics it makes perfect sense to actually sort out the website sales funnel and indentify where in the transaction the problem are occurring, usability testing would not go a miss.
This is also an opoprtunity to engage your community and get them to play their part in helping to contribute to research and development of new platforms. Without covering old ground Dell IdeaStorm exists for this very reason.

Essentially the research places the importance on digital reputation management for brands and looking toward a customer centric business model – cue the social business and more importantly the implementation of social CRM.

Tagged as: customer service, harris interactive, marketing, Reputation Management, Social CRM, Social Media, strategy, tealeaf

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Conversations about your industry concerning buying decisions are taking place regularly within social media spaces. In order to have an influence over these conversations you need to be active within social media.

However, in order to make an impact, you need to ensure that your voice within these spaces is one that represents value, respect and trust. Many marketers have taken a bold step in entering social media, only to receive a backlash from a community. Others have given up on social media outposts that have already been set up because they have not delivered immediate results.

The following guidelines will assist those already operating in these spaces and help those considering getting their hands dirty:

1. Beware of a lack of understanding
If you have not done so already, educate yourself on the seismic shifts in communication when it comes to ‘mass broadcast’ versus ‘conversation’. Read case studies to help understand what has worked.

Marketers who want to use social media must be part of social media. You need to be out there commenting on blogs; contributing to communities and using social media outposts such as Twitter and LinkedIn.You cannot execute successful campaigns if you do not understand the platforms you are using.

2. Develop a social media strategy
It goes without saying that your organisation should have a social media strategy. This should be a company-wide strategy with all business units contributing.

A well-designed social media strategy can be used as a roadmap for your organisation. At the same time, the strategy will be used to benchmark tactics against objectives showing results and return on investment.

The most important element of the strategy is listening to the conversation. By listening you are able to understand where the conversation is taking place and what challenges your clients and prospects face. Then you can produce content and start a dialogue.

Most importantly, the process of listening enables you to understand the marketplace and competitor movements.

3. Be open and honest
Social media is all about open and honest communication. This means you need to be transparent in everything you do. Instead of building a wall, come forward and admit mistakes, learn from the experience and move on, ensuring that transparency becomes a corporate objective throughout the entire organisation.

Social media has the habit of finding skeletons in closets so honesty from the outset will earn you respect in the long-term.

If you have corporate social media outposts – for example Twitter and blogs – then look to communicate who is behind them so you give clients and prospects a face and a name to communicate with. Ideally, CEOs should contribute guest blog posts and staff members should be involved in the conversation.

4. Avoid short-term engagement
Forget the quick-win scenario; with social media you are in it for the long-term. Your social media strategy will help map out forthcoming activity and include campaign activity to maintain the engagement.

If you have social media outposts that are left out-of-date then it allows your competitors to move in. Revisit your strategy regularly and plan activity that will create dialogue. This dialogue can comprise of individual short campaigns, but they must all link into one another to form one large consistent campaign. The benefits of investing in long-term engagement should not be underestimated.

5. Poor creative = poor engagement
If you are struggling for ideas on how to maintain long-term engagement then you need to look at investing in and creating social currency that will kick-start the conversation and continue the engagement. Engaging content is essential to support word-of-mouth activity. An example would be to invest in research that can be produced as a white paper and offered to the community. Similarly, branded entertainment can create social currency.

It is important to note that social media is definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach. Every company and industry will be different in terms of strategies and tactics, but the underlying principles are the same. What is consistent, however, is the time and effort required for planning a social media strategy and campaigns and this should not be underestimated.

Tagged as: branded entertainment, marketing, Social Media, strategy, tactics

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Over the past week I have been exposed to countless top 10 lists for social media such as 2009 predictions, best apps, communities, twitter tools etc… so I decided that “if I can not beat them, I’d join them.”

My very own list however is a Top 6 list of UK bloggers I’ll be following with an attentive eye in 2009.  The criteria for my Top 6 list is based upon the following methodology:

1. UK bloggers only.  Sorry to disappoint all the US bloggers but there is so much exposure on US bloggers that I wanted to champion bloggers from my own back yard.  Those bloggers whom I’d probably have more chance of bumping into at events, conferences and maybe even having a beer with during the course of 2009.

2. Blog focus must be marketing, online pr and social media as this is my main interest and forms the basis of my career, passion and blog. 

3. Taking the blog focus further, the blog posts themselves must also be thought leading, thought provoking and insightful - something to get the old grey matter going.

So, without further ado, I’m delighted to share with you the…

Top 6 UK bloggers I’ll be following in 2009

Simon Collister - Simon’s blog is largely influenced by UK politics due to his research background in political communications.  With the attention on the economy and a possible UK election in early 2009, Simon’s interpretation of social media and online pr used by government parties will be interesting to follow.

David Cushman - In my opinion David is a true evangelist of social media.  His passion for cultural change and the 8th mass media (us) resonates in every post, whilst at the same time giving confidence to people like myself practising social media.  David will support my thinking throughout 2009.

Alan Moore & Tomi Ahonen - Communities Dominate Brands is the brain tap of engagement marketing expert Alan Moore and mobile marketing expert Tomi Ahonen.  The reason for following this blog is two fold. 1. Their posts are intellectual, covering social anthropology, philosophy and history. 2. I personally believe that mobile marketing will see an increase in 2009, so Alan and Tomi will give some good strategic insight.

Neville Hobson - Quite simply Neville presents, produces and promotes some of the best podcast interviews with leading pr, marketing and social media practitioners from around the globe.  Neville is certain to come up with many gems throughout 2009 taking my blog experience from visual to audio, giving the eyes a rest and the ears a social media massage.

John Dodds - I have only recently been following John Dodds, but all posts read so far have been insightful and intelligently written with a pure marketing focus.  Make Marketing History is refreshing reading amongst a heavy social media blog list.  John’s thinking and blog style I liken to Godin’s; very precise and “hey I think like that too”. 

Mark Earls - Mark’s blog ‘Herd’ looks at human behaviour and challenges our assumptions.  He is also not afraid to put his point of view across in his posts which I value.  Mark, back in the autumn of 2008 read my report on social network marketing too.  Herd the book (written by Mark) is on my must read list as I’ve done Tribes so may start using the word Herd as the standard for 2009.

Right that’s it, over to you…

I’d love to hear your top 6 UK bloggers or the one’s you’ll be watching via the old trusty RSS reader in 2009.

Tagged as: alanmoore, Blogs, davidcushman, johndodds, markearls, marketing, nevillehobson, onlinepr, socialmedia, tomchapman, tomiahonen

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I have just finished reading: ‘Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom‘ by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta.  This book provides a fascinating chronicle of social media to date that is heavily influenced by history and social anthropology.

One chapter in particular fired my rockets which was all about social capital.

Social capital
From a marketer’s perspective social capital by definition is no different from economic capital that is invested in order to deliver a return.  This means that when brands use social media, they are essentially investing social time and effort with the overall aim of achieving a return on that investment.  The same applies to consumers use of social media too.

Brands increasing social capital via their social graph
When putting together a social media strategy, brands are looking to increase their social capital through increasing the number of friend/fans/followers on social network platforms.  

Brands also use blogging outreach programmes targeting key professional bloggers who have great influence over a brand’s target audience in hope of improving the quality of their social graph.

At the same time brands are also building social relationships with advocates and consumers via campaigns, communities, outreach programmes, widgets, wikis, social games, building in engagement marketing in hope of achieving trust and loyalty, again increasing the quality of the social graph.  

This social graph can then be leveraged by the brand through promotions, offers, market research, crowd sourcing and collaboration to hopefully deliver a return on the original social investment that adds value to a brand’s bottom line.

Individuals increasing social capital through building a quality social graph
For individuals looking to increase their social capital through social media, marketer Jim Connolly recently put together a fantastic post ‘How I attracted 8000 followers in 14 weeks! illustrating how to increase your own social capital through selectively following Twitter consumers who add value to your social graph.  Jim’s strategy in his post can also be applied to brands as well as other social media tools and platforms.

As with all strategies, campaigns and activities the more time and effort you put into something, the greater return on that investment you will achieve, but you must have a goal in mind: prestige, recognition, loyalty, value, information, influence etc… Savvy brands know that through engagement marketing and one-to-one communications they can increase their social capital but they must invest time, money and effort with long term goals in order to experience a significant return - it’s all out there!

Tagged as: IAM, Individual as Medium, marketing, SCVA, SoCap&Brand, Social Capital, Social Capital Value Add, Social Graph, strategy, throwing sheep in the boardroom, Tom Chapman, Twitter

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