JitterJam® Social CRM

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

In our past discussions, we have talked about how individual initiatives are the genesis of the use of social media / social marketing within a business or a brand, and that these initiatives are usually driven by a single purpose—a use case. The fourth use case in our Creativity Coffee series, Direct Customer Engagement and Feedback, focuses on how businesses can take advantage of the open nature of social media and have unprecedented direct access to customers and prospects.

One of the core opportunities for brands and businesses to utilize social marketing is to engage directly with their current and potential customers. While brand awareness is a first step in a business’ social marketing value chain, the ability to directly connect with a consumer to draw them closer gives the brand the opportunity to drive consumer advocacy, engagement and feedback. How are brands achieving this today? What are the best-practices they need to use to ensure positive consumer response? Here are the ideas sparked during our Creativity Coffee.

1. Businesses can take full advantage of social media channels by enabling engagement by type of consumer.
• Finding and publishing meaningful content for social sharing that will engage consumers can be a daunting task. What kind of content are people looking for? What are the best practices in engaging people socially?
• Altimeter Group published an “Engagement Pyramid” and accompanying tactics for marketing to different social consumers in the marketplace. They hypothesize that in social networks, 90% of people are Audience members, 9% are Editors (create content), and 1% are Curators (heavily involved in online communities). Their recommendations for engaging people at all the levels of the pyramid are included in the SlideShare document below.
2. Should social marketing carry over the brand’s marketing messaging to its social voice? Will this be “engaging” to consumers?
• Your social voice should be your brand’s voice (reflecting brand identity, values), but on a personal level. A social voice should be just that…social (rather than just messaging/promotion oriented).
• The social voice, and the content and communications that are published socially, should reflect the “pillars of the brand” (the company’s/brand’s values) as well as the topics and flow of conversation by people using the brand’s products. For instance, an organic food product’s social voice should include content and comments about the organic lifestyle, organic recipes, sustainable farming, and other “key pillars” and topics that support the brand’s identity. This kind of content will attract the “audience” that’s most likely to buy the brand’s products and create an opening for “Watchers” to become “Sharers” and even “Commenters” (in Altimeter’s terms).
• The social content shared by the brand should enable target customers to identify and develop brand affinity and advocacy. Even brands with “commodity” products (e.g. gasoline) can engage with consumers based upon their brand’s “pillars”; for instance, an oil company can engage with consumers about conservation, ecology, etc. Just make sure that the social voice is a true reflection of corporate values…social consumers want to see authenticity in the brand’s social voice.
3. The depth of a consumer’s social engagement with a brand is closely tied with brand affinity, the brand’s social activity, and the trust built between the brand and the consumer.
• People buy from the brands they like, use, admire. If they find those brands on the social web, it’s an opportunity for the brand to get closer to the consumer.
• When engaging consumers that may not have a relationship with the brand, a business should use a light touch first and then let the consumer set the pace of engagement and communications. For instance, a brand can comment on a consumer’s Twitter status update and follow that person. If the consumer follows back and even sends a comment back, it’s a great first step. Brands shouldn’t try to sell at first touch; they should let the consumer investigate the brand; just following that person will introduce the brand to the consumer.
• Most brands look towards driving new contacts to their website; social media (and content sharing)helps people “find” the brand, and the website enables the brand to explain what benefits they offer to the consumer. Make sure that the website is clear, provides great conten and value, and supports the brand’s social identity. Make sure links from the brand’s social pages (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) are directed towards appropriate pages on the brand’s website.
4. Asking for permission to market is the best way to ensure that you don’t overstep your boundaries with the consumer.
• Strictly adhering to the communication preferences of the consumer helps you keep that consumer engaged and helps you develop trust with that consumer.
• The “ask” should NOT be done at first touch; however, asking at various junctures on the brand’s website, Facebook page, on landing pages, etc. is desirable and acceptable.
• Remember: Date first before thinking of marriage!
5. How does a brand place value on consumer “engagement?”
• There’s pressure from “corporate” to have measurable, tangible results from social engagement. In fact, some within corporate leadership still don’t see the value and are afraid of seeing the negative comments that are being posted about them. Remember that the comments are happening whether or not your company is listening; social engagement is an opportunity to receive feedback from customers and to urn negative consumer experiences into positive outcomes. But you can’t do that if you’re not listening to and engaging with social consumers.
• The value can be measured like other media–impressions, clicks, and even commerce. The use cases are there…but the business needs to commit to moving forward with social marketing in order to prove the value.

How are you engaging with consumers? What is/are your use case(s) for social marketing? What value has it brought to your company? We’d love to hear from you!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

In our past discussions, we have talked about how individual initiatives are the genesis of the use of social media / social marketing within a business or a brand, and that these initiatives are usually driven by a single purpose—a use case. We identified a number of use cases that drive ownership and implementation of social marketing within a business. The third use case in our Creativity Coffee series, Customer Service, focuses on how businesses can utilize social networks to improve the customer service experience for consumers.

Comcast’s @comcastcares is the “poster child” for the successful use of social networks to provide customer service. Frank Eliason (@FrankEliason), who has since moved on to Citi, led a team of 17 people to provide customer care over Twitter. While some companies have followed suit, others are reluctant to provide “public” customer service. What’s clear from today’s Idea Spark Creativity Coffee discussion is that regardless of whether companies address brand issues and sentiment publicly, people will talk. So what should companies do—and expect—from customer service as a use case for social marketing? Here are the ideas and points from our discussion.

1. There are three core customer service opportunities.
• Reactive: Response to a direct customer complaint, comment or inquiry. For instance, a customer sends @ComcastCares a message stating, “I can’t figure out how to work this new interactive guide on my DVR.” @ComcastCares responds with a link to their online user guide.
• Proctive: Engaging a customer who has posted a complaint, question or comment about the company, brand or product on the real-time web. For instance, if a consumer Tweets, “I can’t figure out how to work this new Comcast interactive guide on my DVR.” While the remark wasn’t directed at the Comcast customer service group, they respond with an @ message to the consumer with the same link. This proactive approach shows the consumer that they are keenly interested in ensuring a positive user experience.
• Progressive: Engaging a consumer who is is having issues finding a solution to a problem or even having a problem with a competitor’s product and engaging them with the brand. For instance, a consumer Tweets “I can’t get more than 1Mbps of speed on my DSL.” @ComcastCares could respond with, “We’d love to help you solve your issue. What’s your zip code? Perhaps we have a better solution.” This could be a Sales or a Customer Care function.
2. The main barriers for companies to enact socially-focused customer care are fear and “lack” of resources.
• Fear. Fear of “airing dirty laundry” in public could be a significant barrier for a company or brand to enact real-time customer service. However, remember that consumers are going to talk about your brand regardless of whether you are listening and responding to those comments. Wouldn’t you rather have the opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one?
• Resources and Planning. Taking a reasoned approach to providing customer service via social networks takes some planning and coordination. How many hours a day will be covered? Who is responsible for coverage? Do those people cover social networks exclusively? Does this effort require additional resources, or can the business start with existing personnel? How does this overlap with sales/marketing? These questions are asked and answers for other customer service channels and should be addressed for social as well. Current escalation procedures, PLUS procedures for escalating critical public issues, should be known and in place.
3. Customer service is a form of Marketing.
• How does thinking of customer service as a Marketing function change the scope of the role of customer service for your brand?
• There is a huge opportunity for brands to enhance their relationships with their customers and develop advocacy through customer service. Comcast was able to change public perception of their brand through the positive public customer service experience. No all problems CAN be solved to a customer’s satisfaction; but the willingness of a brand to show they care about the customer’s experience is half the battle.
4. What can brands do to offer live social customer service?
• Test the waters. It’s more than likely that brands that are socially active are already fielding customer service questions and issues through their social accounts. Brands can begin by actively listening for customer needs, questions, issues, etc. and involving the customer service organization as part of the social marketing process. Those key individuals can be tasked with responding (in a timely manner) to the real-time customer inquiry and problem resolution. There needs to be a mechanism in place for coordination and assignment of social conversations and responses to make this a viable first step.
• Measure value. How does this shift in activity improve customer satisfaction? How has call/email volume decreased since enacting real-time customer service? Has the sentiment about the brand improved? Make sure that you have Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure the effectiveness of the effort. But also make sure that you give the effort enough time TO have an effect.
• Pick the right people. Make sure that you select the right people to provide this type of support. The people chosen should be well-versed in social media as well as your brand/product. The make-up of your work force can drive or kill the opportunity. choose wisely!
• Dedicate. Brands who have successfully tested the waters can take the next step—dedicating resources (personnel, procedures, social accounts) to customer service. But don’t forget that it’s just one avenue for customers to connect with the brand and have issues resolved. Don’t lose sight of the overall value of customer service and satisfaction.
• Be first. Brands that take this step to provide real-time service set the bar for their competitors. They are seen as forward-thinking leaders rather than playing catch-up. Being first in a brand category provides significant competitive advantage (press coverage, brand buzz, etc).
• Crowdsource. Part of the advantage of “public” customer service over social networks is the ability to crowdsource. Publishing useful information and great content to support the customer experience is a great way to have your customers spread the word through their own personal social networks. It’s a mind shift away from traditional customer service towards the development of a customer community. Your customers can help others, and you can point your customers to the community as a resource.

 
Customer service is never an “easy” function, and selling social media as a channel for customer service may be difficult in your organization. While saving money may be one goal, make sure you also think about customer satisfaction (and extending customer lifetime value), retention, developing advocacy and community, reducing the cost of customer acquisition, crowdsourcing and other benefits of good customer service (and good marketing) when pitching a plan to your company. And don’t forget that ALL your employees are your brand ambassadors. Even though they may be home and surfing through Facebook, it’s likely that they are still “on the clock” when it comes to advocating your brand or company. Customer service is every employee’s responsibility, whatever their job.
 
Has your company or brand engaged in real-time customer service? How has the experience changed your company?
 
Photo Credit: thadz

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

In our past discussions, we have talked about how individual initiatives are the genesis of the use of social media / social marketing within a business or a brand, and that these initiatives are usually driven by a single purpose—a use case. We identified a number of use cases hat drive ownership and implementation of social marketing within a business. Our last Creativity Coffee topic—Using Social Marketing for Lead Generation—was the first in a series of roundtable discussions focusing on use cases. We talked about how Lead Generation is a very B2B (or high-ticket B2C) concept that centers around having a sales force or team, and how companies can utilize social marketing to accomplish this task.

This week’s discussion centers around Building Brand Awareness. Many companies jumping on the social marketing bandwagon are doing so with the goal to build brand awareness. From local businesses to multi-national brands, social marketing can provide new ways for the brand to get closer to their current customers and to reach new consumers otherwise unaware of or disengaged from their business. Today’s discussion surrounded how businesses go about developing brand awareness with social marketing. Here are the ideas sparked during our discussion.

1. The initial Brand Awareness use case is to get out there!
• Many brands just jump in with a Twitter account and a Facebook page. But without some sort of ongoing commitment, policies and goals, the accounts become dormant and whatever effort was put into the accounts turn into negative impressions. It’s estimated that only 25% of brands with Twitter accounts are active!
• Some brands who haven’t jumped in may be suffering from analysis/paralysis—the need to get every policy and procedure in place before embarking on social marketing. Policies NEED to be in place; you don’t want employees representing your company or brand’s voice in an unfavorable way; but you also need to not let fear keep you from getting engaged in social marketing.
2. Brand awareness, impressions and mentions are used as core metrics.
• Brand awareness is a metric that has grown out of traditional media and has been applied to new/digital media. Brand impressions are a key metric and is usually equated to predicted sales based upon prior campaign performance. For example, X media will provide Y impressions and will generate (on average) Z sales.
• Companies use brand mentions on social networks as a core metric not only for measuring social media but general brand awareness. Counting brand mentions over time shows how much buzz there is about a brand and how that buzz changes over time, correlates with other media buys, etc.
• Brand mentions are often used to see how new messaging has spread through the social public. For instance, brands may track how many people have been using their old messaging to discuss or describe their product, how many are using the new messaging and how the conversation shifts over time.
• In some cases, agencies are driving these metrics as part of their overall branding strategy for a company. But are agencies prohibiting companies from doing more? Traditional agencies AND their brand customers know and rely upon standard metrics; how can they move towards using new media metrics to show value? And SHOULD they manage their clients’ social “voice;” does it matter to consumers that an agency is the “man behind the curtain” for a brand’s social account? Food for thought.
3. The use case for Building Brand Awareness = Consumer Engagement.
• Social marketing should be about engaging people; the ‘awareness’ starts with that initial light touch; for instance, following someone on Twitter who mentions an interest that pertains to your market, a competitive brand, the use of a product in your category, etc.
• Brands can take that initial awareness further and engage consumers more deeply. Social networks provide so much more opportunity than just brand awareness and impressions. Brand awareness is a good start as a use case, but social marketing affords so much more. We’ll talk about other use cases in driving consumer engagement in a later discussion.
4. There ARE solid proof points, but direct ROI is still elusive.
• Bank example: An agency’s bank customer saw the average age of their customer drop by 4 years after they launched their Facebook page. Since there was no way to track “clicks” through to account sign-ups, there was little direct ROI data. But that demographic data was very telling.
• How do you measure goodwill? Social marketing helps to build goodwill between the brand and current and potential customers. Sentiment analysis and brand mentions can help showcase more positive attitudes amongst consumers…but can a business measure the ROI for goodwill?
• Engagement CAN be viral. Traditionally, if a consumer had a positive experience with a brand, he/she would tell people on a one-to-one basis. With social media, that positive experience can turn into a viral brand bonanza. If brands are NOT engaged in social marketing to build/monitor brand awareness (and conversation) that can turn into a brand nightmare as well (look at United Breaks Guitars, for example).
5. Social marketing is not a lone channel. The use of social marketing for brand awareness works in conjunction with all other channels, media and messaging.
• Social marketing should be used in coordinated way to drive brand awareness. It is not the only available method to drive awareness, nor is it the RIGHT channel for EVERY situation. E.g. email is a primary preferred channel for receiving deals/offers/promotions today while social is seen as “conversational”. Both have their value–and their place in a brand strategy.
• One last thought: Make sure you understand individual consumer preferences for communication with your brand and strictly adhere to them!

How is your brand using social marketing to drive awareness? Let us know!