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Social Media #2 - Knowing What They're Saying

Guest post by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Part 2 in a social media tutorial

Social Media #2 - Knowing What They're Saying

People Are Talking - Customers have gained a new sense of enablement with today's 1:1 social media by being able to express themselves globally with effortless Web outlets. They can voice their opinions, their issues, their concerns, their recommendations to anyone who does a little surfing to find their information postings.

In this industry, you have both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) communications.

B2B was easy. You talked with distributor, retail management/buyers.

B2C was something usually left to customer service/customer support because it was a product/service question/problem. It was resolved...life went on.

Web 2.0 social media changed it all.

The Web's social media watering holes have made it possible for people to get more purchasing assistance beyond their own reading and the folks next door.

Suddenly, guidance, assistance -- more than you ever wanted to know -- are only a few clicks away.

They're There

Right now, probably three billion people are online with more than three million plus social media options:

- blogs

- micro-blogs (Twitter, Yammer)

- Wikis

- Public consumer Nets (Facebook, MySpace)

- Private social net tools (Lithium, Mzinga)

- Public news, information, fun sites (DigitalMediaNet, YouTube, CNet, etc)

- Consumer websites (AlienBabelTech, JocGeek, OcModShop, more)

Information, recommendations - good, bad and ugly -- are everywhere.

It has also become more difficult to separate fact from fiction, hype from reality, blind love/lust from true satisfaction.

Right now, hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide are using social networks, blogs, microblogs, online forums and video-sharing sites.

Word of mouth leads to 50+% of most purchasing decisions.

Beats ads, literature, trade shows, demos, publicity, you name it hands down!

The very best sources, according to Forrester Research, are family members or friends.

Then, according to ORC (Opinion Research Corp), they check:

* customer reviews/ratings - 57%

* blogs/forums - 50%

* online videos - 48%

* social sites - 43%

* RSS feeds - 27%

* Microblogs - 8%

Search Is On

The Web and social media have become the first place people turn when they need a product, a service, a solution, some assistance, an idea or simply want to share information with others.

Growing Choices - The world of social media just keeps expanding, enabling people to connect with their online communities. They are also prime opportunities for companies, products, staff members to connect with customers and prospects/suspects. Source - Internet Retailer

Most of the social media landscape is of little or no interest to you unless:

- you want to sell something

- you want to find out what your competition is doing and how they're being received

- you want to find out what people are saying about you, where, why

We recently made the analogy of social media being a lot like herding cats (the phrase was made "famous" by EDS in a Super Bowl commercial years ago) because cats can't be herded...neither can consumers and people on the web!

Comments about your company, your policies/programs, products/services can sweep like a wildfire on the open plain, influencing the government, partners, consumers.

It can be good, it can be bad.

If it is negative, it costs time, money, work to bring customers back - some will never return.

If it is positive, it can overrun your ability to meet consumer demand.

As the online communities increase in size, number, character; companies will refine their activities to develop "word of mouth equity" that can be used to strengthen their understanding of the customer's wants/needs (present/future), produce sales, blunt the effect of cheap store brands compared to name brands and draw upon when problems, issues arise.

That's why it's important to be proactive in the social media arena.

Next, we'll discuss how you can get started.

# # #

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Article Tags: b2b business, business to consumer, consumer communications, consumer websites, enablement, fun sites, information postings, lithium, media options, online forums, public news, retail management, service customer, service question, true satisfaction, using social networks, video sharing sites, watering holes, web outlets, word of mouth



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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