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Social Media #6 - Friends Help Friends, Keep Friends

Guest post by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Part 6 in social media tutorials

Social Media #6 - Friends Help Friends, Keep Friends

Shorten the Journey - Increasingly, online experiences with companies and products have reinforced the loyalty loop in the consumer decision cycle. In addition, with today's online existence, these customers can be a strong extension of your marketing/sales efforts by recommending your products/services to others and defending you when issues/problems arise. Illustration - McKinsey Research Social media - blogs, social sites, chat rooms, discussion forums, YouTube, microblogs - have grown rapidly, have become popular for consumers and companies.

The key reason is that people want to establish their identity, feel connected.

The power of social media can be realized by your organization by integrating the online data with your customer/marketing data.

Much of the online activity today is being done by communications or PR people. Their information is seldom shared/leveraged so the long-range benefits are lost to the organization.

Social marketing is a top-down activity that incorporates marketing, communications, product design/development, HR, customer service/support...and IT.

It's all about building a personal bond with your customers for the long-term.

Come On In

According to ORC (Opinion Research Corporation), companies are welcome into the social network communities as long as you follow the rules:

* 51% said companies should have a presence but shouldonly interact with consumers as needed or by request

* 34% feel companies should be in social media and interact regularly

* 15% say companies should sit in the balcony or stay home

According to a recent Razorfish study, an impressive 64% of connected consumers had made their first purchase because of their digital experience. In addition:

* 60% consider the brand favorably when they are in the market for a product/service in that category

* 40% recommend the brand to others

Cone Research found:

* 74% who interact with the company/product online usually have a more positive impression of the company, product/service

* 72% feel a stronger connection with the company/brand because they can interact with the company online

* 70% feel better served when they have an online discussion with the company

* 68%have improved their opinion of the company/product because of friend's recommendations

* 64% become followers, friends, fans of companies/brands because they showcase my personality/interests online

Constantly strengthen your relationship with your best customers online. Develop new/different ideas, share thoughts/concepts, listen.

People who go online to research a product/service will almost unanimously place customer care/customer service high in their decision making process. IDC research found:

* 74% choose companies/brands based on others' customer-care experience shared online

* 72% research companies' customer care online before purchasing at least some of the time

* 84% consider the quality of customer care in their purchasing decision

* 81% say blogs, online rating systems, discussion forums give consumers a greater voice in customer care

* 33% believe companies take customers' opinions seriously

* Search engines are their most valuable research tool followed by social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, microblogs

Be Proactive

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

Busy Landscape - While every company agrees they have to be involved in the social media landscape, most firms don't have organization-wide policies and programs on what can/should be done by staff members, how the efforts will be monitored/measured and who is responsible for the social media activities.

Social media includes everything the company does in reaching out, touching, working with people in the firm's many/varied publics.

Social media is still so new that it's an uncoordinated mess.

Organizations struggle to develop a strategic policy/program, implement measurement tools/systems, even though the area continues to evolve, reinvent itself.

Departments - marketing, advertising, sales, HR, PR - elbow each other to manage/control the new media turf.

But no one department is going to manage, control, change social media in your organization.

As Nike says...just do it!

# # #

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Article Tags: balcony, chat rooms, communications product, consumer decision, customer marketing, customer service support, decision cycle, digital experience, discussion forums, hr customer service, loyalty, marketing communications, marketing sales, mckinsey, network communities, opinion research corporation, personal bond, sales efforts, social marketing, wh



Related Forum Posts
Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...
Maze Inc - Greetings Friends,
Re: I thought social sites were a waste of time. How wrong I was - Social Media has only really been understood this last year or two. Before that I didn’t really understand or like Facebook for example because of the problems separating Family and Friends from Business. Twitter seemed a total waste of my time and a lot of people seemed to spend all their time building up their followers to brag about how many they have got. Now I understand the basics a bit more I can appreciate the value particularly of Twitter in building up relationships with others in your niche with a view to doing business later. If people follow me and are active in the general Internet world or marketing in particularly then I follow back immediately otherwise I don’t see the point. You could argue I suppose that someone who breeds dogs and enjoys painting for example might suddenly become an Internet Marketer and I am missing out on not following them but I tend to stick within my niche. regards, Mal.
Re: QUESTION: What was the last book you read? Would you recomme - Right now I'm reading [i:3d7bb3lw]How to Win Friends and Influence People[/i:3d7bb3lw] by Dale Carnegie. I'm not finished yet but I can already say that I highly recommend it!
Re: How do you budget your life? - Here is my financial management categories for today: 15% Long Term Savings; 10% Home Expenses; 45% Business and Marketing charges; 10% Friends (Meeting); 20$ Scientific and Law Books. But this will change when it is August or September. Orxan


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