Idea Spark: Social Marketing Use Case #4—Direct Customer Engagement & Feedback

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!