Web Business by Ken Burbary

Three Tips for Better Social Business

We’re in the era of building the infrastructure necessary for social business to succeed. Eventually it will bring benefits and rewards to both brands and consumers alike. However, there are some steps brands can take now to ensure they don’t confuse consumers as they evolve from social media to social business. One important perspective that can get lost in the buzz over social marketing, social crm, or social innovation initiatives is arguably, the most important one: the customer perspective.

Here are some tips to ensure you’re making sure customers are informed and aware of what your social business initiatives WILL and WILL NOT do for them.

Tell Your Brand’s Social Business Story

There are many departments and groups within a company. It’s now common for each of them to have social initiatives of their own, albeit they may be independent of one another, in a silo away from the rest of the organization. Do these provide value to the customer? Sure, but how does an individual really know about everything a company is doing in social that they may benefit from?

Companies have long published directories to help customers get in touch to the department they need via phone. In digital, they produce sitemaps on their websites for the same purpose. What can they do to help people understand their fragmented landscape of social outposts? Tell their social business story! This will educate consumers, raise awareness of their efforts, and remove any confusion over where/what/when their social business initiatives are.

An example of a brand that is telling their social business story well is Dell. Just visit the ‘”Dell in Social Media” section of dell.com and you’re able to learn everything about Dell’s social business activities, with links and descriptions to their social outposts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Slideshare, Xing), their communities for owners and clubs, or even Dell’s official global social media policy.

Share Service and Support Expectations

Many companies are realizing the benefit of social technologies for customer support and developing formal social business initiatives for doing so. It can be a great benefit, and provide better/faster/cheaper service to customers under the right circumstances. However, it’s easier said than done. Especially when consumer expectations are rapidly moving closer to instant gratification.

Social platforms never sleep. They don’t turn off (usually). They are constantly moving forward, with a seemingly infinite stream of activity, discussion and sharing. That preconditions consumer expectations when dealing with a formal brand presence via social, into near real-time resolutions of customer problems. And when a brand cannot live up to such a high standard, it sets the stage for a negative customer experience.

Brands can avoid this by setting expectations for service and response times up front. For example, if you’re supporting customers via Twitter, define hours of operation. The Microsoft Xbox and the Bank of America customer support teams have done a terrific job of this, providing support hours directly in the Twitter profile description, as well as the background image for their profile page.

Curate Conversations About Your Brand

Consumer trust is has evolved. Consumers are actively seeking “people like me”, to understand their opinions, preferences and perspectives on brands, products and services. Brands all have a story, and tell that story through branded content through paid and owned media. What can brands do to help provide consumers with what “people like them” are saying about the brand? Curate conversations that meet the consumer need and make it easily accessible for them to consumer and digest.

Ford recently launched the new, redesigned Explorer SUV. While they have been curating consumer reaction and conversation about their products for awhile now, I point you to the Explorer home page as an example of a brand curating content that matters. Visit the Ford Explorer Buzz page to see the curated results of reactions from media sites, blogs, forums, etc… about the new product.

The New Brand Web Site Standard – Social Media Integration

A new trend is beginning to emerge among brand websites. Some brands, more established in social media uses, have taken the next step beyond maintaining a social presence on the platforms and begun integrating relevant online conversation into their brand websites, providing consumers with a real-time view into what others are saying about a brand’s products and/or services. This isn’t insignificant, nor the first time it has been done. Earlier this year, Skittles took the first step and threw out the typical brand web site only to replace it with a home base of Skittles content pulled directly from the social web (Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr pages).

However, social media integration within brand sites has evolved since Skittles took the leap. Recent examples by Nissan and Ford offer consumers a hybrid of traditional brand site content mashed up with social media content. Let’s look at a few examples in detail.

Nissan – http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/

Initial observations: Nissan is displaying questions and answers submitted via Twitter. Is it really a raw, unfiltered, feed though? My submission wasn’t displayed instantly, and appeared to get submitted for review. Which means this is more of a moderated approach to social media integration. This is understandble given the risks associated with blindly displaying content from the social web, yet one that has also caused problems for other brands in the past due to censorship concerns, and calls for more transparency. Regardless, I admire Nissan’s spirit in attempting to provide a real world view of what questions other consumers are asking, and the answers given. Is this a step towards car buyers research 2.0?

Ford – http://www.fordvehicles.com/the2010mustang/

Initial observations: Ford is taking a different approach but sticking with the same spirit of social integration. The 2010 Ford Mustang site provides the traditional brand site data but enhances that by pulling in relevant blog posts across the social web. Again, I applaud the brands efforts to be transparent and provide related social content for prospective buyers. The process for determining where to pull from and which social web content gets displayed is unknown, but one can assume some moderation, much like the Nissan example.

Verdict: I like it. Adding more consumer value beyond basic product info. In-market buyers can not only get product specs on the brand site but also other consumers perspectives and answers. We’re seeing the evolution of the corporate and product brand site. The impact social media is having on consumer perception and expectation is staggering. These examples show progressive brands that are rapidly experimenting with the most effective ways to integrate traditional and social content together. This is only the beginning and I look forward to watching the continued evolution because in the end both parties win. Brands and consumers. And that is an ending we don’t typically see enough.

More?

Have you seen other examples like these? Please share in the comments below.

The Lost Art of Common Sense in Digital Marketing

When did we, marketers & brands, lose touch with humanity and thus reality?

When did we stop stop putting the needs and concerns of our customers first?

When did we throw common sense out the window?

Perhaps some never have put customers needs first, or maybe they did at one point but lost their way. A lot of the marketing that I see now is still centered around what the company wants consumers to think about, feel, or do/take action on. That worked for a long time (before social technologies leveled the playing field) but just doesn’t cut it anymore. This isn’t news to many marketers (in theory), and yet there are still so many brands and companies that haven’t yet begun to embrace helping customers and prospects instead of trying to get them to listen to the brand message. Your brand message should be:

I’m here to help make it easier for you to work with my brand

I recently presented on this topic at the Midwest Digital Conference because I believe there has never been a better time for brands to change their approach, and realign their efforts with customers expectations. The interuptive messaging of advertising continues to be less effective. Yet so many brands continue to sit on the sidelines, bury their head in the sand, and ignore the alternatives available to them. News Flash:

The problem isn’t going away because you are ignoring it

We’re in a new era. The social marketing era. An era of new expectations for brands, new rules for interacting, and new methods/techniques for reaching customers. One of the best things about this new era is that you don’t have to guess anymore about what your business should focus on. Why not? Listen to your customers and they will tell you what is wrong, what they need yet aren’t getting from you, and what direction to focus on moving forward. A well planned, ongoing listening program will unearth this info for you. No more guessing. No more well-planned focus group projects. The internet is your on-demand focus group, providing real time feedback every day. All you need to do is harness the tools available and be open to hearing what people are saying. Make no mistake about it, customers are talking!

Taking the next step

Once the needs are identified, deciding what to do next is easy. Solve customer problems! Build a product they are asking for. If you’re a service provider, then use common sense and be helpful! Social marketing offers a tremendous way to do this. With it, big companies can get smaller, by offering individualized, helpful interactions. Small companies can get bigger, enabling them to increase their reach beyond their physical and/or geographic limits.

If you’re planning a strategy to reach consumers online, consider these tips:

1. Offer value - Use common sense, provide customers and prospects with value, not messages.
2. Feelings matter – People remember how you made them feel, not what you said. Plan accordingly.
3. Think holistically - Focus on every touch point a consumer has with your brand. Consumers interact and form opinions of your brand on web sites, social networks like Facebook & Twitter, communities, support forums and video sharing sites. Every individual counts. Everyone is an influencer.
4. Be sincere – You need to genuinely care about helping your customers and prospects. Fake it, do it half heartedly, and they will notice. Don’t dilute your interaction by taking their loyalty for granted. Wake up each day assuming today is the day you will earn that customer’s loyalty. Difficult to gain, easy to lose. As @Garyvee would say, HUSTLE!
5. Ask questions – Once you have identified the problems, objectives and established relationships, ask questions. Lots of questions. Relentlessly inquire about what your customers think. And constantly remind them you want their input and involvement. You will be rewarded with ideas and suggestions the internal product development team can’t produce on their own.

Is any of this groundbreaking? No. In fact, it’s common sense (or should be). Common sense is often one of the trickiest things. My colleague Len Kendall reminded me today how difficult this all can be, with this quote  “We know our common sense is right, most of the time we just find it hard to prove it”

Hopefully the path to proving it got a little bit easier with this reminder.