Social Customer

How to Build a Customer Community Forum

By Brittany Lyons

Community forums have proven themselves an effective way to foster good customer relations and cultivate new business, which has put a lot of companies under pressure to utilize social media to reach their customers. While some companies accomplish this by simply establishing a Facebook business page and Twitter account, often that is not enough. Every social media vehicle has a specific purpose and target market, whether it's aimed at fry cooks or PhDs. While Facebook offers a forum for discussing any and all topics, there are many people who dismiss it as a purely social tool. By establishing a community forum, businesses can reach these people. Plus, the forum allows customers to discuss the company's products and services openly in a place where the company can benefit from their insights.

Why Marketers Value Content Curation Services

By Patricia Seybold

As Web site owners, we used to worry about keeping the content on our Web home page fresh. We still do. We also care about ensuring that all of the information on our Web site(s) is up-to-date, accurate, consistent and easy to navigate. Today we also care about having fresh, insightful content anywhere a prospect might stumble upon it.

Now, in addition to maintaining fresh relevant content on our web sites, we also need to tweet, post, and link several times a day.

Social Media Has Upped the Ante
Why does social media matter?

The more people link to, tweet about, and “like” the informative and/or entertaining information we provide, the higher our organic search placement will be. That means that when a hot prospect is actually looking for what we offer, they’re going to find it easily. The more people comment, blog about, or reference information that we’ve branded or co-branded, the more buzz we can generate. The more buzz, the more mindshare. The more mindshare, the easier it is to convert tire-kickers to buyers.

Empowering Your Subject Matter Experts to Engage with Social Media

By Patricia Seybold and Susan McKittrick

In B2B marketing, experts' content lures prospects and drives online engagement…but the marketers who run these marketing campaigns, by and large, usually aren’t the technical experts in the content areas that interest their company’s customers. It's often hard for marketers to get the real experts in the company to participate in social media conversations; these SMEs are too busy and/or they undervalue the results that can be obtained by commenting publicly and/or contributing their own perspectives to the topics of interest to customers.

That's why we became interested in a social media curation and commenting platform that's designed to help professional subject matter experts become social media curators and commenters. ConnectedN focuses on your experts' needs to:

a) Identify interesting content from trusted sources

b) Highlight or comment on that content on a branded microsite

c) Get legal/marketing approvals for any content or commentary that needs it

c) Redistribute links to highlighted content and/or the expert's comments on third-party content to a variety of social media sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)

d) Control the time(s) of the day/week, etc. that they devote to reviewing and commenting on potentially relevant and useful content

ConnectedN’s Content Curation for Social Media Engagement
Enabling Busy Subject Matter Experts to Deliver Valuable Content to Clients and Prospects
By Susan McKittrick, Analyst and Senior Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, March 24, 2011

Why Invest Your Time in Social Media? To Learn!

By Patricia Seybold

When I’m busy or preoccupied, you won’t find me very “present” on social media channels like Twitter (@customersdotcom, @pattyinboothbay), Facebook, and LinkedIn. I tend to participate in fits and spurts. But so many people ask me WHY I tweet, and link, and blog, and tag, and retweet, and follow people that I’ve given it some thought. I know that I should do it for the PR and SEO value. We’re a small consulting and publishing firm. By being “out there,” more folks are more likely to find us. And, I have gotten leads through Twitter.

But that’s not why I monitor Twitter, post on Facebook and LinkedIn, read and post in Quora, and engage in other time-consuming, focus-interrupting activities. I do it because I learn things. As soon as there’s something that comes across my radar—unrest in Egypt or Libya, elections in Uganda, the need to become knowledgeable about a new topic or technology quickly—I hit the social media world. Twitter is fantastic for monitoring current events. You just set a search term, or find the current hashtag, and begin monitoring the flow of information flooding in. You quickly discover the best sources among the flood of commentary, and you can start following them directly, or link to their blogs or the other places they post.

Learning isn’t always event-triggered or need-driven. You learn by following and watching really interesting and insightful people. The more time I spend on Twitter, for example, the more value I place on the caliber of the insights and links I get from the people that I follow. So the best investment of time I’ve found in social media is to find really insightful people to follow and then to begin following all the insightful people they follow. Always move up the ladder of social intercourse, not down. That means that I have to unfollow people who post about things I don’t care about (for me, that’s sports, celebrities, and whining). That way I can follow people whose links are really insightful. I prefer tweets with observations, commentary, and links to interesting stories, videos, or other sources. I’ve found I’m using Quora in much the same way I use Twitter. There are topics and people I follow. But I also wander around serendipitously and stumble upon amazing information, resources, and insights about things I didn’t know about. That leads to following more topics and more insightful people. Whenever I appreciate something, I retweet it, or favorite it, or let that person know that it was really helpful and valuable.

So why should you invest time in “hanging out” in the social media world? It feeds your brain, not your ego!

Social CRM Examples (not mine) - And the Vendors Who Love Them

I just read nice post by Lauren Carlson at the Software Advice Blog outlining business successes of social media programs. The examples are culled from existing case studies developed by the businesses in question (and their technology providers’ marketing teams), but the write-up is sound, and certainly timely.

It’s called "Social CRM, FTW!: How Real Companies Are Going Social and Winning."

The examples are chosen well, as they span a variety of industries -- computer software, high-tech hardware, financial services, and academia -- illustrating that whatever your situation, there’s a social approach that can work and deliver results that positively impact your organization.

A lot of my focus is on the technologies that power online communities and social media programs, so it was good to see that the cases also cover a range of vendors, including Jive Software, Lithium Technologies, Salesforce.com, Radian6, and Yammer. Each vendor brings something different to the table, depending on the sponsoring organization's business needs and goals.

Regardless of where you stand on the accuracy or utility of the term “Social CRM” (or SCRM) -- or whether you even have an opinion at all -- Carlson's post presents a well-rounded collection of examples of social programs and technologies used to advance business goals. If you’re new to this space, and/or if you’re looking to justify budget or resources, it’s well worth a read.

(I must admit I didn't know what "FTW" stood for, but I do like it. You'll need to read the post to find out.)

~ Matthew

She's a Beauty: Social Customers and Sephora's BeautyTalk Community

Before a visit to its Web site, what I knew about the Sephora chain of upscale cosmetic stores could have filled a lipstick palette. I'm still no expert, but at least I now know the difference between blush and concealer.

According to its site, "…Sephora is not only the leading chain of perfume and cosmetics stores in France, it's also a powerful beauty presence in 13 other countries. In the United States alone, there are over 250 Sephora stores and over 200 Sephora inside JCPenney stores."

What this listing doesn't tout is its virtual presence, which just last week was made more relevant to customers and cosmetics aficionados through the launch of the company's BeautyTalk community. This community, running on the Lithium Awareness solution, is designed to engage the women and men interested in cosmetics, perfume, and body care, and to complement the conversations they are having across the social Web, including those by Sephora's 900,000+ Facebook fans.

Sephora isn't Lithium Technologies' traditional client. In recent years, Lithium has found traction largely (though not exclusively) with high tech, media, and telecommunications companies. That Sephora chose Lithium speaks not only to the benefits of partnering with experienced providers of social technology and services, but also to Lithium's new marketing focus and solutions-oriented approach. The California-based vendor has rebranded its offerings as the Lithium Social Customer Suite, of which Lithium Commerce, Lithium Service, and Lithium Awareness (which Sephora is leveraging) are key components of its solution set.

What's most compelling about BeautyTalk is its seamless integration into the Sephora Web site. This isn't a new thing for Lithium, which has done similar integrations for Barnes & Noble and others. But integration of social content is important and effective in all industries and verticals, not only retail. Customers put a great deal of trust in the perspectives of, and the support from, other customers – others who have the same interests, questions, and needs as themselves. And they shouldn't have to delve into the far reaches of a site to find or provide something useful. A "socially integrated" site is a customer-centric one, bringing customer voices to the fore.

Katy Keim, Lithium's Chief Marketing Officer sums this up nicely by saying, "We think the phrase 'social customer' over time will become redundant."

We think so, too. But I'll leave that for another day; it's time for my beauty rest.

Online Customer Communities: Critical to Most Organizations

By Patricia Seybold

There's a Catch-22 in deciding whether or not to invest in trying to nurture one or more online customer communities. The biggest issue in my mind is not, "will customers say bad things about us?" The answer to that question is, "Of course, some customers will be critical, but other customers will be complimentary. It's better to have at least some control over the conversation by hosting it, than it is to be at the mercy of the discussions customers are having elsewhere on the Internet."

The more important question, to my mind, is "will the community take hold?" Why would your customers or prospects want to converse with one another in and around your products or services? The answer is that they really don't want to talk about you or your products. They want to talk about themselves: What they are trying to do; what they care about; and, also many of them actually enjoy helping others who share similar jobs, interests and passions, it's kind of a quid pro quo. "I'll help/encourage you. You or someone else will help/encourage me."

What Kinds of Online Communities Are There?

There are many different kinds of online customer communities:

• Customer Support communities are typically the best place to start for any company that has technical products or for one that provides services to help people get things done.

Deploying CRM and Social Media Globally

We've been thinking a lot about global social media strategies and planning to contact many of you about your learnings and best practices in social media outside the U.S. To prime the pump, our social media maven, Matthew Lees, interviewed an expert on doing business globally, Bill Decker, who runs Partners International, a company specializing in helping firms with their global sales, marketing and business strategies.

How to Use Social Networking. I found Bill's recommendations about how to use social media outside the U.S. useful. He says:

"Most countries would adopt social media, but not for creating relationships. When you talk about ‘building relationships,' that's a confusing phrase. Is that with or without a foundation? For example, you'll see the Europeans pick up social media, but to work on relationships that they already have…. I'll give you an example: if you look at the University of California at Berkeley, they have a social media strategy that's based on (1) adopting new students and getting them to apply, and (2), going after corporate sponsors and getting them to help fund the school. If you look at Yonsei University in Seoul, their social media strategy is about keeping the alumni and students connected. For Yonsei, it's not about attracting new students. So, again, that they already have a community, they already have a foundation, and want a platform for them to interact with each other."

What Will Customers Talk about in a Community?

"For Chinese companies, there is a shame—the Chinese call it "mienze," which means "face" and roughly translates in English to "pride"—if problems with your products or your business become public. So a Chinese tea company, for example, would do better with a community that doesn't talk about what's wrong with their tea. They'd do better with a community that was about collecting interesting tea recipes instead. Or discussing questions like "What's the most interesting use you've had for our tea?" or, "How has tea benefited you in a non-tea-drinking way?" People may say they feel healthier, they wake up more refreshed, their boss loves it, or it's a great gift. That type of community would make a lot of sense in a country that's very concerned about shame."

Bill also explains why CRM systems aren't easy to implement outside of the U.S., why the notion of "friend" in an online context is fraught with difficulty, and how to tell if someone really IS your friend, and how different cultures define ethics and what that has to do with your mom!

You can read these and other useful observations about how cultural differences will impact your global business strategy in Matthew's interview.

Taming the Social Web

Integrated Services for Social Media Management, Monitoring, and Moderation 

By Matthew Lees

We all — both as individuals and as organizations — are still figuring out how to deal with social media…how to use it effectively both personally and professionally (without letting it become too much of a time sink), how to make it work hand-in-hand with the other things we do, how to know when there's something we should know about going on, how to know when just to listen and when (and how) to jump in, and how understand and (ideally) measure its effects.

To help with all this, a cottage industry has sprung up around social media management, monitoring, and moderation. It's part content management, part market research, and part CRM, but it's all about (1) helping organizations get a handle on what's happening throughout the social Web and (2) make it easier for them to deal with it.

The Social Web = social sites and networks throughout the Internet where your customers, prospective customers, users, subscribers, and others are = blogs + Twitter + Facebook + YouTube + MySpace + Technorati + Delicious + LinkedIn + …

Crowdsourcing Condom Advertising—Will This Work?

By Patty Seybold

You may have noticed this article in the New York Times, A Hip-Hop Contest to Promote a Brand. Trojan, the manufacturers of the Magnum brand of condoms, has grown revenues and marketshare for the Magnum brand, not through traditional advertisements, but through word of mouth: mentions in Hip-Hop music lyrics by artists such as Ludacris, Kid Rock, Lil Wayne, and Eminem. The NYT article doesn't make it clear whether the Magnum product manager engaged in product placement activities or simply fanned the flames. I suspect there may be some mutual promotion underway. ("I'll mention your product, you tell the world about my song.")

Now Magnum is building on the Hip-Hop momentum by launching a “Live Large” marketing campaign in the form of a contest soliciting more hip hop or R&B songs and lyrics from anyone, not just professional musicians.

You can go to the contest site, MagnumLiveLarge.com, download music tracks to use and/or use your own, and submit your own songs and lyrics about "living large." Fans can vote on the submissions and, of course, spread them around virally. The winner will receive a $5,000 prize and a trip to a hip-hop festival in mid-June in Atlanta, where they'll be congratulated by Ludacris.

How explicit are the lyrics likely to be? The NY Times article quoted Julian Long, a consultant for Colangelo Synergy Marketing, the agency responsible for the contest:

"We're looking for songs that encompass the Magnum lifestyle and what it means to live large — not just the size of the condom or what it’s put on but what it means to live large across the board," Mr. Long said. “We’re saying, ‘You know how to handle your business and we want to give you an opportunity to celebrate that level of understanding.'"

But we all know (as do the contest promoters) that people are much more likely to contribute and vote up sexually-oriented ditties than they are sex-free songs. Is this a problem? Perhaps, for people who find this type of lyric offensive, or if a child receives a link to an inappropriate song.

But it's a brilliant marketing strategy: Leverage an apparently grass roots phenomenon—the fact that the Magnum brand has become a popular icon among Hip-Hop artists—and build on it using the same genre. By having people contribute their own hip-hop songs, Magnum is building on the existing momentum. Contests are a good way to solicit crowdsourced contributions from creative folks who want to strut their stuff. Risqué submissions are likely to spread like wildfire, generating a lot of buzz. This is good for the brand. It's also a good way to make safe sex sexy.