Engaging with Social Technologies - Part II

As a follow-up to my earlier post about the TMA webinar with Charlene Li, I wanted to highlight a couple of her recommendations that really resonated with me.

1. Start Small. Many people I speak to are overwhelmed by all that they can (and feel should) do with Social Media. Li advises clients in much the same way we do – start small and tie it to a business goal. The easiest way to step in is by listening, see what others are saying about you or your market and start joining the conversation. Regularly watching and commenting on blogs will give you a sense of the time required to start your own. Plus you start to build relationships with communities that someone else has already built. When it comes time to launch your own blog or Facebook page, you’ll have some credibility and a built-in audience.

When considering how to approach social media, look at your annual goals. Be it a new sales goal, improving customer service, or recruiting top talent – pick one area and focus on that.

2. Think beyond your customers. I’ve heard many people say “but our customers are not on Facebook/Linkedin/Twittter.” Even if that were true, look at who influences your customers’ buying decisions? Are they getting their information from social sites?

3. Defining ROI. Look beyond number of followers or fans. Coca-Cola has 4 million fans on Facebook, a pretty impressive number, but when you think about the market for Coke, they should have close to 200 million fans. Does that mean their Facebook page is a failure? No. They just need to consider the influence as well as the quantity of their fans. How can they give those 4 million fans the information and experience they are looking for so they will go out and evangelize the brand.  She presented an equation for determining value (stay with me here, I know we communicators shy away from heavy math…)

Value of purchase – cost of acquisition + value of new customers from referrals + value of  insights + value of support + value of ideas = customer lifetime value. 

This complicated equation reminds us that our customers aren’t just valuable because they purchase our products – but also because they influence their friends, provide customer service, and share insights and ideas with the brands they love (or don’t).  Brands can tap into all this collective wisdom by listening, sharing and engaging with customers using the many social media tools that are available. 

These were just the top three thoughts I took away from the session. Anyone else that listened in have thoughts to add?
- Piper Conrad