Is it a Facebook page? Is it Twitter? Is it posting a video to YouTube? What about creating a Blog? What is the best way to grow an audience?
As someone who sits in corporate boardrooms or presents in front of large audiences, that has to be the number one question: what should I be doing online that will help me grow an audience and build a community? The truth is that there is not a specific platform or channel that is the right answer. The truth is that you need a strong strategy that defines the types of content you would be best at producing, what the overall business objectives are, and a whole swath of other questions that will lead you to the optimal tactics.
But, there is one thing…
As you build your own spaces and places on the channel and platforms, always remember that the “build it and they will come” model won’t work. The best way to grow an audience and build a community is to make yourself a valuable member of the existing communities. Figure out where the dialog, conversations and feedback around your area of interest is happening and be present and accounted for there. All of the time. As much of the time.
What does that look like?
Follow the key people on Twitter. Interact with them. Retweet the good stuff. Become an ally.
Leave comments on their Blog. Not platitudes, but real content. Add value. Push the conversation. Get everybody thinking.
Like the Facebook pages that are relevant to you. Don’t stop there. Add comments, share content and let people know that you care.
Find relevant articles, news items and videos… and share them. Don’t share them on your spaces, offer them as gifts to the existing community members on their pages and platforms.
LinkedIn is another great resource to find “similar others”. There are some amazing groups there as well as people asking interesting questions. Be helpful on LinkedIn.
Use Google Alerts for some of your industry’s main keywords. It’s a fertile ground to discover new places to share how you think about your industry and meet new people who are discussing the same things that interest you.
You get the idea.
Give and give abundantly. We tend to naval-gaze a lot when it comes to Social Media and these digital media channels (for more on that: Confessions Of A Narcissist), the people who are the most successful are not spending their time focused on their own channels and platforms. The people who are the most successful are the ones who are out there, sharing, contributing, collaborating and adding value in other people’s places.
Now it’s your turn: how active are you in other people’s places?
In Jacobs presentations he oftentimes reference a quote from Gartner which says the following:
“By 2010 more than half of companies that have established an online community will fail to manage it as an agent of change, ultimately eroding customer value. Rushing into social computing initiatives without clearly defined benefits for both the company and the customer will be the biggest cause of failure.”
Notice that value must be defined for BOTH the customer AND the COMPANY, something I feel that many organizations miss when developing their social web strategy. Social media isn’t going to go away and while I’m all for testing and playing around with social channels such as twitter, I think the real benefit comes from being able to solve business challenges while making customers happy. I thought it would make sense to look at a few simple examples of what defining customer and company value can look like. We don’t need to get too crazy with defining “value” here because quite honestly most companies are still in the early stages so let’s keep things simple.
Company
Looking to speed up or improve the innovation process, soliciting and encouraging customer participation
Improve or augment customer support issues through social channels
Identify product or service problems via customer feedback
Connect with and build relationships with analysts or companies that can result in partnerships or business opportunities
Empower customers to become advocates, the advocates act as Jeremiah Owyang calls them, “unpaid armies”
Improving the end user experience to keep customers coming back to purchase from you
Customer
Timely and quality customer service support resulting in less frustration
The feeling that the organization values the customer
An improved experience when interacting with the company
The ability to affect how a product or service is marketed or created which provides a feeling of importance and contribution
Offers and promotions available exclusively through relevant channels
Peer recognition
You can of course use monitoring tools such as Attensity and Radian 6 to get a better understanding of what your customers are saying about you online and what they expect from you. This can dramatically help in the customer value creation statement.
Again, these may or may not be specific to your customers or your organization but the key here is actually setting up these key value statements so that you have an idea of what you and your customers are working towards.
Call me crazy (as many of you have), but I don’t see the separation of “listening tools” and “CRM systems” lasting too much longer. We have actually seen a few acquisitions over the past few months such as Jive acquiring Filtrbox, Lithium acquiring Scout Labs, Meltwater acquiring Buzzgain, Attensity acquiring Biz 360, and several others. We haven’t really seen CRM companies acquire listening tools (have we?). We have seen many vendors build integrations with one another but with the recent focus and announcement at the CRM Evolution conference that analytics is the largest missed opportunity, it seems as though integrations aren’t really going to be enough and that CRM systems need to actually acquire and fully integrate listening and monitoring into their offering.
Some of you might remember the Social CRM process diagram that Jacob put together (with some great feedback from Mitch Lieberman).
In the diagram above (which of course is far from perfect but perhaps a good starting point) we see that a listening tool feeds the information into a CRM system which already has a rich database of customer history. With Social CRM, doesn’t it make more sense for CRM systems to actually provide the listening and monitoring functionality themselves or do you think the integrations we are seeing today are sufficient? For example, I think it would be very interesting to correlate and overlay customer social activity with transaction history or perhaps customer preference information that is found in a CRM system. This could make for some interesting customer segmentation. For example a company could tell if people that interact with the company via Facebook spend more money than those that interact with the company via Twitter (and how much more and when, I haven’t seen this yet, have you?). Cloud 9 analytics should be working on doing something around this which should be very interesting (they are built on top of Salesforce).
Advantages to CRM systems acquiring listening tools
CRM systems will be able to offer a much deeper level of integration with listening tools as opposed to what most people refer to as “bolt on” integration
Listening tools will now be able to close the loop on customer history and response recording
Flexibility increases as CRM systems should be able to do a lot of “cool” things with the data they pull and integrate from listening tools
The admin experience would perhaps be more seamless and easier to manage on the back-end instead of having to access multiple tabbed windows for management
Just thinking out loud here but it just seems to make sense that CRM systems acquire listening/monitoring tools. What do you think? Does this make sense? Why or why not? Just my opinion, what say you? Perhaps someone with a stronger vendor background can explain why this may or may not be a good idea?
Google Voice launched a ‘call phones’ feature this month that works within your Gmail account. Not much to say about it, except that it could make Google Apps for Business an even more attractive proposition, as they are offering international call rates (computer to phone) starting at 2 cents a minute to Japan, Britain, Germany and France. Arguably everything required to launch a business from your computer now sits in the cloud of Google Apps… But you’ll still need to file your tax returns.
It will likely differentiate the rumored Google Me service from other social networks that do not offer call services.
It is also worth noting that this move creates yet another reason for consumers of Google products to provide their credit/debit card info, and spend directly with Google, which is somewhat of a departure from its ‘freemium‘ model.
Here’s last week’s fantastic social commerce webinar/podcast on group buy hosted by Opus research/Internet2Go, featuring Yipit co-founder James Moran, Close.ly CEO Perry Evans and Internet2Go Senior Analyst & Program Director Greg Sterling.
Full of intelligent insights, useful stats and market predictions, it’s the best overview of the social commerce group-buy segment we’ve yet to have seen.
Here’s the link to the webinar (requires registration), but screenshots, audio and top takeouts are below. Enjoy.
0:00 / 0:00DownloadRight-click and save as to download.
Top Takeouts
62% of online adults look for coupons for online stores – 12% never make a purchase without checking for an online coupon first
Searches on Google for “Printable Coupons” increased 67% year on year
Digital coupon users have average household income of $96K
Adults with HH income greater than $100K are twice as likely to have redeemed online coupons than lower income households
Adults with college degrees are 2x more likely to have used online coupons than those who didn’t graduate from high-school
After search engines, coupon sites are the most popular online shopping tool (before reviews, retailer emails, price comparison sites, shopping portals and social networks)
There are now 500+ Group Buy couponing sites; Groupon and LivingSocial are the market leaders (Groupon vital statistics: Valuation $1.35m, 2010 revenues (est.) $350-400M, $170M invested, present in 100+ US cities, expansion through Europe underway)
Publishers/media co’s are now entering the group-buy arena (Washington Post, San Fransisco Chronicle, CBS)
Group buy sites are a new generation local advertising channel/local direct marketing channel
Group buy is form of “live social marketing” (daily deals + email marketing + mobile LBS/checking + Search marketing)
90% of group-buy coupons get redeemed
The group-buy categories generating the most revenue are city tours, hair removal and spas
The future of group buy is 1) “verticalization” – focusing on specific product/demographic categories 2) media (publishing sites)
93% of retailers using group buy sites would use them again
Customer retention is an issue with group-buy sites – 19% conversion from coupons to regular customers – but apps such as Scoutmob are emerging that offer ‘return perks’ deals for returning coupon users to stimulate loyalty
The show includes the flurry of usual statistical suspects (below) and runs for nearly an hour, with listeners calling in (mostly to heart Groupon), but it makes good drive-time/commute listening – and demonstrates the appeal of Groupon from a shopper perspective.
Groupon is the “fasting growing company ever” – growing faster than EBay, Yahoo, Facebook or Google grew – founded November 2008
Only company to have been valued at more than a billion dollars faster the You Tube
Groupon has a $1.3bn valuation
You Tube has yet to turn a profit, but Groupon was in the black in its first 7 months
On track for $500m revenue this year
The recent Gap Groupon ($50 value for $25) sold 200,000 group coupons before noon (10/second)
Groupon is part of revived trend of couponing (50% of Americans use coupons – up from last year)
Consumers that clip grocery coupons spend more than non-coupon users
Coupons may be for necessities, Groupons may be used for non-necessities luxuries
Groupon will be soon be offering more targeted “personalized” offers based on zip codes
And to wrap up, a refresher on Groupon – what it is, how it works.
…And just for completeness, a Fox Business news slot from this week covering Groupon (You Tube link Fox doesn’t do embedding)…
Web analytics is perhaps the most important discipline for businesses online. In case you don’t know who and why visits you, buys your products and talks about you, you are blind on the Web.
Additionally, with the huge influence of social media, it’s more important than ever to monitor social media buzz. While some people still assume that there are no social media measurement tools there are already dozens out there.
So check out these 50+ advanced web analytics tools for business use. It’s the updated 2010 edition. Of course I assume that you know by now the industry standard solution Google Analytics.
This list has been first compiled in February, 2009 so I decided to update and republish it 18 months later. I’ve removed, added and changed numerous links.
Make sure not to miss the Social Media analytics solutions at the bottom of the list.
A new social media study reveals that fashion brands have a significantly stronger social media presence than other UK retailers, by actively embracing various platforms for the benefit of both the customer and the business.
Having measured the fundamental rise of ecommerce over the past decade, eDigitalResearch is now monitoring retailer’s social media as part of its benchmark activity, assessing brand’s presence over several different sites and their efforts to engage in two-way dialogue.
Assessing some 72 UK retail sites by looking at volume of followers alongside active interaction between the brand and consumer, the research found that fashion retailers are encouraging a larger degree of cross-communication through well-established Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Topshop and River Island claimed the top two spots, recording a large number of followers and higher levels of customer engagement. ASOS came in third, with New Look and Next completing the top five.
Ed Handasyde –Dick, Social Media Manager at eDigitalResearch comments, “It is not surprising that brands aimed at a younger, more dynamic audience came out on top. We are beginning to see more content-driven marketing from many multichannel fashion retailers, such as in-house produced magazines, focusing on subjects that potential customers regularly talk about. It is only natural that consumers are turning to social media platforms to engage and identify with their favourite brands. The next challenge is for companies to utilise all this user generated content and integrate it into within their future marketing and business plans.”
The recent rapid development of mobile technology and the opportunities it provides for retailers is also becoming more apparent, with companies beginning to develop mobile sites and apps for consumers. Sitting just outside the top four, Next and Marks and Spencer’s, have recently launched mobile sites, cementing their commitment to developing their future ecommerce strategies. However, with a slightly older target market, who are less likely to be social media savvy, they both miss out on achieving higher positions as they have lower levels of customer engagement and interaction.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, fashion websites who target an older demographic, and electrical retailers, scored rather low, with many not even having a social media site presence. Most grocery sites also had low scores, with many only having just developed a social media strategy. For these sites, the conflict going forward will be to try and find engaging content that will captivate consumers and their online target market.
At Facebook’s Places event, they noted that their iPhone app would be updated tonight with the new check-in functionality. Sure enough, here it is. Though the App Store update alert hasn’t kicked in yet, if you go to the actual page and redownload it, it should be the latest version (version 3.2).
As you can see, the new Places area is front and center in the app. Clicking on it brings up a list of your friends who have recently checked in to various places. Clicking on those friends shows more details about the place they are at.
Friend check-ins are sorted by those friends who are nearby and those who are elsewhere. Your stream will now show these Places check-ins as well.
One thing that’s oddly tricky is actually checking-in yourself. I seriously cannot figure out how to do it right now. Lemme know what I’m missing. We were told it may be a while before the full funtionality rolls out to the app, so perhaps Facebook is holding some small element back for the time being. [Update below from Facebook]
Still, on the touch.facebook.com version of the site the functionality is working and seems much more obvious.
You’ll also notice that Facebook has changed the Inbox icon on their new app. And to make room for Places, the Notes element of the app has been moved on to the second page.
Update: A number of people in the U.S. are also reporting seeing messages that Places isn’t available in their area yet. It appears that Facebook is slowly rolling this out. Stay tuned.
Update 2: Facebook say that even though the app is live, the Places functionality isn’t rolled out to everyone just yet. That’s why some people see the message that it’s not available in their area — and why others can’t yet check-in. Facebook wants to make sure their servers can handle the load that is inevitably coming so it will be a roll out over the next day or two I’m told.
Here are some quick pictures of what the new app looks like:
Gap have extended their BlackMagic social media campaign exclusively for Foursquare users until August 22nd, extending last week’s one day Facebook-Twitter-Foursquare event promoting the launch of their new women’s black pants; 25% of all in-store purchases with a Facebook coupon (printed), Twitter code (spoken), or a Foursquare check-in (shown).
If checking-in on the geosocial network seems arduous, just give the cashier the register code BMAGIC25.
Gap is the latest retail brand to use Foursquare as a social commerce tool to drive traffic footfall and build loyalty in retail stores by rewarding people for checking-in to stores, and in so doing share store promotions across their social graphs.
With Facebook and Twitter launching geosocial features, dedicated loyalty apps like ShopKick, (used by Best Buy and Macy’s) WeReward and TopGuest often doing auto-check-ins, and Forrester advising marketers that it’s too early to jump on the geosocial marketing train anyway, the Foursquare minnow and its smaller siblings (Gowalla, Brightkite et al) is caught somewhere between a rock and a hard place.
Nevertheless, a number of brands are – or have been running Foursquare promotions – or “Specials” as Foursquare calls them. Here’s a round up…
10. Golden Corral: Mayors eat free, one in five check-ins eat free, all check-ins entered into iPad sweepstake
11. Jimmy Choos (London, UK): Catch a checked-in “CatchaChoo” representative snapping Twitter photos of Jimmy Choos and get the shoes (Jimmy Choos Treasure Hunt)
21. Steve Madden: Check-in to receive a 20% discount $50+ purchases
22. Tasti D-Lite: Checkin to earn additional loyalty program reward points
23. Wagamama: Free juice for mayors, free miso soup for every fifth check-in
24. Wholefoods: Every fifth checkin get free scoop of gelato in store café
Scanning through these Foursquare promotions, it’s clear that Foursquare is being used primarily as a loyalty rewards platform/couponing channel offering four types of rewards or “Specials” for customers
“Check-in Specials” – unlocked when a user checks in to a venue a certain number of times (“Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times? That’s a free drink for you!”)
“Mayor Specials” – unlocked only by the Mayor (the user who has checked in the most in last 60 days)(“Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free order of french fries!”)
“Frequency-based Specials” – unlocked every X check-ins (“Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!”)
“Wildcard Specials” - unlocked with special conditions (“Show us your foursquare X badge and get a free drink!”)
Few retailers have published the results of their Foursquare campaigns – although pizza chain Domino’s attributed a 29% UK sales increase at least partly to its social media marketing campaigns. Nevertheless, Forrester argue that adoption of geosocial apps is still too low to warrant marketing investment.
Sure, we not in Minority Report yet, but given that it’s free to run promotions on Foursquare, we’d recommend that brands and their agencies use Foursquare as an experimental sandbox for geosocial marketing. The time for goesocial marketing will come, and when it does, it’ll be those with “the knowledge” who’ll profit.
Group Buy Power Briefing (Yipit/Close.ly)
