| |
Jan 30, 2009 by Mark MaierI have resisted the Social Marketing venues until the dust settled between Facebook and MySpace and finally posted my profile on Facebook all the while helping my sons post their band profile on MySpace. I am starting to understand why these two sites are so popular and while other emerging avenues like Twitter and LinkedIn are also gaining popularity. It is fun and engaging to hear tidbits from your "friends" when the writing bug strikes them. I have noticed, however, that I couldn't find any of my media contacts in the system yet and considering the content of this post, that was alarming.
How can this work for business trying to engage consumers through these channels? Each of the services except for Twitter has some advertising opportunities available, but really we are not talking about advertising here we are talking about conversations and recommendations. From what our research about the Buyers Awareness Cycle has tought us, we know that when you need a product or service, you go through a pattern to find a solution. The pattern includes 1) Your own top-of-mind awareness of who provides that product or service and your past experience with them, 2) You ask family, friends, or an associate who they would recommend, 3) You go to a search engine, 4) You go to the Yellow Pages. As time has progressed we are seeing people trusting customer reviews more than company websites.
MediaPost addressed the issue in "Deepening Customer Loyalty Through Social Media" and cited some very interesting research....
"Before we talk about some of these examples, let's start by reminding ourselves why loyalty is important. Arguably the biggest benefit is highlighted in an article by loyalty guru Fred Reichheld, titled "Leading with Loyalty." Based on research Reichheld's employer, Bain & Company, conducted last year, "companies that enjoy [the] 'loyalty effect' grow at better than twice the average for their industry."
If doubling your growth rate isn't enticing enough in and of itself, Reichheld also proves in his landmark book, The Loyalty Effect, that "as little as a 5 percent increase in retention can improve a company's bottom-line profitability between 25 percent and 85 percent, depending on the industry." Not too shabby, but also easier said than done.
Let's take a look at how a few well-known companies are using social media to dramatically improve their customer loyalty:
- Dell Computers: As recently as 2005, Dell was struggling mightily to keep its customers. Complaints of poor customer service combined with a scathing barrage of bad press stemming from stories of laptop batteries catching on fire led CEO and founder, Michael Dell to tap current "chief blogger" Lionel Menchaca to help right the ship. Through a campaign of open and honest communications via the Dell blogs and proactive participation by its employees in Dell's support forums, customer satisfaction and loyalty have started to come back in full force.
- Ford: It's no secret that the auto industry has come under heavy scrutiny over the last 12 months. The big three in particular have suffered huge PR and sales hits during that time as they attempt to figure out what's next. During that time, Ford made a giant leap into the world of social by bringing in social media head Scotty Monty. Through tools like Twitter, Scott's blog and Ford's Sync My Ride community, they have slowly begun to win back customer and influencer confidence. Ford still has a long road ahead, but they are reaping the benefits of being reconnected.
- Sears: you'll be surprised to find out that the company you used to know as Sears is not your father's department store. In fact, you may be surprised to know that Sears launched its SKU community last summer, and now has more than 200,000 members. "
What are key factors to increasing loyalty? It comes right back to basic marketing principles but used in todays updated marketplace....
"
- Listen first - You may already know why your customers aren't as loyal as they might be. If you don't know, you should start by listening to what they are saying.
- Engage - Unless you are one of the lucky few brands that instill passion in your base, think about giving your customers a reason to engage with you. This is most easily and simply accomplished by offering compelling content that is not about your company's products, but is germane to the customers' lifestyle. Wrapping this content in social tools makes it more scalable and repeatable.
- Measure - If you are diligent about putting steps one and two into practice, make sure you measure. Not only will it help you gauge the effectiveness of your program, it can help you get more funding to fuel it--especially during tough economic times like we're living through now."
Now get out there and be social!
Related Categories
|
Share this article with others.
When you enter your email address and their email address, our server will send them a link to this article. If you check the subscribe box, you both will also be sent a link to confirm your email address, and to validated that you want to be part of our maillist.
|
|
Categories
LPG Staff
|
|