How to use
as a Social
Customer Relationship Management
tool
for FREE
Tai Tran

WHY FACEBOOK?

because…
• Facebook is a Social Network

What’s with Social Network?
• Young people spend >= 16 hours / week
online
• 96% have joined a Social Network
• $350 billion / year in direct spending
power
• 78% believe in recommendations from
other consumers (their friends in a Social
Network)
• Consumers are less defensive

Facebook is world’s #1 Social Network
• 132.1 million unique visitors, June 2008
• 15 million active on Mobile, November
2008
• Facebook is meant to be a platform for
business

You can
Eye consumers in details
•
Get feedbacks
•
Observe the trends
•
Engage in conversations with consumers
•
Engage in consumers’ conversations
•
• for FREE

DIFFERENT CHANNELS TO
REACH CONSUMERS &
POTENTIAL CONSUMERS

Direct Connection
• 5000 friends
• An account for a service is not effective
– Looks weird
– Looks artificial
– Creates a feeling that the account is trying to
sell something. In fact you are, but do so
tactfully with other channels
• Create an account for yourself-the-person

Group
• Create a group
• Invite people
• Be interesting
Write interesting introductions
–
Put real & serious-looking contacts
–
Say interesting things
–
Use media smartly (see Media slide)
–
Add values to members
–
• The group members will invite their friends

Message
• Send messages to fans
• Send messages to Group members
• Send messages to Event attendants

Event (if applicable)
Create Events
•
Let the group be the host
•
Invite people
•
Events are automatically updated to
•
people’s calendar

Media: Photos, Videos, Links
• Upload Photos to Group / Page
• Upload Videos to Group / Page
• Post useful links to resources other than
your own service

Page
More professional than a Group
•
More creative than a Group
•
Affirm your position of a service provider
•
Contents
•
Discussion boards
–
Events
–
Information
–
Notes
–
Photos
–
Reviews
–
Video
–
Wall
–

Application
• Develop an application for users
• ROI?

Advertisement
• Options
– Banner
– Inline advertisement
• Receive consumers’ feedbacks on the Ad
– User can vote up or down on your ad

Market Place
• A C2C portal

GENERAL STRATEGY

Use a variety of channels
• For example
– Create a Page
– Be interesting
– Upload media
– Be interesting
– Organize events
– Be interesting
– Update
– Be interesting

Pull
• The main idea of social media is Pull
• Pull
• If you Push, consumers push you back
away

Be Social
Give freebies
•
Talk about people’s interest
•
Truly care about people’s interest
•
Share info other than your own services
•
Be helpful
•

Personalize
• Mass messages are no different from ads
on newspaper
• Personalize the message to different
groups of consumers
• More potential consumers more focus

Engage in conversations
• Not broadcast, but conversations
– Make it two-way
• CommunicatioN, not communicationS
– CommunicationS help
– But in the core it’s human communicatioN

Be Honest
Be open
•
Be honest
•
Build trust
•
“Marketing is being honest about the
•
selected facts of the truth” – Tai Tran
2005

Fun
Be fun
•
Spread the fun
•
Have fun
•
Enjoy the fun
•

Knowledge Management
• Make sure the
account, knowledge, connections are not
lost if the person in charge leaves

PITFALLS

Billboard 1.0 vs Media 2.0
vs.

Spam
• Don’t send too many messages to Page
fans / Group members / Event attendants
• Avoid writing on others’ Walls

Broadcast
• Broadcast is sending mass messages
without caring about recipients
• Broadcast = Monologue
• Don’t boast

Stalk
• Don’t stalk people

Pro-Fun
• Fun
• And Professional

Possible consequences of Pitfalls
Fans leave
•
Group members leave
•
People put you in their “Limited Profile”
•
People block you
•
Bad Word-of-Mouth
•
Affect reputation
•

WHERE FACEBOOK CAN’T
SUBSTITUTE A FULL-PLEDGED
CRM

Deal tracking
•
Full customer contacts
•
Reports
•
Integration with other systems
•

LOCAL PLAYERS
FROM VIETNAM

Some Active Vietnamese entities
HR services Fashion
• •
– HR2B FTV Vietnam
–
– Vietnam Jobs Ovvio
–
Education Machio
–
•
Flaunt
–
VietAbroader
–
Technology services
•
RMIT Vietnam Business Club
–
Vietnam Creative Circle Intel
– –
OVS Timnhanh
– –
Dining / Clubs yUp.vn
–
•
Zing
–
Bounce
–
Metvuong
–
Cage
–
BarCamp Saigon
–
Xu
–
FMCG
•
Lush
–
Cantina Central – Budweiser
–
Barbecue Garden Other services
– •
K Cafe
– – MegaStar cineplex
– K1 fitness

• …just some
• And the number is rising exponentially

But
• Most Vietnamese participants:
– Create a Group
– Invite people
– Befriend whoever are in Vietnam or are
Vietnamese
– Create Event
• There are more than that:
– Utilize the Page

Vietnamese entities which go beyond
Player Page Application Advertisement Others
VinaCyber Personalized
Networking
Timnhanh Personalized
Networking
 
HR2B

VietAbroader

yUp!

Baomoi

Zing Knowledge
Sharing
(Bryan Pelz’s)

Hop on! It’s FREE
“The train is on, with or without you”
Marta Z. Kagan

This is not only a Guide
IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW WE
CAN UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA

References
• Marta Z. Kagan, What the F**k is Social
Media, http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media
• Peter Kim, A List of Social Media Marketing
Examples, http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-
thinki.html
• Dawn, Introduction to Facebook for Companies and
Organizations, http://fastwonderblog.com/2008/09/25/introduction-
to-facebook-for-companies-and-organizations/
• Facebook Corporate
Blog, http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?blog_id=company

Thank You & Good Luck
November 2008
More resources on my website:
www.taitran.com
Connect to me on Facebook:
www.taitran.com/facebook
Follow me on Twitter: @taitran