What Leaders of Great Brands Understand about Building Trust Online Bob PearsonPresident, The Blog CouncilChief Technology & Media Officer, WeissComm GroupJune 2, 2009

#1) Customers are co-shaping your reputation everydayAre you accidently outsourcing the building of your brand?

Customers Shape First Impressions

Customers are Changing Faster than CompaniesBreadth – 500k new online customers each dayLocation -- >40% of online in Asia1st Impressions -- YouTube Is 2nd largest search engineHabits -- Brazil one of leading consumers of online infoAre you a student or an observer?

Countries Habits are Changing as They Mature Online -- Brazil

#2) Leaders will identify issues before they happenCustomers assume we are listening to their issues in real time

Patterns are Clues Waiting to Be Found Patterns emerge before public awareness A common problem emerges in a forum in Beijing, a blog in the UK and a mention on twitter in the U.S.Your multi-function hot issues team springs in to action to analyze what is happening and prepare When the issue becomes public, you are ready with answersCustomers trust us to be smarter on identifying issuesYou decide that if a hot issue is defined, it must be solvedYour company continuously integrates online learning’s into key parts of your company(institutional memory)

#3) You Realize that Your Customer Does Not Care Where You Want Them To GoCustomers are part of their own liquid networkBecome a friend who can be trusted

A Tectonic Shift is Occurring in Where Conversations OccurLanguage – customers speak online in their first language (10 reach 95%)Location – Facebook, Twitter, ForumsTime of Day – Ex/low volume during day, high volume in eveningsWhere do your customers like to hang-out, learn and share?

10 Languages Reach 95%Hindi & Russian are Next

Trust Builds When You Visit Your Customer in their Home

#4) You Know that <1% of a Customer’s Time is Spent Purchasing a Product99% of time is spent browsing and socializingYou build trust by being there when you are needed, not when you need the customer

THE REAL WORLD OF OUR CUSTOMERS ONLINEOpinions are formed during the 99% of time outside of the purchase pathThe Purchase Experience<1% of a person’s time is spent actually purchasing our productsBroadband users spend 1 hour, 40 minutes (48% of their spare time) online, and more than half of this is spent accessing entertainment and communication

E-Commerce Will Become E-CommunityReality -- <1% of time is spent buying online. 99% is spent browsing & socializingPeer Influence – 3 of 4 customers look to their peers for advice on a purchaseIntegration – why would we ask a customer to go to multiple sites? The value is…….?Convergence is led by convenience

#5) You Focus on How People Consume Content & Understand How it is ChangingCustomers decide where they will learnIt is not via advertising……

The Media World isn’t Changing…..it ChangedMedia Outlets – 74 of top 100 outlets for Techmeme are blogs/online sitesBloggers – 3 of 4 look to each other for their next storyCustomers – 3 of 4 look to each other for purchase adviceConversations – are the driver of SOV, influence and recommendations Don’t define it as offline or online. It’s all one media world. Just know which conversations are defining your brand

The New Media17

Your Broadcast StationIncreasingly, the 1st choice for learning

6) Your Customer is Discussing Your Brand EverydayDo you know where they are occurring?Are you a participant or observer or are you absent?

How does your customer discuss your brand? Do you know with precision?Dynamic Drill DownRiver of NewsTopic TrendsConversation CloudLanguageMedia TypePost TagRegionSentimentSource Tag User AssignmentWHAT DOES THIS TELL ME?Top 50 most mentioned words in conversations surrounding “Pharmaceutical” over the past 30 days.

Do you know where the real traffic is?Allstate insurance – 3.99MMAllstate insurance company – 943kGeico.com – 1.83MMGeico insurance – 1.77MMState Farm insurance company – 4.9MMOr Insurance quote – 31.99MMInsurance group – 22.3MMHome insurance – 75.8MMAuto insurance – 64.8MM

What is being said about your brand in each key language?

7) There Isn’t a Destination for a CustomerVisiting your site is not their goal, no matter how pretty it looksWe are expected to just sort of “be there” when needed

Syndication of Content MattersMore than Site TrafficMicro-Communities – the social media world grows & fragments, simultaneouslyCustomer-Driven Preference – “I want what I want where I want it”. Stop “spamming me”. Participation is a Choice – if companies don’t listen, customers vote via lack of traffic and participation.What is your content syndication plan?

10-20% of Your Customers Will Call You Each Year Due to a Problem80-90% will not call you despite a problemFew will call you just to catch up

Q&As matterWord of mouth mattersPartnering with customers matters

8) Customers Want to Do Three Things to Help Each OtherYou build trust by being part of this process

Ideas, Knowledge, SolutionsShare ideas – let’s improve the next product or service togetherShare product knowledge – here is what I know…hope it helps you. Help peers with problems – I had the same problem, here is what I did.

Over 11,000 Ideas & 325+ implemented

Think Big -- Empower your customers to share their knowledge and benefit the worldSolved button added to Original Post; clicking it will take user to ASAS Post Turns Green and logo added

#9) We don’t have to measure trust internally, we live itOur employees feel free to help each other and, as a result, our companyLeverage the world’s greatest operating system – the web

Employees don’t change when they arrive for workThey prefer blogsThey like to share ideas and commentsThey want real-life video, not canned productionsThey want to help each other, not be polite to senior management and hold in their thoughts

10) We Judge a Person on How They Interact With UsGuess what….customers do the same thing when they shop with us online

Shopping is Changing PermanentlyRatings & Reviews – your peers define the brand and experience for youCo-Browsing – your peers help you shopContextual Content – info you want appears when you discuss itIndividuals in companies can have the respect of peers. How many “company peers” do you have?

11) We Listen to our Customers, so We Create New CommunitiesThink outside the box, then get rid of the box

A community-driven site

Customers Prefer Content that Helps their business

Free Recycling add $0Support Reforestation: “Plant A Tree for Me” [add $2]Recycling Kit and “Plant A Tree for Me” [add $2]Partnering with Customers

12) We Know Preparing for Yesterday is IneffectiveOld models and habits hold back innovationWatch for “antibodies”

Ask yourself if you know the answers to these questionsSince mobile will be the leading source to go online in the next few years, our mobile plan will do………..Since ten lanugages reach 95% of the online world, we are having conversations with customers in x today and y in the U.S. aloneWe know Facebook is growing fast, but we’re also participatng in x, y and z properties, since they have high potentialIn China (or France or Czech or Brazil), we are active in the local sites, such as Toudou, since they are the online leaders in their country for video (or photos or search or other)We know the world’s greatest operating system is the web, so our employees can now access all competitive information in real time by xyz tool on abc platform

Yesterday’s Thinking Leads Us to Place High Value on Depreciating AssetsThe Top Rankings Matter – mainstream media is decreasing in total SOV onlineThe Brand is King – personalities drive brands more than brands alone onlineThe World is Important, But We Really Focus Mainly on the U.S. – 53 countries have English as a language and see similar contentHigh Brand Awareness is Good, We’ll Build Brand Value in the Future Locally – your brand is being shaped by your customers nowCustomers Count on Us – nope, they count on each other, not you

Observations on the Old SchoolThey are old school, but don’t realize it They think tweaking the media mix will workThey wear ties, sound smart and have an answer for everything and often represent yesterday’s thinkingThey are planning to succeed in a world that won’t exist in a few yearsThey like to “content dump” to get rid of their messages in hopes someone will find it

13) We Understand Ethical Behavior is a Key Part of Maintaining TrustWe don’t support Flogs or SplogsWe would never create a fake ad, so why a fake blog post?

#14) We know that Leaders will enter and become relevant in conversations that occur everyday in every language all around the world in communities of importance to our customersCompanies that cling to the past may not realize it, but they will lose relevance.

MESSAGEEXPERIENCECONVERSATION RELATIONSHIPSAFFINITY&TRUSTWE BECOME CONVERSATION ARCHITECTS

Key CoordinatesThe Blog Council -- www.blogcouncil.orgMy personal blog -- www.csmg.usEverything else -- www.twitter.com/bobpearson1845