Redefine Customer Communication

< redefine > Customer Communication A Framework for Social Media Success
Connie Bensen, Techrigy
Enterprise 2.0, 2009

Connect < with > Customers
Lead Generation
Customer Acquisition
Retention
Satisfaction Trust
Loyalty
Word of Mouth
Brand Awareness
ROI
.

Your Online Community (an untapped channel)

Three premises:
Talk with your customers not AT them
Connect with them in a social setting
Community is a long term commitment
Community  Relationships

Groundswell by Josh Bernoff & Charlene Li
People
Objectives
Strategy
Technology
Exploring a Social Media Strategy

FEAR

Audit of online conversations around:
Your brand, company, key people
Competitors
Industry
Identify Business Objectives and Goals
Plan Engagement Strategy
Benchmark and Establish Metrics
Engage, Evaluate, Revise and Repeat
A Strategy in Five Steps

Company and Key Individual Names
Brands and Product Names
Competitors
Industry Terms
< You can’t afford not to >
Listen to Online Conversations

Web Analytics
Google Analytics, StatCounter
Proprietary to community
Social Media Monitoring
Free tools such as Google Alerts, SearchTwitter.com,
Tweetbeep
Professional tools such as Techrigy, Radian6, TruCast
Social Search Tools – Delver, WhosTalkin?, Samepoint, Socialmention, Serph, OneRiot
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Survey tool used to measure sentiment about the brand
http://www.netpromoter.com/calculate/nps.php

Measurement Tools

Conversation Analysis
Volume
Over Time
Platform
Topic
Textual Analysis
Content
Author Tags
Sentiment and Tone
Sources of Conversations
By URL
Physical Location by Geomapping
Analysis of Content

Case Studies

Generate more word of mouth
Increase customer loyalty
Bring outside ideas into organization
Increase product/brand awareness
Improve new product success ratios
Improve public relations effectiveness
Reduce customer acquisition costs
Reduce customer support costs
Reduce market research costs
Reduce product development costs
Business Objective & Goals

Prioritize the Business Objectives in order of importance
What keeps your boss up at night?
What are the competitive threats?
This identifies goals to measure
Prioritize & Identify Goals

B2C
B2B
Other
Goals

Who will execute?
Where will your brand engage?
When & with what frequency?
What type of engagement?
How and what types of tools will be used?
Goal: Build relationships, identify & encourage advocates, increase word of mouth.
Plan Engagement Strategy

Community ManagerAn all purpose position
Online Marketing & Outreach
Public Relations
Brand Building
Customer & Technical Support
Product Development & QA
Business Partnerships
Internal Web 2.0 Ambassador

Humanize the Company (give it personality)
Represent the Brand in conversations
Build relationships and increase loyalty
Identify and recruit brand advocates
Bring a new perspective to the company
Engage with new markets
Build internal team
Value of CM Position

Use:
Prioritized goals
Information from Listening
Monthly Reporting:
Quantitative
Qualitative
Benchmark and Establish Metrics

Choose what to Measure

What percentage of increase is wanted?
Estimate at first
Use to set goals
Translate into for business needs

Examples:

Marketing – increased product awareness & WOM (ROI is the # of additional sales)
PR – improved brand sentiment (ROI = additional customer loyalty)
Product research (ROI = the difference in time it used to take)
Decreased support calls by X% (ROI = the cost savings)

Quantitative
Use to calculate progress (% increase)
Choose 1 measurement per business objective
What are other departments measuring?
Collaborate if others are already gathering info
Benchmarking

Ongoing
Note & report customer requests needing immediate assistance
Identify topics requiring FAQ’s or blog posts
Monthly
Marketing /Public Relations
Feedback on connection of messaging
Identify sites for potential partnerships
Report on time periods of high traffic
Feedback on brand sentiment
Executive/Management
Overview of brand sentiment & competitive analysis
Offer insight/suggestions on future trends & key industry topics

Identifying Trends

Gather testimonials
Marketing use
Product development & use cases
Identify brand advocates
Appreciation for customer service
Document link to source for follow-up
Qualitative Results

Outline the following & provide recommendations based on them:

Ongoing definition of objectives (established from goals of the position)
Interaction - Trends in members, topics, discovery of new communities
Qualitative Quotes - helpful for feedback & marketing
Recommendations - Based on interactions with the customers
Benchmark based on previous report
Web analytics (unless someone else is tracking them)
Social Web analytics

Monthly Reporting

Review what is working
Revise and build on success
Drop what isn’t working
Remember: It’s a long term commitment
Evaluate, Revise and Repeat

Start with a small project
Have executive sponsorship
Actively interact online
Engage with advocates & build relationships
Incorporate ideas from the consumers
Train and recruit other staff to participate
Share success internally
Tips for Success

CommunityStrategist.com
Web-Strategist.com
ChrisBrogan.com
Books:
Now is Gone by Brian Solis & Geoff Livingston
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis
Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
Personality Not Included by RohitBhargava
Resources

Connie Bensen
Chief Community Officer, Techrigy
connie@techrigy.com
Twitter: @cbensen
Questions?