Increasing engagement with customers using social media

Increasing Engagement with Customers using Social Media

Who am I?
Founder of Evolution of Communication, an interactive agency based in Atlanta
Co-Founder of BuzzCal.com, an online sport’s calendar

Exposure I received in USA Today

Enough about me…onto why we are here!

Goal:
To teach you how social media can be used to increase engagement with your customers.

Why Social Media:
Opens up direct communication channels with existing and potential customers!

Caution:
Social media is not a marketing silver bullet. It takes strategy, time, and effort to reap the benefits.

Quick Social Media Stats:
30 billion pieces of content (e.g., links, photos, notes) are shared on Facebook each month
(Source: Royal Pingdom)

25 billion tweets were sent on Twitter in 2010
(Source: Royal Pingdom)

200 million views of YouTube via mobile per day
(Source: Google)

65% of U.S. adults use social media and say they have received a positive benefit as a result
(Source: Harris Interactive)

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations…
Only 14% trust advertisements!
(Source: Erik Qualman-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng)

How is social media changing the way companies connect with consumers?

Old Ways of Communication
Traditional Media acts as the middleman providing access to company’s target consumers for a price
Wants to promote goods or services to their target consumers
Company’s Target Consumers
Pays money to Traditional Media in order to gain access to their target consumers
Pushes out an advertising message to the company’s target consumers in hopes of driving sales

New Ways of Communication
Traditional Media gets sidestepped in the new world of communication.
Wants to promote goods or services to their target consumers
Company’s Target Consumers
Through social media the company is now empowered to enter into direct conversations with their target audience offering contests, deals, soliciting feedback, product reviews, building brand loyalty, etc.

Increasing engagement with your customers

Identify Your Customers
Remember the Pareto Principle better known as the 80/20 rule as applied to business…80% of your company revenue will come from 20% of your customers! We need to identify your 20%!

Identify Your Customers
What does your best customer look like?
Male/Female?
Age
Married
Do they have children?
Income level?
Favorite Leisurely activities?
Where do they live?
Anything else about their lifestyle?
How do they like receiving information from you?
What social media channels do they use?

Create your social media strategy asking these questions:
Why do we want to engage in social media?
What resources am I willing to invest in my social media efforts?
What are the best channels to target my consumers?
What metrics will we put in place to monitor our progress and determine success?
Is one person or a team going to be in charge of my social media efforts?
How will my company’s image be portrayed in social media?
How will we handle both positive and negative messages about our company?
How will we get our offline customers interacting with us through our social media channels

Helpful data when setting up your metrics:
Sales figures from the last year
Website/Blog Traffic information
Customer acquisition models (Sales Funnel)
Conversion ratios
Monthly expense for each department
Monetary value placed on a new customer
Monetary value placed on an existing customer
The Traditional Media metrics currently being used
Consumer sentiment

What is your engagement value?
Social Media does an incredible job allowing your company to stay engaged with existing customers but what is the value of that engagement?

What is your engagement value?
Engagement Value- The value derived from utilizing social media to engage with your company’s existing customers and prevent them from switching to a competitor.
Example:
Your customer spends on average $1,200 per year. (Customer’s Monthly Value=$100)
Through your social media efforts you successfully handle 50 customer support issues in one month.
In theory you have saved $5,000 in business by engaging with your customers and solving their issues. (Engagement Value)
(Source: Harris Interactive)

Do not fall into the trap of believing your company needs to use every social media channel that exists!

Examples of the most popular social media channels and how you can use them to engage with your customers

Blogs:
One of the most powerful tools of your engagement platform (website)
Place for viewers to get to know you and your company
Creates the human touch
Allows your company to engage consumers
Creates fresh content which search engines love.
Can drive your company’s search engine rankings
People do business with people…especially ones they trust
You can become a resource in your Industry

Facebook:
Hosts user-generated pictures, videos, status updates, and games
Has 500+ Million active users
Allows users to create a network of friends and companies they “Like”
Once a user “Likes” you then they will receive your status updates in their newsfeed
Fastest growing demographic…55-65 year olds
Facebook Places allows users to “check-in” to your business like Foursquare

Twitter:
Allows users to send and read short messages called “tweets” from other users
Messages can only be a maximum of 140 characters in length
Users freely share their opinions about anything in real-time
Unlike Facebook, on Twitter you can speak directly to anyone by using the “@” sign in front of their Twitter username
One of the fastest growing social networks
200 Million users

LinkedIn:
Professional networking site
Users create their profile which is similar to an online resume
Companies can create their profile and link to their employees LinkedIn accounts
Users can provide status updates similar to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites
Can start or join groups with similar professional interests
Great source for recruitment of new employees
An online rolodex of business contacts
70 Million users

YouTube:
Hosts user-generated and professional videos for sharing
Third most visited online site
Two billion views per day
Twenty-four hours of video uploaded every minute
Users can comment and share videos with friends
In-expensive way to host your company’s videos

Foursquare:
Location based social network
Users “check-in” at locations to earn points and the coveted “mayor” title
6.5 Million users
Two million check-ins per day
Companies can create special offers for users of Foursquare

Things to remember about social media
It takes time and effort to build your social media presence
Focus on the channels where your customers are so you can maximize your efforts
Be yourself
Do not treat it as another channel for one way advertising messages
It’s about two way conversations
Always ask…what value am I bringing to the people who choose to connect with me via these communication channels?

This presentation is available for download:
http://www.slideshare.net/evolutionofcommunication

Jeff Mello
Founder, Evolution of Communication
p: 404-579-0911
email: jeffmello@evolutionofcommunication.com
web: http://evolutionofcommunication.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/evolutionofcommunication
twitter: http://twitter.com/EOC_jmello

Increasing engagement with customers using social media

by Evolution of Communication on Feb 21, 2011

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