2. *Why social media works

3. *What is social media?
“ All of the activities, platforms and
practices that enable users to share,
co-create, recommend and filter
knowledge, opinions and content. ”

4. *Building trusting
relationships
 It influences the nature of people’s
relationships and level of trust in an
organisation

5. *It works for multiple
business teams
 It enables organisations to build
stronger relationships with
customers, employees, partners,
supporters, the media…
 It can help numerous
organisational departments and
teams meet their objectives

6. *Success requires
integration & collaboration
 It requires these teams to
work together to extract
maximum benefit from their
activity

7. *In summary, social media:
 Helps people share, co-create,
filter and recommend information
 Influences relationships and level
of trust in an organisation
 Enables organisations to build
stronger relationships with
customers, employees, partners,
supporters, the media…
 Helps multiple business teams
meet their objectives
 Requires these teams to work
together to create maximum
benefit

8. *What are small businesses
doing in social media spaces?

9. *Six areas of activity

10. *1. Listen
 Listening involves monitoring relevant conversations in social
media spaces
 Listen for comments on your organisation, products, services,
competitors or topics that might drive customer preference
 Listening gives you insight into your market-place, audience
and how they interact with your organisation
 It also helps you identify customer service issues
 Useful free tools: Google Alerts (online mentions)
BoardTracker (forum mentions) and Tweetdeck (Twitter)
 Paid-for tools: Scoutlabs, Alterian SM2 (with a freemium
service) and Sentiment Metrics and ViralHeat (which is a low
cost solution)

11. *Chief listener: Kodak
 Kodak ‘s ‘Chief Listening
Officer’ monitors and
gathers any mention of
Kodak across social
media
 Kodak uses mentions to
inform product R&D,
brand comms and
customer service

12. *2. Respond
 Respond to customers who are making comments about
your organisation, products and services in social spaces
 Responding to queries and mitigating complaints helps to
build positive sentiment towards your organisation
 As it is done in public social spaces, it can effect not only the
person who asks the initial question, but anyone searching
online who has a similar issue
 Monitor and categorise any feedback and create a suitable
response
 Be polite, respond promptly and respond authentically –
maintain a friendly, personal tone while taking customer
issues seriously

13. *Customer service: Dishoom
 Dishoom restaurant
monitors and responds to
customer comments on
Twitter
 Quick responses to
complaints made via social
media - and
encouragement to take
serious issues offline
 Over 1,000 followers on
Twitter

14. *3. Engage
 Proactively join conversations in your own and third-party
social media spaces with your customers and other
stakeholders (e.g. media)
 Engaging in relevant online discussions will help generate
awareness, interest and consideration of your organisation’s
point of view – as well as driving traffic to your own online
properties.
 Create content on your organisation’s blog, generate
discussion through comments and proactively contribute to
discussions across relevant forums, newsgroups and social
networks.
 Identify relevant niche conversation topics on social
networks and then decide how to participate

15. *Niche blogs: Xerox
 Xerox hosts a number of
blogs focused on niche
topics
 Very specific content
enables Xerox to target and
engage deeply with niche
communities
 13 niche topic blogs on the
Xerox network

16. *4. Network
 Make and receive relevant introductions to prospects,
partners and media within your own business social network
 This will increase the size of your network by exchanging
introductions
 Use your own or a third-party networking site (e.g. LinkedIn)
to join communities which provide a platform to facilitate
introductions
 LinkedIn is a free, business-oriented social networking site
and enables users to set up and manage communities
focused around specific topics
 Make sure your introductions are relevant and of a high
quality – don’t just link for the sake of it

17. *OPEN forum: AMEX
 American Express’
OPEN forum enables
small business owners
to network and discuss
ideas
 AMEX becomes
synonymous with the
concept of innovation in
small businesses

18. *5. Enlist
 Use social media to turn your best and most vocal
customers into advocates for your organisation
 Encourage users to leave feedback publicly, in
social spaces
 Create ambassador programmes for reward
customers for advocacy
 Create social objects for advocates to share easily
among their networks – e.g. video clips, comment
pieces, online vouchers…

19. *TripAdvisor reviews:
Mandarin Oriental
 Mandarin Oriental hotels
actively drive users to leave
feedback on TripAdvisor
 Generates trust and public
advocacy as customers
view feedback left on third-
party site
 The original Mandarin
Oriental in Hong Kong is
the no. 1 hotel on
TripAdvisor for Hong Kong,
with 308 reviews

20. *6. Transform
 Use your own community to discuss, debate and
feedback on ways in which your products and
services can be improved
 Collaborate with your customers and partners to
evolve and improve products & services
 Collaborate with your employees through Enterprise
2.0 tools (e.g. Yammer, BlueKiwi)
 Ensure participating stakeholders are aware that
you have implemented their feedback – publicise
any product changes and thank them for their input

21. *User-generated menus:
AJ Bombers
 Burger joint, AJ
Bombers, invites user
input for all aspects of
their products
 Products and services
constantly revolve
around what users
want
 Sales of items
promoted via social
media have risen 30%

22. *In summary:
Use social media to:
1. Listen
2. Respond
3. Engage
4. Network
5. Enlist
6. Transform

23. Iain MacMillan
RMM
+44 207 193 4556
iain@rmmlondon.com
www.rmmlondon.com
@RMM_LDN