Keynote presentation for Amsterdam Social Media Congres 2011. Social Media basics and examples as a kick-off for the rest of the day.

1. You’re paying
the fee for being
unremarkable.
How to use conversations to drive
business, new ideas and happiness.
© InSites Consulting
Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt) for Social Media Congres
Conversation readiness 1

2. Hello. I am Polle de Maagt.
I create impact through
conversations at a pretty cool
company called InSites Consulting.
We work mostly because we’re
committed to take research
forward, but brands like
Ben&Jerry’s, Telenet, Danone and
Philips agreed to pay us for it.
© InSites Consulting
Conversation readiness 2

3. Let’s talk about some simple
social media basics.
(and I won’t insult you with showing
some fancy graphics and statistics about
Facebook growth or Twitter followers)

4. It’s not about being on Facebook. Or Twitter.
Yes, Twitter is huge. And Facebook even bigger. But they are both platforms, not end
goals. So it really is about if and how both can help you reach your end goal. Which is
most likely not about having a Facebook fan page and more about driving
conversations, customer retention, sales or brand value.
© InSites Consulting
Conversation readiness 4

5. It’s not about being a big brand.
With big brands come big problems. Never look
for an excuse in just being a small company with
little budgets. When it comes to connecting with
consumers, real relationships work. And size, for
once, doesn’t matter.
© InSites Consulting
Conversation readiness 5

6. And it certainly isn’t
about being the first
mover in adopting new
technology.
Mobile, augmented reality, location
based services are all just awesome.
And yes, there is PR-value in being the
first Augmented Reality bakery in your
neighborhood. But is that really what
you want your consumers to talk
about?
© InSites Consulting
Conversation readiness 6

7. “
Advertising is the fee for being unremarkable.
“
Robert Stephens (GeekSquad)

8. Honestly, sentences like the world has changed,
power has shifted to the consumer, increase your
share of conversation, consumers trust each other
most, shifting power from marketers to consumers,
marketers are no longer in control, social media
strategy and learn to lose control make me puke in
my mouth a bit.
While it is really really simple.

9. Customer retention is cheaper than acquisition.
Really.

10. Happy customers drive retention and conversations.
Are you really committed to make your customers happy?

11. Happiness is about managing expectations.
Under-promise. Over-deliver.
Do more than customers expect, but don’t over-do it.

12. Conversations drive business.
What do you trust most? Peer reviews.

13. People out-converse brands.
People are more authentic, more passionate and have lower overhead cost. Period.

14. 90% of conversations is done offline.
Even these guys, a group of twitter and Facebook fanatics called ‘Young Scum’
have a regular offline meetup. More at http://youngscum.com

15. Everything a company does is communication.
Products, packaging and customer service are more genuine than marketing. So
leverage that, like KLM did with their KLM Surprise campaign.

16. Capitalize on the people and products you already have.
We built upon the things we were already doing.

17. Conversations are just a part of the consumer journey.
Traditional advertising still works, past experience is really important and real
interactions are the dealmakers/dealbreakers.

18. Conversations travel through (social) channels.
Nike launched a local store in Amsterdam, but capitalized on it via Facebook and
Twitter. Even better, users started using Hyves to spread the word.

19. Company culture makes a difference.
Every company has it’s stories and ambassadors, like Nike’s Ekins. Capitalize on
these stories and turn your employees in an army of ambassadors.

20. Company culture makes a difference.
And it really isn’t about big corporations. Bakery ingredient supplier Puratos offers
free bread to it’s employees.

21. People out-converse brands, so
you better start create stuff that
is conversation-worthy.
Product development, R&D, customer
service and company culture overtake
advertising as the most important way
of communicating with customers.

22. This is a radical change and asks
for radical changes in the way
brands and organizations
communicate.

23. “ “
Commit acts, not ads.
Leo Burnett

24. “
People out-converse brands, so you better start
“
to create stuff worth sharing.
Tom de Bruyne

25. Think stories, not technology. Stories stick.
Kay Mook gained the Antwerp Zoo 300K extra visitors and almost became
product of the year 2009. More at http://polle.me/ccjSNL

26. Think service, not product.
Do more than customers expect.

27. Manage expectations. Under-promise. Over-deliver.
Do more than customers expect.

28. What do you want your consumers to tell about you?
Is it about how cool your advertising was? Do you want them to talk about
deals? Or is it about something else?

29. Monetary value versus conversation value.
What are your best customers? The ones that spend the most money or the ones
that bring in the most new customers? Plan for both.

30. Give your customers something to talk about.
Ambassadors just want to tell other, so help them! Choqoa support fans by giving
them chocolate bars and highlighting them in their newsletter.

31. Use your ambassadors to promote your business.
Think how you can make your customers talk about you.

32. Connect with your consumers and use them for reach.
Think how you can make your customers talk about you. KLM highlighted their
Facebook fans of the day on Facebook.

33. Helping people helps.
Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63% recommends)
and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).

34. Create things worth sharing.
Think about small things worth talking about.

35. Commit random acts of kindness.
Think about small things worth talking about.

36. Make it extra-easy to share or to subscribe.
Make it easy to subscribe of share your content via twitter, Facebook or other
social buttons. Example: http://polle.me/ij19j4

37. Measure.
Measure views, clicks, but even more important: your return on investment.
Extremely simple, but effective: the Net Promoter Score.

38. Not convinced?
We asked 500 European marketers how
they perform in terms of return on
investment, turnover growth,
profitability, market share and customer
satisfaction.

39. Product
improvement
Offline WoM Road map
WoM
The best performing marketers do three things
that make them stand out.
* Conversation Readiness research amongst 500 European marketers

40. It’s really simple:
Act human.
Build upon the things you’re
already doing.
Think conversations.
And on top of that: here’s some structure
to help you out.

41. Observe Facilitate Join
The three pillars of conversation management.

42. Start with observing and listening.
There are simple tools to observe what consumers are doing. Via
search.twitter.com or more advanced tools. But what about customer emails?

43. Facilitate.
Ben & Jerry’s crowdsources their marketing plan and icecream flavors via an
online platform with brand fans.
Photo by jason.dsilva

44. Join.
Helping helps. Exceeding customer expectations builds loyalty (81% repeats, 63%
recommends) and falling below customer expectations erodes loyalty (5%/71%).

45. Use pilot projects to learn and change.
Telenet launched a beta product to let consumer help them eventually create a
better product. Think in intrinsic, learning and change KPI’s.

46. Be maniacal about measuring and tweaking.
Measure views, clicks, but even more important: your return on investment.
Extremely simple, but effective: the Net Promoter Score.

47. You can forget most of the things
I said in this introduction.
But please, remember these 3 things.

48. 1) Conversations drive business.
Companies that connect with
their consumers perform better.
So start the conversation.

49. 2) To drive conversations, exceed
expectations and create stuff
worth sharing.
Don’t plan only for life time money
value, but for life time conversation
value.

50. 3) Start with observing, but start
with simple ways to drive
conversations.
Start monitoring, start with pilots and
learn while doing.

51. Read the manual.
Seriously.
Read it.

52. I hope I was worth sharing.
Send me an email at
polle@insites.eu or find me on
twitter at @polledemaagt.
Find the presentation at
http://polle.me/smc11