1. Customers are shaping brands through their online interactions and conversations every day. As customers change faster than companies, leaders must identify issues and problems mentioned by customers before they become widespread public issues. 2. Leaders will monitor patterns in customer conversations globally to identify issues early and be prepared with responses when problems become public. This builds customer trust that the company is actively listening. 3. Companies must meet customers where they are having conversations online, such as social media sites, rather than expecting customers to visit company sites. Building trust requires participating in the conversations that matter most to customers. 4. Less than 1% of customer time is spent making purchases; most time is spent browsing, learning and socializing. Companies must

1. What Leaders of Great Brands Understand about Building Trust Online Bob Pearson President, The Blog Council Chief Technology & Media Officer, WeissComm Group June 2, 2009

2. #1) Customers are co-shaping your reputation everyday Are you accidently outsourcing the building of your brand?

3. Customers Shape First Impressions

4. Customers are Changing Faster than Companies Breadth – 500k new online customers each day Location -- >40% of online in Asia 1st Impressions -- YouTube Is 2nd largest search engine Habits -- Brazil one of leading consumers of online info Are you a student or an observer?

5. Countries Habits are Changing as They Mature Online -- Brazil

6. #2) Leaders will identify issues before they happen Customers assume we are listening to their issues in real time

7. 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 answers Customers trust us to be smarter on identifying issues You decide that if a hot issue is defined, it must be solved Your company continuously integrates online learning’s into key parts of your company(institutional memory)

8. #3) You Realize that Your Customer Does Not Care Where You Want Them To Go Customers are part of their own liquid network Become a friend who can be trusted

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

10. 10 Languages Reach 95%Hindi & Russian are Next

11. Trust Builds When You Visit Your Customer in their Home

12. #4) You Know that <1% of a Customer’s Time is Spent Purchasing a Product 99% of time is spent browsing and socializing You build trust by being there when you are needed, not when you need the customer

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

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

15. #5) You Focus on How People Consume Content & Understand How it is Changing Customers decide where they will learn It is not via advertising……

16. The Media World isn’t Changing…..it Changed Media Outlets – 74 of top 100 outlets for Techmeme are blogs/online sites Bloggers – 3 of 4 look to each other for their next story Customers – 3 of 4 look to each other for purchase advice Conversations – 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

17. The New Media 17

18. Your Broadcast StationIncreasingly, the 1st choice for learning

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

20. How does your customer discuss your brand? Do you know with precision? Dynamic Drill Down River of News Topic Trends Conversation Cloud Language Media Type Post Tag Region Sentiment Source Tag User Assignment WHAT DOES THIS TELL ME? Top 50 most mentioned words in conversations surrounding “Pharmaceutical” over the past 30 days.

21. Do you know where the real traffic is? Allstate insurance – 3.99MM Allstate insurance company – 943k Geico.com – 1.83MM Geico insurance – 1.77MM State Farm insurance company – 4.9MM Or Insurance quote – 31.99MM Insurance group – 22.3MM Home insurance – 75.8MM Auto insurance – 64.8MM

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

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

24. Syndication of Content MattersMore than Site Traffic Micro-Communities – the social media world grows & fragments, simultaneously Customer-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?

25. 10-20% of Your Customers Will Call You Each Year Due to a Problem 80-90% will not call you despite a problem Few will call you just to catch up

26. Q&As matter Word of mouth matters Partnering with customers matters

27. 8) Customers Want to Do Three Things to Help Each Other You build trust by being part of this process

28. Ideas, Knowledge, Solutions Share ideas – let’s improve the next product or service together Share 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.

29. Over 11,000 Ideas & 325+ implemented

30. Think Big -- Empower your customers to share their knowledge and benefit the world Solved button added to Original Post; clicking it will take user to AS AS Post Turns Green and logo added

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

32. Employees don’t change when they arrive for work They prefer blogs They like to share ideas and comments They want real-life video, not canned productions They want to help each other, not be polite to senior management and hold in their thoughts

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

34. Shopping is Changing Permanently Ratings & Reviews – your peers define the brand and experience for you Co-Browsing – your peers help you shop Contextual Content – info you want appears when you discuss it Individuals in companies can have the respect of peers. How many “company peers” do you have?

35. 11) We Listen to our Customers, so We Create New Communities Think outside the box, then get rid of the box

36. A community-driven site

37. Customers Prefer Content that Helps their business

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

39. 12) We Know Preparing for Yesterday is Ineffective Old models and habits hold back innovation Watch for “antibodies”

40. Ask yourself if you know the answers to these questions Since 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. alone We know Facebook is growing fast, but we’re also participatng in x, y and z properties, since they have high potential In 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

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

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

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

44. #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 customers Companies that cling to the past may not realize it, but they will lose relevance.

45. MESSAGEEXPERIENCECONVERSATION RELATIONSHIPSAFFINITY& TRUST WE BECOME CONVERSATION ARCHITECTS

46. Key Coordinates The Blog Council -- www.blogcouncil.org My personal blog -- www.csmg.us Everything else -- www.twitter.com/bobpearson1845