Dan Purvis, Director of PR for Meltwater Group, presents how social media has changed the way that businesses and brands engage with customers. Presented at Social Media World Forum in London (March 2012) in conjunction with Paddington & Co., a Meltwater Buzz client.

1. Know Your Customer
Let’s get engaged
@DanPurvis
Director, PR
Visit Meltwater Buzz
March 2011 – SMWF Europe at Stand 43/44

2. Quick intro
And then we can get to it
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3. Meltwater Group
• Founded 2001 in Oslo, Norway • 20,000+ active customers
• HQ in San Francisco • 57 offices in 29 countries
• Over $100M in revenue • 800+ employees worldwide
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4. Digital Intelligence & Marketing Solutions
Online Media
Monitoring Meltwater
News
Meltwater
Meltwater
Press
Reach
Meltwater
SEM Platform & Group Intelligent Media Database
Consulting & PR Distribution
Meltwater
Buzz
Social Media
Monitoring, Social CRM
Engagement &
Management
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5. Know Your Customer
Engagement is key..
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6. Knowledge is power
And it resides outside the firewall
1. When the 17th 3. There’s been a macro trend – the explosion of
Century philosopher Sir information published outside the company firewall.
Francis Bacon said Until recently, it’s been all about mining the data
“knowledge is power” within the firewall – highly valuable, but it stops at
he couldn’t have
WHERE WE THINK
the firewall.
possibly imagined the YOU WANT TO BE
enormous volume of 5. But this “Brave
information that New eWorld” – this
businesses in the 21st fascinating digital
Century work with day- revolution – that
in, day-out we’re living in is not
being embraced.
4. In contrast, the information outside the company firewall is
describing the environment in which the company operates.
It gives incredibly rich insights into a company’s
customers, competitors, industry
trends, stakeholders, partners and so on. Businesses must
start using this digital intelligence.
2. The massive surge in the number of customer
channels and touch points has resulted in a huge 6. Too many brands seem to think that
growth in the amount of data businesses can collect they can tick the social media box simply
on customers and their behaviour. And it can now by broadcasting their messages and
be done in real-time. content to the world
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7. Do you really care?
Customer must come first
WHERE WE THINK
YOU WANT TO BE
2. But what does this mean? It means
constantly collecting and analysing massive
3. All organizations can benefit from it –
volumes of data – listening to what’s being
having real-time knowledge of what the
said out there on the Web. Then they must
target audience wants is incredibly
use that knowledge to build 360 degree
powerful. It should also go way beyond
profiles and engage with their audience one-
the domain of the Comms & Marketing
on-one.
depts. Critically, it helps brands to gain
1. Social media for businesses and intelligence and therefore improve and
brands is very much like the age-old strengthen customer relations, feed into
business tenet of “know your customer”. product development, assist HR and
Any organisation that really cares about recruitment, track the competition, and
their customers should listen to their keep on top of market trends and opinion.
opinions, pain points or feedback. If
you don’t, you’ll be left behind.
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8. Power to the People
The democratised Web 2. And whether you like it
or not – some of those
conversations (good AND
bad) are most likely about
your brand.
1bn
WHERE WE THINK
tweets
YOU ARE
I can be per
heard!!! week
Over
800mn 3. The common expression “the
customer is always right” is now even
active more relevant with the advent of social
1. The sheer scale of social media highlights its
disruptive nature and shows how the normal users media and the power the consumer now
has.
rules of customer engagement have been
changed forever.
Everyone can voice their opinion across a
multitude of social networks and platforms – it’s
truly democratized the web. It’s the first time
people are able to voice their opinions as they
like, to whom they like.
100s of milions of
blogs
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9. Putting the customer first
They’re not just a number
3. Getting the process and strategy right is one
thing. Most importantly, it’s about being willing, agile
& bold enough to adapt to changing consumer
demands.
1. As such, the customer needs to be at
heart of all online strategies. Whether this
WHERE WE THINK
is building a 360 degree profile of an YOU WANT TO BE
individual’s digital footprint; segmenting their
online target audience in terms of
demographics and geographies; building
online communities to encourage debate
and discussion about topical issues, and so
on. There really is so much that can be
done.
Your
You
customer 4. After all, as Darwin said, if you have the knowledge to continually be able
to adapt to your changing environment, you will survive, grow and prosper.
2. Taking this further, social engagement should become a staple part of any
social strategy diet. It’s about two-way communication. And for
businesses, this means converting conversations into customers.
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10. Enough from me
Time for the Bear…
WHERE WE THINK WHERE WE THINK
YOU ARE YOU WANT TO BE
Enough theory.
Now for the marmalade sandwich
moment you’ve been waiting
for…our valued Meltwater Buzz
customer, Paddington Bear, will tell
us about the social media adventure
he’s been on and how we’ve been
helping him navigate the digital
maze!
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11. Know Your Customer
Let’s get engaged
@DanPurvis
Director, PR
Visit Meltwater Buzz
March 2011 – SMWF Europe at Stand 43/44