The document discusses how several major companies have leveraged social media to listen to customers and gain insights. It provides examples of how Starbucks, Dell, Lego, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Netflix have used platforms like IdeaStorm, community forums, and social media to source new product ideas from customers, get feedback to improve customer service and business processes, and select the most popular ideas to implement. The document advocates that companies should leverage the collective wisdom of their customer communities to enhance marketing, develop new products and services, and strengthen relationships with important customers.

1. Social Media Listening
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://www.linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
April 3, 2012 1

2. Listening to Customers: Starbucks
• Customers submit ideas
• Other Customers vote up
the best ones
• Advertiser gets a
continuous way to
“source” new ideas and
get corroboration on the
best ones to implement
April 3, 2012 2

3. Listening to Customers: Dell
• Dell customer service
created the perception
that did not care about
them and their problems
• Dell set up Idea-Storm
and asked customers for
feedback
• Dell implemented ideas
and created new products
from user submitted ideas
April 3, 2012 3

4. Listening to Customers: Lego
• Lego leveraged
enthusiasts to create new
ideas for products
• Lego asked the
community to decide
which toys are most
popular
• Lego chose a handful of
master builders to create
large Lego sculptures and
art
April 3, 2012 4

5. Listening to Customers: Microsoft
• Customers and
developers perceived
Microsoft as monopolistic
• Channel 9 enabled
Microsoft employees to
blog and post/share
content like videos
• Users could post content,
edit a wiki, and submit
feedback to Microsoft
April 3, 2012 5

6. Listening to Customers: SalesForce
• Salesforce.com faced
increasing competition from
large firms and startups
• Successforce community
enabled users to vote on
new ideas/apps posted by
Salesforce.com or other
users.
• Ideas selected by community
were added to the monthly
new feature rollout, versus
annual software releases.
April 3, 2012 6

7. Listening to Customers: Netflix
Leveraged their
Facebook fan base
(1.6M) to do continuous
customer research by
asking questions and
posting useful content.

8. Companies leveraging the collective
wisdom of their communities.
• to improve marketing
• to get new ideas for products or services
• to improve their business processes
• to develop a rapport with the most important
target customers
April 3, 2012 8

9. Dr. Augustine Fou – Chief Digital Strategist
Dr. Augustine Fou is an industry-recognized thought
leader in digital strategy, search and social media
marketing and former Group Chief Digital Officer of
Omnicom's Healthcare Consultancy Group. Dr. Fou has
over 16 years of management consulting and digital
strategy consulting experience, advising CMOs, marketing
executives, and global brands. He pioneered the
application of the Unified Marketing™ framework to
optimize marketing across both traditional and digital
channels and tactics.
Dr. Fou is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU in the School
for Continuing and Professional Studies and at Rutgers
University at the Center for Management Development,
where he teaches courses on digital strategy, social media
marketing to executives. He is a frequent panelist,
moderator, and keynote speaker.
Dr. Fou completed his PhD at MIT at the age of 23. He
started his career with McKinsey & Company. He writes a
monthly column on Integrated Marketing for ClickZ.com,
and can be found on Twitter.com @acfou.
April 3, 2012 9
acfou@mktsci.com