Social Media Pitfalls and Mistakes – the Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media Programs

June 1, 2010 2 Comments

Social Media Pitfalls and Mistakes – the Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media Programs

By Steven Jeffes

How Fortune 500 Companies Make Critical Social Media Mistakes and How These Can be Avoided

The following is a synopsis of the seven deadly Social Media Sins that Fortune 500 companies commit when developing & managing social media programs and are detailed in my post below:

1)      Organization & Governance – Departmental infighting and inconsistencies cause social media disconnects and customer confusion

2)      Program Measurement: Companies are lulled into a false sense of security by believing they have a great social media program

3)      Policy & Standards:  Companies do more harm than good by being erratic & unpredictable to their customers

4)      Program Process:  Successful delivery of a social media program is not repeatable due to the lack of a process excellence model

5)      Legal & Regulatory Compliance: Social Media Program exposes the company to huge compliance and customer management issues

6)      Human Resource Management (HRM): Human resources misses the opportunity to empower and excite the workforce about social media

7)      Financial Performance: Success of social media is judge via subjective vs. objective and financial performance measures

Remember the dot com days in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when companies furiously scrambled to add an e-channel or internet communications to their list of capabilities and rarely gave a second thought on how to efficiently integrate these capabilities with existing off-line & traditional channels? Remember when ‘just adding something’ and demonstrating any e-channel capability to the public was critical and ‘online’ departments, organizations and functions were added as separate silos within the overall organization? Also remember the effort that went into trying to undo some of the inefficiencies caused by these non-integrated and dichotomous processes, procedures and operations?

Any guess to what is happening today from a Social Media standpoint for many companies? In short, Dejavu is occurring in regard to Social Media and many companies are ignoring the hard lessons that should have been learned during the 80’s. Indeed, many companies are proceeding down the same path without fully considering the correct methodology to use and unfortunately will end up designing programs with the same discontinuities and pitfalls as they did when developing an internet capability.

The following chart is a quick comparison of the companies in the dot com 80’s and the parallel to the development of social media capabilities of today:

Dot Com 1980’s Internet Capability Development

Social Media Capability Development Current Comparison
Adding Capabilities just to show up

Yes
Build now/fast, determine how to integrate later

Yes
Build functions in silos or with just a few departments

Yes
Ad-hoc inter-organizational program governance

Yes
Processes and organization not totally optimized

Yes
Standards and Policy Developed on the fly

Yes
Financial Business Case Not Fully Developed Yes

As part one of a series of blog posts, the following post will provide you with an overview of the seven areas where I have seen my Fortune 500 clients make major mistakes when attempting to develop top-notch social media programs. Following this post, I will address how a best-in-class social media program development methodology I have developed called SMARTE – The Social Media Adaptive/Responsive/Transcendent Enterprise enables companies to avoid many of these pitfalls and mistakes, but rather facilitates the development of a world-class social media program that leads to increased market share, higher brand values and increased customer loyalty.

The seven deadly Social Media Sins – Pitfalls and Mistakes Companies Make in Developing a World-Class Social Media Program:

1)    Social Media Organization & Governance:

One of the largest of the seven deadly social media sins is not determining the optimal way to govern a social media program, including determining who sets social media policy, develops social media standards, develops and/or approves processes, optimizes or aligns the organization, etc. Efficient and optimized social media programs are governed by governing organizations that include a great deal of cross-organizational representation and include legal, finance, marketing, customer service, brand management, human resources, etc.  In this fashion, decisions are made holistically and with insight into all organizational considerations prior to proceeding. Many companies I’ve analyzed commence social media program development with one or a few departments considered and the resulting programs are generally ad-hoc, non-systemic, disjointed and often myopic to their own department’s needs.  Ideally they should be holistically focused on the needs of the entire enterprise.  Some of the specific sins committed for social media organization and governance are as follows:

  • Social Media Programs are governed in silos vs. holistically, systemically, and cross-organizationally.
    • Issue Created: this creates many of the same problems as the issues that were create between the ‘on-line’ vs. ‘off-line’ organizations including discontinuities in customer communications, customer management inconsistencies, etc.
  • Social media program is started with just one or a few departments.
    • Issue Created: When additional departments develop social media capabilities, many times, much re-work needs to be done to standardize the process across departments
  • The Social Media Programs Organization is separated from the Customer Relationship Management Functions: Brand Management, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Shareholder management, etc.
    • Issue Created: Customer management is handled inconsistently across all customer facing departments and functions which leads to customer frustration, confusion and resentment.  
  • Social Media customer intelligence is not integrated and managed as a strategic asset across all departments and organizations including Product Management, Branding, Campaign Management, Customer Experience, Sales.
    • Issue Created: Pockets of social media learnings and opportunities are not operationalized across all departments and functions, leading to many missed improvement opportunities.

2)    Social Media Program Measurement:

  • Social media metrics & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are not balanced between both internally and externally focused measures
    • Issue Created: By measuring too heavily on internal measures, companies can be lured into a false sense of social media success by believing they are successful when customers do not reflect this sentiment.  Additionally, by focusing too heavily on external measures, companies can be ignoring key internal efficiencies in delivering the social media program, hence driving up the cost of the program unnecessarily.
  • Social Media is treated as a ‘check-box’ and treated as a victory for just showing up vs. measuring sales, marketing, brand value gains
    • Issue Created: A feel good social media program is created and perpetuated where companies pat themselves on the back for just having a social media presence while potentially damaging customer relations (i.e. many programs that do more harm than good in terms of brand reputation). 
  • Social Media performance dashboards are not available for CxO level management to gauge program performance against key measures like brand value, average public sentiment, brand buzz and excitement values, etc.
    • Issue Created: Key issues impacting shareholder and/or stakeholder value are not missed and are not managed to create a positive impact.

3)    Social Media Program Policy & Standards:

  • Standards are not developed to consistently ascertain and respond to the ‘average customer sentiment’
    • Issue Created:  Each social media interaction is handled inconsistently; thus leading customers to perceive the program to be biased, unfair, and/or just poorly managed.
  • Brand consistency is not considered when developing social media programs and customer interaction is highly inconsistent
    • Issue Created: Companies do not present ‘one face to the customer’ and appear inconsistent, disjointed between departments and company’s brand quality is perceived to be highly variable
  • Standards and policy have not been created in terms of managing customer communication protocols: This includes frequency of responses, tone/manner of the responses, handling or rebutting negative brand or company comments, opt-ins/opt-outs, etc.
    •  
      • Issue Created: Companies do not present ‘one face to the customer’ and appear inconsistent, disjointed between departments and the company’s brand quality is perceived to be highly variable.

4)    Social Media Program Process:

  • A best practice process and organizational framework has not been fully considered for the social media program
    • Issue Created:  A best practice social media program is not just about technology and applications, but must be equally supported by a robust organizational and process framework. Lacking this structure, the program continually languishes in mediocrity without a governing continuous improvement process framework to evolve the program to world-class status.
  • Acknowledgement of customer brand input is not acknowledged and responded to which translates into a negative customer brand experience
  • Brands feel compelled to respond to every negative comment posted about their brand, products and/or organization
  • Utilizing traditional media tactics for bi-directional and conversational social media venues
    • Issue Created: Social Media interactions appear non-interactive, disingenuous, or canned, which in turn, leads to negative sentiment about the social media program being a corporate ivory tower programs that are perceived to not listen well or interact effectively. 
  • Inability to synthesize and analyze intelligence from across multiple social media venues or not listening to all relevant communities and platforms creates an inability to develop a coherent brand action plan
    • Issue Created: Key social media input and ‘intelligence’ is overlooked, creating many missed opportunities to positively influence brand perceptions, customer loyalty and company product & service quality perceptions. 

5)    Social Media Legal & Regulatory Compliance:

  • Regulatory compliance is or was not part of the overall social media program design such as the following sample regulatory rules that impact social media program design:
    • Financial Services: NASD 3010 and 3110, SEC Rule 17a-4, Gramm-Leach-Bliley.
    • Cross-Industry: Sarbanes Oxley Compliance.
    • Pharmaceutical: Fair Balance Act, Adverse Event Reporting, HIPAA Privacy Rule
  • Developing Social Media programs that assume customer opt-in permission and channel preferences are the same for traditional media
    • Issues Created: Huge customer trust issues are created that negatively impact brand value and company perceptions. Regulatory compliance publicity or fines are also at risk if compliance is not fully considered when designing a world-class social media program.

6)    Social Media Program Human Resource (HR):

  • HR does not tie social media program performance to individual key performance measures
  • Human resources fails to facilitate a sense of excitement about social media and is treated like ‘just another program’
  • Customer sentiment values are not tied to program and individual performance measures
  • Company employees are not encouraged, trained and incentivized to become social media conversation managers, Tweeters, Bloggers, etc  in order to converse with and positively influence constituencies, customers and stakeholders.
    • Issues Created: Employees feel left out and uninspired by the social media program vs. being excited, engaged and empowered to participate/communicate in order to facilitate program success.  

7)    Social Media Program Financial Performance:

  • Business case development for social media is not tied to financial  performance goals
  • Social media optimization tests do not take into account financial performance
  • Program are initiated with strong dose of intuition vs. realistic business cases vs. initiating each program based on ROI, payback periods, net present value discounting, etc.
    • Issues Created: Social Media is success is measured exclusively by highly subjective measures such as customer & program reach, customer sentiment, etc. vs. highly objective and financially driven measures such as sentiment vs. share of wallet, program reach vs. acquisition costs, etc.

Do you have any war stories that you like to share about social media programs that have gone awry? Has your company committed any of the above seven deadly social media sins? Do you have any other perspectives on mistakes companies make in developing and managing an enterprise-wide social media program?

My next series of blogs will be taking you through my SMARTE social media methodology on how to avoid all of the above mistakes in developing and managing an enterprise-wide social media program and will enable your company to develop a social media program that is considered world-class.

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Social Media Campaigns That Drive Bottom Line Results!

May 12, 2010 4 Comments

By Steven Jeffes

Infrastructure Establishes a Social Media Foundation, Campaigns Capture Business

Many firms can say they can help your business in social media, all offering help in setting up Fan Pages, web pages, event and photo pages, groups, SEO, etc.  All of this will help you establish a basic presence with Social Media as the bare minimum you will need in setting social media infrastructure, but very little of this foundation building activity will actually help you drive real business by now merely showing up on social media. What is needed to be successful in the realm of social media, after setting up this basic infrastructure, is architecting a robust campaign management program to help drive additional prospects, inquiries, build relationships, and drive actual new or repeat customers.  A sample of the many social media components many firms will attempt to sell your company explains why most are not revenue generating, but rather basic infrastructure and foundation setting in nature:

Component Description Net Result
Fan Pages Establishes a landing area about your organization and business Basic Facebook web page to be discovered – infrastructure
LinkedIn & Facebook Groups Establishes a group for people to join with a common purpose or affinity Building a basic presence on which people ‘might’ join – infrastructure
LinkedIn Events Establishes events for direct 1st level contact to sign-up with intent to attend Building a basic presence on which people ‘might’ attend – infrastructure
Twitter Pages Established a landing area about your organization and business Basic Twitter web page to be discovered or ‘followed’ – infrastructure
Social Media Analytics or Sentiment Analysis Tools Develops listening posts at various social media venues and communities to gauge public sentiment about your company, products, brands, services Develops intelligence on what conversations are occurring that are relevant to your business – infrastructure
Social Media Campaigns such as connection to me campaigns or fan campaigns that drive increases in fans, friends, or connections (refer to sample campaigns below) Drives increases in general audiences and in specific segments for campaign targeting and for sales closure. Increases the universe of potential customers and specific groups with affinity toward your specific products and/or services. Closes sales for your products and services

The bottom line with the above is that many activities will set up a presence within social media, but few activities drive real leads and closed business like social media campaigns.  Social Media pages, events, groups, etc. all develop the repository (setting up the pool) for people to come to when asked, but social media campaigns actually drive people to sign-up, join, fan, friend, etc. (filling the pool with high quality water) that will then be captive for driving and closing new business.  The following sections will look at some examples of how social media campaigns have driven increased prospects and real/closed business.

“Social Media Messages All Seems Like a Stream of Consciousness with No Rhyme or Reason”…

Several times in the past few months, several of my clients have commented to me that they see many firms putting out messages via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. that are mostly a stream of consciousness and seemingly have “no rhyme or reason”.  My comments back to them was that, for many companies who do not know how to use social media effectively, that is the impact they are having – sending out uncoordinated and unfocused streams of consciousness without a consistent theme, goal, brand message, and in many cases annoying messages about mundane and uninteresting topics more about themselves vs. anything anybody else would be interested in reading.  In essence, these companies are turning off the very people that they are trying to sell to via social media.

I was then asked if there was a way to change this so that companies were sending more coordinated, interesting communications that all made sense and built upon one another to generate a common and interesting theme.  This would encourage people to read more, and more importantly, make them interested in potentially purchasing the company’s products and/or services.  My response to this seemingly silly question was “of course there is.” 

One of the main ways companies can end this stream of consciousness existence on social media, is to utilize a campaign planning template I use for all of my clients in order to facilitate a more professional and coordinated presence on all social media sites.  Similar to the campaign plan/brief/planning template that many of the best of breed Marketing Automations software tools employ like Unica, SAS, Oracle CRM, SAP CRM, Chordiant and Alterian, this campaign planning template can bring order, clarity and relevancy to your messaging on social media sites. It can literally transform your presence from the realm of annoying, irrelevant, and to be ignored – or worse, de-friended, opteded-out, de-connected, etc. to being highly engaging, referred to via viral forwarding, and saved on ‘favorites’ list and other must follow mechanisms.

This campaign template also enables your campaigns to be successful in converting new business by be synchronizing them from a cross-platform perspective (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) such that present consistent and complimentary messaging that supports your overall brand strategy and campaign themes.  Employing this facilitates your firm in building intelligence into your social media campaigns by pre-designing a campaign brief around key message themes for each platform.  This template is a very small part of a Social Media Best Practice Design Methodology and toolkit that I have developed called SMARTE – The Social Media Adaptive/Responsive/Transcendent Enterprise.  A sample of this Social Media Campaign Planning Template, which is part of this SMARTE methodology, (in summary form), is as follows:

Social Media Campaign Planning Template:

Campaign Brief: Theme, Goals, Tactics, Platform Targets, etc.
Campaign Theme: Social Media for Automobile Dealers Campaign Timing: May 1 – May 30th Campaign Periodicity: One message ever other day on each platform
Platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn Facebook Campaign Success Metrics: Ten  Inquires, Two signed Contracts Campaign Goals:  Convince automobile dealers and brokers
Campaign Targets: Automobile Dealers and Brokers Campaign Tactics: Generate dealer general interest in social media from May 1-15; Communicate how to be success in social media from May 15-20; Communicate we know how to from May 21 – 30th. Lead Follow-Up:  E-mail “Social media for dealers” white paper, dealer testimonials, and invite to June 15th Webinar – “Dealing for Dollars – A dealer’s social media success guide.
Platform Specific Campaign & Message Plans
LinkedIn Campaign Messaging Plan: May 1: Auto Dealers benefit from social media via 7% lift in sales in March May 3: Dealers find that social media generated leads account for top 35% of most profitable customers.
….May 16th: First steps to developing a highly effective dealership social media program: http://xys123.com …May 28th: Auerback dealership recognizes Edgeup Marketing for excellence in social media: http://abc711.com  
Twitter Campaign Messaging Plan: May 1: … May 3rd: …
Facebook Campaign Messaging Plan: May 1: … May 3rd: …

The top part of this template under the heading “Campaign Brief: Theme, Goals, Tactics, Platform Targets, etc.” lays out the overall plan for the campaign and form the global parameters governing the campaign such as goals, timing, success metrics and KPIs, tactics, lead-follow up plan, etc. As part of my SMARTE methodology, I employ an SCAPE of Social Campaign Analysis, Planning & Execution methodology to plan and architect highly successful social media campaigns.

The bottom part of this template under the heading “Platform Specific Campaign & Message Plans” lays out the overall plan for the platform specific campaign messaging that support the campaign such as goals, timing, success metrics and KPIs, tactics, lead-follow up plan, etc. The development of this part of the template is also part of the SCAPE of Social Campaign Analysis & Planning methodology from the overall SMARTE Methodology.

Campaign Execution & Follow-Up

During and following the execution of these campaigns, a similar template governs the follow-up to all campaigns activities, leads generated, inquires, 2nd wave follow-up campaigns and needs to be carefully considered when developing the original campaign.  In this SCARF or Social Campaign Analysis & Response Follow-Up template, all contingencies are accounted for in terms of plans needed to follow up on the campaign including the business rules needed to support the follow-up, the campaign resources required, the type of response required by segment, etc.  I chose SCARF for this component since every aspect of the campaign response needs to be wrapped up and accounted for in order for the campaign to be considered actionable and successful.

Social Media Campaign Success Samples:

The following are a few sample campaigns I’ve executed via social media with this method that have netted huge results in very short periods of time that have helped me acquire several new contracts representing net new business for my firm:

A)   LinkedIn – 15,000+ group members in ~1.5 years!

Consider the following real accomplishments I have accumulated in the realm of group management via the execution of intelligent and coordinated social media ‘connect to me’ campaigns:

  1. In the past year or so I have established and grown the following mega-groups on LinkedIn, each with over 1,200 members by leveraging effective social media viral campaigns:

a)      Current and Former CSC Employees  – 8,100+ Members

b)      Lockheed-Martin Employees – 2,100+ Members

c)       General Electric Current & Former Employees – 1,600+ Members

d)      Capital District & Upstate NY Professionals – 3,200+ Members

e)      IBM Current & Former Employees – 1,380 Members

When these groups were first formulated, I adopted an ‘invite a friend’ campaign for many of these groups whereby I encouraged and incentivize people to invite their friends, colleagues, associates, etc. to join these groups. The incentive to invite a friend encouraged each existing member to invite their friend, colleague, associate to the group to grow each of the group’s membership. Where I am still employing this campaign, the Capital District & Upstate NY Professionals is adding about 200 members a month across New York State. I also recently re-branded and expanded the group to include most of New York State – from Plattsburgh to Tarrytown and from the Berkshires of Massachusetts all the way to Rochester and Ithaca. Through this active campaigning, this group is now the largest social networking group in all of Upstate NY. 

While the above numbers do not rival the number for some other broader groups categories like ‘Marketers’ or ‘Job Seekers’, the groups member drives above have done well given the limited and narrowly audiences for each group.

These group connections now enables me direct access to over 15,000 professionals world-wide that I can promote my consulting services. As a result, I have landed several consulting contracts through these LinkedIn groups worth $500k+, by using these now large social media groups as a sourcing area for new business – thanks directly to intelligent and **free** social media campaigning.

B)    LinkedIn – 3,000 connections in ~1 year!

By utilizing the group template function of LinkedIn, I employ and ongoing campaign to send a personalized message to everyone who joins one of the above groups to connect to me and to follow some of my activities as follows:

Welcome to the “Capital District and Upstate NY Professionals” Group!

I am the President, Founder and Group Manager for the “Capital District and Upstate NY Professionals” Group and I’d like to welcome you to the group. Please feel free to reach out to me if you might need any assistance from this group and/or any of the members of the group.  Good news – this group just surpassed 3,200 members since I formed this group in late last July! **We are now the largest (and most active) social networking group in Upstate NY!!**

Please invite me to your network if we are not already connected http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenjeffes. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/steven.jeffes, Twitter: http://twitter.com/SocialSteven

Also – check out my brand new blog on Social Media at: http://stevenjeffes.com/

Please send the following link to your friends and colleagues to invite them to this group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/153859

Lastly, please also check out my career profile website (Social Media & Marketing Subject Matter Expert) at http://www.Stevenjeffes.com and my consulting company website at http://www.edgeupmarketing.com and my awards/client letters at: http://www.stevenjeffes.com/stevenjeffes_awards.html. I am also an adjunct professor at Excelsior College teaching an array of Business & Technology classes.

Thank you,

Steven M. Jeffes, LinkedIn Founder & Group Manager

(518) 339-5857 (Cellular, message)

Capital District & Upstate NY Professionals – Upstate New York’s Largest and Most Active Social Networking Group

Through this “connect to me upon joining” campaign, I now have built over 3,000 first line contacts on LinkedIn in approximately a 1 year period of time by soliciting a connection to me from everyone who joins the above groups. In addition, everyone invites me to connect with them, which totally precludes me from using up any of my limited LinkedIn invites.   This pool of 3,000 highly accomplished current and ex-professionals from Lockheed-Martin, IBM, GE, etc. now become my audience for business development activities for my consulting services.

C)    Facebook – 4,400 friends in four (4) months!

As a result of intelligent campaigning, I have now amassed 4,400 Facebook friends in a four (4) month period of time – almost unheard of according to many Facebook experts.  Many people take several years to accumulate this many friends and 5,000 is currently the lifetime limit you can have on Facebook.  Through an intelligent execution of Facebook Friends campaigns, I amassed this many friend in the period of October 1, 2009 and January 31st, 2010 – just a four month period of time.  Through a ‘suggest a friend’ campaign, 3,800 friends were referred to me, all of which were highly correlated to the needs and interests of my marketing, CRM, and social Media consulting business.

In addition, most of these 4,400 friends are businesses and not persons as is typically the case and include the following business categories:

Albany NY Businesses, Appliances, Architects, Ashville NC Businesses, Auto Dealers, Banks & Credit Unions, Bridge & Port Authority, Brokers, Chambers of Commerce and Convention & Visitor’s Bureaus , College & Education, Computer, Construction, Contractors, Cosmetics, Culinary, Dental, Energy, Environment, Equipment, Fire & Police, Fishing Charters, Foods, Furniture, Gifts, Golf, Government, Health, High School, Hospitals & Medical, Hotels, HR & Recruiting, Insurance, Jewelers, Library, Limo & Transportation, Manufacturing, Media & Films. Metals, News, Not For Profits, Optical, Payroll, Pharmaceuticals, Politics, Pools & Spas, Printing, Professional Friends, Public Interest, Real Estate, Recycling, Restaurant & Wineries, Roofing, Security, Spas, Sporting Goods, Stadiums & Arenas, State & National Parks, Supermarkets, Technology, Travel, Utility Companies, Veterans, Yacht Companies

Personalized Campaigns – Messaging Specific to Each Group:

As a result of being able to save my Facebook friends into the above customized business categories, I can personalize campaigns and messages to individual businesses within these industries. For example and as a result of having a great deal of business experience with pharmaceutical companies in the area of CRM and social media, I just launched a customized campaign to Pharmaceutical companies with the title of “Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry – Mastering the Four C’s: Challenges, Concerns, Considerations, Capabilities. Based on this campaign, I am now planning of delivering several workshops on the topic to several pharmaceutical companies. 

Social Media Campaign Success – Similar Stories?

The above shares a small sample of the success I have enjoyed planning and executing campaigns for my own firm and for other companies.  I would open this blog up for people to share their own success stories in social media campaigning and to share insights on what other methods, campaigns, tools, and techniques you have utilized to drive social media campaign success for bottom line results.

About the Author

Steven Jeffes is a thought leader in developing world-class CRM, marketing, social media, loyalty, customer retention and customer experience programs. The recipient of many awards (http://www.stevenjeffes.com/stevenjeffes_awards.html), Steve is expert marketing  strategy  design & optimization: design, development and launch of world-class and best practice marketing and social media programs; change management organizational design and process excellence in marketing, sales, customer service, engineering, product management; and development of successful sales and sales management programs for Fortune 100 companies and government entities. He holds dual B.B.A. degrees in Computer Science and Finance from Temple University and a Master’s in Organizational Design and Excellence from the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton.

Steve can be e-mailed at stevenjeffes@yahoo.com or contacted via phone at 518-339-5857.

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Effective SRM Programs: Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Boost Customer Loyalty and Build Customer Relationships

April 20, 2010 6 Comments

By Steven Jeffes

As companies seek ways to increase profitable revenue growth, the topic of Social Relationship Management (SRM), also known as RM 2.1, keeps getting more and more attention. Traditional RM systems reached out from the organization to target prospects and customers. By contrast, SRM tools put consumers in the driver’s seat, letting them interact with your company and brands on their own terms — reviewing products, creating community, making suggestions, creating brand sentiment. This outpouring of consumer activity translates into data to be sifted, analyzed, and reported, requiring new tools and techniques, often tied to traditional RM systems, in order to convert raw data into social media intelligence.

Unless you have been living in total isolation for the last 24-36 months, you have likely heard of or used Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn among other social networking platforms. Chances are also likey that your company is vigorously interacting with customers and prospects online. You also also likely be unsure how to harness the new social media to raise your company’s profile on and off the Internet. Even more basic, you may be unsure how to discover what people are saying about your brand/products, and in which forums, called influence communities, they are commenting.  Most companies are just starting to climb the social media learning curve. But time is of the essence since companies ‘not in the game’ are considered to be laggards in terms of being stakeholder and constituent proactive.

Your customers, prospects, and competitors are all using social networks like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, YouTube, and Identi.ca in record numbers every day — and new sites and tools appear almost as frequently. These tools are a powerful way to connect with people, ascertain their needs, liste to their preferences, and more flexibly and quickly respond to their needs. Although consumers have been leading the social media revolution, Business-to-Business (B2B) companies can learn from the successes and failures made by other businesses that sell to consumers in this new social community. Harnessing social media in the context of B2B is the next major frontier to master.

Ranging in price from free to fairly expensive, SRM tools provide a robust means of interacting with your customers, gathering intelligence on your competition, and staying abreast of topics, trends, and sentiment that will be impactful to your brands/products/services/etc. While somewhat more rudimentary, even the free tools can help you find out who’s talking about your organization/brands/products/services/etc. and what is being said.

Establishing an Effective SRM Program

If you are not already doing it, you should start monitoring what your customers and others are saying online about your brand & products. This way you will get early warning if there is a public relations disaster in the making or, conversely, advance notice of good news like a new product finding its targeted audience. Sites like Yelp let customers post reviews of businesses. Some say that, if Toyota employed an effective social media listening program, it might have discovered the set of product issues earlier than was the case. Listening, however, it just the first step toward building an effective social media program.

Customers are posting their opinions on all sorts of Web sites and forums, and not just in the obvious ones. You need to get a ahead of the tide of customer opinion — good, bad, ever-changing — and monitoring all of the potential sites manually is likely to be more than you can handle. Tools that help you aggregate and analyze social media sentiment or manage social media conversations in masse can keep you from drowning in the vast sea of on-line opinions. 

I recently helped a credit card company analyze customer sentiment around its new-customer onboarding process. Using a sentiment analysis tool, I set thresholds for comment similarity and frequency. For example, if the number of negative customer comments regarding a certain credit card fee went over the pre-set threshold, an alert would be sent to the marketing and customer service teams, urging them to take action.  

Each alert kicked off a workflow of tasks which provided guidance on how to respond to what was being said. An abundance of negative comments relating to fees might trigger a strategic set of campaigns to educate customers on how to reduce their fees, as an example. Additionally, if a significant number of customer comments concerned customer service issues relating to on-boarding process, then that would launch a workflow to address and rectify the situation. My client was able to adjust the number of comments that would trigger the alerts, and this threshold was easy to fine tune as necessary.  Keeping on top of customer opinion helped this credit card company address customer complaints in a timely manner while also understanding which parts of the on-boarding process were working well and which processes needed improvement. The company was able to reduce its total on-boarding cycle time by 11 to 16% by implementing a continuous improvement program based on what was being learned via this social media ‘listening’.  This credit card company has since expanded its sentiment analysis to other sectors of the business.

Identify & Interact with Key Influencers

Using an online sentiment analysis tool provides you with real-time awareness of the tide of customer/consumer opinion. What you do then with that knowledge is critical to successful social media program. Like my credit card client, you will likely want to tweak (or even completely change) your campaigns and communications strategy according to major trends in social media sentiment from key influencers. Whatever you do, my advice is to proceed with caution.

Although it is tempting to respond in kind to every negative commentary, that can be a dangerous path. I have all seen cases of tit-for-tat on all sorts of Internet forums — decorum is often not part of the debate. It is best to steer clear of vitriolic exchanges in any forum, no matter how tempting.

On the other hand, if done with common sense and sensitivity to the overall audience, there are certain instance in which you might choose to respond on an individual basis to a negative comment. You may want to engage if the comment is wrong or unfair, especially if the poster appears to be a key influencers (i.e., other people in the forum and/or community appear to be swayed by that person’s opinion).

As an example, Campbell’s Soup Co. recently used Twitter to take on a poster’s critique of the company’s advertisements for its 80-calorie Select Harvest Light soup. The person making the post via Twitter took exception to the commercial’s implication that competitors’ 300-plus-calorie soups were fattening. Campbell’s Soup Co. immediately fired back on Twitter, pointedly calling the poster’s views ‘extreme’. It remains to be seen if this was the right approach, but if a company believes it has been wrongly called out by someone, it has the same right to use social media to defend their brand image and reputation. Just beware of unintended consequences such as being considered brand myopic or being ‘big brother’ and not allowing any reasonable 3rd party opinions.

Another situation in which you should engage directly with a customer or influencer is when there is a legitimate customer service issue. In fact, some companies are using Twitter (e.g. Dell Computers, Southwest Airlines, Home Depot, Pandora, Starbucks, Comcast, H&R Block) as a customer support platform because of its ease of use and real-time interaction capabilities. The are many classic case stories such as the person stranded in the airport, stuck between flights and miserably tweeting about their negative experience. In a point-of-service situation like this, the airline can and should intervene to help this customer. By responding in a positive way, the potential for increased customer loyalty is immense, both from the customer who was helped and anyone else who might hear (and re-comment) about it. Everyone loves a feel-good story about a company going above and beyond to help their customers in need.

Get Them on Your Side: From Brand Detractor to Brand Advocate

Another technique for handling specific negative commentary is to try to win him or her over and transform him or her from being a brand detractor (i.e., negative brand perceptions) into becoming a brand advocate (i.e., positive brand perceptions). Anyone who frequently makes posts to opinion web sites and micro-blogs clearly is willing to devote time and effort to the influencing the topic at hand. Many of these types are key opinion leaders and key influencers (i.e., the top reviewers on Amazon.com). If you can succeed in getting this key influencer on your side, you may gain a tireless brand champion, an invaluable asset in swaying online opinion toward having a positive image of your brands, products, services, etc.

In any case, you must approach a key opinion leader cautiously, as they are likely to be cynical about ‘corporate intent’ and ‘influencing’ efforts.  Start incrementally by asking for additional input on a particular topic.  Or, ask that person to join a client advisory board — but be sure to provide meaningful opportunities to provide feedback. Due to their savvy nature, key opinion leaders will immediately sense any attempt to manipulate their opinions, so small incremental interactions and progress is recommended. It is hard for customer, or even the sharpest critics, to fault a company that keeps asking for their thoughts and ideas in order to make their brand and customer experience better.

Another strategy to accomplish the same goal is even more subtle. Without interacting with key opinion leader directly, try to drive them to links to pages or sites where you are gathering specific product feedback. By allowing them to participate in shaping things, you are them demonstrating to them you are responsive and listening to your constituencies, communities and people who really count – their key stakeholders.

Some companies even go a little further, allowing online visitors to become active participants in shaping their next set of products, new services, or even TV advertisement (i.e., the Doritos user-generated Super Bowl ad). Called “crowd sourcing,” this technique may seem risky and chaotic, but can result in new products that more closely match customer needs. (Twenty million visitors all saying they want the same thing can’t be all that wrong).

Steps to Developing World-Class Social RM & Loyalty Programs

For many companies, developing an effective SRM strategy is still a work in progress. That’s understandable, but I strongly recommend to get started as soon as possible. If you’re unsure what to do next, consider the following concepts:

  • Create your social media personality and develop positive brand perceptions. Social media offers strong opportunities for organizations to reinforce their brand image and differentiate themselves from other companies and brands. Social media can enable your brand to set forth and brand ‘personality’, one that customers, prospects and influencers can better resonate with. I recommend using short-term promotions to shape your visitor perceptions and create a positive buzz around your organization’s brand image.

 

  • Engage customers, prospects and key influencers in bi-directional conversations in order to develop relationships. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other similar tools offer you a chance to develop a relationship with your on-line visitors that goes beyond traditional transactions. The interactive capabilities of social media offer the chance to ask questions and post comments – finally a way to enable a two-way dialogue vs. the traditional company to customer monologue. For the organization, it enables an online & bi-directional relationship (SRM) that can assist in the improvement of customer service, product development, marketing, investor relations, etc.

 

  • Interact and Disseminate Information at the ‘Speed of Need’: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can rapidly disseminate a message to a wide group of members or interested parties. This can be especially helpful for product alerts, special promotions, fraud alerts, service outages, or weather-related schedule changes. While your physical message might not reach everyone, getting the information even to a smaller group reinforces the perception of good customer service and might just become viral if the message is structured such that it encourages repeating via word-of-mouth means.  The key here is to communicate at the speed of when it is needed (speed of need) by your customers and constituencies.

Social media sites, tools and programs are here to stay, and I consider that a good thing for your company and your brand. Arriving at the right SRM strategy requires a good deal of thought and care, but it is worth undertaking. With each passing minute, more of your competitors are mastering SRM, and in order to be considered credible in the marketplace, you must at least match their program. (The company with 3 million followers is demonstrably better off than the one with 3,000.)

More importantly, when your SRM program is optimized, customers will feel more connected to your brand. Social media also enables bi-directional customer intimacy, which customers in increasing numbers are expecting, and is a powerful hedge against the forces that are constantly eroding customer loyalty. The traditional push (i.e., monologue – company to customer) method of information flow does not mesh well with the on-line world. In this world, your customers are seeking more honesty, forthrightness, and transparency, and if you give them what they want, the potential for increased customer and brand loyalty is enormous.

About the Author

Steven Jeffes is a thought leader in developing world-class CRM, marketing, social media, loyalty, customer retention and customer experience programs. The recipient of many awards (http://www.stevenjeffes.com/stevenjeffes_awards.html), Steve is expert marketing  strategy  design & optimization: design, development and launch of world-class and best practice marketing and social media programs; change management organizational design and process excellence in marketing, sales, customer service, engineering, product management; and development of successful sales and sales management programs for Fortune 100 companies and government entities. He holds dual B.B.A. degrees in Computer Science and Finance from Temple University and a Master’s in Organizational Design and Excellence from the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton.

Steve can be e-mailed at stevenjeffes@yahoo.com or contacted via phone at 518-339-5857.

 [LP3]Happened around 2/1/10. http://jezebel.com/5459672/the-low+calorie-soup-war-campbells-defends-its-honor-on-twitter/gallery/

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