One of the major reasons is that CMOs will be leveraging big data, mobile and social. Social Media becomes a word of mouth channel.
This new channel drives understanding of customer behavior and allows you to determine if you want to approach them and how you should approach them, respecting their privacy throughout the process. Through real time social media techniques, like blogging or online chat, you can determine if someone needs assistance, or if they are really focused on a particular topic. It offers an opportunity to interact with a person in a nonthreatening manner.
During the process, there is an opportunity for a transformation to occur with the person — from information gatherer, shopper, potential prospect and then ideally into a customer. In addition, real time chat enriches the customer experience. At IBM, for example, its online chat capability increased its leads, improved customer satisfaction, and drove up sales productivity In the first 3 months of operation on the IBM SOA site, there were over 2,845 chats, resulting in 182 validated leads! Online chatting provides assistance “just in time” not waiting in a reactive mode where someone has to click on a button to ask for someone to contact them at a later time. It gives you the ability to have a conversation with your prospects when they’re most receptive — while they are on your website or on your Twitter Channel actively gathering information. For example, a manufacturing company has been using conversations on Twitter to drive sales. In the first year since utilizing Twitter as a promotional tool, the company generated over $500,000 in revenue in sales of refurbished systems.
Guiding principles:
Skills matter. The presence you put out there in front of prospects is very important, so you want your best and brightest reps doing the real time chats. They need to be very knowledgeable about the products and services not simply communicating at a high level.
You need to understand the etiquette for inviting people to chats and for chatting with them once they accept. For example, don’t immediately pop up an invitation within the first 30 seconds that a person is on your site — it’s pushy.
New Customers. Social media is a way to reach new customers. For Dell, Twitter represented a new way to reach customers and they claim that per their latest surveys, a significant portion of people who bought through Twitter were not aware of the Dell Outlet before Twitter.
I discovered these interesting products on social.
I’d love ones that you’ve seen!
Higi –It like a Klout score that combines your eating and activity habits, all the while ranking your score, scoring pictures of food for calories and protein , etc. They have ‘stations’ set up in drugstores so that you can weigh in, test your blood pressure, etc while combining your “community” or friends into your overall score. VERY cool!
Virtual Receptionist / Concierge — So you are a smaller or medium company and you cannot afford an assistant, see this video that allows you to have a virtual and smart assistant. Very furturist — I just landed at an airport and I was directed by an virtual concierge!
Cuelight Pool Table – Yes, gaming! Cuelight allows you to transform any pool table into a digitally-enhanced video experience. High-definition imagery responds in real-time to every shot. User-selectable themes yield infinite possibilities. It is real and is already in the Paradise Tower Penthouse, Hard Rock Hotel & CasinoTM, Las Vegas and the Esquire SoHo apartment. Check it out!
OK. I admit it. I tweet multiple times a day, I have 2 blogs, and I love social. My passion is reaching customers and having them connect with my company in new and smart ways. As such, I experiment, learn from my peers, and measure these new tools for marketing. As an executive at IBM, I have found that these Social 2.0 techniques drive down costs and increase revenue.
IBM’s 2012 CEO Survey revealed that 57% of CEO’s identified social business as a top priority and more than 73% are making significant investments to draw insights into data. And more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveal 82% plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years.
This shift of consumer to business networking, known as “Social Business” has become the next big challenge for organizations which are quickly learning that social networks are no longer the new water cooler but rather their new production line, a place where employees, partners and clients connect to share vast amounts of knowledge. The big winners will go those who harness the ability to capture and analyze the knowledge their social network creates and share it throughout the business to accelerate innovation, out-market competitors and remove boundaries internally and externally.
Consider the Social Graph. A Social graph is a graph that depicts personal relations of internet users Understanding the connections of your clients helps you see the networks, where clients are isolated and where connections can drive revenue.
For example, chief marketing officers (CMO) are looking to gain insights from both internal and external data from sources like Facebook, Twitter and public forums to react more swiftly to customer trends and build their brands. HR Leaders are looking to build communities to improve recruiting and talent management services.
By interacting with the video game, students can make real-life business situation decisions. They can see the results of their decisions right away, and if they make a mistake, it’s much more private than “failing” in front of a classroom of their colleagues. Because a love of gaming is shared around the world, professors have told us the game can help to bridge cultural barriers While it’s too soon to measure the full implications, there’s a new business environment emerging.
We cannot ignore the changing group dynamics and social implications. In fact, we should tap into the most innovative ideas to redefine the fundamental nature of educating the market. Just as games present us with situations that invite players to make choices, consider the advantage of using graphics and decision-making steps of games in business. Using Social Media, we could allow decision makers to immerse themselves in the real-world simulations, judging cause and effect before making decisions.
The arrival of Social Business has created an emerging battleground for IT vendors. For example, financial analyst firm CLSA recently cited enterprise social software as one of the top tech trends in 2013 and Forrester Research reports that the market opportunity for social software will exceed $6 billion by 2016.
Here is our Monday Social Business Coffee Break and I am thrilled to host Clarisa Felts, the fearless HR & Collaboration leader at Lowes! Her famous quote is: “Social didn’t transform our culture; it revealed it.”
In most of the visits I do with companies on social, the big question I get asked is what is the benefit of becoming a social business?
Here are a few great benefits that I see:
Stronger employee engagement. Stronger employee engagement leads to great client engagement. In a social business, employees are smarter, more loyal, and engaged because their organization uses social networks, collaboration systems and shared messaging services.
Great talent in and around! A “social” approach enables employees around the world to tap into each other’s expertise and connections. Companies can attract top talent and give employees the social tools they need to work together. Executives can layer analytics on top of social technologies to make sure their companies have the right skills and expertise to meet market demands.
Exceptional client service. A social business is also one where customer service is exceptional because the company reaches out to customers through social networks, Twitter and blogs in innovative ways and acts on the insights it pulls together about consumers. That way, customer service teams have the insights and the analytics they need to predictand resolve problems before they happen.
Personalized. Value in a Social Business is created not for ‘market segments’ or demographics but for individuals. Companies can dish up more targeted offers to customers and respond more quickly to their problems. R&D can gain new sources of inspirations and insight from customers and employees so that the products customers want are the ones that get to market … customized to their particular need, even made to order!
What are your thoughts on the value you see in Social?
