7 Social media and online consumer engagement Informal conversation is probably the oldest mechanism by which opinions on products and brands are developed, expressed, and spread. (Johan Arndt) Why does listening to your customers sound like a Web 2.0 idea? It should be a business 1. (Jeff Jarvis) We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people. (Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay) Facebook is silly.
(Damian’s Dad) Our chapter pledge to you When you reach the end of this chapter you’ll have answers to the following questions: Social media and online consumer engagement 151 What does the term ‘social media’ really mean? How is it changing the digital marketing landscape? Why should I get involved? How can I harness the power of social media to reach and engage with my target audience? How can consumer input help me do business more effectively and refine my products and services? What are the social media rules of engagement? Join the conversation Do you listen to consumers – really listen to them? Do you take their opinions, ideas and criticisms on board and allow them to inform your business decisions? If you do, you’re ahead of the game. Historically marketers have focused on delivering a particular message, to a predefined target audience, with the aim of eliciting a specific response. Consumers were sometimes consulted in the process, of course – through market research, consumer surveys, focus groups and the like – but by and large the marketing tended to be ‘show and tell’ in nature, the consumer’s role that of a passive recipient of information peddled by the marketer. Now, thanks to the increasingly interactive nature of the internet and a shift in the way people are consuming media, all of that is changing.
Consumers are talking, just as they always have, only now they’re talking online to more extensive groups of their peers. The conversations they’re having seamlessly transcend geographical, temporal and cultural boundaries. The web is abuzz with a billion conversations, and that presents exciting opportunities for marketers who are brave enough to engage. Marketing too is evolving rapidly to become more of a conversation than a lecture.
Progressive marketers realize that, to be heard in today’s interactive world, they need to participate in that conversation – and, of course, if you want to get the most out of any conversation, you have to spend part of your time listening. Listening isn’t a trait marketers are traditionally renowned for, but to truly embrace the opportunity presented by Web 2.0 and beyond we need to sit up and take notice of what our online customers and prospects are telling us about our brand, our industry and the world in general. Through blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, online discussions, social networks, peer review sites and other online media, we have the potential to foster a much more productive and meaningful relationship with our customers, to gain powerful insight into their perceptions of our products, 152 Understanding digital marketing services and brand, and allow them to contribute and collaborate in our businesses in ways that were never possible before. Understanding social media demands a paradigm shift for the marketer.
We have to realize that our target audience is, in fact, no longer an audience at all. They are now active participants in a constantly evolving debate; it’s a debate in which we, as online marketers, can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. What is social media? ‘Social media’ is the umbrella term for web-based software and services that allow users to come together online and exchange, discuss, communicate and participate in any form of social interaction. That interaction can encompass text, audio, images, video and other media, individually or in any combination.
It can involve the generation of new content; the recommendation of and sharing of existing content; reviewing and rating products, services and brands; discussing the hot topics of the day; pursuing hobbies, interests and passions; sharing experience and expertise – in fact, almost anything that can be distributed and shared through digital channels is fair game. In a webcast for Search Marketing Now (www. com), Google alumnus and leading social media commentator Vanessa Fox described it as follows: ‘There are all kinds of ways that people talk online, and Social Networking really is anywhere people are talking online. From a corporate perspective what you’re most interested in is where people are talking about you, talking about your products, and talking about the topics that you care about.’ A huge range of websites now leverage elements of social media to engage with their audience, and some, including a number of the highest-profile sites to emerge in recent years (the Facebooks, MySpaces and YouTubes of this world), base their entire business model around the burgeoning popularity of online social media, user participation and user-generated content (UGC).
Social media is nothing new One of the biggest misconceptions about social media is that it is a new phenomenon. Online social interaction has been around from the beginning. Pre-dating the web by some two decades, bulletin board services (BBSs) and online services like CompuServe and Prodigy allowed Social media and online consumer engagement 153 Figure 7.1 The proliferation of social media sites on the internet today is making it incredibly easy for like-minded consumers to connect with each other. They’re talking about everything – things that are important to you and your business.
It’s time to join the conversation! users to post messages online for other members to read and respond to, Usenet newsgroups (early internet discussion groups) allowed like- minded participants to exchange views about all sorts of topics ranging from brain surgery to budgerigars, e-mail discussion lists did the same, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) introduced real-time chat into the mix, and browser-based forums and chat rooms brought the discussion on to the web. Social media, one and all. What has changed over recent years is the reach and penetration of these social media technologies, their adoption into the everyday lives of a mainstream audience, and the proliferation of user-generated content and peer-to-peer interaction that’s resulting from it. In the past online discussion was generally restricted to early adopters: technologists who felt comfortable interacting over the net and who had the technical skills to fathom clunky, often unwieldy user interfaces to accomplish their 154 Understanding digital marketing goals.
Today though, anyone can participate through slick, well-designed, browser-based user interfaces that adopt conventions that everyone is comfortable with. It’s easy, it’s convenient and it’s incredibly powerful, not because of the technology, but because of how that technology nurtures the connections between people. Social media is naturally compelling The proliferation of social media is a natural extension of increasing levels of internet usage and the penetration of always-on broadband access. As more people head online and start weaving the internet seamlessly into the fabric of their daily lives, it’s only natural that they bring the very human need to interact and belong with them.
We’re biologically programmed to be social and gregarious creatures. The need to interact with other people is hard-coded into our DNA; it’s part of who and what we are, and that’s as true online as it is off. That’s one of the main reasons so many of us find social media incredibly compelling. Social media is nothing to be afraid of Compelling it may be, but for many marketers the thought of venturing into this openly interactive, anything-goes, consumer-championed world can be daunting, even scary.
The rules here aren’t dictated by marketers, but by consumers – media-savvy consumers who can spot marketing hype a mile away and want nothing to do with it. It’s a dynamic, unpredictable world, and if you get things wrong you risk the very real prospect of a backlash that will travel throughout the network in the blink of an eye. Worrying? Possibly, but at the end of the day you have to remember that social media is just about people talking, connecting and sharing with other people. Marketing as an industry is (or at least should be) also all about people: understanding them and communicating with them.
Is the prospect of talking with the very people you, as a marketer, want to connect with really such a frightening prospect? With or without you – why it’s good to get involved But, we hear you cry, how can I hope to control this open conversation? You can’t – so don’t even try. What you can do, however, is choose to participate in that conversation and strive to have a positive influence on its direction. That’s fundamentally what social media marketing (SMM) is all about. Social media and online consumer engagement 155 One thing is certain: your customers are already talking to each other online; they’re talking about your industry, your competition, your company, your brand and other topics that are relevant to what you do.
The conversation is happening, regardless of whether you choose to get involved or not. Surely it’s better to be aware of what’s being said, to listen, engage and foster relationships with these communities, rather than wondering from the periphery. Effective social media marketing is about leaving the sledgehammer approach to product promotion at home. Stop beating your prospects over the head with the cudgel of marketing hyperbole and instead work to develop your skills in the subtler art of consumer engagement.
Find out what people are interested in and what they’re talking about, and then provide useful information, advice and content for them. Talk to them, not at them, and above all listen to them. If you manage to do that effectively, then social media can have an incredibly positive impact on your organization’s online profile. Why get involved? Figure 7.2 Why it’s important for your business to get involved in social media Source: Slide courtesy of search marketing and social media specialist Vanessa Fox – www.com – sourced from a presentation on social media delivered at Search Marketing World, Dublin, in April 2008.
© 2008 Vanessa Fox 156 Understanding digital marketing Just how deep you choose to steep yourself in the social media marketing game will depend a lot on your business, your customers, your goals and your overall digital marketing strategy. But there really is something out there for everyone. Here are just some of the potential benefits of engaging with your customers through online social channels: Stay informed: Find out what your customers really think. Get invalu- able insight into their perception of your products, services, brands, industry and more general topics of interest.
Knowing your customers is the key to effective digital marketing – and engaging with them on a social platform can be incredibly revealing, without being intrusive. Raise your profile: By engaging proactively through social media you appear responsive and can build your reputation as an authoritative and helpful player in your field of expertise. Level the playing field: Focus groups, market research surveys and other offline methods of gauging consumer sentiment are expensive and can be well beyond the means of smaller businesses. Now any organization can immerse itself in the social web to discover what consumers are talking about and how they feel, with little or no financial outlay.
Influence the influencers: Often the people who are most active in social media circles will be the element of your target market who can be classified as influencers. While small in number compared to the market as a whole, these influential individuals have already gained the trust and respect of their online peers, and fostering their good opinion can have a disproportionate impact on your broader online reputation. Nurture brand advocacy: By engaging positively with people who already have a positive attitude to your brand, you can nurture passionate brand evangelists who will voluntarily advocate your organization through online social media.