5 Smart Social Community Strategies That Boost Sales

By Ernan Roman
Reprinted from: Business 2 Community

The Challenge: Social media has evolved into more than just another advertising channel, with communities transcending traditional social media channels. To make the most of these new opportunities, marketers need to learn what it takes to drive sales through relevant and targeted conversations.

Strategy One: Be authentic to your brand… and to customers

Every brand that succeeds on social media does so by achieving a consistent voice that’s authentic to its core message. By connecting with a responsive social audience through communities, meaningful conversations become building blocks for achieving sales objectives. For example, CLIF Bar in keeping with its message of fitness has joined the People For Bikes initiative, which is consistent with its brand message, and provides a way to directly interact with their proven customers.

Per Eric Nystrom, Director, Social Media Services Group at Dell, “In today’s world people are not interested in talking to brand spokespeople or marketers. They are interested in connecting with empowered employees and subject matter experts. Social is about relationship building”.

Strategy Two: Connect through communities

Social communities resonate with customers and let brands connect on a deeper level via viral conversations which can far surpass the reach of a singular post on a social wall. As a matter of fact, social interactions now go beyond traditional social media into mobile experiences, television events, webinars, chats, and more. Two-way interactions enable customers to become part of the brand because they can gain answers to questions, address objections, and understand brand value. Coca Cola took advantage of the recent World Cup with the goal of creating the most inclusive FIFA World CupTM Coca-Cola campaign… ever. Emmanuel Seuge, Vice President Global Alliances & Ventures stated that, “…we set out to create the most inclusive and participatory FIFA World Cup™ ever. … we gave fans from all around the world the unprecedented opportunity to be a part of the greatest soccer stage of all… “

Strategy Three: Really understand how your customers connect

Turns out the way people interact on social media is similar to that of real life. In a joint study by the University of Georgia, Pew Research Center, and Social Media Foundation it was discovered that when people interact in social media they create patterns of social interaction. Identifying the specific groups of people talking about you, lets you understand who they are, what they are saying, and what connects them to your brand.

Strategy Four: Know where to find your customers and how they communicate

Additionally, the same study found that when marketers, target key meaningful communities they also zero in on key conversations, key words, and hashtags being used about the brand.

Gatorade reached out to its core customers with a “Beat the Heat” campaign that let them connect with their key groups of customers with a message of safety and health.

Strategy Five: Understand what information customers need

Sears has created Shop Your Way Rewards which gives customers a place to find product information, ask salespeople questions, and share recommendations.

According to Eric Jaffe, Senior VP “In the grand scheme of things, social media is …about building engagement and promoting conversations… around our brand…. We are focusing around the members, and building relationships with them that go beyond what they purchase from us…. Groups, especially social communities, are the most valuable to retailers….Highly engaged members end up spending more and — more importantly — shop more frequently.”

5 Takeaways that boost sales through social communities

1. Engage consistently in a manner that that reinforces your core brand message. Make sure that every channel delivers a reinforcing statement that helps customers move towards a purchase.

2. Understand which groups are the most valuable to your sales objectives. Not all consumers or social audiences have a purchase intent. Understand what social avenues best address buyers’ needs for actual purchase information.

3. Do what it takes to address consumer needs. Put in place strategies that let actual staff members interact with potential buyers so that they have access to the brand and have the resources necessary to move forward with a purchase.

4. Empower consumers to strengthen their voice. By giving your customers a platform you are empowering and respecting their voice.

5. Deliver the latest information, news and trends about your brand. If customers do not fully understand why they need to buy, they won’t go down the purchase journey with your brand. Social communities let existing customers and potential buyers understand what you are offering and your brand’s value proposition.

Hewlett-Packard - 5 Actions to Improve Social Media Effectiveness

The Challenge: Social media has become one of the most important points of contact for consumers. Marketers however, seldom access the gold mine of information waiting on their fan pages. Tech giant, HP does. They’re raising the bar for social interaction by developing an innovative strategy that’s setting the standard for customer engagement through social media.

So, while it is evident that companies are “in” social media they need to start becoming actively involved. A J.D. Power and Associates report notes that “businesses need to understand how their consumers use social media and then develop a strategy that addresses their usage patterns.“

One company who fully embraces this concept is Hewlett Packard. They entered the space by taking two full years to listen to their customs and determine where they were having conversations.

• They grew their social media community from its original 350+ members to over 2.4 million likes/fans on Facebook. Referrals from social networking sites have doubled.

• Referrals from social networking sites have doubled.

• HP’s online "Expert Days" have attracted hundreds of thousands of customers since their inception in 2009.

This activity has empowered employees to directly reach and converse with customers. There has been a ten time increase in blogging and social media activity by employees who go through the company’s social media training program prior to any customer communication involvement.

A key element in HP’s social interactions is that they integrate their social media with all customer touch points, not just for offers and contests. They also optimize and scale social media to ensure consistent customer experiences for different customer segments, geographies and languages.

5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HEWLETT PACKARD:

• Give Customers a Platform for Product Feedback. Through social media channels the company gets valuable feedback about products. They then feed this information to product and content teams for valuable insight into the development of future technology.

• Encourage Community Engagement.  A dedicated staff manages community engagement to provide value for customers. They also recognize customers who assist their fellow social page fans. This program is set to expand for top community contributors.

• Designate Community Ambassadors. HP has over 100 people called "Experts" who answer questions on the Forums. They include both HP customers and HP employees, and provide expert, free, 24-hour real-time access and advice on various topics of customer interest.

• Create Channel Integration. The company is working on a system by which customers can post a question in Facebook that can automatically tap into the HP Support Forum.

• Set Policies and Train Social Staff. HP sets specific social media policy standards. They train all staff involved in social media so that there is both consistency in social experience as well as consistency in brand messaging.

Social Media Crises: 3 Tips for Calming the Storm

The Challenge: No company is immune to the possibility of damaging comments, posts and tweets. So how do businesses prepare for unwanted attention on far-reaching social channels? Here, we look at a few companies that have weathered the storm and provided some valuable lessons.

Step 1: Create a social media crisis plan before a crisis erupts. That way, you can address damaging comments and reactions swiftly and professionally. By having a plan in place, you hit the ground running -- a critical step when a social media firestorm ignites. In April 2010, BP had no plan when it found itself in the midst of a crisis when oil spilled into to the Gulf of Mexico. Sadly, the company made several missteps. It failed to own up to what happened, it made statements that didn't align with the truth, and it lacked follow-through with solutions.

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Step 2: It is a given that customers will share service snafus and other experiences online, so it's imperative that companies monitor what is being said. KFC learned this the hard way when a disgruntled customer posted unsightly pictures of an unusual-looking substance in his chicken. The fast food chain did little to address the questionable photograph. Instead, it continued to post its regular stream of marketing messages, making it appear as if the company was trying to ignore the situation at hand. Monitor messages, evaluate and adjust your plan as needed.

KitchenAid faced a similar crisis when an employee accidentally sent an insensitive tweet during a presidential debate using the company's twitter handle. KitchenAid responded quickly and with sincerity, effectively lessening backlash. Specifically, the company acknowledged the mistake, took responsibility for what happened and apologized to President Barack Obama and other Twitter followers.

Key Takeaways for Marketers:

1. Monitor your presence online. Follow online conversations so you know when potentially damaging situations are developing/have occurred. Gatorade uses a sophisticated social media command center to keep tabs on social media activity. Other companies choose to designate a point person to monitor online conversations and do periodic searches relevant to the company's brand.

2. Act quickly. When it comes to social media, you don't have days or weeks to come up with a plan. An offensive tweet can go viral in the span of a few hours. Don't sit on your response. Instead, address situations as quickly as you can -- preferably within 24 hours.

3. Remember that transparency is vital. In most cases, you don't want to delete damaging posts and pictures. Instead, you want to respond quickly and with tact. Apologize, and focus on solutions. If emotionally-charged discussions get out of hand, direct the conversation offline. For example; “We'd be happy to discuss this with you to find the best solution. What number can we reach you?”.