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.

5 Social Media Service Tips

The Challenge: In the past, brands addressed customer service issues by way of a primary channel -- the ‘call center.’ But now, companies must also monitor, respond, and engage in a variety of social channels.

If a brand is unskilled in social media customer engagement, adapting customer service programs to new channels can be challenging: brands might default to reactivity -- essentially, playing ‘defense’ -- when faced with disgruntled customers online.

However, making reactivity the foundation of your social customer service strategy causes brands to view customer relationships as things to ‘manage,’ rather than opportunities to proactively add value to the customer experience.

According to the 2012 American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer, consumers spend 21% more with companies who deliver great service -- compared to 13% on average.” Therefore, to achieve high impact in our social media world, brands must now view ‘customer service’ as an integral part of their overall marketing strategy that can have dramatic impact on the bottom line.

Key Takeaways for Marketers:

1. Make Passion for Service a Corporate Value
Customer Service is marketing. Customer Service representatives should view themselves as the ‘front line’ of a company’s marketing and branding efforts. Treat every service engagement as an opportunity to increase engagement and drive brand advocacy.

2. Surprise and Delight With Authentic Engagement
Recently named the #1 Best Small Company to Work for in the U.S. by FORTUNE Magazine in 2012, Oregon-based virtual receptionist services provider, Ruby Receptionists, lists the drive to “WOW” customers among their core company values:

“We’re about finding that special something that will knock your socks off, and giving it to you before you even know about it...Simply doing a good job isn’t enough for us.”

The company frequently engages with customers via Twitter and Facebook and regularly sends customers handwritten ‘thank you’ notes, demonstrating a truly ‘hybrid’ form of customer service.

3. Treat Every Service Interaction as a Marketing Event
Every service opportunity affects your brand’s reputation; thus, representatives must be trained to treat interactions as opportunities to communicate relevant and personalized messaging.

Based on learnings from Voice of Customer Research, leading provider of community-based preventative health services, Life Line Screening, discovered that customers wanted service interactions to demonstrate true engagement. As part of their commitment to transforming the customer experience, the Life Line Screening customer service center now reports to Marketing to ensure that the service experience is about engagement, not transactions. The result: 85% increase in returning customers and 40% increase in revenue per customer.

4. Prioritize Immediacy
Social Media happens in real-time.

Track brand mentions, concerns, and questions 24/7, and respond immediately. People will show their appreciation by retweeting your responses, broadcasting your good deeds to hundreds of others.

Failure to Engage with Social Media Will Reduce Revenue and Increase Risk

The Challenge: Social media platforms are crucial to building customer engagement, but the vast majority of marketers haven’t incorporated that reality into their daily workflow—with outsize consequences to their bottom lines.

A recent study by IBM found that while more than 80 percent of CMO’s track traditional information sources, only 26 percent of CMO’s track blogs―to say nothing of newer platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Mila D'Antonio at 1to1 Media described the consequences: "CMO’s who underestimate the impact of more deeply engaging in social media are missing opportunities to grow revenue, expand brand value, and strengthen customer loyalty."

This disconnect costs businesses money.

Last week, American Express released their 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer. They found that consumers who use social media for customer service are significantly more valuable than the general population.

Socially engaged customers:
 • Are almost twice as willing to spend more for excellent service than the general population.
 • Are nearly three times as likely to communicate positive customer service experiences.

But there's also a risk.

The flipside of socially engaged customers:
 • They are over 50 percent more likely to cancel an intended purchase because of poor customer service than the general population.
 • They are over twice as willing to share negative customer service experiences. 

CMO’s cannot take advantage of the opportunities created by social media – or mitigate the risks – if they are not engaged participants themselves. As D'Antonio wrote, "Today’s CMO’s Should Be Social Media Socialites, not Wallflowers”.

BEST PRACTICES FOR SOCIALLY ENGAGED MARKETERS:

→ Establish Social Media KPIs
For too many CMO’s, tracking social media is an afterthought. To break this pattern, socially engaged marketers need to establish Key Performance Metrics (KPIs) for every social channel they engage, and build an organization that optimizes them.

→ Track the Online Conversation in Real Time
Even if you’re not on the major social media platforms, your customers are—and they’re talking about you. Build a rigorous process to track your online reputation in real time, even on platforms you don’t actively engage.

→ Expand PR Beyond Traditional Platforms
Marketing and PR efforts must be closely aligned, in traditional media and new. Traditional press releases and media blitzes still have their place, but an effective PR organization needs to spread the word on Facebook, Twitter and beyond.