Michael Brito - The Future of Social Business

How to kick ass and take names build community and create advocacy on the social webMichael Brito| @Britopian SVP, Social Business Planning, Edelman

Growing Customer Expectations

2009 Study 2010 Study

59% use Social Media to interact with brands 78% of use Social Media to interact with brands

93% believe a company should have a presence in social media

37% of users engaging companies or brands via new media at least once per week

43% of consumers say that companies should use social networks to solve the consumers' problems

New media users overwhelmingly believe companies or brands should not only have a presence in new media (95%) but also interact with their consumers (89%).

41% believe that companies should use social media tools to solicit feedback on products and services

The Social Customer & Brand Experience

Brand Discovery:Google Search, Word of MouthBrand Discovery:Google Search, Word of Mouth

Brand Participation:Fanning, following, likingBrand Participation:Fanning, following, liking

Brand Sharing:Easy, habitual, publishingBrand Sharing:Easy, habitual, publishing

Brand Advocacy:Creating content, sharing, defendingBrand Advocacy:Creating content, sharing, defending

The Advocate (e.g. encourage friends to

purchase)

The Opinion Sharer(e.g. post review)

The Participant(e.g. participate in a brand

experience)

The Informed(e.g. research products online)

• Advocates talk about the brand, even when the brand isn’t listening• Advocates are trusted among their peers and within their micro communities• Advocates are aiding and influencing others down the purchase funnel

The Advocate Purchase Funnel

Social Omnipresence

• The customer journey is dynamic; and always changes• Brands need to have multiple customer touch points to break through the clutter• Customers need to hear things 3 – 5 times before the actually believe

Optimizing The Hub & Spoke

• The content hub is the website, blog, content aggregator

• Content should be optimized for search w/terms that are relevant to your business

• Should be convenient for users to consume content within the channels that they are comfortable with

• Facebook status updates that promote blog content

• Other content shared NEEDS to add value to the conversation and community

The HubThe Hub

• Occasional tweets on promoting blog content

• Cross promoting other social channels, when relevant

• Needs to be unique; not the same on FB

• Optimize Youtube channel and new videos to link back hub/blog

• Videos can be shared on Facebook, YouTube or through editorial

• Optimize Google+ page with relevant links and content back to other channels

• Should not duplicate content

• Add Google+ icons to hub

It’s not necessarily about the network

It’s about people …

• Tools are changing, consumers’ expectations aren’t• In fact, they want more out of brands. That is a good thing

So, how we do live up to customer expectations?

Kick Ass Products

Superior Customer Service

Proactive Community Engagement

Smart Content Creation & Positioning

It starts with listening

People buy from business that listen

Some tools to help you kick ass

Some tools to help you kick ass

Some tools to help you kick ass

We can never forget Google…

Key Takeaways:

• The social customer is gaining influence; pay attention to them by listening• Use tools to help scale your efforts internally• Don’t forget about Google

Michael Brito

SVP, Social Business Planning

Edelman Digital

@Britopian