The CEO’s View of Social Media and Social Commerce

David Edmundson-BirdCourse Director MSc Digital Marketing

CommunicationsMMU Business School

Agenda

• Who am I?• A CEO’s Intro to Social Media Marketing• Positioning a Brand in the Social Media Space• Engaging with the Market• The Emerging Social Commerce Model• There’s always room for a Top Ten Tip List– Even for Senior Managers

A CEO’S INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Decisions to Purchase

• Non emotional/Commodity– Purchase decisions don’t require complexity– Decisions are quick– The world of FMCG

• Emotional/Luxury– Careful consideration of complex decisions– No single decision-maker– Slow– The long term life value of the customer

Networks of Persuasion

The Supplier

The BuyerInfluencers

Regulators

Suppliers of Primary

Suppliers of Support

Contacts Other Suppliers

Friends

Collaborators

Instinctive marketing thinking

Less obviousmarketingthinking

Social Media Marketing Opportunity

The Supplier

The BuyerInfluencers

Regulators

Suppliers of Primary

Suppliers of Support

Contacts Other Suppliers

Friends

Collaborators

Engage with

Engage with

Engage with

Engage with

Engage with

Engage with

POSITIONING YOUR BRAND IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE

Positioning Your Brand in Social Media

• Where can only you occupy?• How can you establish your brand as the sole

occupant in a given social media position?• Some old-fashioned principles apply:

The Social Media “Proposition”

• Why does your brand exist?– The differentiation and relevance• Not only to customers but those other people in the

network

– It’s the clear focus for your staff– It’s the clear focus when other people engage

other people about your brand

ENGAGING WITH THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKET

Engaging with the Social Media Market

• You need to make a number of decisions – look at your Networks of Persuasion– Which of the network contacts will you engage with?– Which of the network contacts will other contacts

engage with about you?– What will you do?

• Say things to them?• Listen to them?

– Which platforms and environments will you use to engage with them?

Social Network Contacts

• Need to decide who is key from your network segments– There may be network elements that you don’t

want/need or shouldn’t engage with– Who has the most persuasion capability within

your network – can you engage with them so that they engage for you?

What to do in Engagement

• Think of the Social Media Proposition– Build engagements you make on the social media

proposition– Each engagement with a contact needs to be

personalized and relevant– Consider the agendas and motivation of the

contacts• Can they be motivated to engage with other contacts

on your behalf?

What to do in Engagement

• The Listening Post– Consider engagement as a feedback channel too• Customer Service• Product design• Reputation management• Consultation• Complaints

Platforms & Environments

• What is/are the preferred platform(s) of your contacts?

• Avoid attempting to engage where they are not• You will increase engagement if you use the

right environment– And legally use words such as ROI but better use

“Return on Engagement”• Consider the role of the 4 social environment

types

Apps

Social Media Environment Types

Syndication Communication

Collaboration

Interaction

Sharing documentsRecommendation environmentsSocial bookmarkingSyndicationWebinars

Photo sharingQ&A systemsSocial networksVideo sharingWikis

BloggingBlog directoriesInstant messagingMicrobloggingPodcastingRSS

EMERGING MODELS OF SOCIAL COMMERCE

Traditional Models of Acquisition & Conversion

Transaction Site

Search

PPC/Display

Offline

High Street

Retained Customer

Social Models

Transaction

AdPlatform

SharingPlatform

CircumstancePlatform

ReferralPlatform

Transaction

AdPlatform

SharingPlatform

CircumstancePlatform

ReferrralPlatform

Transaction

AdPlatform

SharingPlatform

CircumstancePlatform

ReferralPlatform

Transaction

AdPlatform

SharingPlatform

CircumstancePlatform

ReferrralPlatform

What are you into?

Who sent you here?

What are your mates looking at?

Where are your mates?

What should everyone else buy?

What are you looking at?

Where are you?

What did you just buy?

Traditional Purchase vs Social Purchase

Buy something

Buy something

Buy something

Buy something

SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH IT

SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH IT

SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH IT

SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH THAT SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH THAT

SOMETHING THAT GOES WITH THAT

THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR A TOP TEN TIP LIST

Even for Senior Managers

The Social Media Strategists Top Ten Tip List

• Think about all of the participants in your network of influence– Not just your customers

• Know that it is not instant– Slow-boiler

• Think about Brand differentiation• Think about your social media proposition• Work out who the No.1 network participant is– Not the no.1 customer

The Social Media Strategists Top Ten Tip List

• Only work in social media channels that the network participants use

• Use social media to distinguish yourself• Have different propositions in different

networks for different participants• The conversation is happening anyway• Social Media for is about influencing rather

than selling

The Next Conversation

• Ask me now!• Mail me– d.edmundson-bird@mmu.ac.uk

• Tweet me– @groovegenerator

• Link me– uk.linkedin.com/in/davidbird

• Phone me– 0161 247 4603 / 07774 556343