Advocacy influencing action

WHERE INFLUENCERS FAIL.

InfluencersInfluencers have audiences but

their reach doesn’t automatically

come with action

18%

consumer trust*

AdvocatesAdvocates have passion - not necessarily

audience. However it’s real, authentic &

most importantly trustworthy

92%

consumer trust**

Vs

*Forrester Research

** Neilson

Influence means {The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone

or something, or the effect itself} an influencer here today in the context of social media means someone

with a big social media following. What influencer doesn’t mean is that it gets you influence.

Finding advocates

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1. Define your social listening around the customer

How do you use the customer journey? Define the keywords by the stages in the customer journey to

better understand what customers say or maybe more importantly read about you at each stage. A much

higher % of people read rather than participate in social media discussions.

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Advocates directly influence the acquisition of new customers

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Advocacy influencing action

The other thing you will possibly notice during your social listening exercise is how much your advocates or

detractors are already influencing perception of your business and influencing actions - consideration to use

or buy your product or service. This is particularly true if search is a major mechanism of acquiring sales &

users.

2. Find destinations where your customers are already talking

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3. Listen to what they talk about

Listening to what they talk about is of course the final and critical stage of social listening.

At each of the stages based on the keywords you listened for - your customers will be

telling you something really insightful. In our case what we found was;

1.That there are a lot of people asking for advice and suggestions on all sorts of topics

related to starting a business. That people are focused on starting their business and not

on our products

2.That there are lots of people giving out that advice both in our favour as well as not.

3.That there is a huge amount of misinformation out there that is detracting from our

customer experience

4.That there are some poor experiences that are stopping people from advocating for us

1. Understand your customer's journey and use it to

define your social listening (keyword list)

2. Identify where customers are already talking about

you i.e. FB, Instagram, forums, review and comparison

sites etc.

3. Understand what they are saying, what they are

reading and what they care about

Putting it into action

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Search

Reviews,

testimonials,

comparisons &

ratings

Influencers, media,

thought leadership,

blogs, search

Advocacy influencing action

Social Proof – Asch Experiment

Social Proof

People are generally more likely to do what everyone else is doing - trying to fit

in and belong is hard-wired into our brains and our biology. It’s a shortcut to

decision making. Also known as Herd Mentality.

When was the last time you tried something new when you didn’t look for

recommendations?

81 percent of consumers use the internet to

research purchases before making them*

*GE Capital research 2013

Social Proof

People are most likely to act on information that is communicated by an expert -

people follow credible, knowledgeable experts.

Voice of Authority

1. Use social listening to understand customer

advocate opportunities

2. Consider your internal stakeholders and employees

as advocate opportunities for having a Voice of Authority

3. Surface advocates by building Social Proof into the

customer journey

“WORD-OF-MOUTH marketing isn’t about giving customers talking points, as if they

were brand spokespeople.

It’s about delivering an exceptional customer experience that makes customers want

to recommend you.”

- Deborah Eastman

THANK YOU@carolynnbae