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The Growing Influence of the Social CustomerSep 14, 2011

Michael Brito, SVP Social BusinessEdelman Digital@Britopian

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Customer expectations on the rise

Cone 2009 Study Cone 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 expect 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

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A day in the life of the social customer

▪ 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

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The social customer & brand experience

Brand Discovery:Google Search, Word of Mouth

Brand Participation:Fanning, following, liking

Brand Sharing:Easy, habitual, publishing

Brand 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)

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The new purchase funnel cycle

▪ The goal of every brand should be to transform the social customer into an advocate

▪ 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

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Customers seek help when making purchase decisions

Consumers turn to product/service information and customer reviews, but blogs are

gaining traction. Before deciding whether to purchase, consumers go online to:

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The social customer influences others

Negative information is just as powerful as positive

in influencing consumers’ purchase decisions

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Next Steps

Conversational audit & determine if you can

add value to the conversation

Prepare to scale internally i.e. hiring

community managers, escalation/moderation

and social media policies

Establish a measurement

framework

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Michael BritoSocial Business PlanningEdelman Digital

Michael.Brito@edelman.comhttp://www.britopian.comhttp://twitter.com/Britopian

Thank you!