What happens when someone becomes a fan of a facebook fan page? What happens when someone RT retweets something? What happens when you hold a conversation on Linkedin? This individual “vote to participate into a sales process” is seen by their ‘friends’. Did I shock you? It may not lead to a monetary transaction but it triggers an increased awareness of something. Consumers and customers have been empowered for some time to become active participants of their consumption. They are clearly moving outside of the traditional sales funnel starting with thorough research using internet.
A recent McKinsey report (June 2009 Subscription) highlights that only 30% of purchasing decision points are still ‘company driven’. This means that more than 70% of decision points in a buyer’s active evaluation process are now consumer-driven: user consumer reviews, word of mouth and in store interactions. Is it time to re-evaluate how things are done?
Social technologies are expanding these phenomena to micro-influence level never seen before. A few weeks ago, I had to change our office router and jumped on Twitter & FB to ask what people thought… it didn’t take more than 10 minutes to get 10 e-pinions… 2 from people I know, 8 from people I don’t know. It’s getting much easier to get that instant feedback. You bet I bought what was most recommended.
Now what does it mean for our businesses? People are empowered to swap between brands more than ever before. The social media funnel and measurement is simply upside down compared with a traditional sales or purchasing decision process. It’s cheaper, greener, further-sighted to use social media. Brands need to go through the journey of seeing themselves through the lens of their constituents. It’s not an audience, it’s a constituency.
1- A brand may and connect with its core customers to start with and then expand. There is, most of the time, an underlying community of customers or consumers. There are also communities of influencers in that space. Both groups should be recognized and empowered by your brand if you’re serious about building trust.
2- A community will only engage if they feel connected and empowered by that brand. If there is no exchange, there is no social media; it’s only push marketing through new channels. Deliver high quality content and help them support each other. People are likely to want to discuss about much larger things surrounding your brand than just your product. They already know of your product or use them.
3- The more they talk, the more they trust, the more everyone is merrier.
4- Be where conversations happen. If you’re lucky/skilled… but mostly honest and caring, people will progressively feel comfortable discussing the brand’s social footprint or presence. If not, a brand should carry its ‘conversation capital’ where ever those conversations happen.
No one likes to be part of a funnel (ask the Foie Gras ducks what they think about this). Like everyone else, we vote with our $$ when you see value and can trust a product or services. On the other side, it always feels good to buy something from a brand you trust. Be the change you want to see, they say.
Now, is this the right mix? Am I saying that the traditional funnel should disappear? No. How do you think an organization should look at these strategies?
Beware the list…
7 10 2008In the last few weeks, we have seen list after list of ‘top 50 social media sites’, ‘top 50 blogs’, ‘top 50 communities’, ‘top 50 new cool toys you need to play with and waste your time on’…… the list goes on and on….we read through them…. some we recognize, some we have no idea about and some we click on just to see what all the fuss is about. And here is what all the fuss is about most of the time…. NOTHING!!!!!!!!!
That’s it. A big fat zero. Nada. Rien. Which makes the more critically literate amongst us in the social media sphere ask the following questions…..
1. Who is the source?
2. Why are they telling us about these sites and not others?
3. How did they choose the ones on the list – what were their criteria?
4. Should we be on the list?
5. How the heck do we get on the list? [You know, just to be disruptive and all that.]
I wish there were comment boxes where we could ask these questions of the list creators and propagators, but alas. There is not. Because then we would ask them some seriously discerning questions in a seriously discerning tone. Because that’s the kind of people we are. We’re not looking for some ‘quick list’ here people, we want some in depth analysis. But we suspect that that is not the goal of such list makers. Google loves easy stuff and so do some of the “not-so-critical, just give me the answer, easy peasy lemon squeezy, I am out to make a fast buck” charlatans out there.
With well deserved kudos to Mr Mark , Jon Hicks and Saxsolrac for their images!
Kirsti
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