Page 229 - Social Media Marketing

tools first is actually a common mistake. It’s not unheard of to read a case study or the 207
description of capabilities around the newest Web 2.0 technology and think “Hey, I
should apply that tool to my business.” Too often, the result is an expensive implemen- ■ ╇ E ngagement as a C ustomer Activity
tation of someone else’s solution, minus the results that indicate a business success.
Don’t make this mistake.

How do you avoid this? Start with the desired end results, and have a clear
statement of desired outcomes in mind. If the objective is to reduce support costs, and
the measures of interest are economic indicators of ROI that back up the decision and
quantify results, then look, for example, at the engagement points built around the
activities related to customer support. Ready-to-use support forums and the white-
label (Do It Yourself, or DIY) platforms that can be used to create self-directed sup-
port environments or the ready-to-use support services like GetSatisfaction are great
starting points. They are relatively simple to implement, and because they are built on
pretested platforms, they are lower complexity implementations and therefore lower
risk. The DIY platforms also provide metrics—the number of participants, solutions
generated, metrics around solution quality, as evidenced through participant-driven
ratings, and more—that can be integrated into your overall KPIs and ROI calculations
as appropriate.

The previous example—use of social technology in customer service—cited cost
reduction and/or improved satisfaction in and around customer service. As another
example, you may be looking to create or enhance innovation processes. If so, the
ideation tools will nicely fit here—for example, Salesforce.com’s “Ideas” platform or
the equivalent, perhaps built on Lithium’s support community or even something as
low-cost as Posterous (as Coke did with its “Department of Fannovation”). You can
use social technology to solicit new product ideas or product options, to ask for sug-
gestions for customer process improvements, or just about anything else. The only real
caveats are that you’ll need to be transparent—people need to see who has suggested
what and what has happened as a result—and you’ll need to be prepared to do some-
thing with the suggestions you receive. What that something is…is up to you. It’s still
your business.

It’s Still Your Business

How often do you hear someone say, “When it comes to the Social Web, if your cus-
tomers tell you to jump, your only response should be along the lines of ‘how high’”?
Or perhaps you’ve been told, “You need to be 100 percent transparent.” While these
make great rallying points—and from 30,000 feet they are correct—they aren’t all that
useful when it comes to the task of actually applying social technology to your business
or organization. Sometimes customers get it wrong, and “100 percent transparency”
could be taken to mean being so transparent that your competitors know (as a result)
what you are planning. Remember, it is still your business. You are still running it,