There’s a new book out by Aaron Shapiro called “Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business“.  Listening to an interview with him promoting the book, I realized that this is one of the fundamental things that a lot of our clients need to consider.  Traditionally, we always think that it is the customer who determines a company’s success.  And we define it as someone who buys or actively interacts with the brand.  It’s a very specific place on the purchase funnel.  But what about all of the people who are not yet customers?

According to Shapiro, a user should be defined as “anyone who interacts with a company through digital media and technology.”  Combine that with a recent Forrester study that says that 48% of all offline retail purchases are researched or conducted online (reaching 50% next year), and it becomes pretty obvious that the pool of people reading, curating and sharing messaging is much larger than “customers” in the traditional sense.

So when we think about trending analysis from social conversation data, we need to stress the importance of understanding what users are thinking about the brand, its products and its services before they become customers.  What factors drive users to go with our brand over a competitor?  Are there specific forums or sites that people rely on to make decisions?

When it comes to users, it is often more important to see the bigger picture and to understand the drivers of high level perceptions.  By accepting this new reality and analyzing conversations with this in mind, we can be better prepared to provide content and interactions that meets the needs of both customers and users.

For most of our clients, social media is a no-brainer. Let’s face it. Even the mom-and-pop deli below the office has a Twitter and Facebook page. But what is scary is that companies with millions/billions in revenue, multiple locations and many more employees are often not taking their strategy much further than Mr. Kim who makes kimchi tacos on Battery Street.

In Mr. Kim’s case, he gets feedback from his customers everyday. He’s not marketing on billboards or sending out flyers. He is communicating with his customers, and they are telling him what they like and what they don’t. They tell him by generating revenue at his deli, and they also tell him verbally that they wish he would make a kalbi burrito with two eggs instead of one. It’s a two way method of communication (sounds like social media, doesn’t it?).

It’s been said more than one, but social media is only a communication tool. Since the customers of large enterprises cannot necessarily show up in the “deli” to hear their customers, social media is becoming the next best thing. Of course, people will still send complaints and feedback through email, phone, and maybe even… mail. It is not only about marketing, but it is also about understanding what the customer wants out of your products and services. And there is a lot more data flowing through the pipes now. Not just through your own Facebook, Twitter, and other user generated channels, but ALL social channels. We’re talking about more than 9 billion pieces of content created everyday. And it’s growing.

What we find is most often missing within companies is the organizational structure to pass along messages to the right business units which can actually act on questions, feedback or complaints. Mr. Kim knows that he only needs to go home and tell his wife that they need to buy more eggs for burritos, but are your community managers telling your product guys that there are tweaks that would be great on the next redesign? Do you know that people are asking why the new cinnamon twists taste strange? Are you getting messages from prospective buyers to your sales team?

Regardless of the volume that your organization is seeing outside of owned channels, this is the time to put together the workflow necessary to pass messages along to the right people in your company. Audit the types of conversations that are occurring today, and begin to categorize how these conversations should be addressed as they occur in real time. Insightful ideas are floating around in the ether, and if your organization doesn’t listen to them, someone else will.

With that level of investment for social network advertising alone, brands need to also start thinking about areas outside of Facebook and MySpace in which they can buy ad space.  Understanding where the bulk of conversation is coming from can help uncover new places to put up digital billboards.

For some clients, the thought of having to “engage” with customers on new channels outside of the comfort zone is scary.  It’s sometimes easier to focus on Facebook advertising and maybe some occassional Twitter engagement.  While this is an important first step, I think companies need to start marketing and advertising on mediums other than the usual suspects in order to have simple and easy access to their target audiences.   Finding the next tier of social media channels focused on your industry, products or services will be crucial to the next step in social media marketing.  And who knows, advertising on these channels may even provide better ROI!

Talking to clients over the last few weeks, I am convinced that the best social media strategies can only be driven by an initial in-depth listening activity.  This means using a social media monitoring tool like Radian 6 or SM2 and taking the time to understand where conversations are coming from.  Not just the domains or websites that are making the most impact but rather the overall tone, topics and trigger points for social media chatter.

Who is talking about you, and do the rest even care? – Most large corporations have a varied set of target demographics, and those demographics have different needs and desires.  With such hype around social media, companies today are quickly developing social media assets that look cool and take advantage of new technologies. 

One of the big problems with this approach is that not every demographic who is interested in cool stuff is interested in your company.  It’s heartbreaking I know, but the 15-25 demographic is probably not actively on social media to talk about insurance, healthcare or banking.  If you’re in one of these sectors, spending cash on developing assets in an area where people don’t really care to have active conversations may result in a channel that under-utilized.  And that can be a big waste of money.

Focus on the conversation not the tools  - Of course, this is something that every person in social media will tell you, but will you have the presence of mind to make sure that you are not misled by the allure of shiny new toys?  Really understand what topics people are talking about, and think about how you can make the experience better through social media.  If it’s not going to make the experience better, then don’t invest money in developing social media assets just yet.  Wait until there is significant traffic around what can have an impact on your business, and then make the leap.

There are far too many companies spending money on social media initiatives without actually taking the time to analyze the data that is floating out there.  Pay a little extra on the front-end for tools and strategy, and make sure that your actions around social media realize results that you can be proud of.

I was at the Smash Summit yesterday, and I had the opportunity to listen to a lot of great speakers about Social Media and where the ecosystem is headed.  There was some great insight across the board, but I realized that the one thing that I think I don’t write enough about is the value of really really good content.  It’s easy to get caught up in listening to the conversation and trying to figure out your share of voice, but if you’re looking to get something positive to go viral… it’s actually pretty straightforward.

Have good, interesting and engaging content on your site (hopefully that site is sitting close to the proper side of the sales funnel), and make sure you have as many ways as possible for your audience to share that content.  Not only should you have share widgets all over your content, but you should also have embed codes which can allow individuals to grab your content and put it on their sites, blogs, etc.  If you’ve branded your content properly, you are only increasing the reach of where your message sits.  So don’t be afraid to give it away.  As Stew Langille from Mint.com said, “It will come back to you, in the form of customers”.

We tend to forgot how important content creation can be, and some of the more successful campaigns can be those in which your customers help develop the content itself and then spread the word amongst their friends.  Whether it is a Crunch Gym Shorts Video or an Office Max Jib Jab Christmas Card, this is word of mouth marketing at it’s best.  Brad Jefferson of Animoto (a startup that automatically creates professional videos from uploaded pictures) gave some great examples of how the company will be using revenue sharing with corporate brands to help them spread messages.

Using a mix of these content creation tools and simply putting together engaging content, I think organizations have a real opportunity to be a part of the conversation in a way that actually resonates and drives new customers to make purchases.

Outside of the typical Coca-Colas and Pizza Huts of the world, a lot of smaller brands are wondering what a couple postings a day can really do to impact their brand.  A lot of people say to me, “Sure it’s great that there is something being said about my company, but it’s not like there are 500 postings a day.  What’s the point of really looking at this stuff?  Isn’t it just going to take more time out an already busy day?”

Two answers.  First answer: yes, it is going to take time out of your day.  No question.  Especially, if you want to address this appropriately.  Second answer: this definitely has the potential to affect your brand in a material way.  So take the time

Let’s take a look at the Engagement Pyramid from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s Groundswell (a great book about the impact that social media is having on businesses and what to do about it):

Without going too much into the pyramid, the point here is that there are significantly less people talking (or creating content) than those listening to what people are saying.  Even a few people talking about your brand a day can have an impact on your business.  And people generally write when they have something to say.  Usually it’s because they had a very positive or negative experience with your brand or company.  You should try to understand and maybe even turnaround the bad ones… and embrace and convert the good ones into your ambassadors.

If we go back to the point about small brands versus large brands, think about it this way.  If you’re an online company making t-shirts or a 50 chain restaurant across the Midwest, even 100 posts over a month can be more coverage than you’re going to get from a local newspaper and definitely cheaper than running a marketing campaign.  Start listening to what people are saying, and figure out how to make social media work for you.  It’s reaching a lot more people than you may first think.

With the recent social media uprising against Nestle and it use of palm oil from questionable sources, there has been another call to action for corporations to actively manage their social media presence.  There is obviously a lot of truth to what is being said by the activists, but there is also a good deal of hype involved.  A lot of the clients that I talk to are asking about the real value/threat that a few people twittering or blogging about their brand can bring, and the Wall Street Journal raises a similar question in the article cited above.  Will this outrage against palm oil practices materially affect the sales of Kit Kat bars?  Was the Domino’s pizza incident really that detrimental to the future sales and reputation of the company?  And what can you do as an organization to combat and avoid these incidents?

This week there was an article in the New York Times about how a portion of  the Republican backlash to the Obama administration’s policies, specifically around health reform, is driven sometimes more on faith than knowledge of the facts.  This is faith in what pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are saying rather than the actual merits of the health care bill.  A recent Pew Research Center poll found that while many people are strongly opposed to the new health care bill and the adminsitration’s policies, a good majority really did not know how the bill would affect their individual families.

To me, this points to a increased acceptance by the general population to trust sources for their ideas and beliefs without necessarily having the facts to back it up.  As we move further away from trusted reporters to a large multitude of content creators, people are making snap judgments and holding companies like Nestle to the fire, based on sources they consider trustworthy.  In this case, there is a significant level of truth to the claims of the activists, but my point is that companies need to start paying attention to what is being said about them… whether it is a columnist at the New York Times or a blogger in Indonesia.  We’re at a point where any idea can go viral given the right push.

So to my question about whether ideas and beliefs trump facts, I would say that companies and organizations need to be transparent and engage with clear facts that demonstrate their openness to the dialogue.  As a Nestle spokesperson remarked, this is not a time to get into an online shouting match.  It is the time to set the record straight by making sure that those creating hype are drowned out by truth rather than a one-sided approach.  By putting the straight facts out in as many channels as possible, a company can show that they understand the issues at hand and that they are working to resolve them.

It’s a new way to approach dialogue, and oftentimes a scary one.  But it’s the way forward for everyone who manages reputation in the social media landscape, whether it is a multinational company like Nestle or the current US administration.

With the recent flurry of news and blog posts on mobile social networks like Foursquare, there is a sense that these networks really have a shot of taking this all the way.  On Thursday, Foursquare announced that they had over a quarter million people “check-in”to some physical location in a single day.  That’s pretty impressive, and while there has been hype around Loopt and Gowalla, there is a sense that Foursquare has the momentum to actually make something of this attention.

To take a quick step back, Foursquare and its competitors are services that allow people to broadcast out their location to their network.  When you go to a restaurant or store, you “check-in” to that location, and do two things.  One, you tell your friends that you at a specific place, and two, you let the store owner know that you are there.  Why would you do this?  Well, the most loyal person (most checked-in visits) can become the “mayor” of that establishment, and they get some bonus for being sucha great customer.  Maybe a free coffee or pitcher of beer, as well as the social capital of being the mayor.

When we think about this from a branding level, this is some amazing data to have at your fingertips as a marketer.  And all of this information is supplied by your customer, broadcast to his/her network and verified by GPS as being accurate.  Couple that with profile data and incentives, and you have an army of bonafide brand ambassadors.  And apparently, over a quarter million people are already putting their location onto the airwaves.  Scary but exciting stuff.

I think what’s unique about Foursquare is that they are actively taking advantage of the current attention to their service to forge relationships with major media companies as well as with retail stores like Starbucks.  In addition, as the Economist reports, there are a number of stars that have aligned to put Foursquare in the right place at the right time.  The prevalence of smart phones, unlimited data plans, GPS accurate devices and a slew of applications that can take advantage of this information have put companies like Foursquare in the sweet spot of winning the race.

While I don’t believe that mobile social networks are going to become fully mainstream anytime soon, I do think that consumer facing companies should start experimenting with how they can use these tools to drive revenue and increase customer loyalty.  According to the Economist article that I referenced earlier, “Juniper Research predicts that global revenues from location-based services could soar to $12.7 billion by 2014, up from $3 billion last year”.  Even if this is an exaggerated figure, there is surely a sense that it’s worth playing a game of peek-a-boo with your customers to see if they are up for it.  There’s a lot of money at stake here.

If there’s one thing that I learned working summers in resorts/hospitality, it’s that every customer is special.  Providing a unique and fulfilling experience to each and every customer can turn brand ambassadors out of a lot of people.  And that can result in repeat customers, great word of mouth reviews and overall success in your business.  With so many companies turning to Social Media (especially micro-blogs like Twitter) to monitor consumer sentiment and customer service issues, it’s important to think of this channel in the same way that Disney engages off-line in their parks and how Zappos engages online with shoe shoppers.

Employees need to be empowered to help frustrated or unhappy customers at the first point of contact.  This is a pretty scary thing to do, because there are so many points where the system can be gamed.  But ultimately, despite the inevitable gaming by a few, most of the brands that we respect and consider to be the most customer oriented offer immediate support.  I’ve now talked to a number of marketing directors who have taken this approach to Twitter, and I think it’s a great thing to do.  Granted that you may be rewarding some consumers for bad behavior, overall, most people complain on Social Media because they actually have a problem.  If you can help resolve their problem quickly and efficiently, that’s a lot of great PR and good faith value that you can take advantage of.

People love companies who listen, and I think this is the time to really put together a strategy for what type of empowerment you want to give your employees in the online world.  The reason that there has been so much talk about Zappos these days is that they have really made empowerment and customer service a part of their core cultural values.  And they have done it in an online forum.

So here it is.  Don’t say that you are going to respond to customer complaints on Social Media and leave it at that.  Think about how much empowerment you will give your front line to act upon issues that they see coming through the pipe.  Will it be a dollar value?  Will it be a level of service?  Will it be a phone call or email?  Spell these things out, put it on paper, and then your people can work to make your customers happier.

When it comes to brands and Social Media, what exactly does authenticity really mean?  In a recent podcast on Duct Tape Marketing, I heard Martin Lindstrom talk about how brands can have a similar neural response as the one that people have with their own religious faith.  If that’s the power that brands have on people, how transparent can or should a company become when they engage across Social Media.

I think everyone would agree that you cannot be overly transparent, but I would make the case that you need to make Social Media engagement a very deliberate approach.  Conversations should appear authentic, but they should be well grounded in the way that the brand aims to portray itself.  It sounds sinister or underhanded, but it really isn’t.  As more people enter the overall conversation, one-on-one engagement can still happen, but brands need to have well thought out strategies on how they will engage.  And there should be consistency.

Brands produce that neural response in people, because they represent something more.  Something beyond a simple company with a bunch of people working in it.  Social Media allows a company to open itself up so that their customers can take a peek in, and know that someone is listening and working to provide them the best possible product or service.  But at the same time, people want to keep brands to mean something more.  I think that you can only do that by tempering pure authenticity with strict brand guidelines that hold true not only for logos, documents, etc. but also for Social Media engagement.