"We have 510,461 followers on Twitter!"
"86,224 people “Like” our Facebook page!"
Now What?
How do we understand what customers are telling us?
How do we engage with them?
Sound familiar? Many of us have heard these questions over the past 12 months.
The rapid rise in the use of Social Media for Marketing and Customer Engagement is pushing the demand for new tools to analyze and leverage large volumes of unstructured data. The deep CIO interest in the topic was illustrated by the level of engagement from the CIOs attending the Virtual Roundtable on Getting Value from Social Media and Unstructured Data (you can listen to the recording here).
The rise of this new medium has significantly increased the need for CMO / CIO collaboration. The days of closely managed brand messaging are over. In the past, Marketing carefully crafted and distributed messages through multiple channels in the loudest possible manner and then ran surveys to evaluate impact. The process was slow and measured. It was the same story at Customer service. Marc Brown, CIO at Del Monte recounted how they used to receive a customer complaint about insufficient pineapple slices in a tin via US Mail. A customer went throught significant trouble to get their voice heard. In this new era of Facebook and Twitter, a customer now has a megaphone of their own, giving them the ability to gain attention and influence brands globally and in real-time. Marketing and Customer Service require an integrated set of listening and analysis technology to effectively engage with each customer.
I captured these key areas CIOs must focus on to extract value from customer engagement on the social web:
- Acquire the right resources: The skills required to deploy technologies for processing and analyzing large volumes of unstructured data are scarce and in great demand. In addition to a deep statistical background, an individual working in this space requires a good understanding of the key business drivers for success. Analysts should be able to identify industry-specific data to measure the ROI for Social Media initiatives.
- Develop real-time analysis and reporting: Turnaround time requirements must be analyzed to ensure technology solutions are correctly architected to meet requirements. Faster response usually requires higher investment. It is important to strike the right balance.
- Ensure agility and flexibility: The cost of experimenting with social media is not very high. Technology must allow business users the flexibility to try and measure multiple options in the real world. Further, wse must evaluate the need for capturing and storing information that may potentially be used in the future.
- Communicate clear rules of customer engagement: The fact that the customer interaction is conducted in public, it is imperative to be very clear about how employees should engage and respond. Further, remember that customer engagement now occurs at all levels and within any function of an organization. Most companies are developing comprehensive guidelines and training programs to try and make sure that every customer interaction is a positive one.
- Prioritize quality: It is very important to ensure quality of the analysis. Wrong information can result in decisions with a significant negative impact.
- Manage security and privacy: Customer interactions on the public Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, especially in highly regulated industries, pose a significant risk that must be appropriately managed and mitigated.
- Build a stronger business / IT partnership: Business and IT teams need to work very closely together to ensure success. Speed and agility can only be achieved by constant collaboration.
Big Data generated in the Social Media space offers a Big Opportunity but also raises some Big Questions.
