ENGAGING CUSTOMERS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Lecture: E-Marketing Ass. Prof. Dr. Aykan Candemir Omer Shabani Burak Yavuz Omer Yilmaz Ozdemir Muzaffer Ozturk

H OW B IG I S S OCIAL M EDIA

P OPULAR PLATFORMS

W HAT A RE L EADERS D OING ? There are number of companies leading the way with social media initiatives that achieve positive results in customer engagement.These businesses have either deliberately or organically invested in platforms that are aligned with their strategies and assets. Brands with a great deal of media content (such as Disney and BMW) tend to invest in YouTube more than those for whom community and functionality are paramount (such as Starbucks and Coca-Cola). Facebook is, in almost every case, the platform that attracts the greatest investment, while Twitter is a close second (and in some industries, first; 65% of financial services firms use Twitter)

S TARBUCKS Starbucks are actively engaging in social media and are talking with their customers through a number of different channels. With their 700,000 followers on Twitter they are answering questions, retweeting what people are saying about the brand and engaging in real conversations. To their 18 million Facebook fans they upload content to their fan page but also engage with their customers by allowing management of the customer’s Starbucks card (e.g. checking balance, reloading) and even allowing users to upload credit to other customers’ cards.

Coffee giant Starbucks Coffee Co. is running the Frappuccino Happy Hour promotion, a location-based multichannel campaign offering discounts to consumers who express brand loyalty on social networks. The Frappuccino Happy Hour promotion is being highlighted across all of Starbucks’ channels, including Twitter, Facebook, Brightkite, foursquare, YouTube, MyStarbucksIdea.com

C OCA -C OLA As a traditional top 5 brand Coca-Cola would be expected to have a strong presence in social media, and with nearly 20 million fans it is one of the most popular in the world. The page was originally created by fans and then adopted by Coca-Cola and used to create the official site. Although on first look it seems a normal fan page, Coca-Cola have engaged customers by allowing user generated content on the site including photos and posts.

Coca-Cola Australia wanted to reach the half of the teenage market that hadn't had a Coke in the past year. Working with its agency Wunderman, the beverage company created a guerilla social marketing campaign. They printed 150 of the most popular names of people in Australia on Coke bottles and cans and invited Australians to 'Share a Coke' virtually through Facebook and mobile. Fans could add new names to cans. Coca-Cola Australia saw its Facebook traffic increase 870%, and earned 121 million impressions on the social network. In addition, the campaign had 76,000 virtual 'Coke' cans shared and 1,001 unique names on the interactive billboard in 17 hours.

E XECUTIVE S UMMARY For a growing number of consumers, social media is the preferred means of gathering product information and interacting with companies. Therefore, it is critical that organizations implement effective social media programs as soon as possible. This paper explores the impact of social media on the marketplace and customer behaviors, and provides a six-step “road map” that guides organizations through the process of implementing a social media program. This paper also encourages companies to carefully consider which department in their organization is best suited to lead their social media efforts, and shares best practices organizations can leverage to help develop and sustain a comprehensive social media program.

S TEP 1: F RAMEWORK Implementing a successful social media program begins with a strategy to make social media a priority and a commitment of the resources necessary to launch and sustain such a program. Today’s technology savvy consumers expect organizations to engage with them in the sphere of social media.

S TEP 2: C ONNECT Connecting is taking a genuine interest in people and building meaningful and enduring relationships that are grounded in trust and mutual benefit. It is listening to customers to better understand how they use products, actively participating in the conversation and adding value whenever possible.

S TEP 3: A NALYZE VOC data captured from social media listening posts contain valuable nuggets of customer information that, when isolated from the surrounding “noise,” can yield insights that organizations can leverage to improve processes, products and customer service.

S TEP 3: I NTEGRATE While customer insights gleaned from social media exchanges are valuable in their own right, their full potential is unlocked when they are integrated with an organization’s Customer Service infrastructure. Sync’ing up social data with structured customer data stored in an organization’s Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) extracts maximum benefit from both sources.

S TEP 5: R OUTING C USTOMER F EEDBACK I NTELLIGENTLY To respond effectively to customer feedback and requests, companies must be able to quickly route inquiries to those agents in the organization that are most qualified to address the specific content areas.

S TEP 6: R EPORT Not all departments in an organization are equally impacted or involved in the company’s social media program. Nonetheless, social media programs are an enterprise-wide endeavor, and many departments across the organization benefit by having access to social media data. Thus, reporting is an essential component of the social media strategy.