Marketing to the Customer Experience Using Social Media

Marketing to the Customer Experience Using Social Media:
from Business 2 Community by Mai Overton

Social media has empowered the consumer, and more than ever before has placed the customer dead-center of all marketing efforts. The first era of social media had us wildly excited about the possibilities and taught marketers the rules of social media: Listen and don’t shout. But our savvy of social media is evolving and marketing professionals and businesses are learning to put into place actionable plans to reach out to customers in ways they have not experienced before. Utilizing the massive quantities of data in digital, we are learning to translate this valuable information into real-life experiences demonstrating appreciation for our customers, known to some as Customer Experience Management (CXM) or customer loyalty. The newly revised rule: Listen, take notes and make a plan to show some flesh to the customer. In other words, be a human.

Rules for the Marketer in the1st Era of Social Media:

• Listen, don’t broadcast
• Engage, evoke a response
• Respond and thank often
• Deal with complaints rather than ignoring them
• Avoid automation if possible
• Keep learning

Rules to add for the Marketer in the 2nd Era of Social Media:

• Listen and take notes
• Use platforms that give your customers the experience they are hoping for
• Come up with a customer appreciation plan and measure your successes
• Show you are human and that there’s a real person behind those tweets
• Discover the best ways to get your customers talking
• Keep learning

Some of the companies that are doing social media well and leading the way for marketing are Zappos , American Express and KLM.
What other rules would you add to these lists?