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Understand Your Customers Social Behaviors

Charlene Li Altimeter Group January 2010

Jeremiah Owyang Altimeter Group #socialgraphics

A 2-part series
 Research is the foundation of any strategy without it, youre just fondling the hammer.  This webinar (Part 1) will focus on how to use socialgraphics to create your own Engagement Pyramid.  Part 2 will focus on developing a social strategy based on goals, and getting your company ready.

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The Old Way? Carpet Bombing

 A company who sells snackums is trying to reach moms.  Brands would find out who has the biggest number of moms, HGTV, Food Network.  Apply traditional demographics, and broadcast marketing  Yet brands miss out on the specific behaviors of consumers and their intricate relationships online.

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Socialgraphics
Demographic Geographic Psychographic Behavioral Socialgraphic

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Socialgraphics asks key questions

1. Where are your customers online? 2. What are your customers social behaviors online? 3. What social information or people do your customers rely on? 4. What is your customers social influence? Who trusts them? 5. How do your customers use social technologies in the context of your products.

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90-9-1 Principle
In social groups, some people actively participate more than others Social participation tends to follow a 90-9-1 rule where:

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An updated framework
 Social technology adoption by consumers is no longer nascent its nearly a mainstream activity.  To be accurate in your social strategy, you must know the specific behaviors of your customer base.  This updated framework provides a modern approach to social strategy.

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The Engagement Pyramid

Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Watching
Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Watching
 What?: Consume content only, e.g. visit social networking sites, read blogs, watch videos, or listen to podcasts  Why?: Seeking social-created content to help with making decisions, learning from peers, or entertainment

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Watching

Most people watch videos on YouTube very few upload.

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Tactics: Engaging Watching

 How to Engage?: First, understand the content that they are currently consuming. Be relevant - what do customers want to read, watch, or hear? Create content that engages Watching, based upon existing habits.

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Sharing
Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Sharing
 What?: Update status on social sites or Twitter, upload/forward photos, videos, articles, etc.  Why?: Want to share the information they have with peers, both to support others, and demonstrate knowledge

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Sharing
Twitter enables real-time sharing.

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Sharing

ShareThis reported a 200% increase in sharing through the ShareThis button in 2009. Overall, sharing is growing.

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Tactics: Engaging Sharing

 How to Engage?: Simplify and innovate sharing tools, see ShareThis.com and AddThis.com Advanced should seek Gigya*, Pluck, Kickapps. Recognition and rewards Allow Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter connect features
* Disclosure: An Altimeter Group client.
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Commenting
Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Commenting
 What?: Respond to others content, for e.g. comment on blogs or news stories, review or rate products  Why?: Actively participate, support, or contribute ideas/opinions, but usually one-offs

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Commenting

Facebook commenting and Likes simplified how users responded to other peoples content.

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Commenting

Retail sites encourage ratings and reviews by shoppers.

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Tactics: Engaging Commenting

 How to Engage?: Allow every webpage to have commenting features Develop a community policy Foster an open and friendly environment (and discourage spammers and trolls) Seek community vendors like Lithium*, Jive, Mzinga, Awareness, LiveWorld*, Kickapps, Pluck.
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* Disclosure: An Altimeter Group client.

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Producing
Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Producing
 What?: Create and publish their own content, for e.g. websites, blogs, or podcasts  Why?: Want to express identity, own content, be heard, or be recognized

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Producing

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Producing

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Tactics: Engaging Producing

 How to Engage?: Become a platform for the voice of your customers. Provide public recognition for most helpful community members. Sponsored Discussions: Intel Insiders, Microsoft MVP, Walmart Elevenmoms
- Note: Understand and abide by FTC Guidelines

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Curating
Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching

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Curating
 What?: Moderate or are heavily involved in online communities, for ex. Wikipedia, fan pages, or discussion boards  Why?: Invested in success of a product, service, or community, want to give back, or be recognized

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Curating

The Coca-Cola Facebook fan page was started, and continues to be administered, by two regular fans.

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Curating

Dell Community Ambassadors help manage and support customer forums.

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Tactics: Engaging Curating

 How to Engage?: Rely on them as trusted advisors, consider them non-paid partners Identify influencers or community builders, recognize them in public.

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The Twitter Problem

 Read tweets (Watching)  Re-tweet (Sharing)  @reply (Commenting)  Tweet (Sharing/Producing)  #hashtag (Curating)

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Engagement Pyramid Data

United States Curating Producing Commenting Sharing Watching <1% 24.2% 36.2% 61.2% 79.8% South Korea <1% 52.8% 74.3% 62.9% 91.1% United Kingdom <1% 18.6% 31.9% 57.6% 77.1%

Source: Global Wave Index Wave 1, Trendstream.net, July 2009

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Putting it to work
 Conduct research to identify the social behaviors of your customer base before you do anything  Also identify:

Where are they online: Surveys or brand monitoring Who do they trust: Surveys Who do they influence: Survey or brand monitoring How they use these tools in context of your products: Most often surveys.
 When you first understand your customers, your marketing efforts will naturally unfold.

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Socialgraphics makes you actionable

 1) Where are your customers online? Action: Dont aimlessly approach social networks without knowing if they are there, if they are in Hyves, go there.

2) What are your customers social behaviors online? Action: Which social features should we deploy? Example: if they are commenters, allow them to comment.

3) What social information or people do your customers rely on? Action: If they rely on their friends, facilitate a marketing program that encourages customers to share with friends.

4) What is your customers social influence? Who trusts them? Action: If your customers are trusted by others, highlight your customers in front of their community. Example: Intercontintental Hotel features the photos created by top guests.

5) How do your customers use social in regards to your brand? Action: Understand how customers use these tools in researching new products, decision making, and support

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New Way: Learning about Moms

  Situation: A healthy snack food company trying to reach moms, and their goal is to introduce them to a new product called Snackums. (fictional) Where are they online today?
Use monitoring tools to find hot spots of conversations Use survey to find specific URL locations through and open ended questions - Example: The data found that a third of the targeted moms visited Facebook at least weekly, and more than half visited at least monthly. Conduct qualitative analysis to find out what topics moms are talking about. - Example: Brand monitoring indicated that the most talked about topic when discussing health foods was price and convenience.

What are their online social behaviors?

They deployed a survey, and found they are mainly watching and sharing, very few producers But those that are producing are highly involved

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Example: Activating Moms

 Findings:
Through the survey, found that most moms dont talk about the product. However a smaller group did influence those that are watchers, Yet those watchers, dont share in that greater community, they share it with their immediate friends in Facebook.

 Action
With this, this company was able to identify, who the influencers were, how to reach them, and to spur on word of mouth to the average moms reaching a greater segment of customers.

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Summary
 Understand the socialgraphics of your customers by conducting surveys or obtaining secondary research.  Youll need to get the data from multiple sources we dont have all the data.  We believe in Open Research and we want to share so the industry can advance together.  Couple with your existing profiles or personas of customers, create an engagement pyramid for each persona.  Next, identify what social goals your organization will take on (covered in our next webinar).
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Success in the Groundswell requires Open Leadership

When people get what they need from each other

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Have the confidence to let go and still inspire results

Thank you

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Charlene Li
charlene@altimetergroup.com blog.altimetergroup.com Twitter: charleneli

Jeremiah Owyang
jeremiah@altimetergroup.com web-strategist.com/blog Twitter: jowyang

Follow the conversation at #socialgraphics Slides and recording will be available at altimetergroup.com
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About Us
Altimeter Group is a strategy consulting firm that provides companies with a pragmatic approach to disruptive technologies. We have four areas of focus: Leadership and Management, Customer Strategy, Enterprise Strategy, and Innovation and Practice. Visit us at http://www.altimetergroup.com or contact info@altimetergroup.com.

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