Marketing Monster

There’s a great post by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) today that lays out a roadmap matrix of ways corporate websites can integrate social network components to connect with customers. The key message is:

[Companies must integrate customers behavior on social networks to their corporate website
to increase relevancy, word of mouth, and trust]

Jeremiah then lays out eight functions, from sharing to cross-publishing and social context, that Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter each have that can bring life back to your corporate website. The idea is that by engaging social networks you can connect with both your customers and prospects.

I completely agree that static websites offer little in the way of interaction and by integrating social networks into your site, either by pulling in or pushing out, you have more opportunities to connect to people. Social sharing and other components of the matrix that Jeremiah presented are key to connecting existing customers to prospects and influencing new business.

“While many have used community platforms to allow customers to connect to each other on branded domains, this strategy works for loyal customers and often may not reach prospects. “

This is where I see tremendous opportunity for companies with the right company culture and excellent customer service and I’ve asked Jeremiah to expand his matrix to include those community platforms.

Imagine that you have an active forum of involved brand champions, or a Ning, Google or Yahoo Group of customers who feel a sense of pride and ownership in your brand. And perhaps you use a customer service and feedback platform like Get Satisfaction to quickly resolve questions and requests. How could you leverage that positive customer relationship to reach prospects? By integrating them into your site in an open way and connecting them to social networks. In the comments of Jeremiah’s post, I said:

“Using these platforms to strengthen existing customer relations with an open window to a great company culture that supports its clientele, and the confidence to show it off, would be a persuasive way to win new prospects – no matter how they came to the corporate web site.”

According to Jeremiah, the goal of integrating social networks into corporate web sites is to “increase relevancy, word of mouth, and trust.” What better way to do that than to make it easy for your happy customers to tell their friends how great you are? Bringing together community platforms with social networks and incorporating them into your site could provide a very powerful way to spread the good word about your company and products.

But, for this to work, you’d better have excellent customer service. Because any less, and this exercise will backfire. This takes a company culture that supports the customer from the C-level right down the food chain to the people who have first line of contact, be it face-to-face, on the telephone or on the web.

Take, for example, the recent experience of Jim Long (@newmediajim), NBC network cameraman, Twitter early adopter and social media enthusiast. Jim has a substantial reach in his social networks, so when he encountered  problems with Sears customer service with the repair of his dryer, in frustration (like many) he turned to Twitter.

As is the case with many brands, Sears has a listening post on Twitter (@MySears) and a Social Engagement Manager (@scottfmurphy) who was helpful in trying to resolve the issue. However, it was the on-the-ground service component of this story that repeatedly failed to deliver on customer satisfaction.

In Jim’s post, he sums up his frustration with this culture split by saying,

“Once a customer service complaint has reached the Twitters, your customer service team has likely failed.  It’s the online equivalent of  ‘I will not leave this store and I will stand here shouting at the cash register until I speak to the manager!’”

He’s got a good point.

So, before you use social media for customer service, before you link social media to your corporate web site, and before you integrate your community platforms into an open window to your customers, take a long, hard look at the importance of customer service quality throughout your ranks. And then ask yourself, is your company culture nurturing or poisoning  your customers’ ability to sing your praises, not only on social networks, but in the world at large?