There's a lot of talk (and case study, too) regarding Social Networks for corporate brands - the Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages and their advertising, contest and informational content dedicated to "engaging" with customers.
In the world of Public Social Networks (as opposed to private social networks that are invite only for company partners and customers), online magazine, eMarketer, recently published "What Social Followers Want," providing a summary overview and citing multiple studies that suggest the current highest demands of the closest circle of a brand's friends in an online social community (previously understood and referred to in this blog as "personality," which could be any type of "content" found online or off that drives an audience to a site, publications or broadcast) are not necessarily JUST deals and discounts from the manufacturer's and retailers.
In addition to discounts, it seems brand audience also engages deeply due to an ongoing interest in a "friended" brand's new product development initiatives. This is good. In fact, it is probably one of the single most interesting and, potentially, important product cost reduction aspects that social media offers, today. It's also probably why two-thirds of marketing pros say they're going to invest in Social Media programs this year, and 40% of them are shifting dollars away from traditional direct marketing to go social, according to a new Alterian survey highlighted on TechCrunch.
In a company I used to work at, I drove development of a private social network for partners, customers and affiliates, where the potential for users sits in the multiple millions. While the site's membership is not yet at that level, the immediate understanding and need was that, besides providing a place for like-minded individuals to organize around the educational and procedural requirements and benefits of my company and its partners' offerings, we also built a specific program and site area to address the "voice of the customer," specifically. This area is used to engage excellent and long-term customers directly in discussions surrounding current product features and functionality as well as future recommended features and functionality.
Estimations for cost savings based on this new level of engagement, combined with tweaks in the product development process itself, were somewhere near 20-25% - a big savings when you consider that every product for this company costs at least USD $2,000,000 to create and even more to send into the market. However, the benefits of pin-pointing product features to retire and those to improve and add don't end at cost reduction. This kind of network and program also increase the speed-to-market factor with an end-product that provides WHAT THE CUSTOMER ASKED FOR and, probably, also helped test at prototype stages, and, maybe even agreed to purchase at release. This effect is probably even greater on the bottom and top lines. Furthermore, faster speed-to-market means improved product relevancy, which translates to greater potential sales.
Imagine, then, what happens if you engage your customers in the public forums - potentially, outside of your private network comfort zone - on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and elsewhere. A full social networking perspective for your organization includes the right strategy to engage and reward both your close circle of "friends" and the outer circles of people familiar with or interested in your brand, but not yet truly connected. Find someone to help, and if you don't know how, then try, for example, my firm, 3 Degrees Deep :) or someone like it.
Bottom line: So, is social media and network still just one facet of the marketing mix for an organization? Yes. However, even though you still need a 360 degree approach to integrated and unified marketing, failing to include and explore the benefits of social media integration into your organization is failing to keep up with the times. It's also very expensive.
Let me know what you think!
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