Social Media explained (using paper!)

...at last an explanation that needs no explanation...sort of.

At the very least it's a great illustration of the art form that is.

RBH Radar - overview.

This is an extremely exciting industry development for us all. With investment in social media becoming almost mandatory we are all in need of an accurate measurement tool. There are many social media monitors available online, some are free some are not, but in the main they all simply show who is saying what about your brand. You then need to find the resource time to trawl through all this information, of which there can be millions of pieces, to form an opinion. RBH Radar does this for you, in real time. So the time companies would have spent pondering over social perception and simply monitoring online chatter can now be spent building informed social media strategies to remain relevant and useful to their customers and therefore always a step ahead of their competition in this fast paced environment.

Supported by Social Radar in the US, RBH Radar helps companies quantify the impact, ROI and ultimately measure the perception of their brand online and take action.

You can access Social Radar in UK direct from RBH or you can take advanatge of RBH Radar and the actionable insights and support system this will give - why not take a look at both and then decide?

Whichever route is taken you get more data on social media than Nielsen Buzz Monitor, has indexed over 2.3 billion blogs, feeds, forums, tweets, campaigns and it has the ability to show not only positive and negative brand perception but conflicting sentiment also using complex page-reading algorithms.

Check out RBH Radar for more details or email me at gray@RBH.co.uk for your free Social Overview.

Social Media and Retailers - focus is key.

Social media is in meteoric ascent. Empowered consumers wield more control than ever before over retailers. Although retail sales are dominated by bricks and mortar, the influence of the internet on offline purchases needs focus. Retailers must listen to and engage customers by participating and encouraging conversations. The end result will improve customer service and will help turn customers into loyal customers and loyal customers into passionate advocates.

This increased loyalty can be measured through sales but the advocacy and recommendation and therefore the strategy to drive the sales harder can be measured using RBH Radar.

Mainstream phenomenon.
So, why is social media so big? The answer is relatively simple: it taps into a few basic human needs and emotions. Social media satisfies our need to be heard, it provides us with a platform to reach more people than ever before and it enables us to advocate for and promote the brands and topics we feel strongly about.
Social media provides a platform to advocate for products and retailers...

Amplified advocacy
The purchase consideration process has always been a social endeavor. Before the advent of social media, a shopper may have consulted with a limited number of friends and family members before making a purchase. Today, shoppers’ networks have gone from being composed of just a handful of people to hundreds—or even thousands—many of which are likely strangers.
Social media has transformed the research, purchase and post purchase phases. It has also provided shoppers with a platform to advocate for the retailers. Advocacy has always existed, but social media has made this stage even more critical to retailers as it amplifies the size of the audience reached! But who do you focus one when all comments 'appear' to be equal? After all the web is a level playing field right? Wrong. You need to unearth who is listening to who and being influenced - RBH Radar can identify these central influencers and realise who is listening.

Listen and engage
Social media provides retailers with a unique opportunity to not only listen to what consumers have to say, but to actively take part in that conversation. Through online listening, retailers can observe conversations that occur naturally to understand consumer attitudes and needs—and then proactively engage customers transparently to answer key questions or concerns.

We all need to listen and engage and this is how RBH Radar can help. It allows all companies to:

• Keep a finger on the pulse of consumer sentiment
• Delve into specific issues facing the company being raised across social networks and identify opportunities to make improvements
• Assess if a social media campaign’s impact is positive, negative or undecided
• Uncover risks, by reputation monitoring plus sentiment tracking and address them
• Identify customers in need of support and pinpoint the issues they are discussing

Reaching out
According to Forrester Research, many retailers have already invested in social media in some way, and another 22% plan to get involved in the next year. Additionally, Internet Retailer reports that over 30% of retailers say that social networks perform better as a marketing vehicle than paid search engine optimization.

Through these avenues, retailers have the opportunity to connect with customers in a number of ways:

• Drive awareness, attract new customers
• Increase customer satisfaction through proactive outreach and timely response
• Give the retailer a voice; promote transparency; manage crises quickly
• Take the risk out of trying new products with review systems
• Leverage the wisdom of customers for product/service development
• Increase employee satisfaction, promote sharing of product/service ideas

What happens online does not stay online!
Assume that consumer control/power will continue to grow—now is the time to listen. When you are ready and adequately resourced, engage, participate, and respond to customers but do not forget to measure all activity with a tool such as RBH Radar to make sure you investment is being placed accurately and effectively.

[notes and key numbers source - Forrester Research, 2009]