Social CRM Virtual Summit

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How can community strengthen your brand? Learn from Phil and Michael as they talk about the latest research highlighting how customer networks and communities can become one of your strongest branding weapons. Ask them a question here, and we'll pose it to them online on the 11th.

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Social CRM Virtual Summit

Scheduled Chat -3. Building Brand Equity through Community, Phil Soffer and Dr. Michael Wu (Lithium).
All times shown in PDT

[ 11/11/2009 11:20:00 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[QUESTION] : Many people think of communities as support oriented environments - can you explain what you mean by building brand equity through the community, which is definitely marketing oriented?
[ 11/11/2009 11:20:30 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I would start with the idea that any time someone is engaging with your brand, it's a brand building opportunity.
[ 11/11/2009 11:20:55 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	So, on the one hand, if you're looking for ways to use communities for brand building, it's perfectly reasonable to have product support be a part of that.
[ 11/11/2009 11:21:10 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Because if people have a great experience on the community, there's brand value in that for you.
[ 11/11/2009 11:21:28 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	And we're starting to see marketing departments adopt this posture.
[ 11/11/2009 11:22:03 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Phil.
[ 11/11/2009 11:22:11 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[Question] You released a whitepaper last week which talks about community impact on Word of Mouth campaigns –specifically customer networks more than doubling their effectiveness – can you tell us some more about the implications to businesses?
[ 11/11/2009 11:22:37 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Michael, why dont you start
[ 11/11/2009 11:22:48 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	basically, the implication is that, if you are not social, start quick
[ 11/11/2009 11:23:03 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	because there is a huge first mover advantage
[ 11/11/2009 11:23:16 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	if nobody is doing it, you should be the first
[ 11/11/2009 11:23:36 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Another implication is that the things that you do to make your community heathy are also the things that make it conducive to word of mouth propagation.
[ 11/11/2009 11:23:56 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Especially Liveliness and responsiveness.
[ 11/11/2009 11:24:28 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	also interaction
[ 11/11/2009 11:24:44 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Yes.
[ 11/11/2009 11:25:08 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Excellent point Michael and Phil.
[ 11/11/2009 11:25:11 AM]	Linda.Roy:	Can you define how you are using the word "community"
[ 11/11/2009 11:25:56 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Well, we're defining it in two ways: one way is in the traditional sense of a site that has people in it who are engaged in conversations.
[ 11/11/2009 11:26:31 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	There's another way in which we sometimes use the word - that is, the people who make up the site. But we are moving toward using the term "customer network" to refer to that.
[ 11/11/2009 11:26:33 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	in the research community, "community" have many definition, and the only thing that is common among them is the people
[ 11/11/2009 11:27:04 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks for sharing that.
[ 11/11/2009 11:27:11 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[Question] What are some practical steps that companies can take to harness this brand building potential in their communities?
[ 11/11/2009 11:27:30 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Phil, maybe you can start on it first
[ 11/11/2009 11:27:32 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I think the first and most important thing is to encourage interaction.
[ 11/11/2009 11:27:56 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Because ultimately, all of the brand-building benefits accrue from having the site be social.
[ 11/11/2009 11:28:10 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	And so you may have to throw out some of the usual assumptions you make about "brand."
[ 11/11/2009 11:28:20 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	The first of which is that everything must be totally consistent and controlled.
[ 11/11/2009 11:28:48 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	In fact, what makes communities successful is that the members feel a sense of ownership in it. And that can be hard for traditional marketers who think about brand.
[ 11/11/2009 11:29:15 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	the potential is that company can now value every single relationship they have with their customers
[ 11/11/2009 11:29:19 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	that is very important
[ 11/11/2009 11:29:35 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	that is a great point.
[ 11/11/2009 11:29:49 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Those are some good starters.
[ 11/11/2009 11:29:53 AM]	Marc.Siegel:	re firts mover advantage. It seems that there are scattershot efforts in a field I'm working on. But a directed approach to social media in this space has plenty of chance still to grow very big. Say more abotu "first mover advantage" please
[ 11/11/2009 11:30:18 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	A lot of times we think of the value of Social CRM as "calls deflected," but when we think about quantifying value, we will need to think about influence value of customers.
[ 11/11/2009 11:30:52 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I'll take that.
[ 11/11/2009 11:31:50 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	What the research found is that if there are two competitors, the one that moves first gets a lot of the "product adoption" benefits. So scattershot efforts would probalby not diminish the value of a concerted first move.
[ 11/11/2009 11:31:58 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	But you can read more about it in our white paper.
[ 11/11/2009 11:32:02 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Which you can get from the booth.
[ 11/11/2009 11:32:18 AM]	Marc.Siegel:	okey doke, I'll white paper it.
[ 11/11/2009 11:32:23 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	from our research if you are the only brand using a wom program, your gain is 80% than when you wait until someone else starts
[ 11/11/2009 11:32:37 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	@Marc, you can sync up with Phil and Michael post this chat session for more details.
[ 11/11/2009 11:32:46 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[Question] Communities are obviously a rich environment for recruiting advocates, what are the ways that people can identify the influential users?
[ 11/11/2009 11:33:05 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	we can identify them 2 ways
[ 11/11/2009 11:33:15 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	the reputation engine is one way
[ 11/11/2009 11:33:17 AM]	Marc.Siegel:	i meant that even if others are doing stuff haphazardly), there is plenty of time for non-doers o get up to speed and take back the gains
[ 11/11/2009 11:33:31 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[TIME CHECK] Okay we have 15 mins left on the clock
[ 11/11/2009 11:33:56 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	but we can also perform social network analysis on the customer network to identify who the the most influential users, who has the fastest reach to the rest of the network, etc
[ 11/11/2009 11:34:18 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	there are a variety of network metrics that we can compute base on the customer network
[ 11/11/2009 11:34:24 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	@marc, I would agree with that -- though you don't know when those efforts might coalesce into something more effective.
[ 11/11/2009 11:35:15 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Michael
[ 11/11/2009 11:35:35 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[Question] How can people measure the value of their communities for brand-building purposes? How do I know if I’m doing it right?
[ 11/11/2009 11:35:44 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Michael, can you shed some light there
[ 11/11/2009 11:35:59 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	traditional measure of brand / marketing are reach
[ 11/11/2009 11:36:21 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	in one of my earlier sessions, i mention that community may have different objectives
[ 11/11/2009 11:36:26 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	some are marketing
[ 11/11/2009 11:36:40 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	there are many mechanisms to value
[ 11/11/2009 11:36:45 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	for example WOM
[ 11/11/2009 11:36:49 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	lead generation
[ 11/11/2009 11:37:07 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	all these can be infer from the conversation that people are having
[ 11/11/2009 11:37:38 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Please feel free to ask any questions.
[ 11/11/2009 11:37:58 AM]	Chuck.Van Court:	What have you found to be the best methods for nurturing and motivating top contributors in the community?
[ 11/11/2009 11:38:41 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	i believe the best way is to show them a sense that their contribution are valued
[ 11/11/2009 11:39:09 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	there are many best practice practitioners in our best practice booth
[ 11/11/2009 11:39:30 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	they are the best people to talk to
[ 11/11/2009 11:39:38 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Michael.
[ 11/11/2009 11:39:45 AM]	Dotti.Yells:	How do you get members to contribute if they come from different industries?
[ 11/11/2009 11:40:25 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	the question is why do they come
[ 11/11/2009 11:40:33 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I think the question about industries depends on what the community is for. If the community has a purpose that's coincident with their industry, then it's not an issue.
[ 11/11/2009 11:40:50 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	{Time Check} 5 min to go. We have time for couple more qs
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:03 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	It becomes more difficult, of course, if you're trying to get different people who are diverse to converse about something that isn't of particular interest to any of them.
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:09 AM]	Dotti.Yells:	Great answer - thank you!
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:15 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Phil.
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:19 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	to add to Phil's comment
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:19 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	[Question] Don’t you think there’s a danger in imputing brand value to a site that has a bunch of user-generated content? Can’t that turn against my brand?
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:20 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	But a general rule of thumb is that for anything there's a group of people who are interested.
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:38 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I'll wait for Michael before I answer.
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:51 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	some people just come to get inof
[ 11/11/2009 11:41:55 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	i mean info
[ 11/11/2009 11:42:04 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	not everyone has to contribute
[ 11/11/2009 11:42:15 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	lurker and lurking do have values
[ 11/11/2009 11:42:25 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Michael
[ 11/11/2009 11:42:31 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Phil - you want to take the last question
[ 11/11/2009 11:42:36 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	So in answer to Haresh's question about UGC --
[ 11/11/2009 11:43:03 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I think there is a danger. But the greater danger is that if there's a big conversation going on, and you're not part of it.
[ 11/11/2009 11:43:17 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	Because if that happens, you're squandering all of the potential brand value that comes from this.
[ 11/11/2009 11:43:21 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	And, even worse, perhaps...
[ 11/11/2009 11:43:37 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	You're not engaging the people who are going to be influential, and your competitors are.
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:02 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	if the conversation happens in the community at least you can defend it, and turn the situation around
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:02 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	So there's a scramble for those potentially influential users out there.
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:08 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	that often has much greater benefit
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:22 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	{Question] Any final thoughts for our participants?
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:42 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	Go social...
[ 11/11/2009 11:44:48 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	I think the take-away point is that sociability creates brand value.
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:01 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	And this will only increase with time.
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:18 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	social is also a relationship, which is much longer lasting
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:21 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thanks Phil and Michael. That was great.
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:28 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	That’s time folks. Thanks to everyone for their questions. Thank you to Phil Soffer and Dr Wu for their insights, anecdotes and expertise.[INFO] The transcript of this event will be available in the Social CRM Virtual Summit board of Lithosphere http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Social-CRM-Virtual-Summit/bd-p/VSCRM-2009-11-11 ) a little later today.
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:29 AM]	Philip.Soffer (Lithium):	My pleasure.
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:36 AM]	Michael.Wu (Lithium):	thank,
[ 11/11/2009 11:45:38 AM]	Haresh.Kumar (Lithium):	Thank you all – enjoy the rest of the event