What's Your "Share of Friends"?
Companies have long aimed to increase their market share or wallet share. Today organizations also need to consider their share of friends, Engauge Chairman Stan Rapp told attendees during his keynote at Alterian's Engaging Times Summit 2010. Businesses not using social media to engage customers risk losing those customers to competitors that are making the most of social channels.
"You can multiply what you can do with customers," Rapp said, noting that first companies must reorder their priorities. Organizations can no longer do "to" customers; they must do "with" them or, better yet, do "for" them, he said. Rapp cited Pepsi and its Refresh Project as doing "with" customers and Coca-Cola's My Coke Rewards program as doing "for" customers.
Rapp also advised attendees to rethink their marketing budget, specifically putting a stop to what he called "non-vertising," that is, advertising that lacks connection, communication, and engagement. He suggested that companies switch to "dialoguing," in other words, using advertising to elicit a response from customers, whether that response is to visit a website, text to a short code, or visit a retail store. He cited Chick-fil-a, Levi's, and Old Spice as three brands effectively using a marketing mix that includes advertising and social media to engage customers.
"Everything begins with the right customer connection," Rapp said, adding that using social sites to create a private "mass market" of passionate believers should be an organization's number one priority today.
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