The Jeff Beckham Weblog

One of the most interesting panels in all of South by Southwest Interactive was “Going Social Now“, Shiv Singh’s look at social influence marketing.

Singh, who works in the New York office of Avenue A/Razorfish, points out that today’s online shopping experience is not a linear process. We need to take advantage of the social influence — input from friends and family, comparison across sites — as we shop collaboratively with other people.

In today’s world, customers are influenced by each other more than ever, and less than ever by traditional marketing messages. Research from Forrester Research and eMarketer shows that online shoppers trust recommendations from consumers more than any other type of advertising, and that most people look at from 4-7 customer reviews before buying.

The corporate site isn’t a destination for customers any more, he says. You have to tap into the immersive and social power of the web to create great experiences with consumers wherever they live in the digital world.

In the traditional model of communicating to customers, the message has come from the marketing and sales groups. But in a Web 2.0 model, every group within the company (Marketing, Sales, Research and Development, Strategy, Human Resources) has their own customer, and each one of those groups needs to be talking to their constituents and external stakeholders.

Some key points:

1. Become your consumer
2. Aggregate information for your consumer
3. Articulate product benefits better
4. Amplify the business stories
5. Participate where your consumers are
6. Don’t do it all at once

| View | Upload your own