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Accenture 2010 Global Consumer Survey: “Social media…dramatically accelerating the exchange of customer opinions.”

March 30th, 2011 BuzzNumbers

Accenture recently released its 2010 Global Consumer Survey which highlights that word of mouth is still the basis for consumers’ decisions and it has gone viral!”Word of mouth extends to postings on social media sites”, and it ”remains, the source of information respondents use most (76 percent) and consider most important (56 percent) when deciding whether to do business with a service provider. ” The report also mentions the fact that consumers have lost trust in the companies that they do business with and they are communicating this online.

In a recent survey by YouGov: “41% of people will make a complaint by phone, 63% by email, and 20% take to social media sites to have a good old moan to friends and family.”

Graham Charlton, Editor at Econsultancy.com recently posted on this finding (See his blog) saying ”This means more negative comments about companies and highlights the need for customer service improvements, as well as policies to monitor and respond to complaints on social media channels.”

Accenture concludes their report by saying: “ Social media is the catalyst for convergence of digital and mobile and is dramatically accelerating the exchange of customer opinions. Word of mouth is a critical factor impacting consumer decisions, which includes exchanges through social media.

In addition to switching, dissatisfied customers have the equivalent of a megaphone through social media and digital channels to communicate their frustration to others. Companies need to make conscious decisions about their social media strategies and practices, as ignoring it is not an option.

Click here (pg.9) to see more information about the research.

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Saab Automobile hires Aussie blogger who ‘saved’ the company

March 23rd, 2011 Nick HaC

On Tuesday, Saab Automobile announced it was adding Australian Saab-enthusiast Steven Wade to the company’s global social media marketing team.

For the last six years, Wade has run the independant SaabsUnited blog from his home in Melbourne, Australia.

Since its founding, the site gained popularity with Saab enthusiasts around the globe and become known as a source of some of the most detailed and up-to-date information about the company.

When troubles at US carmaker General Motors (GM) threatened to put Saab into bankruptcy, Wade led a campaign to rally fans of the uniquely designed Swedish-made cars to demonstrate that, despite dismal sales figures, there were many people around the world who cared deeply about Saab.

“It is a given that you have played a key role in saving Saab last year by mobilizing tens of thousands of enthusiasts to rally in support of the company,” Saab chair Victor Muller wrote to Wade in a letter posted on SaabsUnited.

“You have single handedly proven the importance social media has nowadays in situations like the one Saab went through. You became one of my most powerful allies in those trying times which now are fortunately behind us.”

As a part of Saab’s global social media marketing team, Wade will now help the company communicate with customers through various social media channels.

Source: http://www.thelocal.se/32612/20110316/

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Social media analytics key to enterprise growth (Yahoo)

February 4th, 2011 Nick HaC

“Enterprises need to start taking advantage of the “wisdom of the crowds” available though social media information, or risk missing out on huge opportunities to boost business, according to the MIT Centre for Digital Business.”

Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the organisation, said at the Lotusphere 2011 event that there will be major business productivity benefits associated with the use of social media analytics, which he dubbed the “digital boost”.

Businesses can use information available from social networks to solve the broadest problems in a cost-effective manner, McAfee said.

The key to solving problems in any environment is diversity, he told delegates. Problems need to be presented to individuals with different abilities, backgrounds and interests, he explained.

“The way to make progress is not to drill down and rely even more heavily on the people who solved the last generation’s problems. It is instead to throw that problem out there more broadly and see who’s available to help,” said McAfee.

This is more important than just trying to get as many eyeballs on the problem, and is where social analytics comes into play.

McAfee gave the example of how Twitter has helped to answer the long-standing open question of how successful a newly released film will be at the box office.

“One way of predicting the box office is to watch the Twitter feed, [where] you can get a very quick and accurate read of whether the film will have any staying power or will disappear after a big opening weekend,” he said.

Although there are huge volumes of data generated by people expressing themselves, the ability to start sifting through this material is becoming crucial to businesses.

“If you want to be a leader in your sector or industry, I think getting social and being confident of the results is the right way forward,” said McA fee.

With over 78 per cent of consumers trusting peer recommendations, it is paramount for businesses to monitor this information, which is outside the company firewall, added Christopher Dziekan, vice president of business analytics at IBM.

“[Enterprises] that want to retain and grow customers have to attack that kind of information. It is not a luxury to wait 90 days or 120 days to see how sales are doing. You need to get a sense of this data and what people are saying right now,” he said.

Source:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20110203/ttc-social-media-analytics-key-to-enterp-6315470.html

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Twitter Launches Business.Twitter.com

January 28th, 2011 Nick HaC

Twitter has this week launched Business.Twitter.Com – a portal with tools and advice for companies who look to use twitter for business benefit. You can also follow @TwitterBusiness to keep up to date.

Best Practices: Build your following, reputation, and customer’s trust with these simple practices

1. Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them!

2. Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products.

3. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.

4. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time

5. Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals.

6. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business.

7. Champion your stakeholders. Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers.

8. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community?

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