SMWSF Event Summary – How to Use Social Currency to Identify Influencers – Epilogue

This article is a follow-up on Ogilvy’s Social Media Week-San Francisco Event – “Beyond the Like Button.”  Because of the interest and questions, the audience didn’t get a chance to hear from Dan Ziman of  Lithium Technologies.  Well, to continue the conversation about “Beyond the Like Button”, Lithium and Ogilvy appropriately set up a webinar this week.  Dan Ziman’s presentation challenges marketers to have an integrated and connected approach in building your brand community.  Maybe a hint of chaos and complexity theory here?

We are at the Marketing Crossroads

Dan Ziman opened up a challenge to the marketers that we are at a crossroad in the way we market- how do we move past and get to next phase?  Dan offered the answer, “We need a different way of thinking moving away from the “Campaign mentality” eg. focus on what worked , things that didn’t work. “This is not sustainable.”

The world has changed, we have more of a social customer.  The social customer is more informed, understands value of the brand and deeply connected to opinions of friends.  To accommodate this evolving social customer, the marketing team needs to connect multiple facets of the organization – marketing/planning, sales, e-business, e-commerce, product management, customer service.

Why are we at the Crossroads?

Think about the way your customer talks.  Today, as an e-Marketer, we value in Social Media the number of positive customer mentions, conversion, revenue increased channel sales but this is not true.  Dan Ziman presented what I would call the social marketer’s “Maslow” triangle of marketing needs and objectives.

From bottom to top, here are the levels of the social marketer’s “Maslow” Triangle, and their characteristics:

• Manage to the right outcome – Passive (likes, fans, views, “street talk”)
• Reach – Traffic, Page Views
• Department Objectives – Order value, Channel sales, e-Commerce ideas
• C-Suite – Brand Awareness, Retention, Revenue, Margins

Now imagine as you integrate from the bottom to top of the Social triangle, from the customer’s point of view, influence increases or strengthens in terms of what they are saying about you.

How to Build an Influencer?

Dan said “1-2% drives 50% of the brand decisions.”  Getting to these 1-2% of individuals is the key.  So, how do you find these “mavens” or how do you grow them?

• Listen and Identify – Listen to your communities conversation to identify these brand advocates or “influencer.”
• Consider – How to integrate the social experience across multiple social platforms.
• Grant – Give these social brand advocates some kind of social currency to elevate their reputation.
• Privileges – Once you get an influencer,  reward them by give them access to blogging rights,  community moderation – just like a game.
• Reward/Praise – Encourage influencer’s future participation.

In sociology, we call this social building by Hanifan’s, Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory through satisfying basic needs in a community.   Nowadays, termed building “Social Currency.”  According to Dan Ziman, brands like Home Depot, Best Buy, Sephora and Giff Gaff do this well.   A good example of this is on Lithium’s community site – the Lithosphere.

Building communities is not new but the tools and the landscapes are different in our social world.  Looks like 140 Proof, Lithium and Ogilvy are understanding how to integrate “old school” concepts into the “new school” social.  Stay tuned it is going to be an exciting ride.