15 Key Trends & Observations for Leaders of Great Brands

Bob PearsonPresident, The Social Media Business Council

July 7, 2009

1) Customers are co-shaping your reputation everyday

Are you accidently outsourcing the building of your brand?

2) Leaders will identify issues before they happen

Customers assume we are listening to their issues in real time

3) You Realize that Your Customer Does Not Care Where You Want Them To Go

Customers are part of their own liquid network

Become a friend who can be trusted

4) You Know that <1% of a Customer’s Time is Spent Purchasing a Product

99% of time is spent browsing and socializingYou build trust by being there when you are needed, not when you need the customer

5) E-Commerce Will Become E-Community

• Reality -- <1% of time is spent buying online. 99% is spent browsing & socializing

• Peer Influence – 3 of 4 customers look to their peers for advice on a purchase

• Integration – why would we ask a customer to go to multiple sites? The value is…….?

Convergence is led by convenience

6) You Focus on How People Consume Content & Understand How it is Changing

Customers decide where they will learn

It is not via advertising……

7) The Media World isn’t Changing…..it Changed

• Media Outlets – 74 of top 100 outlets for Techmeme are blogs/online sites

• Bloggers – 3 of 4 look to each other for their next story• Customers – 3 of 4 look to each other for purchase advice• Conversations – are the driver of SOV, influence and

recommendations

Don’t define it as offline or online. It’s all one media world. Just know which conversations are defining your brand

8) There Isn’t a Destination for a Customer

Visiting your site is not their goal, no matter how pretty it looks

We are expected to just sort of “be there” when needed

9) Syndication of Content MattersMore than Site Traffic

• Micro-Communities – the social media world grows & fragments, simultaneously

• Customer-Driven Preference – “I want what I want where I want it”. Stop “spamming me”.

• Participation is a Choice – if companies don’t listen, customers vote via lack of traffic and participation.

What is your content syndication plan?

10) 10-20% of Your Customers Will Call You Each Year Due to a Problem

80-90% will not call you despite a problem

Few will call you just to catch up

11) Customers Want to Do Three Things to Help Each Other

Share ideas, share product knowledge and solve problems

12) We don’t have to measure trust internally, we live it

Our employees feel free to help each other and, as a result, our company

Leverage the world’s greatest operating system – the web

13) We Judge a Person on How They Interact With Us

Guess what….customers do the same thing when they shop with us online

14) We Know Preparing for Yesterday is Ineffective

Old models and habits hold back innovation

Watch for “antibodies”

15) We Understand Ethical Behavior is a Key Part of Maintaining Trust

We don’t support Flogs or SplogsWe would never create a fake ad, so

why a fake blog post?

We know that Leaders will enter and become relevant in conversations that occur everyday in

every language all around the world in communities of importance to our customers

Companies that cling to the past may not realize it, but they will lose relevance.

Key Coordinates• The Social Media Business Council --

www.socialmedia.org

• My personal blog -- www.csmg.us

• Everything else -- www.twitter.com/bobpearson1845