This week I was at the W Midtown Hotel in Downtown Atlanta for Social Media Today’s Social Shake-up Conference. I knew to expect a great event as this was my second Social Shake-Up, following the Social Media Today event in Austin during SXSWi in March. So, let’s get to it. Disclaimer – Most of these notes will be from just one panel. Also – please excuse my phone’s picture quality. Can’t wait for the iPhone 6, also to avoid spending most of my time charging during events.
Guess I Should Have a Portable Charger By Now?
10:30am Data & Creativity: Defining Your Data-Driven Social Campaign
Laurent Francois moderated the panel consisting of Adam Naide (Cox Communications), Tracy Bell (Bank of America), and David Schweidel (Emory University)
This panel explored creativity and data, and their combination for deeper story telling. Also discussed was social analytics, and the importance of having clear goals in social media campaigns. Laurent began by apologizing for his French accent, and the way he pronounces “Adam,” although both Adam and I agreed it was a nice twist on the American pronunciation. Once the discussions were underway, Adam was quick to note the heavy lifting and social listening done by his Cox social care team, including Frankie Saucier, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to during the panel. Make sure all interactions are handled, and handled correctly – your brand sentiment is on the line! Consumers connect around their passions and creativity, social connects the two. David, with a background in statistics and market research, explained how he’s basically paid to be a skeptic. David piggy-backed and agreed with Adam’s thoughts on how to best engage with customers, and that the right way has yet to be determined. How do we engage customers at each touch-point?
Tracy noted that social can fill your gaps in customer service, as well as aid in sales and lead generation. Perhaps my favorite quote from this panel came from Adam when asked about social media tools, though. He stated, “Tools are tools, but people run social [media]. That’s why it’s called social media.” Adam went on to discuss how Cox customers who are engaged on social media are 33% more valuable than a typical customer, and score 32 points higher in NPS (net promoter score). The goal here is to turn your social customers into advocates! Another interesting note from Adam came in that social is now the first place people go for customer servicing. It can’t be any simpler than sending a DM, and seeing immediate resolution (again, props to the Cox social care team). Imagine a world where social media is the #1 place to go to seek technical support, and where brand advocates reply and assist even before the brand can.
What do you think when you hear the words engagement and organic? You probably think it’s just some marketing buzz word lingo, but you’ll be happy to hear that Adam Naide agrees with you. If he had it his way, he’d retire these words because they’re “fluffy and everyone has a different meaning for them.” Agreed!
An early takeaway from this panel was that customer’s comments and thoughts are incredibly valuable social offerings. Cox ran a Facebook brand campaign with Nielsen to promote that Cox has doubled their internet speeds. By reading comments and listening to what customers thought Cox was able to gather feedback in their customer’s context that they would’ve otherwise never known.
Tracy pointed out that your social media efforts support your creative processes. Listening to people and seeing how they react to your advertising is invaluable! How are they talking about the music in the background of a video? What do they think about the imagery? These are good to know data points gained through social that you may otherwise over-analyze. Feedback is different when it’s live.
The panel went into a great discussion on feedback, and Adam actually played moderator for a bit, asking Tracy the questions. The takeaway – find real reactions buried in data. Use what you have and bring it back to a simple human reaction.
Adam then quoted Maya Angelou. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I love this, and the same goes in social. Your followers may associate with you because of one emotion-bringing post, but never actually remember what it was. This relates, in a way, to Cox’s social strategy of using content like Game of Thrones as click bait, with an ultimate call to action behind it. Adam knows that Cox’s fans share clear emotions about their shows, so why not go where they’re already talking and sharing feelings? Another great example comes through the World Cup earlier this summer. Cox curated simple posts around existing conversations, just letting people know how to catch the games on their phones at work. Genius. Speaking of Game of Thrones, look who favorited one of my live-tweets…
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