“I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have.” Thomas Jefferson
This past week, Mashable informed us that Foursquare is adding 15,000 new users a day. What is more surprising is the fact that Foursquare is marketing its application to local merchants, potentially allowing them to leverage the Foursquare Business Center dashboard. What’s even more incredible is Foursquare’s integration with Google Analytics. Who wouldn’t love seeing who is repeatedly checking in to their establishment and then guiding their customers’ purchases?
What we’re seeing is a shift toward even more transparency. Business owners now have the ability to see real-time acquisition (new customers, new orders, and existing patrons referring new ones) from their computers or their smartphones; it is this transparency which will lead to increasingly relevant messaging to their customers. This in turn enables the marketer to identify your brand evangelists (customers who refer and rave to their friends on social networks or forward your company’s marketing message), which will allow you to send them exclusive offers and discounts, enticing them to frequent your establishment more and more while subliminally asking them to return the favor by inviting their friends or colleagues to “like” your company’s Facebook page or follow you on Twitter.
From a loyalty standpoint, social media has leveled the playing field. The barriers to entry for a social media campaign are low, very low. Brands that once ‘controlled’ their customer database through conventional CRM tactics are now vying for customer attention with other customers. Social media has democratized the dissemination of information. Every Facebook friend or Twitter follower I gain leads to increased social media influence. People trust those whom they are closest.
Yes, there is empirical evidence showing brand followers on social media are more inclined to engage and spend money with that brand. What can’t be ignored are the individuals with a large and defined social media presence. I’m hard bent to think Ashton Kutcher- with almost 5 million Twitter followers – holds less influence than a big brand company with a fraction of that number. Ashton is a new kind of brand evangelist – the customer who frequents a certain brand, posts your message to his Facebook page, tweets about your brand, forwards your company e-mails to his friends, and compels his followers to do the same.
Social media offers marketers a way to think outside the box. What it has done is made the process of segmentation a bit more sexy. As a marketer, you want to be profile centric, constantly vying for more ‘attributes’ to add to a customer profile to send him or her something so relevant, that it seamlessly renders a call-to-action. At the same time, brands have to be cognizant of the fact that their customers can gather and mobilize a considerable audience instantaneous and sway their loyal minions, and ignore your message if you commit a misstep.
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People are definitely on par, if not more powerful than some business presences in social media. Followers and likes are the key.
Also, the last paragraph is a great summary to effective profile-centric social media.