The Social Engagement Journey

How social media transforms companies to be more customer-centric

Audio Overview by Sean O’Driscoll

CEO, Ant’s Eye View

Ant’s Eye View is the industry’s only practitioner brand. Our leaders are experienced professionals who’ve delivered tangible business impact at large enterprise organizations.

The Social Engagement Journey

The Narrative

The economy has slowed in major markets, making organic growth harder to achieve. The battle with existing competitors is even more intense. Emerging market competitors are fighting on price and functionality while ankle biters are coming out of the woodworks as barriers to entry in your brands’ categories.

To make matters more challenging, your traditional marketing tactics are less effective. And consumers trust and are heavily influenced by peers, friends and even strangers online. Consumers are rapidly switching away from the channels you’ve honed for years, and every available channel has gotten a lot noisier. Not to mention, the rapid adoption and growing confidence with digital tools such as mobile devices and social technologies have changed expectations in consumers’ minds – they now expect engagement and service in real-time.

Internally, your employees are also changing. Your newest employees demand a flatter and more open environment. And their expectations aren’t significantly different than that of consumers – they expect collaboration in real-time with few, if any, barriers to information and resources.

To compete in this experience economy, the way to beat competitors and achieve growth is by investing in long-term relationships with your consumers through consistent engagement in the places where they are, not where you necessarily want them to be.

4

Step By Step Progression

• Functions are disconnected – in silos

• Marketing only through traditional channels

• Customer support delivered through traditional channels

• Ambivalent to online conversations about the brand

• Social not on executive radar

Traditional

Stage 1

Step By Step Progression

• Functions are disconnected – in silos

• Marketing only through traditional channels

• Customer support delivered through traditional channels

• Ambivalent to online conversations about the brand

• Social not on executive radar

Traditional

Stage 1

• Mavericks break through, but still no formal teams in place

• Lots of dabbling in social channels

• Monitoring conversations in silos

• Fractured tools, but proliferating

• Advocate engagement in pockets

• Lots of customer data with no connection

Stage 2Dabbling in Silos

Step By Step Progression

• Functions are disconnected – in silos

• Marketing only through traditional channels

• Customer support delivered through traditional channels

• Ambivalent to online conversations about the brand

• Social not on executive radar

Traditional

Stage 1

• Mavericks break through, but still no formal teams in place

• Lots of dabbling in social channels

• Monitoring conversations in silos

• Fractured tools, but proliferating

• Advocate engagement in pockets

• Lots of customer data with no connection

Stage 2Dabbling in Silos

• Empowered team run by a proven leader

• Focusing the channels, editing to amplify

• Listening yields implications, but crisis causes confusion

• Focused effort on training and education

• Baseline framework for metrics

• Tools consolidation

Stage 3Operationalizing

Step By Step Progression

• Functions are disconnected – in silos

• Marketing only through traditional channels

• Customer support delivered through traditional channels

• Ambivalent to online conversations about the brand

• Social not on executive radar

Traditional

Stage 1

• Mavericks break through, but still no formal teams in place

• Lots of dabbling in social channels

• Monitoring conversations in silos

• Fractured tools, but proliferating

• Advocate engagement in pockets

• Lots of customer data with no connection

Stage 2Dabbling in Silos

• Empowered team run by a proven leader

• Focusing the channels, editing to amplify

• Listening yields implications, but crisis causes confusion

• Focused effort on training and education

• Baseline framework for metrics

• Tools consolidation

Stage 3Operationalizing

• Central team still exists, but more work pushed to business units

• Channels yielding impactful results

• Employees engaged and competent

• Rigor in dashboards is moving executive numbers

• Systems and tools are optimized

• Execs are bought in

Stage 4Real Results

The Destination: The Fully Engaged Enterprise

Stage 5: The Fully Engaged Enterprise

• Bring products and services to market more quickly, with built-in demand.• Manage risk and

fiduciary responsibilities better, despite the uncertain times• Differentiate on

something other than price• Get and retain the best

talent• Have more efficient

research, development, marketing and support operations

Business Outcomes

• Breakthrough business results – increased revenue and loyalty• Entire employee base

has 360 view of the customer, can anticipate needs• Customer engagement

is part of the company DNA • Brand dashboard ties

to revenue• Ideal mix of brand

advocates (breadth and depth)• Senior executives are

leading with customer engagement

Organizational Impact

• “I trust you”• “I recommend you”• “I feel valued and heard”• “You anticipate my needs”• “That was my idea”• “You get me”• “You don’t make me guess”• “I would never buy a competitor’s products”• “My life/family/hobby is better because of you”

Customer Evidence

Example Journey Assessment (Illustrative)

Category Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

Strategy & Planning

Business Operations

Risk Mitigation

Executive Support

Resource Management

Marketing Channels

Conversation Monitoring

Feedback/Innovation

Employee Competency

Systems/Tools

Measurement

Customer Support

Advocate Engagement

Customer Insight

Initial Assessment: Company is currently in Stage 2 of the client journey. There is significant executive support and internal excitement, but online engagement activities are fractured. No overall strategy, measurement or consistent conversation monitoring makes it tough to completely align and move forward to Stage 3.

To find out more about the Social Engagement

Journey, visit:

antseyeview.com/social-journey

Be sure to download the assessment worksheet and find out which stage of the

journey your company is in!