Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

2 :

THE NEW ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER

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Here’s why: Aside from reaching and building relationships with people who

may be infl uential to large groups of people important to you—a blogger with a fol-

lowing, a journalist, an industry expert, or similar—consumers are increasingly mak-

ing their purchase decisions based on information, tips, and recommendations from

“people like themselves.” Take a look at the sidebar on the Edleman Trust Barometer

and go and download that free report (a PDF fi le). The Trust Barometer, itself from a

trusted source, makes a very convincing case for both the need for social media listen-

ing programs and for extracting from these conversation the information and insight

you need to position your business for long-term success.

The Edelman Trust Barometer

The Edelman Trust Barometer is a measure of the relative trustworthiness of various sources

of information. Over the past 10 years there has been a significant shift, corresponding first

with the mainstream adoption of the Internet and more recently with the use of social tools. In

short, traditional sources of trust—people like CEOs, analysts, and news reporters—have been

replaced with “people like me,” with word-of-mouth and curated social media. It is a significant

shift that you cannot ignore.

You will find the complete 2009 report here:

http://www.edelman.com/trust/2009

Infl uencer Relations: A Representative Case

Following is a quick case on the use of Social CRM tools for infl uencer outreach. In this

case the primary challenge was assembling a cross section of infl uencers from a very

large and distributed set of individuals who are infl uencers of relatively small numbers

of people. It’s a great example of the “infl uencers” challenge described previously.

Grasshopper

As a B2B virtual phone services company, Grasshopper’s motivation in adopting a

Social CRM program for its business grew out of its need to understand and inter-

nalize the infl uencer process and customer renewal cycle. The business objective for

the company’s use of social media was simple enough: According to Jonathan Kay,

Grasshopper’s Ambassador of Buzz, “Everywhere you look, someone should be talking

about Grasshopper.” We should all want for as much.

Strong believers in social media and “PR 2.0,” the fi rm doesn’t have an agency,

and they’re not focused on pumping out press releases. Instead, they’re focused on

building relationships with infl uencers. Pay it forward, right? This includes traditional

media small business stalwarts such as Inc. Magazine and BusinessWeek, along with

The Edelman Trust Barometer

The Edelman Trust Barometer is a measure of the relative trustworthiness of various sources

of information. Over the past 10 years there has been a significant shift, corresponding first

with the mainstream adoption of the Internet and more recently with the use of social tools. In

short, traditional sources of trust—people like CEOs, analysts, and news reporters—have been

replaced with “people like me,” with word-of-mouth and curated social media. It is a significant

shift that you cannot ignore.

You will find the complete 2009 report here:

http://www.edelman.com/trust/2009