I recently ran into a reader of Western Grocer on a business trip to Toronto.   During the 5 hour flight, we discussed about social media, how it works  and how it has changed the landscape of marketing.  The conversation was quite insightful but one question came up that cause me to pause in thought… Does “every” business really need social media?

Social Graph – Mapping Out the Relationships

The term “social graph” is coined by scientists working in the social areas of graph theory. It has been described as “the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related” .  This term was first used in 2007 by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, specifically to describe the Facebook platform. Your social graph is a digital map of your personal identity, your primary Facebook friends and everything you share with them. That definition has since been expanded to include other platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and even Google.  So, to be clear, you have many overlapping social graphs. This social data is of great interest to businesses that are trying to connect with you, and should be of equal interest to you for reaching your future customers.

The Facebook “Like” and “Share” Button

We’ve all seen this tiny “Like” or “Share” button on Facebook or websites and without a second thought, we click on it… just because… uh…. we like it or wish to share it with our friends.  Have you ever wondered what happens afterwards?  To explain a bit – sometime in the Spring of 2010, Facebook launched some drastic changes to its platform with the objective of integrating all of your social graphs—on Facebook, of course. On the techy side, this is achieved through the Facebook API , which is “a digital handshake that connects your Facebook identity, connections and content with Facebook pages and outside websites and blogs.”   When you click the “Like” or “Share” button, you’re instantly connected with everyone else who has “Liked” that site or “shared” that site with their friends. You have effectively joined a new community, and now you have the benefit of many new associations.

Imagine what would happen if your business were to incorporate that “Like” button in your online presence? The potential connections and association to your business would be unleashed!

To Tweet or Not To Tweet?

OK – so now our business or brand can get its ego fix from the Facebook “Like” button.  Where does Twitter fit into this?  The basic structure of Twitter consists of gaining followers and following those who interests you.  You tweet.  They tweet.  Big deal…so what?

The foundation of Twitter is based on real-time interaction.  If you are a business or brand with a twitter account, then you would, without a doubt, have had from time-to-time answer a question or address (god forbid) a complaint.  Therefore, besides using twitter to promote your business, it is also an extension of your customer service.

Customer service = twitter?  A recent survey published by InboxQ (and summarized in one of those cool infographics) supports this fact.   It reveals that besides catching up on the latest news, sharing links and photos, connecting with friends, people are asking questions to their followers.

What questions are being asked on twitter? The top 3 are 13% Product Recommendations & Advice; 12% Tech Support; 11% local suggestions.  Amongst the rest include 6% health; 4% food & Recipes; 2% Lifestyle Advice.

So who is asking these questions? The survey found that people with more followers are more likely to ask more questions. This would make sense as the more followers you have normally means the more engaged you are with your followers. In fact, 67% of the questions came from people with greater than 100 followers.  The survey also reveals that people with 100+ followers receive a greater percentage of getting their questions answered.

Interestingly as well, it has found that people with more followers are more likely to have their questions answered by a non-follower. Of all the questions tweeted, approximately 66% have some commercial intent.  So sometimes, non-followers who answer these questions are actually businesses.  41% of the questions are being answered by businesses and 59% of the people are open to receiving answers directly from a business.  80% of the respondents expressed that they would trust the answers from a business as much or more as an answer from their followers.

What does this translate to?  The survey found that nearly 60 percent of Twitter users said they would be more likely to follow a brand that answered them, and 64 percent said they would be more likely to make a purchase from that brand.

Can Social Media hurt my business or brand?

Successful deployment of social media marketing strategy is not only about having an online presence on Facebook or twitter; it is about engagement and reaction in a timely manner.  To ignore this could be detrimental to your business.  While people and fans express their support of your business and brand online in real-time, the real question is are you able to reciprocate as well? Management of your social media profiles should be integrated into each businesses and/or brand’s customer service department.  Take care not to stretch the resources of existing customer relations staff, but rather provide the tools, time and staff to manage your social media marketing.  Thoughtful and strategic integration into your customer service processes will ensure high customer satisfaction while engaging your fans of your business and brand efficiently and with immediacy.

Who should be on social media?

Back to the original question – does every business really need social media? While it makes sense for brands to be on social media.  Should it also make sense for businesses as well? Maybe some?  A social media presence makes sense for a chain or banner, which deals with consumers directly.  However, for a B2B business, such as a logistics provider, co-packer or distributor, having a social media presence could be more of a distraction and drain on its business resources instead.  But then, does the absence of a social media presence for these B2B businesses mean they don’t care about customer service?

Social Media Marketing is evolving and integrating into our businesses in ways yet to be realized.  Consumers are driving the demand for creation of tools to manage this form of marketing. The growth of social media users continues to expand exponentially.  So my questions for you to consider are: Do you know how many people “Like” your business or brand?  Are you answering those online questions about your business or brand?  Do you have the time and resources to manage your social media presence?

READ MORE »

By Ken Kwong, National Importers

How connected are we to the internet today?
The internet was once confined to desktop computers and only accessed from home (or from work for the few lucky ones). Now, it is readily accessible via mobile computing devices such as smartphones, tablet or netbook computers.  In the past, where we were all once tethered to the internet  by a jumble of wires, has now changes to allowing us access via WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) thus increasing mobility.  To further increase our access to the internet, when away from WiFi, we bring in 3G (which for the purpose of this article) allows internet access via cellular signals.  We, now, have virtual seamless access to the internet, anywhere, anytime

What does this mean to business?  Opportunities!  Let me explain…
Mobile computing devices (specifically smartphones – including iPhone, Blackberry, HTC, etc…) are giving consumers 24/7 mobile access to the internet.  This means that the process of research, selection and purchase of goods is no longer confined to sitting in front of our desks.  Information and data is literally at our fingertips, anytime, anywhere.   According to The Nielsen Company, “with the continued expansion of smartphone ownership in North America and the availability of more affordable devices, the market is opening up to a wider range of consumers. Smartphone usage is shifting from purely business use to both personal and business use.” This trend is rapidly increasing as social media applications are going mobile, thus allowing the owners of smart phones to continue to use their devices not only for business, but throughout the day as part of maintaining their social network. “ Smartphone owners continue to be predominantly male, are 65% more likely than the average mobile subscriber to be between the ages of 25 and 34, and nearly two times as likely to make more than $100,000 a year.”

What exactly is Social Media?
According to Wikipedia, “People gain information, education, news, etc., by electronic media and print media. Social media are distinct from industrial or traditional media, such as newspapers, television, and film. They are relatively inexpensive and accessible to enable anyone (even private individuals) to publish or access information, compared to industrial media, which generally require significant resources to publish information. One characteristic shared by both social media and industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or a television show may reach zero people or millions of people. The properties that help describe the differences between social media and industrial media depend on the properties of: Reach, Accessibility, Usability, Recency and Permanence.”

Social media is available in many forms which include Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. According to Kaplan and Haenlein, authors of “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”. (Business Horizons),  there are six different types of social media: Collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual communities. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be discussing Social Networking and Mircoblogs.

Social Networking and Microblogs – say what?
Within the arena of Social Networking and Microblogging, there are many applications available.  The ones we hear most about include Facebook (500 million users), LinkedIn (75 million users), MySpace (110 million users), Twitter (195 million users) and Foursquare (5 million users).  All of these are growing at astronomical rates with statistics as high as 2,565 percent growth (twitter).  Across these applications, there have been reports of over 100 million companies with some form of presence, whether as a passive profile or active public relations type account.

The Social Media Reality
Take the number of users in Social Media arena, give then 24/7 access to the internet via smartphones, then set them loose in the real world.  Scary thought!  But it doesn’t have to be.   Whether we allow consumers to discuss about our brands, pull our information from the internet or if we choose to push it out to them – management of our brand identities in the online world must be a part of our business strategies.   Again, the key word is “Brand Identity Management”.  Much like how one would manage their own public profile on Facebook or LinkedIn, your corporate brand /products each should have its own personality and perceived public image.  Treat them as such and you will be on your way to managing the potential of your brand in the virtual world.

Parting questions to ask yourselves: What is being said about my brand/business in the social media world? Does my company have a social media policy? Do we have a social media strategy? How do we use Social media to engage the consumer? How much time and resources should I realistically be spending on Social Media and Networking? How important is social media to our business?

3 Social media trends to watch out for in 2011
Near the end of 2010, amidst the numerous holiday social gatherings and amongst the topics of conversations, social media would almost always come up for discussion in some form or fashion.  What amazed me was the amount of information that was exchanged at these gatherings.  People would talk about their social experience in the online world – as if it was part of their offline life. Facebook updates on the latest news about their friends and family.  Tweets about what interests them.  Group buys on the latest deals. Foursquare checkins at the latest hot spots.  And the list goes on…  Social media has been integrated into our lives.

In a room full of people, you can almost spot those who are “plugged-in” to the social media world. With smartphones in hand and a drink in the other – these people are driving the economy in ways we never imagined. They are sharing, discussing and comparing their experience in real time.  For those who are unfamiliar with how these folks are “plugged-in”, it is simply via apps.  Apps for all platforms are being developed at a mind numbing pace; as of Oct 2010, iphone offers over 300,000 apps at 7 billion downloads to date.  Other notable platforms include Blackberry with 10,000 apps  and  Android with 120,000 apps (by end of 2010).  In reference to my last column, smart phones have put the power of research, selection and purchase, literally, into the hands of the consumer.  And on top of this, it has also allowed them to instantaneously share their experiences with their social circle, whether positive or negative. And according to Nielsen, by the end of 2011, over 51% of North Americans will own a smartphone.

So how is a business to determine what to do to get involved in this social media arena?  I’ll leave that up to your marketing department.  However, what I’d like to share is my outlook on the social media trends to watch out for in 2011 and identify a couple apps that are facilitating consumers to interact and how it can be of value to our brands and businesses.

QR Codes
Quick Response Codes are a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.  Originally developed by Toyota to track their manufactured goods, this licence free coding system is rapidly being adopted across many industries.  In the grocery industry, an example of a manufacturer using QR Codes would be Ethical Bean Coffee company, who has created an app for the iphone, which allows the consumer to scan a package of their coffee to retrieve information about their product (ie: the source, level of roast and expiry date to name a few).  An example of QR Code use at the retail level would be London Drugs, who recently launched the test of these QR codes in a flyer.  Scanning one of the codes in their Vitamin and Supplement section would give the consumer information about the product, recommended use and other relevant information on the bottle.  Two other recent examples of application of the QR Code include automatic contest entry by scanning a code on the Evening News and automatic payment of my dining bill by scanning my receipt.  Check out Scanlife, MobileTag or Mobio; scan the code and let me know what you see.

Location Based Rewards
With the increasing popularity of Foursquare and Gowalla, these location based services (LBS) allow consumers to share the location of where they are and what they are doing to their social network.  What has been missing has been a way to reward the user for “checking-in” and more importantly, rewarding them for loyalty. I anticipate that in 2011, accuracy in LBS will be increased by cross-referencing an offline transaction with an online reward. One possible scenario could be printing a QR Code on the customer’s receipt.  This would allow the customer to scan the code, thus authenticating the “check-in” and recording his transaction.  (I can see this replacing the “coffee-card” stamp eh?).  Another possible method of authentication could be posting a QR Code at the cashier counter.  The code can be scanned while paying for your groceries.  Note that both of these possible scenarios are driving the consumer to “transact” with your business and the QR Code would be their “access” to possible rewards.  How you reward them is up to you.

Social Commerce
Also known as social buying, this trend has rapidly been gaining popularity. Imagine being able to leverage your customer’s social network and offer monetary rewards in the form of coupons and volume discounts.  Understanding that consumers have an instinctive nature to bargain hunt, offering discounts on volume buys make sense.  Marketing to their social circle means your customers are doing all the marketing for you in the form of “word of mouth”.   And to corral this buying power, a few notable services have developed including Groupon, Living Social, Cudo and Facebook Commerce.  An example of what is possible would be the recent offer on Groupon in the summer of 2010.  Gap (Clothing Company) issued a national offer of “$25 for $50 worth of merchandise” buy-in on the Groupon site.  Overwhelmed by response, the Groupon servers were overloaded to the tune of 441,000 deals sold in 12 hours (at a rate of 10 per second) with gross revenue of over $11 million on this one offer.  Wondering where these 441,000 customers came from?  Groupon links its offers through Twitter and Facebook.

There are many other social media trends that I would like to share and discuss with you but those above are my top 3 for 2011. They are strictly my opinion and I welcome you to share your thoughts.  Where do you see social media in 2011?  How would you integrate social media into your marketing strategy?  Is your business/brand ready for social media marketing?  You can reach me by scanning the code

Originally Published in Western Grocer