Category: Voice of the Customer

Categories: Social Media, Voice of the Customer, Web Marketing, Word of Mouth Posted on

Findings: Why Companies Should Talk to Customers

ExpoTV recently ran a research study to determine how do consumers relate to each other. While this isn’t Forrester Research, so I will not defend, nor explain their methodology. It’s rare that analysts point to research other than their own, if I put your interests first, you’ll continue to come back to me. Blog ExpoTV found that: 55% of customers in their survey want to have an ongoing discussion brands Respondents were most anxious to talk to the product design (49%) department, followed by customer support (14%), marketing (14%) and pricing (13%) 89% said they felt more loyal if they knew the brand was listening through a feedback group (attention insight community vendors) WOM: Sixty-one percent of survey respondents said … Continue readingFindings: Why Companies Should Talk to Customers

Categories: Challenges, Groundswell, Social Media, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Troubled, Some Pharmaceuticals Turn a Blind Eye to the Blogosphere

A rather sad paradox, where fear has overtaken an opportunity to improve relationships with patients and clients. While this may not hold true for every pharmaceutical company, I recently met one who had banned it’s employees from monitoring blogs, social media and the online conversation. [Why did this pharma company ban their employees to monitor blogs? If a patient complained about a treatment or medicine having ill-effects, then the pharma would would be liable to take action] Responding to every customer can be very, very costly, considering how many people may be talking about medicines, often anonymously in online forums. We saw similar fear a few years ago as Finance and Insurance companies were afraid to toe-dip into the conversation … Continue readingTroubled, Some Pharmaceuticals Turn a Blind Eye to the Blogosphere

Categories: Interview, Social Media, Video, Voice of the Customer Posted on

2 Minute Video Interview: Aaron of Shared Insights

Click To Play I did a quick video interview (hear what he says about Facebook) with Aaron at the plush St Regis hotel at Office 2.0, if you can’t see the video (feedreader or email) go directly to this post. Aaron Strout, Citizen Marketer, is doing some interesting stuff, he handed me a copy of his book “We are smarter than me” which was written by the community using social computing tools. He had me on his audio podcast, so if you want to hear us, access the 10 minute interview. If you haven’t noticed, I’m doing these short 2 minute interviews with interesting folks I run into. I keep the format fast and try to respect your time. I … Continue reading2 Minute Video Interview: Aaron of Shared Insights

Categories: Social Media, User Experience, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Use Delicious to uncover your brand (and improve your SEO)

Delicious is a social bookmarking tool. It empowers anyone the ability to tag, label, and share with others web pages. For the Web Strategist, it’s a great tool to understand how people think (or don’t think) of your brand. Those who tag your website are more engaged than passive readers, and are sharing your content with others, so pay attention. How to use? How do you use it? Go to Delicious, in the search bar, type in the name of your brand, website, or name, and review results. You’ll see some pink highlighed words “Saved by X People”, click on that, and it’ll take you to that page where you can see details of comments, a sorted tag listing, and … Continue readingUse Delicious to uncover your brand (and improve your SEO)

Categories: Search Strategy, User Experience, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Using “Local” website search to understand user needs

Ian from Conversation Marketing has a great video and “how to” on understanding what users want on your website. What could you do with this data? Find out what users content they want, how they phrase their terms, what content is missing. Also analyze from where and when they used the search bar, it could provide some clues on what they’re looking for. [Analyzing search logs right on one’s site is a an easy way to understand what users are looking for] Yes another way to evaluate the user experience. Louis Rosenfeld has a speech, research, and a book on the same topic.

Categories: Feedback, Voice of the Customer, Web Tools Posted on

How do you describe Techmeme?

I often ask my audience at my presentations if they’re familiar with Techmeme. I always bring this tool up when the conversation shifts to “us vs them” regarding mainstream media and bloggers. The tech industry is one of the first for bloggers and mainstream to get along and merge into something new. (In fact you should be checking out Techcrunch’s business model, they’re making 200k in advertising every month) Techmeme is great, it’s a tab that I have open all the time (since late 2005) to gauge what’s happening in the technology industry. It’s a combination of mainstream articles and bloggers that comment and feed off each other. I know mainstream journalists watch it to see what the buzz is, … Continue readingHow do you describe Techmeme?

Categories: Community Marketing, Video, Voice of the Customer, Web Industry Posted on

Industry News: LinkedIn gets a Community Evangelist

(Left: Mario Sundar and Jeremiah Owyang) LinkedIn, a social networking contact website is demonstrating how important customers are to them, as they’ve recently hired a Customer Evangelist. This role is appearing in many companies, I had such a role at Hitachi. Mario Sundar, a well-known Marketing blogger and thought leader has accepted the role. What’s his mission? watch his video I informally interviewed Mario on video, you can watch as he explains his purpose as a Customer Evangelist, Congrats Mario and congratulations LinkedIn, you’ll now have a better connection with customers, communicate more effectively and continue to put a human face on your company, you couldn’t have picked anyone more friendly and genuine than Mario.

Categories: Community Marketing, Feedback, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Dell to fulfill IdeaStorm promise and offer Linux flavors using Survey

I met with Lionel of Dell yesterday at SXSW (I even had the opportunity to interview him for my video show “Web Strategy, which will be published soon). He told me that Dell is getting around to actually listen to the large request for Linux from the IdeaStorm community, and has launched a survey. I’ve updated the the Social Media Saga continues as Dell Corporation yearns for “Dell Swell” post, check it out if you want the whole story.

Categories: Community Marketing, Feedback, Social Media, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Responding to Bad Press using Video, and Video Brand Hijacking

Social Media isn’t always pretty. Sometimes things happen in the news, that hit social networks and spread at rapid pace. So fast that it forces corporations to wake up and pay attention to how the internet is connecting people at a rapid pace. I’ve noticed a pattern today in my feedreading, and although I don’t have a lot of time, I wanted to highlight what I’m seeing as a Web Strategist. This week, KFC is is the news as this bad press hits YouTube. The president promptly responded, and even did an online video, good job Gregg and KFC. View video remarks from KFC President Gregg Dedrick (although they need a direct link to the video, I had to splice … Continue readingResponding to Bad Press using Video, and Video Brand Hijacking

Categories: Community Marketing, Feedback, Media 2.0, Social Media, Voice of the Customer Posted on

Social Media Saga continues as Dell Corporation yearns for “Dell Swell”

Chronicling the Dell Social Media Saga I’ve been watching this Dell story for quite a while, even been on a panel with blog expert Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations discussing it. [Dell has come so far, they’ve learned to listen, converse, and lower the corporate walls. While this saga is not over, this is becoming a classic case study of a corporation making a 180 degree turn using Web Tools] Gone to Hell, Cursed, and Exploded Dell’s taken a freaking beating in the past years due to social media bloggers. you can do a search on Dell Hell, and at one time, if you did a Google Search on the term “Dell Support” bloggers not happy with their support … Continue readingSocial Media Saga continues as Dell Corporation yearns for “Dell Swell”