Creating customer value through social networks

As a continuation to my previous blog on why a company should enter the social media platforms this post will discuss some of the essentials on how a company can create value through networks. 


The purpose of a social network is quite simple, to connect humans. Though the core purpose of the networks remain there's been millions of added services to the networks in order to engage and connect the users on a deeper level, social games, photos, specific groups and pages, events that eventually has made the previous impossible things possible, or at least a lot easier.

As I already discussed in my previous post a social network requires communication, it's not a bulletin board. The mission for a certain company entering the social networks is to provide added value to their customers, something that can't be provided in the company's product or service. The customer needs to feel special and selected. The social networks is an excellent and fairly cheap place to satisfy and give their customers something more. By engaging the customers into discussions, treating each customer as a key-customer by listening and answering them makes the customer feel special and as a part of the company. This in turn will generate added value from the customer's point of view and strengthen their view on your brand. It's a social exchange really, customers get added value and the company gets a stronger brand, Win-Win!

By engaging the customer into your product-, or service development you'll get an insurance. The insurance consists of a risk reduction from a potential failed product or service, by working with the customer there'll be a risk reduction since the customer provides you with information on what he or she wants, not what you want to make for your customers (Ask not what you can do for them, ask what they can do for you) ! Not only do you get a risk reduction but also free labour to your company, instead of having a team of engineers figuring out what you actually should produce you get the customer to do the job. A concrete example for this is are the Angry Bird cakes (Count the comments and likes and you'll be amazed) that their fans have produced which in turn have opened up new market-opportunities to the brand (The official Angry Birds bakery is yet to be seen). But you get the point, by engaging your customers on the social networks a satisfied customer will become a brand-ambassador for your company.

You should really see your customer as a co-creator of value, the days when the company produced a product and threw it out on the market are over, finito, loppu-slut, sayonara. Finnish professor Christian Grönroos even went so far as to call the company something that only made value propositions for their customers, the actual value is created by the customers.

By engaging your customer in the development process and listening to their feedback the customer will feel valuable and special, or as Rovio's Mighty Eagle said, "Good things will come to good people" meaning that it pays off for the customer to provide you with feedback.


Food for thought...

Facebook as a business platform

Facebook is the place to be for everyone- or is it?


Think back a couple of years when Facebook pretty much was about sharing occasional vacation photos, sharing a cool memory, joining groups and inviting friends to your birthday-party. Those days are long gone..

Social gaming, Social Marketing, Liking, putting some of your friends to limited profile because you don't have the guts to completely erase them are some of the trends that have emerged on the book of faces. Last year the dominating social-game developers made more money than Facebook itself, so indeed the trends and our behavior on the platform have changed rapidly and radically.

I stumbled across a discussion at a group on Linkedin about smaller companies entering Facebook, I took part in the discussions and eagerly read the comments. Pretty much 90 % of the comments were encouraging small businesses to join Facebook without any kind of hesitation. Below I shall try to explain why a small business should or shouldn't enter Facebook.

Think small companies that are included in your everyday life; your local grocery store, hairdresser, the small candy store just down the street... Now Facebook them. What you might discover is that they can be found on Facebook which is good... or is it? I've seen hundreds and hundreds of small businesses, either B2C companies with direct access to their customers or the small B2B companies selling bolts and screws to the local tire-dealer. Now, what a lot of these companies has got in common is that they entered Facebook some one year ago, managed to get 20 likes or followers (mostly friends and family) and made one text entry: "We made it to Facebook!!!!!!!" or "We're finally here to assist you"... And that's it, the page is dead, passwords forgotten and the people who liked the page one year ago completely forgot that they ever liked it in the first place. Now that's social suicide. Either you're in or you stay out in the cold, or as the proverb says; Can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!

Some basic, yet quite essential guidelines before entering Facebook:

-A small business should have a clear strategy on WHY they want to be on Facebook
- Do we have a clear goal, Are we trying to track down potential customers and HOW?
-What do we intend to share?
- How can we get more likes?
- How can we engage our 'fans' to share our page?
- How can we engage the users to comment and share multimedia on our wall?
- How can we use their feedback in order to make better products and services?
- How can we use other social media platforms to make our content interesting (Youyube, Picasa, Blogs etc.)?


Now this very first blog is more of a checklist and a hand break for smaller businesses that intend to join Facebook.

This is a great example of a  Social Suicide, the company is an advertisement agency that among others specializes in social media marketing.. Quite the irony...

Happy Facebooking and good luck!