By: Stacey Furtado
Robin Carey, CEO of Social Media Today, led an insightful panel over breakfast this morning at the IBM SocialBusiness Shake-Up. Panelists included Michael Stenberg of Siemens, Natanya Anderson of Whole Foods, Sandy Carter of IBM and Andrew Bowins of MasterCard and focused on the topics of analytics, collaboration, customer connection, innovation and security.
Other than a fancy travel mug, here are some key takeaways from the SXSW Interactive kick-off panel.
- Different [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Social] Strokes: The social relationships of each company seriously vary by industry. One of the most interesting takeaways for us was the way IBM uses social to get to know its customers — taking their last 200 tweets and rating them based on 52 different personality traits. Comparatively, MasterCard is entirely analytics-driven, while Whole Foods relies on its employees to drive its content and customer relationships.
- Content isn’t king, trust is: Target’s security breach over the holiday shopping season is still leaving its dark mark on the social world. With customers nervous about what personal information is being shared, large data houses like IBM and MasterCard are focusing on gaining customer trust instead of just building content. Customers aren’t interested in what brands think of themselves, they want to know that the brands they invest in understand their needs.
- Listening leads to influence: Allowing influential members of a brand community — whether it be employees or customer — to shape the conversation is the best way to build trust and get a full return on social. In order to understand its community, a brand must invest in conversations and people, not just analytics.
Our take? Your customers are your brand. Treat them that way.
Check out the #socibizshakeup hashthag to read through more snippets from this morning’s informative panel.
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