The Future of Loyalty | Alex Hunter, Brand Consultant | iStrategy Singapore 2010

The future ofBRANDING.

The future of LOYALTY.

Alex Hunter (@cubedweller)

HI.

I want to explore a few questions...

How do we create enduring loyalty in a connected world?

How is the web changing the face of loyalty?

How do we extend our brands onto the social web without being a dick?

...and fundamentally...

Why should I love you?

Let’s define this right off the bat.

This is NOT a revolution.

(despite what the collective social media douche-baggery might have told you.)

*GASP*

I know, right?

It’s about augmenting, complementing, extending.

It’s about loyalty.

It’s about engagement.

And we’re going to look at this...

From both sides of the fence...

http://flickr.com/photos/thoughtsupplies/3046100423/sizes/o/



But also...

But also...

Business to Business...

Local Relevance...

But I was thinking...

But they’re the exception to the rule.

That’s artificial loyalty.

I want to talk about pure loyalty.

A practical example.

Who do you love?

How are you going to get US to love YOU?

You’re going to have to work your ass off.

We, the users, have a really loud voice.

Because the conversation has changed.

In the 1950s...

Brand

Us

...we just took it as gospel.

We’ve all been fitted with BS detectors.

believe what they read in ads. 18%

Text* SOURCE: ADWeek December, 2009

Text

Copyright © 2004 Pilot Boy Productions, Inc

YOUBrand

Us

But before we get too into this...

...let’s clear up a misconception.

Social networking isn’t about connecting with brands.

It’s about people connecting with people.

Speaking of the Colonel...

Isn’t it amazing...

Are we going to see...

Anyway...

Why?

Because they CARE.

They care enough to risk their personal reputation.

Are you willing to risk your reputation on the quality of product?

You have to believe you’re creating the best product, the best business, the best experience in the history of our industry.

Nothing Less.

?Your Brand

But this isn’t just about founders and CEOs

This is about EVERYONE.

A janitor meets a President.

He BELIEVED he was putting a man on the moon.

You

Them

x

Have the guts to do this.

Don’t be scared of “consistency.”

Consistency is not Dogma.

Consistency is state of mind....like winning.

Brands are extending their reach with content and engagement.

Building up a voice and personality.

If you do this, for God’s sake, KEEP IT REAL.

Diggnation takes this idea even further.

http://flickr.com/photos/theboybg/2929589405/

Diggnation carries the message even further.

But you don’t have to be as big(g) as Digg to create loyalty.

Users have told you where they are. And if they haven’t, you can figure it out. (geolocation)

So... Identify clusters of users, then....

image: National Geographic

Bridge the gap between online and offline. This breeds incredible loyalty.

Host or sponsor real-world events, meet ups, user gatherings, where the user clusters are.

BONUS: Revenue sharing opportunities with the venues and co-sponsors.

Qype, Digg and Yelp are just a few examples of how successful this strategy can be.

Yelp

Digg

Qype

It’s happening here in Singapore, too.

It’s scalable, so do it.

Think of the communities that exist

(or COULD exist) around your brand.

Engage them.

Expand your audience.

(Make them do the work.)

Don’t be precious.

Extending into existing communities won’t kill you.

In fact, it will save your butt.

By embedding tools that allow users to quickly broadcast right from your site, you expose yourself to an almost infinite number of potential new users.

The tools exist, we all use them every day.

And since they’re going into existing social graphs, they’re RELEVANT, too.

Word of Mouth has changed.

Who do you trust more?

Or your friends?

WTF

You

US

x

THEM∞

“Us” and “Them” are VERY powerful now.

Back to the 1950s...

In the 1950s...

With a few clicks, a million people can hear my opinion, find out about the song I just listened to, or discover what I had for breakfast (and what I thought of the restaurant.)

Enable that.

Some interesting stats came out recently.

More and more people are becoming part of the conversation via social sites and social tools.

Growth is about 30% per year...

342 426 588

2007 2008 2009

Yearly growth of engagement (in millions), i.e. the number of new people “joining the conversation” each year. ** SOURCE: Post Rank and Ethan Bloch http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-social-engagement-is-changing?display=wide

http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-social-engagement-is-changing?display=wide


There’s been a fundamental shift in how engagement works.

of the social community’s engagement with content now happens somewhere other than the site on which the content originated.*80%

* SOURCE: Postrank and Ethan Bloch http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-social-engagement-is-changing?display=wide




82%

18%

65%

35%

20%

80%

Offsite Onsite

2007 2008 2009



What’s going on?

There’s been a shift from CREATING to CHATTING.

2007

2008

2009

0.03

3.2

29

19.1

12.9

3.1

Percentage of users engaging in: ChattingCreating




The old conversation was happening on blogs, email, social bookmarking sites, message boards, etc.

Now it’s happening on social sites.

Yahoo

Facebook MySpace

Twitter




5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each week. *

* SOURCE: Facebook and TechCrunch

BILLION* SOURCE: Facebook and TechCrunch


45,000+tweetsper minute


200wordpresscommentsper minute


80redditcommentsper minute

Ok so who is actually doing this? Who is a “future brand”?

Everyone wants to be “fun” and “ethical” and “challenging”.

But what does that actually mean?

But what does that actually mean?

FUN.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodbymark/



















ETHICAL.

Ethical is giving artists and users what they deserve.

CHALLENGING.

Rejecting the status quo.

Wait, wait, wait...

We’ve talked about what TO do...

Let’s talk about what NOT to do.

Doing any of these will result in large amounts of....

DON’T monopolise the conversation.

Money.If you're showing things your audience

cares about, they're going to listen and

respond.

But on the flip side...

Money.

If the conversation becomes one-sided

and you only focus on the things that

your organisation cares about, the

audience is going to disengage.

DON’T try to be everywhere.

But remember, creating a branded social media presence is easy. You’re ultimately in control.

But remember, creating a branded social media presence is easy. You’re ultimately in control.

Getting involved in conversations on sites you don’t control, now that’s powerful.

Responding to comments on blogs, review sites, etc is a strong statement of commitment. Do it.

Money.

Do your research.

Find out where your customers are and engage with them on the platforms where they’re already talking.

DON’T go in blind.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/286709039/sizes/o/



In other words...

MEASURE. EVERYTHING.

You can’t manage something that you

can’t measure. So put the tools in place

to measure.

Set goals and then monitor & adjust.

Define what conversion means to you.

DON’T focus on return traffic.

This is fundamentally a brand-building exercise.

A very small percentage of users are ready to make a purchase while they’re browsing Facebook.

Instead, you’re reaching your target market throughout the entire marketing cycle, ensuring you’re front of mind when they’re ready to buy.

i.e. Relationship Marketing

If you bear all of this in mind....

...and you keep it real with your users...

I promise that you’ll change the world.

Thank You, you guys are awesome.

Alex Hunteralexhunter.orgtwitter.com/cubedweller (hit me up!)