Last night, there was a very enjoyable and insightful gathering for the first London Co-Creation Hub drinks evening (see each member here: Face Group, Farm, Opticom and of course thrudigital). After several short presentations, which will be on slideshare soon, a conversation emerged between several brands and agencies.

The key points of debate were:

• Isn’t openness opposed to the commercial aims of companies?
• How does this affect a research/IP-driven company, who is by necessity private?
• Where is the line between public and private, and does it move?
• Does defining the purpose of engagement bring greater meaning to open conversation with customers?

Below the next section of rambling (please skip if time is short, but hey… its a Friday), I want to answer these questions with an easy-to-use but research-driven framework. (And for even more time-constrained people, just look at these summaries: left & right).

As a company, our general opinion is that

1. Openness wins. And companies will continue to open up. Social-media enabled co-creation is a key facilitator of this.
2. A campaign-based approach to marketing must move to an ongoing conversation-based approach, to facilitate the new expectations of consumers and capitalise on the deepness of interaction that this engenders.

Having said that, I do understand that some organisations have elements of their business that WILL NOT open up, or become subject to pubic opinion. And that is completely acceptable. As Ian Green from No. 10 Downing Street pointed out last night, he tweets and blogs all day long about the activities of the Prime Minister, but there is a clear expectation. Although he will post as the human face of No. 10, with details of Ministerial engagements and duties, he will not be broadcasting details of conversations, especially sensitive ones.

Brands are coming (by necessity) to this same realisation. Openness wins, BUT it doesn’t mean that you have to open everything to the public.

As emerged from further discussion, Apple is a great example of a company that is HIGHLY secretive about one aspect of its research and development (the hardware), yet very open about another (anyone can build an application for their hardware). So, as a brand, it is vital to identify the most suitable and effective areas for openness and social media engagement.

Neilsen’s research into social media opportunities for enterprise (2009) identified 5 areas of an organisation that will benefit most from social media-enabled implementation in 2010.  There is no ‘one fix’ for every company. No one way of engaging that works for everyone. But I have NEVER yet found a company that cannot benefit in measurable ways from a social media engagement/co-creation strategy that operates in at least one (usually at least three) of the following business areas.

The good stuff

Customer Support

Probably the most obvious win for many brands and customer support is a huge cost line for product-driven business and even the most traditional manager pricks up his ears at the cost savings and service delivery improvements that can be achieved.

Social media is now an established channel for customer support. If you aren’t responding there, you can bet your brand reputation that others are. People love the immediacy and ease of sending off a tweet, writing a query on a forum, or googling for an answer to their product issue. The beauty about customer support systems that use social media platforms is that there is a powerful opportunity for crowd-sourcing, customer service issues. Allowing fans to solve other customer’s problems, give advice, and make recommendations for best courses of action might sound scary from a brand perspective. but in addition to reducing support costs and improving customer service, it can also build a much more approachable  brand, with deeper and more meaningful customer relationships.

Insight & Research

One of the key points that I presented yesterday, was that the new media environment rewards (and perhaps will even require) companies to become more customer-centric. Understanding what your fans, general customer base, and the market as a whole want and need is vital for creating products and services that lead the market. By observing general trends beyond the specific remit of your role or position in the market, holistic and forward-looking strategies can be formed.

This goes far beyond the “focus group” approach that has been adopted in the past, although it doesn’t necessarily replace that. Distilling what the market is saying about your company and your competitors, over time, can give you superb (and statistically significant) insight into your competitive positioning and evolving brand perception.  And because what the market is saying is now trackable and public, you can be sure that even if you are not listening and gaining insight from it, your competitors are!

Product Development

At the London Co-creation Hub, one of the key uses for co-creation (doing things with people, not at people) is for product or service development. Now, since this is the area that sparked debate last night, with several brands defending a disengaged process due to security and competition concerns, let’s unpack the issues.

Yes, many elements of product research and development must be kept private, so that the company can build and maintain a competitive advantage. This is especially important in a world where unlicensed product copies can appear within days, from the very sophisticated factory operations in China and elsewhere. Firstly, no one is arguing that all R&D should be done in a goldfish-bowl with everyone looking on. However, as a point of interest, there are companies that have done this successfully, betting that the buy-in and loyalty that is built from an open product-development process will surpass the danger of other companies replicating (cue future blog post with a case study…).

Secondly, even when a brand’s core product research is private, there are always less sensitive areas that can be communicated and co-created. Perhaps the service element of the business needs work and could use customer engagement and conversation. Or incremental improvements to an existing product. Or a new approach to environmental packaging. Or new ways of using the product can be found. Et cetera.

Reputation Management

There are now an abundance of social media monitoring tools in the marketplace,  and although creating lots of data might be all the rage now, creating insight is where the real value lies. There are robust technological approaches to monitoring conversations across the web, identifying those that are most influential, classifying them according to topics, geographies and other attributes, and analysing them for insight.

Conversations are happening all around the web, with or without you. Whether viewed from a crisis-management perspective, or from a more general public relations remit, it is vital that every brand is at least listening. In fact, research by Trendmonitor shows that the mere fact of demonstrating you are listening increases brand perception considerably, even if you never do anything with that insight!

Marketing

It is often the marketing department that experiments first with social media; seeing the buzz and the potential opportunity for reach, engagement, and even (that horrifically overused word) ‘viral’ promotion. The media and advertising industries are in upheaval, with brands realising that they can now speak to customers directly, as well as through media channels and advertising campaigns. This proximity of audience means that brands can build direct and deep customer relationships, if they are willing to spend the time to engage. So let’s touch on 3 ways to approach co-created marketing.

1. Firstly, we have the opportunity for brands to engage fans in the actual creative process. What better way to ensure a message resonates with its audience, than by allowing the opinion leaders in that audience to float ideas and discuss the creative delivery? There are many brands already doing this, from crowd-sourcing ideas through virtual communities, through to actually commissioning and utilising videos produced by fans of the brand as advertisements on other channels.
2. Beyond the idea generation and creative process, there are massive opportunities for cost-effective distribution, if fans are engaged with the campaign that is being delivered. Whether described as ‘friend recommendations’, ‘word-of-mouth’, or ‘social referrals’, enabling and empowering your customers to actually deliver the brand message brings true authenticity and weight to the conversation.
3. And finally, an area which hasn’t been fully explored, but is just around the corner, is targeting and segmentation based on the customer’s social media footprint. Yes, customers can help create the campaigns, deliver the campaigns, but also decide to allow brand’s access to their profile data so that better and more relevant conversations can arise. Think it of eCRM 2.0. An easy way to start is by monitoring social media for an “intent to purchase”. Then engaging. Simples.

The obligatory call to action

If you are interested in finding out about any of the above, please do get in touch (or @andjdavies on Twitter). Between the partners of the London Co-Creation Hub. We have experience in addressing each of the above business areas.

When prospective clients ask what we can do, sometimes its difficult to explain, because “social media” brings different value to different parts of the organisation. For the PR team, it might be reducing the cost of traditional PR by engaging leading bloggers. For the customer service team it might be about finding out the problems customers are having with your products. For the product team, it might be about bringing 1000 customers together in a private community to co-create a new product design. For the executive team, it might be about delivering high-level reports giving insight on the competitive positioning of the organisation in the minds of the masses. And I could go on…

Social media is not a tool, and it is not even a new playground. Often its not “social”, and sometimes it hardly involves “media”. It is not a hat that one person in the organisation can wear, and take off when they go home. Its a term that is pathetically indefinable, and certainly overused. But as many organisations are starting to find out, this new landscape, where messages are not broadcast but conversational by default, where the market is comprised of millions of publishers not just consumers, where networks and groups are almost instantly creating, and dissolved, around topics both mainstream and niche.

What it requires from organisations is not a new campaign, but change. Every social media project we have been involved in has required a change of process, structure, or behaviour by the organisation in order to be most effective. Yes, its difficult. But companies all over the world are managing it.

Exciting times.

We have already established that a conversation is occurring, without your consent or control. Nice. But what should you do?

Relinquish control. Or realise you have already lost it.

Within your company’s processes, or your day-to-day activity, change your perspective and approach to one that expects and values brand mentions, whether positive or negative. It’s what people were saying anyway… just now you can eavesdrop. This might sound tough, but its a decision to place the customer at the centre of your business which will pay off.

Listen. Without reacting.

It’s kinda like the playground. Some people are not going to be saying nice things. Even well-meaning and supportive customers are going to present you in a bad light sometimes. Get over it. Controlling the message is not what’s important. Trendstream research shows that customers perception of brands improves even when you just show you are listening. For a disappointed customer, shouting into the interwebs might bring them some consolation. But for you it represents a valuable customer signal, which you should be listening to. Because soon enough, your competitors will be. So set up a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and use a feedback form or an open customer support service to show customers you are listening.

Participate. Yes, like write something.

Whether it is just ‘friending’ vocal customers on Twitter, commenting on blog posts, or blogging yourself, start to take part in the conversation. In February, I will be participating in the second LikeMinds conference at which the topic will be “P2P.” Social media has enabled a world where classifications like B2C and B2B are less important. The important conversation is now P2P – “Person to Person.”

Add value. Create a meaningful contribution.

Your audience already has a set of behaviours online. There is already an ongoing conversation. Your target market searches for content, plays games, chats, researches, and watches funny videos. Instead of interrupting their activity to deliver an advert, why not try and add value: something eye-catching, funny, interesting, or informative. Why not aggregate the conversation? Why not deliver quality branded content? Why not provide tools for your audience? Why not provide a forum for customer service queries? Why not build a game or quiz to engage people? Why not create something that people will be interested in, discuss, and share. By engaging with your audience, and then exposing your brand by adding value, you embed your brand within the consciousness of your target market. At the end of the day, its about being present, and vocal.
In the next post will will outline the most valuable opportunities are for your brand within social media. One clue – its not all about marketing. Many business functions can benefit. Then we will start looking at successful examples of what others are doing.

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