Loy Okezie

Today, many smart companies are moving from (high-cost) mass advertising to (low-cost) direct marketing which puts the company and their products in front of their target markets via Marketing 2.0.

Marketing 2.0 is based on building conversations and interactions with customers via the Internet with a view to generating sales leads. This means that customer relationships or service (whatever you call it) should not only be driven by telephone contact centres or face-to-face contact, but also via corporate blogs, online communities as well as email and instant messenger (IM) platforms.

In addition to traditional marketing channels, companies need to adopt social media marketing tools (a.k.a Marketing 2.0 Tools) such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, etc in order to engage with their customers and build their brands both locally and globally.

Since customers are seen as the most important stakeholders in a business’s success, engaging with them via these Marketing 2.0 tools is the best way companies can show they are customer-focused and customer-driven.

Launch. Social. Network?

Companies that claim to be customer-driven should at least have an online community that fosters interaction and participation with customers. It won’t hurt, really. For example, you can setup a mini-social network for your company, and let your customers become the primary focus of your business. Their participation in the community is somewhat similar to being part of other social networks they naturally use such as Facebook, Myspace, Perfspot, Hi5, Orkut and Ning.

An example of a customer-centric approach and strategy is Zain Nigeria’s central station (http://www.centralstationng.com) which is an online community of Zain mobile subscribers in Nigeria that allows users to connect with other people, share information and participate in competitions. This ever-growing community has attracted a lot of youths, other users and fans of the Zain mobile network.

Thus, if your company has a large customer-base or is looking for new ways to increase their customer-base, an online collaboration using the company’s social network would provide the opportunity for finding high-value and meaningful contributions that could provide key information critical to resolving customer-related issues.

What. Customers. Want?

More than ever before, customers value a community where their views and opinions can be heard by the company and they are most likely to stay on your website and support your product brands when their opinions are appreciated by the company. Their opinions, either negative or positive, tend to add value to the company’s business as well as its products and services.

Customers also like to participate in a community that allows them to interact easily with other potential customers. That’s exactly what some of the social media tools provide – an excellent way of using and sharing information via blogs, discussion forums, RSS feeds, bookmarking, etc.

How. Companies. React?

Companies can join in the discussion and get right into the heart of the conversations in a way to connect with their customers. By providing tips and advice on how customers can use their products and allowing for instant feedback from them through the company blog or Instant Messaging (IM) platforms integrated to their websites, they can respond to quick questions from customers about their products or services.

I’ll be discussing how building a corporate blog can help companies to build their company brand in a future article.

Image via Flickr by Fred Cavazza

Tags: corporate blogging, facebook, flickr, hi5, myspace, ning, orkut, perfspot, social network, Twitter, youtube, zain nigeria