Socialnomics Revolution 3

Erik Qualman yesterday updated the Social Media Revolution YouTube video which, once again, reiterates the growth of social media in the world.

What does this mean for Loyalty Programmes? It means serious adaptation is required to ensure the customer remains engaged.

The Ford Explorer Facebook launch, which generated more traffic than a Super Bowl advert, reiterates the opportunity for engaging with customers utilising alternative media channels. This combined with the 80 million Farmville Farmers across the world, reiterates the untapped Gamification opportunity.

What Gamification shows us, is not just a new way to encourage consumers to shop with you, but the importance of how those consumers engage with you outside the bricks and mortar. With 90% of consumers trusting peer recommendations versus 14% trusting advertising, marketing investment needs to be focused on encouraging consumers to share their positive experiences and to reward them for doing so. Because your customers are talking about you, whether or not you have a dedicated Facebook page, Twitter or YouTube account. So you can either leave it to chance, or, like Starbucks with their MyStarbucksIdea.com, you can get involved with your consumers to help grow your business

"Prehaps sizes could be in, you know, English?"

Bob Pearson, Dell's VP of Communities and Conversations says it all - "Is it better to listen to tens of thousands of customers’ vote on ideas, discuss them and participate with them over a period of a couple of months, or get 10 customers in a room, feed them sandwiches and listen to them behind smoked glass?"