More immediate and direct market intelligence. At this very moment, our customers are discussing their experiences buying and using our products and services, assessing the quality and responsiveness of our support and why they chose – or didn’t choose – to buy from us in the first place. They are talking about their specific business needs, product feature “wish-lists” and more general market issues that could be useful to us in determining which products or features have the greatest chance of near-term success. They are also talking about our competitors. These conversations are happening in real time all over the social Web and provide meaningful, actionable market intelligence — market intelligence that we should be actively tapping into on a regular basis. At a minimum, our employees should know where to go to listen to these conversations. But ideally, they should also be trained and empowered to take part in them in ways that will benefit us.

A “force multiplier” for customer engagement. It’s no secret that prospective customers are more likely to buy from vendors that they think are more accessible and responsive and with whom they can build a “personal” relationship. But traditional sales and support operations provide only limited opportunities to establish those kinds of relationships with a customer. Social media makes it possible for every one of our employees (or as many as we allow) to become a touch point for direct customer engagement. By providing our people with training and insight into the uses of social media, they can contribute positively to the online conversations that are already happening about our company, our products and our market.

Increased influence on buying decisions: Make no mistake about it, people aren’t just using social media to discuss their experiences with companies and products, they are increasingly relying on the information they get from social networks to inform their buying decisions. An abundance of research indicates that the real world experiences and opinions of peers are considered more authentic, informative and increasingly have more influence on buying decisions than traditional marketing outreach or advertising. For example, a recent survey by ITtoolbox shows how social media is becoming a factor in the decision making process for IT purchasers. We need to understand what our customers are saying about us in the forums and across the groups where they “live” online. And by actively participating in a real and authentic way, we’ll be able to help shape the conversations that drive purchase decisions.

New opportunities to find and leverage evangelists. The social web is populated by individuals who are internally motivated to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences. That is a powerful force. A customer who loves what we do and is compelled to talk about it can be a huge marketing asset for us. By identifying and understanding what drives our most enthusiastic evangelists, we can engage them to help turn prospects into customers and passive customers into evangelists.

Our competitors are doing it. Look around. Our competitors are reaping the benefits of customer engagement through social media. They are building better, stronger relationships and gaining insights that enable them to respond more quickly and deftly to market demands. We should be doing this regardless of what others are doing. But the fact that our competitors ARE doing it already means we are operating at a disadvantage. Moreover, this sort of engagement is what our customers will come to expect of us sooner rather than later. We must be ready to meet the challenge with properly trained people.

Image credit: Luc Legay