FreshNetworks Blog

Reflections in the City (Photo credit: masochismtango)

This comes as no surprise – levels of social media adoption inside brands can be much lower than among their consumers, or indeed among their newer employees. But when you do engage a senior team with the opportunities that can come from social you tend to find that they become some of the most vociferous enthusiasts.A recent study by IBM found that only 16% of global CEOs are taking part in social media, and only 1 of the more than 1,700 CEOs interviewed had their own blog. They recognise the potential power of engaging in social (with 57% expecting to be engaging within 3-5 years); but the levels of participation are currently low.

Richard Branson wrote about this survey to say he was surprised by the low levels of social media use and to encourage other CEOs to take part:

…like all other areas of business, CEOs have the opportunity to set the bar. By ignoring social networks, they are potentially missing a trick.

There are many reasons why CEOs and the senior team should be engaging with social media and not just because it sets the bar for how the rest of the organisation behaves. The people buying your products and the newer recruits into the organisation are all using social media, and its importance will continue to increase. To make sensible business decisions in this climate CEOs really need to understand what social media is, and what it isn’t.

This does not mean that all CEOs should be actively using Twitter to engage with customers – we’ve written before about the confusing way the @StarbucksUKMD account has been used. But it does mean experimenting and trying things out – maybe joining a running forum to discuss their training with other athletes, or setting up a Pinterest account to bring together items they are considering for their new home.

It is the act of experimenting with and learning from social that is important for C-level; understanding the tools their consumers and employees have and the different ways they are engaging with others. Only by experimenting and using the tools themselves will they be able to really understand how their business could benefit from social. And by encouraging a process of experimenting with new tools and services from the most senior levels, a culture of innovation can grow more successfully through an organisation.

For any brand exploring the transformative impact of social, C-level buy-in is critical. And to get this you need a clear process of education as well as to encourage these executives to experiment with social in their personal and professional lives.

Your devoted customers are your most active advocates. Positive experiences in the past have taught them to have high expectations of you – they expect a great experience and they’re devoted to you because they get what they expect. But just as these customers are you most active advocates, they can also be the easiest to disappoint and can quickly turn into detractors.

I like the chart that Andy Hanselman uses to describe this scenario as I think it quite simply helps you to categorise your customers.

Your devoted customers have high expectations and could need just a single poor experience to turn them from ‘devoted’ to ‘disappointed’. I had a similar experience last night. I’ve written before that for air travel I’m a fan of Virgin Atlantic (see post here). I’ve enjoyed their service a number of times and would have always had good experiences. My expectations are high. I’m a devoted customer. And this is true – I genuinely would choose them above other carriers on the same route and always recommend them to others.

Sadly last night I had a poor experience. Nothing too major just a collection of things (my inflight entertainment didn’t work and none of the cabin crew helping to fix it, poor food and not the drinks service I was hoping for…). None of these things in and of themselves is significant. But together they made my experience poor. And as I sat on the plane last night, I felt disappointed. My expectations were high but my experience poor.

So what can companies like Virgin Atlantic do when their devoted customers are disappointed? Well the key is to listen to them and show that they are listening. These customers still want to be positive advocates about the brand, but they need their confidence in the brand to return. This is where a mechanism to engage them constantly and to feedback to them becomes important (both when their experiences are good and bad). Things go wrong and people have bad experiences from time to time – but brands need to make sure they act quickly when they do.