Rachel Karten, Social Media Consultant and creator of the Link in Bio Newsletter, has been in the industry for over a decade and knows quite a bit about the evolution of consumer-brand relations in the social world. She worked for brands like Bon Appétit and Plated and recently worked on the famous campaign at CAVA with Youtube star, Emma Chamberlain. 

Join us on Thursday, March 30th at 1 pm CT for a masterclass with Rachel Karten to learn how to best prepare for this next phase of social. 

You’ll leave this masterclass uncovering:

• Why your old social strategy will no longer work in the new era of social media
• How your brand can optimize social content for engagement
• 3 campaign examples from brands Rachel helped succeed and tactics you can implement now

Your Speakers:

The post Masterclass: How to Prepare Your Brand for a New Era in Social appeared first on Sprout Social.

According to The 2022 Sprout Social Index™, customer-centric brands use social data to inform their:

• Sales strategy
• Product development
• Content strategy
• Customer experience
• Competitive insight
• Market research

By tapping into the ample benefits and business insights social media offers, you can transform the way your entire company operates.

9 ways social media affects your whole business

Here are nine ways social media directly impacts businesses at every stage of the customer journey.

1. Social media transforms customer service

Customer service on social media is a non-negotiable part of an omnichannel support strategy. Consumers tag and direct message brands to resolve their issues across platforms, and hope for swift, helpful and personalized responses in return. According to Index data, more than three-quarters of consumers expect a response on social within 24 hours.

Response rates have serious impacts on customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Implementing a seamless support strategy enables you to increase the lifetime value of your existing customers and drive revenue growth. Well-orchestrated customer service efforts also deliver valuable insights about your customers’ experience that help your business evolve.

But it can be hard for a customer support team to stay on top of multiple social platforms. By using a tool like Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox, your customer-facing teams can unify social channels into a single stream to monitor incoming messages, foster conversations and respond to audiences faster.

You can also benchmark and track your support team’s performance to discover new opportunities to improve customer service. The Inbox Activity Report provides a holistic view of your team’s social care efforts, including trends in message volume and response rates.

2. How social media grows brand awareness

Index data reveals consumers prefer brand content that features products or services, or real customers demoing/reviewing products. These stats prove social media is where consumers go to discover brands, which makes it a powerful channel for growing awareness.

Brand awareness is the first step toward gaining new leads, edging out the competition and driving sales.

Social media data also serves as a barometer of your current brand awareness. For example, Sprout’s Competitive Analysis Report reveals how you stack up to your competition via metrics like share of voice, positive sentiment, total engagements and overall conversation volume. These insights are a source of truth that can influence your company-wide competitive strategy—on social and beyond.

For more tips to distinguish yourself from your competitors on social media, check out our list of 12 proven strategies to increase brand awareness.

3. Social media helps your brand stay relevant

Today’s trend cycle moves fast, and social media is where trends are born. To stay alert to emerging trends relevant to your audience, you must keep your finger on the pulse of social.

Trends aside, brands that retire or divest from their social media presence are also at risk of irrelevance and being abandoned by their communities. Social media is the key to building a long-term brand strategy that will help you stay top of mind for years (and decades) to come.

In the face of fierce competition for consumer attention and cultural relevance, it’s imperative to tune into conversations happening around your brand and industry. Social listening enables you to tap into and analyze what people are saying about your company, even if you aren’t tagged or mentioned. With Sprout, you can create a Topic that gathers data so you can observe trends, uncover patterns and gauge emotional responses to your brand, products, hashtags and industry.

4. Social media levels up your sales strategy

Social media is ever-present in the sales funnel. From generating awareness through organic campaigns to supporting transactions with social commerce, social plays a key role in acquiring and holding onto customers.

According to the Index, sales strategy is the number one use case for social data. That’s because social media helps you better understand what your buyers want and need. With their feedback on hand, you can improve and optimize every part of your sales strategy—from social selling to your website to your customer outreach.

Some metrics (like MQLs) simplify attribution and make it easy to define ROI, Others (like engagement) can correlate with revenue gains, but their direct influence is harder to prove.

A tool like Sprout Social’s Tableau BI Connector enables you to analyze data, create custom metrics and merge different data sources. This seamless and customized view gives you a consolidated source of truth for wider business insights and performance, and a clear perception of how social impacts revenue gains.

For example, Stoneacre Motor Group used Sprout to gain essential audience insights to inform their sales strategy. As a result, they delivered social leads worth £1 million in yearly sales.

5. How social media helps build a brand community

Some 41% of marketers agree brands that actively engage and respond to their communities are culturally relevant on social. A brand community is a place for people with an emotional investment in your brand to connect with each other and your company. Remember: there are many people who already love your brand. In fact, your brand community probably already exists on social media—you just need to find it.

Establishing relationships with your existing and potential customers makes them feel valued, which increases brand loyalty and evangelism. Brand communities on social media are especially powerful business tools because they allow companies to hear from and engage with their biggest advocates in real time. Within your community on social, you can easily test new product mockups, source requested features, share content and collect feedback that can improve every aspect of your business.

6. Social media empowers employees to become brand advocates

Satisfied employees want to spread the word about their company by posting on social. With social budgets tightening, your employees are your superpower for expanding your reach without straining your bandwidth or ad budget. It’s a win-win.

According to Sprout’s Employee Advocacy Report, posting company content helps employees accomplish their day-to-day tasks and long-term goals. Employees report that sharing on social can help outside audiences understand their brand’s values, provide new leads and ways to engage with them, expand their potential reach and engagement and communicate important messages internally.

The Advocacy Report also revealed 72% of engaged social media users would post about their company if content was written for them. Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform enables you to draft message ideas for your employees to share, which makes it easy for them to amplify your content and help you achieve your goals.

7. Maximize your recruitment efforts with social media

Prospective candidates rely on social media to find open positions and research companies. According to LinkedIn, 49 million people use the platform to search for jobs each week.

The staggering figure explains why building a strong employer brand with the help of social media is essential to attracting top talent. To stand out in a sea of employers, your content needs to showcase your unique culture and values, and encourage brand advocacy. For example, creating a meet the team social post series is an effective way to humanize your brand and grow your candidate base.

In addition to having your pick of the talent pool, featuring and celebrating your current employees will boost their satisfaction and reduce turnover.

8. Social media makes customer and competitor research accessible to all

For marketers, social media data is worth more than gold, as it reveals invaluable information about customers and competitors alike. According to a Q1 2023 Sprout pulse survey, 79% of marketers said their use of social data increased from 2021 to 2022, while 83% of marketers predicted their use of social data will increase in 2023.

When shared effectively, insights from social data can enrich an entire organization’s understanding of their customers and competition. For example, as the demographic information from Sprout’s Listening tool illustrates, you can use social data to determine which topics, issues and trends matter most to your target audience.

9. Refine your product development with social media insights

People are talking about your products on social media right now. They’re sharing what they love about them, and the exact ways they want you to improve them. As we mentioned in the introduction, almost half of brands use social data for product development, and for good reason.

When you can turn existing conversations about your products into meaningful insights and share them with your product and development team, you will strengthen your go-to-market strategy. For example, with the help of Sprout, Grammarly regularly shares feedback from social with their product and user experience teams to keep them up to date on trends and opportunities.

How social media impacts different business types

While social media positively impacts all business types, there are a few distinct benefits for companies of different sizes.

The effect of social media on SMBs

For small and medium businesses, social media is an affordable way to access a wide audience and should be an essential part of your marketing playbook. Even with a small social team (or maybe even a team of one), you can design, execute and manage a presence that reaches and engages your target audience.

Read more: How Orkney Library uses social media to grow a global fanbase.

The impact of social media on enterprise brands

For enterprise brands, social is business critical. Through social, you have access to valuable, global customer data that is essential to creating and maintaining a business advantage. Plus, social data makes it easier to measure and attribute the success of campaigns at scale, which can have a large impact on an organization’s big picture. In fact, 82% of enterprise marketers say their social strategy impacts their business’ bottom line, and 85% say social enables them to create new products and services.

Read more: How Vizient uses brand advocacy to triple social engagements.

How will social media impact your business this year?

The future is bright for companies that recognize the power of social insights. Make the most of the business intel gleaned from social by bringing social data to the forefront of your business conversations. Need help getting started? Deliver social listening insights organization-wide with our reporting template.

The post The impact of social media across every part of your business appeared first on Sprout Social.

We’re freshly on the heels of our second acquisition, a sentiment analysis and natural language processing company called Repustate. As we welcome the Repustate team and product under our umbrella, I’ve been reflecting on partnerships and what makes them work—and what doesn’t. When done right, partnerships make your business stronger, add value for your customers and open up a new world of opportunities.

Approach partnerships with purpose

Everyone is facing economic headwinds right now. When it comes to the tech industry, that’s compounded by the fact that the era of the single-point solution is over. As companies tighten their belts and tech stacks, their expectations for your products are rising. We all know that one company can’t provide everything for everyone, so how can you ensure your solution is business critical?

Enter partnerships. Combined efforts will always be stronger than singular approaches when your potential partners are looking to achieve the same goals you are. You can get more done when you work together, even if that means working outside of your company walls.

For smaller companies, joining forces with a larger firm can give you more resources and financial solvency. Companies can hit product roadmap milestones faster with integrations and acquisitions. Marketers looking to find new audiences in their ideal customer profile can pursue co-marketing efforts with like-minded partners to widen their funnel.

At Sprout, partnerships are just the way we do business. Whether we’re working with LinkedIn to host a webinar or launching a new network integration like TikTok, our business couldn’t thrive without our rich portfolio of partners.

Corporate compatibility tests

We’ve forged enough partnerships to be able to quickly evaluate which will work and which aren’t the right fit. There are three things we look for in a potential partner.

Customer value

If you’re a customer-centric company, you always start with how any decision will impact the customer. That couldn’t be more true with partnerships. From marketing to product, the partnership has to create additional value for the end user. Asking yourself what a potential partnership will add to your customer experience or how it will address their pain points should be the first step in evaluating any partnership.

For example, we found that most of our current (and ideal future) customers were leveraging Salesforce solutions like Service Cloud and Tableau. We partnered with Salesforce to provide greater social media control and empower our customers with a 360 view of customer interactions and data–all in the tools they know and love. In the age of the product suite, partnerships are a cheat code to level up your business value.

Complementary goals

You’re likely not going to partner with your direct competitors. But no matter what you’re selling, there’s a product or service someone else offers that’ll make yours even better. Think about your current and ideal customers. Figure out what else they need. Find the businesses that are meeting those needs and explore ways you can help each other.

Another thing to consider is complementary markets. There may be another business that solves your customers’ needs, but if they’re going after a completely different segment than you are, it won’t work out. If your business is aimed toward enterprise manufacturing companies and a potential partner is pursuing mid-sized restaurant chains, it’s not going to be a good fit—no matter how symbiotic your products seem.

Mutual benefit

It should go without saying that both partners should stand to benefit from your efforts. It’s likely that one partner may be more invested or have more to gain from your partnership, but everyone needs to get something out of the deal. An uneven partnership is destined to fail.

Doing the partnership do-si-do

So you’ve picked your partner. What comes next? Navigating partnerships can be tricky but with a solid foundation, you can set yourself up for success.

Assemble your team

Every person on your team won’t be involved in orchestrating your partnership. There is such a thing as too many cooks. But at the same time, you need to loop in the right folks from the beginning. You might have to make adjustments as your plans progress, but evaluating who needs to be involved at the start will ensure a smoother transition.

If you’re pursuing an integration or a product-based acquisition, your product team needs to be involved from day one. When we evaluated Repustate, our internal product team was invaluable in helping us determine how much upside the deal presented. They know the product inside and out. They know where you’re planning to go on your roadmap. Lean on that internal knowledge.

Get to know each other

If you’ve decided to partner with another organization, you already know their product and audience are a good fit. But what about your goals and values?

Early on in your partnership, it’s imperative to sit down and find out what you have in common. How do your cultures align? Where do your roadmaps sync? What values do you both hold? The answers to these questions will be your north star throughout the process.

Be transparent

On day one, you and your partner have to be honest with each other about what you want to gain. Maybe you’re hoping to increase your customer base. Maybe you want to offer new functionality for your customers. Maybe this project is a trial run to see if you should form a longer-term relationship down the road. Whatever the case may be, you have to lay your cards on the table at the beginning.

Having an open line of communication is key to a healthy and successful partnership. You need to be honest with each other about what’s going well and what needs improvement. You need a clear understanding of which team is responsible for what and what your expectations are on cadence and speed. Transparency is what turns good partner match-ups into great relationships.

Howdy, partner

Partnerships are one of the most effective ways to grow your business, especially in uncertain economic times. Working together increases your efficiency, provides more value to your customers and creates a more robust product. Sometimes two is better than one.

Want to see partnerships in action? Learn more about the power of social media management integrations.

The post 1+1 is more than two: How partnerships can level up your business appeared first on Sprout Social.

Yet, data breaches and opaque collection practices have also turned customer data into a minefield. To harness the full potential of the data you collect, it’s imperative to demonstrate to your customers that their personal information is in good hands.

In this article, we’re giving you the tools to master customer data management on social media, so you can open up the door to gaining actionable business insights, improving cross-collaboration and delivering more effective sales and marketing strategies.

What is customer data management?

Customer data management (CDM) is the process of lawfully (and ethically) collecting, storing, organizing and protecting customer information for the purpose of gleaning insights that improve a brand and its offerings.

Social and business intelligence data offers companies a wealth of information about their customers. By taking the raw data and distilling it into important insights, you will learn powerful ways to improve customer satisfaction across the board—from your customer care operations to product development. Bottom line: For long-term growth and success, your brand must always find new ways to improve your customers’ experience and optimize your targeting efforts. And you can’t do that without customer data.

Why customer data is one of your most valuable assets

Customer data is the root of business intelligence. The good news is your brand already has a wealth of data at your fingertips, and there’s probably more available you haven’t tapped into yet.

Collecting data and understanding your audience at every stage in the customer journey is key to nurturing relationships. It starts with having up-to-date information about your customers (like valid email addresses, their past experiences with your brand and psychographic data) and determining which channels they’re most likely to use (like social media or text). These insights empower you to create a better experience with your brand, which increases customer loyalty, retention and evangelism.

For example, when a customer contacts you on social media about an issue with their order, having their order history, shipping address and past interactions on file will save your team and the customer time, while making the customer feel like you value their business. But remember: You must use customer data effectively and securely store it for people to trust your brand.

We all have brands we’re loyal to. And when they contact us or we see their posts, we’re more likely to engage and get reeled in by their promotions. Customer data helps your brand narrow-in on your ideal target audience with your marketing and sales tactics. With customer data on-hand, you can build more impactful marketing campaigns and create ample opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

Customer data plays a pivotal role in making informed business decisions across the organization that foster continued growth for your company.

4 tips for managing and sharing customer data org wide

When it comes to data collection, there are infinite things you can learn about your customers. From basic attributes (like name, email address and demographics) to how they interact with your brand online (engagement, cost per click and conversion metrics). You can track their purchasing behavior (order history, average order value, usage) and source attitudinal data (voice of customer, sentiment and psychographics).

With so much rich customer data available, proper management is key. The data you have is only as good as your ability to use it. Here are four tips for managing and sharing customer data at your organization.

1. Gather information with customer consent

It’s non-negotiable to be transparent about your data collection process. If you don’t give your customers full visibility into the data you’re collecting and how you’re using it, you will violate their trust and could face legal consequences, including harsh fines and penalties.

Instead, aspire to be a consumer privacy advocate and make your data collection processes customer-centric. When you gather customer data via surveys, website forms, transaction history, tracking cookies and social media analytics, explicitly tell your customers and prospects what you’re using the data for. Only collect the details you absolutely need and use it for the exact purpose(s) you specified. Also be clear on how long you will keep and use the data.

2. Invest in management software

Housing your customer data in a spreadsheet is both unsafe and inefficient. Improper storage of any kind opens your company up to the risk of a breach or misuse of data. To up-level your customer data management, invest in software that solidifies your security measures and harnesses/manages your data in one place. Having a single source of truth is crucial.

For example, Salesforce CRM software offers layers of security like multi-factor authentication, regulation compliance, user activity tracking and anonymized data to protect your customers (and your business). Sprout Social’s integration with Salesforce enables users to manage all their social customer care requests directly from Service Cloud, while enriching customer CRM profiles with social data. This is a major win for your data security and customer service efforts.

Request a demo of our integration today.

3. Train your team

Managing customer data is only possible if your whole team is on board. Host regular customer data trainings to empower ethical access and usage. Emphasize why customer data is important, how to use it for different business use cases and ways to share important insights across departments.

We recommend creating specific data collection, usage and sharing policies for your company. Make relevant details of your policy public-facing to provide additional transparency to your customers.

4. Regularly backup and update your data

To be a good steward of customer data, make sure your data is always current. Perform frequent updates by recycling unresponsive leads, validating customer information and amalgamating duplicates. Regularly delete data you no longer use or that is past its expiration (like we mentioned in step one).

You should also have a customer data backup plan in the event you accidentally lose valuable data due to tech or human error.

How social media fuels your customer data engine

Social media platforms contain an endless supply of consumer data—you just need to know how to analyze it so you can discover actionable insights. Like identifying who your most engaged followers are. Or figuring out what your target audience is saying about your brand when they don’t tag you.

A person’s interactions with a brand on social—from the first time they like a post to the last time they DM a brand—give businesses so much insight into their customer experience and journey. From social data alone, you can learn:

• Customer demographic and psychographic information
• Interests and hobbies
• Other brands they follow
• What content they engage with
• Their feelings toward your brand, products and industry

Use these findings to create a more holistic view of your customer by infusing social metrics into your consumer data engine.

How Sprout Social can help make managing (and using) customer data easier

With Sprout’s social media management features, it’s easy to collect, manage, analyze and utilize customer data. Our all-in-one social media management platform unlocks the full potential of social customer data to transform not just your marketing strategy—but every area of your organization.

Customer service features

The Smart Inbox unifies all your social messages into a single stream so you can foster relationships and respond to your audience quickly. It helps you visualize all inbound message volume across profiles, find new conversations happening about your brand and respond from one place.

Contact Profile Views within the inbox provide a window into a user’s social media presence. From this view, you can reply, add custom contact information, notes and even see message history between you and your customer—streamlining all customer care actions. If you’re a Salesforce customer, you will be able to see if the user is already a lead or contact.

Listening

Sprout’s Listening tools help brands tap into global social conversation to extract actionable insights, identify industry gaps and improve brand health. Use listening to find and explore actionable audience data like demographics, sentiment, conversation topics, campaign analysis and competitor performance.

Social analytics and dashboards

Sprout’s analytics tools speed up data collection and distribution. Access metrics from owned and paid media like impressions, engagements, audience growth and cost per click. Dashboards—including interactive charts and graphs—reveal trends in customer data, and make it easy to share findings with internal partners and stakeholders.

For example, with Sprout’s Tableau BI Connector, combine the power of social data with your other business channels. The tool enables you to analyze data, create custom metrics and merge different data sources. This seamless and customized view gives you a consolidated source of truth for wider business insights and performance.

To start collecting, managing and sharing customer data from social media, begin your free 30-day Sprout Social trial today.

Start your free Sprout trial

The post 4 tips for managing customer data end-to-end (and how social media can help) appeared first on Sprout Social.

On Cheers, or at any neighborhood haunt, there are only so many employees and so many regulars to keep track of. When your business goes online, you’re dealing with thousands of potential customers at any given moment. Mastering a 1:1 feel, even when you’re operating 1:many, is crucial for customer loyalty.

According to the 2022 Sprout Social Index™, 30% of consumers will switch to a competitor if a brand takes too long to respond to questions or feedback. In economic times like these, that’s not a chance worth taking. The key to staying in your customers’ hearts—and wallets—is customer centricity.

What does it mean to be customer-centric?

A customer-centric approach means putting the customer at the forefront of every decision you make as a business. The customer experience should be the starting point for any new initiative, improvement or change you make. In practice, this means actively gathering intel on your customer through surveys or social listening, analyzing that data and proactively giving your customer what they want, or what they don’t yet know they want. Across teams, everyone is working towards keeping their customers happy.

This approach pays off. Over two-thirds (77%) of customers are more likely to increase their spending with brands they feel connected to, up from 57% in 2018, according to Sprout research. According to Zendesk’s CX Trends 2023 Report, leaders are taking notice, with 81% seeing customer experience and support as a growing priority for 2023. Another 71% are looking to revamp their customer journey this year.

As Sprout Social President, Ryan Barretto, has said, “Customer success is the new sales.” Developing relationships with your customers is a nonnegotiable moving forward.

Examples of customer-centric brands on social

Social media is a perfect complement to your customer-centric strategy. Whether you’re connecting with your customers to triage when something goes wrong or communicating with them about a new product or trend, social is the perfect arena for relationship building. Here are four brands embedding social into their customer-centric strategy–and takeaways for how you can do it yourself.

Listening and learning with Cava

Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant, serves up customized bowls and pitas. When they made the decision to discontinue their sweet potatoes, customers were quick to voice their unhappiness on social media. Cava listened to their customers and brought back the popular ingredient, announcing the news with a TikTok video featuring screenshots of customers begging for the tuber’s return.

In this example, Cava recognized their error and shifted accordingly, a key pillar of any customer-centric approach. But they took it a step further. Rather than relaunching sweet potatoes as an internally sourced campaign, they gave credit where credit was due and showed their customers that they’d been listening to their social media pleas.

Obviously, Cava didn’t relaunch an ingredient based on a few comments. This is where social data comes into play. Social listening tools like Sprout’s can help you aggregate the voice of your customer so you can make crowd-pleasing decisions and bring the best possible product to your customers.

Engaging in empathy with ban.do

Relationships, regardless of their form, are built on empathy. This goes for brands as well. Two-thirds of consumers who feel that a company cares about their emotional state are more likely to be repeat customers. But how do you show you care about the emotional state of thousands of individuals at once?

A lifestyle brand, ban.do, managed to capture the frenzy their customers were feeling on Black Friday with a single Tweet.

By focusing on a particular day of the year and understanding their customer, they were able to empathize with all 24,000 followers at once. As a lifestyle brand, ban.do customers are likely to be frequent shoppers, whether that’s with them or across the board. With that information, it’s not hard for a brand to decipher what their customers might be feeling during retail’s busiest season. If your customers are sales professionals, the end of a quarter might be a particularly prominent time for them. If your customers are avid bakers, they might feel excitement when the holidays approach. Get to know your customers and their seasonality so you can understand how they’re feeling.

Seizing the opportunity with Quest Nutrition

Your customers are talking about you on social. Do you know what they’re saying? By paying attention to your brand mentions on social, you can create organic moments that aren’t possible within your own feed.

One company that understands this is Quest Nutrition, an energy bar brand. A Quest fan had recently been laid off and in his announcement post, made the admission that he’d been secretly hoarding the complimentary Quest bars from his office. The brand saw an opportunity and commented that they’d send him some more bars as a condolence and a boost in his job hunt. It was an excellent example of “surprise and delight”.

Quest got over 5,000 engagements with that comment. It begs the question of how much engagement you’re leaving on the table by simply focusing on your own posts. Instead of monitoring mentions solely for potential problems that need addressing, look for opportunities to proactively engage with your fans.

Practicing efficiency with Salesforce

By now, businesses have a set way of triaging customer issues on social media. Get the customer into the DMs and solve from there. There are major benefits to this approach from internal routing to traceability. But sometimes, the answer is sitting right in front of us.

A customer reached out to Salesforce with an issue. While the textbook response would be to move the conversation to the DMs, they directed their customer to help desk articles tailored to their problem in a reply. Not only did this move help the customer in fewer steps, it kept the conversation transparent so other customers who might be facing the same problem could troubleshoot on their own.

When you’re working toward customer centricity, it’s important to remember the burden on the customer. If something can be fixed with fewer clicks, that’s probably the right way to go.

How to become a customer-centric company on social

Feeling inspired to strengthen your customer-centric culture after seeing those examples? Us too. Here are a few ways you can prioritize customer centricity in your social strategy.

Get competitive

Being customer-centric means being the best choice for your customer. But you can’t measure your success unless you know what your competition is doing. Competitive intelligence is crucial for a customer-centric strategy. Keep tabs on your competitors through targeted social monitoring and listening, tracking your wins against competitors in your CRM and working with your sales team to hear what prospects are saying about them. You’ll be positioned to win in no time.

Sprout users can take advantage of Competitor Reports for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—along with a Competitive Analysis listening template—to pull these insights on a regular basis.

Never miss a message

More than three-quarters of customers expect a business to respond within 24 hours on social media. Without the right tech behind you, that’ll take some pretty fast typing. Luckily, there are tools available to help you manage your inbox without missing a message.

Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox tool aggregates every message from all of your profiles in one place. From there, you can easily triage the requests to the relevant team—whether that’s sales, customer care or marketing. You can even create canned responses for frequently asked questions or concerns. You’ll be a master of customer communications.

Get cozy with customer care

Anyone who has ever endured a support interaction knows all about the silos in the customer experience. Whether customers are having to repeat their issue to multiple team members before finding a solution or getting inconsistent answers from the companies’ inconsistent systems, they’re leaving unhappy.

Business leaders are beginning to recognize this opportunity for improvement and they’re making big plans to fix it. Over two-thirds (72%) believe that merging the teams surrounding the customer experience will increase efficiency and 62% plan to act on it.

But don’t stop at rethinking your team structure. Rethink your tech stack as well. Finding social media management systems that integrate with your customer support platforms can go a long way to eliminating concerns for both your team and your customer. Sprout Social integrates with Salesforce Service Cloud, so you can have a single view of your customer no matter where they’re contacting you.

Listen before you speak

The benefits of social data are invaluable for your business, whether you’re working in R&D or investor relations. The first step of customer centricity is understanding your customer. Sprout’s tool gives you instant access to an aggregation of your customers’ opinions and needs. Wondering if your new serving sizes are working out? Listening data will tell you faster than any survey can. Want to gauge customer reception to a new product before launch? Post about it on social and let the data roll in.

The best part of listening data is the ability to make agile decisions. Instead of waiting on survey and focus group results to decide how to pivot, you can access real-time sentiment and make the call then and there.

Becoming a customer-centric company

A customer centric strategy is a great way to encourage loyalty. By listening to your customers’ needs, understanding and empathizing with their pain points, efficiently solving their problems and going above and beyond where needed, your brand can become their forever fan favorite.

Wondering how your brand stacks up when it comes to customer centricity? Use our customer experience audit and find out how your customer experience measures up to industry benchmarks and consumer expectations.

The post How to make your brand customer-centric (& top examples) appeared first on Sprout Social.

Chances are at least one person you know shares your enthusiasm for that place. And you’ve probably told a handful of other people about it, too. Maybe, you’ve even left that business a review. Or, helped them get new customers in exchange for a discount or freebie.

Referral marketing is a powerful tool that can help you leverage your existing customers and fan base to build relationships with new ones. By tapping into your customers’ networks, you can quickly reach potential prospects who are eager to learn about your business.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about referral marketing, its benefits and how to create a successful referral marketing program.

Table of contents:

• • What is referral marketing
  • Why referral marketing is important
  • How does referral marketing work
  • Referral marketing strategies
  • Types of referral marketing

What is referral marketing?

Referral marketing is a form of advertising in which businesses encourage customers to recommend their services, products or experiences to other people. Unlike word-of-mouth marketing, which relies on people spontaneously sharing information, referral marketing is a deliberate strategy involving incentives and rewards for customers in exchange for successful referrals.

For example, a company may offer a discount or special promotion to customers who successfully refer their products to someone else. Or, they might partner with an influencer or offer an affiliate program to incentivize people to promote their products. This not only encourages people to share product information but also to become active participants in the marketing process by finding potential leads and providing referrals.

The best part of referral marketing programs is they don’t just benefit companies–customers also reap the rewards of their efforts. This makes referral programs an excellent way to build loyalty, as well as increase your customer base.

Why referral marketing is so important

Referral marketing is an effective way to attract new customers and increase sales. Here are a few reasons your business should consider having an active referral marketing program.

Little to no cost

There are very few upfront costs to this strategy. All you need is a passionate customer base, a strategic plan and some creative referral marketing ideas. 

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t reward your customers for their referrals. Offering incentives like discounts or free products helps to encourage people to spread the word about your business. Be sure to factor in some costs for incentives and planning.

High customer lifetime value

A study from the Wharton School of Business shows that referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value than average customers. This means that over time, customers who come via a referral will bring more revenue to your business than those you acquire elsewhere.

Remember, every customer you bring in costs your business money, whether from advertising, discounts or other marketing techniques. If referral customers have a higher lifetime value than the ones acquired through paid channels, they can pay off those costs more quickly and help your business save money in the long run.

Likelihood of conversion

Referral marketing often leads to higher conversion rates than more traditional forms of advertising. With word-of-mouth referrals, customers receive personalized recommendations from someone they trust. This makes them more likely to take action on the recommendation and purchase.

According to data from McKinsey, 63% of GenZ consumers say that recommendations from friends are their most trusted source for learning about products and brands.

Establishes trust

Humans trust other humans. That’s just a fact. Think about it, if you’re looking for a new product or service, it’s much more likely you’ll purchase if you get a recommendation from someone you know. You might even read online reviews before you buy, to make sure you’re getting exactly what you expect.

We often call this social proof, which is the idea that if people around us are doing something, it must be alright to do it as well. It’s why people stand in line for the latest Jordans, or why Supreme drops are such a big hit. They aren’t necessarily offering the best product on the market, but it’s the most coveted because everyone else is buying it.

How does referral marketing work

Referral marketing encourages customers to promote a company’s products or services in exchange for some type of reward. This could be discounts, free items or other perks that make it worth their while to do so.

B2B and B2C businesses may need to approach their referral marketing strategies a bit differently. Here’s a quick breakdown of both strategies.

B2B referral marketing programs

B2B businesses are no strangers to a long sales process. It requires in-depth research, months of vetting and gaining the trust of multiple stakeholders to finalize a deal.

A 2023 study found that 82% of B2B sales leaders believe that referrals generate the best leads. That makes referral marketing programs essential for B2B businesses.

If you want to build out your B2B referral program, there are a few ways to go about it. If your business sells products, you could start by offering incentives like discounts to customers who refer you to their colleagues. Or, you could offer a loyalty program where customers receive rewards points for referring you to their peers. Check out Sprout’s Partnership Program as an example.

If you’re running a service-based business, consider offering timed service discounts. For example, a free day or free month. You can also offer credits for future purchases or services.

Remember, referrals don’t have to come only from customers. Accepting referrals from other businesses in exchange for discounts or rewards is a great way to generate new leads. Consider who in your field may be looking for referrals and create a referral marketing program that benefits both parties.

If you’re a SaaS company, you may want to partner with a tool that fills a gap in your offering and offer customers a discount for signing up for both platforms. Similarly, if you’re selling machine parts, partner with a delivery company that can fulfill orders for your clients and provide them discounts for choosing that shipping method.

B2C referral marketing strategies

B2C businesses are perfectly positioned to take advantage of referral marketing because they have a direct relationship with their customers.

One of the best referral marketing ideas for B2C companies is to offer rewards in exchange for referrals. This could be a discount code, free product, gift card or another incentive that encourages customers to tell their friends and family about your company.

You can also incentivize customers with loyalty programs, where they earn points for each referral or purchase their referee makes. This allows customers to save up points over time and redeem them for discounts, exclusive offers or other rewards.

Email campaigns are also an effective referral marketing strategy. By including social sharing buttons in your emails, you allow customers to share your products, news and offerings quickly and easily.

The most important thing to remember when creating a referral program is that it should be an integral part of the customer experience. Referrals should be included in every customer touchpoint, from website navigational menus to the checkout page. Similarly, be sure to integrate your referral program with other critical systems, such as your CRM, eCommerce technology and point-of-sale systems, so you can keep track of all referral activity.

Referral marketing strategies

If you’re looking to get started with referral marketing, there are a few core concepts you should understand.

1. Create shareable content

The best referral marketing programs go beyond just providing discounts or rewards for successful referrals. Your program should also include content that is easy to share, such as blog posts, helpful guides and interesting video clips that potential customers can use to help them decide whether your product or service is right for them.

As well, make sure your posts are easy to share. That means adding social media sharing buttons, such as a “Share to Facebook” button, on your website, blog posts and email marketing campaigns.

2. Provide excellent customer service

The backbone of any successful referral marketing program is excellent customer service. If your customers are happy with their purchase, they’re more likely to recommend you and share their positive experiences with others.

You can provide exceptional customer service in a number of ways:

• Give customers the option to contact you directly via phone call, text message, email or live chat.
• Have a well-trained customer service team that can quickly and effectively answer any questions, concerns or complaints.
• Make refunds, exchanges and shipping as simple as possible.
• Answer all feedback on your social channels promptly.

The better the experience customers have, the more likely they are to become loyal customers and refer others to our business.

3. Define your goals

Goals give businesses direction and help measure success. When building out your referral marketing program, think about what success looks like to you. Ask yourself questions like:

• How many referrals should our program generate?
• What kind of customers do we want to connect with through referrals?
• Are there any geographic areas we’d like to target?

Once you know what you want to achieve, you can focus on tactics to help get you there. For example, if you want to target customers in a specific area, you might try offering coupons only to people in that location. If you’re looking to connect with people outside of your direct network, partnering with an influencer or influencer marketing platform can help you reach a broader audience.

4. Plan your campaign

With your goals in mind, it’s time to plan your referral marketing program. This includes choosing the right platform, setting up tracking and analytics tools, crafting an email strategy to encourage referrals and developing incentives that will motivate customers to share your brand with their friends.

Some things to consider when planning your campaign include:

• How long will the program run?
• What types of rewards will you offer for referrals?
• How will customers track their referrals and collect rewards?
• Will there be any restrictions on where people can share your referral link?
• How will you measure success and track ROI?

Once you have a plan in place, you can get creative with your referral marketing ideas. From creative email campaigns to social media contests, there are many ways to spread the word about your company.

Types of referral marketing

There are several types of referral marketing that you can use to promote your business. Here are some of the most popular.

Direct

Direct referrals involve asking your existing customers to refer people they know. You can use email or even in-person events to ask for referrals. You can also consider hiring a brand ambassador to present your company to a broader audience.

Incentivized 

Incentives are a great way to encourage customers to refer their friends. Who doesn’t want more of a product they already love? Referral marketing incentives can include discounts, free products or cash rewards. If you offer incentives, make sure they are generous enough to be enticing and promote loyalty among customers.

Email

There are more than 4 billion active email users worldwide, making it one of the most powerful tools in your referral marketing arsenal. With email marketing, you can send personalized messages to customers and prospects to inform them about promotions or referral programs. You can also use email newsletters to keep contacts up-to-date on new products and services.

Reviews

According to a recent customer survey, 49% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. This means that it’s important to nurture and cultivate a positive online reputation through customer reviews. You can encourage customers to post reviews on your website, Google My Business page or other review sites like Yelp. Or, build up your Amazon review ratings for products that you offer.

Social

Social media can be a powerful referral marketing tool. Your advocates can share their experiences with your brand, post promotional content and messages or even host live streams to engage with other customers and prospects. 

You can create a referral program with special incentives for people who refer new customers or reward loyal followers for engaging with you on social media. Just make sure you’re using a custom URL or hashtag when customers make referrals so you can track and measure the success of your program.

Increase referrals by finding your brand advocates

Brand advocates aren’t always easy to come by. Luckily, there are resources available to help you identify and reach out to potential brand advocates.

If you’re feeling stuck figuring out campaign strategies, check out our list of marketing campaign ideas to help get you started.

The post Referral marketing: What it is and how to use it successfully appeared first on Sprout Social.

What content is our audience consuming? What current events are defining online conversations? What are competitors posting? What channels and creative seem to be really popular?

These are all good questions and certainly ones that will make you great at your job.

But once in a while, it can help to think of an even bigger, more abstract and somewhat morbid question: What could destroy us?

While it’s not necessarily fun, it can be healthy to think through success as an uncertainty.

We don’t have to look too far. In 1980, seven of the top ten companies in the S&P 500 were oil and gas companies. IBM, which saw an extremely profitable run in the 1980s, was leapfrogged by companies like Microsoft and Proctor and Gamble. Microsoft took less than a decade to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Can you guess how many of the top ten valued companies in 1980 were still in the top ten in 2020?

Zero.

Even in just twenty years, it’s fascinating to think about how the world has changed. Oil and gas stocks, which once represented more than a quarter of the market, now represent less than 5%. Kodak, one of the darlings of the 1980s, is barely recognized today. Mergers, recessions, bankruptcies and latent innovation could continue to change the course of today’s giants. Many of the companies we think could be popular in the next twenty years may not even exist today. Certainly, nobody in 1985 could have predicted the future of Apple.

But what can you do as a marketer to prepare for the future?

3 frameworks to spot the big picture for your brand

By learning simple, strategic frameworks, you can start thinking through the trends that could define your company’s future and give you a leg up on areas and conversations to research. These frameworks can help you reinforce why you exist and how to analyze other competitors in the space to better chalk up your position.

Five Forces Framework

The brainchild of academic Michael Porter (essentially to modern strategy what Lebron James is to basketball), the Five Forces Framework is one of the most popular frameworks to understand what’s happening outside of your business.

Consisting of five components, Porter’s Five Forces essentially helps you answer the broader question of how attractive it is to be in a specific industry.

Porter’s Five Forces can help you address how power is distributed in an industry, the nature of how easy it is to enter and the likelihood of survival.

For example, look at the airline industry. There are only two significant suppliers: Airbus and Boeing. If they decide to raise prices or go on strike, it can create shockwaves throughout and likely impact every airline in the industry. In addition, since it costs a lot to build planes and market websites, it’s much harder to enter the industry.

In contrast, the real estate industry has more power in the hands of buyers, who have many options (brokers, websites) for price comparison. For sectors like food and beverage, there is a lot of competition, including healthier options at relatively low costs to the average person who wants to switch.

While not every company may have a traditional supplier or buyer framework (i.e., modern internet companies), every company is impacted by trends that influence buyers.

How to use the framework:

To start thinking through the five forces, the first step is to zoom out and look at the industry or space your brand is in, which can be clarified by a simple Google Search or look at Yahoo Finance. Use the image above to guide your template, with rivalry in the center and the corresponding forces surrounding it.

Start with your users or customers and think through some questions: What else are they using? If you disappeared tomorrow, what would they be doing? Then, think through the industry as a whole. Is it easy for new companies to come in? Does loyalty play a role? All the criteria in the above image can help you learn. What you do next depends on the output. If customer loyalty isn’t very strong or switching costs are low, it might be good to pay attention to what competitors are doing to combat that.

PESTELE Analysis

Another common framework is the PESTELE Analysis, which considers many factors like economic, political, social and legal factors that can influence your product or brand. Take a look at modern apps–it would’ve been impossible for an app like Uber to exist twenty years ago. It needed a few factors in its favor: Smartphones to become normalized, Apple to offer its app store platform, society to accept people getting into strangers’ cars and a confused regulatory atmosphere that couldn’t figure out how to govern ridesharing.

Similarly, PESTELE factors essentially created what the airline industry is today. The recession and airline deregulation of the 1980s forced many airlines into total collapse. American, Southwest, Delta and others were able to weather the storm and survive to continue their success today.

While understanding the environment and industry can help build a longer-term strategy, some tools are more helpful for internal analysis and more nuanced to the capabilities of your brand.

How to use this framework:

Unlike the Five Forces, which can largely be filled in through some level of intuition and understanding of business models, PESTELE requires a lot more research to understand the different trends impacting your brand.

Start with each driver of the PESTELE analysis above and dive into each separately. Politically, have any laws been passed that could impact your business? Any new laws that might be passed? Are there any new social trends that might make your business appetizing? Any new technology (i.e. generative AI) that could dramatically change the way people use your service?

What counts as a notable factor is entirely up to you, but PESTELE will open your brain up to think creatively about the business world around you.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is a popular framework used to categorize how you’re doing as a company. With the acronyms standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, SWOT essentially looks at how the present and future can coexist within a single framework. Take a look at an example SWOT of Nike–while you can see the workings of a strong company in the present, the opportunities and threats section of the SWOT can help Nike assess how it moves forward. Does it jump into better PR? New categories? VR?

Like the other frameworks, SWOT only benefits from the amount of detail you put into it and the creative ways you think about existing trends plus how they impact the work you do.

How to use this framework:

The great thing about the SWOT analysis is not only that it’s fairly easy to put together but that it is mostly internal and can be a good crux for reflecting on your current brand.

You likely have the knowledge to do a SWOT without much external research. The best part is that SWOT can also be done at a functional level–your social media alone can benefit from a SWOT analysis. This involves thinking through strengths (which platforms are you strongest on), weaknesses (struggling content), opportunities (new platforms and competitor advantages) as well as threats (market conditions, algorithm changes, etc.)

Don’t underestimate your role in zooming out

While not many jobs require you to build and populate these models as a function of your daily duties, understanding how the world is changing around you and how your company is positioned to benefit or fail is a muscle you can use for any job.

While it’s constructive if you’re a newer company or an upstart in the industry, it can also be a beneficial way to build influence within a larger or existing company. If you’re in a customer-facing role like social media, your eyes and ears are constantly listening to conversations customers, governments and competitors are having.

It’s not likely that you alone can fix the state of the company. After all, some of the brightest executives in the world couldn’t help Blackberry predict the business model that would spark iPhone adoption to skyrocket. But even if you’re not the one making the decision, a single input in a PESTELE or SWOT can be the catalyst to surviving the next twenty years.

Once you’ve used strategy frameworks to find opportunities for your brand, these three prioritization frameworks will help you define projects and next steps.

The post How strategy frameworks can help your brand stay relevant appeared first on Sprout Social.

This year, the future is fuzzier. There’s so much outside of our control that will directly affect our outcomes and tactics. We can’t control consumer spending or the economy at large. We can’t control algorithm changes or shifts in customer behavior. But we can control our message, communication styles and how we execute on our plans. As leaders, we have the opportunity to shape our 2023, even as budgets shrink and hiring stalls. We just have to get creative and stay focused.

Leading through ambiguity

I’ve approached 2023 planning like packing for a large trip. You want to be prepared for anything that might come up, but your suitcase is only so big. It’s impossible to pack everything you might need for a successful trip. You might not need some things or have to go buy others. But if you plan well enough, you can minimize the adjustments you’ll have to make during the trip. As I’m choosing the right base layers for my 2023 marketing wardrobe, I’m keeping a few things in mind.

Commit to KPIs

Regardless of market conditions, we’ll all be held accountable for our KPIs. Whether you’re trying to increase revenue, capture more market share or strengthen your brand, those goals need to be unwavering and always at the forefront. Make sure you’ve narrowed down to two or three extremely specific goals. Focused efforts are the winning strategy for 2023.

Understand your audience

Your priorities have changed because of the economic headwinds of 2022 and your customers are no different. Whether you’re in B2C or B2B, budgets are under more scrutiny and you need to secure your spot in your customers’ wallets. In 2023, 77% of consumers report being more likely to increase their spending with brands they feel connected to. That number is up from 57% in 2018. If you’re going to become indispensable for them, you need to be honest about who you are and the problems you solve–and communicate your value in a language they understand. Keeping an eye on the effectiveness of your messaging is non-negotiable.

React quickly

The days of taking three to four months to evaluate a trend are over. If your team is going to be successful in 2023, you have to be truly agile. As soon as you receive information that could impact your KPIs, you have to adjust. Your main focus this year has to be your goals and progress. If you see them starting to slip, you need to act fast. Social data is your secret weapon for fast reaction times. It holds real-time, unfiltered insights into your audience. Leverage every tool at your disposal to stay agile.

Executing for excellence

Once you’ve established your goals and baseline, it’s time to rally the troops. Whether you have a marketing team of 10 or 10,000, their understanding of your goals and strategy will make or break your year. When it comes to execution, I’m focusing on open lines of communication, creativity and quality over quantity.

Stay on the same page

It’s unrealistic for marketing leaders to think they’ll be able to monitor every new initiative. Your time is best spent on monitoring KPIs, not the success of individual Tweets. To stay on track, every member of your team should know the KPIs inside and out. While you’re focused on the big picture, they can make the game-time decisions that will incrementally drive your strategy forward. Empower them to do so with a healthy understanding of your goals. If something changes, let them know immediately. Trust your team.

Get creative

As marketing budgets shrink, you have to get more targeted. This is the time for creativity. If your paid social budget is shrinking, your team should be focused on creating organic social posts with reach. In uncertain times, we might want to stick to what’s comfortable—and Forrester predicts that most CMOs will go that route this year. But the best success will come from taking calculated risks and trying new things. Give your team the space to be truly creative with their marketing.

Stress quality over quantity

A spray and pray approach will not work in 2023. Your messaging needs to be targeted. You need to target it to your audience, target it to actions you want them to take and target it to how success will impact your KPIs. It’s better to have one extremely well-performing campaign than five decent ones. Don’t waste valuable resources on so-so ideas. Commit to the best idea you have and pair it with the best execution strategy.

Making it a happy New Year

Having less doesn’t mean doing less. Economic outlooks might be turbulent, but you can ensure smooth sailing for your marketing team with a clear vision and a creative strategy. 2023 might be your most successful year yet.

Wondering what else is on the horizon for 2023? Check out this list of 2023 social media predictions.

The post Build out your packing list: Preparing for the 2023 marketing journey appeared first on Sprout Social.

But the metaverse isn’t a utopia. Major industry players have been under fire for metaverse crimes and safety concerns. If the metaverse is the new frontier of the internet, it currently resembles the Wild West. There isn’t much regulation at the moment, which has led to inconsistent expectations and user experiences, especially surrounding security and privacy best practices.

According to a Sprout survey of 300 marketers responsible for their brands social media strategy, 64% cite data, privacy and brand safety as concerns within the metaverse. Leaders will need to continue identifying and addressing metaverse dangers if they want to scale their metaverse strategy.

Metaverse dangers that exist for brands

Like the promises of the metaverse, metaverse dangers are partly speculation, but there are legitimate concerns about the dark side of the metaverse.

Concerns about circulation of false information and promotion of hate speech just scratch the surface off issues facing the metaverse. Addressing these dangers will require confronting unprecedented technical issues, regulations, education and investment. And with metaverse investments surpassing $120 billion dollars in early 2022—more than double the investment in 2021—brands can’t afford to avoid resolution.

Here are metaverse dangers brands should be aware when joining the metaverse:

Metaverse privacy concerns

Without a doubt, privacy is one of the most pertinent metaverse dangers. As part of Web3, the metaverse has a heavy reliance on the internet and other emerging technologies that will likely increase the amount and range of personal data available to exploit. The more data someone places online, the bigger their digital footprint, which means higher risk of cyberthreats and security breaches.

Along with traditional personal data like addresses and names, the metaverse will also collect new information like biometrics and voice recordings. This type of identifying information is a gold mine for third-party data companies and marketers—and criminals who can collect, abuse and monetize the data.

User data in the metaverse currently includes sensor, location, physiological and social data. For example, extended reality (XR) headsets can record a user’s facial attributes, blinks, movement, surroundings and activities in the metaverse.

What you can do about it:

Data privacy advocates are pushing for companies to share their data collection practices with consumers, whether it’s a requirement by law or an effort for transparency. As with any platform that collects audience data, leaders will need to identify what kind of data they collect and store and define adequate protection to secure it. They’ll also need to consider the legalities, which is also somewhat of a Wild West since there aren’t clear definitions of what is considered personal data information in the metaverse.

Metaverse security concerns

The metaverse has the same cybersecurity risks as modern organizations, like malware, but there are also new vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit. Someone could hack into an account to access personal messages, bank information, photos, avatars, NFTs and other digital assets.

Industry leaders continue to search for new ways to improve security in the metaverse, especially since anonymity throws another wrench into security concerns.

As revealed in a Tidio report, for many, the main appeal of the metaverse is the ability to create an identity that extends beyond physical reality. But anonymity can enable online scams and abusive behavior (we’re looking at you troller without a profile pic!). Metaverse user identities can be spoofed, hacked or taken altogether to steal sensitive information. The metaverse could make this behavior more widespread if not addressed.

Using biometric data during account creation and login is a common way to protect a user’s digital identity. For example, fingerprint scanning and facial recognition will likely become a default step to log into the metaverse.

What you can do about it: 

Leaders will need to confront if their organizations are equipped with the essential tools to detect, contain and eliminate malicious code for metaverse projects. They also need to define what incident response looks like in the metaverse. What would a breach look like? How would the brand communicate and respond?

Leaders need to understand and create frameworks for collaborations to execute incident response efficiently because the answers to these questions will require support inside and outside of metaverse platforms.

Accessibility

The ideal metaverse will converge the virtual and physical world seamlessly. But there are some blockers preventing an inclusive experience that even major tech companies are still trying to resolve.

How will people with disabilities and users with neurodivergent disorders experience the metaverse? How can metaverse creators combat biased artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms? If these types of issues aren’t addressed, the new digital frontier could create more inequity and discrimination.

Affordability also comes into play, for brands and users alike. For users, metaverse devices like AR and VR headsets and haptic bodywear can be expensive. If you can’t afford it, you can’t participate. For tech companies and brands, the cost of blockchain and AI is top concern, especially when trying to prove ROI in these investments.

What you can do about it:

Embracing phygital marketing tactics that incorporate real-life and digital experiences is a great solution for brands who want to craft an inclusive metaverse activation. According to our survey, both marketers (72%) and consumers (60%) expect brands to continue combining real-life and digital experiences in 2023 (i.e., NFT giveaways, in-experience currencies, etc.).

Metaverse crimes

Vandalism, harassment and assault are growing metaverse dangers. Immersive experiences supported by haptic technology transfers touch from the virtual world to the user in real life. This has raised concerns about respecting personal boundaries, as several incidents of groping have been released.

Fraud and theft crimes, particularly NFT theft and cryptocurrency scams are pertinent as well. To put it simply, the victim pays for an item, but does not receive the virtual goods. Phishing and social engineering scams are also prevalent, luring people into providing personal information. The assailant poses as a major brand and baits users to spend real-life money on non-existent products, services and/or campaigns. These fake personas can create distrust and harm the business due to customer dissatisfaction.

What you can do about it:

Companies will need to consider how they can help protect their audience from scams and how to recoup if a cybercrimnal impersonates their brand. To prevent metaverse crimes, consider using two-factor or multi-factor authentication as a preventative control against account takeovers. Brands should promote proper wallet hygiene for their customers and their organization as well.

How to protect your brand from metaverse dangers

Like with any new technology, more metaverse dangers will emerge as the space grows and develops, but organizations can still take measures for brand safety.

Here are some steps marketing and business leaders can take to address potential threats before joining the metaverse, along with tips to safeguard your brand’s current presence:

Create a metaverse data and security team

Leaders will need to acquire awareness of common cybersecurity challenges. Curate a comprehensive oversight security team to develop protocols and procedures. The team should be responsible for understanding and communicating the different emerging metaverse dangers.

This could even include implementing an AI cybersecurity to flag abuse, misconduct and other negative behaviors. Consider giving users access to platform administrators who can intervene by suspending or expelling members from the metaverse.

Develop metaverse terms and conditions

Whether it’s a short-term activation or a permanent metaverse space, create terms and conditions for building a digital community to protect your brand.

For example, to prevent avatar takeover, consider requiring unique skins or pairing accounts with an NFT to prevent identity fraud. These requirements make it harder for cybercriminals to duplicate identities in the metaverse.

You can also use your terms and conditions to implement proper wallet hygiene. To put it simply, consumers and companies should have multiple wallets. It’s common for consumers to have three separate wallets: a mint wallet, a selling wallet and a vault wallet. All of these wallets should be used appropriately. For example, a vault wallet should solely be used for high value digital assets since it’s not connected to the internet.

For organizations, there are custodial platforms that can customize the wallet experience for corporate digital assets. These corporate wallets also require multi-step authorization and/or signatures. If your brand is creating or sponsoring a metaverse, it’s a wise choice to educate your customers on the benefits of wallet hygiene because it could help facilitate adoption.

Create a metaverse security and privacy policy

Before making metaverse products, services or experiences, provide users with a security and privacy policy to follow. Some of these guidelines may already be a part of the hosting metaverse platform provider’s policies.

Some policies to consider:

• User data. Define the type of data you plan to use and its duration. Also include users’ rights to access personal information.
• Communication. Articulate user rights for solicited and unsolicited communication as it may vary depending on your technology and platform. For example, an AR universe includes virtual-to-virtual and physical-to-virtual communications. In a VR universe, communication is all immersive virtual-to-virtual.
• Ownership. User generated content is a pillar of the metaverse. UGC can vary widely and be monetized, so include rules about ownership of virtual digital goods, avatar skins, NFTs, etc. Use technology like blockchain for asset ownership tracking to manage content ownership.

Create a metaverse moderation team

Craft a moderation team dedicated to active monitoring on your metaverse platform of choice. This team should review and address tone, conversations and reactions to prevent escalation. If you want to go the extra mile, consider implementing a customer service team to walk through the rules of your metaverse activation or act as a live “hotline” for users to connect with in the space when they need help. This will help ensure users are playing by the rules and reduce risk to the platform and other users.

Many metaverse users tend to have a lower guard in virtual environments, especially those used for entertainment. Even brands working in the metaverse have to train employees about security practices. Since users might not be as vigilant about cybersecurity, building security initiatives that teach users to be cautious can prevent abuse and breaches.

Take action against metaverse dangers

The metaverse isn’t perfect, but it is ripe with opportunities we may have never imagined. By taking these measures you can safeguard your brand against metaverse dangers and set your company up for success:

Learn more about how to join the metaverse in our guide so you can expand your brand in the new digital frontier.

The post Metaverse dangers: How to protect brands from the dark side appeared first on Sprout Social.

Tapping into your employee advocates as a part of your social media strategy is one of the most effective ways to amplify your content, humanize your brand and engage your audience. Roughly 76% of social media users think it’s important for companies to post about their employees, and your metrics will reflect your community’s interest.

In this article, we dive into how you can create your own meet the team social media posts, explain how they benefit your entire company and provide examples to inspire you.

What is a “meet the team” social media post?

Meet the team social media posts describe content posted on your brand’s social channels dedicated to your employees. Meet the team social media post examples include:

• Welcoming new hires to your team
• Celebrating major milestones including promotions, work anniversaries and awards
• Highlighting your team members doing exceptional things outside of work—from acts of community service to running a marathon
• Familiarizing your customers and prospects with their key touchpoints like sales representatives and customer care specialists (Note: Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and include your brand’s zookeepers, musicians and farmers, too)
• Going behind the scenes to show your social audience (and prospective teammates) what it’s like to work at your organization

No matter what kind of meet the team post you create, the most important thing is to make your well-deserving employees the stars of your series. Allow their expertise, work ethic and achievements to shine.

The benefits of meet the team social media posts

At your company right now, there are countless examples of compelling employee stories. By passing the mic to your team, you can make those stories a vital part of your brand reputation.

Here are specific ways meet the team social posts can benefit your entire organization.

Harness employee advocacy

At Sprout, we know how frustrating algorithm shifts, poor organic performance, economic uncertainty and crowded feeds can be firsthand.

Employee advocacy helps us level up our content and stand out. Posts that feature our employees are an essential part of our employee advocacy content strategy, and some of our most-liked content.

Why it works: Employee experiences are the most trustworthy examples of a company’s culture, mission and values. Brand advocates play a critical role in driving brand awareness, supercharging recruitment efforts and generating leads.

Humanize your employer brand

Meet the team social media posts humanize your employer brand and help build meaningful relationships with customers, leads and potential candidates.

By pulling back the curtain to reveal the people behind your events, customer care and new product launches, you become more than just a brand that delivers a product or service. You become a reliable friend.

Why it works: Your employees’ perspectives matter three times more to prospective candidates than your CEO’s. Your followers are more likely to forge emotional connections with people they relate to, and emotional connections lead to brand loyalty.

Engage your employees and community alike

According to Sprout’s employee advocacy data report, engaged social media users think it’s important for companies to post about their employees on social. Brands that do are considered more authentic, approachable and interesting.

Not only do meet the team social media posts bolster your community engagement, they also boost employee satisfaction and help team members feel appreciated.

Why it works: By recognizing the value your employees bring to your company on social media, you reinforce the reasons people want to work with/for your brand.

How to create a meet the team social media post series

Once you’re ready to create your meet the team series, be sure to work cross-functionally to align your posts with your organization’s initiatives, including recruitment, event promotion and crisis recovery.

Follow our step-by-step guide to get started.

Step 1: Create a relationship roadmap

Creating a relationship roadmap will help you visualize which teams need to be involved when crafting your meet the team series, like this example demonstrates.

When creating your map, start by considering who needs to be included as you build your strategy. Ask yourself whose input is crucial for helping you identify employees to feature and meet company-wide goals with your series.

Then, determine the team members who will be vital for story-sourcing (most likely the people who will be featured and their managers).

Next, add the names of people who will be responsible for making the content come to life during asset preparation.

In the final two sections of your relationship roadmap, chart the team members who will be essential for supporting final approvals and distribution.

Step 2: Assemble a process checklist

Consistency is key to building a successful social media series. Create a process checklist for the project to stay on track and keep all team members involved on the same page. It should include:

1. Set a cadence

Develop a timeline for your series. Will you post biweekly? Once a month? Plot your cadence for the next quarter, six months or year—whatever is feasible for your team. Planning ahead will ensure consistency and prevent your series from losing momentum.

Remember to determine your cadence collaboratively so all teams involved can advocate for what’s sustainable for their bandwidth.

2. Determine the goals of your series

Determine how your series will align with your company goals, and which goals you will focus on meeting. For example, at Sprout in 2022, we focused on awareness and engagement.

3. Define a collaborative process structure

Plan which teams will be essential to your series based on the relationship roadmap you completed in step 1. Outline how you will collaborate effectively across teams.

Use the DACI Decision-Making Framework if you need help streamlining your process.

4. Nail down types of content assets

How will you tell your employees’ stories? Will you use video content, photos or blog posts? WIll you reshare across multiple channels? Determine this ahead of time, and create clear visual asset requests for teams supporting your series.

5. Employ a system to measure results

Have a system in place to measure your content performance and how well it delivers on your goals.

You can download our creative testing template to measure the effectiveness of different types of content.

Step 3: Start creating your meet the team series posts

After completing your checklist for your overall project strategy, follow these steps to create your first feature. Replicate this process for each post moving forward.

1. Set goals

Ask yourself what goals you want this specific post to achieve. How does it fit into the goals of your overall meet the team series strategy?

2. Source your story

Tap into managers who will help you find the right team member for your first post.

3. Select your featured team member

After collecting different stories, choose a team member that best embodies your brand and helps you achieve your goal.

Before reaching out to them, be sure to confirm your plans with their manager, who might also offer helpful, specific details and stories you could highlight.

Then, reach out to the team member and ask if they’d like to participate.

4. Develop questions

Create a list of questions for the team member to answer personalized to their background and experience at your company, including questions related to the goal you’re trying to achieve.

For example, if your goal is to support your recruitment efforts, ask your team member questions about what they like about your company’s culture and how their career growth has been supported.

5. Finalize asset and distribution channels

Should this post be a photo, video or blog feature? At this point, decide which medium would most effectively tell the story and how you will distribute the post on social.

Then, clearly define what you need from the featured employee. For example, if you’re filming a video, assemble a list of clear instructions and on-camera best practices for them to follow.

Also determine what you need from other stakeholders involved, like your design team.

6. Alert other teams involved

​​Let the teams developing your creative assets know a feature is coming up. Submit a visual asset request and confirm project timelines and expectations.

7. Capture your content

Schedule your video shoot, set up your Zoom interview or send your questions via email. However you choose to capture your raw content, make sure your method will be conducive to the finished product you want to create.

Then, share your files and let your editing team and/or content writers get to work on the final product.

After you approve the content and write your meet the team caption, share the post with the final approvers.

8. Get final approvals and schedule your content

Run finalized assets by necessary teams for approval, allowing yourself enough time for reviews and edits.

Once you gain final approval, it’s time to schedule your content.

Pro tip: If you’re working across teams to approve and schedule content, Sprout’s Message Approval Workflows can help you organize who’s responsible for each step of the review and scheduling process.

9. Share with your organization

Encourage employee advocacy by sharing your final posts across your company via email, in Slack or by using a solution like Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

10. Analyze your data

Track your post performance, and compare it to other content and future meet the team stories. Share your findings with stakeholders, and. use data storytelling to explain how your efforts supported your company’s goals.

3 meet the team post examples you can learn from

As you delve into creating your own meet the team series, look to these three cutting-edge brands for inspiration.

San Diego Zoo: Behind the scenes with a Wildlife Care Specialist

It’s safe to assume many of us dreamed of working with animals at some point in our life. To help us relive our childhood dreams, the San Diego Zoo takes their followers behind the scenes with images and videos of their employees.

Not only is this content highly engaging, it’s also a chance for the zoo to demonstrate how they fulfill their mission to provide wildlife with the best possible care.

Apply it: While not all brands have adorable animals at their disposal, you should illustrate the unique expertise of your employees and the benefits of your work setting in your meet the team post.

Shopify: Free To Be Me series

For Shopify, work is rooted in global diversity and belonging. Their initiative to create and support a diverse and inclusive environment is an intentional process that is encapsulated in their Free To Be Me series that centers the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Shopifolk.

In this post, it’s clear professionals at Shopify are free to exist as themselves—regardless of their gender identity or sexuality.

Apply it: Meet the team posts are an excellent way to showcase your organization’s culture and how your employees live out your values.

Starbucks: #LatinxHeritageMonth

People are at the heart of Starbucks’ recruitment strategy. As they declare on the website, their partners are their most valuable resource and they strive to create an environment of warmth and belonging.

In this meet the team post, a shift supervisor named Cici recalls how she felt she could embrace her identity as a Mexican American from her very first day.

Apply it: How would your employees describe their professional journey at your company? Use their answers to inspire your next meet the team post. Include the small details—like a decorated name badge—to paint a vivid picture for your followers.

Celebrate your team on social

A meet the team social media post series is a powerful tool for recruitment, brand management and employee engagement.

To help guide your employee spotlight series creation, we’ve designed a collection of customizable templates with everything you need to launch a meet the team series.

The post How to create a “meet the team” social media post series appeared first on Sprout Social.