In this week’s Ecommerce Eye Candy we look at Engagio’s “2012 State of Social Conversations” to help us understand what the social conversation is, why it’s so important and how it applies to the software sector.
Although we sell software to make money, we don’t simply create a product, build a website, make a shopping cart and set the controls on auto-pilot. Along with many other marketing techniques, we send promotional emails, make ad banners, and create relationships with affiliates.
However, in the days of the social network, it’s not enough to blindly shout your marketing message across the ether. Now more than ever, the way to a customer’s heart (and pocket) is through personal engagement. Personal engagement makes it important for software manufacturers to create a space that goes beyond their absolute control, a space that allows customers to ask questions, leave comments, and participate in the marketing process.
What happens in these spaces is called the “social conversation.” A social conversation can take place in a blog, in a forum, on Twitter, or even a phone call.
The key stat here for companies selling software is that 62% of those surveyed participate in these conversations to inform their product buying decisions. So even if you’re linking up with affiliates and splashing giant banner ads across various sites, or you’re sending out emails with a “no-reply” email address it means the message is one-sided and there’s no place to engage the customer in a conversation.
So go ahead and write a blog, open a forum, or engage your Twitter followers. You may even get a nice “Thank you” for your efforts.
Leave a comment. Tell us about your social conversations with customers. Thanks.
Thanks Elan. The full results of the survey are here:
http://www.engag.io/about/survey2012results