One of the most important things for all advertising and marketing strategies is to keep in mind – your circle of influence. That is the “circle of people” that you and your customers go to for advice, opinions, support, criticism, research and so much more. The goal of all marketers should be to reach out first to your circle of influence and that of your target customers.

I found the most brilliant and clear article today that speaks to just this point. The blog is Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. He refers to the circle as the “ring of influence” both are the same thing. In his article he focuses on the ring as it relates to business. I have written about the circle of influence often in our SHARE blog and believe understanding your circle and being able to reach and build trust with both your current customers and your prospective customers – should be one of the key aspects – of your strategic social media plan. Jeremiah opens his article with a statement that he used in one of his lectures in which he says:

“What’s an indicator a company is advanced in the social space?”.  I gave three answers, and one of them was “Developing a thriving advocacy program to fight your battles”.  The executives, which were used to traditional advertising and direct marketing had a light bulb go off as I showed them this framework.”

His angle in this article focuses on issues management and the ability for companies to be able to address via social channels customer complaints, concerns and criticisms. The idea behind this is that – if you are addressing those concerns on a regular and immediate basis – one to one – you show the customer that you care, you build trust and certainly create the opportunity to be better – as a company while providing the value and fulfilling the needs of the customers – who want your products and services.

In a previous post I wrote about Dominos Pizza and how the president used online video – to address some of the problems that they made – via a delivery to a customer. By using the integration of some of their traditional advertising channels such as television – to talk about the complaints – as well as leveraging social media – they shared their story of  how they had addressed the complaints they received and used them to make changes.

A great way to show that customer that you listened – made changes and took their advice under consideration – to make the products that they love better. No better way to get they to spread the word and keep them coming back for more!

Best Nicole

Recently, I spoke to a crowded room of senior marketers at a CPG retailer, one of the executives asked “What’s an indicator a company is advanced in the social space?”.  I gave three answers, and one of them was “Developing a thriving advocacy program to fight your battles”.  The executives, which were used to traditional advertising and direct marketing had a lightbulb go off as I showed them this framework.

Companies unable to scale into social channels –hindered by traditional thinking
Companies are unable to respond quick enough to the masses of customers complaining on social channels, they simple can not hire enough community managers and Social CRM systems are still being developed.  The old school thinking of traditional marketing putting the sole focus on voice of corporate communications, and sanctioned executives only.  Yet now, as social tools are pervasive (take a look at all the people accessing Facebook from their mobile phones) the gateways of public communication have been opened.

Brands must extend their strategy to the outside rings.
In order to scale in both time and mass, corporations must now extend their communication strategy beyond just corporate communications and sanctioned ‘company representatives’ to include others in the mix.  In the following graphic of the “Rings of Influence” I’ve mapped out how other individuals can and should be used in the communications strategy.   I’ve worked on trust research at my former employer, and found that in most cases the closer in the rings (corporate) there’s less trust.  Independent studies, like Edelman’s 2010 trust barometer indicate similar findings, figures 7 & 8 are telling in this PDF. Inversely, the further out in the rings (prospects and customers) the greater the levels of trust.

Framework: Rings Of Influence
As brand embrace the larger circles, the greater opportunity for reach, trust  –and risk.  I hope you use this graphic in your planning docs and presentations, it’s licensed under creative commons as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Common.  Graphic assistance by Christine Tran, @christineptran

Harness All The Voices In Your Ecosystem –Not Just Corporate Communications
Brands should stop focusing on the corporate ring alone –and benefit by using all the rings in a coordinated fashion.  I’ve broken down the roles into subsets in the above matrix, yet there are some key baseline considerations as your deploy, remember to:

• Recognize that greater opportunity is abound at outer rings –but comes with increased risk. Brands are most comfortable operation in the inside rings, like ‘Corporate’, yet the greatest opportunity to leverage trust and reach happens at the outer rings of influence with ‘Customers’ and ‘Prospects.
• Map the  rings to your existing customer experience timeline. These rings aren’t unlike traditional marketing funnels, except that there’s a focus on role and trust, over cycle. In most cases, prospects are in the outer mouth of a funnel, but customers, employees, and corporate can also participate in every step of the marketing funnel. Analyze which roles are needed in what aspects of the customer timeline –and map your strategy accordingly
• Be pragmatic, and develop a roadmap: start with smallest ring and move out. Don’t jump on the largest ring of prospects without first getting grounded. Start at the inner circle and work you way out, building a foundation at the core and building on success and safety in experience. Companies that try to address prospects but lack the internal resources and ethos to deliver may find themselves offering false promises.

This single graphic represents an entire presentation I’m developing for internal client workshops or keynote presentations at marketing and business conferences.  I love to share, and want to get your feedback in the comments below.   Update: Mitch has also extended the conversation in the Social CRM pioneers Google Group, watch it unfold and participate in the group.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Online Marketing. Tagged: BAZAARVOICE, BESTBUY, customers, DOMINO'S PIZZA, EDELMAN, Facebook, JEREMIAH OWYANG, MARKETERS, MICROSOFT, NICOLE MCKINNEY, SHARE, SOCIAL CHANNELS, SOCIAL MEDIA, WAL-MART, WEB STRATEGY, WWW.BCADGROUP.COM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.