Social Media - Who Dares, Wins

The almost ubiquitous presence of social media sees many brands trying to add these new tools to their marketing mix - with varying levels of success. There have been attempts to raise brand awareness and support acquisition strategies, using Facebook and Twitter as channels for direct sales. What's been missing, however, is any consensus on how to integrate social media into loyalty programmes.

Combining loyalty with social media is not straightforward. For those brands who embrace the challenge, however, the rewards will be significant. 

Stick with what you know?

British Airways has operated a well-established and mature loyalty programme in its Executive Club since 1992. Interestingly, although they have a social media presence at corporate level, their Executive Club does not have a dedicated Twitter or Facebook account for members to follow.  

Furthermore, leading UK grocery retailer Tesco also provides no social media loyalty channel for its base of Clubcard carriers.  Neither does it embrace social media at a brand level - it has a Twitter page but has been dormant since early 2009.

Both brands therefore seem content to use traditional communication channels to underpin their loyalty programmes.  Why have they, like many others, not utilised social media to build relationships and engage with their vast base of loyalty programme members?

The smart application of social media allows a careful segmentation of audience, with groups of members easily differentiated and supplied with personalised offers and information.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is one brand that has really embedded social media as part of its ongoing loyalty strategy.  In an innovative application of this, Starwood created a global scavenger hunt for their Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members. There was a prize, of course, but the crucial factor was that clues were delivered via Facebook and Twitter. This marked the competition as something aimed at a particular subset of SPG members. Those members were fed information on a range of hotels across nearly 100 countries as they tried to uncover the clues in the game.

Your customers expect social media

A survey produced this summer saw 57% of respondents state their loyalty to a company would increase if it used social media channels for communication[1]. Over 70% wanted access to company experts and felt they would trust information delivered via social media. At the same time, companies were seen to be generally failing in their use of social media.

There is an understandable reluctance to implement a social media strategy. For one thing, as soon as a public manifestation of the company appears (Facebook page or Twitter), it may attract negative comment. Many brands feel that this is a danger: others see an opportunity. In the UK, Virgin Media, knowing they had a poor reputation in customer service, created a dedicated Twitter account to track and respond to negative comment. When a customer mentioned a problem, they immediately received a Twitter reply (visible to everyone following the original source of the tweet) offering help.

In the US, airline JetBlue's Twitter customer service account removes all anonymity by giving the name of the support employee on duty. The Marriott International hotel chain also has a Twitter account - authored by a senior head of public relations. They advertise the Twitter account on their rewards mailings to members and the tweets update followers on Marriott news and hotel openings, as well as responding quickly to queries and problems. The account currently has 68,501 followers and is following a healthy 12,581.

What measurement, however, is used to gauge the success of such initiatives? In Virgin Media's case, it could be simply an attempt to reduce their reputation for poor customer service. There's no doubt that it was inspired by Dell's experience over the previous few years.

Metrics and KPIs give brands the ability to respond and change. The nature of social media means campaigns can be created quickly and run for a short time to gauge response. Successful campaigns can be continued with little effort and unsuccessful campaigns terminated easily.

Engage or fade away

Whatever metrics are put in place, social media activity will eventually have to prove its ability to positively impact revenue. Although a particular offer or challenge may work at the tactical level, it must also sit at the heart of a complete strategy.  When it comes to social media, it's not enough to simply build it and hope they will come.  There are a number of crucial steps to consider before first engagement, whether at a brand or programme level.

Firstly, the choice of social media channel or platform is critical.  For the consumer-facing business the obvious platforms that should be considered are Twitter and Facebook - both are very popular and have excellent reach in the majority of countries. The exception to this is China where Twitter and Facebook are blocked, but substitute sites have emerged such as RenRen and Sina although these can only be used within China with no external influence.

Next is a clear plan to recruit new 'followers' across the selected channels, which may include encouraging sign up at every customer touch point (website, email etc). Perhaps then, most importantly, is to establish dialogue and to make members feel part of a conversation rather than recipients of marketing messages delivered via such channels.  Many brands forget the 'social' part of social media.

Finally, there's the notion of commitment. The flip side of loyalty from the customer is consistency of engagement from the brand. There is no benefit in initiating a programme of interaction and encouraging participation, then failing to follow through.

Social media throws up surprises constantly. A brand needs to be agile and continually on top of its messaging to give the impression that it is leading rather than simply following. Maintaining loyalty in the face of criticism or after making mistakes - in tone, messaging, or errors of fact - can come down to a timely apology or open acknowledgement of a fair critique. Equally, where criticism is unjust or malicious, strenuous rebuttal backed up by fact can work wonders.

Consumers are now in complete control of when and how they receive brand messages. Brand and loyalty programme managers, therefore, should at least have a plan for how to reach their customers and members through the networks in which they socialise.  The loyalty game is evolving at a phenomenal rate: brands that don't keep up or ignore the trends will be sorely tested.

Brands such as Starwood's have embraced social media in the loyalty space with open arms - and are now reaping the rewards.  There is certainly ground for others to make up - and ultimately those brands who dare to integrate social media to reach and interact with their loyalty programme members, will be the winners.