5 Ways to Turn Social Customers Into Brand Ambassadors

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Jessica Nyoman

Duke Chung co-founded Parature in 2000, with a vision to provide superior customer support software accessible via the Internet. Today, Parature’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product suite supports millions of end users worldwide.

With the advent of social media channels, customer service has forever changed. Consumers are no longer willing to sit and listen to classical music on hold. In today’s age of hyper-responsiveness, customers expect instant responses from support reps on very public online platforms.

Instead of shying away from social media, smart businesses will leverage their social channels to spread a positive brand reputation, to connect happy customers and to step up their customer support efforts.

Consumers aren’t eager to blast negative messages about your company – unless your brand is unresponsive. I recently learned at an IBM conference that customers are five times more likely to post something positive than negative, and that companies usually have at least 10 warnings before someone posts a negative comment.

Happy customers who get their issues resolved tell an average of four to six people about their positive experiences, according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs. It pays to treat your customers well, not only for the repeat business, but also to gain the positive word-of-mouth consumers now broadcast across social media. Satisfied customers can become your most influential brand ambassadors. They’ll help to answer customer service questions posted online and also tout their own positive experiences with your business.

Here are the five best ways to turn customers into brand ambassadors through customer service.

1. Be Fast

When a customer turns to social media for a support issue, he expects a brand to generate the fastest response possible. According to a recent UK study, 25% of social media users expect a response within one hour, and 6% expect a response within 10 minutes. If you allow a support issue to dangle for too long, you risk being perceived as a company that either doesn’t know the answer or doesn’t care enough to reply promptly.

Remember, most people on social networks aren’t itching to post negative comments. They only do so after a bad experience. Therefore, don’t give them enough time to have a bad experience.

2. Be Visible

Private and direct messaging on Facebook and Twitter is all well and good, but when it comes to customer service, it’s best to be totally transparent and visible. The answer you give to one customer could, in turn, help thousands more. Think of each post and interaction as a resource that future customers can reference. Not to mention, customers will be more apt to direct friends to your page with their own questions.

Social media sites foster an online community around your brand. Watch how customers discuss and respond to your products so you can join the conversation and better understand the community that supports your brand.

3. Be Consistent

It’s vital that you ensure all customer support answers remain consistent across the web and across all social channels. If a common question is posted on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, then each response should communicate the same solution. Conflicting answers create confused, unhappy customers. Just as people expect consistent experiences with your products, they also expect consistent service across all of your channels. Brand accuracy drives confidence and credibility, and helps build brand loyalty among your customers.

4. Be Organized

If consistency creates brand ambassadors, then being organized is equally paramount. Admittedly, the cross-company integration and management of social media continues to be challenging. Maintaining a successful social media presence on just one network is a full-time job. Trying to do it over multiple networks is impossible if your support staff isn’t properly organized.

Customers can spot disorganization a mile away, especially online. However, if you demonstrate that your company support knows what it’s doing, you’ll earn the respect and trust of brand loyalists. Organization goes beyond knowing who does what on the support team; it’s also vital that everyone on the team is on the same page. Each team member must know where to seek reliable answers, and each must source information from the same place.

5. Be Human

As cool as Siri is, she still hasn’t crossed from digital assistant to human entity. Until then, your social media customer support should remain as human as possible. On the bright side, social networks already take the formalities out of conversation. It’s one of their biggest draws.

Therefore, a customer’s name isn’t “Inquiry #83kd4z.” She’s Christie from Denver. People respond best when they feel like they’re talking to other people. Your customer support should make customers feel as if they’re posting a normal question on a friend’s wall. Creating that kind of relationship with your customer should be the priority of any company.

Using customer service to create brand ambassadors isn’t the Herculean task it once was. Social media is presenting countless opportunities to turn your company’s support system into an open, interactive community, where customers can share their positive experiences with one another and spread the good word about your products and services – all on your behalf.

What Do Facebook Users Expect from Brands?

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Suwandhi Taswin

Facebook users have both + and – expectations when “liking” a brand! Many Companies are very often on the hunt for more “likes” for their Facebook pages with hopes that people will soon recognize its brand or sometimes it’s just for increasing number of exposures on social media. However only 42% of US Facebook users think marketers should interpret a “like” in that way.

Study from ExactTarget on June 2011 study from, “Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Meaning of Like,” which found that 25% of US Facebook users disagree that marketers should interpret “like” to mean they are a fan or advocate of the company”.

Facebook users themselves have some preconceived notions about what to expect when they “like” a company on the site, and among those who do not become brand fans, many are negative. More than half of users expect to be bombarded with messages or ads (54%), while 45% do not want to give companies access to profile information and 31% do not want to push content from a company into friends’ newsfeeds. These possibilities have prevented users from making brand connections on the social networking giant.

On the flip side, many US Facebook users also have certain expectations of perks they should get after following a company’s Facebook page.

Study from The ExactTarget study found that “58% of US Facebook users expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales after “liking” a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they “liked” in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.”

Additionally, younger consumers, ExactTarget found, have fewer expectations and generally “like” brands as a form of expression, not to get certain perks. Meanwhile, older consumers want something of value for “liking” a brand. By listening to what their target fanbase wants out of the Facebook relationship, marketers can get more interaction on their page and encourage more people to “like” rather than avoid brands on Facebook.

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008630

25+ Awesome Illustrator Tutorials of 2011

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Jessica Nyoman

Adobe Illustrator is a designer’s delight for its targeted approach towards both artist and graphic designers. The artists are always found ready to share thier experiences with the designers’community and we often find tutorials written by them about the use of new techniques and tricks of the software. At this platform we are presenting a whole lot of 25+ best Illustrator tutorials emerged during the current year 2011. The list is never to miss!

1. Gradient Mesh Tool In Illustrator

2. Creating a Burning, Vector Match Using Gradient Meshes in Illustrator

3.Create Vector Denim Texture Using Adobe Illustrator

4. Create a Chalkboard Type Treatment

5. Create Proper Gears Using the Dynamic Shapes Tool

6. FAUX 3D FINISHES IN ILLUSTRATOR

7. Master Composition in Vector Art

8. Woodcut effect for type Art

9. Create Angry Birds Characters In Adobe Illustrator

10. Rusty Metal Text Effect

11. Splash of Colorful Paint Using Adobe Illustrator

12. How to Make a Golden Compass in Illustrator

13. Create a Shiny Shield with Illustrator

14. Create a Colorful Logo Style Icon in Illustrator

15. Draw an Analog Stopwatch with Illustrator

16. Vector Snake Using Adobe Illustrator CS5 and Mesh Tormentor

17. Origami Style Typography in Illustrator

18. Create a Sparkly Text Effect

19. Create scalable vector halftones in Illustrator

20. Folded Paper Text Effect in Illustrator

21. Magic Book Using Adobe Illustrator

22. Cocktail Glass in Adobe Illustrator

23. Create a Fun Typography Poster in Illustrator

24. Create a Polished Raised Type Treatment

25. Create Advertising Billboard

Be Yourself! Because Everybody Else is Taken

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Vanesha Manuturi

One of the challenges of being small-business companies in the social media race may be finding the marketing strategy that works and “making it yours”. What does “making it yours” mean?

Most often, small-business companies become so disadvantage in this social media race that companies begin to give over the power of social media to someone whom the company thinks knows best, such as social media interns, without truly equipping them with a “feel” of the company.

The tech website Mashable.com had an article titled Social Media for Small Businesses: 6 Effective Strategies which listed out six considerably simple yet helpful guidelines for small businesses; one of which I is to “get help without relinquishing your identity”. No matter how helpful social media interns or social consultants are, it’s not wise to give over the reins completely, yet business owners should still keep an eye on the content, messages and whatnots that goes in the marketing process.

This is especially crucial because with all the new and ‘hip’ social media tools that are popping out every day, companies often jump to the ‘in’ social media tools without re-evaluating their marketing strategies. Because of this, companies also have the tendencies to just follow whatever the leading companies in social media are doing.

Although I have mentioned big named companies in the past, I hope companies should use them as an inspiration, not imitation. It’s highly crucial for each companies to have its own image in its marketing strategy because the key goal of utilizing social media as a marketing platform is to present the different and unique sides of the company, unraveling the people behind the brand, thus breaking the barrier between the company and the customer. An effective marketing strategy should be circled around the company’s image or brand first, then the marketing tools can follow.

The Community of Starbucks Through Twitter

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Vanesha Manuturi

Famous for its coffeehouse franchise brand that may be even competing with McDonalds in their participation in globalization, the Starbucks Corporation had its annual shareholders’ meeting last Wednesday on March 23^rd 2011. The annual shareholders’ meeting that was located in Seattle, Wa. was broadcasted via Twitter through various Twitter accounts from those of Starbucks’ which was @StarbucksLive to those of the local newspapers, such as @SeaTimesBiz.

The Twitter accounts covered the meeting in such detail from the performances to the key points that Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz discussed throughout the meeting; While following the Twitter accounts, it was as if I was sitting on a chair in the middle of the meeting itself!

Through the blow by blow Twitter updates, Starbucks accomplished to further establish their brand throughout the community.As a successful franchise, what Starbuck marketed to the community is not their coffee. Their brand is actually built upon a sense of community as Starbucks Corporation stated in its website, “We’re not just passionate purveyors of coffee, but everything else that goes with a full and rewarding coffeehouse experience.” Starbucks has used many marketing tools to build their campaign around this brand of community. One of which is Twitter.

The detailed Twitter updates of the meeting were able to give a new sense of community to the Twitter followers of Starbucks. Giving the followers a taste of the meeting created an image that Starbucks is not to be seen as a corporation, instead Starbucks created an image for the targeted market that it is a community of people who shared the same interest for coffee.

Facebook Marketing: Using contests to promote your brand

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Rionald Soerjanto

When you offer a good incentive, word travels. On Facebook, when you offer a good incentive, word reverberates off friends. When members interact with the contest by uploading videos or images, answering questions, or becoming a fan of your Page, it generates News Feed stories, amplifying the word-of mouth effect. A contest or giveaway promotion can be a very viral vehicle to ignite fan engagement with your Facebook Page.

When Neutrogena launched their Facebook Page in April 2009, they created a contest to build brand awareness and drive the key female, teen audience to their Page. The Fresh Faces contest, which was held in conjunction with Teen Vogue magazine, helped the brand attract more than 700 fans to its Facebook Page. The winner earned a chance to be a contributing beauty editor for a Neutrogena advertorial on TeenVogue.com.

Take Adobe, who wanted to reach the elusive college student market with its Adobe Student Editions, so they provided steep discounts of up to 80 percent on popular Adobe software for students. With the help of the interactive agency, Traction, the company developed a game app called Real or Fake in which users had to determine whether a photo was fake or real, underscoring the quality of its Adobe Photoshop imaging software.

The application was featured on the Adobe Facebook Page. Adobe engaged in a targeted ad campaign to reach interested college students. The game caught on because it was a fun and easy-to-play casual gaming experience. Of those that played, 6 percent clicked the Buy Now link at the end of the game. It also incorporated a simple Share button, in which 6 percent of players sent an invite to their friends, adding an additional point of interaction to encourage viral sharing. By the end of the competition, the Adobe Facebook Page welcomed more than 6,000 new fans.

Introducing our new client: DP Haus

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Rionald Soerjanto

DP Haus is another new client we have from Indonesia.

DP Haus is a building material supplier focusing in flooring material. Currently, DP Haus sells Granite tiles, wood composite, translucent stone, Quartz stone. The uniqueness of DP Haus business : Provide good quality product and unique – creative – innovative products.

We are hired to redesign their website. Please stay tuned for their new website soon!

Five Social Media Models

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Rionald Soerjanto

It’s a good idea to know how others are using social media so you can incorporate those models into your own campaigns.

Here are five common social media models that are being used by most people (some of whom are our own clients):

Branding. Some companies use social media strictly as a branding tool. Typically, this means running a YouTube campaign that (hopefully) gets a lot of buzz around the water cooler. In our opinion, using social media simply as a branding tool is a twentieth century mindset. If you really want to supercharge your social media campaigns, you’ll incorporate one or all of the next four highly measurable approaches.

eCommerce. If you can sell your product or service online, then you’ll want to drive people to a landing page on your website where they can buy your goods. How can you accomplish this? Just do what Dell does—they Tweet about special promotions available only to the people who follow them on Twitter. The promotional links are easily tracked so they can see how many people went to the landing page and how many converted from a prospect to a customer. They generate millions of dollars in revenue each quarter by using this method.

Research. Many companies are using social media as a tool to do research. Sometimes, this involves building a website to track the results. Starbucks has done this famously with their MyStarbucksIdea.com website. Other times, using social media as a research tool can be as simple as doing a poll on LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey, or via email.

Customer Retention. A good rule of thumb is that it costs three to five times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Given that, wouldn’t it be smart to use social media as a tool to keep customers loyal and engaged? That’s what Comcast and Southwest Airlines do—they communicate via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to help solve customer service issues.

Lead Generation. What do you do if you can’t sell your product or service online? Then you’ll want to do what many B2B companies do—that is, to use social media to drive prospects to a website where they can download a whitepaper, listen to a Podcast, or watch a video. Once you’ve captured the prospect’s contact information, you can re-market to them via email, direct mail, or any number of other methods.

Big Picture: What a Web Site Does?

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Rionald Soerjanto

Big Picture #1:

A Web site must do at least one of two things, but probably both:

• Turn a stranger into a friend, and a friend into a customer.

• Talk in a tone of voice that persuades people to believe the story you’re telling.

Big Picture #2:

A Web site can cause only four things to happen in the moments after someone sees it:

• She clicks and goes somewhere else you want her to go.

• She clicks and gives you permission to follow up by email or phone.

• She clicks and buys something.

• She tells a friend, either by clicking or by blogging or phoning or talking.

That’s it……

If your site is attempting to do more than this, you’re wasting time and money and, more important, focus.

Cool business card designs

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Rionald Soerjanto

I found these cool business card designs from CreativeBits.

A bit more creativity and a little less die-cut can also demonstrate well what your client does. In this case the dentist removing cavities.

Makes sure to have an idea, don’t just have a punch-out for no real reason.

The message is very important if you’re going to bear the extra cost of laser cutting or die-cutting.

You can make the holes big enough so you can put your fingers through to complete the picture, like on this card for Yoga classes.

You can use other more expensive materials if paper doesn’t hold well enough. This one for example is made up of thin wood board.

And if wood isn’t enough for even more detail go for thin metal sheets.

If you’re still hungry after eating soup with that spoon, you can eat this beef jerky card. Perfect if you don’t want people calling you after that all important meeting.

Other times refined designs with art paper, embossing, UV varnish or unusual typography is what’s required for a good effect.

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Category Archives: Branding