Online friendships as strong as direct relationships

Now new research released by Symantec, The Norton online living report reveals that of those who have made friends online, up to 60% enjoy these friendships at least as much as their offline ones. Dismissing the assumption about the nature of purely online relationships which are assumed to be superficial and weak.

As the evidence rolls in from around the world about the power of online communities and user-generated branding, South African businesses are increasingly starting to take notice. Not even six months ago in my corporate discussions I was receiving blank stares; in the last few months I have received dramatically improved interest.

Entry point

In the South African context, the question is what is the entry point into social media technology. In order for money to be spent, there needs first to be a budget.

Will the entry point be in either the customer care service or the marketing department, or will it be internally in change management? The business mindset seems to see the customer relationship changing at the point of sale from marketing and selling to after-sales service, forgetting that the brand is created by the entire experience the customer has at every interface.

If it's the marketing department, then the approach is likely to be social media empowered interruption marketing, targeting messages at customer groups and aimed at customer acquisition. If it's the PR department, the effort will be directed at reputation management. Customer care will be problem solving and dealing with complaints.

Increasing power

The increasing power of customers, enabled as it is by their social networking activities, does indicate that customer may finally no longer be a means to an end (turnover and profitability) but customer satisfaction a goal of itself.

Perhaps final goal would be be customer acquisition activities integrated with “traditional” marketing and the major effort at building the conversation with current and prospective customers so that when the 70%, who do research the customer experience when making a buying decision, get onto the Internet to do so, they find an business engaged in a conversation with their customers delivering the value the customer now only dreams of and delivering massive financial returns.