International software package designed to turn social media campaigns into sales

26 Jun 2012

Its importer claims that South Africa marketers can turn their social media networks and campaigns into sales lead generators using a software tool endorsed by multinational brands such as Symantec, Adobe, BlackBerry and Accor Hotels.

Jason Stewart

This follows an exclusive product import deal signed by local word-of-mouth marketing industry agency HaveYouHeard with California-based social media marketing agency, Zuberance. Its offering, Advocate ID, includes a powerful analytics tool, which is designed to allow marketers to track and optimise the results of their campaigns in real time.

The company is also the social media marketing agency for Norton Anti-Virus, which has recently doubled its star ratings on Amazon and claims to have increased sales by 200%, generating in excess of US$26m. The product won a Forrester Groundswell Award for the campaign.

"According to a recent Dantran media study, 74% of marketers use Facebook fan pages and Twitter, as a means of building advocacy for their brands. But how many of these marketers actually see hard core measurable return on their digital marketing investment?" asks Jason Stewart, director at HaveYouHeard.

Easy to invite individuals

By adding this product suite to its unique client campaigns, the account management team aims to be able to find and engage pre-qualified brand advocates on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. The offering is designed to make it easy to invite individuals to create and self-publish reviews, comments and endorsements about a client's product.

Non-traditional social networks, which directly or indirectly influence a product's market, such as shopping sites like Amazon, TripAdvisor or even HelloPeter, are also said to be reachable, translating into millions of sales-ready buyers who could potentially take up a client's new or showcased offering.

The product is also claimed to make it easy for brand advocates to create and publish positive testimonials about a client's brand, effect rapid sales increases and enable advocates to share special offers about a client's brand with their respective social network peers.

"Brands best suited for such a product, are companies such as Discovery, Outsurance or Woolworths, who have CRM and loyalty programmes as part of their marketing mix and who regularly offer call-to-action campaigns to client-heavy databases as a means of driving sales," concludes Stewart.