Social Media Marketing GPS - Chapter 3 Social Media Research: The 1st Listening Post Interview With C.B. Whittemore

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss ‘listening.’ It’s a fascinating subject.1 #smgps

It’s so critical and yet so often done poorly especially in many pre-digital or traditional, product based organizations. 2 #smgps

Why? Because product based organizations tend not think about the needs and wants of the marketplace. It’s just too messy! 3 #smgps

A market-focused mentality introduces too much variation and inefficiency into the production process. Right? 4 #smgps

And, a severe case of ‘curse of knowledge’ means routinely underestimating consumers, and assuming that they just don’t understand… 5 #smgps

It leads 2 not taking seriously customers’ issues, concerns, purchasing behaviors & frustrations with product category complexity. 6 #smgps

So, listening for Wear-Dated meant an opportunity to educate the flooring retail marketplace about [women] consumers. That’s right. 7 #smgps

…their retail experience. They didn’t see it would cost them business, WOM & referrals because consumers have many choices now. 9 #smgps

We explained that women consumers have high expectations for the retail experience – including clean bathrooms and tidy stores! 10 #smgps

And women want to see beautiful, comfortable & durable carpet products, they want more than cheap & beige because fashion matters. 11 #smgps

They also hate a hard sell, and salespeople who don’t listen, aren’t patient and don’t value their research & requirements. 12 #smgps

They want websites that clarify and simplify, that offer relevant information and educate rather than obfuscate. 13 #smgps

The best ways we found for listening? Not necessarily via Twitter which produces tweets about stuff happening ‘on the carpet.’ 14 #smgps

[Tweets referring to the ‘red carpet,’ ‘carpet bombing,’ ripping up carpet, cleaning carpet, etc.] Rather, watching and listening… 15 #smgps

… in-store, speaking to retailers, via our Wear-Dated reps, talking to friends, to my Mom [I’ve blogged her experience]. 16 #smgps

Also, via Google alerts, watching blog & website traffic patterns and which words resonate with readers, and then re-validating. 17 #smgps

Overall, listening led to developing more topics to address with retailers, pattern & styling suggestions with carpet mills... 18 #smgps

A blog focused on all things carpet [Carpetology], a more social & content rich website http://WearDated.com, more conversations… 19 #smgps

… & retail experience articles & presentations. Because it all relates to making it easier for customers to do business with us. 20 #smgps

And you can’t do that without keeping your ear to the ground and paying close attention to improving your customer experience. 21 #smgps

More From C.B.Whittemore @cbwhittemore Flooring The Customer Simple Marketing Now

Comments

[C.B. Whittemore]

Mary, you make a wonderful point about all of the other communication cues that SM doesn't fully capture, particularly for women and products connected with the most emotionally charged place in our lives: the home.

Toby, thanks again for this opportunity. I've been reliving the theme in multiple ways ever since contributing to this chapter.

[Mary Dean]

Listening is the most important step to establishing and maintaining a relevant and thriving brand. But to C.B.'s point, you have to tune in at many different posts to get the complete conversation. SM can give you some topics to delve into that might not come up during more "traditional" focus groups. On the other hand, when it comes to listening to women, there's a lot of value to SEEING what words don't say. For instance, if I wanted to hear women talk about carpet, I'd make sure to have in-home "girlfriend groups" rather than the old two-way mirror groups. Seeing how people decorate, interact, use carpet (or avoid the areas with it) and the body language that's used when topics are brought up often speaks volumes that you would never "hear" otherwise.