The Social Customer: How Brands Can Use Social CRM to Acquire, Monetize, and Retain Fans, Friends, and Followers [Hardcover]

Adam Metz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2011

"The social customer is your NEW customer. And if you don’t recognize it, they will be someone else’s new customer. Adam Metz presents a clear, concise game plan for attracting them, connecting with them, and keeping them. Don’t just buy this book: invest in the content. Actually, invest time to implement the content."
—JEFFREY GITOMER, author of The Little Red Book of Selling and Social BOOM!

"This book connects two key dots in the customer equation: knowing why your customers uniquely do business with you and taking actions that cause them to repeat that choice more frequently."
— RICH BLAKEMAN, sales vice president, Miller Heiman, from the Afterword

"I’ve seen the future of marketing and it delivers in less than 300 pages. Adam Metz’s The Social Customer makes a compelling case for revolutionizing your thinking about how you connect and build a relationship with your customer in a fashion that shrinks your marketing team and amplifi es the love the world feels for you and your product. Not easy stuff, and, done the wrong way, it’s dangerous."
— CHIP CONLEY, founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and author of PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

About the Book

IF you look at the people who follow your company via social media simply as "social media users," you’re missing a much bigger picture. They are, above all, your customers—and as such, they have a multitude of needs. But without the right social media strategy, they might not remain your customers for long.

Adam Metz is prized by clients and online fans for his understanding of what makes both companies and their customers click—and how social media can get them in sync and drive revenue. In The Social Customer, he teaches you all you’ll need to know to transform your business—not just on the Web but across the board. Even if Facebook and Twitter were to disappear tomorrow, these are the fundamentals that will always apply—whatever the technology and whatever the social media. You’ll learn:

• How to transform your brand into a coveted "Social Object"
• Where your brand currently stands with your social customers—and how to mobilize your customers to get the word out
• The "The Ten Commandments of Social Customer Relationship Management"
• How to harness the power of collaboration
• How to delight your customers and win loyalty through individualized Treatment
• What terms like "Social Marketing" and "Social Sales Insights" really mean—and why they can be vital to business success

Metz also includes anecdotes, case studies, and outside-the-box inspiration from branding innovators—ranging from upstart punk bands to absolute giants like Burger King and SAP—all designed to keep you thinking critically, creatively, and with the kind of flexibility that will keep your social customers engaged as your company grows.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adam Metz is the VP of Business Development at Metz Consulting where he has consulted with nearly 100 companies on how to acquire, manage, monetize, and retain customers from the social Web. Metz lives in Oakland, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 16, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071759182
• ISBN-13: 978-0071759182
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on social media, CRM and marketing August 30, 2011

By Mark P. McDonald TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The Social Customer is the best book I have read about executing social media in marketing. That is a strong statement, but after reading more than a dozen books on the subject, from what exists right now I would recommend you read this book. Read it for ideas and new ways of thinking about social media as it applies to marketing and customer engagement - Social CRM. Here is why.

Adam Metz provides a comprehensive, well through out, and well-presented view of as much of the totality of social media, CRM and marketing as anyone.

Metz provides a simple and descriptive way to think about social CRM. Companies need to recognize that the customer is no longer just a customer but a `social customer' with different needs, ideas and wants. Your brand, product, or service is no longer just that - rather you want it to become a social object. A social object is something that people look at, discuss, and pass from person to person, put their stamp on. These simple ideas are powerful in changing the way you think about social media, branding, marketing building and CRM.

This book is more like a downloaded website on Social Customers and Social CRM than it is a book. It has a heavy focus on implementation decisions and realities rather than trying to make an executive argument about Social CRM. This is a treatment we desperately need to create value from Social CRM.

The table of contents provides the best illustration of the coverage of this book. I found these chapters break into three distinct sections which I have described below:

These first four chapters constitute the firs part of the book that lays out the concepts and argument for Social CRM.

Chapter 1: The Brand as Social Object and the Business for Social CRM
Chapter 2: The "How" and "Where" of Engagement and the Four Social Customer Scenarios.
Chapter 3: Social Customer Relationship Management
Chapter 4: Social Customer Insights and an Introduction to the 23 Use Cases of Social CRM.

The next six chapters detail the 23 Use Cases for Social CRM follow the first part.

Chapter 5: Social Marketing
Chapter 6: Social Sales
Chapter 7: Social Support
Chapter 8: Social Innovation and Product Development
Chapter 9: Collaboration
Chapter 10: Seamless Customer Experience

The third section starts at chapter 11 and focuses on the implementation and operational aspects of Social CRM. Organizational, metrics and operational issues are the focus of these remaining chapters.

Chapter 11: Metrics and Rationale
Chapter 12: The Methodology
Chapter 13: Social CRM Strategy
Chapter 14: Misunderstandings and Failures in Social CRM
Chapter 15: The 98 Percent Customer Management Model
Chapter 16: Social Customer Analytics: How to Tell if Your Team's Doing it Right
Chapter 17: Work Flows and Escalation Paths
Chapter 18: Social Advertising, The Social/Mobile Platform, and Integration with Retail
Chapter 19: The Social Customer and the Law
Chapter 20: Consumer Trust and Ethics
Chapter 21: International Feel

Now 21 chapters in less than 260 pages means that the book is not equally deep in all areas, but each chapter provides a context and links to materials you will need to consider. This book is not a series of blog posts loosely stitched together. The chapters are small, ranging form 6 - 12 pages that provide a connected view of the issue.

Strengths

The book treats the topic of social CRM comprehensively considering it from all angles and aspects. I found the pieces on Social Customer and the Law and the 23 use cases particularly helpful.

Open, in the truest sense of open source and open innovation. Metz liberally borrows and builds on the solid word put forth by others from Greenberg's CRM at the Speed of Light, to Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy. Metz does not claim to know everything and he builds onto these and other ideas and frameworks. This is in the true sense of open source as these additions advance everyone's thinking.

Flexible as Metz often raises issues through asking you consider various questions, conditions or situations rather than assuming that your company is the same as the others or that all situations require the same solution. This is critical to creating an implementable set of advice.

Challenges

The book is a little vendor centric, particularly at the beginning where it seems that the advice, ideas and recommendations are attributed to people from Social CRM technology companies. This balances itself out as the book progresses.

The book gets a bit ponderous in the middle as you go through the 23 use cases. The march through 21 chapters make some of the middle chapters blend together so its not a bad idea to put it down and come back latter. Definitely read some of the latter chapters on measurement, the law and trust.

The case studies are short, helpful but a little too superficial to give you a sense of their issues and implementation experience.

These challenges are not insurmountable. I would recommend reading the first part of the book, Chapters 1 - 4 and then take a pause. Put the book down for a few days and then read the middle section on the 23 use cases and the last section on implementation details.

Highly recommended as an actionable, practical and integrative resource for engaging the social customer and creating your own social objects. Business Unit Leaders and CEOs will learn what social media applied to marketing and CRM are really about. Marketers and Sales professionals will get new tactics and ways of thinking about social CRM. CIO's and IT professionals will better understand the context of social CRM and the convergence of technology, marketing and the social web.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Passes The Acid Test December 13, 2011

By Stuart McFaul

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Other reviewers have written very thoughtful and incisive observations about Adam's terrific book; I agree with them all, especially with the notation that this is a "Bible for Social CRM." It really should be on every social media practitioner's desk, from junior to senior. The "acid test" for the book (for me) has been the reaction of the three people to whom I've given a copy (yes, I'm that impressed); all three of these folks are experienced social media consultants. Their response? "I'd love to give this to my clients so they could understand the value we're bringing to them." "This reminds me of all the things we could -- and should -- be doing." and (my favorite): "This is the book I wish I'd written if I had one damn minute and was that smart." My carry-away? If you're not a social media consultant, read it to understand what social media can do for you; if you are a consultant, give one to your clients... it'll make you look smarter.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary December 13, 2011

By David Challacomb

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a well written book discussing aspects of marketing that are new and changing. It is relevant to big business, and more importantly to government and education. I hope the ideas presented will be appreciated and put into practice by a wide audience.