Social Utility:

The Secret to Unlocking Sales with Social Media

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Dr Paul Marsden

Social Commerce Today

@marsattacks

SOCIAL UTILITY

Three insights for turning social media into social sales...

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Yeah, yeah - social media is big. But so what?

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For 34% of women aged 18-34, checking their social media account is the !rst thing they do when waking up

It’s not a revolution, it’s just media

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SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION

its just media

Get over it

Social media is simply personal communication media - a utility to help people connect and share with each other

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TELEPHONE DID NOT KILL THE MOVIE STAR

As a business, having a social media strategy makes about as much sense as having a paper strategy

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But social media can have a useful role to play in your sales strategy...

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“IF I HAD TO GUESS SOCIAL COMMERCE IS THE NEXT AREA TO

REALLY BLOW UP” MARK ZUCKERBERG

For example, consumers are happy to hear from you in social media if you have a remarkable offer for them...

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For instance, Heinz opened a pop-up social media store to sell personalised get well soup; 1 in 8 fans bought...

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But when there’s no remarkable offer - there are no sales

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So if you want to sell with social media, you’ll need a clear and compelling value proposition...

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Smart brands are using social media to offer ‘social’ value propositions that are all about delivering ‘social utility’

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SOCIAL UTILITY

Helping people solve problems socially

Helping people solve social problems

‘Social utility’ is just a fancy name for helping people solve problems socially and helping them solve social problems

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“Does my butt look big in

this?”

Helping people solve problems socially means helping them solve problems together; with their social intelligence

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SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE“A wise man learns from the experience of others,

a fool by his own”

For example, why not help consumers club together like Mercedes to get better value by buying in bulk?

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You can also offer social utility by helping people solve their core social problems: how to ‘stand out’ and how to ‘fit in’

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Helping people ‘stand out’ with social media is all about offering them ‘social status’...

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As Burberry does with pop-up social media stores offering early access bragging rights for new products...

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Helping people ‘fit in’ with social media is all about helping ‘social bonding’ like Starbucks social media gift store

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Whether you help people solve problems socially or help them solve social problems, the secret is to offer social utility

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So here’s the secret to selling with social media: Offer a social shopping service that has genuine social utility

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social intelligence

social status

social bonding

SOCIAL UTILITYusing social media to help people solve

problems socially and solve social problems

$$$$$$ SOCIAL SALES $$$$$$

This is not a revolution, it’s just basic business sense; smart selling is about solving people’s problems - at a profit

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Find out more in the forthcoming ‘F-Commerce Handbook’ & ‘Social Commerce Handbook’ from McGraw Hill

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