Social Trends Report 2014

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................... 3

The future will be driven by big data ................................... 4

Authentic brands will triumph ............................................ 6

Consumers define the moment of truth............................... 8

Social insights will drive innovation ................................... 11

Advocacy is key to winning more word-of-mouth share .......13

Customer is (forever) king ................................................15

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The digital marketplace is changing at a faster clip every year, with a storm of new forces pulling brands in every direction—from mobile to big data, converged media to the omnichannel. While seemingly overwhelming, within these market forces lie unprecedented opportunities to improve business and connect with consumers in more meaningful ways.

In this year’s report, we’ll examine five critical trends explored at Summit 2014 that are shaping the digital marketplace. With new insights from the world’s foremost marketers, social strategists, and business thinkers, we’ll show you how to become a more customer-centric company and ride the waves of change.

The future will be driven by big data.Every consumer interaction (online and off) is a data point. Smart companies use this data to deliver better shopping experiences that incite lasting relationships. Read more

Authentic brands will triumph.Brands that are transparent in sharing their beliefs and others’ beliefs about their brand and products will earn consumers’ trust and, ultimately, their business. Read more

Consumers define the moment of truth.The moment of truth—the point at which the shopper decides to buy—can now be anywhere and at any time. Brands must create customized experiences that add real value across all channels. Read more

Social insights will drive innovation.User-generated content contains critical insights to help businesses make smarter decisions in a rapidly changing market. Successfully analyzing this content will lead to product improvements, new product developments, and more effective marketing. Read more

Advocacy is key to winning word-of-mouth share.Brands must create a steady pipeline of earned content by cultivating a community of advocates among customer enthusiasts and category influencers. Read more

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Consumers exchange data for value

People are waking up to the power of their data. Consumers know brands want their information but, unclear on how brands will use it, are reluctant to share. The onus is on brands to entice them to share through a value exchange. Consumers are willing to trade data with the brands they trust, with one caveat, says Bazaarvoice CMO Lisa Pearson:

“We’ll all get used to the idea of trading our personal data. It’ll become a currency… we’ll do that because we’ll get value in return… the new ROI is going to become ROD, and people are going to expect a return on data.”

Without analysis, people get little value from the information they generate every day. They can’t act on it; it doesn’t make their lives better. But they’re willing to turn over that information for something that does make their life better, says Steven Brennan, SVP of Creative Technologist, Arnold Worldwide:

“Our consumers are increasingly sophisticated. They are really comfortable with giving up a little bit of privacy or a little bit of information if there’s a value exchange… if providing them utility, or insight, or reviews, or more personalized things in a soft way.”

That is the real key, says Bazaarvoice VP of Marketing Communications Scott Anderson – using data to better serve customers, creating a two-way street that serves both parties:

“With big data and intelligence, we’re understanding more than ever before the behaviors and the preferences of the consumers out there. So there’s an opportunity, again, for us to be the advocates for the customers that we serve.”

It may be as simple as offering relevant discounts to the best customers, suggests Senior Manager of Product Management, Gap Inc., Christina Thorpe:

“I think it’s personalizing how you talk to [the consumer] through whatever channels you do so, creating product recommendations, promotional offers or other content offerings that are more meaningful to her.”

The future will be driven by big data. Every online interaction is a data point. What consumers buy, read, like, watch, discuss – all of this data makes up their digital identity. And as more everyday products go digital – fridges, watches, thermostats, wearables – the amount of data businesses can capture about their customers is growing at a shocking rate.

What can businesses learn based on all of that information? How can they use that data to deliver better shopping experiences and build lasting customer relationships?

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But serving customers better doesn’t just have to mean discounts. People will expect a more personalized relationship that rewards their loyalty and sharing, says Tod Szewczyk, VP, Director of Innovation at Leo Burnett,

“If you’re sending something that’s valuable to somebody, that doesn’t have to be a coupon per se, but it is something that’s a valuable, relevant message to them. So maybe it’s a loyalty thing where you’ve been in the store a couple times, and you’ve bought a number of different products. Maybe it’s a recommendation on something else that might be able to help you. Those are the kind of value exchanges that I think make it worthwhile.”

Essentially, consumers are looking to brands to be a true partner, not just a vendor. They’ll tell businesses more about themselves if companies use that information as a friend would – to know them better and develop an increasingly personalized relationship. For example, through personal information like buying history, past reviews, social network data, and self-reported preferences, businesses can suggest highly relevant products to shoppers, with a better guarantee that it’s the right product for that individual. Bazaarvoice’s Pearson elaborates:

“In 2014 we’re reliant on the opinions of others for determining how to make purchasing decisions. We rely on word of mouth from friends and family, and we rely on reviews from strangers. And all of that input actually helped us answer the question, ‘Do people generally like this?’ But in 2020, the question we really want answered is, ‘Will I like this?’”

Lisa PearsonCMO, Bazaarvoice

Bias and assumptions cloud data-based decision making

While personalization and deeper customer understanding sound great, most marketers haven’t yet reached the data literacy needed to deliver these experiences for two reasons. First, the volume of data available is staggering, and deciding which data is relevant to certain business decisions is a challenge in itself. And second, once the right data is available, the tools needed to meaningfully interpret it aren’t quite sophisticated enough yet.

Meanwhile, today’s marketplace changes with lightning speed, leaving little time to answer those two questions. This leads marketers to snap decisions based on data correlations that don’t necessarily show causation, says author and founder of FiveThirtyEight.com Nate Silver:

“If you’re betting on a correlation in the data and you don’t understand the cause behind it, then I would like to take the other side of that bet. You have to be careful here. When we have an infinite number of searches that we can run in the data, finding relationships that are statistically significant and correlated is not the same as finding ones that will predict things and be meaningful as you go forward… If you’re not careful, you’ll start seeing patterns in the random noise.”

Silver goes on to warn against research bias. It can be tempting to seek out only the data that proves a desired argument or encourages the desired action. This in turn leads to faulty analysis and bad decisions, he says:

“[Researchers] have a view about what the world looks like, what the answer they want to see is. Then they find the data to prove it, and act like they’re being empirical… You have some initial views of the system that are based on your accumulated knowledge, or your incentives, or your biases, or what you think you know… Maybe the data is objective, but we all have a subjective view of it... Sometimes it leads us to see the data in a rose-colored way. Just having an awareness of that fact, I think, is pretty important.”

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Nate SilverAuthor & Founder, FiveThirtyEight.com

Authenticity will define the future of online WOM

The fraudulent actions of a few companies have degraded the value of online word-of-mouth (WOM), the most powerful digital selling tool. This distrust is even more prevalent in global regions like Southeast Asia, where people are highly aware of the click-farms used to submit five-star review after five-star review.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission and other global authorities are cracking down on content fraud, making hosting inauthentic content a financial risk as well. How can brands ensure authenticity and secure consumers’ trust?

Bazaarvoice’s Austin offers three factors that define authenticity in reviews:

1. Unedited. Reviews are not altered in any way – including corrections for

spelling or grammar – by anyone other than the author. They are not filtered or

deleted for being negative.

2. Transparent. Direct solicitation of positive reviews is prohibited. Any

incentive given to reviewers in exchange for an unbiased review (such as

samples or discounts) is disclosed. Employees and vendors must disclose their

relationship.

3. Free from fraud and spam. Reasonable measures are taken to block

fraudulent content and spam, including trolling, commercial messages,

automated submissions, and illegitimate content posted by competitors.

Distrust of corporations leads people to look for brands that seem “human.” Cultivating a transparent, authentic reputation humanizes brands, which leads to a deeper sense of trust among customers. That trust can lead to attachment, suggests Larry Vincent, Executive Director of UTA Brand Studio:

Review fraud protection tipsPublish an authenticity policy where consumers can easily find it.

Disclose all incentives used to solicit reviews, and mark all content submitted by employees or vendors.

Use a neutral third party to moderate content for fraud, and make that partnership known.

Use a combination of software and human moderation to ensure feedback is legitimate.

Authentic brands will triumph.The enormous selling power of reviews disappears if consumers don’t trust them – even if they are completely authentic. Unfortunately, 70% of consumers have questioned the trustworthiness of reviews online. The lack of transparency about how businesses collect data and monitor consumer opinions contributes to this lack of confidence. Bazaarvoice CEO Gene Austin elaborates:

“Lately, reviews have come under attack. People are questioning the trustworthiness of reviews… If social and word-of-mouth marketing are so important to all of us, authenticity is fundamental.”

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“Being authentic and just telling good stories is more important than ever… People start to see brands as having a special connection to themselves. They can actually see it as being part of ‘who I am’… It’s the best predictor of some of the most difficult-to-achieve consumer behaviors. Willingness to pay a premium price, inclination to defend the brand when it’s under attack, and also most importantly, the willingness to promote it, to recommend it to others… As we increasingly try to make brands more human, understanding attachment is a big part of that puzzle.”

There’s no escaping transparency these days – either a brand is honest, or its customers are honest about it somewhere else. It’s best to create a space for those transparent conversations, says AOL Digital Prophet David Shing:

“In this transparency world, you can’t hide from much, because people just want to brag about stuff or talk bad about your stuff. But you have to embrace it and embrace this change. And guess what? You’re no longer the curator of content. You’re the curator of conversations.”

Negative feedback offers a chance to show transparency and responsiveness

Most businesses aren’t intentionally misleading. One of the biggest threats to authenticity is negative feedback, which can spook even the most honest marketers into making poor decisions. But bad reviews aren’t something to hide – they’re actually an opportunity to demonstrate commitment to authenticity by being transparent and responsive. Bazaarvoice VP of Client Success Joe Rohrlich suggests that reviews with both positive and negative sentiment are actually the most effective:

“What we see most commonly is that [the best review] is a review that shows the pros and the cons of that product basically. It appears to be fair and balanced, because the consumer is talking about why they love or are satisfied with the product, but also its deficiencies or its areas for improvement.”

Of course, some feedback that’s just plain bad is inevitable. That’s nothing to fear, says Bazaarvoice VP of Sales-North America Matt Curtin:

“The more content that you can pull in is going to drown out some of that negative noise. But even a little bit of that negativity is going to just add that human element to your brand.”

Trust goes both ways. For consumers to trust a business, the business must in turn trust consumers and take their feedback to heart, says Ron Pluth Manager, Social Media, Epson America, Inc.:

“I’ve always questioned the motivation behind why you wouldn’t want to hear negative reviews. I boiled it down to trust. You don’t trust your customer, or you don’t trust your product. And so if the customer’s telling the truth, and there’s something wrong with your product, don’t you want to know?”

Displaying that negative feedback is a signal that a brand trusts its customers’ opinions. But to truly show people they’re listening, brands must act on poor feedback – ranging from simply responding to the customer to making real changes. Webroot uses alerts to send one- and two-star reviews to the appropriate teams to ensure a prompt response. And Home Depot relies on vendors to address customer issues, says Sydney Katz, Product Manager, User Generated Content, The Home Depot:

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“We really depend a lot on our vendors and on our merchants to be pouring through the reports that are sent out to them on a regular basis, to be able to identify where the reviews are that really warrant the responses the most… We’ve been able to work with the manufacturers to fix [issues] so that we didn’t have those problems in the future… When you catch something like that early on, it really can help prevent a lot of complaints and customer issues later down the road.”

As Sydney suggests, when the complaint is a deeper issue, sometimes a product change is needed. It’s important to let people know when the problem is solved, says Brandy Reinhard, Online Merchandising Director, The Container Store:

“We’ll make little product changes, little product innovations based on customer feedback. And so we go back to every single review and let those customers know… It’s not just those negative reviews, but it’s the positive ones too, where we can find a lot of insight.”

That’s important to note: It’s not just the complainers who warrant a response. Sometimes positive reviewers deserve a note as well – especially those who offer insights for better products, says Anna Kim, Sr. Advocate Programs Manager, Webroot:

“You get a lot of positive reviews that say, ‘This is an awesome product. I love it. But…’ And it’s equally important to respond to that because that shows, ‘Hey, we also are listening to people who aren’t complaining, but who have constructive ideas on how we can [improve].’”

The great news is, once a business has created an environment of trust and transparency, fans will come to its defense when unreliable feedback inevitably flows in. Swanson Health Web Content Manager Cathleen Wendel sees it often:

“What we found is many of our customers will respond to those negative reviews, right there through the review process. So the customers help each other by responding, so we don’t necessarily have to respond to every single one.”

Omnichannel consumers demand consistent, quality brand experiences

Today’s hyper-connected consumers view the Internet as just as much a part of their “real world” as physical stores. The tough thing is, though, as the real and the digital worlds blur, the media channels that connect them are fragmenting, creating new arenas every day in which brands are expected to participate. AOL’s Shing agrees:

“Fragmentation is only getting worse. It’s getting wider and wider and wider. So those conversations and those engagements, those abilities to brag about your brand are happening in different places today.”

Consumers want all of the benefits of online shopping while browsing the aisles, and vice versa, on all devices. They expect online deals and delivery options, for example, to be available in stores as well. Meeting the omnichannel consumer’s demands requires brands to map out their customer journey and deliver the same quality experience everywhere consumers touch the brand. Exact Target VP of Mobile Products RJ Taylor agrees:

“There are actually moments across the customer life cycle from their original awareness through evaluation, purchase, usage, repurchase, and then advocacy. And this is just a fraction of all the moments that are out there that we need to be thinking about… We have to understand the individual moments that a customer or consumer is in, and then create journeys that map to those moments.”

The LimitedStores VP of E-commerce, Jenn McClain-De Jong adds:

“We have a seamless experience, no matter what, and our communication is exactly the same throughout each touch point of the brand.”

Consumers define the moment of truth.People don’t distinguish between channels. Whether they’re browsing a brand site at home or checking reviews on their phone in the store aisle, consumers see it all as simply “shopping.” The moment of truth – the moment at which the shopper decides to buy – can be anywhere and at any time, says Bazaarvoice’s Austin:

“Like your brand, the moment of truth is defined by the consumer. The moment of truth is, ‘I need the content now, anywhere, anytime, on any device, with impeccable quality.’”

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One of the hallmarks of a great brand experience is the story the brand tells – which has omnichannel implications too, says Michael Smith, VP of eCommerce, Sterling Jewelers, Inc.:

“You hear the speakers talk about, ‘The brand that tells the best story wins.’ It’s really true, but you have to tell that story consistently across all these touch points... the story that you and your company, your brand, your products can tell, it has to be told repeatedly in a very clear and linear way across all these touch points.”

That story isn’t limited to brand-created messaging, either. A large part of the story a brand tells is the story its customers tell – the firsthand opinions of real product owners. It’s as important for that user-generated content (UGC) to be available across channels as it is for any other brand media, says The Home Depot’s Sydney Katz:

“Make sure that from a customer perspective that the user-generated content will be available for customers however, whenever, wherever they want it… If they’re in the stores, how can we get that content for the customers while they’re in their shopping experience in an easy way?”

David ShingDigital Prophet, AOL

Helpful, mobile-optimized content is stickiest

Mobile is the fastest-growing channel, with more people spending more time (and money) every year consuming content on their smartphones and tablets. This makes it critical for content like marketing emails, product pages, and review submission pages to be mobile-optimized, lest companies risk losing shoppers who reach a non-optimized page and are turned off by the small buttons and tiny text. Exact Target’s RJ Taylor agrees:

“Ninety-one percent of U.S. consumers say it’s really, really important for content to be accessible across all devices. So you’re sending that email on a mobile device, they’re opening it up, [they] click-through, where do they land? Where are you taking them? Into a mobile-optimized site, a place where they can submit a rating review, a place in the app, etc.?”

Bazaarvoice’s Joe Rohrlich shares similar thoughts:

“We all know how much e-mail we read on our phones nowadays... It’s actually critically important that the submission, both the ask of the review and also the submission of the review, is done in a way that’s easy and optimized for the mobile device.”

But it’s not enough to present content that displays well on smaller screens. Brands can’t be mobile for mobile’s sake – they have to add real value to the shopper’s brand experience via mobile, says AOL’s David Shing:

“People call it brand utility. What the hell does that mean? Simply stated, can you be useful to somebody’s day-to-day habits and their patterns? Because if you are, you are a brand of utility at that point.”

Businesses may get people to download their app, but without making the experience truly useful to the consumer and solving their problems, a first-time user may never open the app again. According to Shing, 70 percent of people will actually try a branded mobile experience once and then never again. SVP Creative Technologist, Arnold Worldwide Steven Brennan elaborates::

“If you’re getting really useful content though (whether it’s a coupon, maybe it’s a video, maybe it’s a chance to interact with a brand), once it becomes useful, that is what will give it sticking power… If it’s not valuable, they’re not going to use it and they’re not going to come back.”

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That means understanding that the needs of shoppers browsing on their tablets at home are different than those of the mobile shopper standing in a store, with the product in one hand and their smartphone in the other. Smart businesses offer mobile experiences tailored to the needs of both situations.

In stores, mobile shoppers look for information on specific products, including checking product reviews and pictures, comparing prices and shipping options, and reading consumer Q&A. These moments are ideal opportunities for manufacturing brands to reach the shopper with helpful expert content and earned media. Innovations like near-field communication (NFC) and iBeacons allow brands a window into the retail channel – an area where brands haven’t historically had much of a voice.

While these innovations are still new, their intuitiveness leads many to predict quick adoption amongst shoppers, says Shelfbucks CEO Eric McMillan:

“You walk up to it with your [retail or brand] app, and you reach out, and you get near the beacon, and it immediately recognizes you’re there and passes you content: Expert content, ratings, reviews, coupons, deals, promotions, whatever… And there’s a seamless kind of web that weaves the brand and the retailer together through a beacon on the shelf. So finally, brands have a way to engage with the retailer.”

Innovations like image recognition, while still new, will eventually allow shoppers to “window shop” at all times. Whether they’re looking in a store window, watching TV, or walking down the street, future consumers can be shopping all the time through devices like smart glasses. Bazaarvoice’s Pearson illustrates:

“I don’t have to ask that lady where she got that dress. In less than a second my smart glasses saw the dress and pulled it up for me. And it wouldn’t have mattered if I saw the dress in real life or on a TV show or read about it in a magazine. Through image recognition, all media and all experiences will be shoppable… In 2020, the world will be our storefront. We’ll be able to window-shop all the time, without any borders.”

Consumers expect a curated visual experience

Product-focused content such as ratings and reviews have historically catered to the analytical left brain—the side that looks for average star ratings and volume of reviews. But there is a new opportunity to appeal to the more artistic, visual, and emotional aspects of the right brain that consumers are spending more and more time engaging with— networks like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat.

This shift in the social web has created a content crisis for businesses that are struggling to figure out how to make their branded content more visual while sifting through millions photos and videos shared by other people about their brands. Over 100 million photos are posted daily to Instagram and Twitter alone.

Smart, progressive businesses know that visual content gives them more power to form stronger, more meaningful relationships with consumers that drive engagement, persuasion, and conversion. Jason Ford, Founder of Feedmagnet and Product Manager at Bazaarvoice, shares how Clinique has benefited from integrating curated social images into their web experience:

“Social networks like Instagram provide a great way for advocates to show their style, share how they’re wearing it with friends, and influence their network. For the first time, using a product photo carousel, Clinique was able to tap into the stuff that was already happening in social and put it to work—right on the product page.”

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By integrating curated social content directly on their product pages, Clinique saw significant results. In an A/B test—showing some visitors photo-gallery-enhanced product pages and others the standard page—Clinique saw a 4% increase in conversion (above the lift from ratings and reviews) on pages showcasing curated social images. Furthermore, the brand saw a 26% increase in engagement, tracking people who visited the page, explored, and played with the carousel.

Jason FordFounder, FeedmagnetSenior Director, Product Management, Bazaarvoice

UGC leads to product improvements and new product development

Gone are the days when brands could innovate in a vacuum. Customer data removes the guesswork from innovation, revealing exactly what product owners want through their own words. Looking for trends in what consumers say helps brands innovate more quickly and with less risk, says UTA’s Vincent:

“The technology moves so quickly that if you’re listening and understanding how people are using the product, you can rapidly iterate and move on.”

Even large, established companies with a multitude of products find UGC gives them more ideas and makes them more nimble, says 3M Vice President, Global eTransfomation Raj Rao:

“Being a company known for innovation, the ultimate metric that we’re held to is how many new products we’re able to deliver to the marketplace. And when R&D embraces digital and starts looking at multi-touch technologies and digital health, I think it gets very exciting when we see a pipeline of innovation… It’s just those insights that we’re able to get from connecting with customers. That’s the ultimate metric.”

Social insights will drive innovation.Big data gathered through social and other sources are full of insights and trends to help businesses make smarter choices in a rapidly changing market. The most predictive content for what’s coming and what consumers will want next comes straight from the shopper’s mouth in the form of user-generated content (UGC), says Bazaarvoice’s Austin:

“If you’re going to navigate through all these market forces and all these opportunities, your compass is your customer.”

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Gathering UGC is one thing; effectively analyzing it is another. An obvious place to look for product improvement ideas is in one- and two-star reviews, where people explicitly say what they disliked about the purchase. It’s one good reason to embrace negative feedback, says Gap, Inc.’s Christina Thorpe [GAP]:

“We sell over 20,000 products on our website. So there are bad products in there, and we learn things about fit or quality or material through the reviews. We need to take those lumps and make those products better.”

It’s not only the bad reviews that offer constructive feedback, though. Many three- and four-star reviews contain recommendations for modifications that could push the product to five stars. America First Credit Union Service Quality Manger Lisette Thurgood suggests searching for specific keywords to find those suggestions:

“We have a list probably of 25 keywords that we go through and look at every single month out of the feedback that we’re getting… stuff like ‘I wish’ or ‘I want’ … looking for those keywords I think is probably your best bet.”

Gene AustinCEO, Bazaarvoice

Consumer words power authentic, effective marketing messages

In addition to improving products themselves, UGC is an excellent source of content to inform marketing content, such as product pages, email messaging, and more. The Home Depot’s Syndey Katz agrees:

“If the customers are telling us that there are certain specifications on the product pages that are incorrect, or we’re missing information, or they’re asking questions about the same thing over and over again that seems to be absent from the content that we already have, we reach out to our digital content partners. We ask them to consider putting those pieces of information that are missing onto the product pages so that future customers will benefit from that.”

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Businesses can both quote customer-written content directly in their marketing content and use the trends to guide how they talk about their brand. The most-used words in positive feedback are the attributes the business should tout in its marketing of that product.

UGC can also reveal great aspects of a product or brand that the business didn’t even know customers cared about. The Container Store‘s Brandy Reinhard shares a story of one of its products, a small moving trolley, as an example. Feedback revealed that product owners were most excited about how small the trolley folds up for storage – something the brand hadn’t even considered, and hadn’t included in the product copy. The Container Store rewrote the copy to match those positive reviews, and shot new product photos to show how small the trolley can get.

Homegrown advocates promote and defend their favorite brands

People can be fanatical about brands. YETI Coolers Director of eCommerce Sara Kenton says customers have photos submitted of men shaving the YETI logo into their chest hair or making a YETI cooler grooms cake. These super-fans aren’t asked for their support by the brand; YETI’s product quality and resonance with outdoorsmen sparks organic passion among their fans.

Businesses can’t force people to be excited about their brand, but when those fans exist, companies must feed that fire, says Strider Bikes Founder and Chief Enthusiast Ryan McFarland:

“It has to come from [fans] naturally, their excitement about the product, or the cause, or whatever it is. You can add to that. You can help fuel it with your own enthusiasm and excitement; I think that’s a big part of it.”

Where can businesses find these advocates? The first step is building a community for them to connect with each other and the brand – whether that’s a social network page or an owned community on the brand site, such as customer reviews and Q&A. Ratings data is especially helpful in identifying advocates, says Webroot’s Anna Kim:

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Advocacy is key to winning more word-of-mouth share.With all of the insights UGC can reveal, there’s no such thing as too much earned content. Bazaarvoice’s Rohrlich encourages companies to stay hungry for review volume and keep finding more trends to follow:

“When it comes to word-of-mouth, generally speaking, if you’re going to default in any area, be greedy. More is more. More means more credible insights around your brand; more is winning the share of word of mouth in your category.”

And the best way to keep a steady pipeline of WOM is to cultivate advocacy through a community that cares about the brand and wants to see it grow.

“If you have a specific campaign where you need some help from your advocates, we typically send out emails to people who have written a positive review… saying, “Hey, we really need some help with this. Would you mind helping?” The response is amazing, because they already love us, and they’ll do it for nothing… So that’s a really, really good resource. I think it’s really important to keep in mind; don’t just touch them once.”

That’s another excellent point in growing advocacy – it’s never “set it and forget it,” especially for the average fan who doesn’t make promoting brands their full-time job. Keeping the relationship warm through repeated communication and rewards ensures a good stream of fan-created content and product feedback. Ryan McFarland says Strider Bikes creates a calendar from the best fan-submitted photos each year, as one way of spotlighting their enthusiasts and thanking them for their advocacy.

Businesses target influencers to broaden reach

In addition to growing advocates among average consumers, brands can also target existing category influencers to gain from their ego capital. Bloggers and social network stars can boast a huge reach to fans who respect their opinion in their influential categories. Gap, Inc.’s Christina Thorpe finds it easier to enlist influencers than to create them from scratch:

“They are found and cultivated versus created… I think it’s easier to identify them and bring them in the fold, and have them participate in your product development, than it is to create them. And we actually have started to leverage those fashion personas who feature our products in our own blogs and in our own social media content.”

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In addition to reach, influencers boast expert knowledge of the products and categories they represent, which can be especially helpful to product research and development, as Thorpe suggests. YETI Cooler’s Sarah Kenton explains that it’s their day-to-day experience with the category that makes influencers so valuable in R&D:

“And so by identifying those folks that have the problem that you’re solving and experience it day-to-day, going and talking to them, and engaging them, and giving them prototypes or running ideas by them; [these] are great ways to show them that you’re listening. And I think that goes a long way.”

Customer is (forever) king.

This storm of trends converges to create a fully connected economy, and your customers are the compass to navigate the storm.

Customer-centric organizations—the brands that deliver authentic, high-quality shopping experiences across channels and delivered at the moment of truth—will win the race. Successfully partner with customers and they’ll reward you with valuable data, brand and product insights, advocacy, earned content, and so much more.

Bazaarvoice helps companies connect with customers in order to better understand and serve them. As a result, our clients have been able to build the sort of lasting relationships that—more so than simply driving revenue—substantially transform the way they do business.

To learn more, visit: www.bazaarvoice.com.

To register for the Bazaarvoice 2015 Summit, visit www.bazaarvoice.com/live/summit/registration/.

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