MEDIA PLANNING AND BUYING ESSAYHow to use social media to understand and engage your customers With the role of chief marketing officer evolving, companies can use social media to mobilise customer engagementChief marketing officers (CMOs) who fail to realise social medias potential for customer interaction and customer retention are being left behind. On Twitter, Facebook and even on Instagram, brands are now being discussed and dissected; companies stories are being subverted and inverted. The reality is, you no longer drive company and brand messaging your customers do. Consumers and sales prospects are interacting with your company in myriad ways across multiple touch points in this new interactive economy. Todays customers are empowered: they expect companies to give them what they want, how they want it. In response, progressive CMOs are doing much more than launching a Twitter feed and a LinkedIn group or two to increase reach. And they are doing more than email marketing and simple data capture. These leaders recognise that the role of the CMO is evolving from an emphasis on acquiring new database contacts to building deep intimacy with customers. Its no longer a matter of who you know, but what you know about them. That means CMOs need to be focused on actively listening, engaging and responding to their customers. Yet most businesses are missing many opportunities to engage customers. We have found that across social networks and traditional selling channels email, telephone and storefronts companies miss or mishandle up to 80% of customer engagement opportunities. And a missed opportunity means lost revenue. The only way for companies to reverse this trend is to become customer-obsessed from the top down. Customers dont care about internal departments, so internal functions must become invisible. Business processes and systems should be flexible and oriented around the customer, not a role or function. Information should flow freely through departments and hierarchies, and employees need to be enabled to use data to build relationships with their customers and solve their problems. In the era of the always-on customer, social media is a primary channel for customer engagement. Here are a few principles that can set companies on the right road to customer engagement with social. Engage and empower your workforce Good social adoption starts with a focus on people, not the technology. It is important to get your employees engaged because customer engagement is a shared responsibility across the enterprise. It is no longer the sole province of sales, marketing or customer service. Every employee must be empowered to recognise a customer engagement opportunity and act on it. Advertisement That means investing in people and processes, as well as technology. Finding ambassadors within your company to champion social media, and selecting tools for your business that your employees use at home, can help to promote social behaviours internally. Gamification principles are a growing way to encourage adoption and social-savviness within your organisation. When implemented correctly, with added consultancy and strategy, it acts as an essential element to ensure adoption at all levels by addressing individuals specific drivers and needs. Companies typically need to invest a ratio of 2:1 in their people and processes over technology. After all, technology doesnt drive relationships. People do. A free flow of information allows the most customer-obsessed companies to understand not only their own customers but also their customers customers creating differentiation and a competitive advantage. Get personal with your customers To maximise customer engagement, it is important to nurture your prospects as individuals, with their own stories, rather than anonymous transactions. Social media channels are a key way to interact with customers and build those human relationships. Sadly, though, 58% of consumers who tweet about a bad customer experience wont receive a reply from the company they have an issue with. Missed opportunities like these cost companies revenue in the short term and damage brands for the long term. Customers are more informed and have more choice than ever before, so if their expectations arent met, theyll move on quickly. Engaged customers, however, reward consistently strong service by spending more and becoming influential brand advocates on social channels. Create advocates When customers are engaged, you are their default buying choice. Theyre loyal. They become advocates for your company. With social media, engaged customers can and do endorse your company to tens of thousands of people instantly. By taking the time to listen to your customers across social channels, your organisation can become empowered to turn a customers negative experience into a positive one. O2s recent use of social media for customer engagement is a perfect example of this. A potential public relations disaster became a positive story for digital marketers as the company responded to customer complaints on Twitter in a light-hearted and personal manner, winning their consumers back. More than 70% of customers will spend more with a company because of a history of good service. Thats where the real upside potential is for companies. And its why customer engagement is set to overtake productivity as the primary driver of profitable growth. Social media is a key channel for mobilising customer engagement in this interactive economy. Customers are truly engaged when they feel known and that is what the best use of social media can achieve. Corinne Sklar is chief marketing officer at Bluewolf Source: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/13/social-media-customer-engagement accessed 6th July 2016 Understanding the consumer is a key principle for most commercial organisations and this is vital for Media and Advertising Agencies who help clients to understand how best to reach their desired target market.Media Planner Buyers are expected to have a significant understanding of the consumers relationship with the media and display high levels of consumer insights in relation to media consumption and buyer behaviour. Media practitioners commonly use market research not only of the consumers behaviour but also research of the medium such as TV, Radio, Press, Outdoor etc.Discuss the above statement in relation to the multi-platform approach of modern media campaigns (for example the use of use of digital media, user generated content with newsprint or outdoor for instance) and how it may be of vital importance when media planning and buying from both an academic, using relevant models such as Engel/Kollat, and practitioner based perspective providing relevant examples to reinforce your discussion.Think: who buys products or services? How are they influenced? How does the agency/client/organisation know who they are? Demonstrate a sound understanding of consumer research using appropriate academic resources such as journal articles and the article above providing and analysing examples and definitions (30%)Critically discuss and analyse the key issues behind the reason to adopt a more market research focused approach in media planning and buying (30%).Recognise and discuss the major developments in market research of the consumer in the media sector which have become key from both a theoretical (use the Engel/Kollat model here plus others you may have researched) and practitioner based perspective (examples of what media agencies use) (30%)An ability to structure a coherent, critical and balanced argument. Present discussion and analysis in an appropriate critical essay format, which is well typed and referenced (10%)Your response should be a maximum of 1500 words. (+/-10%)Although this is an essay you are advised to use tables, graphs, charts etc. which are not included in your word limited