Podcasts Business Community Signal Build Something People Care Enough to Get Angry About

Build Something People Care Enough to Get Angry About

Published: Nov. 5, 2018, 10:30 a.m.

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Jason Falls\\xa0knows where your customers are talking. He\\u2019s studied conversations for several years and, time and time again, he\\u2019s shed light on an inconvenient truth for brands: If you\\u2019re ignoring online forums, you\\u2019re probably ignoring a substantial part of the conversations happening in public \\u2013 maybe even a majority of them. And it usually doesn\\u2019t matter what industry you\\u2019re in. Banking?\\xa090%. Elderly care?\\xa083%.

He doesn\\u2019t work in the community space, he\\u2019s not drinking the Kool-Aid. Jason is a veteran digital strategist who follows the data, and the data tells him that brands are continually missing a major opportunity to build loyalty and increase sales. And that\\u2019s one of the topics on this episode. Plus:

  • Why angry brand ambassadors are actually a positive
  • The obsession with vanity metrics
  • Where community fits in customer journey mapping

Our Podcast is Made Possible By\\u2026

If you enjoy our show, please know that it\\u2019s only possible with the generous support of our sponsor:\\xa0Higher Logic.

Big Quotes

On how forums influence search results:\\xa0\\u201cIf we can all go back 10, 15 years, advising brands in the social media or digital marketing space and say, \\u2018Here\\u2019s what I want you to do: The first thing I want you to do, when you launch your website, is add a forum to it. We\\u2019re not going to talk about your product or service, we\\u2019re going to let people ask questions about how to use it. Like a customer support board, but we\\u2019re really just going to talk more broadly about how to do things and about broad topics within your work, within your industry.\\u201d If every brand did that 15, 20 years ago, then brands would rank number one, two and three for all these search terms that they\\u2019re spending a bazillion dollars a year trying to rank for now.\\u201d \\u2013@JasonFalls

On breaking the allure of vanity metrics:\\xa0\\u201cEven the social networks are saying it\\u2019s not really about building vanity metrics anymore. We report that up the channel to our executives, our companies, our clients if we\\u2019re at an agency and still, the first question that they typically ask at a monthly meeting or on the call is, \\u2018How many people are following us now?\\u2019 Unfortunately, it\\u2019s going to take probably another 12 to 18 months of reinforcing the idea that vanity metrics don\\u2019t mean anything or don\\u2019t mean as much. Then, it\\u2019s going to take an aha moment for a client or an executive at your company to be able to understand what you mean by that.\\u201d \\u2013@JasonFalls

On convincing CEOs that fans online are spending money:\\xa0\\u201cIn 2010, I was working with an environmental products company, and the CEO would call me. I only talked to him once a week. He would call me at 9 on Friday morning, and he would ask me how many Facebook fans they had. Never mind that you could go to your own Facebook page and see the number yourself. He would call me from five hours away and ask me how many Facebook fans he had. I would tell him because, I mean, he was the CEO. \\u2026 I figured out what he was doing. He called me at 9 because he had a 12 o\\u2019clock golf game with a bunch of his buddies, and so he wanted to be able to brag that his Facebook fans had increased every week, and so I said, \\u2018Okay, this is ridiculous.\\u2019

\\u201cThe next Friday, he called me, and he said, \\u2018Jason, how many Facebook fans do I have?\\u2019 I said, \\u2018You know what? I\\u2019m going to email you the link to your Facebook page, and the number is in the upper corner. You can look at that number any time you want. I don\\u2019t really have time to go look at that number for you right now because I\\u2019m too busy trying to figure out how to get those fans to buy your product.\\u2019 He went, \\u2018Oh.\\u2019 He really, for the first time, thought, \\u2018You mean you can actually use social media to get people to buy things?\\u2019 Then, the questions were different.\\u201d \\u2013@JasonFalls

On how communities fit into customer journey mapping: \\u201c[Online communities are a part of customer journey mapping] especially on higher end purchases, where there\\u2019s a lot longer lead time. If you\\u2019re purchasing something that costs more than a couple hundred dollars, you\\u2019re going to research it for days, if not weeks or months. You\\u2019re going to ask a lot of questions. You\\u2019re going to read a lot of articles. That investigative process is probably going to take you to forums and message boards.\\u201d \\u2013@JasonFalls

About Jason Falls

Jason Falls\\xa0is one of the most widely read and respected voices in the digital marketing and social media industries. His digital strategies have touched a number of the world\\u2019s most iconic brands including AT&T, Valvoline, Buffalo Trace, Humana, Rawlings, Maker\\u2019s Mark, Sealy, Fireball Whisky, Trident, GM and more. Falls leads digital and social strategy for\\xa0Cornett, a full-service ad agency in Lexington, KY. He loves the state of Kentucky, sports and bourbon.

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Your Thoughts

If you have any thoughts on this episode that you\\u2019d like to share, please leave me a comment,\\xa0send me an email\\xa0or a\\xa0tweet. If you enjoy the show, we would be so grateful if you spread the word and supported\\xa0Community Signal on Patreon.

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