THE CUSTOMER COLLECTIVE — One of the things B2B marketers are being told to do is to "listen" to communities and get to really know their prospects. The best reason being because your prospects are controlling how and when they engage with vendors, so it's become very critical that our content marketing efforts are highly relevant to the needs of the audiences we seek. One thing that's not exactly obvious is exactly HOW to listen -- or even what you should be listening for that you can actually apply to your content marketing efforts. Social media has given marketers unprecedented access to the thoughts, perspectives and musings of their potential customers. Unfortunately there's a lot of noise out there that can make listening more of a chore than a productive exercise...

THE CUSTOMER COLLECTIVE — I’ll probably hear some good natured opposition to this post from some friends at different Social Media Monitoring companies, but I stand solidly behind this advice. No matter which social media monitoring platform you’re committed to, use others as well. True insight comes from using several different kinds of search engines, applications and tools. That’s not a knock on the different services, it’s reflective of the monitoring environment’s reality. By using several of the different services available – mostly for no added cost – you’ll uncover deeper intelligence, greater statistics and a better understanding of the conversation...

THE CUSTOMER COLLECTIVE — Customer service has always been that business competency that either makes or breaks the customer experience. Over the past decade, many large organizations recognized this fact and have heavily invested in ensuring extraordinary customer service. In recent years, social customer service has become a necessity. Social customer service can increase revenue in five ways...

THE CUSTOMER COLLECTIVE — The time has come for business to put away childish Social Media notions. It was fun while it lasted, but Social Media is no longer a new toy or an experiment; it is serious business, integral to everything from customer service to marketing to recruiting. Of course, individuals can still tweet jokes, chat with friends, or post embarrassing videos to YouTube, but professionals and businesses must now set aside naive and harmful presumptions. Social Media is not for kids; it's big business and getting bigger. More than one in five online display ads now appear on Social Media sites. More than 60 percent of Facebook users are over 26 years old, and the site's aging population has motivated Facebook to add "Widowed" as a Relationship Status. Three of the five most visited Web sites (and seven of the top 15) are Social Media destinations...

The latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey has been released, and it serves as yet another reminder of just how little consumers trust what brands and marketers tell them. The report should provide Social Media practitioners with further support for increased spending on Social Media, since it is clear the way for brands to earn trust is to get consumers talking to each other...