The Engaged Consumer

Cross-posted from MarketingProfs (original publish date May 2009)

Photo credit: http://500hats.typepad.com/

Have you ever heard the term “eat your own dog food?” It’s a funny sounding concept that essentially means that one is “walking the talk” or leading by example. For instance, a lot of well-known companies have talked about being “customer-focused” but how many really are? Unfortunately just saying you’re committed to do something is dramatically different than actually doing it. There is no place where this idea is more true than in the world of social media and online community.

To highlight this point, [several] months ago, Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research released the first ever Social Platforms Wave Report. In essence, this report rated the top online community providers according to their tools, services and methodologies. What the report didn’t do (and I’m not advocating that it should have) was take into account of how many of the companies reviewed in the report were “eating their own dog food.”

Being the socially engaged person that he is (there is no question as to whether Jeremiah eats his own dog food), he announced the arrival of Forrester’s Social Platform Wave Report on his blog. In his post, he offered some color commentary on the process, the companies that were selected and why the companies that were picked made the cut. One of the first comments on Jeremiah’s post asked if Forrester had taken into account whether or not these social tool providers were “walking the talk” by offering communities to their customers, creating corporate blogs and engaging with potential customers, prospects and partners in social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter.

While I was honored to be mentioned as an example of someone that does “eat his own dog food,” it got me to thinking about how important it was for companies that were engaged in social media or their customers to engage in these same practices. The reason I believe the “dog food” concept has become so important to businesses thinking about “social” and “community “ is threefold:

• Creating a great online community or social marketing program has just as much to do with the philosophy behind the effort, as it does the tools that facilitate these offerings.
• Just like the field of e-mail marketing adopted best practices like opt-outs and truthful subject lines, the discipline of community building and social marketing has best practices that should be upheld. Piss off your customers by posting fake comments in your own blog posts or talking trash about your competitors and you’ll pay through negative PR or worse yet, customer attrition.
• In such a transparent environment, there is little room for error (just ask Edelman how their “Blogging Across America” campaign for Walmart turned out a couple of years back). You also need to make a lot of decisions on the fly so having an experienced “pilot” can make for a much smoother ride.

To explore the concept further, I wrote a blog post recently called How We Market that talked about the importance of taking a “give before you get” approach, being authentic and embracing the social tools and sites one’s clients are using” while keeping in mind the need as a business to create awareness and leads. This is not always an easy balance to strike but it’s the key to succeeding in the new marketing world order.

In response to this post, I got dozens of comments from other “big brains” in the industry (including MarketingProfs very own Ann Handley). The resounding response was that social media is all about creating and sustaining relationships through active listening and conversation. Establishing valuable customer relationship online is much more effective when you are providing content to your community via social media channels.

With that as a backdrop, if you’re a brand looking for a company to build your online community or create your social marketing program, what should you look for?

1. Do they philosophically embrace the concepts that they’re asking you to adopt e.g. transparency, authenticity and a “give before you get” approach to value?
2. Are they practicing what they preach by blogging, engaging customers through their own customer support community, commenting on other industry blogs and engaging the public in places like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?
3. Do they have “community” or “social” experience working with brands like yours?

Once you find a company you’re comfortable using to power your community or social initiatives, the question will shift to whether or not YOU are ready to eat your own dog food. If the answer is “yes,” just be sure to do so in moderation. Your customers will be happy to see you eating your own dog food but not if you stick their face in the dog food. Or worse yet, if you pretend that you’ve ALWAYS eaten dog food and can’t imagine someone not enjoying the taste.