How To Use Hashtags To Unlock Customer Relationships

I recently spoke with Alec Lacroix, CEO of Montreal-based Questology a social influence firm that helps big companies like AOL and Bell Canada to communicate more deeply and quickly with their customers. At the core of Questology’s work lie so-called social influence platforms – essentially a dashboard that allows companies  to see in real time what people are saying about them: Which people are influencers for their brand; how many interactions and how much content creation is happening around their brand. The platforms also allow companies to see single contributions and posts that are most liked or mentioned – a crucial capability in a social media environment where 90% of the most important messages are spread by 10% of the audience.

Marc E. Babej: What sets your platforms apart from the competition?

Alec Lacroix: Our platform is cloud-based, easy to use and highly customizable. We work closely with clients to develop key performance indicators that are suited to their specific needs. Every client has a different combination of category, objectives, media and target audience. To us, this means that every customer’s dashboard will be a bit different – in fact it has to be different from anyone else’s to be of any use at all. The purpose of a dashboard, after all, is not information for information’s sake, but to be in the right place at the right time with the most compelling interactions that suit your specific objectives.

Babej: In your view, which is the fundamental change in consumer behavior as relates to brands’ social media?

Lacroix: In the past, customers were passive recipients of messages – or at least companies thought they could treat them as such. Today, consumers are more active, more vocal, and also more social than ever before. They have more tools to express themselves, and more and more of them take advantage of these tools. They are also aware that nature of their relationship with brands has changed as result: they are more demanding – they expect to responsiveness and speed from brands.

Babej: What does this shift mean for companies?

Lacroix: Above all, they have to be willing and able to listen before interacting. Only when you really listen to a community can you understand who your most important customers and influencers are, what they’re talking about, what they think is important or not, what they like or not. You have to have a clear sense of all this before you make yourself a part of the conversation. You might be surprised with what you find: your communications might be talked about in a negative way or (often even worse) not be talked about at all.

Also, only if you are willing and able to listen can you know who your actual customers are. You might also be surprised that people you hadn’t even been targeting have a lot more reach and influence than the people you thought were your valued target audience.  For example, at SXSW, we realized that one single person – a journalist from Argentina – was the most important influencer of the entire conference . She created a Twitter post about the Black Panther party. People really picked up on it, and almost 4,000 people retweeted it. For a conference like SXSW, which is comprised of influencers, that’s a very large number – and this post made her the top influencer at SXSW. Other posts that had relatively good traction, by major brands like Twitter or CNN, had 200 retweets by comparison. From the perspective of SXSW, this journalist might not have been considered particularly important  before the conference had begun– but her tweet was the post that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

Babej: What role does speed play in brands’ social media relationships?

Lacroix: Speed has been important on the Internet for years. But now, expectations of immediacy or near-immediacy are gaining critical mass. We see a shift right now in this regard. Companies are just starting to set up their email platforms to react more quickly. But soon, we will see more and more startups that will provide texting services to companies. Just like you text a friend or family member and expect a quick response, companies will be able to respond within minutes – and customers will expect such response-times times as the “new normal.”

Babej: The expectation of immediacy, or near-immediacy, should also have an impact on the intensity of relationships…

Lacroix: We think of it as being buddies with your customers. People won’t buy from companies anymore, but from buddies. The name of the game is to build communities and respond as a buddy would. Companies need to demonstrate that they share the customer’s values, and “get” their lifestyle. More and more, companies will provide one point of contact – say Sandra at Aldo Shoes, whose job is to become the customer’s buddy at the company.