Roughly $500 billion is spent globally each year on advertising, yet less than 15% of buyers report that they trust the advertising they encounter. Meanwhile, half of all purchases start with an online interaction, and today’s buyer knows all about your customer experience well before purchase. Therefore, the key question CMOs should ask themselves about their social media strategy is “how can I build a trusted online community of brand advocates?”

Katy Keim, CMO of social media engagement software leader Lithium, joins Moneyball for Marketing to share the following insights into online customer brand experience building:

1. Experience Game Changers: Katy cites some of the metrics and marketing analytics associated with customer experience and service expectations from mobile and online interactions, and explains why Skype and Google have changed the service environment even for traditional businesses.
2. Advocate Appeal: There are three distinct psychological factors that motivate customer community members to contribute. Katy names them and explains how CMOs can incorporate these motivators into their company’s social media strategy to build communities and increase engagement with buyers.
3. Who’s doing it right? Katy shares social media strategy success stories from the front line including:
   1. The campaign wherein Barclays UK tied together online and in-branch engagement to collect over 4000 improvement tips from its buyers
   2.  A new product launch for which Verizon created 100 super customer advocates through early engagement
   3. How Aruba Networks created a 30,000 strong community of ‘Airheads’ to promote the benefits of its wireless technology
   4. Why Sephora’s hosting of a ‘beauty Wikipedia’ creates a sense of customer trust and connection with its brand.
4. Circle of Trust: A brand is no longer defined solely by its CMO. Now a brand is the negotiated result of brand attributes and buyer experiences —a “shared value experience” based on bilateral input and trust. Katy shares her thoughts about how to build this trust into your social media strategy moving forward.

Katy Keim is the CMO of Lithium Technologies. Lithium software helps build trusted relationships with customers.  The SaaS based Lithium social customer experience platform enables brands to build and engage vibrant customer communities to drive sales, reduce service costs, accelerate innovation and grow brand advocacy. At Lithium, Katy leads all strategic marketing activities for the company including branding, positioning, communications; Go to Market strategy and customer acquisition programs. Katy holds a MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Northwestern University. 
 
Read the full transcript here