First, it is imperative to determine what lies in the “social silo” that will impact other channels. For example, data-driven profiles, plus segmentation and models of highly engaged high value Facebook fans, can be used in all channels. We know that all fans are not high value, but high value customers are often fans — and socially active. So it’s important to be able to leverage social intelligence in customer marketing strategy and plans, thereby making the intelligence actionable for improved program results.

So what’s the best way to do this?

Let’s look at a Facebook roadmap for social intelligence:

Leverage Open Graph in Facebook with offers to encourage fans and customers to connect, not just to increase the number of fans, but to gather opt-in data. Make a compelling offer in customer emails, on your website or on your Facebook page. (Make sure the privacy policy and the permissions you display cover as much data as possible.)

Once you collect this valuable information don’t just file it somewhere. Treat it as a valuable feed of customer information. Using email or other collected data, link the Facebook information to your customer, compiled demographics, attitudinal, and behavioral data.

• Flag this insight within your customer database so that you have a more complete view of your customers.
• Understand which social connectors are prospects, leads or existing customers.

Create profiles and add to models and segmentation frameworks.

This roadmap allows you to use social intelligence anywhere in your marketing programs across all channels for activities like:

• Developing marketing tactics for prospects, leads and customers.
• Targeting high-value social customers with tailored offers and messaging.
• Creating campaigns in the social space targeted to higher value fans.
• Adjusting campaign messaging in all channels.

Since social activity is very dynamic, you’ll want to manage the Open Graph opportunity on an ongoing basis, rotating offers and placement. And remember you can offer a discount, for example, but a sweepstakes or other offer aligned with your brand can also be extremely effective. The data you gather gives you a dynamic portrait of your most engaged customers. You can use it for more refined and effective marketing investments. You might also want to leverage a marketing services partner with linkage, quality data and analytic expertise to get started.

The payoff…

For the social team:

• A clear, data-driven picture of your brand’s most engaged fans, leading to smarter social display ads and campaigns.
• A way to communicate clearly to marketing colleagues about the social customer ¾ beyond likes, posts and sentiments.

For the CMO:

• An understanding of the types of customers invested in social media helps calibrate marketing spend.
• A sound way to evaluate social media investment.
• A more complete picture of customer behavior.

For other marketing teams:

• A valuable customer attribute that can be used to help refine segmentation and targeting strategies.
• Clear understanding of how to target customer segments and which channels are likely to be most effective.

Knocking down the “social silo” is necessary to gather compelling data that’s useful in every marketing channel AND to be able to improve the customer experience. Building social intelligence is a key activity to keep in step with today’s dynamic customer, and to make sure your marketing is relevant and timely.

Key take-aways:

Here is what customers want from any brand or company they do business with, and what customer obsessed businesses can do give it to them:

To belong – Initiate a sense of belonging, such as utilizing a “Welcome” program

To be known – Treat customers as individuals by employing personalization methods

To feel special – Reward customers for their loyalty and continued engagement with your brand

To be treated well – Offer assistance through customer service, such as sending out “Thank you” emails

Bryon noted what we all already know but need to keep in mind every day: the customers are in control and the best way to improve sales is to improve engagement. He suggested a focus on building brand advocates – they’ve used a “surprise and delight” strategy to convert detractors by initiating a personal contact via Twitter and other means. He said that one-to-one engagement can not only turn around a bad situation but also create a lifetime fan.

Amy noted that while it’s important to speak to the customers, you have to stick to the brand’s core values when you do. Make sure your messages and images stay close to your core. Your programs can and should be influenced by the data you mine and receive, but you never want the data to completely rule the marketing strategy or message. She said it’s a fine balance between data insights and the art of brand marketing. Bryon stressed the importance of not becoming “data myopic” and both suggested spending time in the stores to really understand how the customers are behaving.

Both panelists thought it important to mostly keep their company’s brands separate. In other words, it’s tempting to jump into cross-marketing programs across the sister brands, but you must be very careful to preserve that 1:1 connection each brand has with its own customers; that connection is kind of sacred.

As for social media, both panelists stressed the need to have an authentic voice in social channels. They also pointed out that you can easily get distracted by the next shiny new social object, but you simply can’t be everywhere. You have to think about which social channels you really want to be in (i.e., where your customers are), plus when you want to jump into a conversation and how you sound when you do.

In the end, if you map everything you do back to the customer you will have a greater measure of success. Both have also seen benefit in breaking down silos that exist within the full marketing organization so that there is greater sharing of information, strategies, tactics and successes.

So as you can imagine, I was delighted to get an email, which I assumed was part of a special communication, congratulating me on my purchase and welcoming me to the car manufacturer’s community of discerning drivers. But instead the email was actually an invitation to participate in a sweepstakes to win a day at the track for a competition among five teams—you just had to pick the winning team to enter. So, as a former Skip Barbour driving school graduate, I was thrilled. That is, I was thrilled until the link didn’t work. It didn’t work even after four tries and I got no response from the numerous emails that I sent to the manufacturer.

And worst of all, the team I had picked won.

I certainly don’t feel special now. This manufacturer is a great auto maker and I know that I will love my car, but a car that good deserves a better social media campaign!

The lessons:

• The primary objective of a retailer is to acquire, SATISFY and retain customers, profitably
• Marketers MUST link their customers to their prospect lists so that they can treat their customers uniquely and ALWAYS recognize them
• A great offer REQUIRES superior execution
• Marketers must communicate with their customers in a SEAMLESS, consistent way that earns trust, is relevant and drives trips to the stores, website, call center, etc.

A wonderful product’s aura can be tarnished by not paying attention to the basics. Today sophisticated technologies let you link your customers and prospects by email across social media, and ensure you always have the basics covered.

Quite simply, missing and incomplete customer identity data diminishes response and the ability to drive customer relationships. Solutions exist today that enable marketers to identify a customer with a single piece of personally identifiable information (PII), such as an email address, and then match it to the person’s physical address, alternate emails, social, mobile and even cookie data. This cross-channel identity resolution helps marketers to better understand customer preferences, as well as gain a better understanding of the efficacy of their marketing budget. Layer this on a solid loyalty program, and marketers will ensure they know all available touch points for a customer and can leverage those touch points to communicate the right message at the right time.

For more information about cross-channel identity resolution, download a copy of The 2012 Digital Marketer Report.