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What is clout? The term has been around for a long time and while the definition hasn’t changed, the meaning of clout has changed dramatically.
In 2004, if I had a bad experience in a restaurant and wanted to vent I would – in this order – call the manager, mention it to friends in passing and maybe post on a local blog or chat site.
If I had the same issue today, I would – in this order – tweet about it, post it on my facebook wall, tell a LinkedIn connection, Yelp a review, text my friends and finally, if I got around to it, contact the manager of the restaurant.
You can see how clout has changed! No longer is my clout limited to my face to face conversations, it is extended to my entire social network, made of up hundreds of friends, colleagues, and even perfect strangers. Companies can’t afford to “overhear” their consumers; we stopped communicating to you years ago and are telling everyone we know about your product or service. This new viral word of mouth happens in mass and today’s companies have no choice but to step in or be left behind.
Salesforce.com just announced its Service Cloud 3 platform along with the intent to purchase Radian 6. Why is this a big deal? The Service Cloud 3 platform allows companies to listen to these conversations and participate in real time from one platform via, phone, chat, email and social.
Designated agents can now monitor social websites and respond to customer issues – both positive and negative – from the cloud. These social messages have the same routing power as other communication channels and can be prioritized by YES, clout! Much like a customer having a rating or score based on their buying power, a person can also have a clout score to quickly measure their social influence on the web.
There are companies out there that have been monitoring social conversations on the web from the onset. But even these proactive companies are often disconnected from their support teams and participate in social conversations at random and on another platform.
Smart companies will build relationships with influencers who have high clout scores and the biggest influence on their brand. Listening to them and engaging them can help you increase awareness and help spread their message, not by word of mouth but by word of clout!
Tags: facebook, radian6, service cloud 3, social media, twitter