Not "lithium" as in the periodic table of elements, but Lithium being one of the largest and leading providers of social services to enterprise clients. This is their annual home conference in San Francisco, near their headquarters, and the attendees include clients and prospective clients. At one time, Lithium provided a proprietary forum platform for customers and internal use by their clients, but they have steadily evolved to keep up with changing technology and changing customer.
SMT is here not so much to report on Lithium as to hear more about how enterprise companies are dealing with social media today. This morning we heard from Lyle Fong, CEO of Lithium, Katy Keim, Chief Marketing Officer and Brad Shaw, Communications Director for Home Depot.
Fong spoke about what Lithium is learning about the social customer and the goal of companies to make their customers a living part of the company. He repeated a quote from the Social Media Revolution video that "the ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years," and how Lithium's development is not to provide software, but access. To that end, they are working to constantly adapt their services to the changing APIs of Facebook and Twitter. Companies must seize the "collaborative opportunity" that social media provides.
Lithium's energetic CMO Katy Keim used President Kennedy's speech from 1962 where he committed the US to putting a man on the moon to illustrate the level of commitment companies must make to transform themselves into collaborative hosts for their customers. Becoming a "fan" on Facebook is simply an acknowledgement that the company exists, but what companies really need is customers who love them. Customers want to belong, and companies want to accommodate them, but most don't know how to achieve this. Companies want "superfans"
"People buy products but they CRAVE experiences," Keim said.
Brad Shaw of Home Depot talked about the culture of HD and how it is not online, but face-to-face in the store aisles, but their website serves as an extension of the relationships begun in the stores. They selected a team of floor associates to learn how to provide customer service online, which they do 2 days per week, spending the other 3 days on the floor, learning and keeping up with new products.
Home Depot uses social media strategically and through their interactive website they answer practical questions and guide customers in completing projects for the home. They host what they call a "How-To community," leveraging existing assets in the company (floor associates and managers) rather than hiring social media specialists. To date, their website has resolved over 8,500 customer problems.
Stand by for more!