Customer attraction and retention at less cost is the single largest challenge firms are facing today: There are fewer customers, and many of them have less to spend. Customers know this and can afford to be picky and prickly.
Challenging markets require deploying innovative methods and the enabling tools to succeed in them. One of these is social network analysis, or SNA. This is the understanding of informal social networks.
These can be a circle of friends, work colleagues, neighbors or just a bunch of people who regularly hang out at a bar, restaurant, or increasingly online, with some commonality between each member. Information comes into networks where it is spread and discussed amongst the members. At some point in the discussions the leaders analyze and pronounce their take on the information and where called for a recommended action that the groups follow.
Viral marketing is becoming the primary tool to reach into social networks as it aims to connect to the leaders who would then spread the information to the entire group and suggest purchasing the products/services offered by marketers. Because people are social creatures and are in networks, viral marketing is arguably more effective than traditional mass and targeted marketing. To optimize viral marketing results though requires identifying networks, their members, and their leadership to target campaigns. That demands extensive research into what networks people belong to.
Mobile/wireless firms are facing increasingly stiff competition from not only each other but from new entrants via VoIP to keep and attract increasingly demanding and savvy customers. These firms can benefit greatly by SNA and viral marketing and are well-placed by their technology to use them and can do so by tracking customers’ calling/contacting patterns have a fair idea of their networks and who may be the leaders. Yet to utilize SNA and successfully launch…