InterTradeIreland “Social Media Marketing: Using Technology to Build Customer Relationships for the SME”
This event focused on how to use online technology to build customer relationships for SMEs. The aim of the talk was to simplify the process and understanding of how to build customer relationships online and to drive these to a successful conversion. An overview of techniques such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Google Analytics was also provided. Customers are the cornerstone of a business model and this talk provided an applied account of how to acquire and retain customers through online technologies. Dr Kevin Koidl – Innovation and Commercialization Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin – , delivered the talk. Being a founder/co-founder of two start-ups; Wripl Technologies and Kaffeehouse.com, Kevin drew on his entrepreneurial experience as well as his research expertise around social network marketing, search engine optimization and machine learning to offer informed insights to the audience.
Key points from the event:
• Through social media the market is moving from a transaction economy to a relationship (or experience) economy. As a business you are
not just generating leads and making sales; you also need to have constant engagement with the customer that is more intense and more
connected. The relationship economy is about post-purchase experience, sharing experience, ongoing exposure, creating loyalty that
builds on purchases and generates more purchases.
• To build customer relationships online you need to:
o Have very clear statements on what it is you are selling (i.e. the product or service) and be clear on what kind of relationship you
want to engage in with customers depending on the offering.
o Be clear on who exactly you are selling to and understand what platforms your (potential) customers are most active on (e.g.
Facebook, Instagram etc.).
o Have ways to measure that the online visit by the (potential) customer to your web property has been successful from the business
perspective. For example, you may be aiming to collect email addresses for a newsletter mailing or increase traffic on your site –
these need to be constantly measured and assessed.
If you were unable to attend the event, the presentation is available to download here: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1VydRlG_PJfRioOTtWhgxn7voaL6UTpid&export=download
About Dr Kevin Koidl:
Kevin is an Innovation and Commercialization Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin. His interests are Social Network Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Machine Learning. He is the founder of Wripl Technologies and co-founder of Kaffeehouse.com. He is a regular public speaker and panel member related to Ethics in AI and the future and impact of Social Media. He graduated in 2006 with a Dual Masters in Computer Science and Business Studies (Witschaftsinformatik) from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. Kevin received his PhD in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin in 2014.