Influential customers drive purchase decisions and have enormous value for brands.  However, most companies – when they do measure and act on customer value – evaluate their clients only on their direct financial value – what they spend with the company.    

Our research at Forrester shows that people rely on each other more than on marketing messages when they make purchasing decisions.  Like our panel members, we all ask families, friends, colleagues and now, often, our online communities, before buying.   Marketers need to take these connections and interactions into account. 

As an example:  Who is more valuable?  The client who spends 2 nights in a hotel twice a year or the one who writes a rave review on the TripAdvisor.com after her first stay, or the one who recommends the hotel to business colleagues when they are traveling to the city.  

How you determine value will in turn determine how you prioritize your investments in marketing – including in social media – and customer management.  In ignoring social value, marketers run two risks: 1) investing in the wrong activities or in the wrong customers; and 2) under-evaluating the potential of social media (including word of mouth). 

The task:  Measure and appreciate “Social Value”

Even if there is no magical group of consumers driving everyone else’s decisions, some of your customers are more “socially valuable” than others.  That is, they are more and more intensely connected, more vocal – either online or offline – and have a higher affinity with your category.  The trick is finding and managing those consumers who have a high social value for your brands and your company. 

We’ve created a Social Value Score Card to help companies begin to define the relative social value of their customers.  It takes into account the number and type of connections a consumer has, their involvement with the category and your company, their level of ‘expertise’…

Once you’ve teased out the social value of your customers, the next step is to overlay social value on top of financial value.  You’ll end of with four segments, each with a different potential from a direct business and network business perspective, and four different strategies to realize that potential.

Ambassadors: Develop a custom program. These are your true high-value customers, with both high financial and social values. Spoil them with both loyalty marketing and a tailor-made Ambassador program.

Core Buyers: Continue loyalty marketing. These are customers with high financial value yet low social value. These customers may not yet be active socially, but they make up the majority of your company’s business. Continue to drive their direct sales through loyalty marketing.

Influencers: Get them involved. These customers or prospects have low financial value and high social value. Involve them, too — this segment is particularly interesting when looking to establish new markets. 

Misers: Treat them as spinoff. Misers have low financial value and low social value. Until they prove their interest — either financially or socially — limit your investment.