Introducing Dr. Michael Wu’s The Science of Social 2 an in depth overview into how social media has revolutionized customer communication, the customer journey, and customer relationship management (CRM). As Lithium Technology’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Wu with his extensive knowledge has created a solution for our communication strategy by motivating customers and managing customer relationships for the long run. In this modern era where consumers demand convenience and quality, traditional business methods will no longer cut it. Dr. Wu along with Geoffrey Moore and his Four Gears, The Science of Social 2 presents a solution to help your business adapt and survive in this changing climate. To ensure a lasting competitive advantage, four gears are needed for success: acquisition, engagement, enlistment, and monetization.

1. Lithium social software helps the world’s most iconic brands increase loyalty, reduce support costs, drive
word-of-mouth marketing and accelerate innovation. The leader in social customer experience, our SaaS
platform turns social customer knowledge into support at scale and customer passion into competitive edge.
Sephora
community
superfans
spend 10x more
than average
customers
communities
of interest (e.g., YouTube,
Instagram, etc.) generate
lots of content that pulls
audience to the community
social networks
amplify content visibility
by pushing it through
people’s personal
networks
social networks and communities work together
to drive awareness/interest
there are only two
categories of social media
public social networks are great
channels for amplification
because they offer:
1. volume 2. visibility 3. velocity
your starter gear, the mechanism that enables
you to attract and capture new consumers
key challenge: the social web is huge, complex
and getting more so every day
there are only
24 hours in a day
the trick is to move
customers from passive
to active engagement
strong relationships
are built on 4 pillars
Πconsume
 share
Ž curate
 create
 co-create
sustained engagement
requires strong relationships
Πconsume
 share
Ž curate
 create
 co-create
enlistment turns customers into advocates and then
influencers (superfans), which complement each other
enlistment is the
deepest form
of engagement,
where brands and
customers co-create
value for everyone
gamification helps deepen engagement
by getting players into flow
but gamification is hard
only gamification
done right to leads
to sustainable
co-creation
the direct impact
of community on
monetization is
purchase influence
the Best Buy community
generates $5M in
support savings and
sales advocacy annually
The National Instruments
support community saves
$7.5M per year in
call deflection
30 Lenovo superfans
have created 1,200
knowledge base articles and
44% of accepted solutions
the indirect impact of community
on monetization is:
marketing
effectiveness
increased
innovation
moving directly from
acquisition to monetization
is a poor strategy
Facebook is great for awareness;
communities are best for conversion
your turbo gear,
the gear that invites your
customers to participate in the
business in a whole new way
key challenge: securing,
motivating and sustaining
participation.
your starter gear,
the mechanism that
enables you to attract and
capture new consumers
key challenge: the social
web is huge, complex and
getting more so
every day
your power gear,
the gear that nurtures
prospects and customers and
cultivates long term loyalty.
key challenge: sustaining
interest and attention in a
crowded, noisy, competitive
social marketplace
your performance gear,
the part of the machine that
helps you convert, deliver,
satisfy and upsell.
key challenge: it’s easy in the
short term, but impossible
in the long term without
all the other gears
is your acquisition gear spinning?
• Can you sift through the noise and find the signals in social
media—the conversations relevant to your brand?
• Are you involved in a two-way dialog with your social customers?
• Is your content compelling? Is it relevant? Is it timely?
• Can customers find your content and brand on popular
communities of interest (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest)?
• Can they find your brand on popular social networks
(e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+)?
you don’t own anything acquired on a public social network—
and they are poor at deeper engagement
your most passionate customers can be enlisted
to co-create with you
your power gear, the gear that nurtures prospects
and customers and cultivates long term loyalty.
key challenge: sustaining interest and attention in
a crowded, noisy, competitive social marketplace
is your engagement gear spinning?
• Where are you having conversations with your customers?
• Do you actively bring your customers from off-domain social
channels to your on-domain community?
• Are your customers coming back, helping you share, curate,
create and co-create?
• Can your customers interact with each other?
• What are your strategies for strengthening customer
relationships?
but acquisition channels aren’t
good for sustained engagement
Facebook irony: in the presence of strong ties (friends
and families) weak ties (customer relationships) are
harder to develop into strong ones
your performance gear, the part of the machine that
helps you convert, deliver, satisfy and upsell.
key challenge: it’s easy in the short term, but impossible
in the long term without all of the other gears
is your monetization gear spinning?
• Are your social strategies fully integrated with your
monetization engines (e.g., your e-commerce and CRM system)?
• Do you have strategies to innovate the social customer
experience in your customer community (i.e., do you focus on
the point of transaction or the customer journey to that point)?
• Do you engage your potential customers before monetization?
• Do you continue to engage your customers after monetization
and enlist your most passionate customers?
• Are your business KPIs well-aligned with the type of
community you have developed (e.g., are you looking to
deflect calls with a support community or increase SEO
with a marketing community?)
strong customer relationships increase loyalty
and enable repeat monetization
reduced
support costs
skipped or weak engagement/
enlistment gears:
• generates churn
• devalues the brand
• restricts growth
• increases cost of lead gen
awareness
interest
desire
action
enlisting superfans increases scale and effectiveness—
and they help acquire more potential customers
is your enlistment gear spinning?
• Are you actively co-creating with your customers?
• Do you adapt to your customer community? Do you learn from your
customers and implement their ideas?
• Do you make it easy for your customers to adapt to your company?
Do you engage your customers and provide them with information
about your business?
• Do you have a long-term gamification strategy? Do you have a
wide array of available rewards and reinforcement mechanisms at
different timescales? Do you level up your customers constantly to
match their skills and ability?
• Do you guard against the unintended consequences of gamification?
How do you mitigate cheating, addiction and overjustification?
• Do you have strategies for moving customers from extrinsic
rewards to intrinsic motivation?
social strategies for long term business advantage—and the science behind how they work
based on the research and writings of Dr. Michael Wu and Geoffrey Moore’s Four Gear Model
the science of social 2
your turbo gear, the gear that invites your customers
to participate in the business in a whole new way
key challenge: securing, motivating and sustaining
participation.