Social Media (Web 2 2.0) is fast becoming probably the most important and powerful influences running a business today. It is evolving at record speed and gaining broad adoption - it is not just for the technology industry any more. Using its foundation built on sharing information, collaboration, and relationships, it could transform just how organizations attract and retain Customers.Customer Experience 2.0 is really a unique and new thought process. check here marries and leverages the various tools and concepts of Social Media with the needs and wants of your customer - creating a much more engaging and rewarding customer experience. This combination results in increases in customer loyalty and retention, sales and market awareness. It creates a far more innovative and personal way for you to engage, understand and support your prospects and customers.The experience a business provides to its customers reaches the heart of creating customer loyalty. Research demonstrates if you can keep the promises your customers want and deliver the experience they want, you can be rewarded with deeper and much more lasting loyalty. With the introduction and option of Social Media tools, organizations is now able to deliver a much richer and much more transparent customer experience than ever before. This improved experience will undoubtedly be crucial to an organizations survival and/or growth in the foreseeable future.To illustrate how "top-of-mind" this topic is today, Not long ago i gave a speech on "Developing Exceptional Customer Loyalty." quarter-hour into the speech a lady asks the question, "How can we use Social Media to create stronger customer loyalty?" The focus is shifting - organizations everywhere and in every industry are beginning to ask the same question. We are entering a "white hot" space for businesses - leveraging these innovative tools to deliver exceptional customer experiences - Customer Experience 2.0.If I could have written this article or with all this speech even a year ago it would not have gotten the attention it is today. There's now more excitement on how to "integrate" SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING into Business than we've ever seen. The key is not just getting the tools, but leveraging these tools to generate better interactions together with your customers and drive more sales and loyalty. What was previously some cool tools for the "techno-savvy" (developers, bloggers, etc.) is now moving at light speed in to the forefront for businesses of all sizes and in virtually any industry.This is the first in a Series of articles made to give business owners, top executives, marketers, sales teams and anyone else interested in building stronger relationships making use of their customers a significant advantage over their competitors. This is a business issue, not a technology issue. By focusing on the business enterprise and their customer, organizations can make use of the tools in the "Social Media Suite" to create a differentiated customer experience. By adopting the idea, tools and approaches of Customer Experience 2.0, you can reach more customers, supply them with more transparent information way, get them talking positively about your organization, and also have others refer more customers.First, let's eliminate mystery and mystic that surrounds SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING. Web 1.0 may be the world most people live in today. Since the inception of the web and websites, people now do online searches to find your business. Websites were originally designed to "push" information to their customers within an "electronic" format. It really is up to the user to find the home elevators your website and find out about your products/services and organization. That is a MONOLOGUE - information and communication primarily delivered in one direction, from your own company to the prospect, customer or other interested parties. Web 1.0 is known as "Company Centric" since the company has more control on the information and the interaction with the customer.There was a dramatic shift when Blogging platforms 2.0 (SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING) came on the scene. It started as a way for software developers and others to collaborative, share information and touch upon the information being shared. People also wished to be more linked to others so "Social Networking" was born (MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, to name several). Now people can create a sense of "community" with one another predicated on similar interests. They're instantly connected to friends, family, co-workers, classmates, and nearly every other kind of imaginable relationship. VISA, for instance, has generated the "VISA Business Network" on Facebook for his or her small business customers.Now the customer "includes a voice" that may be shared with anyone thinking about listening. It has become both an enormous "threat" and an "opportunity" for organizations. They can still "push" messages with their audience but now the audience is with the capacity of "commenting" and "discussing" the products/services or information on offer before they create a purchasing decision. "Transparency" is among the most word of the day and is something nearly every organization will be wrestling with in the foreseeable future. Suddenly, the net evolved from the Monologue to a DIALOGUE - communication and information sharing in both directions. This can be the essence of Social Media.Your visitors, employees, partners, suppliers and other people can now "discuss you" and "share their thoughts and feelings" and "find out about you" prior to they ever do business with you (or continue steadily to do business) - and the information they get is from their friends in addition to complete strangers. The world has gone from being "Company-Centric" to "Customer-Centric" and the customer experience has turned into a vitally critical component. According to Marta Kagan, Social Media evangelist, customers believe what they hear from complete strangers a lot more than they can you (only 14% of the people trust advertisements, but 78% trust recommendations from some other clients they may not know - Source: Marta Kagan ).What impact do you think this will have on your business today and in the foreseeable future? Are you considering a "leader" in working with these tools or wait and "follow" your competition? Coming to the forefront will give organizations a substantial competitive advantage over their competitors. The opportunity to build a community with your customers will undoubtedly be paramount. In my opinion, the train has left the station - you have the decision to get on board, watch it pass or get stepped on by it - but the train is moving and will not be stopping anytime soon. The energy is in the hands of your customers, partners, suppliers, shareholders and everyone else. For example, Advertising devote to social networks went from $15M in 2007 to $40M in 2008 and projected to be $80M in '09 2009 and $125M this year 2010 (source: e-marketer August 18, 2008).As you begin to learn about how Customer Experience 2.0 can play a role in your organization, think about your customer. Think about WOM (Word-of-Mouth) marketing. Think about referrals and recommendations. Consider customer evangelists. Think about trust and loyalty. Think about ways or areas that describe the way you would like visitors to talk about you as well as your business. Now consider, "What exactly are they saying about me and my organization today?" "How do you know?" "Am I being transparent in their mind?" "What are they saying about my competition?" "Is what they are saying based on fact, fiction or just rumors?" "Is this helping me or hurting me?"Some interesting numbers provided by Marta Kagan say that 34% of the people post opinions about products/services on the blogs; 36% think more positively about companies that have a blog; and 32% trust bloggers opinions on services and products (Source: Marta Kagan). Today, you could have more insight into what experience your visitors truly want - in ways that were impossible before now. Over 57 million Americans read blogs and 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important within the next five years (Source: Blogworldexpo).With that as an introduction to Customer Experience 2.0 and the world of Social Media, what can you do today to make this work for your personal organization? Here are Seven Steps it is possible to follow to truly get you on the way. These will all be discussed in greater detail throughout the series. Here are the Seven Steps:GATHER CUSTOMER DATA - gain a deep knowledge of what "experience" your customer would like from you - not only services and products. What "Promises" do they want you to keep? What experience(s) do they need throughout their relationship with you? Since most products and services are easy to duplicate today, creating a truly differentiating customer experience is still unique.DEFINE CUSTOMER SEGMENTS - they are groups of customers, in line with the experiences(s) they need from you. Notice I didn't say "demographic" or "product based" segments. Exceed traditional segmentation and add the "experiential" component. This should be predicated on how your customers desire to connect to you at different points in time in the relationship.CREATE A CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 2.0 PLAN - focus on the desired experience(s) and the usage of social media tools. This should support your organizational strategy. The program is designed with the information you collected in Steps #1 and #2 above and the method that you intend to execute on delivering these experiences.DESIGN THIS CONTENT - what information, education, tools and resources are you going to provide to your customers? What do they need? What content can you offer that may engage your customers and solicit their input? This includes both the content and the messaging necessary to communicate the information.SET UP A BLOG - get started doing probably the most accepted and trusted tool that is foundational for both SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING and Customer Experience 2.0. Obtain it started and improve upon it as time passes. The Blog(s) you will set up will be the windows into your business where you can interact and talk to your customers.EVALUATE OTHER TOOLS - assess the value of other Social Media tools and determine those have the largest payback to both you as well as your customers. These might include social networking, communities, Twitter, audio presentations (YODIO), podcasts, among others that could be beneficial to your customers' experience together with your organization.TEST IT WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS - when you have launched a specific tool, test it together with your customers. Is this improving their experience? How will you improve upon it? It must always pass the test to be relevant, important and helpful either personally or even to their business.Now you've got a roadmap and Seven Steps to creating Customer Experience 2.0 on your own organization. Embrace it, utilize it and continually improve upon the knowledge your customers want. This is exactly what creates lasting differentiation and a rock-solid competitive advantage.Blaine Millet is Co-founder and Principal of Customer Experiences Inc., providing consulting services in your community of Strategy, Customer Innovation, Sales and Customer Experience 2.0. CEI is focused on Execution and is focused on the relentless quest for helping others achieve higher levels of Revenue, Customer Loyalty/Retention, Differentiation and a Competitive Advantage. He is also the co-author of the leading edge book, "Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences."Blaine spent some time working with and for companies from start-ups to the Fortune 50, like the Big 5 and IBM. He's got held various positions in the areas of leadership, management, sales, and being an individual contributor. His primary areas of expertise are Sales/Business Development, Customer Management and Consulting. He also holds an MBA in marketing and finance. He's got worked in the next industries: Telecommunications, Software, Professional Services, Financial Services, Hi-Tech, and Manufacturing/Distribution.If you want to find out if your organization could benefit from this type of innovative thinking and solutions, give Blaine a call (425.881.8504) or send him a note at: bmillet@ceinc.info to see how this approach my work for you.Visit their website at: http://www.customerexperiencesinc.com and their blog at http://www.customerexperiencesinc.com/blog for more info rmation and the most recent articles and updates.