One of the opening keynotes was Ramon De Leon, who used to do social media at Domino’s and now works at Rise Interactive. At first, Ramon’s powerful voice seemed overbearing. By the end, I was totally swept away by his charisma and storytelling and would recommend seeing him as a speaker.
De Leon (also known as #RamonWOW on Twitter) was featured on Fast Company’s website in 2010 and has continued to captivate audiences (me included) throughout his speaking gigs. Here’s some of what I learned from De Leon:
Starting out, your number one goal should be to inspire you to make a difference in the lives of your customers. It doesn’t matter what you sell.
[pullquote]”’If you were to dissolve today, would your customers miss you?’ If you cannot say yes, you need to go back and think about what you are doing.”[/pullquote]
One of the easiest ways to make a difference is to show up early and to care about your customers more than your competitors do. Going the extra mile is what makes your company important to your customer. De Leon emphasized that people capture and share what is important to them, no matter how you are asking them to share your content.
Treat Customers Like Friends
De Leon then went on to explain that social media should be used to treat customers as friends, emphasizing friendships first, then turning them into customers. Besides building the relationship, it’s important to manage as many micro interactions with your consumers as you can: these can come back to serve you well into the future. Don’t just send a tweet to a customer question and be done with it: followup weeks, months, or even years later.
[pullquote]”Customers can be satisfied, but not loyal.”[/pullquote]
By focusing on the feelings of the interactions and conversations you are creating, you are increasing the depth of conversation. It’s important to remember that customers are an investment.
Stand Out And Humanize Your Brand By Trusting Your Instincts
In order to make you and your company pop, De Leon stated that it’s important to be inspired, so you will be in demand. Take risks and don’t be boring– it is out there antics that get noticed and move customers to be passionate advocates for your brand, turning them into salespeople for you, so you don’t have to do it.
Going further into this, De Leon reminded us that the marketing department defines the customers’ needs; then use social media to get your customers to do the selling.
Words of Wisdom
As parting takeaway thoughts, De Leon reminded us to:
- Be your own caffeine.
- Don’t be lazy or boring.
- Difficult is good. If it’s hard for you, it’s hard for your competitors.
- Done beats perfect.
- There are no shortcuts and be transparent.
Again, this was a great keynote and I look forward to seeing De Leon speak again on the future, should we ever cross paths!
