New Course from the Social Media Academy on Building Customer Relationships

As more businesses launch social media initiatives, a growing concern is getting customers involved and keeping them involved. The Social Media Academy’s new course, “Building Customer Relationships and Advocacy with Social Media,” addresses this issue head on. It will provide a psycho-economic framework for understanding why customers get engaged and what leads to profitable customer relationships. Using a case study approach with live examples, it will illustrate how to put the framework’s principles into action. The course is designed for people who lead or manage corporate social media initiatives and consultants that want to enhance their knowledge.

Palo Alto, CA (September 10, 2009). The Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia-academy.com) is pleased to announce a new advanced online course, Building Customer Relationships and Advocacy with Social Media. Marita Roebkes, the Academy’s director says, “A common concern of business social media managers is getting active participation by a large and representative group of customers.” This course will give social media managers and consultants a solid framework to get more customers engaged in win-win relationships. This course will take place, online, September 22nd, 24th and 29th, 2009.

Axel Schultze, founder of the Social Media Academy says, “This course addresses a timely and critical issue as more businesses seek to cultivate sustainable and profitable customer relationships using social media.” He adds, “We are past the point of wowing customers to get engaged with gimmicks. Social media needs solid and systematic principles to generate solid business results. This course, taught by John I. Todor, Ph.D., will provide the principles, the strategies and tactics.”

The first 1.5 hours session of the course will provide a psycho-economic framework for understanding what today’s customers’ value, how they make decisions and what they find meaningful in their relationships with a company. Todor points out, “The framework is based on solid psychological principles that have been extensively used to build customer engagement in a real-world context. Over the past year, The Whetstone Edge, has applied the principles to most social media vehicles.”

Session two and three will use a case study approach to evaluate live social media initiatives. By examining and contrasting sites, says course participants see actual tactics that embody the principles, discuss how sites can be improved and gain the working knowledge to apply the framework to their sites. The case studies will address: content sharing, peer reviews, social networks, online communities, crowdsourcing and building, monitoring and leveraging online reputations.

For course details or to register: Social Media Academy

John I. Todor, Ph.D., is a psychologist and business strategy consultant with The Whetstone Edge, LLC (www.thewhetstoneedge.com/oncustomers) and is a Director of the Social Media Academy. Todor looks at the social and psychological dynamics of the social web from both and academic and business strategy perspective. In addition to his work and active participation in social media, he is an internationally known speaker, strategist and consultant on the psychology of the customer experience and business practices that put these principals into action. He is the author of two related books: Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company and Get with it! The Hands-on Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Your Business.

The Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia-academy.com) provides a comprehensive education program for social media leadership. It offers a comprehensive foundation course as well as in depth courses on business and social media. The Academy offers its course on a global basis. It is headquartered in the United States but has affiliates in the United Kingdom and Australia.

More information on this course.

Keywords: Customers Relationships, Advocacy, Online Course, Social Media, Social Media Academy, The Whetstone Edge, John Todor, psycho-economics, social networks, online communities, crowdsourcing, online reputations, peer reviews