The document discusses the role and personality of a Conversation Manager. Some key points: 1) A Conversation Manager's goal is to manage word-of-mouth and integrate it into all marketing activities, as word-of-mouth is the main driver of growth. 2) To be effective, the Conversation Manager needs strong communication skills and the ability to tell stories and detect trends from consumer conversations. 3) Most importantly, the Conversation Manager must have a personality characterized by openness, passion, and the ability to balance emotional and rational perspectives. 4) Through creating frameworks and gaining support from top management, the Conversation Manager can help drive organizational change towards prioritizing customer happiness and feedback.

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2. Word-of-mouth is THE driver of growth The belief

3. INTEGRATION of WOM in all marketing activities The goal

4. MANAGE word-of-mouth

5. A Conversation Manager

6. Conversation Activation Brand The philosophy of the Conversation Manager It all starts with brand identification. People only talk about brands they are involved with. As brands, we should reach out to them. Let’s replace our traditional advertising by activation. See advertising as the start of a good conversation. Finally, let’s manage the conversations about our brands. We cannot control them, however perception is based upon them. So let’s be part of it. Why? This conversation flow determines your future growth. So manage it!

7. DRIVE CHANGE The Conversation Manager dreams of a reformed organisation where client happiness is the key focus. Making everyone believe that your current customers are the key assets and ambassadors of your organization. He does not want to live isolated within a company. He reaches out to colleagues and makes them enthusiastic about this vision.

8. Skills?

9. Skills? Easy!

10. Skills? Easy! Communication If you have great communication skills and are good with social media, you have most of the functional assets you need to be a good Conversation Manager. Understand how people feel, how you can help them and talk fluently with them both digital and physical is what it takes.

11. Skills? Easy! Stories & trends As a good communicator, the Conversation Manager is also a great story teller. Based upon the different stories consumers bring him, he makes his colleagues enthusiastic about consumers. Next to that, he elevates the stories from anecdotes to consumer trends. Detecting new threats and opportunities for his organization on a strategic level.

12. Skills? Easy! Mediator You can be in the heat of a fight. Understanding consumer frustrations and defending a company policy is not always easy. A good Conversation Manager knows how to pick his fights.

13. PERSONALITY Not the skills, but the personality of the Conversation Manager is the key to success. Why? Because this is not a tactical discussion. No, it’s about the integration of word-of-mouth in the entire marketing thinking of a company. You need the power to create a context for success and to reach out to the top management to drive change.

14. Not an island

15. Create context for success The Conversation Manager does not want to be isolated or have an isolated team. No, he has a serious impact on the organization. Therefore, he created a context for success. By creating a new culture, one of listening, he tries to bring people closer to the consumer again. The moment everyone cares about the consumer again, that’s when word-of-mouth becomes part of the company culture.

16. We are ALL listening All employees should have the possibility to listen and feel consumer feedback. Confronting employees with real consumer conversations is a starting point of change

17. A policy that works To avoid discussion all the time about joining into conversations on social media, its better to create your own policy. Make sure it gets accepted by legal, HR and other stakeholders. This reduces flexibility on the one hand, but creates a frame in which you can work

18. 24/7 structure You need the tools and the people to enable you to be always available for consumer feedback. As we all need to sleep, travel, eat and have fun, this is not possible as an individual. The Conversation Manager installs the right people and tools to be always available for consumers

20. REAL CHANGE Only by reaching out to top management, real change can be implemented. Once a company is changing its KPIs and its priorities of investment, that’s when change occurs. The Conversation Manager believes that real change in commercial strategy is needed to cope with the changes the consumer is going through. Therefore, he creates a structure for success but needs the top to make it happen.

21. New KPIs Real change is driven by new KPIs. Once a company is evaluating its people on new success criteria, the behaviour of people will change.

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23. If the context for success is reached, the new KPIs installed, the final destination is a 24/7 culture: always ready & available for your consumers. All employees play an active role in this. 24/7 Culture

24. PERSONALITY The Conversation Manager has quite an ambition, hasn’t he? As said earlier, to succeed in this mission, a great personality makes the difference. The Conversation Manager is an open minded, passionate person. He enjoys making other people happy. He knows how to balance between emotional and rational elements that happen through a process of change. Next to that, he’s a great neworker and has an edge side.

25. Openness is crucial in this job. Being open to …almost everything. Open towards feedback, negative comments, disbelievers, consumers, other approaches, new technology, … Only with an open mind in the broadest sense of the word, you can survive Open minded

26. Drive & Passion Energy, energy, energy! A positive and energitic attitude is what it takes to drive change.

27. Be happy and be positive. Find happiness in making other people happy. Happy

28. Conversations are often very emotional. The Conversation manager knows how to deal with this. He applies his top communication skills to take care of them. Next to that, it is important to work with facts & figures to build cases and to create value for the company. He understands how to keep the balance stable. Ratio Emo

29. Great networker The Conversation Manager is a great networker, both internal and external. Reaching out to people to spread the word is one of his talents. If not, you end up on a deserted island.

30. PERSONALITY

31. And remember this...

32. Word-of-mouth is THE driver of growth

33. INTEGRATION of WOM in all marketing activities: the goal

34. MANAGE word-of-mouth

35. By a great personality

36. Thank you! Good luck! Questions, feedback, remarks: [email_address] Follow me: @Steven_InSites Join me on LinkedIn www.theconversationmanager.com @Steven_InSites #CM48