People aren’t starved for content. They’re starved for connection. In Conversations That Connect , Brooke Sellas explains how she’s helped billion-dollar brands in consumer goods, finance, retail, and other industries connect with the online communities that discuss, influence, and buy their brands. Like all meaningful connections, it starts with genuine conversations – knowing how to listen, share feelings, and offer opinions (yes, even as a company!) – and that builds relationships and leads to effective social media management. Think Conversation, Not Campaign™. If you’re thinking about social media as the new destination for your marketing campaigns, you’re already doing it wrong. - The platform is not the point. You’ll learn why so many marketers and brands waste time moving from one social media channel to the next – “chasing shiny objects.” Find out why the key to cracking the code does not start with choosing the right social media platform. - Listen, learn, and take the lead. Consumers are composing epic ballads for marketers looking to target them — as long as those marketers are listening. Sellas will teach you the power of social media listening. - The psychology of connections. Leveraging her university study of the social penetration theory, Sellas shows how the same concepts that build relationships between us in real life are key to mastering conversations that connect on social media. - Cultivating your brand’s online community. Your brand has a community already. Sellas will teach you how to listen first, so you can join the chat without killing the vibe – and maybe even (gently) direct the conversation. - Teams, not tech. Bots are awesome…until they’re not. Without humans, things go haywire. Sellas will explain why her strategy of “teams, not tech” is essential to harnessing the power of automated response systems. - Customer Care is not a cost center. Sellas shows how social-led customer care leads to not only customer retention and loyalty, but can also increase acquisition and conversion through organic social media efforts. - Compelling case studies. Throughout the book, Sellas gives you real world examples of success (and a few scary stories to learn from!). Including how her B Squared Media team helped one client improve customer support response times by 3,278%, including a 2229% increase in complaint handling. Yes, really. REVIEWS “This is a book for practitioners written by someone who is a practitioner. Brooke's passion for customer care is crystal clear. She takes time to show you her point of view and how to emulate what she believes. If you want to learn how to create a customer care program that is strategic and empathetic, this book is for you!” -- Katie Robbert, CEO,Trust Insights "Said simply: businesses need to pay closer attention to social. And this book outlines how to go past the vanity metrics and create real relationships with customers at scale. Whether you're seeking to improve new customer acquisition, retention or how you build new products ... you can adopt these strategies and learn from the real use cases Brooke provides. A must-read." -- Luke Reynebeau, Vice President of Marketing, Sales Assembly “No matter what your industry, marketers aim to meet customers where they are, and ‘where they are’ is on social media. But it was hard to convince executive leadership that investing in a social-led customer care strategy would pay off – Conversations that Connect will help you do that.” - - Jill Sammons, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Communication, BCU