Autodesk and Consorsbank exemplify the power and results of adopting a Total Community approach to customer service and social media

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2015 — (PRNewswire) — Lithium Technologies announced that customers Autodesk and Consorsbank have won two of the prestigious Forrester Groundswell Awards, which recognize excellence in social marketing. Consorsbank, a leading online bank in Germany, won in the category of Business-to-consumer (B2C) Social Depth, while Autodesk won in the category of business-to-business (B2B) Social Relationship.

The ninth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards were announced this week at the Forrester Marketing Leadership Forum in New York and are based on Forrester Research's Marketing RaDaR research. B2C and B2B winners were awarded across three categories: Social Reach, Social Depth, and Social Relationship.

"We are excited that Autodesk's and Consorsbank's social media programs were selected for these prestigious honors in multiple categories and thrilled that we could be a part of their success and recognition," said Rob Tarkoff, Lithium President and CEO. 

Consorsbank credits Lithium with helping it build an online community that is part of Consorsbank's transformation into a customer-centric company. Through Lithium's Total Community Platform, Consorsbank leverages ideas, knowledge and feedback from a growing number of its customers. In doing so, Consorsbank is allowing customers to be active participants in developing an even more effective foundation for their money decisions.  The community now boasts more than 14,000 members with more than 8,500 posts.  

Autodesk's Total Community strategy has resulted in achieving a 34 percent increase in unique visitors and successfully answers millions of questions annually, yielding a multimillion dollar value to Autodesk and its customers. The community has more than 1.4 million registered members that have shared more than 135,000 kudos and over 20,000 newly accepted solutions in the last year.

"Seeing our clients succeed with such measurable results confirms the power of the Total Community Platform, and it is gratifying to see that Consorsbank increased its conversion rate by 30 percent, an increase of 1,500 customers per week," added Tarkoff. "Autodesk's prolific community is helping to solve customer issues every day and is creating a deeper engagement with customers. The company is prospering from increased customer loyalty."

"Social marketing in 2015 isn't about driving engagement it's about creating business success," said Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Nate Elliott. "This year's Forrester Groundswell Award winners and finalists used social reach marketing to drive discovery and increased awareness; they used social depth marketing to convert prospects into customers; and they used social relationship marketing to increase customer loyalty and lifetime value. Our 2015 winners prove that when used strategically, social media can drive the business outcomes that CMOs and other marketing leaders demand." 

About Lithium:
Lithium builds trusted relationships between the world's best brands and their customers, helping people get answers and share their experiences. Customers in more than 34 countries rely on Lithium to help them connect, engage, and understand their total community. With more than 100 million unique monthly visitors over all Lithium communities and another 600 million online profiles scored by Klout, Lithium has one of the largest digital footprints in the world. Using that data and the company's software, Lithium customers boost sales, reduce service costs, spark innovation, and build long-term brand loyalty and advocacy. To find out how Lithium can transform your business—and to share the experience enjoyed by 300 other leading brands around the world, visit www.lithium.com, join our community at community.lithium.com, or follow us on Twitter @LithiumTech. Lithium is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco.

The Lithium® logo is a registered Service Mark of Lithium Technologies. All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE Lithium Technologies