It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. While I’m not sure of the exact number, one thing I can say is this four-minute video does a heck of a lot more to parse the impact of Social Media than a 400-word blog post could. Enjoy.
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There are some huge online communities out there. For example, Starbucks has over 6 million Facebook fans. Jet Blue has more than 1.6 million followers on Twitter. Even the AFLAC Duck has more than 5,000 followers who eagerly follow his every move on Twitter.
And then, there’s the infamous pickle we blogged about a few weeks back. The one that garnered more than 1.6 million fans on Facebook in just 16 days on the page “Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickelback?”.
Which begs the question: how much, really, are these fans and followers worth? Is fan volume the key metric in determining the success of a Social Media program? Is what it takes to attract fans enough to make them customers? What value can an organization place on such a community?
A look at how organizations have been able to attract such large numbers gives us some clues about how easy it is to “buy” followers. Victoria Secret attracted 2 million fans by giving away panties. TGI Friday’s similarly gave out free hamburgers. Jet Blue recently gave away 1,000 one-way tickets. The “decision engine” Bing grew its fan base from 100,000 to 500,000 overnight by giving away Farmville cash.
So what are these fans really worth? Not much until you can classify them. They represent a database to communicate with to determine their level of interest in you. Most folks will just be there for the swag. I would wager that an overwhelming majority of Starbuck’s 6 million-plus fans didn’t join because they “loved” Starbucks, but rather than they’re hoping to get a coupon for a free frappacino.
What you have, then, is a community of “hand raisers.” You did something that interested them enough to “join,” but by itself that act is no indication that they are true “fans” or even that they give half a hoot about you. Think of them as the folks who walk by your tradeshow booth and stop to fill out a sweepstakes entry.
There are times when a big community can be an asset. If you’re looking for a way to drive traffic and have a special enticement to offer, you have a built-in audience. You can solicit input from them on different issues, and occasionally even invite them to co-create with you. But don’t fall under the spell of thinking that everyone who clicks the “Become a Fan” button on Facebook is a “brand evangelist” dying to hear your every word. These days joining a fan page is no big deal for most folks (recent stats show the average Facebook users joins three fan pages a month), and as the examples of Victoria’s Secret and Bing go to show, it doesn’t take all that much to get them to join.
Over time, you’ll be able to track the followers who interact with you on a regular basis, who respond when you throw something out there. These are your most valuable followers. And while they may only represent a small portion of your overall community, it’s not about their numbers. It’s about their level of engagement. One could argue it is much more profitable to have deep engagement from 1,000 fans than to be “friended” by 500,000.
But for arguments sake, let’s say you’re not interesting in shear numbers, only in having loyal, highly engaged followers. How do you organically go about attracting them? It helps to build in a barrier to entry that not everyone can get past. Reward your followers, but make your page exclusive to the point where not everyone can join. Don’t let just anybody in. Could be invitation only, or require a referral from an insider (like G-mail was when it was first introduced).
Your community will grow a lot more slowly, but will be more likely to be populated with true “believers” who are truly interested in you and won’t hit the “Hide” button after they received their first free coupon.
So before you decide to run a promotion in Mafia Wars for 100 Godfather points in an attempt to grow your fan numbers, ask how you can make the best use of the folks who’ll opt-in, and how you’ll go about separating the wheat from the chaff.
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This is an actual Facebook entry posted by a friend of mine a few weeks ago. He was referencing the AT&T TV spots featuring Luke Wilson.
AT&T launched the campaign in response to Verizon’s “We’ve Got a Map For That” campaign, which uses red and blue maps to highlight AT&T’s 3G “dead spots” across the country. AT&T felt the need to counter punch, and thus came up with this tactical campaign.
The problem is, as the aforementioned Facebook entry alludes to, in its attempt to spin the facts, AT&T has dabbled in some untruths. Not that they lied, exactly—the lawyers must have racked up the billable hours splitting legal hairs. Seems the company’s idea of “coverage” isn’t what Verizon was talking about.
Here’s where it gets sticky for AT&T. If you lead your market to believe something, you better pay it off. Dancing around the facts may make you feel better, but it will just turn your audience off. And turn them against you.
As proof, a quick Google blog search on “AT&T 3G” finds verbatims from bloggers and AT&T customers alike saying “AT&T Lies Again”, “AT&T Moves the Goal Post”, and “Dude, where’s my 3G coverage?”
What’s more? While a marketer can contribute to the conversation, he very likely won’t get the last word. Case in point, here’s what Luke Wilson says…
And here’s what a non-paid Verizon customer says…
This can’t be the kind of word of mouth AT&T was hoping for. But that’s what happens when your audience catches you trying to mislead.
So what could AT&T have done to counter Verizon without bordering on the misleading? My advice would be to speak only about their strengths. Focus on markets where their 3G coverage is strong, and remind customers why they chose AT&T in the first place. Maybe even play off the ridiculousness of the more-places-is-better foundation of Verizon’s maps:
“True, Verizon has 3G coverage in Pierre, South Dakota.
But how often do you find yourself in Pierre, South Dakota?”
For many marketers, there are times you need to get out there and counter punch when a competitor starts eating your lunch. At such times, it is imperative that you do so transparently from your Brand Vision. And to do everything in your power to ensure the bond of trust between you and your customers is never compromised.
Trust is the currency of success.
Posted by Mickey
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If a 1990s version of ourselves appeared before us, replete with a walkie–talkie sized cell phone and a CD good for 120 hours of AOL, how would we introduce us to the new decade? If we’d just dropped in from the 20th century for a quick latté, what would we need to know to be an effective communicator here in 2010? Here are a few salient points you may wish to impart to your visitor from a strange time:
Content has truly been democratized. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection has a microphone. Instead of standing on a soapbox in Hyde Park, today folks can start a blog, write a review, post a comment on Facebook, send a Tweet or forward an email. And because every member of our “network” has his own network, our voice has the potential to reach way beyond the sound of our small voice.
Connectivity is universal. Ten years ago, when cell phones and mobile communication was in its Early Adopter phase, the promise was that you were within reach, no matter where you were. Today, mobile communication has evolved to the point where you are not merely “within reach,” you are totally connected to your personal network and news feeds, can find new communities easily, can conduct virtually any kind of commerce anytime and anywhere, and have the entire 9 billion pages of the Internet at your disposal 24/7.
Today our role is not so much to search for information as it is to filter it. Information and content have become ubiquitous. It finds us. Our role is to cull what is relevant and useful from the mass of data and information thrown at us on a daily basis.
Just because it’s loud doesn’t make it true. The speed of communications has led even “reliable” sources of information to forego traditional fact-checking. More and more, rumor is reported as fact. Punditry is being conflated with truth. Self-proclaimed “experts” seemingly pop up at every turn. This is what happens when there is no gateway to access. It is up to each of us to dial up our critical thinking skills.
With apologies to Gil Scott Heron, who spoke of the how authoritarianism trumps democracy in his tome “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” this past decade has shown that precisely the opposite is occurring.
Now quick, usher your former self back into that time capsule and send him back from whence he came. His John Grisham novel awaits.
Posted by Mickey
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Now that 2009 is almost in our rear view mirrors, it’s time to look ahead to what’s coming in 2010. What better time to prognosticate about the days ahead.
Oh sure. We could go for the low-hanging fruit here and “predict” that mass media spending will go down, online and Social Media spending will go up, Facebook will pass 400 million users, yada yada yada. That might score us some cheap points, but really, that stuff is sort of a given. So, for better or worse, here are some of our fearless predictions about some less frequently discussed marketing and social Media issues:
If you have any marketing/Social Media predictions for 2010 you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you.
Posted by Mickey
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This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The two kinds of online consumers.
Tuesday: Creating a Community, Part 1.
Wednesday: Creating a Community, Part 2.
Thursday: Social Media you can own.
Friday: Giving up control.
(This is the twelfth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)
Where many organizations struggle with the realities and potential of Social Media is in accepting the fact that they aren’t in control of the agenda. Companies cannot force goals on people, can’t control what they say about the brand, can’t spin the facts.
Truth is, the power of Social Media is the ability to hear what customers are REALLY SAYING. There is tremendous opportunity in searching out negative comments and addressing them directly. Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to be responsive. Ignoring the true conversation coming from customers does no one any good. If someone has a bad story to tell about you, you need to accept it is being told somewhere. (See our post on “United’s Sour Note”) Social Media gives you the opportunity to get out in front of such stories and contribute to a solution.
You can’t control what people are saying about you. What you can do is organize that speech. You can organize it by highlighting the good stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-good stuff. You can organize it by embracing the people who love your brand and challenging them to speak up and share the good word.
Here is an example of how Southwest Airlines uses Social Media to approach this:
You’ll note that “Sean” left a post complaining of a specific customer service concern. A few hours later, “Christi” from Southwest Airlines answered Sean directly, and tries to use this complaint as an opportunity for further conversation. Interestingly enough, “Phil” intervened before Christi had a chance to respond, and “stood up” for the airline, essentially evangelizing on its behalf.
This is typical of how social media works. For Sean, it is an easy outlet to contact the company, and list a specific complaint. The company then had the opportunity to address it, or at least acknowledge its intent to make things right. If nothing else, it had to make Sean feel better about the company being that he knows they “heard” him. His post also opened to the door for Phil, a loyal member of the SWA community, to weigh in.
Having loyal customers jump in and “run interference” for you isn’t that unusual, once you demonstrate to visitors that you are willing to hear what they really have to say, and demonstrate that you are trying to facilitate solutions.
Have a great weekend, and we’ll check in with you next week!
Posted by Mickey
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(This is the first in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)
A lot of folks who claim they don’t know a thing about this “Social Media” business are actually using it everyday, many times without even realizing it.
For example, whenever you check Craigslist to see if there’ve been any new listings of lawn furniture you’re engaging in Social Media.
Whenever you go to Cnet or some other site to research mp3 players, cameras or printers, and you see a host of ratings and reviews (both good and bad) from people who’ve bought the model you’re considering, you’re engaging in Social Media.
Whenever a friend emails you a link to a YouTube video and you’re so entertained by it that you view other videos from the same contributor or forward that video link on to someone else, you’re engaging in Social Media.
Whenever you accept a friend request on your Facebook page, you’re engaging in Social Media.
And whenever the florist you bought last year’s Mother’s Day bouquet from sends you an email offering 10% off on an early Mother’s Day purchase, guess what? Yep, Social Media.
In short, anything you do in the online space that allows others to converse, contribute, add to, distribute or give feedback on is considered Social Media.
In Social Media, our audiences are not just the “receivers” of our efforts, they are also the “medium” (by spreading our efforts forward) and in many cases even “creators” (adding their own spin on our information or integrating it into a greater piece).
A few misconceptions about Social Media campaigns: Social Media is not about getting selling messages out to as many individuals or groups as you can. Nor is its primary purpose to drive traffic to your web site.
Instead, successful Social Media can be described as a platform that is based on relationship, community and permission. At the core of every Social Media campaign is an implicit trust—the trust that you can help the customer solve something. It is taking part in a two-way (or multi-way) conversation (as opposed to the one-way communication of traditional media or an information-only web site) that all parties get some sort of value from.
To repeat, any time you use the online space to converse with an individual, group or community, and all sides extract some value from that encounter, that is considered Social Media.
As an exercise to demonstrate how natural and universal use of Social Media has become, I ask you to monitor your own use of the Internet for the next few days. Recognize what your Social Media encounters are, and what value you are getting from each one. Recognize the other participants. Are they people you know (either personally or through reputation), or are they totally random? When do you do the initiating? When do others come to you?
By the way, if you found this post of value, and would like to pass it on to others (yep, that’s Social Media too), just use one of the “share” links below. Feel free to submit questions (they will be visible to all visitors) and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Posted by Mickey
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Example number 1,678 of a company that promotes it is something it is not, and then when caught, tries to soft-shoe around it.
The company in question in SIGG—a Swiss company whose sales of what they call an “eco-hydration system” has resulted in sales increases averaging 130% a year just in the United States.
Those “eco-hydration systems,” of course, are otherwise recognizable as those fancy stainless steel refillable water bottles. SIGG grew its market by positioning itself as an eco-friendly alternative to the tens of millions of plastic water bottles that end up in landfills every year.
Once popular with climbers and hikers, SIGG bottles have since evolved into a lifestyle necessity for the eco-guilty, who don’t want to add to the Earth’s landfills or poison themselves with plastics. The company even sold one-liter “limited edition” bottles designed by the likes of Michael Kors and Donna Karan and hired a PR agency to get bottles into the hands of “eco-celebrities,” like Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz. They even sent bottles to eco-minded bloggers and bought ads in magazines like Yoga Journal, Backpacker, Vegetarian Times and Dwell.
And now, the discovery that the epoxy linings of these glitzy $25 “eco-hydration systems” contains a hormone-disrupting chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA), the same substance SIGG bashed plastic bottles for containing. What’s more, the company found out about this more than a year ago, and it never bothered to let its customers know. It continued selling the BPA-laden bottles until transitioning to its new, improved lining earlier this year.
Consumer groups have been alleging since at least 2007 that SIGG bottles are lined with a BPA-containing epoxy. SIGG, in turn, maintained that their bottles did not leach BPA, and that they could not disclose the formula for the liner because it was made by someone else. It is important to note here that they did not claim not to know what was in the formula, only that they could not or would not reveal it.
In fact as late as a few months ago, you could find the BPA-lined bottles on store shelves—months after the company knew it had a problem on its hands.
And how did SIGG handle it when its customers expressed concerns? As the conversation on SIGG’s Facebook above shows, the company was responsive with information on how to replace bottles, but then couldn’t resist getting preachy about how this BPA thing was much ado about nothing, noting:
“And besides, it is everywhere…BPA is also used to make dental sealants, flame retardants, and is an additive in many other widely consumer products. CDs / DVDs even the cellphone you use to call us.”
That is supposed to reassure customers?
Let’s recap. Company builds sales on a reputation of being eco-friendly and healthy. Company then discovers its product is not so healthy. Company decides to keep that information to itself…at least until old offending product moves through the supply chain. When caught, company denies that the substance it had previously maintained was poison when other products contained it was somehow okay when theirs did.
The thing is, even if SIGG was convinced this BPA thing did not pose a health threat, its intentional position as “eco- and health-friendly,” means it owed it to its customers to disclose the discovery. By failing to disclose it, and letting consumers discover it on their own, the company has lost all credibility with its core customers.
Yes, the company should have been pro-active with customers when it discovered the truth about its liners. Yes, it should have offered to exchange any bottles in circulation with ones with the new liner. And yes, they should have done this humbly, without getting snarky with customers who inquired.
At some point, a decision was made by SIGG management that this wasn’t a big deal. Fellas, the customer decides what is and isn’t a big deal. Your obligation is to be transparent with the consumer and let them know what you know. Whatever decision they make is their own.
Let’s hope example number 1,678 is the last.
Posted by Mickey
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In days gone by, you could irritate customers, lie to them or otherwise treat them like crap, and there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it. Oh, yeah, they could write threatening letters, tell all their friends and promise to never do business with you again. One nattily-dressed gentlemen I would pass everyday when I worked in San Francisco even protested in front of Bank of America wearing a sandwich board. But for the most part, that dissatisfaction stayed between you and the customer.
My how things have changed.
Today, when a customer feels he’s been wronged, he probably won’t keep it to himself. In addition to feedback sites (like yelp.com) and others, where one can express an opinion on anything from the freshness of a flower arrangement to the food at a restaurant to the customer service of a web site, there are more creative avenues he may take. Like create a Facebook page for unhappy customers. Launch a website named “yourcompanysucks.com”. Contribute to blogs or message boards. Or, he may choose to do what Dave Carroll of the alt/country band Sons of Maxwell did: create a music video and post it on YouTube.
Carroll’s video, named “United Breaks Guitars,” chronicles his exasperation at being treated indignantly by United Airlines customer service folks after the carrier severely damaged his $3500 Taylor acoustic guitar (in plain view) on the tarmac of O’Hare International.
While I’m sure everyone involved at United would claim they were “just doing their jobs,” the bottom line is that Dave Carroll wasn’t taken care of at a very critical touchpoint. No one at United felt his pain or became his advocate. And the video he created has gone viral and been viewed by more than 3.5 million people.
The result for United: not just more bad stories about the airline being circulated, but a finger to the eye of its position of “Fly the Friendly Skies.” Who’s going to believe the airline’s paid messages when you have real customers telling and forwarding stories like this?
While this case represents how the web’s transparency can create huge customer service problems, it’s also a case of how it also creates one-of-a-kind opportunities. When, Bob Taylor, co-founder of Taylor Guitars, found out about it, he made a video response supporting Dave, and launched a series of videos on his web site about how to safely travel with a guitar. Then he did what United should have done—replaced Dave’s beloved guitar.
Great PR for Taylor. A nightmare for United. And in this case, a bit of instant celebrity for one guitar-totin’ hero. All wrapped up in one.
As a bit of a diversion, I present another video, of one of my favorite artists, John Hiatt, performing a song on Letterman he wrote a few years back about broken guitars (of the celeb variety). Enjoy.
Posted by Mickey
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Bio: Mickey Lonchar opted for a career in advertising after many assurances it would not require any math or heavy lifting. Having spent the better part of two decades creating award-winning advertising with agencies up and down the West Coast, Mickey currently holds the position of creative director with Quisenberry Marketing & Design, a full-service advertising and interactive shop with offices in Spokane and Seattle, Wash.
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