The Quisenblog

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.
Tuesday: Co-Creating with Social Media.
Wednesday: Building Brand Evangelism through Social Media.
Thursday: Social Media and Reputation Management.
Friday: Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.

(This is the last in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We welcome your feedback on the series.)

So let’s say your first foray into Social Media was a success.

You scrubbed your customer database so you have a good list. You put together an email blast with compelling creative and an intriguing offer. And you got eye-popping “open” and “conversion” rates. Congratulations!

Now before you pop that bottle of champagne, think about your next engagement with them, and how you can make it a little more meaningful.

Their first opt-in should be translated that they liked your offer, not necessarily that they are somehow “passionate” about you. This first engagement is key, but it should not be considered an unmitigated Social Media success story.

The challenge is to keep your initial “hand-raisers” opted-in. And to make your communications with them a conversation, so you find out more about them, how they view your organization and its offerings, what makes them more likely to buy from you, to convince them to serve as the conduit between their communities and you, and help you identify opportunities for deeper engagement.

It helps to think of the customers who opt-in for the first time as “trial customers.” They liked what it was you asked them to respond to. The next step though is less clear. The key is to stay relevant. A 10% off coupon may attract a lot of attention the first time you do it, but it is important to recognize this act as a conversation-starter. It will help you find out who’s interested. At that point you need to deepen the conversation.

This first engagement is an opportunity to find out more about your “hand raisers” than their email addresses or how they found you. Let’s say your first contact was a coupon you sent via email. As part of the redemption process, you could put together a quick survey to find out a little more about redeemers and what they would like to see in future communications from you. Once you know what customers are looking for, you can put together a calendar of events and mailings that will continue to be relevant for them. And the more they redeem and reciprocate the communication, the more you will inevitably learn about them. Your goal in the early stages of engagement are to learn as much as you can about your followers and continually be relevant to them to ensure continued engagement.

Once you have established this “first circle” of followers, you should be able to incite them to share with others in their communities. You can do this with “Bring a Friend” events, “two-for-one” offers or offer bounties on new customers.

An example of an organization that does a great job re-engaging with its followers is Woot.com. This is an online retailer who offers one unbelievable deal on one specific item each day, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

The company built a loyal following because its community knows that even though 9 times in 10, the offer will be for something they would never buy, that 1 time in 10 will get them an unbelievable deal. Woot.com stays relevant to its community by holding to its promise (Brand Vision) of offering one unbelievable deal each day. By seeing what its customers purchased (or tried to purchase) and the velocity at which items moved, Woot is able to streamline its product offerings and leverage its buying power. In short, it becomes even more relevant to its community.

Although today marks the official end of Social Media Month, we still have more Social Media ground to cover. We’ll be sending out these posts in the coming days and weeks, so please keep an eye out for the Quisenblog.

We’d love to hear your comments on the series. Leave your comments or questions here, or email me here.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media brand loyalty, brand vision, conversations, customer engagement, relevant content

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.
Tuesday: Co-Creating with Social Media.
Wednesday: Building Brand Evangelism through Social Media.
Thursday: Social Media and Reputation Management.
Friday: Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.

(This is the eighteenth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

For marketers, these are exciting times. Never before in our lifetime has their been a sea change quite like we are seeing today with the rise and influence of Social Media.

As when other major changes in marketing came about (the advent of TV, the commercialization of the Internet), there is a steep learning curve for those on the forefront. In an attempt to help you flatten this curve somewhat, we present a handy list of things that could conspire to doom your nascent Social Media efforts:

1. Starting too big. You don’t have to eat the apple in one bite. Start out with the platforms you are most comfortable with. Don’t think that because Ashton Kutcher has a million Twitter followers that you need to be on Twitter. While you want to stay in your comfort zone, examine how others you know or follow use various social media outlets. Start a personal Facebook page and Twitter account and play around with them to see how they work. As you become more familiar with them, you may feel more comfortable sticking your big toe into them.
2. Focusing on platforms, not content. We’re on Facebook. We have six microsites. We have an email list of 100,000. So? The real question is, what are you using these platforms for? How are you using each to get fresh, relevant content to your followers? Each platform has its relative strength. Random, unfocused usage of tactics more often than not will deliver poor performance. There’s a lot of crap out there, and being on Twitter for the sake of being on Twitter isn’t going to build a following for you.
3. Viewing the online space as “another medium” for off-line tactics and content. Off-line media at its core is about intrusion: we will sneak this TV spot by you while you’re busy watching “Desperate Housewives.” That type of intrusion doesn’t work in the opt-in world of Social Media. Banner ads that lead to a corporate web site that provides no real value to the user is a case-in-point of a wasted engagement opportunity.
4. Not being transparent. Some organizations just don’t have it in them to cede the control of the communication to the user. Yet to be successful, you have to. Acknowledging only positive posts, or heavily moderating user created content is the fast track to digital irrelevance.
5. Not being available. Remember Motrin Moms? Sharing information via social media without someone there to interact is a giant NO NO! A “must have” when branding on social media is being available to your public.
6. Running out of steam. The landscape of Social Media is littered with abandoned blogs, inactive Twitter accounts, fanless Facebook pages and RSS feeds that go months without fresh content. Don’t just stake a flag across various platforms and move on. It says you’re not serious. Take an honest objective look at where your brand can make the biggest impact from a Social Media standpoint, while providing value to your target audience (remember, value is in the eye of the beholder). Even the best of intentions won’t create a blog post everyday, or a meaningful newsletter exchange every two weeks. Not every follower you have will find every posting or every new piece of content useful. The goal is to keep your platform presence relevant over time. Consider broadening your definition of “relevant content.” Redirect content created by others you have commented on. Invite others from your organization to contribute. Link to articles or content you think your audience may find interesting. Put together questionnaires or surveys for your followers to participate in, then report your findings back to them. Consider anything that will help you provide a solution for your followers.
7. Not being committed. For some, Social Media will represent a giant leap forward in connecting with customers, building loyalty and developing new avenues for brands to grow. For others, Social Media will represent an ill-timed dalliance into platforms they never quite understood. Their initial excitement will ebb as they come to see that building and maintaining a meaningful presence in Social Media requires real effort and commitment. They won’t give their Social Media profile enough resources. They won’t give it enough time. They won’t give it enough attention.

This is sort of the “bookend” post to the one earlier this month on the Social Media Manifesto. Keeping these two on hand and referring to them during the design and implementation of your Social Media program should give you confidence as you move forward.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media availability, commitment, familiarity, off-line tactics, outlets, platforms, relevant content, relevant presence, transparency, user control

(This is the second in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

There’s the legend of the old train conductor who spent years working the rail line between the financial district of Manhattan and the suburbs of Connecticut. As the legend goes, the man retired a multi-millionaire, thanks to the stock tips he overheard from brokers while punching tickets and arranging for cocktail service. These were not conversations in which he was a participant. Passengers spoke freely as if he wasn’t there, yet he was able to benefit from the content of those conversations.

This is a perfect metaphor for Social Media.

There are literally millions of conversations going on online everyday, and we’re free to “listen in” on whichever ones catch our attention.

So how do you get the people you are interested in attracting to “listen” in on you? If you (as a person or company) are continually creating valuable, relevant, and compelling content, your customers and prospects will want to have a conversation with you. (“Content” here is defined as anything you create, re-purpose or publish that will entice web users to want to spend time with you, and hopefully, to come back for more.) They will stay “opted-in” and anticipate hearing from you again, and being part of the communication. They will freely pass information you send on to others in their social circles. Successful conversation marketing is predicated, above all, on sound relevant content.

Here’s an example that might help illustrate. On its Facebook page, Red Bull builds engagement with its followers by entertaining them, with fresh content such as its “Drunkish Dialer” series (where you can listen to actual voicemail messages left on Red Bull’s 800-number) and a series of Red Bull-themed video games (like this soapbox racer) to test your mad gaming skills.

Is this content serious? No way. Is it filled with “facts” about Red Bull? Nope. But it is “fun,” which is totally consistent with the Red Bull Brand Vision. And it’s how Red Bull visitors want to be engaged.

Developing and sharing relevant content is about understanding the needs of your target audience. What value can you add to what they are already doing? How can you enhance their experience? Through the content you publish and make available, you are in essence creating a “story” about who your company is. The sharing of that “story” creates opportunities to communicate with customers and prospects. And how do you know it is relevant? You hear back from them.

For clues as to what’s “relevant,” check out your own email inbox and browser bookmarks. What mailings do you remain opted-in to? What sites do you go to over and over again? Are there newsletters with articles you enjoy? A “hot sheet” of deals available from an online retailer? A joke-of-the-day?

The key is to stay relevant. This is what it takes to build trust. And trust is the high bar of marketing (Imagine being referred to by customers and prospects as “They are the ones I trust.”)

As always, we look forward to your feedback on this series. Feel free to submit questions or comments (they will be visible to all visitors). We’ll do our best to answer them.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media brand vision, Red Bull, relevant content, target audience