The Quisenblog

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Using Social Media to address your pain points.
Tuesday: Use Social Media to give your customers a seat at the table.
Wednesday: Picking a face for the organization.
Thursday: Picking a face, part 2.
Friday: Give away your expertise.

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

As an organization, you have a lot of resources that many visitors and others would find useful. As we mentioned before, most people are using the Internet to find some kind of solution. The most successful Social Media programs are where you help visitors solve problems in ways only you can do it. The knowledge and experience you have around your business and industry is invaluable, and likely can help many, many people, even though you have yet to find a way to “monetize” it.

As an example, let’s say you are a retirement community. You have a lot of experience helping families transition a member to a new and different living environment. You have a lot of knowledge as to what caregivers should be looking for (and avoiding), what the needs of residents and families are, and other information that can give peace of mind and help potential customers make informed decisions. Why not make this kind of “intelligence” available to all who visit your site (and elsewhere on the ‘Net)? This information exchange could take the shape of white papers, a blog, or an online newsletter, or even links to industry-leading information sites. Turn your website from an information-only site into an interactive, dynamic community or a “clearing house” that makes your visitors “smarter” and gives them tools to make confident decisions.

Perspective clientele and their families would come to you in their earliest research phases to educate themselves on the issues involved in the process of finding a great solution to one of life’s more stressful situations. Instead of selling floor plans or amenities, you’ll be in the business of alleviating fears.

You are demonstrating that you understand your customers’ “greater purpose” and you are using your resources to create a solution they can’t find anywhere else. You can repurpose this content in blogs, newsletters, social groups and elsewhere. And as visitors discover this information and find it useful, you’ll find two things will happen: one, they will more often choose to engage with you at a deeper level (in many cases purchase), and two, they will freely share their experience with others and forward your information to them. (Remember the dynamic of Social Media: “receivers” are also “the medium” and are also “creators.”)

This is not selling; no where in this process are you “asking for the order.” What you are doing in this introductory phase is proving value to your prospective customers and building trust. You leave the door open to inquiry, but never is there a “quid pro quo”—“We’ll give you this information, but we expect you to buy from us.”

You are a smart organization. Social Media gives you the opportunity to it off.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media audience engagement, availability, community, knowledge, solutions, trust, useful content, Value

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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admin Social Media customer interaction, customer satisfaction, Facebook, solutions, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines

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

In our previous few posts, we’ve talked about using existing social networks to build an online community. These communities aren’t “owned” by you; they belong to the members of the community. Setting up and enabling a community doesn’t mean you “own” it. The conversation goes where it goes, where the participants take it.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other existing networks offer lots of users and many possible existing communities for you to tap in to, but you may also benefit by creating your own gathering place. While there is plenty of value to be realized for businesses by following the conversation, there are other times it is of value to “own” the community gathering place. The advantage is that you can present the information you want. You can also help steer the conversation, while still deepening the relationship with your community.

Media that you can “own” includes your web site, tactical micro sites (web sites built for a specific audience or purpose), newsletters, email blasts and blogs (at least your original posts).

Micro sites have become a very popular way to attract and build a community. A micro site is basically a stand-alone web site—built much like the corporate web site you already have. In fact, it may be created as a page on your web site. What generally distinguishes a micro site is its users come for one specific purpose. As an example, if you are a university, you may wish to launch a micro site dedicated to homecoming week. Everything a visitor would need to know about homecoming week, from activities to travel accommodations to player bios and ticket information for the football team, could be found on that micro.

Directing banner ad click-throughs and email blasts to a focused, content-rich micro site can geometrically improve your click-through rates over sending them to your corporate web site (remember, people are online to find quick solutions).

Here is an example of a micro site that has done a great job in building a community, becoming viral (“I have to send this to my Aunt Millie!”) and, yes, selling tons of product. It is a micro site for BlendTec blenders, a brand of rather high-end kitchen blenders. The microsite is called “Will It Blend,” and features a collection of videos that show the company’s somewhat nerdy CEO Tom Dickson attempting to blend all sorts of obscure objects, from golf balls to glowsticks to golf clubs to iPhones. These short minute-long films are entertaining, quirky and demonstrate that the BlendTec 5000 can indeed blend anything.

Micro sites often offer more chance for community feedback that a corporate site. For example, the homecoming site above could include a page of “best homecoming memories,” a photo gallery, and a page or link to help you find missing classmates and leave messages for them. Will It Blend could have visitors vote on their favorite videos or send in suggestions for future vids.

How can you tell if your micro site, email blast or other content has the potential to “go viral?” While this is imprecise to say the least, one question to ask of it is: “Is this more outrageous than what I’d see on TV?” It’s got to quickly capture visitors’ fancies. Also, try to think in terms of “narrow” and “deep.” Pick an audience that is very niche, then push your content so it’s something that resonates with that narrow audience.

In conclusion, Social Media you own can be a valuable way to have more control over the conversation while building a community.

Feedback? We’d love to hear it.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media feedback, micro sites, online communities, solutions

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The Social Media Manifesto.
Tuesday: Social Media and business.
Wednesday: Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
Thursday: Social Marketing turns the Media Funnel upside down.
Friday: Action steps for getting your business started in Social Media—today.

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

In our last few posts, we talked about the fact that Social Media is simply anything you do in the online space that allows others to converse, contribute, add to, distribute or give feedback to.

That’s all fine, you say, but how does that relate to my business? To answer this, one must first accept the notion that people are coming to the Internet to find solutions.

The key to developing a successful Social Media campaign is in setting yourself up as a solution for your customers. Not to sell so much as to solve.

People come to the Internet to find solutions to an almost limitless number of problems: I’m looking for the lowest price on the latest James Patterson novel; I’m looking for a gluton-free recipe; I’m looking to find out which gas grill I should buy; I’m looking to return a broken music player; I’m looking to see how the Giants did last night; I’m looking to be entertained; I’m looking for trusted insight on which growth stocks to buy. You get the idea.

For some of the problems people come to the Internet looking to solve, your company or products may offer an obvious solution. Many times your company has the expertise and resources to help customers in quite a few ways. And the most helpful usually don’t have to do with selling them stuff.

The obvious question most businesses would have at this point is: “Why can’t the people with problems we can solve just come to our website?”

The thing is, most Internet users aren’t looking for a sales pitch, and that’s exactly what most corporate web sites are, or at least what visitors expect when they go there. There’s nothing wrong with this…there’s a time and a place to get your product and sales information in front of a prospective client. But when they are in the early phases of looking for a solution very often isn’t the right time.

Increasingly, Internet users see the value of the ‘Net as being able to connect with peers, other customers, thought leaders and neutral resources when researching a purchase. Upwards of 70% of consumers are “web first,” meaning they either purchase on the web or do research on the web before ever setting foot in a retail environment.

So how do you go about finding which problems to solve? What’s the one thing your customers would say you do better than anyone else (your Brand Vision)? What problem(s) does that solve for customers in the real world? Now ask, are there web users that are having that same problem?

Once you are clear on what problems you can solve, then you can move on to consider which Social Media platforms will work most efficiently at helping you do it. We’ll talk more in depth about these platforms in future posts.

As always, we look forward to your feedback on this series. If you’re not currently receiving the Quisenblog, you can subscribe here.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media brand vision, problems, social media campaign, solutions, web first shoppers