The Quisenblog

I recently came across this P.O.V. by Brian Halligan about how the quality of your content is much more important now than it has ever been. I couldn’t agree more. Plus, any post that includes a vintage Irish Spring spot has to be worth the read. –Mickey

Are creative marketing types a dying breed?

By Brian Halligan (from Creativity Unbound)

I have been thinking about my mom and dad sitting on their couch in 1979 watching “Dynasty” and being interrupted five minutes into it by an Irish Spring soap ad. Something remarkable happened after that ad played: My dad actually spoke with my mom about soap, and they decided to switch from Dove to Irish Spring! I think of my parents today sitting on their couch watching “The Office” and being interrupted 5 minutes in by an Irish Spring ad. Something very different happens this time: Dad grabs the clicker and either fast-forwards or turns to ESPN.

In those pre-historic times before the age of cable, DVR’s, and clickers (remotes to us Yanks), I might argue that the key factors in order of marketing importance were time slot, segmentation match with the product to the audience, and then creativity/quality of the advertisement itself. In other words, it was important for the advertisement to be creative/good, but mom and dad were going to hear the message by hook or by crook.

I have heard many people argue that creative marketing types are becoming obsolete. I don’t buy it. In fact, I think the creative marketing type is 10 times more important today than it was 30 years ago when you had mom and dad captive on the couch.

To get mom and dad’s attention today, you need to create remarkable content. I use that word “remarkable” because the content has to be so good that it compels other users, content creators and web site owners to remark about it in the form of links back to it. These links inform Google of how remarkable the content is which drives you up the rankings. If the content is really remarkable, it will spread virally through sites like Twitter. Rather than creating a 30-second “spot” for a captive mom and dad, the great creative types today are creating remarkable content that is essentially voted on by the web community through links which will ultimately get it in front of mom and dad if it is deemed worthy. This is really hard and the content needs to be fantastic to spread through a skeptical, non-captive audience.

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Mickey On Customers, Ramblings Brian Halligan, captive audience, Dynasty, Google, Irish Spring soap ad, marketing factors, mom and dad, remarkable content, The Office, Twitter, web community

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

Studies show the biggest sources of customer dissatisfaction are unmet needs and expectations (59%), product/service usability and complexity complaints (43%), billing errors (40%), and lack of quality or relevancy of service/product offerings (32%). Often times, when a customer experiences some sort of hiccup with a product/service/customer service, or has a question that isn’t readily answered, she is a bit annoyed. Over time, that “annoyance” can grow to become the feeling that “it’s obvious the company just doesn’t care about me.”

Social Media gives you the opportunity to intervene during customer pain points to provide solutions or someone who will listen to customers or others who have questions.

With upwards of 70% of customers considering themselves “web first,” it goes to reason that the web (or at least cyberspace) is the first place they would hope to resolve customer service concerns. It’s a lot easier to log on to Facebook or Live Chat with a customer service rep than it is to dial an 800-number, get stuck in a phone tree and hope you eventually get someone on the line who can help you.

Comcast, JetBlue, Odwalla and Starbucks are some of the companies who are actively using social media for customer service. Comcast, for example, monitors Twitter, blogs and social sites to find messages from customers who have complaints about Comcast service, customer service issues, missed appointments, etc., and then they respond to them via Twitter in hopes of resolving as many issues as possible. Comcast’s Twitter customer service rep is a guy named Frank Eliasson, and his Twitter feed is called Comcast Cares. You can see some of his direct responses to customers here:

Just having Frank tweeting with customers in need has helped increase Comcast’s customer satisfaction index tremendously (every time Frank is able to help someone, he helps create a positive story for Comcast. And this story gets passed along). One of the qualities of Comcast Cares that makes it so effective is its real time component. When you are having issues hooking your DVR up, you want help right now. Not three hours or a day from now. Frank’s able to get back to most people within 10 minutes.

Listening to customers and followers is great. But key is understanding what you’re hearing. The content of responses will give you clues as to where your organization excels and where it falls short in the eyes of your customers. If 70% of complaints are based around price, consider pricing or tier alternatives (or ways you can add value or help customers realize more value). If they are around ease-of-use issues, consider producing a micro site with a live chat function that can help customers at critical phases.

Because Social Media allows such wonderful opportunities to hear what customers are saying, it can provide a powerful platform for resolving customer service issues in real time.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media Comcast Cares, customer service, real-time responses, Twitter

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

In yesterday’s post, we talked about the power of online social communities with common interests of its members at the center.

Here’s a “ground up” example that might help illustrate how you can elevate “solutions” into the formation of a “community.” Let’s say you are the Brand Manager of Dial Soap. You already have a large number of customers who like you and who are loyal. So you say, so why not just start a Facebook page titled “Friends of Dial Soap”? You could, but chances are you wouldn’t attract attention beyond the audience you already have. (Actually the brand did just that (Dial Soap’s Facebook)…and has a whopping total of 53 friends. Out of a possible 300 million. Woo hoo.)

So try broadening your approach. Ask what it is that your customers like about you, or how you can help visitors solve some sort of problem. Remember, successful Social Marketers are those who understand what customers are trying to do and how their products and services can help them achieve this.

Knowing this, you might start a Facebook page titled “Protecting Families From H1N1 Flu Virus.” There. You have just set Dial Soap up as the solution. Maybe not the end-all solution to protecting families from the flu, but by setting up and enabling a community of people who can come together to share ideas, tips and thoughts on minimizing the chances of contracting H1N1. You could integrate news feeds from relevant health news sources into the page, along with interactive maps to follow the migration of the flu bug, health and immunization alerts and other relevant information. And yes, you’ll make it easy (effortless) for community members to find out more about Dial products and where to find them.

You could then use this Facebook page to sign up followers to receive a “Flu Tip of the Day” via Twitter, and link to YouTube videos you’ve posted demonstrating the correct way to wash hands, sanitize kitchens and virus-proof play areas.

In other words, you can use Social Media networks to tap into an audience (or create an audience) that is already out there.

Then, there’s the “Magic Multiplier” of social networks: once you’ve “friended” someone, your postings are visible on the “wall” of their page, making it easier for others (friends, and friends of friends) to become part of the community. A recently completed study found click-through rates on Facebook wall posts average around 6.5% (compared to the average 0.02% click-through rate on social network banner ads), demonstrating that social media users are more deeply involved in the content.

You can see how communities can build fast. In some cases, companies can build a sizable following strictly using Social Media networks. Nike and Apple have over a million fans on Facebook. Even the AFLAC duck has nearly 140,000 friends on Facebook and nearly 3,000 followers on Twitter.

Social Media networks are one quick way to tap into or build a community. There are other ways you can build communities as well. We’ll touch on some of those in our next post.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media click-through rates, existing audience, Facebook fan pages, media platforms, social marketing solutions, Twitter, YouTube

What could be more ironic than this? A so-called digital media “expert,” who when sent to present to a Fortune 500 company on social media, gets bit on the butt by…you guessed it…social media.

It happened recently when an executive named James Andrews from Ketchum in New York posted an unflattering Twitter entry while en route to present to the worldwide communications group at FedEx in Memphis, Tennessee. Andrews tweeted:

No doubt Mr. Andrews was playing to his buddies back in New York. But this particular microblog blew up in his face. Turns out a FedEx employee found it online and forwarded it up the ladder to much of the FedEx corporate brass. The shake out was swift and sure. To say Mr. Andrews presentation was not well received would be an understatement. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this 24 word entry costs Ketchum a major piece of business. At the very least, it would make any thinking executive question the agency’s “expert status” when it comes to social media.

This is a great lesson on the power of social media and the Internet. Once you put something out there, it’s out there, for all eternity. It’s sorta like being overheard at a cocktail party, except there are 80 million people who might have heard you, and your conversation is recorded for all future guests, in case they missed it.

These days, anything you say online (or anything that is said about you online) is a simple Google search away from everyone. And we mean everyone. Your customers. Your employees. Your co-workers. Your boss. That account you just pitched. That employer you just interviewed with. Your second grade teacher. Your cousin in Wenatchee. Everyone.

So maybe you oughta think twice before putting those drunken photos from Cabo on Facebook. Or sending that vitriolic rant to the local paper in support of marijuana decriminalization. Or, in Mr. Andrews case, making disparaging remarks about the hometown of one of your key clients.

To sum it all up, you are what you post.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey New Media advertising, marketing, microblog, Social Media, Spokane, Twitter

You can usually tell what kind of year it has been by looking at the new terms and words it generates. The year 2008 has been rich with neologisms that support the New Frugality, the rediscovered zeitgeist of cutting back on consumption. My favorite new term might be “frugalista,” defined by The New Oxford American Dictionary as “a person who leads a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.”

But the year’s winning word according to The NOAD is the verb “hypermile,” which means “to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and driving techniques.” Hypermilers (the noun form) keep their tires properly inflated, remove roof racks from their vehicles, and turn engines off rather than letting them idle at stoplights. The word even has it’s own website that’s filled with tips that’ll make you feel like a hot-rodding lead foot (”slowly accelerate after stops” and “always know your gas mileage after trips to the pump”). Here in the West, “hypermiling” is sometimes called “EcoDriving.”

A somewhat related term is “staycation,” which is a day trip or vacation taken at or near one’s home.

Other jargon from 2008? How about “moofer” (rhymes with “goofer”), a Mobile Out-Of-Office worker who is basically Dilbert with a blackberry instead of a cubicle. Works as a noun, but I’m not so sure about the verb form (“My employer just moofed me!”).

Then there’s “tweet,” a short message sent via Twitter using a cell phone or other mobile device.

Another newbie is the “topless meeting,” which, while it may conjure up staff meetings at the Playboy Mansion, actually refers to meetings in which electronic devices like laptops, blackberries and mobile phones are verboten.

Thanks to the 2008 Presidential campaign, we now have “hockey mom,” which used to be the winter equivalent of a soccer mom, but now has been conflated with pit bulls, lipstick and Neiman-Marcus shopping sprees.

And of course there’s “toxic debt,” the poorly secured bank loans that were randomly bundled and regifted like a holiday fruitcake. “Toxic debt” is the pre-bailout term. Post-bailout (or, euphemistically, “Post Rescue Package”), we refer to it as “troubled assets.”

Do you have any favorite “new words” from the past year you’d like to share?

Just a little fodder for all you moofing frugalistas out there to tweet to your circle while hypermiling to your staycation.

Posted by Mickey

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admin Ramblings advertising, Frugalista, marketing, Spokane, staycation, Twitter, words