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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Tracking Sales to Social Media, Conducting Sweepstakes and Contests

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you had a fantastic Holiday weekend, and are easing into the workweek slowly. Here’s some useful links to help you start the week smarter:

 

I always chuckle at how companies lament that they are having difficulty tying sales directly to its social media efforts. The reality is, social media as a channel is not the best channel to drive sales directly. First, most companies struggle to correctly attribute revenue to any channels, much less social media. The study in the tweet below found this as well. Social media has certain strengths and weaknesses for businesses. It does a great job at things like building brand awareness, a good job at things like customer service, and not that great at things like direct sales. All channels have strengths and weaknesses. Most companies are also having trouble attributing customer service success to billboards. The point is, focus on the strengths and weaknesses for each channel and don’t waste time and money trying to force a square block into a round hole.

 

One of the most misunderstood areas of social media is how to effectively and legally run sweepstakes and contests via social media. This great share from Mari gives you wonderful pointers on how to run either via social media channels.

 

I constantly talk to companies that want to build a fanbase of passionate customers, who have no idea how to get started. I always tell them to do the same thing; say ‘Thank you’. LA Chipper (and former Alabama Crimson Tide great) JaMycal Green recently left the LA Chippers, and when he did, he posted goodbye and said thank you to Clippers fans on Instagram. Then he went through and thanked every fan that replied. This is how you build a fanbase, by simply showing your current fans that you appreciate them. Look at your company’s Facebook page, or your Twitter replies. How many customers are commenting that they enjoy your products or services? Are you replying and thanking every one?  You should be. Don’t over complicate things, saying ‘Thank you’ still works.

 

I hope you have a great Monday! Speaking of news, I’ll have some news of my own to share here tomorrow. I think you’ll enjoy it!

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10 Steps to Creating a Successful Twitter Chat

Creating a successful Twitter chat #Blogchat was first started in March of 2009 and since that time has been one of the most popular chats on Twitter.  It’s definitely been a labor of love for me, and I am a HUGE proponent of Twitter chats.  So I wanted to write down the ten steps I’ve taken to build #blogchat up into the success it has become.  I would hope you can use this advice to start your OWN successful Twitter chat.

The focus and structure of the chat

1 – Pick the theme of the chat.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but you need to be careful here.  I picked #blogchat on purpose because I wanted to be able to cover all forms of blogging.  These leads to a wider audience, and allows me to tweak the weekly topics to appeal to a wide or smaller group.  For example, if I had gone with #corporateblogchat, then the theme of the chat is much smaller.

I think a broader theme leads to a larger audience, while a more niche theme will lead to a smaller following.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on what you want to discuss.

2 – Pick the time.  Think about who you are trying to reach.  If the majority of the people you want to reach will be working a 9-5 job, then you probably need to pick lunchtime or the evening for your chat.  In general, I think lunchtime and early to mid-evenings are the best times for Twitter chats.

3 – Pick the schedule.  Most Twitter chats are weekly, but that doesn’t mean yours has to be.  If you are going with a niche focus, you might want to start out with a bi-weekly or monthly chat, then increase the frequency as demand warrants.  But make sure that you at least lock-down the day of the week that your chat will be, and stick to it.  Others can’t promote the chat to their contacts, until they know for sure when it is.  And no matter what day and time you pick, someone will say it isn’t the best for them.  I am constantly having people tell me they want to join #blogchat, but can’t because it’s on Sunday nites.  But sometimes when a holiday or special event falls on Sunday nite, I will move #blogchat to Monday for that week.  And as soon as I do, some people will tell me that they can’t join because Monday nites are no good for them.  So pick the day that works best for YOU, and stick with it.

4 – Decide on the flow.  Will you tightly moderate the chat, or will it be very loose in structure.  My thinking with how I moderate #blogchat has always been ‘get out of the way of the smart people’.  So I basically throw a topic idea out for each #blogchat, and let the smart #blogchat participants do their thing.

Now if that’s your cup of tea, fine.  But many chats go with a very structured format, with a chosen topic, then multiple questions asked around that topic.  A new question is asked every 15 or so minutes.  Some people really like this format.  In the end, it really comes down to which YOU like, but definitely pay attention to what the chat participants are telling you.

Building a following for your Twitter chat

5 – Ask your chat’s participants for their feedback, then act on it.  One of the things I often do is ask #blogchat participants to help me pick that week’s topic (seriously after a few weeks, you are probably going to be scrambling to find new topics to cover).  If I decide to go with a suggestion from one of the participants, I point out to everyone who suggested the topic, and thank them.

Another example is OPEN MIC.  Several months ago, I wasn’t able to join #blogchat one Sunday nite.  So instead of canceling it that week, I decided to make it OPEN MIC for that week, meaning everyone could talk about whatever blogging topic they wanted.  I was afraid the idea would be a disaster, but instead it was so popular with #blogchat participants that I decided to make it a monthly event.  So now, the last Sunday nite of every month is OPEN MIC.

6 – Bring in co-hosts.  As part of the listening to #blogchat participants, I could tell that many of them wanted to discuss how to improve the SEO of their blog.  I am NOT at all qualified to discuss this, so I asked Lee Odden if he would join us, and he graciously accepted.  Over the last 16 months, I’ve brought in several co-hosts to help me cover topics.  This makes the quality of #blogchat better PLUS, it provides additional exposure for #blogchat, since the co-hosts have a natural incentive to promote their involvement in #blogchat to their networks.  So it’s a win-win.  And the good news is, as your Twitter chat grows, it only becomes easier to attract co-hosts.

7 – Invite and welcome newbies.  As #blogchat has grown, it has attracted a lot of new people that want to see what the big deal is.  But the problem is, if you aren’t familiar with #blogchat, it can be completely overwhelming the first time you join.  So whenever I see someone tweet that they are joining #blogchat for the first time, I reply welcoming them, and invite them to join in, and also encourage them to let me know if they have any questions.  That’s a great way to ensure that they stick around and give #blogchat a chance, plus it lets them know that I really do appreciate them joining us.

8 – Shift ownership.  If you think you can build a successful Twitter chat by yourself, you are insane.  It’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication, and it is going to take acknowledging and empowering the people that are helping to grow your chat.  If someone does a recap of one of your chats, RT that.  If others are helping promote when the chat is and what it’s about, send them a quick @ or DM thanking them.  Let your chat participants know that THEY are very much a part of the success that your chat is having.  That will simply give them the incentive to promote and grow the chat even more.

9 – ‘No experts allowed’.  I make sure everyone that joins #blogchat understands that NO ONE there is an expert, and that we are all there to learn from each other.  I think this puts participants at ease, and makes them more likely to participate.  I want this, because the more people that participate in #blogchat, the better the quality of the chat.

10 – Say ‘Thank You!’, and mean it.  If you’ve participated in just one #blogchat, you know that I appreciate the hell out of everyone that takes the time to join #blogchat.  I love the community we have at #blogchat, and am so grateful for their contributions that have made #blogchat the success it is.  And I think most of the people that join #blogchat realize that they are appreciated, which makes them that much more likely to help grow the chat, and promote it to others.

So these are the steps that I’ve used to grow #blogchat into the success it has become.  Hopefully, it can help you launch and build your own successful Twitter chat.  I really think Twitter chats hold a ton of potential for bringing together people and growing ideas.

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Your Field Guide to What it Means When Someone Complains About Your Brand Online

J0202218It can be a scary (online) world out there, y’all.

For brands, this online world is particularly scary because they are very visible targets.  There’s no shortage of complaints and negative comments being hurled at them.  What’s worse, if they ignore the comments, they tend to multiply.  What’s even worse, most brands aren’t sure how to respond.  It can easily become a no-win situation.

So if we accept that your brand can’t ignore negative comments and complaints online, then we need to figure out how you will respond to them.  But before you can respond appropriately, you need to properly assess who you are responding to!

The Three Types of People That Will Complain About Your Brand

When you encounter a negative comment about your brand online, you need to understand who it is coming from, because that impacts how you will respond.  Negative brand comments come from one of three sources: Angry customers, passionate fans or trolls.  Here’s how to recognize each.

1 – Angry customers.  This is the most comment source of complaints you will see online.  Typically the complaint will deal with a very specific issue that this customer is having, and nothing else.  The complaint may include some larger statements about how this issue reflects poorly on your brand, but these are typically included to stress to the brand the need to pay attention to the person and fix their problem.  

Example complaint from an Angry Customer: “I just bought your writing software program and I can’t get it installed on my PC, and I can’t get anyone to help me!  I followed the instructions I found online (no manual included, why did I have to go online for instructions?) and it still won’t start.  I called your 1-800 customer service line and it said there was a 2 hour wait!  I just left a tweet to @SoftwareCustomerService on Twitter but so far no response!  Look I just want to get this product working, but I can’t get anyone at your company to help me!  Can you please call me at 1-800-frustrated customer or email me at need.help@acustomer.com?”

Note the complaint is only about their specific issue and how they want a resolution.  That’s it.  Note also that this customer is only contacting you because he tried to get the help he needed by himself, and couldn’t.

2 – Passionate fans.  This one is difficult for the untrained eye to spot.  The difference between a complain coming from a fan is that since the fan views themselves as owners of your brand, they feel an obligation to bring the issue to your attention.  But the fan will also communicate to you how you should resolve the issue, or they will offer to help you resolve the issue.  This is the easiest way to differentiate a complaint from a passionate fan vs a complaint from an angry customer.  The angry customer simply wants you to resolve THEIR issue, then they could care less if you fix the larger problem with your brand.  Whereas a passionate fan will focus less on a specific issue and more on how this is a larger problem for your brand, that needs to be corrected.  The fan will typically offer advice and suggestions for fixing the problem or making it better.  And they will frequently volunteer to work with you to help implement their suggestions.  Again, fans view themselves as owners of your brand, so they feel they have ‘skin in the game’ and will act in what they perceive to be the brand’s best interests.

Example complaint from a Passionate Fan: “Hey there! I’m a frequent customer at your restaurant on 201 Church Ave and typically love the service I get there when I come in for lunch.  However, over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed that lunchtime service seems to be getting slower and slower, and the line of customers waiting to have their orders taken seems to get longer each time I go there for lunch.  I do notice that there seems to be several new members working there, so perhaps it’s just a matter of them needing to get up to speed.  But I have to say, I’m starting to notice that customers are leaving due to the long lines and going elsewhere for lunch, I hate to see you lose business due to slow service!”

Here, the person is careful to identify herself as someone that frequents this location, and that she is typically happy with the service there.  Also, she is careful to point out how the long lines are having an impact on the brand, by driving customers away to a competitor.  The tone isn’t angry, instead its sympathetic, she’s hoping that your brand will correct these issues, because she is a fan.

3 – Trolls.  Trolls typically attack the brand in vague terms rather than specific issues or events.  Rather than complaining about a specific issue with your brand, they might try to attack your brand based on your brand supporting certain charities or causes or political candidates.  Or they might complain about your products or service in general, and not focus on specific interactions they have had with your brand.  ‘You suck’ is their catch-phrase.  A troll simply wants attention and engagement, whereas angry customers or fans want a resolution.  Trolls just want you to keep engaging them, and they will typically try to piss you off in order to make that happen.

Example complaint from a Troll: “Is your brand still trying to act like it cares about the environment?  You can launch all the ‘go green’ initiatives you want, but we both know it’s purely propaganda, your brand doesn’t care about the environment, you are only piggybacking on a popular marketing trend for your own benefit!”

Note the attack is very vague and the claims are difficult/impossible to substantiate.  Again, the idea is to spark a response, ideally an angry response, at which point the troll would likely claim that they were being attacked by your brand.  Remember the saying ‘Don’t feed the troll’.

Tomorrow I’ll go more in-depth into how to respond to negative comments online.  But in short, here’s a quick cheat-sheet for responding to complaints online, based on the person making the complaint:

Angry customer – Resolve their specific issue as soon as possible.  Try to move the exchange offline so you can get specific information from them.  Also communicate to the appropriate teams internally where the customer encountered breakdowns in the customer service chain that resulted in their complaint.  Make sure you followup with the customer and ensure that their issue is resolved to their satisfaction.  Handling a complaint from an angry customer effectively is the quickest way to convert a detractor into a fan of your brand.

Passionate fan – Communicate to the fan that you are taking their feedback seriously, and will forward their recommendations to the proper people within your brand.  Ask the fan if they would be interested in giving you more feedback related to your brand.  A true fan will jump at this chance and it’s an opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with your fan.

Troll – In general, it’s best to ignore trolls.  If they are trolling on your site/blog, you are typically within your bounds to delete their comment, especially if it is a vague attack.  If they are leaving comments on another site, it’s still best to ignore them, but if they continually harass your brand you should contact the site administrator and ask them to look into the troll’s actions.

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Five Ways a Small Business Can Use Social Media to Drive Sales

J0177750I have a friend that runs a small retail business and a couple of months ago I gave her a copy of Think Like a Rock Star.  She loves the book and the last two times I’ve been in to see her, we’ve been discussing ways that her business could leverage social media to drive sales, and cultivate fans.  I thought these ideas could help those of you that are running your own small business, so I wanted to share them here.

1 – Start tracking which of your customers are using social media.  There’s several different ways you could do this, but the main thing is that you want to create a way to start interacting with your customers online, plus you want to be able to follow them as well.  You especially want to do this for your satisfied customers.  Whenever someone is communicating to you that they are happy with your business, that’s a great time to ask them what their Twitter handle is!  Or if they bring up social media, ask them if they are on Twitter or Facebook.

2 – Post coupon codes to each social media channel you are using.  And you want to make sure these codes are specific to each site.  For example, one code for Twitter, one code for Facebook.  This helps you track which channel works best for driving sales.  Run a separate code for each site at the same time on Monday.  Then by 5pm Friday if you had 15 redemptions of the Twitter code for the week, and 3 for the Facebook code, that’s a possible indicator that your Twitter audience is more receptive to coupon codes than your customers on Facebook are.

3 – Rethink the Punch Card.  Many small businesses offer punch cards, especially restaurants.  They give you a card, and each time you make a particular purchase, your card is punched.  After your card is ‘full’ (typically 5-10 punches), you get a free item.  For example, the Pizza Hut here has a lunch buffet punch card.  After 10 punches, you get a free lunch buffet.  But what if you gave your customers a way to earn punches besides just purchasing a meal or product?  For example, let’s say you are a hairstylist that offers customers a punch card for haircuts, and they get a punch for each haircut.  After 10 punches, they get a free punch.  What you could do is offer them an additional punch if they would take a picture of their haircut and then post it on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram!  Or maybe if they RT your tweet about this week’s promotions, that earns them a punch.  You can play around with it and figure out what works best for your business, but you may find that a picture posted on Facebook might drive in more business than you’d ‘lose’ by giving up a punch on a card.

4 – Use Twitter to do ‘real-time’ local marketing.  If you are a small business that’s active on Twitter, one of your best friends is a site called Monitter.com.  What I love about Monitter.com is that it not only lets you search Twitter for specific search terms, it then lets you target those terms based on geographic location.  So if you own a pizzeria in downtown Nashville, you can set Monitter.com to tell you whenever anyone tweets ‘pizza’ within X kilometers of any zip code you set, down to 10 km.  So when I tweet ‘Lunch time!  Hungry for pizza, where should I go?’, you can reply and tell me about your specials you are running on pizzas for lunch, and that if I’ll tweet you the pizza I want, you’ll have it ready for me when I arrive!

5 – Reward your fans and best customers.  This ties back to the first point about tracking which of your customers are using social media.  Let’s say you have built a list of 50 of your customers that are using social media.  You can then go in and segment these users and then give them unique offers based on their activity.

For example, let’s say that 10 of those 50 customers are promoting your business on a weekly basis.  These could be your ‘fans’.  So you might want to create a special sale or event just for them.  And when they arrive, make sure you communicate to them that they were chosen because they were helping to promote you and that you wanted to thank them for being your fans!

Another idea:  Let’s go back to the hairstylist example for a minute.  Let’s say the hairstylist has found 50 customers that are active on Facebook.  Of those 50, 5 of them have over 500 friends  The next time those 5 customers come in, you make them an offer:  If they’ll let you take a Before and After picture of your hair and post the pictures on your Facebook page, you’ll give them a 20% discount off that haircut.  If they’ll then post those same pictures on their Facebook page, you’ll give them a 20% off their next haircut.

The idea with both of these tips is to reward your biggest fans, and give your most connected customers an incentive to help promote you via their social media accounts.

Bonus Idea:  I was just on the phone with the fantabulous Kelly Hungerford and she had a great idea:  Salons can offer free (or paid) photos that people can use as their avatars on social media sites!  What better time to get a new picture made when you have just had your hair done or makeup applied and you look gorgeous?  Plus you can also post those pictures on your Facebook page to show off your happy custoemrs!  If you have someone at the salon that’s a photographer, or maybe you could have a friend come in and do it part-time, whatever.

So those are a few easy ways your small business can start to immediately use social media to drive actual sales.  BTW want more ideas on how you can create more customers and convert them into fans of your business?  Then subscribe to my Think Like a Rock Star newsletter!

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The Case For Adding ‘Easter Eggs’ to Your Blog Posts

Yesterday C.C. Chapman wrote a fabulous post on why we need ‘next level’ conferences.  Please check it out, and there are a TON of amazing comments, I am still going through them all.  I did want to take a slightly different take on this issue because as I’ve seen in the past, when someone raises a ‘someone needs to do this’ post like this, typically most people read that as ‘someone else‘.  Not knocking C.C.’s post at all, it’s a great discussion starter, but human nature being what it is, most people will wait for someone else to make that move.

So instead of making it about ‘someone else’, I started thinking about how individuals as content creators and speakers can take our content to the ‘next level’.  I think the best speakers and content creators like C.C. are already doing this.  Most of the audiences we write and speak for are interested in more 101-level content.  But not everyone, some people are wanting more, and some of those people started out at the 101-level, but thanks to our content, they are now at a more advanced stage.

Which brings me to the topic of adding ‘easter eggs’ to our blog posts.  If you are a gamer, you are familiar with the concept of an easter egg.  It’s a small addition to a game that really isn’t required to complete the game, and will typically go un-noticed by the ‘casual’ gamer.  It’s typically hidden, so it’s a type of reward for the gamers that are willing to do more exploring and to look everywhere.

Here’s an example.  In the game Batman: Arkham City, if you go to a certain place in the game at a certain time and do a certain thing, you are rewarded with a cameo appearance from Killer Croc:

Now I am going to corrupt the gamer’s definition of an ‘easter egg’ here a bit when I talk about adding them to your blog posts.  To a gamer, an easter egg is a reward in the sense that it’s cool and fun, but it doesn’t typically make them a better gamer or better at the game they are playing.  What I’m suggesting is what if you add ‘easter eggs’ to your blog posts that did make your more advanced readers better?

For example, my audience here is like most social media blogs, typically made up of people looking for 101-level social media help.  So while I want to cater to that audience, an example of adding an easter egg might be to add a tip to the post that the 101-level reader isn’t ready for, but that the 201-level reader is looking for.  How many times have you read a blog post and seen the author add a ‘Pro Tip’?  This is the same basic idea, add more advanced content or tips to ‘reward’ the more advanced readers.

To be honest, this is something I probably don’t do a very good job with.  I tend to forget about what happens to the readers that are ready for more advanced content because of my posts.  Recently on #Blogchat we talked about the idea of creating Topic Buckets to help blog more often and to give structure to the content you create.

Maybe to add another layer to that, we should consider adding 201 level content as well?

For example, the idea with Topic Buckets was that if you could come up with say 4 main subjects you wanted to cover on your blog, then if you could write one post a week for each bucket, then you’ve written 4 posts a week!  But what if you also added a learning context to those buckets, and said that 3 of your weekly posts would be 101-level, and one would be 201 level?

I will have to noodle on this for a while, in the meanwhile, what do you think about this idea of adding ‘easter eggs’ to blog posts, or even writing more advanced posts on occasion?

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Rethinking how companies connect with influencers

One of the highlights of SXSW for me was getting to catch up with my friend Tom Martin.  Tom was also kind enough to interview me for his Talking With Tom series.  If you haven’t heard about this, Tom started going around the country interviewing marketers. thought leaders and influencers in the social media space with just his iPhone, and he posts the interviews on his Talking With Tom site.  A new interview each week.

A few weeks ago Tom was at an event recording interviews, when he talked to Emma and they decided to start sponsoring the site.  For Emma, it’s a great move, as they get to have their name associated with some of the biggest names in social media, for the entire year.  And for Tom it works as well, as Emma’s sponsorship money not only covers his travel to collect the remainder of the interviews, but he also gets compensated for his time as well.  A true win-win for the content creator, and the sponsor.

But here’s what really got my attention: Tom got sponsorship dollars for something that he was going to do anyway.  And instead of being obtrusive, the sponsorship from Emma helps facilitate the content creation.  This is very similar to one of the main reasons why I was in SXSW to begin with, because of the 1st ever Live #Blogchat.  1680PR and Dell stepped up to sponsor the event, but the event was something that SXSW attendees have been wanting to see.  Every time I have attended SXSW, one of the biggest complaints from attendees has been a lack of venues/events where we could all gather and have an actual conversation.  It’s ironic that SXSW brings together so many brilliant people each March, but there are so few events created for the express purpose of letting these smart people connect with each other and have wonderful conversations.  That’s exactly why I wanted to bring a Live #Blogchat to SXSW.  As with Emma’s sponsorship of Talking With Tom, 1680PR and Dell sponsored an event that was going to happen anyway, and facilitated the event, and made it better (In fact if you are considering sponsorship of your event or content creation efforts, absolutely contact 1680PR and Dell to see if there’s a match.  Both were fabulous to work with).

I think this also is a new and interesting spin on the idea of targeting influencers.  Many companies are using services such as Klout to identify influencers and offer them products and services in the hope that these influencers will then promote the brand to the people that they have influence over.  At best, this isn’t the most effective model.

But what if the influencer is also a content creator?  Then one way that influencer could monetize the content they create is by accepting sponsorship dollars.  The important distinction here is that the influencer becomes the gatekeeper and dictates which sponsors have access to his/her network, and on what terms.  I talked about this a bit in the interview Tom had with me, but in this model, the influencer can be selective in which companies they accept as sponsors and make sure that the sponsorship creates value for the network.  For example by accepting the Emma sponsorship, Tom now has the funds to attend more and better events, which means he can create better content for his network, and more of it.

In the end, the content creator, the sponsor, and Tom’s network that accesses the content all benefit.  I think this is a far better model than giving away toys to influencers in the hopes that they will pimp the toys to the network that they supposedly have influence over.  What do you think?  Is this sponsorship model something that you as a content creator could benefit from?  I think the key lies in making sure that the people you are creating the content for, benefit.  Normally there’s a clear benefit to the content creator, then the sponsor, but the ‘audience’ often gets the short end of the stick.  I applaud Tom for finding a win-win-win, and I would like to think that the Live #Blogchats work for everyone as well.

What do you think, would you rather companies target influencers directly, or have the influencers work with companies to the benefit of the people they have influence over?

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Fans aren’t just for Rockstars: A Framework for helping companies connect with their advocates and vice-versa

Warning: This is an uncharacteristically long post for this blog, but it’s a topic that I am pretty passionate about: Helping companies better connect with their brand advocates and customers, and vice versa.  If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you know how I often use the Rockstar analogy to explain how Rockstars have fans, while companies have customers.  This post attempts to address this point, and provide a framework for how companies can better connect to their customers and advocates.  And vice-versa, with the end goal being that both the customer and the company better understand each other, and the financial benefits that the business will enjoy as a result.

The best post on social media that you have likely never read is this one from Hugh in 2005.  In it, Hugh makes the case for corporate blogging (remember this was a year before Twitter was launched and the Goliath of the social media arena at the time was MySpace), and talks about the conversations that companies have internally, versus the one their customers are having externally.  The idea being that a corporate blog makes it easier for the customer to bring their external conversation to the company, and the company can more easily bring their internal conversation to the customer.

Ideally, both groups would become more closely aligned, as a result of better understanding each other.  As the customer’s external conversation begins to be heard and understood by the company, then the company’s internal conversation changes a bit.  And that change likely moves it closer to the external one, and in theory, as each group better understands the other, the two separate conversations will gravitate toward each other.  This is what I was talking about in my post on the promise of social media for businesses lies in FEWER conversations.

I was recently talking to Liz Strauss about this concept, about how businesses need to better understand the external conversation their customer are having, and how it will change the internal conversation. The idea is that businesses should be connected to their customers, especially their advocates, and bring that external conversation to the company, so they can better understand and connect with their customers.  And at the same time, find a way to connect with the customer so they can better understand the internal conversation the company is having, and the company itself.  Liz asked a very good question: “What’s the process for that?”

Uhhhhh…..

So I decided to come up with a process to do just that.  This is rough and I’ll no doubt be editing it constantly as time goes by.

To better understand what I’m suggesting, let’s look at a fictional B2C company, Carl’s Soda.  CS is middle of the pack in a crowded industry, and like most companies, can tell you their customer demographics, but doesn’t have a lot of direct interaction with their customers.  They have average customer satisfaction (avg to the beverage industry) scores, yet like most companies, do have their customer advocates.  Though the company does little to engage this group.  The majority of its marketing and advertising is done via traditional channels, with the pre-requisite experimenting being done online, especially with social media.

In short, they are pretty much lost in the shuffle in a crowded industry.  We want to see if we can change that by better connecting the company to its customers, and its customers to the company.

What we need to do is find a way to help CS get a better understanding of their customers via the external conversation that its customers are having about the brand.  At the same time, we need to take the internal conversation that the company is having about itself and its customers, and take that to its customers, in an effort to not only build brand awareness, but to also help its customers better understand the brand.  Because once both groups better understand each other, that’s going to facilitate more communication between both groups, which will increase understanding, which will lead to trust.  Which will move CS from middle of the pack, to the front of the pack.  As Steve Knox said:

As you’ll see as this process is fleshed out, it’s going to not only embrace and empower CS’s existing brand advocates, but cultivate new ones as well.

Step One: Creation of a Customer Insights Team

Responsibilites:

  • This group will be responsible for not only monitoring online and offline product and company mentions, but for preparing findings and providing them to relevant departments within the company, such as marketing, PR, customer services, product development/design, etc.
  • Additionally, this team will closely track changes in the volume of online mentions, as well as the sentiment.
  • Responsible for internal education of customers and interacting with them online.

Step Two: Creation of a Brand Ambassador Program for Carl’s Soda

As stated above, Carl’s Soda has its share of brand advocates, but really hasn’t done anything to engage them.  That starts with this program, which will be invitation-only and cap membership at 100.  This will give Carl’s Soda the ability to not only connect directly with its most passionate customers, but a mechanism to give them the tools to spread their love of Carl’s Soda to other customers.  If you’re looking at an existing model to compare this to, look at what Fiskars has done in creating The Fiskateers movement.

Step Three: Creation of an Internal Social Networking Site for Carl’s Soda’s employees

This would be a way for employees to learn more about each other, and share ideas and feedback.  This would also give employees a way to give feedback on the working environment, and suggestions for improvement.  Unlike the brand ambassador program, this should be open to any employees that want to participate.  Similar corporate models could be Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation, or Dell’s internal IdeaStorm for employees.

Now we need a mechanism in place to facilitate the flow of the external the customers are having to the internal walls of the company, and a separate mechanism in place that will facilitate the flow of the internal conversation that the company is having about itself and its customers, to the customers.  This leads to Steps Four and Five:

Step Four: Creation of a Brand Advisory Council

This will be a 6-person council comprised of 4 brand advocates for the company, and 2 customer advocates (who are company employees).  The 4 brand advocates will be chosen from the membership of the brand ambassador program.

Responsibilities:

  • The Brand Advisory Council will be over the Brand Ambassador Program.
  • The Brand Advisory Council will work with the Customer Insights Team to ensure that Carl’s Soda has the most accurate information about its customers
  • Will meet quarterly with key executives at Carl’s Soda to give them greater insights into the company’s customers and advocates.

Step Five: Creation of a Customer Advisory Council

This will be a 6-person council comprised of 4 customer advocates (who are company employees), and 2 brand advocates, who are also members of the Brand Advisory Council.

Responsibilities:

  • Will be over the internal social networking site for employees as detailed in Step Three.
  • The Customer Advisory Council will be responsible for bringing the internal conversation that the company is having about itself and its customers, to its customers.  This could be done via meetups, or even social media by highlighting employees and their thoughts via posts, video, etc.
  • Will meet quarterly with key executives at Carl’s Soda to give them greater insights into the company’s employees and the internal conversation they are having about the company, and its customers.

Now as I stated above, this is a rough draft and I will no doubt be altering this several times in the future.  But the entire reason for this process is based on this truth: Participating in a conversation changes that conversation.  This process is about finding a way to better align the external conversation that customers are having about the company, with the internal conversation that the company is having about its customers.

The benefits of this process include:

  • A better understanding of its customers, which leads the company to more effectively and efficiently market to its customers.  Which lowers marketing costs.
  • As the company better understands its customers, and vice versa, customer satisfaction improves.
  • As the company’s employees have a mechanism in place (internal socnet) to connect with each other and provide feedback on the company itself, employee satisfaction improves.


Why I think this is so important

Several times I’ve written here and elsewhere about how rockstars connect with their fans, and more or less have the same conversation.  Some companies, such as Harley-Davidson, have many brand advocates, and as a result, the internal and external conversations aren’t that far apart.  Harley-Davidson loves its products and brand for many of the same reasons its customers do.

But many companies have difficulty with this because the conversation the company is having and the one the customers are having about the company, are usually quite disjointed.  This process attempts to address that, and bring the two conversations more closely together.

At the end of the day, companies cannot afford to ignore their customers any longer.  Customers now have the tools available to them to mobilize and communicate with themselves far faster than the company can communicate on its own behalf.  Recent PR trainwrecks like Motrin Moms and Kenneth Cole’s #Egypt tweets on Twitter attest to this.  Companies have to not only be aware of what their customers are saying, but find a way to bring that conversation into their walls, and vice versa.  This process helps them get started along that path.

What have I missed? And there is a TON I have missed, trust me.  Does this make sense?  Again, it’s the starting point, the execution side hasn’t really been addressed yet.  What would that look like?

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What happens when a brand evangelist’s message isn’t the same as the brand’s?

All week we’ve been talking about the value for companies and organizations of connecting with, and even embracing and empowering their brand evangelists.  But a recent post by Sean Howard raises a very valid question:  What if an brand evangelist creates content about a brand, that the brand might not approve of?  To illustrate his point, Sean even created a parody video about Marketing Profs, so I invite you to click over and check it out.

Here’s a couple of other possible examples that brands might object to:

  • A popular political blogger that’s an evangelist for a particular restaurant chain creates a post lauding the chain.  However, the post contains the blogger’s usual proliferation of 4-letter words, and the blogger actively supports several organizations that the restaurant chain’s founders are opposed to.
  • A video blogger creates a humor video where he does a ‘taste test’ of several different soft drinks, and spits each out, declaring that it tastes like (use your imagination here).  Then he finishes by drinking Pepsi, says it is amazing, and not at all like the other soft drinks.

The idea is, what should a company do if one of its brand evangelists creates promotional content for that brand, that the brand objects to?  How should they respond?

As I told Sean over at his place, I think it all starts with the connection that a company has with its evangelists.  The company/organziation has to make the effort to connect with its evangelists and communicate to them exactly what their branding is.  Companies and organizations can’t invite their evangelists to promote them, then try to slap their wrist if they create content on the brand’s behalf, that the brand doesn’t agree with.

Remember that evangelists WANT to see your company or organization succeed and they WANT to promote you.  And they WANT you to talk to them.  To give them direction.  To show them how they can best help you.  Take advantage of this to work WITH your evangelists to help them better do what they already want to do: Sing your praises.

How do you think companies and organizations can best communicate to their evangelists how their brand can best be promoted?  Should they?

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What I learned from going on a 3-week blogging bender

On Jan. 18th, I made a commitment to start posting every day here.  No set schedule in mind, I just wanted to start posting every day, and to track what changed here.  I had a few set things in mind that I wanted to track, but I also wanted to see what would happen/change as a result of switching my posting schedule from 1-2 posts a week, to 6 or 7.  Here’s what I learned about blogging from posting 22 out of the last 23 days:

1 – Momentum is everything.  I keep an eye on my traffic every day, I know in general how my traffic will ebb and flow throughout the day.  Prior to Jan. 18th, my traffic would normally dip to only 2-3 visitors an hour from 2am-5am, then inch up, and be up to around 15-20 visitors an hour by 7am or so.  By 8am on most days, the traffic here would be around 60 visitors for the day.

This morning, there were 158 visitors for the day here by 8am(it’s 11 am now and traffic is at 428 for the day).  And for the past couple of weeks, there has been around 100 visitors for the day by 8am.  My ramping up my posting schedule has meant that more content is being shared, and as a result, my visibility has increased.  I assumed this would happen, but it’s still cool to see the numbers in action.

2 – Visibility for individual posts fell, visibility for the entire blog rose.  This is a ‘duh’ lesson, but one that’s important to consider.  Before Jan. 18th, every post I left here would have 3-5 days as the ‘top’ post and more chances to be viewed.  After the 18th, some posts only had a few hours as the top post before being replaced.

The 10 posts published here prior to Jan. 18th averaged 104 ReTweets each.  For the posts since Jan. 18th, they have averaged 53 RTs, almost half as many.  But traffic has continued to rise, as you can see here:

So RTs are down, traffic is at record levels.  Now this has me wondering, what would traffic here look like in another month if I can keep this volume of posting up?

3 – It’s imperative that you try to ‘break stuff’ on your blog if you want to be a better blogger.  With EVERY post here, I had an experiment in mind.  I was changing something to see what effect it would have on something else.  I learned a TON, some of what I learned I am sharing with you here, and some of it I’m keeping to myself 😉  You should do the same thing.

Kathy Sierra once said that the people that are the experts are the ones that always assume that there’s a ‘better way’ to do whatever it is they are good at.  They are always looking for improvement and ways to become better.  If you want to be a real social media or blogging expert, you need to do the same thing.  Constantly break stuff and see what happens.

4 – Blogging every day was EASIER than blogging once a week.  This one totally blindsided me.  My biggest fear in starting the experiment of posting every day was that I would have to ‘mail in’ a few posts to keep the streak going.  I definitely did not want to do that, but I was committed to this experiment to see what I would learn (see previous point about the importance of breaking stuff).

What I learned was that there were a lot of blogging opportunities that I was leaving on the table.  A perfect example of this is this post I wrote on using Tweetdeck to track who is favoriting your tweets.  I was having a Twitter conversation with @be3d one night, and I favorited one of his tweets, and he mentioned that he knew I had done it.  I asked him how, and he explained how he was using TweetDeck to track it.  That was a great tip, so I decided to turn it into a blog post!  All I had to do was take a screenshot, and just recall the above conversation.  But I realized that I am constantly learning tips and tricks on using social media tools like that, why not share them?

5 – You don’t know what you don’t know.  I made a lot of experiments and changed a lot of things here over the past 3 weeks.  Often, I wanted to change something because I knew it would have an affect on something else, and I wanted to measure that impact.  But sometimes, changing one thing would alter something else, when I had no idea the two things were connected.

So while it’s great to listen to and get advice from the so-called blogging expert, you still need to go out and make your own rules.  Figure out what works perfectly for YOU, and you do that by experimenting.  So go break some stuff 😉

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The promise of social media for business lies in FEWER conversations

Last Wednesday I held my Think Like a Rockstar blogging class for the Content Marketing Crash Course at Marketing Profs.  The course is over, but if you want to view all 17 classes, here’s information on how you can.  I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Rockstar analogy this year, covering why rockstars have fans and companies have customers.  I’ve done so, because there’s an extremely important lesson for companies in the rockstar analogy:

Rockstars and their fans have the same conversation.

Or at the very least, they have more similar conversations than most companies and their customers have.  The disconnect between how the rockstar views its fans and how the fans view its rockstar, is far less pronounced.  Which means the conversations that each group is having about the other, is more similar.  A big reason why is because most rockstars SEEK engagement with their customers.  They not only listen to the conversation that their customers are having, they participate in it.

Contrast this to most companies, who not only lack engagement with their customers, they often FEAR that engagement.  As a result, the company is having an internal conversation about the customer with little to no input from or interaction with the customer.  And likewise, the customer is having an external conversation about that company, without any involvement and interaction with that company.

Participating in a conversation changes that conversation.

Prior to launching its company blog, Graco discovered that 68% of the online conversation that customers were having about and around the Graco brand, was positive.  That’s not bad, but 18 months AFTER launching its company blog, Graco found that the tone of the online conversation its customers were having had shifted to 83% positive.  Additionally, the company found that 99% of the additional online mentions that the company gained in the 18 months AFTER launching the blog, were positive.  The blog gave Graco a vehicle to directly connect with customers and interact with them.  As a result, the online conversation that Graco’s customers were having about the brand, changed.

Interaction breaks down walls.

Likewise, a lack of interaction between the company and the customer strengthens walls and silos conversations.  Then you are left with two groups that each are having a conversation with the other group, without actually knowing that group.  Which means neither group really understands the other, and as a result, doesn’t trust the other group.

But as interaction between the two groups happens, the conversation the customers are having begins to be understood by the company.  And the customers begin to better understand the company’s point of view.  Hugh was talking about this five years ago.  As the company begins to understand the customers’ point of view and incorporate it into THEIR conversation, that conversation that the company is having becomes more familiar to the customers.  Because the company is starting to speak in a language that’s more easily recognizable to them.

Interaction leads to understanding, and understanding leads to trust.

So this interaction is prompting change in both the internal and external conversations.  By better understanding the company, the external conversation the customers are having about the company, changes a bit.  And likewise, as the company begins to interact with its customers and better understand them, that internal conversation it is having about its customers, changes a bit.

Most importantly, the walls around both conversations weaken a bit.  The distance between the two groups shortens.  Both conversations become a little bit more familiar to the other group, and as a result, both groups begin to trust the other a little more.  Four years ago I wrote this on The Viral Garden:

As we correctly anticipate the consumers’ wants and needs, and fill them, a trust is developed, which leads to the consumer lowering their defenses and letting us interact with them on a deeper level. This leads to a greater understanding of their needs, which means we can more quickly and effectively meet these needs, and thus the cycle is created.

And that cycle creates an incredibly powerful barrier to entry for other companies.  It also creates fans and advocates for that company.

Trust leads to advocacy.

At this point, the company has interacted with the customer and become so familiar with their conversation that the walls around each conversation are starting to blur.  The voice that the company speaks in becomes more familiar to the customer.  Which makes it easier for the customer to trust the company, because they are speaking in a voice they recognize.

Their own.

And that makes it much easier for customers to advocate on behalf of a company that they believe have their best interests in mind.

Wait, this isn’t about smart social media usage, this is about smart business.

Exactly.  Customer conversations are increasingly shifting online and to mobile devices.  Customers are finding new tools and technologies every day to help them more effectively and efficiently communicate with each other.  And they are getting up to speed on these tools and technologies faster than companies are.  But if companies can follow the lead of their customers and become efficient at using these tools and in the same way their customers are, then they’ll win.  It’s not about becoming a better marketer, it’s about becoming a better communicator.

Here’s to better communication in 2011.