MackCollier.com

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New research proves that RESPONDING to negative feedback online benefits companies

One of the biggest misconceptions companies have about online and social media is that any and all negative reviews and comments should be completely ignored.  The idea seems to be that if companies ignore the negative response from customers, that it ‘goes away’.

A new Harris survey concludes that the opposite is true, if companies address negative reviews and feedback head-on, the customer often deletes the negative review AND sometimes even posts a positive one!

The Harris survey tracked customers that posted negative feedback or reviews during the Holiday shopping season on either sites that support adding customer reviews, or on social networking sites.  The survey found that 68% of customers that left these negative reviews got a response, and 18% of these people became loyal customers as a result, and made additional purchases from the company.

Now for the biggie:  Of the customers that received a response from a company after posting negative feedback about their shopping experience, 33% turned around and posted a positive review, and 34% deleted the original negative review.

These findings also support the notion that negative comments and reviews about your company can be a good thing, and something that can help your business.

The key point that companies need to understand is that the negative comment/review isn’t the most important thing, how your company responds to that negative review/comment is far more important.  And the above survey results supports this notion.

If you want to know how to handle criticism of your company online, here’s what you should do:

1 – Respond as quickly as possible.  Often, one negative comment that doesn’t get a response will lead to additional negative comments.  And 3 negative comments with no response from the company can quickly balloon into 10.  But if the company jumps in and responds quickly, that greatly reduces the chance of additional negative comments.

2 – Be thankful, polite, and respectful of your customers EVEN IF you think they are DEAD WRONG.  Common courtesy goes a LONG way here.  You have to understand that the customer believes they are RIGHT and YOU are wrong.  So if you get defensive in your response and start lashing back, you are going to make the situation quickly turn ugly.  Be polite, respectful and LISTEN to what your customers are saying.  It might help you actually….gasp…..understand why they are upset.

3 – If your customers have inaccurate information, feel free to correct them.  This often happens, and again, another way to minimize this happening is to respond quickly, before assumptions based on inaccurate information can spread.

4 – Tell the customers how you are going to address their complaints, and what the next steps are.  Let them understand that you take their complaints seriously, and that there is a plan in place to handle their complaints.

5 – Give customers a way to stay in touch with you, and invite further feedback.

One thing you have to remember is that many customers are WATCHING the interactions that you and other customers are having.  If they see that you are coming off like a pompous jackass, then that increases the chance that they will post negative criticism about your company.  And the flipside is true, if your company handles negative criticism in stride, and works to offer the customer a positive solution, that reflects well on the company, and improves the chances that customers watching these interactions will have a positive reaction.

So the bottom line is that companies that respond to negative feedback online, and do so quickly and appropriately, see huge benefits.  If you think your company needs help or training in handling negative comments or reviews online, please email me.  Or if you have a particular instance that you’d like to discuss, please leave a comment so we can help you, or feel free to email me if you want to discuss it in private.

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How to use Google Reader to share and promote content on Twitter

Last week I wrote a post here on sharing and promoting content on Twitter, and included seven tips on doing this.  But several of you have asked for a better explanation of the 6th step:

Wrap as much amazing shared content around YOUR content as possible.  Want to share your newest blog post on Twitter?  Fine, but it will get more exposure and traffic if you also share 10 posts from other writers that same day.  I’ve tested this as well, whenever I share other people’s content and mix MY post in with their posts, I get far more traffic.

The main way I do this, is with Google Reader.  Here’s how:

First, I go through all the sites and blogs I am subscribed to.  I am looking for interesting posts and articles that I think will be helpful to my network.  As I find them, I use HootSuite to schedule a tweet out with a link to the post/article.  I schedule the tweets so they start at 8am the following day, and then every 15 mins after that.  What I’m wanting to do is schedule tweets with links to other posts/articles from at least 8am through 9:45am.  Then at 10:00am I tweet a link out to my post for the day.  I’m writing this post late on Tuesday night, and the pic to the right shows the tweets that I have scheduled to run Weds morning.

Now the great thing about Google Reader is that it makes it dead simple to keep up with the feeds you are subscribed to.  And you will probably find a ton of great content simply by keeping up with the feeds you are subscribed to.  But here’s a tip for finding the true gems in Google Reader: The shared items from the people you follow.

Think of this as all the people you follow going through their feeds and digging out the best stuff they find, and sharing it with you.  It’s not only a wonderful discovery tool, but can help you find new sites and blogs to subscribe to.  Below is a screenshot of ChelPixie’s shared items:

Why this approach works for me:

1 – It helps me find great content to share with my network on Twitter.  This increases the size of my network, and their connection to me.

2 – It draws more attention to MY content when I share it.  That’s why I share several links to valuable posts from OTHER people first, then a link to MY post.  As I am sharing more great content every 15 mins, more people are RTing my tweets, and paying attention to tweets I am leaving.

3 – It gives me ideas for content *I* can create.  By seeing which topics are popular with other bloggers, and are being shared, it gives me an idea of which topics are resonating with others.

4 – It saves time.  How many times have you heard that you need to tweet out X number of times a day?  By following this schedule, I can hit that number by 10am every morning.  By keeping up to date on my feeds via Google Reader, that gives me more ideas for posts, which saves time on my blogging.

5 – It makes other people more likely to promote MY content.  When you promote other people’s content, a funny thing happens; They are more likely to promote YOUR content.  Now a very important distinction needs to be made here, you need to share content with your Twitter network because YOU think it has value.  You should never share content because you want someone to promote your content.  That simply undermines all of the above.

6 – It gives me a way to promote people that have helped me.  Certain people are amazing about helping me both personally and professionally.  These people are MY A-Listers, and I try to promote as much of their content as possible.

 

So that’s how I use Google Reader to find more content to share and promote on Twitter.  What works for you?

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The one blog post that got me over $22,000 in consulting business

I wanted to tell you about two blog posts I have written that both got very different results for me.  The first was a rant, and it was an engagement bonanza.  It currently has over 70 comments, got around 600 ReTweets, and on the day it was published, traffic to the blog was over 900% above normal.

The second post had far less fanfare.  It only had a handful of retweets, and even fewer comments.  Traffic barely moved on the blog the day it was published.

And yet that second post was the one that has so far led to over $22,000 in consulting projects for me.  The 1st post was ranty, and it was designed to get a discussion started.  And boy did it ever!  But it wasn’t written for potential clients.  It was great for engagement, but not for creating new business.  At the time I didn’t realize it, but when I was writing it I wanted engagement, but I didn’t think about whether or not that engagement would be with potential clients.

The second post came about far more innocently.  I was tinkering with Feedburner one night, and I discovered a feature that helped me better understand my blog’s traffic.  I decided to write up a post that contained this and a few other tips for helping bloggers better understand their traffic and subscribers, by using Feedburner.

The post was later found by an agency owner that was using Google to do research for a project, and she contacted me about joining them on a project, which I did.  I later worked with them on a second project, and I was also referred by that client to another client, and continue to work with both of them.  So that one post that was aimed at helping potential clients, got me real business, while the 1st ‘ranty’ post got a lot of people excited and a great discussion on my blog, it wasn’t aimed at potential clients, and so far hasn’t gotten me a penny in business.

I point these two examples out to encourage you to think carefully about who you are writing for.  It’s wonderful to get engagement and I always love and appreciate comments and RTs from readers.  But at the end of the day, you have to understand who it is you need to connect with.  I could write a ‘ranty’ post here every day, and possibly get more comments and traffic than I do now.

But would it get me any more business?  Probably not, because the clients that I want to connect with want to read posts that will help them better use social media and grow their businesses, not rants.

And to be fair, there’s nothing wrong with writing a ranty post every once in a while.  I’ve done it here before, and no doubt will again in the future.  But what I’ve learned is that engagement is great, as long as you are engaging with and writing for the ‘right’ people.

Who are you writing for?

 

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the ‘ranty’ post I wrote, and here’s a link to the Feedburner post.  Thanks to Kami for suggesting I add these.

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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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So what the hell is Twitter anyway?

So how do you explain what Twitter is to someone that’s never used it before?  It’s not easy, is it?  When I try to explain what Twitter is to friends and others, I try to talk about different ways that you can use the site.  Here’s some examples:

Twitter as a networking tool.

One of the things that first attracted me to Twitter was that I suddenly had access to such a wide array of influencers, authors, CEOs and celebrities that I otherwise had little chance of talking to.  But with Twitter, all you have to do is jump on the site and you can message them directly.  Now there’s no guarantee the people you try to connect with will answer you, but some will, and who knows, a few may actually….gasp….FOLLOW you!

Also, if you attend offlink networking events or meetups, you can easily collect the Twitter names of the people you connect with, and stay in touch on Twitter.  For me, the ability to use Twitter as a networking platform is the biggest benefit I get from using the site.

Twitter as a news feed.

As Twitter has grown in popularity over the past couple of years, mainstream media sources have flocked to the site.  Almost every major news source on the planet has a Twitter account.  This means that every one of your favorite blogs and news sites (and the ones of all your friends) likely all have Twitter account where they are posting links to their newest posts and articles.  You can follow your favorite sources, and then have all of your favorite news delivered right to you via Twitter!  And Twitter has become a fabulous source for breaking news, usually information is exchanged among Twitter’s users around breaking news events before it is reported by mainstream media.  So if you want to stay informed and abreast of all the latest news, there’s no better way to do this than via Twitter.

Twitter as your personal search engine.

This is an advantage you’ll begin to notice after you have begun to build a network on Twitter.  For example, let’s say you are taking a date to see the new action flick that’s debuting tonite in theaters.  But when you arrive at the theater, you discover that it’s sold out!  So now you have to pick from among 3 other movies that you know nothing about.  So ask Twitter!  You can tweet out a recommendation to your Twitter followers and (based on the size and responsiveness of your network) get several answers in a few minutes, if not a few seconds!

For example, a couple of years ago I was arriving in Texas to speak at an event.  All I knew about my hotel was that it was at ‘the Sheraton downtown’.  Now I thought there was only one Sheraton downtown, so when I got on the shuttle, the driver announced that there were TWO Sheratons downtown!  Uh-oh!  So I quickly tweeted out my Twitter followers that were attending the same event asking them which Sheraton the event was being held at.  Within a minute I had several people tweet me which Sheraton it was.  Awesome!  But then someone DMed me the name and address of the Sheraton PLUS their phone number!  If I had tried to use my phone to get on Google and find this exact same information, there’s no way I could have done it as quickly.

Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform.

Twitter is a great way to get several answers to a question or opinions on a topic.  In fact, a great use of Twitter as a crowd-sourcing platform is to ask your network what you should write about on your blog.  Or if you know what you want to write about, use your network to give you ideas and help you flesh out the post.  From a company standpoint, it’s a wonderful way to get feedback as well.

Twitter as a chat room.

When you think about it, Twitter really is very similar to a chat room.  It’s just that the functionality is a bit different, not everyone can see what everyone else is saying, but everyone that’s following you can see your tweets.  So add in a few more controls and you have functionality that’s similar to a chat room.  And as such, that means you can use Twitter as a conversation platform, very similar to the way you use chat rooms!

 

So there’s some ideas on ways to incorporate the different ways you can use Twitter, to explain to others exactly what the site is.  How do you explain what Twitter is to others?

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A no-nonsense guide to sharing and promoting content on Twitter

I’m coming up on my 4th anniversary of being on Twitter.  The way I have used Twitter has changed at least a dozen times, and I am constantly experimenting with how to use the site to best meet my goals.  Here’s some tips I have learned for how I share and promote content on Twitter:

1 – Think about who you are trying to connect with.  Once you figure out who you are trying to reach, then you’ll have a much better idea of what type of content they need.  And if you can share valuable content with these people, that will improve the chances of them following you, and then promoting you to their networks.

2 – Promote ‘helpful’ content as much as possible. Share content that educates, that solves problems.  A lot of my content is based around 101 and 102 level social media how-tos and instructional articles and posts.  Because ultimately, I want to reach companies that need help with using social media to connect with their customers.  So sharing helpful content helps me connect with these people, and it increases the chance that someone will mention me if they are in contact with a company that does need help.

3 – Sharing other people’s content increases interest in your own.  I actually tracked this and saw the results on this site.  When I share more content from other people, it drives traffic back here.  Why?  Because sharing useful content introduces me to new people, who want to check out who I am, and my site.

4 – Promote the hell out of smart people.  Seriously, when you find someone that’s smart, you cannot promote their content enough.  This is why I promote almost every post that Beth, Lisa or Shannon writes.  I know that they always create valuable and helpful content that will be appreciated by my network.  That is always my main goal, give my network valuable content.

5 – Don’t share content to get on someone’s radar, share content because it’s amazing.  In many ways, you are known by the content you share.  So go for amazing content, it matters not who created it.

6 – Wrap as much amazing shared content around YOUR content as possible.  Want to share your newest blog post on Twitter?  Fine, but it will get more exposure and traffic if you also share 10 posts from other writers that same day.  I’ve tested this as well, whenever I share other people’s content and mix MY post in with their posts, I get far more traffic.

7 – YOU have to make your own list.  This is my list.  Make your own.  And you can use this list as your starting point, but you have to tweak and tinker and experiment to find a system that works for YOU.  This works for me, it might work well for you as well, or maybe you need to make wholesale changes.

Speaking of which, what is your best tip for sharing content on Twitter?

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#Blogchat LIVE at SXSW Review: Online smartitude goes offline

Let’s be honest: Two years ago when the first impromptu #Blogchat was held, I had no idea it would become as big as it has.  And even 2 months ago, I had no idea that we’d be in Austin at the largest social media event/festival on the planet, doing a LIVE version of a popular Twitter chat.

Yet on March 13th, there we were, spread out over three floors at the Social Media Clubhouse.  Connecting with each other and chatting about blogging.  It was such an amazing group, with 5 co-hosts helping me lead the conversation; Richard Binhammer, Ken Lingad, C.C. Chapman, Shannon Paul and Becky McCray.  Much of the success of this event can be tied to these five people, as they all did a wonderful job of connecting with everyone and keeping the conversation going.  They are all wonderful speakers, and beyond that (and this is far more important) they are truly good people.

The event itself ended up being a regular #Blogchat, without the laptops and Twitter.  Which is exactly what I wanted.  We had about 70 people spread out over 3 floors, with each floor discussing the same topic, ‘What can company blogs learn from personal bloggers?’  What was amazing was that each floor had a slightly different take, based on the people in attendance.  For example, Ken and I co-hosted on the 2nd floor, and our conversation focused on how important it is for company blogs to find their unique voice, and how that makes it easier for readers to connect with them.  While on the 3rd floor, which was hosted by Becky and C.C., creating a social media/blogging policy and guidelines for your company was a focus.  This makes sense, since that floor had representatives from Dell and Cisco participating.

Thankfully, the online experience of #Blogchat seemed to translate fairly effortlessly to the offline world.  Now there were a few hiccups, but thankfully, these were mostly logistical issues that were a byproduct of never having done a Live #Blogchat before, and not knowing what to expect.  And this really was a test to see if there’s a future in this model, and I believe there is.  Not only did I get very positive reviews from the participants and sponsors, but I’m also talking to people at multiple events throughout the end of the year about possibly having a Live #Blogchat be a part of their event.

Let me add here that the PEOPLE that participate in #Blogchat are what make it work on Twitter, and y’all made the Live version a success as well.  Thank you to EVERYONE that attended.  Y’all all brought and shared your smartitude, and I really think the event itself was a nice contrast to many of the ‘parties’ at SXSW, and a fabulous chance for us to get together with some smart friends and have an interesting and informative conversation.  I also think it was a wonderful pairing for #AllHat3, earlier in the day.  Again, thank all of you that came.

In closing, I have to say how lucky I was to have 1680PR and Dell as sponsors for the Live #Blogchat.  This was the 1st time we’d done a Live #Blogchat, so obviously the 1st time I’d needed to bring on sponsors for it.  Ken reached out to me directly about being the Main Sponsor for the Live #Blgochat when he saw my post on looking for sponsors that I wrote here back in January.  Ken and his team were completely accommodating, and they understood why #Blogchat works, and didn’t suggest we change a thing.  And besides that, Ken’s a great guy, what I really liked was having my friends at SXSW meet him, then hearing them later tell me that they enjoyed spending time with him.  That means a lot to me to have #Blogchat sponsored by good people and I think/hope Ken and I will be able to work together on future projects.

And my goodness, what else can I say about my friends at Dell?  Richard was one of the Live #Blogchat co-hosts, so I was hoping Lionel could join us as well.  Not only did Lionel attend the Live #Blogchat, but so did Susan Beebe, Carly Tatum AND Sarah Richardson!  Then afterwards when a few of us at the Live #Blogchat event went to the Hilton Lobby to do #Blogchat on Twitter, Dell’s Laura Thomas joined us there!

On Monday I was talking to a member of the social media team at a major brand that everyone has heard of.  He was telling me that his team was looking for ways to use social media to connect with and engage consumers.  I said “Let me tell you something, in the span of 2 hours yesterday, I got to chat with SIX members of Dell’s social media team here.  Yes, social media is hugely important, but putting feet on the pavement still matters.”  What makes Dell’s social media efforts so brilliant is that they understand that the interactions created via social media are just the start.  They leverage those online connections into offline ones.  THAT is where the magic happens.  I don’t keep gushing about Dell because I love their products, I gush about Dell because I love the people BEHIND those products.

Again, thanks to everyone that attended the 1st ever Live #Blogchat.  If your company would like to talk to me about sponsoring a Live #Blogchat or if you are an event organizer that would like to add a Live #Blogchat to your program, please email me for more details.

If you couldn’t make it to SXSW, here’s a few more pics:

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SXSW 2011 Review: Still the biggest, and still the best

“I’m not going this year.”

I heard that from several friends when I asked them about their SXSW plans for this year.  This, along with the reviews I heard from people that attended last year (which I missed), made me a bit worried about what my third SXSW experience would be like.

It was my best trip yet to SXSW, hands down.

The wonderful thing about SXSW is it’s the only place in the world that gives you access to such an amazing group of people.  I got to talk brand advocacy with Jackie Huba and Virginia Miracle.  I talked marketing to teens via social media with marketers from Nokia and Coca-Cola.  I watched as a few brilliant people organized an effort on the fly to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Japan quake victims.  There’s only one place on the planet where all this could happen, and it is in Austin, Texas in March.

The SXSW experience isn’t perfect, but as is such with much of life, it is what you make of it.  For example, one of the biggest complaints I have had (and heard from others), is that it doesn’t make sense to spend a couple of thousand dollars to go socialize for 3-4 days in Austin every year.  I was determined to get real business value and leads from SXSW this year.  So as soon as I had it finalized that I was attending, I started reaching out to companies/people that I wanted to connect with, as well as letting everyone know what my schedule would be.  It made a HUGE difference in my experience in Austin.  Hell I was talking business with a SXSW attendee in the Houston airport for my connecting flight TO Austin last Friday.  Better planning and being proactive about attempting to connect with people made all the difference.

The Sessions: I honestly only attended one actual session, Valeria Maltoni’s session on Influence, and I only caught a few minutes of it.  I did catch the Content Rules book reading with Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, as well as David Merrman Scott’s book reading of Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead.  But I heard from many people that the sessions were surprisingly good this year.  I was happy to hear this, because the quality of the sessions had been woefully lacking in my 2 previous trips to SXSW.  Good to hear that wasn’t as big of an issue for 2011.

So the bottom line: Should you attend SXSW next year?

My advice is yes IF you properly plan.   Here’s what I would suggest you do if you want to attend SXSW:

1 – Buy your badge as soon as possible.  This will save you money, and you can always sell the badge to someone else later if you decide you can’t make it.

2 – Reserve a room in a hotel downtown.  A big reason why you want to buy your badge early is so you can also get your room booked.  Now a big reason why my SXSW experience was so much better this year was because I was able to get a room at the Hilton, which is literally across the street from the Convention Center where SXSWi is held.  But you don’t have to go with the Hilton, the Marriott and Hampton Inn downtown will all put you within 2-3 blocks of SXSW and most of the off-site events and parties you would want to attend.   I believe the Four Seasons is close by.  Yes, these hotels are a bit more expensive, but I think the convenience factor makes up for it.  Other than the cab ride to the airport, you should never pay more than $10 for a cab fare anywhere, even if you can’t find a buddy to catch a ride with.

3 – Decide exactly WHY you are going to SXSW, and plan accordingly.  Are you going to socialize?  Then make a list of the people that you absolutely have to meet/connect with, and start contacting them ASAP.  Also, figure out where the ‘hot-spots’ are for people hanging out (The Blogger’s Lounge is always a safe bet. Figure out where it is located and use it as your ‘home base’).

Are you going for business leads and networking?  Then same thing, make a list of the people/companies you have to connect with, and find a way to make that happen.  You want to do this planning because NO plan is safe at SXSW 😉  Schedules are constantly changing, I had meetings run over, I had other people cancel meetings, I had others wanting to schedule some on-site.  Everything is fluid with SXSW, so the sooner you can plan ahead and lock people down, the better.

4 – Let everyone know where you are and will be.  I’m not a big FourSquare user, but I was using it often at SXSW, simply to let others know where I was in case they were looking for me.  I was also doing the same thing, I actually avoided one party because I saw that only a couple of people that I knew were tweeting from there, while another event had more people I knew.  And also write a blog post sharing where you will be, I had several people contact me to meet after I wrote a post saying where I will be.

5 – See if you can get help covering travel costs. Going to SXSW *is* expensive.  Even if you book early, you will still pay $450 for your badge, plus $300 a night for hotel, and probably close to $500 for flight.  Add in food, cabs, and anything else you want to buy while in town, and you could easily hit $2,500+ for the cost of the trip.  If you work for a company, see if they can pay some/all of your costs for you to go to connect with others.  If you are an independent, see if you can go with a client and have them help defray your costs, in exchange for connecting them with others while there.  Or if you are a blogger, maybe a company would be willing to sponsor your trip?  The great thing about SXSW is that almost all of the ‘big names’ in the social media space are there.  And companies want to connect with these influencers.  If you are an influencer or can help your company/clients by connecting them to these people, there’s value in that for companies.

6 – If you are a content creator, take advantage of SXSW.  I really didn’t do a good job of this, other than taking a few dozen pictures.  As I’ve said before, you have unprecedented access to smartitude at SXSW, so take advantage of that to chat with people, interview them for posts, shoot a quick video with them, etc.

After having gone three times, from my own experiences and from the feedback I’ve gotten from others, I can tell that the time you invest in planning out your SXSW experience has a HUGE impact on it.  Yes, serendipity happens often in Austin (and it’s amazing), but you can’t make serendipity your plan.  If you want to connect with certain individuals, make that happen, the earlier the better.

Here’s a few more pics from SXSW, and tomorrow I will have a full review of the 1st ever LIVE #Blogchat!

 

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#Blogchat for 3-13: What can company blogs learn from personal bloggers?

1680PR's Ken Lingad

Hopefully, you’ll be one of the 100 people that can join us in Austin for the 1st ever LIVE #Blogchat on Sunday.  But if not, we’ll still be doing #Blogchat on Twitter this Sunday during our regular time slot of 8pm Central.  And the topic will be the same as the one we’ll be tackling at SXSW, What can company blogs learn from personal bloggers?  And this #Blogchat will be sponsored by 1680PR, and 1680PR’s Ken Lingad will be co-hosting with me.

Also, if you’ll be in Austin and can’t make it to the Live #Blogchat (or even if you can), you can still hang out with Ken and I Sunday night from 7pm-9pm as we co-host #Blogchat.  Not sure where we’ll be setup, but it will likely be at the Hilton or somewhere close by.  When a location is finalized, I’ll update this post.

See everyone this Sunday!

 

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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?