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Review: Bazaarvoice’s Social Summit 2012

#blogchat, bazaarvoice, social summit

Last week I got to spend 3 days in Austin for Bazaarvoice’s Social Summit.  Bazaarvoice flew me in and paid me to do a Live #Blogchat on Wednesday night to kick off the event.  For the first time, we combined Twitter with the Live #Blogchat experience, and although there were some technical issues at first, the actual #Blogchat itself went fairly smoothly.  In fact, I think this format has a lot of potential and I’ll start packaging similar offerings to companies that are interested in doing Live #Blogchats in the future.

As for the Social Summit itself, let me give you a bit of background on this event before I share my takeaways.  Primarily, this event was designed for Bazaarvoice’s current and potential clients.  Many of the speakers were from Bazaarvoice’s clients, which were large companies.  Several very large brands spoke and presented some of the work they were doing in the social, digital and mobile realms, including Home Depot, 3M, Wal-Mart, Xerox, IBM and Google.  So it was a great barometer for how truly big brands are using these emerging technologies, with a heavy emphasis on social media.

With that in mind, here were some of my takeaways from these brands and what they shared, as well as the event itself:

1 – The discussion has moved past ‘Social Media 101’ for big brands.  This was a very social-savvy crowd, and in fact several of the presenters and attendees mentioned their company knew the basics of social media.  This makes complete sense, because larger brands typically have teams devoted to social media, whereas small businesses (for example) can’t allocate as much attention to the tools, and need more hand-holding.

2 – Eagerness to adopt social media varies by department in each company.  Typically, the departments that have direct involvement with customers on a daily basis are the ones that understand the need for social media adoption, and are its internal cheerleaders.  I did think there was an interesting takeaway from Ron Secrist, the Director of Social and Emerging Channels for Capital One.  He explained that Capital One isn’t using social media as well as he would like because the brand is having difficulty understanding how to integrate social into its tv commercials, which are such a huge part of its advertising approach.  Two words: Twitter hashtags.

3 – Big brands are desperate to learn how to increase engagement with their customers via social media.  One of the things I like to do when I attend conferences is look at which topics and sessions are the best attended because that typically suggests which areas attendees need help with.  There were two sessions directly covering building engagement via social media, and both were completely full with many people standing up at the back of the room, and in the doorways.  The second engagement session I attended on Friday was actually opposite a session on Social Media ROI, but it was still SRO.  This was clearly THE topic that attendees wanted help with.

Bazaarvoice upped the bar for connecting attendees and generating buzz among them and on Twitter

One reason why I like doing recap posts like this of the events I present at and attend is to give other event planners some ideas for how they can create a better experience for their conference or event.  There’s two things Bazaarvoice did with the Social Summit that I thought were really ingenious that I wanted to spotlight.

1 – Bazaarvoice created a special mobile app just for Social Summit attendees.  This app for the iPhone, iPad and Android gave attendees an easy way to get information about the event as well as tweet and connect with each other.  Ian Greenleigh, Bazaarvoice’s Social Media Manager, tweeted that the app generated over 4,700 tweets in 3 days!  Another thing that I thought was brilliant was Bazaarvoice added a Leaderboard so everyone could track who was the most active with the app, and prizes were awarded to the top users!  The app was created by DoubleDutch, and from scanning Tweetdeck during the conference (which shows what source tweets come from, ie web, smartphone, etc), it looked like about half of all tweets with #bsocial12 conference hashtag were going through the Summit app.  That’s pretty impressive.

2 – Bazaarvoice Livestreamed Social Summit plus embedded #bsocial12 tweets.  This was another smart move to not only build buzz at the event, but to generate interest for attending next year’s event from those that watched at home.  The livestreaming of sessions part is nothing new, but I thought it was cool that Bazaarvoice also embedded #bsocial12 tweets on the same page PLUS had a box where you could tweet directly from the livestream page, which was also prefilled with the #bsocial12 hashtag!  In fact during the Live #Blogchat they changed it so the box prefilled your tweets with both the #bsocial12 and #blogchat hashtags.  Really a great example of generating buzz and online word of mouse about the event.

bazaarvoice social summit

Overall, Social Summit was a very interesting and well-run event.  It’s good to occasionally attend an event where I’m not seeing all the same speakers and hearing all the same case studies.  Social Summit gave me a different and more company-centric perspective on digital technologies, and it was honestly a breath of fresh air.  Thanks so much to my friends Erin Nelson and Ian Greenleigh for bringing me in for Social Summit and I hope I can return next year!

If you attended the Social Summit, what were some of your biggest takeaways?

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5 Reasons Why You Need to Stop Marketing and Start Teaching

Another gem from Kathy Sierra, click image for post

I think many companies are completely misusing Social Media as a marketing channel. These content-creation tools are the perfect outlet for companies to create content that teaches their customers how to solve their own problems, how to be better at something they love, how to kick-ass.  Teaching and empowering your customers creates a level of loyalty that regular marketing could never hope for.  Here’s 5 reasons why your company should stop marketing to your customers, and start teaching them:

1 – Teaching gives you a competitive edge.  Let’s be honest, most of us in the business world are operating in a crowded marketplace.  There’s no shortage of competition, and many of your peers may have deeper marketing budgets than you do.  But the funny thing is, a lot of businesses don’t like to pull back the curtain and actually teach their customers about their products and how to properly use them.

Years ago I spent a Summer selling pesticides and lawn care products at Lowes throughout Northwest Alabama.  I had never sold before in a retail environment, and being an introvert, the idea of stopping people and selling to them as they walked up and down the isles at Lowes scared the hell out of me.  Luckily, I had a great mentor that was also a professional landscaper.  As such, he understood all the products we were selling as well as the competitors’.  So I learned about all the products so that I wasn’t selling the products, I was selling solutions to problems.

So when a customer walked up and started looking at the pesticides, I didn’t try to push them toward a particular product, I asked them what problems they were having.  Once they told me what problems they were having, I explained to them what was causing the problem, and how to fix it.  Then I showed them which products would work best for them.  And sometimes (and this is key) the product I was selling wasn’t the best option.  If that’s the case, I told the customer and pointed them toward the competitor.

The end result was that I made more on commissions from sales than I did on my actual salary as a vendor.  In fact the area I serviced led the nation in sales for multiple product lines.  I think a big reason why was because we were focused on trying to teach our customers how to solve their lawn-care problems versus trying to simply sell them our products.

2 – Teaching creates value.  If I’m in the market for a digital camera, what I’m really looking to buy is a way to take better pictures.  So if you are trying to get my business, don’t throw a lot of techno-babble at me that I won’t understand anyway, teach me how to take better pictures.  By teaching me how to take better pictures with a digital camera, you’ve already solved my core problem.  So by creating that value for me, I feel on some level like I ‘owe’ you my business when it comes time for me to buy a digital camera.  I want to reward you for the value you gave me, free of charge.  Now granted, the product still has to do the job, but creating value for me via teaching makes me feel much better about committing to the purchase.

3 – If you teach me, that helps earn my trust, and loyalty.  I am used to marketing.  I am used to companies trying to ‘trick’ me into buying their product.  I’m not used to companies teaching me how to be better at something.  That’s unexpected, and that gets my attention.  If your company can create value for me without asking for anything in return, that makes it far more likely that I will listen to your message, and share it with others.  Plus, it greatly increases the chance that I will trust you, and buy from you.

And don’t be afraid to spotlight the competition, if they have a better product.  Recall in the first step how I mentioned selling lawn-care products in Lowes.  Often, I would encourage a customer to buy a competitor’s product if I really thought it was the best solution for their particular problem.  You wouldn’t believe how many times I had a customer come back a week or two later and tell me that I was right about the competitor’s product working on their ant problem, now did I have a suggestion for getting rid of wasps?  I sure did and this time, my company’s product was better.  Since my first suggestion had worked for them, they trusted that this one would as well.

4 – Valuable content get shared.  During this week’s #Blogchat a few of us were discussing how Twitter has become our source for information.  We know that the people we are following will be sharing valuable information, so they send it our way, and then we pass it on.  Why?  Because we want to create value for others.  If someone sends me a really useful article, the first thing I want to do is RT it so others can get value from the article as well.  If your content teaches, that creates value, and greatly increases the chance that it will be shared.

5 – Sharing what you know means sharing your passion, and that inspires people.  Don’t we all love hearing someone talk that truly loves what they are doing?  Because they aren’t talking from a script, they are sharing what’s in their heart.  Teach what you know and share with us why you love what it is you do, and who knows, you may convince us to love it just as much.

 

So when you are trying to sell your products, again think about selling solutions to problems instead.  Think about how you can teach your customers to solve the problems they are encountering, or simply how to kick-ass at whatever it is they love doing.  Oh and BTW, blogs are excellent tools for this 😉

Besides, helping someone kick-ass at something is often the best marketing you can create for your products.  Here’s a bonus video from Jason Fried on the value of teaching as marketing: (HT @Copyblogger) –

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If You Want to Follow the Live #Blogchat Wednesday at Bazaarvoice’s Social Summit

I’m so excited about the LIVE #Blogchat we’ll be having on Wednesday at Bazaarvoice’s Social Summit!  This one will be totally different from previous Live #Blogchats in that YOU can participate!  That’s right, we’ll be incorporating your tweets into the discussion at the Social Summit that we’ll be having!

Here’s the details:  The Live #Blogchat will run from 5pm-7pm Central, on Wednesday.  Live streaming will ONLY be available at this link.  That link won’t be live till tomorrow, so keep checking back.

That link will send you to a page on the Social Summit site where we will be live-streaming from Austin but it will also include your tweets with the #Blogchat hashtag!

From 5pm-6pm, we’ll be interviewing some of the speakers and industry leaders that will be at the Social Summit.

From 6pm-7pm, Ian Greenleigh, Bazaarvoice’s Social Media Manager, and I will be chatting about our topic, which is how companies can connect with influencers.  Whether it’s via blogging, via Twitter, whatever.

So while we are chatting, y’all can also chat on Twitter with the #Blogchat hashtag like we do every Sunday.  The easiest way to follow it will be at this link.  Ian and I will be watching the tweets at that page, and we’ll be pulling your tweets into the discussion and chatting about your thoughts and questions.

It will be the first time we’ve tried a Live #Blogchat like this, and I think y’all will love it cause we’ll be able to bring your tweets into the discussion!  Again, please make sure you follow at the Bazaarvoice site as Ian and I will be reading the tweets from here.

Remember, the livestream will start at 5pm Central at the above link, and the actual Live #Blogchat discussion will start at 6pm, Central.

Hope to see everyone there!  If you have any questions, please leave a comment!

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“It’s Not You, It’s Me.” – Five Reasons For Our Social Media Breakup

It’s Spring, so I’ve been doing some cleaning up of the people and blogs I have been following.  As I’ve admitted to in the past, I am a Social Media Packrat, so I decided to trim down the people and blogs I am following.  I trimmed down the blogs I am subscribed to, as well as the people I am following on Twitter and Plus.  Here’s some of the reasons why I initiated the ‘social media breakup’, maybe you can relate to some of these?

1 – Your blog has become an endless commercial for yourself.  I would never unsubscribe from a blog due to lack of posting.  Kathy hasn’t posted at Creating Passionate Users in 5 years and I am still subbed and check it regularly.  But I noticed with a few of the blogs I was subbed to, the blogger had begun to post very infrequently, and when they did post, it was usually just to update us on where they are speaking, the progress of their book, some list they made, etc.  I get not having time to blog anymore, but I subbed to your blog for your thoughts and ideas, not your self-promotions.

2 – You aren’t as important as you think you are on Twitter.  This was downright comical during SXSW.  Whether it was Klout Score 75 tweeting that she worried that she couldn’t find time for all the people that wanted to meet her today, or Klout Score 83 tweeting that he was at dinner with 3 other A-Listers (and they paid!), it seems more and more ‘power users’ aren’t talking to other people on Twitter anymore, they are talking AT them.  I guess I’m just an old social media fuddy-duddy that’s not narcissistic enough to appreciate this type of behavior.

3 – Your blog is twice as active, but you’re never there.  This instance I try to be understanding about.  Blogger writes good stuff.  Blogger’s blog starts to gain traction and get popular, so blogger starts trying to post more often.  Blogger gets approached about sponsorships cause blog is popular.  So blogger starts bringing on other bloggers to do guest posts.  When the smoke clears, the blogger who I subscribed to is never on their own blog.  Or when they do write a weekly post (versus 2-3 a week before), it’s to promote themselves, similar to #1.  The problem is that the ‘voice’ of the blog has completely changed.  I subbed to your blog for you, not for you and whatever 5 guest bloggers you’ll have there this week.

4 – You over-share.  I’m not talking about sharing too much personal information (although I hate that too), but I’m talking about putting out 100 Plus updates a day.  Photos, thoughts, links, videos, it never stops!  90% of the public updates are your stuff.  I appreciate your passion for sharing, but when you are drowning out everyone else, it’s time to go.

5 – You’re always complaining about something and someone is always doing it wrong.  Look, we all need to hear the contrarian viewpoint every once in a while, it helps keep our ideas centered.  But if every day you are complaining about how someone or company or organization is always wrong, it gets old.  And it gives me the impression that you aren’t just disagreeing, you’re being disagreeable.  There are more productive and far interesting ways to draw attention to yourself.

 

So as I streamline the people and blogs I am following, those are some of the reasons for our ‘breakup’ from my end.  When you unfollow someone or unsubscribe from a blog, what are some of the reasons why you walk away?

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The Two Keys to Building an Online Community That You Need to Remember

community building, online communityReward the type of behavior you want to encourage and model the type of behavior you want to encourage.

Reward the type of behavior you want to encourage.

Think about what behavior you want from your members.  Maybe you want more comments on your blog or forum?  Then think about how you can reward people that leave comments.  Find ways to put the spotlight on them and make them feel (and look!) special for leaving a comment.  That way, others will look at how you are treating the people that leave comments, and it will encourage them to do the same thing!

One way I do this sometimes is by ‘spotlighting’ a great comment.  What I’ll do is edit the end of the post, and add something like: “UPDATE: Jim made an amazing point in the comments, and I wanted to make sure everyone saw it….”  Then I would add Jim’s comment, plus add a link to Jim’s blog on his name.  This is a great way to thank Jim for leaving an awesome comment, but it also alerts everyone to the fact that there’s a great conversation happening in the comments!  Which only further increases the chance that there will be MORE comments!

Model the type of behavior you want to encourage.

When I started #Blogchat, I wanted to make sure that the community was helpful and friendly to everyone.  But most importantly, I wanted to make sure we were welcoming to newbies, or people that were just joining for the first time.  Because the chat moves SO fast, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.  So whenever I see someone tweet that they are joining for the first time, I always respond to them and welcome them, and encourage them to ask any questions they have!  I also make a point to constantly remind everyone that if they are new to #Blogchat, that they should feel free to ask any questions they like, because the group will be glad to help them.  By being helpful to others, especially newbies, I am modeling the type of behavior I want to encourage with other #Blogchat members.  And to their credit, the #Blogchat community always steps up and helps out other members!

Hey, all the cool kids are doing it!

The great thing about rewarding and modeling the type of behavior you want is that if you do your job, you’ll begin to see that several members of your community are engaging in the type of behavior you want to see.  This helps encourage even more members to engage in the same type of behavior, because they see that everyone else is!

Now the one problem this can create for you is laziness.  Just because your blog is now getting comments on every post doesn’t mean you can now afford to not respond to readers that are leaving comments.  At some point if you stop rewarding and modeling the type of behavior you want to encourage, your members will pick up on this, and they will also stop engaging in that type of behavior.  This also forces you to prioritize your time and really consider which activities are best for the long-term growth of your community, and how you can encourage that.

So are you rewarding and modeling the type of behavior you want from your readers, on your blog?

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Should Marketers Use Social Media Personally Before They Use it Professionally?

social media, companies, marketing, ceoI recently read an emarketer article on a study BRANDfog did into how employees viewed their CEO, if the CEO tweeted.

The study found that 51% of employees were more likely to trust a CEO that tweeted, while another 31% were much more likely to trust their CEO, if they tweeted.  The study also found that 82% of respondents said they trust a company more when its C-Suite is using social media.

Does this hold true for you?  Are you more likely to trust and view a brand favorably, if its CEO is active on Twitter?  I tend to agree with this, because it makes me feel that the CEO is at least familiar with the tool, and is likely encouraging their employees to be active in social media as well.

So to flip this around, instead of companies cutting off access to Facebook and other popular social media sites at work, should they instead be encouraging employees, and especially executives to use social media?

A big problem I see with how many companies use social media is that they view it as a marketing tool, instead of a communications tool. They learn about how popular Facebook and Twitter are, and think ‘Ohhh….shiny new marketing channel!’  When of course, we are using these tools to CONNECT with each other, not to market to each other!

What if a company was wanting to start using social media, and the CEO called her executive team in and told them to start a Facebook and Twitter personal account, and pick one other account.  It could be a blog, Plus, Pinterest, whatever.   Let’s say the CEO just told her team to use the tools for a month, and then everyone would report back with their thoughts on the tools, and their experiences.

If a company took this approach and FIRST used the tools personally, would that make their efforts in using the tools professionally more or less effective?  What do you think?

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Live #Blogchat is Coming to the Bazaarvoice Social Summit!

bazaarvoice, #blogchat, social summit

The first Live #Blogchat of 2012 is just 8 days away and will be kicking off Bazaarvoice’s Social Summit!  Social Summit is a fabulous conference that Bazaarvoice puts on annually to showcase how companies and their clients are leveraging social data to improve business processes and the customer experience.  I’m really looking forward to attending the Summit as it will be like looking into the future, as more companies get a better handle on how to better connect with their customers and collect their feedback.  And then act on it.

The event itself will be stellar, with three tracks and a great lineup of speakers including Wired’s Chris Anderson,  data visualization expert David McCandless, Ed Keller, CEO of WOM firm the Keller Fay Group, Andy Sernovitz and over a dozen more.  The Social Summit will be held next Weds-Friday, the 11th-13th, and you can see the agenda here.

And Live #Blogchat will kick off the event at 5pm Central on the 11th!  The Topic is TBA, and I’ll have a bit more information in a followup post next Monday or Tuesday.  The event is actually sold out, but Bazaarvoice has managed to set aside a few tickets for any of y’all that want to attend PLUS if you use code COUNTMEIN when you register, you’ll get $100 off!  Here’s more details on how to register.

Pretty cool, huh?  So I can’t wait to see all of you in Austin next week for the Live #Blogchat at the Bazaarvoice Social Summit!  Wait, what’s that?  You say you can’t make it to Austin next week?  Then we’ve still got you covered because this will be the first Live #Blogchat to be streamed live online!  That’s right, even if you can’t make it to Austin next week, you can still follow along online and not only that, you can participate in this special Live #Blogchat!  Bazaarvoice is going all out, and will have monitors set up streaming the conversation on Twitter as well, and periodically we’ll be pulling in tweets from y’all into the discussion we are having during the Live #Blogchat at the Social Summit!  Pretty damn cool, right?  That way you can follow the streaming online, and then if you want to make a point, just add #bsocial12 and #blogchat to your tweet, and we’ll see it!

In fact, the majority of the Social Summit sessions will be streamed live, so bookmark this page, and shortly before the Summit starts, you’ll see information there on how to view the sessions online.

So to recap:

1 – If you want to attend the Social Summit next week in Austin (and of course the Live #Blogchat!), use code COUNTMEIN to get $100 off registration here.

2 – If you want to watch any of the sessions including the Live #Blogchat, watch this page starting next Tuesday.

3 – If you want to participate in the Live #Blogchat discussion, add #bsocial12 PLUS #blogchat to your tweet.  We’ll be watching those tweets, and will pull as many as we can into the conversation.

Pretty cool, eh?  So happy that this Live #Blogchat will be streamed online as I know many of you haven’t been able to experience a Live #Blogchat yet!  And BTW, there are more #Blogchat announcements coming soon!

UPDATE: Thanks to James for catching this in the comments, but the sessions that are streamed at the Social Summit can be viewed for FREE!   So there’s no excuse for y’all not to join us and participate 😉

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What’s the Difference Between a Brand Advocate and a Brand Ambassador?

ManWMegaphoneLet’s say Stacey, Jennifer and Tara are on lunch break at the mall, and are headed to the food court.  Jennifer asks where they should eat, when Stacey points out that Olive Garden has their unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks lunch, it’s delicious, and well under $10.  Jennifer agrees, that does sound pretty good!

Stacey is a brand advocate for Olive Garden.  She loves the restaurant and eats there at least once a week.

But right when they are set to go to Olive Garden, Tara says “Well I think I will go to Chick Fil-A.  I tried their new spicy chicken sandwich combo and it was delicious!  It comes with fries and a drink for only $5.89.  Plus, I have three $2 off coupons, so we could eat at Chick-Fil-A for about half what it would cost at Olive Garden!  Y’all want to come?”

Tara is a brand advocate for Chick Fil-A but she is also a brand ambassador for the chain.  The difference in this example is that Chick Fil-A has reached out to Tara and is working with her to help her get the word out about the chain.  By doing things like giving her coupons on products that she can share with friends.

So you could say that Stacey is a brand advocate for Olive Garden that the franchise hasn’t connected with in order to see if she wants to become a brand ambassador.

The basic difference between a brand advocate and an ambassador is that a brand ambassador has a formal relationship with the brand.  The brand has connected with them and is in regular contact with them.  Typically, the brand does this in order to help the ambassador better promote the brand and educate their friends and people they come in contact with about the brand.  This can be very powerful because as we all know, we trust our friends and other customers more than we do brands.  It’s just human nature.

However, there’s a big caveat to this approach.  Notice I said that most brands want to leverage ambassadors as a way to promote their brand.  What many brands don’t spend enough time on is focusing on the feedback that their ambassadors can collect about the brand.  Since their ambassadors are constantly talking to customers about the brand, it’s a wonderful way for the brand to get real feedback from customers on the brand, what they like, and dislike.

So if your brand is considering launching a brand ambassador program, think about how you can empower your ambassadors to promote your brand, but also think about how you can encourage your ambassadors to get feedback from customers on the brand.  Then make sure you find a way to collect that feedback from all your ambassadors, so you can act on it.

If your brand wants to launch a brand ambassador program, here’s 10 things to remember.

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Think Like a Rockstar: How Taylor Swift Connects With Her Fans At Concerts

Let’s say you’ve taken your two daughters to a Taylor Swift concert and your seats are in the infamous ‘nosebleed’ section, and it seems the stage is a mile away.  The seats still cost you a small fortune, but your girls are loving the show anyway as the concert goes to intermission.  After a few minutes in the darkness suddenly the fans in your section start cheering and you turn around to see a spotlight guiding Taylor herself walking down the stairs just a few feet away, as she takes her guitar and begins performing!  Just like that the worst seats in the house have become front row, and what was already a great concert for your little girls, just became a night they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Because Taylor Swift just created something amazing for the people that love her.

I was reading about this yesterday in a great post by Jennifer Blanchard over at ProBlogger’s place on how Taylor goes out of her way to connect with her fans.  During her Fearless tour, Taylor was known to leave the stage during intermission, only to reappear at the back of the arena, where she began playing for fans in those seats farthest from the stage.

Another way that Taylor creates something special for her biggest fans that come to her concerts is with the T-Party.  The T-Party is a place where Taylor and her band like to crash before the concert, where they can hangout, play video games, etc somewhere in the arena.  But during the concert, Taylor’s family and helpers will be scanning the crowd looking for the fans with the most ‘spirit’.  The ones that are the most excited, the ones with the crazy outfits, or sometimes it will be the quiet girl that came by herself.  They pick a couple dozen of these fans, and invite them back to the T-Party after the concert!  Then Taylor and her band come back to the T-Party and hang out with the fans for a few hours, signing autographs, playing video games with them, and just hanging out.

These instances perfectly illustrate how Rockstars don’t have fans because they are Rockstars, they have fans because of how they treat their fans.  Taylor doesn’t have to go out of her way to play for the fans in the nosebleed section, but she does.  She doesn’t have to go to the extra time and expense of setting up the T-Party events for just a couple dozen fans after the concert, but she does.

Because she loves her fans.  And her fans know that, and they love her right back.  We marketers make this brand advocacy stuff a lot harder than it needs to be.

But the skeptical marketer will ask ‘Is connecting with 24 fans really that big of a deal?’

We’ve talked about this before, but companies and Rockstars, for the most part, have completely different approaches to marketing:
brand advocacy

Most companies want new customers, most Rockstars want to connect with their biggest fans.

By having a T-Party, Taylor touched the lives of those 24 fans.  And then they will go home and tell their friends, and tweet about it and Facebook it, and just go crazy.  Taylor understands what most Rockstars do, that she’ll get new customers tomorrow because she delighted her existing fans today.

And that will happen after every concert, watch the above video and note what happens at the 1:46 mark.  When the woman is explaining to the group what’s going to happen, as soon as she says ‘T-Party’, the girls in the front row immediately grab each other cause they knew exactly what the T-Party was!

Year after year, Taylor is looking for ways to connect with and delight her biggest fans.  Even if it’s only 24 at a time.  Her approach has helped make her beloved by millions and one of the most famous people on the planet.

How’s your company’s approach working?

Pic via Flickr user Inez Boldrin

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Five Ways Companies Can Leverage Twitter Chats

There are well over 500 Twitter chats right now (here’s a list of almost 600 of them).  These chats cover literally every topic under the sun, and represent a wonderful chance for companies to not only learn more about their customers, but to better connect with them.  Here’s some ideas for how they can get started:

1 – Lurk N Learn.  This is my affectionate term for when people don’t actively participate in Twitter chats, but instead watch the conversation happening.  This is a great way to learn more about how the chat works, as well as learn from the conversation happening.  Companies can do this to glean insights about their space and themselves, but seeing the conversation being created by others.

2 – Actively participate in Twitter chats.  As I always say, participating in a conversation changes that conversation.  Often, after people have lurked on a chat for a while, they will stick their toes in the water and start participating.  Companies can benefit from this by getting direct feedback from current and potential customers.  For example, if you are in the fast food industry and you see a Twitter chat devoted to healthy eating, participating in that chat could be a chance for you to educate participants on some of the ‘healthier’ options your chain has added recently to its menu.  This would also be a chance for customers to chime in and give you feedback on these items.

3 – Sponsor an existing Twitter chat.  This is a good option especially if the company is considering starting its own Twitter chat.  Since I moderate #Blogchat, I am constantly talking to other Twitter chat hosts about the sponsorship issue, and many of them are getting interest from companies.  If executed correctly, the sponsorship can pay big dividends for the company.  I think the best way to handle the sponsorship is to leverage it as a way for the company to create value for the regular participants.  Maybe that could be something as simple as awarding a few gift cards at the end of the chat, but the last thing you want is for the company to use the sponsorship as a chance to promote itself excessively during the chat.  That makes both the sponsor and the chat organizer look bad.

If positioned properly, the sponsor can make the conversation in the Twitter chat it is sponsoring better AND help establish itself as a leader in its space.  If your company would like to talk to me about sponsoring #Blogchat, please do email me.  If you see another chat you’d like to sponsor, contact that chat’s organizer as I’m sure they’d love to talk to you.

4 – Use Promoted Tweets with an existing Twitter Chat.  Here’s an example of what this looks like, as Toyota did this with #Blogchat:

Obviously, I’m not a big fan of this approach for a couple of reasons.  First, it’s a nuisance for most of the chat participants.  For example when #Blogchat starts, we are discussing a particular blogging topic.  We aren’t discussing the cool techno-wizardry that Toyota has up its sleeve.  So this promoted tweet is a total disconnect and it makes Toyota look clueless.  And the more savvy Twitter users know that with Tweetdeck all they have to do is mark the tweet as Read and then filter the column for read tweets, and its gone anyway.

Second, a sponsorship of the actual chat would be a much better fit for Toyota.  I’m not sure how Twitter charges for promoted tweets like this (I believe it’s still PPC), but most individual Twitter chats can be sponsored for $1,000 or less, cost really depends on the size of the chat and its popularity.  By working with that chat host on a sponsorship, the company can find one that not only gives them ‘more bang for their buck’, but that also creates value for the participants of the chat.  Which makes the sponsor look a lot smarter than this does.

But again, I run a chat and want sponsors of that chat, so it’s possible I am a bit biased against this approach.

5 – Start your own Twitter chat!  While it’s not easy, starting a Twitter chat is a great way to not only get feedback from current and potential customers, but it helps establish your expertise and thought leadership in your space.  I would suggest that companies go through at least the first two steps above before they jump in the water and start their own Twitter chat.  It is a LONG process, and like starting a blog, it takes a while to build a following.  But if you can commit to it, a Twitter chat could pay big dividends for your company.  If you want to go this route, here’s a post I wrote on 10 Steps to Creating a Successful Twitter Chat.

 

So there’s some ideas for how your company can leverage a Twitter chat.  Above all, please remember that people love Twitter chats because it gives them a chance to learn from each other.  That’s why we are so incredibly devoted to them.  When thinking about how you could be involved in a Twitter chat, remember that it’s best to check your marketer’s hat at the door, and don’t view Twitter chats as a chance to promote yourself, but rather as a chance to learn more about your industry, and the people that are and could be your customers!