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Location based network rant

November 24, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

Earlier today I had a conversation with a friend about the growth of location based networks. She has always been a skeptic of new technologies in social networking like status updates and photo tags. It’s a valid argument, five years ago everyone would have thought you were nuts if you wanted to tell every friend and acquaintance you know what you were thinking or doing at any given time. Here is some of my ideas that came into my head during this talk.

The biggest innovation in social media is without a doubt location based networks. Tools like Gowalla, Foursquare, SCVNGR, and Facebook Places have all tried to bring this new technology to the public. Marketers and Advertisers are drooling over the possibilities that these tools will bring, but there is still one obstacle. Where are the users?

So far the adoption rate of these applications has been extremely low, with some speculating only 4% of the Internet user base being aware of these tools. Without a big enough user base, people will shy away from the new networks. For example, everyone is on Facebook, so you don’t need to convince your friends to get an account. As opposed to trying to explain why your friend needs to be able to see where you are at all times.

I believe that Facebook will be the platform that gains the attention of the majority of social network users and makes them really give location networks a chance.

Location based applications will continue to grow due to the exponential adoption rate of smart phones. While location based applications are still finding their place in the world, soon they will become just as common as status update and photo tagging.

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HOW TO: 5 ways to make your brand “like”-able on Facebook

November 16, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Mashable recently conducted a study and discovered a wealth of information on people's habits with brands on Facebook. One of the biggest statistics is that the average user "likes" 8.7 brands. This means that these brands get to market to the users on their time, and can deliver content directly to them. There are thousands of brands competing for these coveted spots, and here is how to get your brand noticed on Facebook.

1) Make your content likable

The best way to make your brand likeable is to make your content likeable.Remember you are marketing to share, so make content that people will want to show their friends. Creative content wins over informative in this category. Entertaining content will cause your fans to share it with their friends. Short and sweet is also crucial, do not write Facebook targeted articles that drag on. Aim to hold their attention for 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

2)People love free stuff
Try to use promotions, contests, and events to promote sharing between friends. People will gladly put a status on Facebook if it enters them in a chance to win something. I guarantee you the advertising you get from your event will be worth the cost of your giveaway.

3)This isn't your PR outpost
This goes off of the post original content theme. People do not want to be bombarded by "Look at this article written about us" style posts. They are here to hear from you, not what others think about you. These people do not need convincing that your brand is good if they are already on your page.

4)Make them feel like an insider
People will join you page if you make them feel special for doing so. This could be as simple as giving them a name that you call them in posts like "welcome elite". Another idea is to give them exclusive news or sneak peaks on deals. People will be driven to check your page if they believe they will be the first to see something.

Wallgreen's splash page

5)Interact often, but not too often.
Users liked your brand because they enjoy your product and want to interact, so do just that. Too many brands create Facebook pages and then forget about them. Create a schedule that you will stick to for posting to your group and replying to their messages. But watch out for posting too often. If a user feels overwhelmed they will dislike your brand and stop following you.

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Social Media as an idea generator

November 11, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

Companies have started to use social media not only to connect with customers, but to gather ideas from them. Companies that get feedback from their customers are more likely to keep them loyal. This practice also helps people feel connected to their favorite brands and helps develop stronger opinions. Here are some examples of companies that truly shine in this department.

Starbucks

Starbucks frequently changes its drinks and other products offered  at its stores. Because of the many options, Starbucks gauges its customers on what they want to see returned, what they didn't enjoy, or new items that they would like.  They created the My Starbucks Idea website that allows customers to post ideas and have others vote and comment on them. This systems makes each customer feel like a part of the company. Thousands of ideas and comments have been posted on the site ranging from new drinks to where the next store should be opened.

My Starbucks Ideaphoto © 2009 Tanja | more info (via: Wylio)

Dell

Dell is another company that allows its users to share ideas. Dell has a website that users can vote and comment on new ideas, but they also have a very innovative feature called "Storm Sessions". These sessions take place in real time and are held to gain a lot of feedback on one particular idea. Dell can use this to pitch changes to a product, ask about what they could have done better, or anything else. Between these two features Dell can quickly assess how people feel about their brand and products.  A big example of this site giving Dell feedback was the Linux issue. A small community wanted to be able to have Linux installed on the machine instead of Windows when it was shipped. Dell saw this and decided to implement it in their stores. This case shows the power of feedback because it portrays Dell as a company that listens, and doesn't just produce what they want to.

Mountian Dew

Mountain Dew has branded itself as an extreme soda, and has been getting a lot of attention with its marketing. Mountain Dew sponsors extreme sports events, but it decided that it wanted to try something new and looked to its customers for help. They created a campaign to revamp the brand with new soda flavor options, new packaging, and a new marketing strategy. They allowed people to submit ideas and have them voted on by the general public. They created the site dewmocracy, which hosted the voting as well as videos and social networking venues to tell your friends about the project as well. Mountain dew first went to a few dedicated fans to show off the new flavors on videos, which instantly went across the net. Then they allowed a wider group to come up with the packaging. This tiered system allowed for tighter control while still allowing the consumer base to vote on the ideas that were proposed. The picture below shows the three flavors voted on by the customers.

Mountain DEWmocracy Flavors 2010 (Distortion, Typhoon and White Out)photo © 2010 theimpulsivebuy | more info (via: Wylio

These companies prove that social media can help your customers feel more connected to your brand by making them feel like they took part in decision making. Taking these examples and try to incorporate some of the ideas into your own business. Maybe hold a vote for a new entree offered, or what next line of clothes you should sell at your store.

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Career path: Social Strategist

November 10, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

I found a very interesting slideshow today about the jobs of the top Social Strategist. This research shows what top companies are doing with social media, what their problems are, and how they plan to move forward. I recommend reading through this to get an idea of how social media is used in bigger companies.

Some of the troubles in Social media is the lack of metrics and internal struggle. Social strategist are flooded with options for social media, and there is no way to directly record the ROI. This, coupled with how fast technology changes, leads strategist into a game of catch up. Another problem is the companies stubbornness to go transparent. Some companies are uncomfortable sharing a lot of information, and therefore the social media strategies cannot incorporate as much transparency as they would like; which keeps the company looking like a distant entity.

The report is hosted on slide share, the link will also be on this page. I would love to hear your opinions on this report and how you feel it affects your business.

Report: Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist: Be Proactive or Become Social Media Help Desk

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.
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How to use social media as your customer service

November 4, 2010 By dean 1 Comment

People have been writing online about their lives and experiences, and chances are they are talking about your brand or product. In this post I will help you learn how to monitor and respond to people's feedback on your brand. In order to understand your customers you have to listen to what they are talking about, and find out what the public thinks of your brand. Luckily, social media has made this easier than ever. People are publicly posting their opinions and are basically doing the market research for you. Small business can find out what people think without having to use a focus group or a opt-in survey.

Twitter

Twitter search

Search the twitter stream

Twitter is known for its public nature, and can really help you get a feel for what people think of your products. People are used to writing short posts about life experiences, and this can include your brand. Someone bought your product and thought it was unique, they probably wrote about it to their followers. Twitter has a built in search that allows you to find content in tweets and this can be helpful in seeking out information. Another Twitter feature that can help you find information is hash tags (#). Hash tags are used to categorize what you are tweeting about, and groups your tweet with others that use the same hash tag. If you quickly want to catch up on a topic look to see if a hash tag has been created for it and read those post.

Tweetdeck- Tweetdeck is a third party application that is meant for people who want more features than the default twitter site. Tweetdeck allows you to make dynamic columns, these columns can show your @replies, your direct messages or saved lists. This is where the power of Tweetdeck really comes in. You can search twitter for your brand name, and then save that search to a column. Now you can just refresh whenever you want to see if more tweets have been posted about your brand, instead of manually searching every time.

Monitter- If you do not want to download an application, monitter is web based. This will allow you to try out these search features without having to set up a desktop application.

Blogs

Ever since the launch of livejournal and blogger, people have been blogging. Blogs are used as a more formal and thought out form of media than Twitter. Over 300 million people read blogs and around 180 million own their own blogs. This is an incredible amount of people posting public data and you can use this to your advantage.

Technorati- Technorati is a massive blog database. If you wish to search for your brand on the blogosphere, this is a good place to start.

Now that you are listening to your customers, its time to engage. Here are a few of the things you should be doing with your time.

1) Stop fires: Find negative reactions to your brand and try to fix them. Negative feedback will hurt your image and if you can, you should resolve the quarrels the customer has. A simple message to them asking for more information on why they were dissatisfied could really go a long way for your brand image. Show yourself as a brand that cares about their customers after the sale is done, and be proactive. If you go to them they will feel better than if they came to you.

2) Build relationships: If people are just talking about your brand, make sure to comment. Showing that you are not just a seller of a product, but people you can trust, then your customers will stay loyal to you. Especially when your company is small try to respond to every mention of your company if it is appropriate, but do not spam users.

Social media helps you communicate with your customers, and there is no reason to deny this. Whether its helping disgruntled customers, or engaging with fans, social media will help you spread your brand and influence. If you have experience with using social media as customer service I would love to hear about it in the comments.

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How your brand can facilitate ambassadors

November 1, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

Why spend time advertising when your customers will do it for you?

In this post I will be talking about why your brand or business would benefit from brand ambassadors, and how to convert customers into them. This category of consumers have been around since the dawn of business. These are the people who will tell their friends to go to your restaurant or buy your soap over other ones, they are the ones who wear your branded clothing as a sign of loyalty and not just fashion. While these people have been called many names like evangelist or ambassadors over the years, they have always been there to  support the brands they love.

Why do you need ambassadors?

1)These people can help you tremendously because others trust them. They are not paid for so people will take the opinions of ambassadors more to heart than they would an advertisement. This is why they are so important to you, they can spread your message to people who are skeptics to your advertising.

2)They can also show your brand in a more personal way. Having ambassadors shows that your company is trustworthy and treats their customers right.

3)These people will defend your name online and make sure that people know the good qualities of your brand.

And now, in the days of social media, its easier than ever to help them help you.

Why social media is so crucial for ambassadors

The freedom of content creation online has lead to a spark in the ambassador field. No longer are the ambassadors just talking to their friends through word of mouth, but instead to the world over the internet.The blogging revolution has lead to the ability to freely create and share content, and this is where your ambassadors can really shine. These people will write about your products, the experiences they have had with them, and maybe even create new uses for them. These bloggers will help spread your name through means other than advertisements.People have also created forums for like minded individuals to talk. These places can gain users and show that your company can develop a core following. Another great thing is reviews. If you are a restaurant then reviews can make or break your establishment. If your customers willingly go to sites like Yelp and Google and give you positive reviews, then you will no doubt see an increase in customers.

How you can garner ambassadors

Now that you have read the benefits of having these brand ambassadors, and realized how easy it is for them to help you gain influence in your market, I'm sure you are wondering how you can start gaining them. The best way to gain ambassadors is having amazing customer service. No one will support you unless you care about them first. Make customer relations a priority in everything you do, and make sure that everyone is satisfied. Try your hardest to be transparent with your customers and make them feel like you have a relationship, and that you are not just using them for their money.

A great way to do this outside of your store is to search Twitter for your brand name. See what people are saying, and if they are disappointed, solve the issue. If someone said that they went to your store and they were not satisified with what they bought, contact them and ask why. Maybe this has been happening to more than just this customer and now you are aware of the situation. This is just one example of how social media can be used as advanced customer service and support,  I will be posting more about this topic later.

So how do you feel an ambassador can help your company grow? Or have you had any experience with brand ambassadors? I would love to hear about it in the comments as well as any questions you have.

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How weather is like social media

March 23, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

Hey everyone, in case you haven't noticed the weather has been crazy around the country, especially Dallas. It got me to thinking how the quick changes of pace and requirements for the weather reminded me of social media. We have to constantly check the news, see what we have to do for the upcoming week, and adjust our schedule to fit that. If you treat your social media habits like you treat the weather, you will be seen as a much more adaptable person and blogger.

If you wear only one outfit no matter what the weather, you are sure to have terrible days. Say you always wear shorts and a shirt, you will have great sunny days, but rain and cold will make you miserable. Same goes for if you always wear a jacket and jeans. This same approach can be used for blogging. You do not need to follow a rigid structure for your blog and ignore what outside forces are affecting you; instead adapt and make the best of the situations. If you are in a happy mood let that show in your posts, do not suppress that just so you can write a informative post that is fact laden and does not show your inner self. Also, if you are on twitter and are feeling bad, do not fake happiness. People can see through this and may get the feeling that you are being fake and that you are not trusting them with your true thoughts and feelings.

I really like this metaphor and would love some help fleshing it out. If you have thoughts on it I would love to read about them in the comments.

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College Social Media Campaigns

February 24, 2010 By dean Leave a Comment

I have been observing SMU's groups and how they have used social media to get their message heard. College is a great time to use social media as a tool because almost everyone has at least facebook. Most organizations on campus use facebook groups and email chains to tell their members about meetings and events happening. Another group I have seen that is gaining traction is the TOMS group for SMU.

This group is rapidly gaining members because TOMS has found a niche and vision that college students can be a part of. The shoes that you buy are a unique stlye and are easily recognized. These shoes show that you have given to someone else because everyone knows TOMS 1 for 1 message, where for every pair of shoes bought, they give another pair to a child in need. The TOMS group has decided to set up an event called " A Day without shoes". This event will have members walk around campus without shoes to see what children have to go through every day. A event like this is much like a hunger banquet, but done it a much more public way. These factors lead to a high participation level and can really get a message across the SMU campus.

Another group aiming for the same success is "Dream Big Soccer".  Dream Big is asking for volunteers to help bring back "Field Day" to the students of elementary schools in Dallas. Communities like Heart House and Vickery Meadows need help with these events because they cannot fund them themselves. Brad Namdar, the leader of Dream Big, has a passion for soccer and believes that this event could really help the kids. Not only are they getting soccer training, but they get to interact with college students.  Dream Big has a facebook group as well as a website where you can sign up to volunteer or donate money to the cause.

These are a few examples of how social media is being used effectively by college organizations. I will continue to observe and document how college groups are using these tools and how they can improve. If any groups need some help starting a social media campaign feel free to email me or leave a comment.

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