JitterJam® Social CRM

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

During our previous Creativity Coffee, we continued the discussion about online communities by drilling down into the Voice of the Brand—Who is Talking to determine whether or not it matters if the actual person behind a brand’s social account(s) matters to the consumers who are interacting with the brand.

In this week’s discussion, we continued the conversation by going even deeper and discussing what the voice of the brand should be. What is the tone and personality of a brand’s social “voice” via their Twitter, Facebook and other social accounts? How do they determine that voice? Here are the ideas that came out of our discussion.

1. The brand’s voice is not necessarily a reflection of the company culture—but it could be.
• A brand is trying to appeal to the demographic of its target customer. That demographic may not be reflected in the demographics of the company’s employees or its environment and culture.
• However, some brands are very tied to their corporate culture (e.g. Zappos). The voice of the brand is very personal to that culture (Tony) and therefore is driven by that culture.
2. Brand voice is closely tied to social strategy.
• Is the social strategy tied to a particular campaign? A brand image that already exists (mascot, spokesperson)? The social marketing strategy for the brand and the purpose of the particular social account should drive the way the brand approaches its voice. Is the strategy to drive content? Is it to engage in social discussion? Provide customer service? All these approaches may require a different voice—informative, friendly, professional, funny, helpful, provocative, evocative—and a different account for the particular purpose/use.
3. Personalizing the brand versus personifying a brand.
• Personalizing. Brands that are the most successful on the social web are speaking TO individuals. They are humanizing the brand and bringing the discussion to a one to one conversation. They are making consumers feel, “They care about me…they listen to me…they make me feel special.”
• Personifying. This is very different to attaching a personna to the brand; that is, identifying a specific person to a brand’s social identity (Dunkin’ Dave). As we discussed in Part 1 of this conversation, this can be disadvantageous to a brand if/when that employee leaves the company; the social equity that the particular employee has created walks with that employee.
4. How should a brand determine their voice and tone?
• Marketing Strategy. The brand voice should support the mission of the company and/or the brand marketing strategy.
• Social Role and Strategy. The brand voice for each social account should reflect the role and goals of the account (customer support, deals only, specific product, etc.) as well as the social and marketing strategy for the brand. Is the point to inform (e.g @breakingnews)? Engage individuals (e.g. @starbucks)? Provide better service (e.g. @comcastcares)? The voice used to communicate needs to reflect that strategy and role of the account to the brand as well as the voice of the consumers the brand is trying to engage. @comcastcares will have a different voice than @burtonsnowboard.
• Brand Identity. The tone of the brand’s social voice also needs to be in line with the overall brand identity. It can be driven by a particular marketing campaign (e.g. @crunchiscalling) to promote brand messaging and overall brand impressions. But how does this impact the brand in the long term? Is brand impression enough?

Our next Idea Spark Creativity Coffee covers the larger issue of Who Owns Social Marketing in a Company? Is it Marketing? PR? Customer Service? If there are multiple accounts and owners, how do they interact? Who drives the strategy? Please join the conversation!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

During our previous Creativity Coffee, we continued the discussion about online communities by talking about the Role of the Community Manager—what does a community manager do? What are the objectives? What kind of skills does he/she need? We expanded on that discussion this week by focusing in on the voice of the brand. While the community manager is the person behind a brand’s social presence, is it important for that “real life” person (and personality) to shine through? Or are consumers not concerned with the “man behind the curtain” but more focused on interacting with the brand and the brand’s personality on its own? Should the person behind the brand’s social accounts be “transparent” to consumers? Should there be a name and a personality tied to the brand?

1. The case of Dunkin’ Dave.
• Dunkin’ Donuts Twitter account was managed by Dave Puner AKA Dunkin’ Dave. During that time, Dave put a personal voice on the Dunkin’ Donuts Twitter account and provided interactive customer service and brand conversation. People started to respond to Dave’s friendly, conversational and helpful tone and the Dunkin’ Donuts Twitter following blossomed.
• But Dave moved on to another position. Did it hurt Dunkin’ Donuts to equate their social presence to a single person’s identity? Would it have been better to have masked Dave’s identity and let Dave’s personality become the brand’s personality?
2. Social media is a case of mixed norms.
• Economic Norm. In the case of advertising (TV, web, etc.), people understand what’s going on. They are being presented economic incentives of some kind; the messaging is about product value, special deals, etc. The media is in charge of the message.
• Social Norm. In a social (face-to-face) communication, the boundaries and rules are clear. Social etiquette (hopefully) drives the tone and flow of conversation.
• Social Networks Use Social Norms. In social networks, conversations are “owned” by the participants and are governed by the communication “rules” of social norms.
• How do brands participate? Businesses who have traditionally worked by the rules of economic norms are now faced with a different set of rules of engagement. So how does this apply to the question “who is the voice of the brand?” If you’re engaged in a situation where the rules are governed by social norms, it makes sense to put a “person” in front of the brand.
• But it’s not that simple. Like the Dunkin’ Dave situation, people change jobs. If a brand equates its social identity with a specific person and that person leaves the company, the social equity built by that person walks as well.
3. The voice of the brand should be a reflection of the brand’s image.
• Brand Personality/Image. The personality of the brand’s social account should not be a reflection of the specific personality of the employee but a reflection of the brand’s image.
• Mascots. A brand’s personality can also be tied to a mascot (e.g. Chester Cheetah). The mascot drives much of the brand’s identity (“It Ain’t Easy Being Cheesy”) and the voice of the social account can be that of the mascot.
• Strong Personality Embedded in the Brand. If a brand has a strong personality attached to its identity (e.g. Ben & Jerry’s), the voice of the brand MAY be associated with that personality. Even if that person isn’t driving the brand’s social engagement, the brand’s social voice may need to reflect the personality associated with the brand.
4. In most cases, consumers are looking to connect with the brand—not the person(s) manning the social account(s).
• Following a Brand. In general, consumers are looking to following a brand, not “Dunkin’ Dave.” That is, unless the brand makes the person the spotlight.
• Customer Service is the Exception. When it comes to customer service, it’s important for individuals to identify the person addressing their concerns; consumers want to know who they are dealing with.
• Personally Identifiable Content. When the content itself is identified with an individual (e.g. blog post by a specific author) it’s less important to specify the author of the person sharing that content. But if the content itself isn’t personally identifiable and there’s authority/credibility associated with it…then exposing the authorship of the person sharing the content can be important.

Is your brand being represented by a specific person? Is their name or personality exposed by your brand?

In Part 2 of the Voice of the Brand discussion, we’ll talk about tone of voice of the brand. We hope you can join us!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

The last Creativity Coffee discussion centered around Social Communities. We discussed the types of social communities and how brands can take advantage of the existing communities that have organically formed. This week’s discussion continued that conversation by focusing on the role of the community manager for a brand or a business. What does that community manager do?

An online community manager, in essence, plays a role as a public voice of the company (tone, content, conversation) on social networks. So what are the community manager’s responsibilities? Look at the recent job description for an Online Community Manager for a media company in NYC:

Your role will be to act as the eyes and ears across social networks and new media platforms. You’ll monitor for discussions and sentiments amongst existing and new fans, and personally engage with those communities. You’ll also act as the fan advocate for the marketing team, providing feedback and regular reports for internal dissemination.

Responsibilities:

• Creatively and proactively interact with online communities across all platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, selected blogs and message board systems.
• Work directly with creative team and client to help develop an ongoing communication strategy and publishing calendar based on marketing objectives and community feedback.
• Maintain a master list of fan-generated social profiles, sites and user-generated content.
• Answer questions and engage in conversations where necessary as directed by the team.
• Work with our conversation monitoring tools to track online conversations and sentiment.
• Compile weekly reports on all interactions, with recommendations for possible course correction.
• Help identify & engage advocates.
• Proactively communicate issues, opportunities and insights to the team.
• Host and/or participate in live chat events.

Essentially, the community manager is the social liason for the company or brand. They speak for the company publicly, they engage current and potential customers, they alert the company when there’s an issue or opportunity, and they essentially can become the voice of the customer internally. This is an essential role that needs to be filled carefully and deliberately. The business or brand needs to evaluate what their objectives are for the role and then find the right person to fill the role.

1. What are the business objectives of having a community manager?
• Awareness. Conversations are happening regardless of whether businesses and brands are listening. Having awareness of what people are saying has value. Some companies want to take the first step of listening before developing their content and conversational goals and approach. The community manager can take the first step to measure buzz, sentiment, identifying influencers and reporting on the strength and value of each social community and more.
• Engagement. The community manager’s primary role is to join and engage the communities of individuals talking about or around the business’ brands and markets. The business objective of that engagement, however, varies from company to company, brand to brand and department to department.
• Adding value. Whatever the brand or business wants to accomplish, a key objective of the community manager should be to add value. Brands live in multiple communities, and they should get to know the community to best determine how the can add value. Is it information? Deals? Humor and entertainment? Providing unique content? Answering questions? When joining existing communities, the rules of engagement are driven by the members. By studying and identifying the best ways to engage without being seen as a “spammy company just out to sell,” a business has a better chance of gaining the trust and acceptance of the entire group.
• Developing advocacy. In brand-sponsored communities, it’s often a primary goal to identify key contributors and develop them into advocates that help drive content within the community, manage the various user-driven forums, and engage other users to join and contribute. In organically-formed communities, advocacy is driven by cultivating trusted relationships within the community and building relationships from initial light touch (exposing people to the brand’s participation in the communities) to public enthusiastic support and engagement of others.
2. Aside from core communications and social media skills, what skills does the community manager need to have?
• Balance. The community manager needs to marry the goals/rules of the community with the needs of the company. Balancing these needs takes planning and a genuine interest in adding value, sharing great content and information, and having the skills and maturity to understand how to engage and respond to individuals with differing agendas and sensitivities.
• Communications and teamwork skills. While the responsibility of being the “voice” of a business can be tricky, ensuring that the “voice” of the customer gets back to and integrated into various organizations within the company.
• Drive and initiative. The community manager gets to see how people are interacting with the brand on a daily basis. This interaction is the perfect environment to grow new ideas for the brand to investigate with the hopes of engaging their customers even further. However, it’s up to the community manager to both identify and convey these potential new avenues of success.
• Genuine interest and enthusiasm for the brand. If the brand’s community manager doesn’t have genuine interest in the company’s products or market, that lack of interest will be (or become) obvious to the members of the community. The voice of the brand is the voice of the community manager; his or her interests and personality will come through in their communications. Brands need to make sure they hire for those interests as well as the core skills (communications, social media experience, currency on technology, creativity, etc.).

What criteria do you use to hire and develop your community manager? What skills have you found to be the most important?

We’ll be chatting more about social communities, including who the voice of the brand should be in a business and where social marketing lives in a company. Please join us for Creativity Coffee and voice your ideas and opinions!

Image Credit: svilen001

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Businesses are looking to engage consumers talking about topics that relate to their markets. Some companies have taken the initiative to host their own online forums and communities to enable peer-driven support, to collect customer feedback and to drive customer engagement and loyalty. But today’s public social networks have enabled individuals to create and participate in loosely organized, organically formed social communities surrounding topics of individual interests. Should brands and businesses try to form their own communities or join the existing and new user-created social communities? This was the topic of our Idea Spark Creativity Coffee. Here are the ideas that came out of the discussion.

1. What are the types of social communities?
• Organically developed. Organic social communities develop through a meeting of individuals who share a mutual interest. They can be created as a destination (website, Ning), be informally formed by and driven by a single person’s interest (LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo or Google group), or even form and exist without little to no organization (Twitter discussions, trending topics, lists). These organically created groups can be temporary or permanent. Membership can be open or some membership and moderation required.
• Sponsored. Sponsored communities are created, hosted and monitored by the brand or business. “Super users” are often invited to become moderators to help drive advocacy and user-generated content.
• Hybrid. These communities may be hosted on other sites (LinkedIn, Ning, Yahoo, Google), but they are managed and driven by brand affinity. While they are public and may be open to anyone, the community is driven by the brand and any consumers who join understand that they are engaging with a community that is monitored and sponsored by the brand.
2. How can companies tap into these communities?
• Innovate. If you’re Apple Computer, you can announce a new social network (Ping) and have 1 million people join within 24 hours. With 160 million iTunes account holders and a huge fan base, Apple’s move into creating their own social community was a natural part of their product evolution. Not many companies can create a community by “simply” announcing its existence; Apple is in a category of its own.
• Launch and market your sponsored community. It often makes sense to launch your own community if you have a product that benefits from additional company or peer support (technically-oriented product), encourages interaction (multi-player gaming), encourages user-generated content (reviews), or provides a basis for additional products (marketplace). The trick is being able to provide enough resources to build, launch and market your community, staff and moderate it, continue to develop features, etc. Some consumers may never find your community or may be reluctant to join and give up their “personal data” to participate in the sponsored community. However, the ones who do join are doing so specifically due to your product/service and are looking to interact with you and/or other members. There’s a clear path to engagement with these consumers; but remember that the rules of proper engagement STILL apply here!
• Find, join and participate in existing communities. Search through different social networks, groups, etc for existing organic and hybrid communities that pertain to your brand, products or market. Start by monitoring the conversations and note the content, tone and conversations of the community. Join in the conversations by becoming a participant—NOT a marketer. Content is king, and the more value you add to the community, the more your participation will be welcomed by the community members. The benefit of an existing community is that it exists. People have gathered because of a mutual interest. By joining and participating in communities relevant to your brands market, you have the opportunity promote your brand identity and ultimately attract new customers by being an active and productive member of that community.
3. How can businesses add value to these communities? How do they participate without offending the members?
• Content. Bring useful and valuable content. In the example of a bicycle manufacturer joining a biking enthusiast’s community, sharing information on great bike trails, common bicycle maintenance, bike race information, great biking videos and more WITHOUT touting their own brand’s capabilities will ensure a positive brand image amongst community members.
• Don’t hide who you are. If businesses wish to join existing communities, they should do so under their own brand (or have an individual do so AS a spokesperson for their brand). Hiding an “ulterior motive” will alienate community members and destroy your brand image. Be up front about who you are and mindful of the content and voice you use. Be genuine, and ensure that the people who are representing your voice are equally as enthusiastic about the community’s topic of interest as its members.
• Develop goals, rules and policies. Make sure that you have specific goals in mind regarding your participation in social communities. But don’t let ROI be the primary answer. ROI is a down-stream goal; don’t let it make you focus your efforts on pushing marketing through these communities. Enable people to engage with you (make sure you have links to your website and permission system on your profile), but let the first touch with new contacts be soft. Make sure you have social marketing policies and procedures in place to provide all your employees with the guidance they need to be successful.

What communities have you joined? How are you managing your external “voice” in those communities? Let us know!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Last week’s Creativity Coffee focused on Characteristics of Key Influencers—who they are and how you recognize them. But once you do identify key influencers and others you have engaged/desire to engage in social conversation on behalf of your brand or business, what kind of information should you be gathering on these people? Why is it important to do so? This was the topic of our last Creativity Coffee—Social Profiles.

1. What’s a Social Profile?
• Core component of a Social CRM. The social profile is the heart of a Social Consumer Relationship Management system. It provides a 360-degree view of the individual and enables the brand to target its communications, marketing, messaging, promotions and outreach based upon the wealth of information collected and summarized within the Social CRM.
• Collection of data versus usage. Each brand/company has their own view of an individual. The information gathered in a social profile is only as powerful as the way the brand uses it. Unique tagging and customization is critical to enabling the brand to create highly segmented groups for specific messaging, handling and engagement only if that brand decides to created targeted messages!
2. What are the components of a social profile?
• Contact points. Contact information is no longer limited just email or snail mail addresses. Social profiles are multi-dimensional and include contact points from a variety of traditional and “new media” sources—blogs, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, etc. People can also have multiple identities that map to either their professional or personal associations, interests and networks.
• Activity profile. A social profile includes a record of an individual’s relevant social communications and activities. This includes direct communications with your company, but also expands to public social communications that pertain to your brand, your market, your products, your company, or even your competitors. Brands want a view not only of a person’s influence within social communities but also their engagement within those communities. The social profile should provide that information.
• Communications analysis. The social profile should include a history of every communications between the brand and the individual, but it should also provide an analysis of the social conversations that the individual has had. How engaged is that individual? Have their conversations been positive, negative, neutral? How often have they mentioned or discussed the brand’s products? What communities are they engaged in? How often have they been exposed to the brand’s communications?
• Segmentation and customization. While a system’s core data and analysis is essential to developing a view of the individual’s personna, it’s the brand’s own definitions of important segmentation that makes or breaks the value of the social profile. Enabling multiple custom categories or tags within the social profile enables the brand to (even on the fly) define an essential way of defining an individual in relation to the brand for later use in communications, messaging and marketing.
• Influence analysis. The social profile should include ways for the brand to evaluate a person’s standing within the social community—how much that person can influence and reach others.
• Preferences. Interests and communications preferences need to be an integral part o the social profile. How they want to be contacted, how often, which channels and what they want to receive…these are essential and should be strictly adhered to.
3. How can brands use the Social Profile?
• Targeted marketing. At the end of the day, everyone wants to sell their products. Using all the intelligence developed in the social profile, the marketer now has the opportunity to fine tune their messages, offers, communications and engagement with a willing and interested audience. Higher response and action rates will ensue.
• “Free” data. Much of what we’re gathering into the social profile is freely available data. Marketers pay a high price for lists that include demographics and psychographics. Using the right tool, all that “free” data can create a powerful profile.
• Adjusting the tenor of a conversation. Using the social profile will help the brand determine the best way not only to reach an individual but to speak to them in a way that is appealing, desired and appropriate.

Are you developing social profiles on your social contacts? How are you using those profiles to drive your social marketing?

Image Credit: Hilde Vanstraelen

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Last week’s Creativity Coffee focused on Social Marketing Business Objectives. One of those objectives was to identify and develop advocates. A large part of that group of social advocates are the influencers—those people whom others follow, engage and seek out for advice, information and even entertainment. A mention, endorsement or positive review from an influencer can go much further than an advertising campaign; this kind of endorsement is seen as more credible, spontaneous and genuine by the social public. Brands are trying to bring those influencers into the fold—to engage them with their brand and to provide them with a positive brand experience. But how do they identify which individuals are key influencers? We originally touched on core characteristics of influencers in an earlier discussion and blog post, but we wanted to dive deeper into the subject. That was the topic of this past week’s Creativity Coffee, and here are some ideas that came from that discussion.

1. How do influencers emerge in a group?
• Teamwork dynamics. Taking an analogy of teamwork exercises, leaders naturally emerge from a group based upon their characteristics that make them a fit for specific roles. The organizer. The leader, the idea person. The doer. Typically, people are drawn to the roles they play in other aspects of life in which they have skill and recognition.
• Personal characteristics. A role is most effectively filled by the person whose intrinsic characteristics—charisma, attention to detail, sensitivities, intellect, ability—are the best match with the requirements of that role.
• Influencers in the digital social community are like those in teams. Online communities are made of loose associations of people talking about common interests. How do influencers emerge on the Social Web? Similar to the team dynamic, natural leaders emerge. Charisma, expertise, organizational skills, problem-solving skills, diplomacy, engagement and involvement of others, and even humor help the natural leader drive the growth and health of a digital community.
• Presence is also key. Involvement, presence, frequency of participation, value of content and persistence within the community also drive people to emerge as the core leaders and influencers in the digital space.
2. How do you identify the influencers on the Social Web?
• Look who’s talking. Which individuals are the most vocal in a specific community? But that shouldn’t be the only measure. Just because someone talks a lot doesn’t mean that others see value in what they say.
• Engagement is key. Do others respond to an individual? Are they engaged in conversation? Do they comment on the person’s posts, links, content, questions, comments? Does the person’s style have an appeal to your target audience? Is that appeal appropriate for your brand? You’re looking for someone who resonates with your target market.
• Don’t discount charisma, personality and ethics. Trust and influence go hand in hand. Even though someone may be engaged and vocal, they can be so in a way that may be more controversial than productive. Make sure to evaluate how the individual’s personality has a positive or negative influence on others. Are they engaging or are they complaining? Do they “play nice” or are they trying to stir the pot? Jerks may attract people due to their controversial nature, but is this someone you want engaged with your brand?
• Your personal experiences can guide you. Think about the communities in which you are engaged personally. Which individuals are the key positive influencers—that emerge to organize the group, that you go to for information, whose opinion matters to others. Ask yourself why that person influences you. Now think of another leader or active member of that organization that is less influential; while engaged, that person’s opinion has less weight because of their personality, ethics or lack of positive impact. We all know how to identify those influencers to target and those to avoid. “Everything you need to know, you learned in 4th grade.”
3. How do you find these influencers?
• Search and Listen. Make sure you’re searching across Twitter, Facebook, blogs, email lists, and other social communities for people talking about your product, your brand, your market or items related to your target customer (events, topics, people, news).
• Evaluate Influence. Look at the depth and breadth of reach—friends, followers, blog subscribers, etc.—as a first indicator (JitterJam’s Jitterater does a great job at this). Dig deeper using some of the characteristics mentioned above to determine potential fit with your brand’s identity. Look further than the last few postings; see how long they’ve been in the social space, how often they engage others and how others respond.

So now that you’ve identified an influencer, how do you start a dialogue? We’ve posted some ideas on Starting a Dialogue with a Consumer that might help you. Have you identified the key influencers in your market? How have you done so, and how are you engaging those individuals? Let us know!

Image Credit: svilen001

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

It’s no big news that more and more businesses are diving into social marketing—500 million Facebook users are just too hard to pass up! But aside from the obvious audience potential, businesses need to set clear objectives for their social marketing activities in order to develop measurable value for their effort. What are the core business objectives for social marketing? What should businesses be striving to accomplish?

1. Brand awareness.
• Basic objective. It’s a common and basic objective for a brand or business to want to increase brand awareness through social marketing.
• Measurement. Brand impressions are the core measurement, based upon the social following and tangible results from those brand impressions, including web traffic and SEO.
2. Grow the social community.
• After the brand or business has established their social presence, the next objective usually is to grow that follower or fan base. The same metrics apply—number of friends/followers, brand impressions, web traffic and SEO.
3. Identify and develop advocates.
• Inexpensive marketing, sales force. It’s less expensive to develop brand advocates than to run advertising campaigns. Additionally, brand advocates voices are seen as more “genuine” to consumers than the brands themselves.
• Product claims made by brands are met with resistance.“No one believes advertising; we live in a time of disbelief.”
• Consumer brand advocates provide an authentic voice. Authenticity is key. Brand advocates speak to their target segment(s) and enable authentic messages that resonate with their peers. You can’t create and run enough ads and messages to blanket all the potential target segments.
• What makes a good brand advocate? They need to have established expertise. Whether it’s your peer, your uncle or a blogger, people will look at their prior content to see if their opinions are valuable and reliable.
• How do you find and engage a brand advocate? Well, we won’t lie. JitterJam does this very well. But in general, you need to search through the Social Web to find these voices. You then need to evaluate their engagement with your brand, their influence and reach, their prior content, their engagement with others, etc. You want to engage people with genuine enthusiasm for the brand. Use social searches to find those conversations and begin your outreach.
• How does sentiment analysis fit in? Overall sentiment analysis can help you determine how your social marketing is being received. You can track the trends and see the long-term impact of your outreach and advocacy. You can then try to correlate that sentiment analysis with the impact to your business.
4. Provide new channel for customer feedback.
• You may or may not find the true customer voice. Many companies ask direct questions to elicit feedback, but they often don’t get much response. Curb your expectations.
• Larger brands have a better chance to get feedback. Consumers are usually more willing to respond to a larger brand. You need a larger audience to capture that small vocal percentage. However, that vocal public may not be wholly representative of your market. Social media is like talk radio. Those on the extremes are the ones most likely to “call in.”
5. Provide new channel for customer service.
• Be ready. Customer service over public social media channels can have an extremely positive impact on how consumers view your brand. But a single poor experience can also become a very public, viral spiral of negativity and a PR nightmare. Make sure you are prepared to provide excellent service and have policies (including a very clear escalation process) in place to ensure customer satisfaction.
• One size does not fit all. You are not going to be able to please all the people all the time. However, how you handle the situation and work towards resolution will help you even if you can’t completely satisfy the customer. Make sure all your staff is responsive and execute well. They are not only providing customer service, they are acting in a PR role as well.

What are your business objectives for social marketing? How are you measuring your success! Let us know!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

The last two Creativity Coffee discussions centered around Social Etiquette and Facebook Etiquette—the rules of engagement. If you are aware of the rules of engagement, what are some acceptable and effective practices for outreach to engage a new consumer with the hopes of starting a dialogue? Here are the ideas sparked during our last Creativity Coffee.

1. How do you open the dialogue?
• Thanks. Has a consumer made a positive comment about your brand? Thank them. Be genuine.
• Question. Has a consumer made a comment about looking for a product in your market? Have they stated a preference? Ask them a question to see if they will engage with you. Make sure it’s not a direct sales pitch like, “Have you tried our product?” or you could immediately alienate the consumer. However, if someone states that they are looking for a specific type of product that fits your product line, ask a question about what they need. Be on the lookout for a response—and your opening for creating a dialogue!
• Comment. Did someone post a comment, a link, a tidbit that fits your product or market? Comment back to the consumer with a compliment, a suggestion or a helpful piece of information. For instance, if someone posted a picture of their cute dog and you’re a dog food company, comment back with an opening like, “Love that picture of spot. You should enter it into our Dog of the Month contest—Spot is so cute! Here’s the link…” Or if someone is concerned about what they’re feeding their dog, you should comment about what proper nutritional elements are in a good dog food and what could be causing problems. Be helpful and provide value. Don’t try to sell. Remember, you’re trying to be social!
2. Make it personal.
• No robots. Social consumers are savvy. If they see a comment from you that’s repeated over and over (think “scripted”), they will quickly be able to see your lack of personality and shy away from engaging. Who wants to talk to a robot?
• Be specific. Use the contact’s name. Address specifics about their comment, question, posting, etc.
• Be genuine. You’re speaking for your company, but your personality shines through in your dialogue. Make sure that your comments pertain to your real interest in the consumer…not fake enthusiasm. If it’s fake, someone will notice. If your brand is a known public brand, they might even call you on it.
3. Use a contest to draw people in.
• Use some sort of contest to get people to engage with you.
• The pet pictures example mentioned above doesn’t have to be for a pet brand. Recently, a community bank used a community pet photo contest to engage more deeply with the local community. Better yet, this kind of contest is viral—people will share their entry with family and friends in order to get votes! Be careful—make sure you do not misuse registration information. Registering for a contest should not automatically cause an opt-in for marketing communications. Use the opportunity to ASK for an opt-in, but don’t make it the default. If you do, you’ll alienate potential customers and tarnish your brand.
• You can use both digital and traditional media to promote your contest.
4. Use content that truly engages people and reflects your company’s values.
• Community causes. Whether your “community” is local, national or international, you can connect with consumers who share your values. Many companies are supporting causes that reflect their core values, and these causes can be a vital way to connect with the community.
• Use social media to publicize. Reflect the messages used to create awareness in other media on social media as well. Use social media to report on progress, share stories and to get people engaged.
• Example: Dawn Saves Wildlife. A dollar from every purchase (when a code is entered onto their website) is donated by Dawn to saving wildlife. This spurs purchases and engagement and resonates with people who care about ecology and animal welfare.
• Example: Supporting local charities. A community bank donates money to a local non-profit and posts the pictures of the donation ceremony on Facebook. Tons of people “like” and “share” the story and picture with others. A press release may have been picked up by a local paper and, for most part, ignored. But this kind of community work is a great positive social PR story.
5. Take your time, try different mixes and be patient.
• Some markets are harder than others. For instance, how does a CPA engage with potential customers?
• Use the Five C’s of Following People.
• Try different mixes and types of content, from informational, educational, fun and conversational. Make sure that you interject some product information as well, but not too much (less than half of your content should be product-based).
• Blog. It’s one of the key ways to continue to add content to your website to increase search engine rankings and to be found organically.
• Stick with it. All this takes time and resources. Make sure you stick with it, or your brand will be seen as anti-social, dis-engaged, a dead stick.

What is working for you? What kinds of conversations have you started lately? Have they resulted in new customers? Join the conversation!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

The last Creativity Coffee discussion centered around Social Etiquette. What rules do businesses and brands need to follow to ensure that they are not creating social SPAM? We had far too little time to fully cover the topic, so we continued the conversation by focusing on social etiquette for a single social channel—Facebook. Here are the highlights of the discussion.

1. A Facebook “fan” is like an annuity—a gift that keeps on giving.
• A Facebook fan provides an ongoing value stream.
• Your wall posts/updates are seen by all your fans, but also potentially by all your fans’ friends. One fan can fuel hundreds of brand impressions.
• The real “value” of a Facebook fan is an unknown. That is, until you begin to drive engagement with your fans.
2. Facebook outreach to non-fans is tricky. When is it okay? How do you do it without “freaking out” the consumer?
• As we discussed in our last session, Facebook’s closed networks and less-than-public personal updates make it a difficult platform to use for “discovery” of new brand fans. Search results are limited to those who choose to make all their status updates open to everyone.
• When you do come across a public (everyone) status update that is associated with your brand/market/product, what do you do?
• Use the context of the person’s update (and prior updates). Be respectful. If it’s a negative comment or a complaint, identify yourself and ask if you can be of assistance in resolving the situation. Remember that your posts/comments to a person’s wall is from YOU, the page admin, not BrandX, so identifying yourself is important.
• Offer value. If the status update is a positive comment, identify yourself (Facebook manager for BrandX), thank them enthusiastically for the comment, and invite them to “like” your page and opt-in for future offers. If the person tends to like offers (you can tell via their news stream), you might take the risk to provide a coupon or offer as well. This is really discretionary and should be used only when clearly appropriate.
3. There are coupon fans and non-fans. And they’re both on Facebook.
• Sometimes, it seems to be black or white, love or hate for “offers”. Listen before you engage. View the status updates from a person to see if they are amenable to receiving an offer before sending one to them. Make sure you have a plan, and a respectful one at that, for what triggers your brand to engage with a consumer on Facebook, BASED ON something they said from status update.
• Context is king. At times, people post on Facebook to be social and aren’t interested in potential “offers.” Other times, they are shopping, researching, chatting about brands and products, and it IS appropriate to engage them in your brand even further and even incent them to try your product. Use the info you know about a user, and offer them something targeted that will be meaningful to them. Send the appropriate message.
• While it’s fine to post incentive offers like coupon links, promotion codes and special “Facebook-only” deals on your fan page, make sure that these are NOT the only pieces of content you share on your Fan page. You want to draw people to engage, communicate and deepen the love of your brand. Don’t forget to be social, have discussions with fans, ask them questions, make them smile, provide them with a fun and lively place they want to visit often.
4. Let them opt-in.
• Facebook is a social network. While your fan page is a primary channel for your brand’s consumer engagement, it’s always good give your fans other ways to connect with you.
• Give your fans a way to opt-in to other communication channels (email, Twitter, mobile) and to other communication types (newsletter, coupons, events, etc.) JitterJam’s Make Me Happy™ permission marketing Facebook app works well here!
5. You don’t know what a fan is worth until you know.
• A fan or like you make today may not produce for months….stay the course, be patient, give to get.
• Example: Gary Vaynerchuk – the gift economy. If you don’t know someone, how to you get in their good graces..bring a gift. The same holds true for digital/Facebook etiquette. Come with a gift.
6. Make sure you’re ready for negative comments.
• Whether it’s about your product or about how you’re marketing via Facebook, make sure you’re ready to publicly handle negative comments in a positive way.
• Making decisions on what to say and how to handle potentially sensitive and explosive issues (e.g. the Capri Sun moldy drink debacle) shouldn’t be in the hands of an intern. Make sure you have a fast and effective process for escalation and resolution.
• Not everyone is going to love being contacted by your brand. Be respectful and always make sure you follow any requests to disengage swiftly. Don’t make a lost connection a bad connection.

How are you handling Facebook outreach and engagement? What have resulted in higher engagement by your fans? Please let us know!

This Idea Spark blog post is the result of the discussion during our Friday morning Creativity Coffee. If you’d like to join us (in person or via web/phone conference), please sign up here. There’s no charge or obligation. We just love ideas and open discussion!

Don’t Create Social SPAM

For businesses and brands, interacting on the social web isn’t easy. While individuals see social networks as a place to voice their opinions, post random thoughts, hold conversations or shout and rant, businesses who are trying to engage current and potential customers must tread carefully. Social networks are public venues, and any public communication could become a PR coup or a quickly escalating PR nightmare.

Given the thin ice that businesses and brands skate on in the public space, what rules do they follow to ensure that they are not creating social SPAM? Here are a few ideas that came out of our Creativity Coffee.

1. There’s a different expectation of privacy on Twitter versus on Facebook.
• People on Facebook have a greater perception of privacy even though their settings might make them more public than they desire. They believe that what they post is accessible by their friends (or network) but is not in the public domain.
• On Twitter, unless your tweets are protected, there is no expectation of privacy. The service in itself is a public forum for social commentary and communications.
• Brand outreach and engagement on Twitter is going to be a bit easier for “new” contacts due to the public nature of Twitter and the open environment. Facebook’s closed networks and less-than-public updates make it a difficult platform to use for “discovery” of new brand fans.
2. Example: A brand mention on Twitter vs. Facebook and the brand outreach possibilities
• A consumer, Mary, updates both her Twitter and Facebook status with “I love my Mazda.” Mazda does not have a prior social relationship with Mary. What can Mazda do to engage her?
• Twitter
• Mary’s tweet shows up on Mazda’s social search. Mazda is not following her and she’s not following Mazda.
• Mazda follows Mary. This is generally acceptable.
• Mazda retweets Mary’s comment. This is generally acceptable. The consumer may even notice the retweet and start following Mazda on Twitter.
• Mazda @ messages Mary with a “thank you”. This is generally acceptable.
• Mazda @ messages Mary with a promotional offer. This is very questionable. Mary has no prior relationship with Mazda, and she might see this as social SPAM and block Mazda from future communications.
• Mazda Direct Messages (DMs) Mary with a promotional offer. This is unacceptable. Mary has no prior relationship with Mazda and has not opted to receive promotional messages from them. This is social SPAM. Don’t do it.
• Facebook
• Mary’s Facebook status update shows up on Mazda’s social search. Mary is not a fan of Mazda’s Facebook page.
• There’s not much that Mazda can do from an outreach standpoint here. Any message sent directly to Mary (assuming that she is open to non-friends sending her messages) could be construed as SPAM. Messages sent by Mazda would actually be sent by the Mazda page administrator’s Facebook account to Mary, not by the Mazda page. Facebook was not created as a business-focused network, and the ability for brands to market TO Facebook members is limited to their page fans (I can’t say “likers” without snickering).
• The Mazda page administrator could try to “friend” Mary, but Mary would most likely not know this person and have no reason to friend the page admin.
• Mazda CAN use sophisticated tools to find out Mary’s social profile and try to contact her in a manner that is acceptable to her (perhaps Mary is on the Mazda email list and is open to offers). The best Mazda can do at this point is to understand what Mary is saying about them on Facebook and try to get Mary to Like their Facebook page in another way.
• Twitter is a much more friendly network for brands to discover new voices. However, Facebook DOES have advantages over Twitter as a gathering place for engaged consumers.
3. Permission is the key.
• You need to use the same kind of opt-ins for social marketing as you do for email marketing.
• You want to ensure that you don’t alienate a current/potential customer. It’s critical that you ask them to opt-in to receive promotional messages from you. If they don’t, do not send them promotional messages (DMs, Facebook messages).
• DMs are self-regulating. If you blow trust with your contact, they will sever their connection with you.
4. You need to be mindful of not only WHAT you say, but how often you speak.
• With Facebook, a your wall posts/updates will show up on your fans’ walls and will create a brand impression to all those who are friends with your fan. However, if you post to Facebook constantly, your fans may tire of the constant chatter and “unlike” your page. Make sure your content is valuable and not annoyingly frequent.
• Twitter is a little more forgiving, but your brand impressions may be less frequent due to the higher instance of chatter.
• In both cases, note that your status updates are fleeting; they pass by your fans and friends and may not register at all.

Facebook has lots of advantages for the brand once you get consumers to engage (“Like” your brand’s page). In this coming Friday’s Creativity Coffee, we’ll talk about Facebook Etiquette. Please join the conversation!

Do you have policies and procedures in place for your public social networks? What are you rules for social etiquette? Have you had an instance where your social outreach backfired? How did you handle it?