This past week, we wrapped up a short social media campaign we’d been involved with for a client, Bigelow Tea. As is often the case, what didn’t work is just as valuable (if not more so) than what did work, and we thought you might be interested in some of our observations.
Facebook and Twitter Are Not the Same Tribe. When Bigelow Tea was preparing to announce their new spokesperson*, together we spent a week dropping clues on Twitter, followed by a one-hour window in which participants could guess the spokesperson’s identity. But fans of their Facebook page were upset that the contest wasn’t extended to Facebook as well, and some of them made it very clear that they didn’t (and wouldn’t) tweet. Ever. Lesson: Don’t expect users of one platform to naturally migrate to another.
Private Twitter Accounts Can Complicate Contests. In the same Bigelow contest, participants were provided with a hashtag — #GuessWhoBigelow — to include with their guesses. But not all of the hashtagged responses showed up in a search for that hashtag. Why not? Because some guesses came from Twitter users whose accounts are set to “private” (AKA the ones whose tweets are preceded by a padlock icon), and “private” tweets don’t show up in general searches. Lesson: When planning a public contest, take into account whether (and how) “private” people can easily participate.
Your Interested Audience Is Not Always Your Target Audience. One respondent to the contest complained that “all these sports-related clues are pretty useless to some of us on the Internet,” which we found to be an interesting — and, in this case, unresolvable — objection. Since Bigelow’s new spokesperson is a sports legend, the contest naturally leaned in that direction. We therefore presumed anyone taking part in the contest would use their Googling skills to find the answer. Unfortunately, non-sports fans felt left out of both the contest and any means of finding the answer. Lesson: You can’t please everyone.
The knowledge we’ve absorbed from this campaign will pay off as we apply it to future projects. And while social media may have a never-ending learning curve, it doesn’t mean we can’t all keep getting smarter, one lesson at a time.
* If you were wondering, the answer is Wayne Gretzky.
On December 6, The Children’s Aid Society (our client) will have their biggest fundraiser of the year: Miracle on Madison. Every year, stores up and down Madison Avenue donate a portion of that day’s proceeds to help provide health services and other crucial necessities to children in need.
We’re proud to be a part of this year’s Miracle on Madison, and we look forward to seeing hundreds of holiday shoppers chipping in to help those most in need of a happier holiday.
If you’re taking part in this year’s Miracle on Madison, use the hashtag #ShopMiracle on Twitter and Flickr, so The Children’s Aid Society in New York can find your photos and feedback!
Ever wonder if your messaging sticks with your audience? Just ask your kids.
When we joined Cindi Bigelow on a trip to her alma mater (Boston College), we were blown away by just how many college students drink tea (we figured college was a serious coffee haven). But even more surprising than the students’ taste for tea was how they developed their tea-drinking habits: it came from their families.
If you had told us beforehand that we’d find a random wave of passersby (none of the students were pre-selected) and almost all of them would have had a love of tea instilled in them by their parents, we would have said you were crazy. Why? Because of sterotypical preconceptions, like:
Kids don’t listen to their parents
Kids rebel
Kids define their own personalities in opposition to family tradition
College students have horrible eating habits
College students live off caffeine
And so on.
Yet, if college students are willing to admit that their parents’ love of tea has rubbed off on them, what other bits of wisdom (or, conversely, what other bad habits) have you passed on to your kids?
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. If you have students returning home from college — or if it’s you who’s heading home for the holidays — take a moment and find out which elements of your (or your parents’) messaging have survived the gap between the backyard and the dorm. You may be surprised.
And you may learn a thing or two about the kinds of messages that last.
Cancer can be terrifying, especially to those of us who’ve never had it. A loved one’s diagnosis can seem like a death sentence. The future suddenly feels finite, and our formerly limitless possibilities now appear inconsequential in the cold, clinical light of science.
But the most amazing thing about cancer is the way some people not only overcome it, but convert their experience with cancer into a lens through which they can more clearly see — and more fully enjoy — the world they’ve now more fully come to appreciate.
Two of our clients have just such stories, and since cancer is a condition that extends beyond the constraints of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, we thought we’d share them with you now.
“I can say with total certainty that this is a disease that I am living with NOT dying from.”
Likewise, Ouidad is another successful businesswoman. Her eponymous New York salon just celebrated its 25th anniversary. But along the way, Ouidad had to overcome more than just the fashion industry’s skepticism about a self-made “curl professional” — she had to overcome breast cancer. And she did. Now she and her husband Peter oversee Curls for a Cure, which works year-round to raise money for breast cancer research.
These remarkable women are only two of the millions who’ve refused to allow their cancer to define them, and who have emerged from their medical challenges with their energies renewed and their focuses sharpened. We hope their stories serve as inspiration for you, no matter the hills or mountains in your path, and as a reminder that there is a life to be lived passionately on the other side.
When you’re just starting out in business, you can get bombarded with advice on how to do (or not do) just about everything. So here’s a tip: focus on the advice from people who were once in the exact same spot you’re in, and who somehow managed to navigate their way to long-term success.
One such compendium of information is Young Professional’s Guide to Success by Ryan Kohnen, which includes business tips from Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO of (our client) Bigelow Tea. Among Cindi’s rules for workplace success: “Remember that people are watching you.” And while her observation is meant to highlight the importance of leading by example, it also serves as a reminder of the changing times we live in, where more and more of what we do and say is available (and searchable) online. Now setting a positive example extends beyond the boardroom and applies to “public” forums like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr — proof that your actions define you, no matter where those actions take place.
Worried? Don’t be — everyone’s human, and everyone makes mistakes. But if your mistakes are going to be cached on Google for all eternity, they should at least be mistakes that everyone (including you) can learn from.
One of our clients, Ouidad, has ventured into the world of web video with a trio of hair care tips for the terminally curly. Each video has a different focus — beauty & empowerment, hair care on the go and 4-minute curls — which means each video also (presumably) has a different audience, despite the fact that they’re all coming from the same source.
Since Ouidad and her daughter, Sondriel, are so comfortable being themselves and sharing their insights with the camera, we knew they’d represent their business better than any hired hosts possibly could. But they also realized that Sondriel’s expertise may sound more authentic to a teen or young adult audience than Ouidad’s would, because not every audience perceives “authority” the same way.
If you (or a client) are creating original media for the web, you need to be consistent in your branding, but don’t be slavishly insistent on a single point of view. Your audience is multifaceted; let your messaging be, too.
And then we realized we’d stopped taking our own advice.
In the book, O’Reilly and Milstein applaud Bigelow Tea for using conversational tweets to direct traffic to their tea-related blog posts, rather than those generic “New Blog Post: Topic X” auto-tweets, which most users have now begun to subconsciously tune out. Naturally, we were pleased — until we realized the Twitter Tools plugin we’d just installed on the Bigelow Tea Blog was doing precisely what The Twitter Book had lauded us for not doing, all because we hadn’t double-checked the plugin’s default checkboxes.
So we disabled it. (The auto-tweet part, not the whole plugin.) Our lesson? Sometimes a compliment can help you find even more ways to improve. (And, while you’re at it: make sure you double-check the details…)
Well we are very excited about all the good stuff coming our/your way. As you probably know we have our Business Smart Tools conference coming up tomorrow, Tuesday May 5th. Speakers from Bigelow Tea, Pitney Bowes, Ford and PepsiCo will present, we will feature true social media experts and we will include breakout sessions on Twitter for Business, The Power of Video, Where do you begin Online and the ROI of Social Media (and a personal thank you to our great sponsors MarketWire, Everett Hall Associates, and CitySquares!) You can’t beat this event for social media education and excitement especially seeing that you get lunch and a great networking cocktail party thrown in! You can still register here.
We are also excited because we are right around the corner from launching our new website! Flash based sites were cool how long ago…we know…too long ago, and that’s why we are updating it to reflect who we are, a PR and Social Media consultancy with fluency in communication both online and off via blogs, social networks, video and more. Can’t wait!
And finally we are so excited about our new client Ouidad who are great people with a great product and service. As you can see from my photo, I have naturally curly hair and well my curls were cured when I found Ouidad. We have just launched their new blog so take a look and let us know what you think.
Well there will be more to report after the conference, after our new site goes live, after Ouidad has been up and running for a bit and after we announce or next newest client.
We produced this great video for Pitney Bowes called Better Mail Moment which is geared for direct marketers and small businesses or any business who needs guidance on how to effectively reach their customer through direct mail. Watch Carol Wallace guide us through her daily mail opening and learn! Go here for more information about direct mail via Pitney Bowes and go here to see more videos.
This video produced for our client Bigelow Tea is not only a perfect example of how to use video within the social media channels but it’s just a good business model to follow. Cindi Bigelow, President Bigelow Tea, hit the streets of New York City and got an earful about tea from everyone she talked to. No crazy editing, no corporate speak, just honesty from both Cindi and the variety of people she ran into.
Others seem to appreciate this as well. Take a look at what Chris Brogan has to say here and our mention of the video on our Business Smart Tools site here.
