AT&T vs. Verizon: Why Bad PR Is Still Good for You

December 23rd, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

In Andrew Cherwenka’s recent case study, he explains how AT&T used Facebook to defend themselves against Verizon’s claims of a better 3G network,  and how that plan backfired when the very customers AT&T expected to rally to their defense instead fell silent while the conversation was dominated by Verizon fans.  (At one point, 89% of the sentiment on the forum was pro-Verizon, prompting one poster to comment, “You’re basically maintaining a fan page for Verizon.”)

Whoops.

Yet while Cherwenka is correct in surmising that the 2-way nature of the web has eroded a company’s ability to control the messaging surrounding their brand, there is one positive that AT&T should be taking away from this experience:

Now they know what their biggest problems are.

Granted, those problems may be technological in nature (like spotty cell coverage) or they may be matters of negative consumer perception.  That’s up to AT&T to decide (or admit).  But because AT&T has a record of what the public really thinks about its service, they can now choose to fix those problems head-on, OR they can choose to ignore them and hope the public eventually loses interest, which often happens.

Regardless of what AT&T chooses to do, your company can embrace this same lesson.  Yes, your social efforts may occasionally backfire.  Yes, the public may sometimes provide you with opinions and suggestions you’d rather not have to hear.  But this feedback is actually the most important information that you could hope to receive, because this is what helps you understand what you need to improve in order to grow as a company.

The better your product actually is, the more loyalty and evangelism you’ll see from your customers — and the more money you’ll be able to save on advertising to convince people you really are that remarkable.

Facebook vs. AOL: Why the Information Superhighway Still Has a Dinosaur Lane

December 16th, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

As TechCrunch noted this week, Facebook has surpassed AOL as the fourth most-trafficked website on the planet.  And while that news may not seem particularly surprising to the millions of Facebook users, here’s the really astounding part:

AOL is still the fifth most-trafficked website on the planet.

Yes, the same AOL that most web-savvy surfers haven’t touched since pre-millennium bug days is still more popular than all but 4 other websites in existence.  That boggles the mind.

It also explodes the notion that online change happens at lightning speed.  Sure, sites like Facebook and Twitter have seen massive growth in recent years, but the numbers AOL enjoys are proof that not everyone is adapting to new web technologies at the same rate.  And if a dinosaur from the Internet’s formative years can still command such loyalty, it’s no wonder that so many businesses — and users — are slow to embrace “new” social media solutions.

So… what does this mean for your web marketing plan?

  • Don’t presume everyone can be reached through one access point.
  • Don’t abandon useful services the moment a shiny new alternative arrives.
  • Don’t expect meaningful change to happen overnight.
  • Don’t neglect the audience that’s slow to adapt.

Sometimes it seems like the entire Internet lives at the cutting edge.  And when you’re considering the potential of a new site, a new tool or a new way of doing things, it’s tempting to believe the whole world is right there with you.

Then you turn around and realize the dinosaurs aren’t as far behind as you imagined, and that rocketship you’ve been building has to be converted into a bridge so no one gets left behind.

3 Lessons We Learned from One Social Media Campaign

December 9th, 2009 by Justin — 2 comments

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Teaching Marketing: What If No One Knows the Answers?

December 2nd, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

There’s a great conversation happening on Amber Naslund’s blog, where she asks: What does the next generation of marketing professionals need to know?  The answers from her readers are practical, including:

  • Critical thinking
  • Storytelling
  • Consumer behavior
  • How to engage with multiple (and quickly-changing) demographics
  • The difference between actual value and spam

All of which I agree with.  But Amber’s question stems from her observation that the field of marketing is changing dramatically thanks to the Internet — which means the rules you’re taught today may result in disaster tomorrow, when the tools you’re using (if not the entire playing field) changes.

So instead of tactics, marketers need to focus on strategies.

Tools always change.  Twitter, Facebook and Flickr were fictional* words a decade ago, and they may be cultural footnotes tomorrow.  Their rise and fall shouldn’t have anything to do with long-term consumer awareness of your brand, but what your brand stands for should.

Demographics always shift.  What the Baby Boomers wanted in the ’60s isn’t what they want today, and Facebook was a college hub before grandma sent you a friend request.  How people communicate may change rapidly, but what they value rarely does.

Make sure your brand is something consumers value, and the marketers will always have something to talk about — regardless of the tools.

* Yes, twitter has long been an actual word, but its meaning has most definitely changed since 2006.

Shopping With Purpose: Madison Avenue Gives Kids a Brighter Holiday

November 25th, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

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!

What Your Own Kids Can Teach You About Better Messaging

November 18th, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

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.

3 Social Media Case Studies, 1 Central Lesson

November 11th, 2009 by Justin — 1 comment

Your social media presence is only as useful as the change it triggers in your business. To that end, here are 3 recent case studies we’ve found, along with the lessons explained (or implied) by each:

  • The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) called in its bloggers to head off a potential PR disaster stemming from one blogger’s (misinformation-driven?) post about her baby being seized during airport screening.  (Lesson: Companies large and small are realizing that web-driven PR fires need to be addressed immediately.)
  • Michael Bissell gives a blow-by-blow account of how an offhanded web comment resulted in LinkedIn considering a change to the way they process information.  (Lesson: Consumers, speak up; you never know who’s listening.)
  • Network Solutions assigned one employee to manage a wave of customer dissatisfaction on Twitter.  The result?  A flip from 58% negative commentary to 18%, and several positive blog mentions of individual outreach.  (Lesson: Even a small effort toward improving your customers’ experience can help turn the tide of dissatisfaction.)

In each example, companies are proving that engaging dissatisfied (or downright angry) customers directly can mitigate the potential PR damage caused by consumer aggravation.  And while those concerns are normally specific to a time, place and incident, the goodwill engendered by such outreach is a long-standing example that reminds customers at large how much your company does care about their experience — and it shows them that you’re not afraid to use the same tools they do to ensure that their needs are met.

Cancer: A Love Story

November 4th, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

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.

Elizabeth April-Fritz is the Product Manager for Bigelow Tea.  She’s also a three-time breast cancer survivor.  Her message is inspiring and self-evident:

“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.

Defending LinkedIn Groups from Irrelevance

October 28th, 2009 by Justin — No Comments

I recently lamented the decreasing quality of my LinkedIn experience, which has since been accelerated by the explosion of questionable “experts” offering webinars via LinkedIn groups.  But although my own experience is more spam than signal, I also realize that there are ways to use LinkedIn effectively, and it would be hypocritical not to shed some light on those who are “doing it right.”

Signal-to-Spam Ratio

To me, the differentiating characteristic between a valuable LinkedIn group one that I can live without is the ratio of useful information to self-promotional spam from other group members.

One such example of a group gone wrong is the Online Marketing, Web Analytics, and E-Commerce group.  In their case, 2 of the 5 most recent discussions posted to the group are solicitations for “get rich from home” businesses.  The group’s broad focus may be part of the reason it’s being dragged down by spammers, but it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to find serious conversations about “online marketing” without stumbling into a den of Multi-Level Marketers who monopolize the conversation (and the search results).

On the other hand, two groups that still provide more signal than spam are Social Media Marketing and Social Media Today — neither of which have quite so many solicitations in their recent discussions.  Not that they’re immune to such infection, but they do a better job of inoculating themselves against it.

So what’s the difference?

Since spammers will always sneak through the door that’s open widest, the continued value of these groups is due primarily to the anti-spam vigilance of their group moderators.  In fact, SMM’s Michael Crosson recently trotted out a 9-month old discussion called “COMMERCIAL OVER-POSTING IS PROHIBITED, PERIOD!” which serves as a warning to group members that they can expect to be banned if their posts are obviously too self-promotional or spammy in nature.

Not that the hijacking of groups by spammers happens without a fight.  Case in point, OMWAEC’s Lars Johansson just posted a call for volunteer moderators to help mitigate the spam that’s threatening to render his group valueless.  But, as he mentions, such moderation requires the time and effort of volunteers who are interested in maintaining the quality of a group in their spare time.  Which is difficult because spambots don’t need sleep.

Nonetheless, anything worth having is also worth fighting for.  So if you do enjoy your LinkedIn experience, consider volunteering to moderate the forums and groups you find beneficial, because expecting someone else to guard the door is a strategy that’s destined to fail.

5 More Reasons Companies Fail at Social Media

October 21st, 2009 by Justin — 1 comment

Last week, Amy Mengel brilliantly summarized 5 Reasons Corporations Fail at Social Media.  Those lessons (which she gleaned at the 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit) are entirely valid concerns for any company that’s navigating its way through the mostly uncharted waters of social media.  But, in our experience, there are five other equally dangerous pitfalls that can dash your company’s messaging and branding hopes before its ship even leaves the shore:

  • You don’t really care what your customers think. Sure, you monitor what they’re saying about your brand, but not only do you not take action on their suggestions, you never had any intention of actually listening.  Your interest in “understanding your customers’ concerns” was just a shell game; your actual goal was merely to verify that people were already talking about you.  (And if they are, then your existing products and services must be working perfectly, right?)
  • You confuse social media with a static advertisement. Instead of embracing the tools for what they are — real-time connections to the endlessly-changing sentiments of the consumer landscape — you establish profiles full of content borrowed from other media and then you stubbornly refuse to update, adapt or interact with your audience. By failing to engage with your customers in the manner they’ve come to expect, you prove that you cannot be bothered with their own interests because you’ve pre-determined your own.
  • Your company is exclusively reactive. Rather than working to intuit your customers’ needs, you rely solely on consumer praise and complaints to inform your next plan of action. This ensures that you’ll never be able to use social media as anything more than a validation (or repudiation) of other people’s hunches, or as baseline damage control — so don’t be surprised when your company’s decision-makers come to view social media as a bellwether of mostly bad news.
  • You refuse to be interesting. The concept of innovation is deemed (at best) too risky or (at worst) an unnecessary allocation of funds better spent on actions proven to produce results.  As such, the “information” you make available via social media channels is the same retreaded copy that consumers can already find on billboards, magazine ads and product labels.  In an age where audiences are increasingly interested in how products are made, who’s making them and why, your company has opted to remain as impersonal and inscrutable as possible — and your results have predictably flatlined.
  • Your voice lacks passion. Maybe you have one employee dedicated to “evangelizing your brand.”  Maybe you have an entire agency.  Or maybe you have an in-house team, ready to pounce on audience feedback at a moment’s notice… except there’s never any pouncing taking place, because there’s never any passion in the message.  The individuals you’ve made responsible for ensuring that others care about your brand haven’t been sufficiently energized by your brand in the first place. Instead of projecting a personality that shows your customers how much you do care about their experience, your telegraphed disinterest provides them with an escape clause and a mandate to find another company whose values and attitude more closely resemble their own.

Social media “isn’t rocket surgery,” as Mengel’s article wryly notes.  The tools that comprise this medium are deceptively simple, and can be mastered by anyone who takes the time and effort to understand how (and why) they work.  But even a rowboat can be scuttled if everyone aboard isn’t working together.

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »

Blog Widget by LinkWithin