Monthly Archives: July 2008

Social Media Marketing

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We talk, I talk, and everyone else talks a lot about social media, social networks and the impact it’s having on our online lives. Right now it has yet to hit critical mass, though you might not think that by looking at the lastest numbers.

With that being said, there are tons of those who wish to be on the inside looking out rather than vice versa. And those are the people that “work” for marketing companies, ad agencies, and Fortune 1000 companies. They have been approached by their bosses and they’ve been charged with figuring this social media thing out and how they, as a company, can leverage it for their benefit.

Problem is, trying to sort through the ones who have, the ones who claim they have, and the ones who wish they’d had. I recently encountered a company that HAS in a big way. If you have not yet determined how you are going to use social media for your company, perhaps your first step should be to undertsand the many uses. Once you see the many ways that it can be used to either brand a product, brand a company, or drive traffic, sales and eyeballs, then you can start to figure out what the big picture is of social media. But to understand the big picture, as I said earlier, you need to talk with people who HAVE done it.

I had the privledge of sitting down with Jason Breed from Neighborhood America awhile back to discuss their award winning Elavate platform, and their business model in general. A quick blurb about NA,  Neighborhood America was recently recognized for Best Social Networking Solution by The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Winning a Prestigious CODiE Award.

Here’s some quick perspective for you; More than 1,100 CODiE nominations were submitted by 600 companies in a total of 76 categories. A panel of expert judges narrowed the field to 340 nominees, from which the 2008 CODiE winners were chosen.

The point of this post is this, if you are looking for guidance, direction, and advice from someone like Jason or a company like Neighborhood America who is smack dab in the middle of social media, and social media marketing, then you need to look no further. Of course, I know they are not the only company out there that can roll out a solution for you, but as a starting point, it sure is a good start. Seriously, if you were to decide right now, today that you were going to go out and evaluate social media companies, how are you going to do it? What will it be based on? What is your criteria? I do recall awhile back that Chris Brogan created a cheat sheet on how to evaluate a company for social media marketing services, you may want to check it out. At the least, Chris writes a good blog on all things social.

From a social media marketing standpoint, you may also want to check out Scott Monty’s blog site as well. You may find it usefull depending on your grasp of social media.

All of this though makes me think that perhaps my next worthy post should be a a listing of companies poised to help you figure out what your social media marketing initiative will be. If you know of some other worthy companies, I am certainly willing to listen. Besides, isn’t that part of the conversation that we are all engaged in right now?

One more thing for J Breed…. Go bulls…

Your 4th of July Seth Godin, Jackie Huba, eating a meatball sundae marketing video

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I love Jackie Huba’s blog, Church of the customer it’s always relevant and so…customer-centric. With that being said, you might enjoy the light fare that I’m throwing your way. have a good 4th of July.

Social media and customer service; a no brainer

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I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. I’ve read iterations from other notable bloggers and marketers but my questions are these. Where does social media make the best sense in say, a B2B setting? Or. for that matter, a B2C setting? Could it be customer service?  It’s funny to think that in 2008 that a novel concept could be communicating with the customer! Reaching out to the customer. Talking with the customer, listening to the customer  before, during and after the purchase.

Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of companies out there that do a good job in maintaining a relationship with the customer but… But the problem is, the model that they are operating from is cut from the “old school” of marketing and customer service. It consists of 2-3 major direct mail campaigns per year, a decent if not underperforming customer service call center in which most customer issues are resolved amicably, and a website that takes orders and ships them on time etc. etc. You get the point. I’m sure you can think of at least a half a dozen companies like that. You see them everyday. You interact with them EVERY day. They do just enough to satisfy your expectation of customer service.

However, when a company reaches out to you or goes above and beyond your expectations, you raise an eyebrow. You’re surprised. Why? Because your expectations are so low that you expect NOTHING! and when you do get a friendly note, someone that speaks with you instead of at you, or the least bit of CSR love, you a) are surprised and b) become a customer for life and c) you tell your friends.

Lets do  a quick test. Think of 5 companies that suck. And perhaps they suck because you have heard that they do, which in an of itself is not good. Why? Because maybe they don’t, though chances are they do, but the viral reputation dictates that they must suck because so many have said so. Ok so quick, think of 5.

Most of the ones that come to mind for me are airlines. How about you? If you talk to Joseph Jaffe, he’ll go off on Delta But I would guess that most of you, if you fly with an frequency, will volunteer an airline. Ironically, I’m thinking that because our expectations are so lowered when we fly now, that when we do have a good experience, we think of that as a WIN.

But here’s what happened. If you’re fed bread and water for so long, you expect it. When they add an apple, you consider it a treat. But the reality is that you SHOULD be getting a balanced meal, but your expectations have been lowered so much, an APPLE is considered a score by the customer. How pathetic is that?  What’s worse is that customer service representatives throw us bones and we snap them up and thank them up and down and then we tell everyone about the great customer service we just received. Again, I say to you, how pathetic is that? I mean look at Seth Godin, he’s amazed at this small act of customer service.

Becky Carroll, who has a blog called Customers Rock wrote a post called Social Media Empowering Customer Service: Guest Blogger Brian Solis in which Brian Solis and Becky blog about social media empowering customerservice. That’s my point, it makes perfect sense for social media to be an extension of what customer service does FOR the customer. As new media marketers and observers, it’s up to us to explain to large companies and even small ones, that, here is a way to find out more about your customers instead of the usual demographic info.

Social media does empower customer service, if it’s used for that. But how many get that? How many examples can you, me and everyone else out there, think of? I think what’s more of a viable statment is: “Social media will eventually empower customer service and social media should empower customer service”.