I sit down with Libby Issendorf, Digital Strategist for the Flint Group, to discuss her past experience at Campbell Mithun and what brought her to Fargo. We’ll also talk about her social media work with the US Speedskating team, her upcoming trip to the Winter Olympics, and where businesses should start their social media efforts.
Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Strategy’
Who is more helpful, the company or the customer?
About a week ago I booked a long overdue family vacation. We looked at several options from resorts to villas to cruises, and settled on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. Needless to say, my 4 and 6 year olds were bouncing off the walls.
Last night I was thinking about the process we went through in booking our trip. Many queries started either on Google Maps, Cruise Reviews or Trip Advisor. From there, it was usually a brief stop on the website for the property, then right back to consumer reviews and photos on a third-party site. This happened over and over.
When we settled on the cruise, we wanted to look at the excursions the ship had to offer. We found ourselves off the NCL website and on to caribbeanportreviews.com to get what we really wanted, which was firsthand opinions of the excursions. My kids wanted to see every square inch of the ship, so we looked at pictures posted by past vacationers, again off the corporate site. NCL did provide some nice 360 view tools, but there were large parts of the ship missing.
I have seven different websites bookmarked, and when I put them all together, they answered most of the questions we had. It shouldn’t take that many sites to get the content I’m looking for. That just leads to a very poor customer experience. I know it is a big undertaking, but why wouldn’t NCL want to provide a one-stop platform for this information? Six of the seven sites (the seventh being ncl.com) I used to make my decision had information on all the major cruise lines. Do they really want potential customers reading about everything everyone else has to offer?
Are you providing what your customers want? Have you asked them what they want? Remember, if they are not getting the information they need from you, they are getting it from someplace else. Do you know where that is?
People are looking for authentic content when making buying decisions. You need to provide the opportunity for your customers to provide it. If you don’t have the capacity to maintain a sharing platform, you need to at least provide links out to sites that have this information, like Amazon reviews, Yelp, or Trip Advisor. Make it easy for your audience.
Question: Are reviews, tips and photos less credible when they are on a corporate website, even if they are not being sanitized? Do you trust them? Would you go to a third party site anyway? Tell me what you think.
Departmental Convergence – How Digital is Changing Your Business
Traditional evolution of business has lead to segmentation by department for many companies. Marketing, sales, customer service, human resources, finance and fulfillment are some of the most common. But digital communications is creating a virtualization and convergence that is dramatically changing the way businesses operate.
How customers engage with companies has changed with the explosion of digital and social networking tools. Customers have wrested power to engage with companies on their own terms and in a fully visible environment. One-to-one conversations have now become open forum, placing greater pressure on companies to be well organized and prompt in response.
Customers can choose to engage on your company website using Google Sidewiki or your own message boards. They can also engage via social media outposts should you have a presence there. And if you don’t have social media outposts, they can still engage your brand in discussion whether you are present or not!
A service question, warranty question, sales question, human resources question, finance question or shipping question or concern can all be directed to the same place in the digital environment. Customers look at your company as one entity, not as a network of departments, and they expect your company to respond as one entity. The lines blur, the departments converge and at the end of the cycle only one thing matters – have you answered the customer’s question?
Your company’s success is based on the brand promise that you communicate to your customers. How well you manage customer expectations through their engagement with your brand, your company, ultimately determines your long-term viability and growth.
Step back and have a look at your organizational structure. Now look at all your customer touch points. Are you prepared to respond to your customers in an efficient, timely manner regardless of question? Do you have a strategy for managing customer interaction in a digital open-forum environment? Are your departments prepared and trained to work cross-functionally?
If not, it is time for digital strategy and social media strategy to integrate with your company’s management and planning process. Your customers are already converging. Are you prepared?
Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.
Image courtesy CubeFigures.com
Transparency. Word of the year.
photo by AMagill on Flickr
Oxford University Press recently named Facebook’s “unfriend” as word of the year. Time named “sexting” number one in its top 10 buzzwords for 2009. I keep my own list of corporate communication words – many that are buzzwords or related to trends. Topping my list for the second year in a row is transparency.
Organizations and businesses of all kinds keep talking about the need to be transparent and achieve open, honest communication. Google the phrase “transparency in healthcare,” and you’ll get deeply entangled in both sides of the year-long health care reform debate.
But true transparency is a hard concept for some organizations. It’s even harder for some management teams to embrace. True transparency goes beyond what the public relations team prepares, or how a spokesperson responds.
Social media has taken corporate (and personal) transparency to a heightened level. No longer is the “authorized spokesperson” representing a company, a product or an issue. Customers and employees are weighing in, telling us all what it’s really like to own a product, experience good or bad service, or work for an organization.
With all of this, the role of the communications professional has widened. Listening – always a critical part of communications – is now the first step. Developing guidelines for social media usage is one way a company can adapt to the issues that come with being a transparent organization.
I predict transparency will still be at the top of my list next year. Are you ready for the opportunities that transparency will deliver? How are you adapting to the challenges?
The Power of “Listening.” A Case of Timely Response.
The appropriate starting point in any social media strategy is to establish a managed listening program where a brand or company can monitor what is being said about them. Blogs, message boards, comments sections and the myriad of social networking tools all hold potential for word of mouth harm (and good).
In a recent post I discussed the importance of managing misinformation in the digital realm, and I’ve found a wonderful example of effective “listening” to share.
In the post AOL’s SEO “Strategery,” blogger Frank Reed makes the case for why he feels the new AOL strategy will not succeed. He refers to AOL’s intentions for unique content generation and gaining ground through search engine results. Reed recalls this type of approach as creating “craptent” and cites the company Associated Content as “the master of ‘craptent’ generation for search engine gain.”
This is where the value of a “listening” program comes to bear and a perfect case for effective listening. Associated Content President Luke Beatty reviewed the blog and commented the same day, likely within hours (or minutes?) of the post going live. Beatty’s comment appears within the first 3 comments and provides an effective clarification of the Associated Content model and respectful rebuttal to the ‘craptent’ tag. And as any blogger worth his salt should do, author Frank Reed acknowledges Beatty’s comment with a respectful tip of the hat (Read the blog article and related comments here).
The point is not whether the AOL blog article is right or wrong. This point here is that Associated Content was called out in a blog and they felt was it was a misrepresentation of their brand. Quickly and efficiently, Associated Content made their counter-argument for all the world to see – and it was done in a tactful and respectful manner.
Associated Content perfectly demonstrated the importance and value of an effective listening program and the efficiency of an organized and planned approach for response. A case of social media strategy, implemented and executed perfectly.
So, if faced with a similar situation, could your business respond the same way?
Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.
(Image: David Allison, Listening Post at Whitney Museum of Art, 2002)
If you build it they will come…will they?
Last week I was speaking to a group of students at a college in Duluth about the different ways businesses can use social media. As I was finishing, a student asked a very important question, a question I’m confident many of you are struggling with.
His question was this, “I intern for a local company who has a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account but we don’t have any fans or followers. How do we get more people interested and engaged in our social media efforts?”
Am I right? Do you find your company in this same predicament?
Take a step back
First off, why did you jump on Facebook or open a Twitter account? Do you have a strategy or was it because you heard all of the hype and thought you needed to be there? If it’s the latter, at the minimum you may want to think about and answer these questions…
What are your goals for your social media program? Is it to gain awareness? Increase sales? Or create loyalty? Do you know who your target audience is, what social media services they use and how they use them? Do you have a plan to engage, empower and connect your followers/friends? Or are you going to use it as a message board to talk about yourself or your company? If that’s the case, use your website.
Okay, I get it…but that still doesn’t get people to “follow”, “fan” or “friend” me.
When you open a new location or add a new service, do you just sit back and hope that customers will figure it out? No, you tell people right. The same is true about your social media efforts…if you don’t let people know where you are and what you’re doing, nobody will know or care.
How do you do this? Use your website, online media, signage in stores, and/or TV and radio commercials, basically any and all different forms of media will work. The important thing is to give them a reason to join – what added value are they going to get from joining your social media program?
What companies do you connect with in social media? How did you learn about/find them? How active are you? What benefits do you receive for being a part of their social media community?
Photo courtesy of Justin Brockie.
St. Cloud area marketers KNOW more.
Keeping up with the rapid changes of online media is overwhelming, and the untapped potential for marketers is down-right mind boggling. That was the subject du jour at the St. Cloud KNOW series seminar hosted by HatlingFlint & Flint Interactive. Over 60 marketers hailing from a variety of industries across Central Minnesota attended the event which was held at the Territory Golf Club Thursday November 5th.
At the conclusion of the three-hour seminar, attendees were all a buzz about the many ways they may be able to expand their marketing initiatives into the ever-expanding digital world. Among the many questions asked of the three presenters, one of the most frequently asked was “can we get a copy of the presentation slides?”
The answer, of course, is absolutely! And here they are for your viewing enjoyment.
We also felt you had to see this video, again and again. Now, don’t blink.
Who was on the agenda? We had three great panelists.
Eric Piela, Automated Marketing Strategist for the Flint Group, is an expert in automated marketing, a remarkable, automated method for capturing and nurturing sales leads.
Tony Franklin, the Director of National Sales for Undertone Networks – and industry-leading online network that helps agencies target consumers with interactive, rich-media advertising.
Josh Lysne, Digital Media Strategist for the Flint Group, guided us through what is happening in new media marketing.
Over the course of the next few months, our blog will address some of the questions asked by participants at the session. So be sure to check back often, and a hearty thank you to all who attended.
Social Media Without the Trial and T-error
The American Marketing Association – Alaska recently hosted a presentation by the Anchorage Concert Association (ACA) on its experience in using social media. ACA’s experience proves that social media provides some great opportunities, but comes with some pitfalls to watch out for as well. Here’s how your business can take advantage of social media opportunities, without the dangers of trial and error.
Strategy BEFORE tactics - A common pitfall: A business will say, “We need a Facebook page,” or “We need to do something with Twitter.” Truth is, worry about tactics LAST not first. The tools will change over time. Two years ago there was no such thing as Twitter, three years ago, no Facebook, four years ago MySpace was a HIT, but not so much anymore. Develop a strategy FIRST. The tactics that follow will then become obvious. Read Jay Baer’s article “The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy” for more.
Establish objectives - What do you intend to accomplish with a social media strategy? Just saying you want 500 new followers or fans isn’t enough. Go deeper and establish some clear objectives. With social media you can address many areas, but define them now so you can stay on target.
- Improve the company image as being _________ (professional, caring, responsive, more…)
- Increase trial/use of our products or services
- Increase customer access to information on our company / products / services
- Increase membership / participation
- Improve customer / member communication
Budget for it - There is a common misconception that social media is FREE. Well, it isn’t. Yes, access to many tactical tools are free, but effectively employing a social media strategy that yields results requires an investment. Josh Lysne’s article, “It’s a lot of things… free is not one of them,” talks about the significant investment of TIME required to appropriately deploy a social media strategy. “You need to regularly engage your audience. You need to actively monitor what is being said. You need to review, refine and rework your engagement strategies.” All of these are vitally important and all of these require TIME – so budget for it. This may mean a new full-time position (or two) simply to execute your social media strategy, so be prepared.
Follow through - In consideration of the TIME factor mentioned above, follow through can become a pitfall and challenge for many. Social media creates an environment for audiences to engage with your brand – whether you like it or not. You need to be prepared to initiate and respond. How will your business deal with a situation that suddenly goes viral like the YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars?” It can happen at any time, but if your social media strategy is thorough, you will have a listening program and a response plan in place… AND you will have someone assigned to respond appropriately and in a timely manner.
The biggest tip of the cap to the Anchorage Concert Association is their willingness to JUMP IN. They’ve established a Facebook presence and are beginning to find their way through the social media maze. Alaska-based businesses have been a little hesitant to adopt digital communications solutions, but that is starting to change. Effective social media strategy and planning can remove the fear of trial and error and replace it with a confident approach to optimizing customer engagement and relationships.
Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.
Image: www.freedigitalphotos.net
