Interview with eHarmony CEO Greg Waldorf
Posted May 20th, 2008 by Brian Cavoli
In today’s Market Edge show on WebmasterRadio, Larry Weber discusses eHarmony’s experience building a successful online community with their CEO Greg Waldorf.
|
|||||
 |
|
 |
|||
Posts filed under 'Consumer Marketing'
Are You Qualified to Blog About US?
Posted February 29th, 2008 by Kevin
“Submit the URL of your blog and we’ll let you know whether or not you qualify to blog about our products and receive a free sample!”
Huh? Is this some sort of joke?
“We won’t send just anyone a sample of our product. If you have a significant audience that will help generate awareness of our brand while limiting the loss we would experience by allowing just ANY blogger to participate, then submit your URL and we’ll let you know whether you’re worthy.”
Ok…so these aren’t actual quotes, but they might as well be. Notice that I have not included the company name. This was intentional, but clearly not designed to protect the innocent. It’s missing because I am very curious to hear what everyone’s first reaction is.
Let’s take a look at some previous outreach campaigns and the associated risk:
Nikon D80 – Risk Level: High
As most know, Nikon offered the new D80 to popular bloggers for 3 months at no cost with an option to buy at a discounted rate at the end of the trial period. Nikon took a big risk as these camera’s (worth approximately $800) could have been damaged, stolen or “lost” during the initiative. However, as everyone knows, the campaign was a huge success and most likely worth the risk if you ask anyone at Nikon.
(UNM2PNM) Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe – Risk Level: Low
Sending out copies of your book to interested readers is a smart idea and something authors have been doing for decades. Asking them to review it once they are done is very “conversational.” Asking them to then post that review on Amazon.com is covering your bases! As the copy of the book costs $30 retail and Joseph offered it to 130 interested people who may have bought the book anyway, he essentially lost about $4,000 (after postage).
- Side note: I still owe Jaffe a review…which means I have yet to hold up my end of the bargain…which means I need to start reading…which means I’ll do it and I apologize.
These are two great examples of activating a community. Now, how would you do the same thing if your product was food? Does it matter?
Even if your product can’t be returned, it can be shared and should be shared. For examples on how to do this activity right, read Hugh Macleod’s post on Stormhoek. They sent out 100+/- cases, doubled sales in less than 12 months and received significant reviews in the blogosphere.
Now, take a look at this recent campaign by Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company called Java Beta Test. It’s getting some pretty good buzz from Mashable and CNET, but when I signed up; I wasn’t thrilled with the response I received:
Hi Kevin,
You have successfully submitted (email address) for inclusion in the Joffrey’s Java beta test invite list.
If your blog is chosen to participate, we will send you an invitation!
Thank you,
Joffrey’s Coffee and Tea Company
What exactly do they mean by “chosen?” What are the criteria for being chosen? If you’re wondering what my first reaction was, refer to paragraphs one and two.
No Response
Posted January 10th, 2008 by Char Lyn
Mack over at the Viral Garden had a post yesterday that gave a great tip for using Google to monitor your brand in the blogosphere. He also underlined the importance of corporations leveraging the free market research available through blogs. However, I disagreed with the underlying message of his post, which implied that corporations don’t monitor the blogs and should always respond to blog posts about them.
Good marketers know when no response is the best course of action. Here are some examples:
- A truthful, transparent response will incite more negative posts.
- Responding may expose the company to legal action or increased regulatory oversight.
- Entering the conversation opens a floodgate that requires continued involvement beyond the resources of the company.
Still don’t believe me? Then you probably also think the customer is ALWAYS right. Now I do believe that you should do everything within your power to make a customer happy, but there are some customers whose happiness would drive you out of business. When those customers blog, no response is the best route.
Do you have other scenarios when a corporation shouldn’t respond? I’d love to hear them. Also feel free to comment about your vehement opposition to the content of my post. Just be aware that I may not respond.
@Jennifer Laycock Please don’t misconstrue my post in any way. I loved your post and subsequent comments. In your specific case, Panera’s best response may be to allow each franchise location to determine the log in time interval, in which case you could get the local manager to give you unlimited access.
Yelling at the Players
Posted September 20th, 2007 by Char Lyn
I just read a great article in a paper I’ve never read before thanks to the Freakonomics blog. It was an inspirational story about a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has pancreatic cancer and is unlikely to live more than a year. In the article, he quoted something the assistant football coach told him in high school when the head coach kept yelling at him for his mistakes:
“When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
While the article touched me, that one quote stuck. I started to think about the work we do at DIG and the number of companies afraid to engage with their customers through social media. Businesses are so often afraid of their customers “yelling at them,” but they forget that people only yell because they are engaged—they haven’t given up hope that the company will give them what they want. If they want something within your power to give, then you can gain loyal followers by giving it to them. If customers want something they aren’t getting from you, their lack of yelling means they are getting it somewhere else.
Freakonomics’ recent move to the New York Times blog is a perfect example of this idea. When they moved to the NYT, they lost the full-post RSS feed. The readers, 90% of whom were reading through RSS readers, revolted in the comments of every post for at least the first week. The authors were open in their communications about the reduced feed through three posts on the topic here, here, and here. They were not able to make everyone happy and lost some readers (customers), but the NYT readership should compensate for the loss.
So, where is your company at? Are you on the field getting yelled at, and getting the cheers when you make the touchdown? Or are you still sitting on the sidelines of the real game and only playing in the safety of the friendly flag football game at the company outing?