Posts filed under 'Consumer Marketing'
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?
Posted June 7th, 2007 by Kevin
Jackie Huba, author of Citizen Marketers and The Church of the Customer Blog recently posted on the recent education CompUSA received regarding the power of social media. It took a mere four days for one customer’s complaint to gain national attention on Foxnews.com. Four days!
Considering that several other situations like this have occurred with well known brands, it’s hard to fathom that a CEO would respond to a customer with essentially a “tough noogies,” but that is exactly what occurred here. Huba’s post is a hard lesson for many business leaders who feel that social media and customer evangelism issues can be tackled on an as needed basis. All too often, organizations find themselves behind the 8 ball when the fire storm of customer service issues spreads. Instead of being able to have a conversation, they are forced to run damage control.
Could this issue have been avoided? Absolutely! Organizations need to realize that any type of communication they have with customers today, whether it is on the phone, in person or in writing will find its way beyond that one customer and into the hands of multiple customers. Although the conversation appears one-to-one, business leaders need to begin seeing those conversations more like this 1-to-1-to-3,000.
The CompUSA issue is the perfect example of why it is important to enlist the assistance of people who understand the social media space and the industry. Although everyone may love your brand now, one person mistreated can cause a world of trouble in just four days. Take the initiative and start the conversation with your customers before they feel compelled to tarnish your reputation and forever leave a negative footprint online.
Posted May 4th, 2007 by Kevin
The blogosphere is buzzing right now about the Nikon D80 Bloggers Outreach Campaign conducted by MWW Group. So far, everyone is very excited about receiving their D80 at no cost for 6 months…and why wouldn’t they be. If you’re interested in a sample of the coverage Nikon has received as a result of this campaign, look here, here and here.
Once you have had a chance to review each of the three posts, ask yourself if you are now compelled to go out and buy a Nikon D80? Did the coverage Nikon received focus on the benefits of the camera and why it is superior to other digital camera’s on the market? Although Jaffe, Lewis and Mack are popular bloggers, does their recommendation convince you to purchase the camera?
If the goal was to receive mentions of the Nikon D80 within the blogosphere, then this campaign is extremely successful. I, for one, sure know about the Nikon D80 now (it’s hard not to)! However, I’ve yet to see coverage that’s compelling enough for me to buy the camera. Would this campaign have been more successful if the outreach program was targeted at photography bloggers?
An excerpt from the comments on Mack Colliers, The Viral Garden: “One reason why I don’t want to blog about the D80 itself is because I’ve never blogged about cameras before, so if I did so for the D80, that would mean the content I was creating here would have changed, based on my getting to use a D80.”
So, is the coverage this outreach is receiving positive for the camera and Nikon or for the approach that MWW has taken to generate buzz?
Posted March 22nd, 2007 by Scott
Back in November I wrote a post “Playing a ’sport’ from the comfort of your computer chair,” which talked about the ever so popular trend of fantasy sports. Well now its mid-March and once again people across the nation are competing against one another, watching as the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament continues down the road to the final four. March Madness is one of the nation’s most prestigious sporting events and attracts millions to watch and even participate.
Companies are finally starting to realize the value behind utilizing social media tools to engage their consumers. Over the past few years, CBS Sportsline has streamed the games online free of charge and have attracted millions of viewers. Commercials are aired during the online broadcasting giving companies even more opportunities to advertise and reach their target markets. Companies are expected to shell out close to a half-billion dollars this year for marketing during the tournament as seen in this Brandweek article.
I signed up for the Coke Zero NCAA Sweet 16 Challenge and even though I don’t feel like going out and buying a Coke, it’s something fun that will bring the Coca-Cola brand to my mind when I think about March Madness. Let’s Go Ohio State!!
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