Archive of tag "Facebook"

Word of Mouth Tip #48: Be a hero: Make someone's day

February 17, 2010

When you make someone’s day — when your customer support team goes the extra mile, when you bend a few rules on their behalf, or when you take advantage of a chance to do something genuinely nice – you stand to earn a grateful, lifelong loyal fan.

How a word of mouth supergenius does it:

Skittles recently asked their fans to help them make someone’s Valentine’s Day. From their Facebook page:

Skittles Fans. Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and the Mob needs you. That’s right you – staring at the screen. We’re surprising a parking enforcement officer with (you guessed it) love. Her tickets are universally hated. But that doesn’t mean she has to be. Help us shower this civil servant with thousands of cards this February 14th. Together, we will mob her where she least expects it – the heart. This plan is random enough that it just might work.

More than 22,000 fans joined Skittles by submitting their own love notes to a meter attendant none of them had ever met. Skittles didn’t just quietly make one person’s day, they found a way to get the world involved, too.

Learn more: Facebook

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Word of Mouth Tip #38: Support existing fan communities

February 12, 2010

If you’re lucky enough to have fans building their own active, vibrant communities, sometimes your job as a word of mouth marketer is simply to not screw it up.

Support these existing communities by reaching out to group leaders, offering support, and exploring ways to help them continue what is already working so well.

How a word of mouth supergenius does it:

When Facebook approached Coca-Cola about a user-created fan page with more than 3 million members, they offered ownership of the group to Coke.

But instead of taking over the reins (and ruining the consumer–driven momentum), Coke flew co-creators Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski to their headquarters in Atlanta to thank them for their work, give them a tour of the facilities, and ask how Coke could help them continue to run the group in a more official capacity.

Today, with help from Coca-Cola, Dusty and Michael continue to administrate the community that now connects 5 million fans on Facebook.

Check out this video telling the story of Dusty and Michael’s original meeting with Coke:

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3-Minute WOM Lesson: How to stay in touch with fans

January 5, 2010

Having permission to consistently communicate with fans is key to long-term word of mouth. Three opportunities to do it:

1> Email
2> Communities
3> Events

1> Email

Nothing beats a list of email subscribers that have given you permission to regularly contact them. The best word of mouth marketers build their email lists by consistently offering their fans the chance to sign up: after purchases, in online sidebars and footers, after downloading content, and after recommending something to a friend. Once you’ve built the list, help it spread and grow organically by offering ideas, insider news, or member-only specials that subscribers love to share.

2> Communities

Online groups help you keep your fans organized and easily reachable. There are lots of simple (and often free) platforms available, including Ning, Facebook, and even email-only communities. By giving your fans a place to gather, you’ll not only make it easy for them to create conversations and share ideas, but you’ll also make it easier to quickly contact them with news or updates.

3> Events

Live meetings are often among the most resource-demanding ways to stay in touch with fans, but they also offer the most benefit. These meetings are where fans make real-world friendships with other fans, where they share their ideas and suggestions for your company, and where you get to meet them personally. Only the most enthusiastic followers will show up, but that makes it all the more powerful of an experience.

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Allan Schoenberg: How to be Awesome on Twitter and Facebook -- live from Word of Mouth Supergenius

December 16, 2009

11:15 — Jim Lovelady introduces CME Group’s Allan Schoenberg.

11:16 — Allan: We’ve been around for many years, so we’re an example of how old dogs can learn new tricks.

11:17 — Allan shares a brief overview of how the CME Group relates to the Chicago Board of Trade and the NYMEX. When you talk about all the things people trade, it’s all traded at CME Group, explains Allan.

11:17 — Allan shares how his benchmark for when they started social media was “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

11:18 — Allan says that their core strategy is to build brand enthusiasm. It’s not about immediately driving transactions, says Allan, it’s about evangelism and loyalty.

11:19 — CME Group’s key objectives: Brand enthusiasm, customer service, issues management, and building advocacy.

11:20 — Allan shares the example of how through Twitter, he’s been able to connect with some of CME Group’s biggest fans. Allan says Twitter is really about relationships.

11:21 — Allan describes how they worked with @StockTwits because it was a “no brainer” — they were talking directly to CME Group’s customers. This was about “going where your people are,” explains Allan.

11:22 — Allan: Another thing that’s really worked well for us is creating content — unique content that does not exist out there. I’ve tried to create sentiment surveys — and failed miserably. Nobody that’s trading wants to take a survey. So, what I’ve done is just interview people.

11:24 — Allan uses Twitter to conduct interviews and organizes the tweets with a special hashtag — and lots of people jump in.

11:26 — Allan talks talks about the importance of having real conversations with people on Twitter, not just retweeting existing content or pushing an RSS stream.

11:28 — Allan talks about how they use Hootsuite to organize and manage a bunch of content important to CME Group.

11:28 — Allan: For me, it’s all about the audience.

11:29 — Allan describes their core goals, including sharing information and ideas, maintaining reputation, demonstrate thought leadership, inform the market about their products and services, promoting special events, and monitoring the conversations.

11:30 — Allan talks about tracking, and says that while he doesn’t have a magic bullet for tracking, all activities relate to a metric that they report back.

11:32 — Allan says that while he doesn’t put too much stock in click-throughs, it does help to show him what content people like and he tries to share more content like that.

11:34 — Allan encourages everyone to just try new things, saying you never really know what’s going to work.

11:34 — Allan: Find your audience. They’re out there, you just have to go find them.

Q&A

Q: Do you repeat your tweets? How many times is it OK to mention it?

A: I don’t do it very often. Every once in a while I do it. If I tweet something out and a lot of people retweet it or talk about it, I’ll set it up to retweet it later at 1 AM or 2 AM so it can reach our audiences overseas. The other thing is, I’ve had people send me a DM and thank me for a great blog post, and I’ll just say thanks and ask if they mind retweeting it for me.

Q: How do you balance your day with monitoring and listening in this space and managing everything else you have to do?

A: In all honesty, I have a great team. They help with everything, including traditional media. Allan also mentions they’re having a lot of success through LinkedIn — which is another platform that uses internal resources. Allan says there are lots of tools that help, but there are no easier answers.

Q: Are you using Twitter and Facebook instead of traditional media relations at all?

A: I’d say we’re balancing both. We’re still use traditional media a lot, and we’re working to see how we can integrate this strategy with new tools.

Q: Where does email fit in to your strategy?

A: We have a number of email newsletters that the products group put out, and we have an influencers list to send content whenever there is an important issue. Again, it fits into the overall marketing integration — but, personally, my team really is not using email.

Q: Have you done an ROI analysis?

A: For us it’s not about making money. I’m not Dell, I’m not going to go out and sell $6 million worth of things. I did start a store and promote it on Twitter — and we sold two T-shirts. So, I guess I made $20 for Twitter, which is more than most of the tools I use cost me.

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