Social Media Summer School Day 5 - Engage //Dan B
Al’s Amazing Azalea’s and Bob’s Blooming Bouquet’s

Let’s face it. Nobody knows exactly how social media is going to shape marketing, advertising, and consumerism. But that’s not stopping us from following, friending, posting, blogging, re-blogging, liking, thumbs-upping, or tweeting anything and everything. This is far from a bad thing, however, if the services aren’t correctly utilized, all of your efforts will be in vain, leading to an inevitable dead-end. The primary cause for media going awry, in my opinion is the lack of engaging the consumers. Hopefully this post will shed some light on how to avoid this, and take a look at some brands and companies doing it well.

To take you through successes and pitfalls of social media, I’m going to tell you about two fictional rival flower shops. Al’s Amazing Azalea’s, and Bob’s Blooming Bouquet’s, both just opened last month in the same town. Now, for the sake of argument, let’s say these flower shops are identical to each other, same size store, same target market, prices, impeccable logo’s and stationary design, even the flower arrangements are the same. Now, let’s see what happens when they decide to take to the Internet, and dive into social media.

Al’s Amazing Azalea’s
Al is an average ‘Average Joe’… Or, in this case ‘Average Al’. Middle-aged, knows his way around the internet, but is still put off and intimidated by new sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He has a Facebook, but that’s mainly to keep up with family. Al is new in the business world, this being his first shop opened. While reading about successful business models, he stumbled upon the social media buzz, and decided that was it. He knew that no good Bob was competing for business, and this would give him a leg up. He immediately created @AlsAzaleas on Twitter, created a fan page on Facebook, and made an account on YouTube, just in case. Like what many successful business’ have done in the past, Al started to advertise his shop through these outlets. He quickly tweeted and FB status updated about specials he was running, and coupons for shoppers, such as JC Penny and Ruby Tuesday. He filmed his own commercial (It is a recession, after all), hosted it on YouTube, and promoted it through Twitter and Facebook. Al even created a LinkedIn and accepted every friend he could, and friended tons of people to network. He had special offers, only for Facebook fans, and he made sure to update and check everything at least once a day. Occasionally he skimmed the comments and @replies, and if there was ever a problem, Al tried to smooth it over with discounts or free products.  Al kept to his formulaic plan, and his business grew. He gained a profit, leveled out into stable territory, and long story short, social media worked.

Bob’s Blooming Bouquet’s
Now Bob is about the same as Al, ‘Average Joe’, middle aged, and is able to make his way around the Internet just fine. Again with Bob, newer sites such as Twitter intimidated him. Much like Al, this was Bob’s first shop he’s opened, and Bob took to the Internet to research successful business models. What he found was similar to Al, and Bob too quickly made a Twitter, a FB fan page, and a YouTube account for Blooming Bouquet’s. Bob also tweeted about specials, and had special sales just for FB fans of his business. This is where our story parts from Al’s. While checking ‘B’sBB’s’ Facebook wall, there was a customer suggestion about floral arrangements being paired with items such as small plush bears, chocolates, etc. Bob took the advice to heart, and it was a huge success. Taking away from this, Bob started to openly ask on Twitter ‘How are we doing?’ He added his ‘B’sBB’s’ Twitter account and Facebook fan page title to the bottom of his business cards. He was getting the most of his social media dollar. Bob then read about some new techniques on social media, mostly about Best Buy’s Twelpforce. He took this idea of using social media to a while new level. He had customers tweet in questions about flower arrangements, i.e. ‘What is the best bouquet to have at a wedding?’ ‘What flowers say ‘I’m breaking up with you?’ the easiest?’ Along with that, he utilized crowd sourcing, via Twitter and Facebook, to create a viral YouTube spot that hit 400,000 within the first day of going up. Bob continued on this path, and is now the go-to flower shop in town.

Moral of the Story
Anyone can invest in social media, and see results, but it’s the companies and brands that go after the customer and engage them that really stand out. In this example, Bob saw something that could be taken to the next level and did just that. In this situation, neither men had social media experts (Not that one wouldn’t help immensely). The truth is, anyone can use social media. But to use it effectively, like our man Bob, is really something special. I think I’ve made my point, but I’ll leave you with a few stand-out examples of exactly how brands are reaching out to their customers and having huge success’.

 As I mentioned above, Best Buy’s @Twelpforce is a great innovation in social media and actually listening to and engaging consumers, boasting just under 30,000 followers. It recently took home a gong from Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (And congratulations, well deserved.). Another more recent campaign launched and fueled by social media is Wheat Thin’s ‘The Crunch is Calling’. A select few tweeters mentioning the crispy snack have gotten a random surprise visit from Wheat Thins resolving whatever situation may be at hand, or just providing you with a much needed crate stacked with your favorite snack. This is how you get people’s attention. With almost 500,000 views on the first video alone, it looks like someone is taking notice. Now, unless you were under a social media rock last week, you know that the Old Spice Man, played by Isaiah Mustafa, is exploding on YouTube and Twitter. What Old Spice has done is answer the most ridiculous questions for the Old Spice Man from YouTube comments, Facebook fan page comments, and @oldspice replies. In real-time. I don’t think I’ve ever been this impressed with the sheer guts and creativity from a brand like this before. According to this article, there is a highly systematic way of going about creating an Old Spice’Manswer’, fused with the creativity and originality from the writers of the original Old Spice Man ads, also starring Isaiah Mustafa. This not only engages the consumer, it gets downright personal. Flirting with Alyssa Milano, commenting on Cliffy B’s video game ‘Gears of War’, and proposing to a tweeter’s future wife are all just examples of how personal Old Spice is making each and every 10-30 second response.

Hopefully I’ve given a strong insight on how we, as an industry, can effectively use social media to engage and stimulate our consumers. A quote I’ve found useful when looking at the looming monster that can be social media, “Technology does not run an enterprise, relationships do” - Patricia Fripp.

Dan B., is a student, currently attending a Bachelor’s program in Graphic Arts. He is from from K.C., Missouri, but now lives in Omaha, NE. Follow him on Tumblr or Twitter.

Social Media Summer School Day 1 - Listen //Susan Payton
Why Complaining Customers Can Be Good For Business

Companies love positive feedback. They share it on Twitter (Twitter), post it on their website and use it as marketing fodder. But what about when feedback is, well, less than pleasant? What can you do with a handful (or more) of irate customers? Do you ignore them? Bury them out back? Not in today’s social atmosphere. 

Rather than try to sweep these unhappy customers under the rug, look at them as a challenge and an opportunity to improve your brand and leverage them for some publicity.

Why You Want Angry Customers
Well, maybe you don’t want angry customers, but let’s be honest — you’ll never have 100 percent customer satisfaction. No one does. So use those unhappy customers to better understand what you’re doing wrong, and learn from the experience. And while you’re at it, turn the angry customers into brand evangelists.

There are several ways to connect with unhappy customers in a meaningful way:

• Hold a panel or forum in person; give them a tour of your facility and hold a venting session
• Work virtually; host an online panel to get feedback from them
• Work one-on-one to understand their concerns and address them individually

The key thing of course is to make sure you are listening to your customers and by being part of the social media conversation you can make sure you’re not missing out on your chance to hear them, and perhaps turn them around.

You can read Susan’s further suggestions on her original Mashable.com post.

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog. Follow her on Twitter.