Have you seen these pictures making their way around the Internets?
Yeah, I know it’s childish of me to pile on but this is the kind of thing that spreads faster than strep. The days of protecting your image and brand are OVER. Not just for BP, but for all of us. You can’t protect it; you have to sit up, take your lumps like a man (pardon the sexism), own what you did if you screwed up, do everything you can to make it right. Don’t take shortcuts or b.s. your customer (I’m talking to you, Toyota and you, Sigg, and you, BP) because we’re onto you and we will tell all our friends who will tell their friends and so on and so on and so on.
And you will live in infamy forever.
I still have businesses tell me they don’t want a Facebook page or a blog because they’re afraid they’ll get negative comments. Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about? The COMMENTS? How about the actual issues your customers have? Address them. And you know what? When you address them forthrightly in a public forum, most people will forgive you and even reward you for doing the right thing.
Having said that, I think it’s too late for BP. What do you think? Any shot of damage control here or are they done?
Two of my favorite sites are joining forces: Yelp and OpenTable. Have you ever used them? Yelp is a review site; you can review any business on there but it’s heavy on the restaurant reviews. It’s always the first place I check when I’m considering a new restaurant or looking for someplace different. And OpenTable is my go-to place for reservations. I book all my client lunches through them. Yelp users have been asking for a way to book a reservation directly from the review page and now they can.
Incidentally, if you haven’t registered your business with Yelp and other review sites like Kudzu, please take a moment to do so. Make sure you check your reviews regularly and respond immediately to any negative ones. Let us know if you need help; this is part of the Online Reputation Management service that we offer our clients.
The fastest growing demo on Facebook is . . . Grandma! Actually, adults 55+, clearly not all of whom are grandparents. But staying in touch with family members is a primary motivating factor for “older” adults to join Facebook. This demo grew over 900% in 2009. Yep, 900%.
Any time a new medium bursts onto the scene, it seems that big brands and tech companies jump in and experiment, but it takes a few years before SMBs wade in. Understandably so, as SMBs typically have fewer marketing dollars and tend to spend them safely. They don’t have the time or money to experiment with untested, unproven tactics.
So I’m happy to report that social media’s been around long enough that we’re starting to see real results that SMBs can use to develop their social media marketing plans. This survey demonstrates that social media fans are more likely to buy from the brands that they support (on Facebook and Twitter, for example).
It seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Some of my favorite brands on Facebook are small ones. There’s a woman who started a company making necklaces for breastfeeding babies to fiddle with while nursing called “Mommy Necklaces.” She has nearly 3,500 fans on Facebook (including me) and does an outstanding job of interacting with them. She runs random Facebook-only promotions and giveaways – and I realize I’m only a test case of one – but I’ve bought several more necklaces than I would have as a result.
When someone “likes” you (or “fans” you, as it used to be called) on Facebook, they are essentially giving you permission to market to them. Your updates will appear in their Facebook stream (think of it as their Facebook home page). So while they’re checking out what their friends are up to, they’re also reading your posts. It’s a great way to promote discounts, contests, and ideas. If you’re a B-to-B company, use it to show off your smarts. Post articles or information that might interest your clients.
And when your followers post on your Facebook page, write them back! Thank them, respond to their comments, engage in a dialogue with them. You are forming a relationship online and more and more, these online relationships are becoming BIG drivers of word-of-mouth and new business.
Hey there — Just wanted to let you know I’m speaking next Thursday at the monthly GEWN (Georgia Executive Women’s Network) luncheon. Topic? Why, social media of course! Seems nobody wants to pay me to talk about my baby, which I really don’t understand. He’s ever so much more fascinating.
Would love to see you there! I’ve attended a few GEWN meetings before and have always met great people. I’m looking forward to this. Truthfully, I’m a little nervous!
Vesatee and I are at the Women’s Council of Realtors/Alabama Chapter (WCR) annual retreat at Callaway Gardens. They asked us here to speak on social media and other online marketing tools. Today, we discussed the importance of referrals in service-based businesses (well, any business really). Social media gives us the ability to amplify that word-of-mouth. If you used to be able to call 10 people a day, you can now easily reach hundreds of people that you already know (if you know that many people) in just one day — well, minutes really.
I meet lots of social media skeptics, people who think it’s just another waste of their time. And some of it is. But I think most of us agree that we want to hang out where our customers are hanging out, and increasingly, that’s online. They are interacting on Facebook, using Twitter to communicate, uploading videos to YouTube and blogging. It’s important to cruise this virtual town square and insert yourself in these online conversations.
The women of WCR understand this. They are building their local association chapters, in addition to building their individual businesses. They are dynamic and motivated. They understand that in times of economic distress, it’s more important than ever to step up one’s game.
Tomorrow, we are going to teach the group how to use Twitter. Twitter, for all its bare-bones functionality (it is, after all, just short messages), is still baffling for new users to figure out. The interface is not intuitive; that’s why so many people use Twitter apps like Tweetdeck, Twhirl and the like. For new people just getting started, the learning curve can be steep. What’s a “retweet?” What’s the difference between an “@reply” and a “dm”? Heck, what’s an “@reply” anyway?
Given how confusing it can be to get started, it’s remarkable how much Twitter usage has grown: it grew an astonishing 2,613% year to year (July 08 to July 09). Somebody’s figuring it out. Your customers? Your competitors? Might it be time for you to find out?
Thanks to the WCR for asking us to be part of their retreat.
My husband and I have Sigg water bottles. Have you heard of the brand? It’s what all the cool kids use to cart around their water. Better for the environment than plastic bottles and better than a lot of sports bottles because they’re BPA-free. BPA, or Bisphenol-A, is considered toxic by some countries (Canada has banned it) and is a source of controversy here in the States. Nevertheless, the environmentally conscious, and certainly Sigg’s consumers, are all about BPA-free bottles. So Sigg promoted themselves as BPA-free and they basically lied. It turns out their liners do contain small amounts of BPA. They did a little verbal sleight-of-hand by saying that their bottles didn’t “leach” BPA in tests.
They knew what they were saying. They knew it was dishonest. That they didn’t know they’d get caught is shocking and stupid.
I honestly don’t think there’s enough BPA in the bottles for it to be a problem. But I’m pissed that they lied and I, like millions others, will never buy another Sigg bottle again. This is a bummer. I liked them so much I’ve blogged about them on my personal blog. Even bought a cute custom wrap for my husband’s bottle.
And the CEO of Sigg does not seem to know a lick about damage control. Sure, he claims to be reading and responding to emails personally. But then he goes and says stupid things like, “if retailers keep our old bottles on the shelf, there’s nothing we can do about that.” (I’m paraphrasing slightly.) Dude! You should be out front, apologizing, replacing bottles like crazy, getting independent testing to verify that your bottles and liners are now 100% BPA-free, etc. Actually, you should resign and let someone else clean up your mess. Because you lied. You double downed on your lie when questioned about it, and you’ve broken the consumer’s trust. That’s hard to win back. And since nobody will trust a word you say, you should step aside and let someone else try to mend the fences.
I would not want to be this guy’s PR firm.
I once worked for a guy who asked me to lie to the media. I looked at him like he had two heads and refused. He told me that I was his Vice President, that I was playing in the big leagues, and that I needed to do what was expected of me. Regrettably, I didn’t tell him to go f-himself. Fortunately, the magazine did not pick up the story and none of us had to decide whether we were going to do as we were told or risk losing our jobs.
If Sigg’s CEO had really come clean and reached out as I described above, his customers might be forgiving. As it is, he just handed his competitors several market share points. Kleen Kanteen, here I come!
Footnote: I tried to link to Sigg’s Facebook page but it’s disappeared. Is some ticked off fan messing with them? Or are they shutting down their community to avoid letting people have a place to post negative messages? Do they actually think the conversation will stop? No, it’ll just move on to someplace else where they won’t get to insert their voice . . . like Twitter or blogs. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) is hosting their annual mini-conference Tuesday, July 28th at Maggiano’s in Buckhead. I’m speaking on using Twitter in business. Registration deadline is Friday, July 24th. Would love to see you there and get your insights on how you’re using social media.
On this subject, I know so much, and yet, so little. I know what most of you know from watching the news, following the tweets, reading the blogs. I know a little more because I’m half-Iranian and lived there as a kid for three years before the Revolution. I’m not sure that experience gives me any meaningful insight, but I feel as if I know the people, understand their passions, and share their longing for freedom.
I could weigh in on the current uprising, the politicians, the process, the government, the mullahs, but there are smarter, more informed bloggers and reporters (See Andrew Sullivan, the Lede, Nico Pitney) that can better educate you on those topics. So while I am blown away by the movement, and the courage of the protestors, what I want to write about today is the marketing of the movement.
Time magazine calls Twitter the “medium of the movement.” Much has been said about how Iranians are using Twitter to communicate with one another and with those of us outside the country who are watching. They are using it as an organizing tool (tweeting out what time and where the protests are occurring) and as an information-dispenser (tweeting out in real time what is happening, the beatings, the violence, the non-violence, etc.). The government shut down texting and almost shut down the Internet (they slowed it down to low, dial-up speeds to discourage people from uploading videos), but folks were able to use Twitter. And because the regime is monitoring Twitter, folks outside of the country helped the Iranians set up proxy servers to hide their Internet trails.
I’m sure Tom Friedman would call the revolution “flat.” In the past, when people protested (think Tiananmen Square), all most of us could do was helplessly watch it on TV. Today, Americans are engaged with the protestors, setting up the proxy servers, retweeting their news and information, helping to spread the news and photos to the world, all in defiance of the Iranian government. While we aren’t physically there, we are able to show our support, albeit limitedly. Hence, the “flat” world.
” . . . as a medium gets faster, it gets more emotional. We feel faster than we think. But Twitter is also just a much more personal medium. Reading personal messages from individuals on the ground prompts a whole other sense of involvement.” – NYU Professor Clay Shirky
It really is remarkable how the Internet has changed things. Before, if a government clamped down on its citizens, we might hear rumors and whispers. Today, we have thousands of cell phone pictures and videos distributed online almost immediately. We have real time, unedited “man on the street” reports in the form of tweets and blog entries. We have Facebook updates from the incumbent candidate and his opponents, like Mousavi. The Ayatollah reportedly even has a Facebook page.
What we don’t have enough of are reporters in the region, giving it all context. Most of what we’re receiving is raw and unedited, so “buyer beware.”
The protestors are controlling the conversation right now. From a marketing standpoint, whoever controls the conversation “wins.” If I jump out of the box and claim that I’m supporting freedom, I’m automatically implying that you aren’t. If I get a whole bunch of people to agree with me – and find a way to get that word out – then guess what? I’m the freedom lover and you hate freedom. This is what we call positioning. And in the battle for the minds, the protestors are winning right now in spite of the government’s vast tools (they control the mass media and are reporting little on the protestors, they control the army, etc.). Social media has allowed the protestors to spread their news quickly all around the world. And the world is watching.
There is a lesson here for marketers as well. While we talk about social media and help our clients develop programs, at the end of the day, WE DON’T CONTROL THE CONVERSATION. The users do. We can set up the Facebook fan pages, the Twitter accounts, build initial followings, and create promotions to draw attention to our efforts. But at the end of the day, the people decide what they’re going to talk about and how often they’re going to talk.
And as the Iranians have shown us, if the people are passionate about their subject matter, nothing will stop them from communicating.
We're the brains behind New Thought Marketing, a consulting firm based in Atlanta. When it comes to marketing, we know how to push the envelope and we know when to keep it simple. If you need assistance in strategic thinking, contact us. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy our blog.
