Case in point: Twitter.

Photo Courtesy Barry Batchelor/PA

What’s the excitement? Everyone is raving about its applications and all you see if a bunch of narcissistic people raving about where they’re going and with whom. All you can wonder is why someone would want to share so much personal information about themselves with complete strangers. You’re wondering if “identity theft” means anything to all these “twits.”

The truth is, you’re not alone. Twitter has an attrition rate of roughly 60 percent, according to a report issued last month by Nielson.com.

Unfortunately people have a habit of joining things because they are the “next big thing,” only to rapidly quit because they either didn’t know how to use it, didn’t understand the underlying uses or it simply wasn’t a good fit for achieving the desired objective.

It’s What You Make of It

Like anything in life, Twitter is what you make of it. Although it seems fun and games from a social standpoint, businesses are hopping on board thinking there will be a sudden influx of prospective clients and subsequent sales.

When has the “if you build it they will come” mentality ever worked? Everything takes effort and strategy, including Twitter. What’s more, if you don’t understand how to apply strategy or don’t understand the underlying purposes of the Twitter application you’re going to have a really tough time making it successful.

But Why Multiple Social Platforms?

I recently had a client ask me how having both a Facebook and a Twitter account could benefit them. Clearly Facebook has a tremendous amount of popularity with more than 500 million users. Additionally, a business Facebook Page is a tremendous platform for organizing information – notes, FBML, photos, reviews and a whole host of other applications allow for organizing business information for current and prospective clients. How on earth could Twitter compete?

Competition isn’t the issue – it’s the type of information shared. Twitter, clearly, is an entirely different platform, limiting status updates to 140 characters. From a strategy standpoint, Twitter is a great way to disseminate information to the masses quickly while providing a way for those masses to gain more information. From the user standpoint, Twitter is a great way to organize information that is being shared real-time.

In other words, Twitter is quick, rapid-fire sharing. Users have the option to organize those that they follow into self-described categories such as: friends, family, entrepreneurs, associations, community, experts, restaurants, local deals, etc. The options are endless, and savvy Twitter users are on the look out for other people, businesses and organizations of interest. And, in a perfect world, if they’re following you they should be interested in what you’re sharing.

Example, Please!

"You got a reservation to where?!"

You may still be nodding, thinking to yourself “Big Deal. I still don’t know what the point is!”

Example – A local Restaurant joins Twitter to supplement its Facebook activities. In doing so, they hope to interact with patrons quickly and share information about upcoming events. When other users begin to follow the Restaurant they already have an idea of what to expect because the Restaurant’s profile and tweets indicate the type of information they provide to the Twitter community. For the Restaurant, Twitter may serve as a means to:

Quickly blast information at lunch time about menu specials. This is great because close to lunchtime followers are checking their tweets while thinking, “I’m hungry…where should I go today?”

Share information about reservation availability. Assume someone canceled their reservation last minute and evening reservations are hard to come by at the Restaurant. Surely at least one of their followers will jump at the opportunity. This replaces lost revenue, and builds customer satisfaction and excitement. Meanwhile, Janet finds out her friend scored a reservation at the hottest Restaurant in town. Jealous about it, she quickly begins to follow the Restaurant so that she can snag that reservation opportunity first in the future.

Offer Happy Hour specials for Twitter followers only. Social media-savvy individuals love looking for new offers and incentives. Reaching out to the social media community is a great way to extend an invitation and potentially gain new customers.

Answer Questions and Inquiries. Twitter is a two-way street. It has to be. If it’s not, you’re missing the key word in social media. Twitter can serve as a quick way to answer questions: What are your hours? What’s your dress code? Can we make reservations? It also serves as a way to address complaints….and quickly.

Clearly this is not an all encompassing list of reasons or ways for a restaurant to use Twitter. There are many ways Twitter can raise awareness and build a customer base.

First, Start with Strategy

But what if raising awareness isn’t your goal? What if you’re trying to communicate a specific call to action?

First and foremost, a strategy must be put into place. Tweeting without a purpose is a waste of time. In fact, doing any marketing effort without an objective and goal is a waste of numerous resources.

Once you determine what your objective is, you can begin developing a strategy which will dictate which forms of technology are the best given your individual situation. It’s important to note that you may even determine Twitter is not the right platform – and that’s okay.

Ultimately, Twitter is what you make of it.

So what does this mean for business owners and managers? In a nutshell, you can now offer unique incentives for your customers, as well as track traffic patterns from locals who have been checking-in at your venue.

With a plethora of data with regard to who is checking in and when, it only makes sense that businesses would have access to data regarding who has been checking into their location, how often and what days are the most popular. These analytics will allow them to monitor patterns across the social media platform and potentially develop specials on nights that may be a bit slower – great opportunity to build incentives on days that typically don’t attract crowds.

Additionally, when users check into your location, your special incentives will pop-up as they arrive. For instance, FourSquare currently allows business owners and managers to specify the following types of specials:

Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. Who’s the Mayor?  It’s your single most loyal customer!

Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins.

Wildcard Specials: always unlocked, but your staff has to verify some extra conditions before awarding the Special.

And more to come!

For those of you who haven’t ever seen the mobile application, below is a screenshot from the iPhone, courtesy FourSquare. As the user finds their particular location, they select the check-in button. Once they’ve checked in, your incentive will pop-up.

Marketing continues to become more interactive as mobile applications grow in popularity. If you haven’t figured it out by now, mobile marketing is the new frontier.

So claim that business listing and be sure to ask for your FourSquare window cling – you just might be the hippest business on your street…for now.

Wrong.

Crisis Communications is an extremely delicate issue, and requires diligent, timely and savvy communications strategies on behalf of public relations and marketing professionals. Some companies handle a crisis with dignity and grace, while others do a complete belly-flop or just pass the blame to a supplier.

Both traditional and new media are on fire with the latest Toyota recalls. Stop by any cable news channel’s website and you cannot miss the latest from Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda. Clearly safety is a major concern for consumers, and Toyota’s sales are decreasing as they have suspended production and sales of 8 product lines. Fortunately, Toyota knows they cannot avoid scathing reviews – they must listen and respond as quickly as possible.

What better way to listen and respond than popular social media platform, Digg.com? Today’s companies must respond to and address issues in a timely manner. The 24/hour news cycles, blogs, videos sites and social platforms publish news at a breakneck speed. If the media gains a foothold on the crisis communications team, managing the company’s message goes out the window in favor of trying to manage the media and misinformation that can quickly spread across the Internet.

Below is a screen shot of an email that came through to me earlier today. Proactively reaching out to past, current and prospective customers is the best way to demonstrate Toyota has taken the reins on the issue and is concerned about the safety of all drivers. In today’s age of instant, digital communication, anything less is simply not enough.

Are you listening to your customers? If not, why? Reaching out first and meeting your customers – both loyal and dissatisfied – not only helps to build a relationship toward fanatic loyalty, but more importantly will help you to improve your business by assisting you to understand the needs and demands of your target audience.

]]> http://www.ashforddavis.com/2010/02/embracing-social-media-for-crisis-communications/feed/ 0 http://www.ashforddavis.com/2009/12/chase-capitalizes-on-social-media-opportunities-for-corporate-giving/ http://www.ashforddavis.com/2009/12/chase-capitalizes-on-social-media-opportunities-for-corporate-giving/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:10:08 +0000 Ashleigh http://www.ashforddavis.com/blog/?p=155 Our current marketing age is one of interactivity and customer personalization. The Internet, unlike the other media, gives the audience overwhelming control of what they see and how they interact. Savvy marketers understand their audience and incorporate campaigns that capitalize of the medium’s user-end control. Chase Bank is one recent example – they gave their customers the power to determine into which hands $5 million would be given.

Some businesses are hesitant to embrace social media. Others, like Chase, are aggressively and proactively creating opportunities to engage customers. In a campaign that ended last week, Chase engaged its customers by bridging the gap between corporate responsibility and social media. Through their online banking website, Chase encouraged customers to select deserving charities within their individual communities.

In no other era would Chase have been able to launch a nationwide campaign in which its customers could directly vote for their charity of choice. And with relative ease! The nature of the Facebook social platform was the perfect tool to not only host the voting, but to promote the cause throughout multiple local communities simultaneously.

There’s no doubt Chase was eager to find creative ways to establish a stronger relationship with the millions of customers who joined from the Washington Mutual family earlier this year. As Americans continue to feel the pinch on their pocketbooks and worthwhile causes are experiencing declines in donations, this was an ideal way to make an impact directly on the lives of those who recently joined the banking family.

Clearly there are many creative applications for the use of social media. Corporate responsibility is just one of the many components of your brand’s values and beliefs that can effectively be communicated via social media networks.

What are you currently doing that makes a difference? How can you get your customers involved in your outreach, giving them a hand in the impact you make in your community every day?

It’s probably time to consider how social media can make your cause greater, while attracting new customers and forging a stronger relationship with your current ones.

Foursquare gives users the opportunity to explore the city and get rewarded with badges for finding new places all while sharing information with and locating friends. To non-social media enthusiasts, the platform might seem like just another way to waste time on the Internet. A closer look, though, reveals a goldmine for companies savvy enough to use Foursquare to their advantage.

Individuals are Driven by Competition
Foursquare creates a game for its users. Every city has a leaderboard whose points reset every Sunday night. By checking in at places and discovering new venues, users are rewarded with points. These points increase with the number of “check-ins” per day. Ousting your friends and becoming the leader in your city is a prize worth bragging.

Additionally, the ultimate goal of visiting venues and checking-in is to become the venue’s mayor. A mayor is someone who has frequented the venue the most; in essence, this individual is the ultimate brand ambassador for that location. This competition for the coveted title of mayor is the key for businesses to encourage repeat visits and customer loyalty.

Businesses are jumping on board to offer incentives for their mayor. Bars may offer free drinks, restaurants may give free appetizers, movie theatres offer free tickets – the options are endless. And what customer doesn’t love FREE items? This is where competition becomes critical as locals begin competing for this coveted crown – Mayor of your Business.

So how are you using social media to promote your brand? How are you encouraging customers to frequent your establishment when the local competition is steep and diverse? Unique incentives and marketing platforms, such as Foursquare, are an essential component to building and maintaining customer loyalty in the digital age.

Fortunately, not everyone is a spammer. There are those who are doing the social media thing correctly by following topics of interest and contributing through worthwhile conversations.

For example, earlier this morning I was discussing a new television show on SPIKE called ‘Deadliest Warrior.’ My husband and I stumbled onto the program and were instantly fixated. It was ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ night, but my husband actually skipped it (this from a guy who cancels all social engagements on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ night) in favor of this new show on SPIKE. This is the equivalent of a kid walking out of Willy Wonka’s candy shoppe.

Anyhow, I was raving about the show, which features two warriors with extremely different fighting styles and from different historical eras. Today’s experts of these fighting styles (Spartan, Apache, Gladiator, etc.) go head to head with a series of experiments to determine how powerful is each weapon, and the amount of corresponding battle damage inflicted. A medical expert is even on staff to review puncture wounds and determine the severity of each laceration (no humans are harmed).

The show culminates with a computer program algorithm based on experiments to determine who has the highest percentage of wins out of 1,000. The concept of using modern science to determine the victory is beyond cool.

Skip to the afternoon. I am on my Twitter account, and notice the show’s computer science genius, Max Geiger, has replied to my Tweets raving about the show. This, of course, made my day because I had no idea the show’s research team was on Twitter, and I certainly did not expect them to respond as I was having a conversation with people in my hometown.

THAT is the value of social media.

The ability to search keywords and respond to fans, and foes. These connections are priceless, and they happen every day through social media. These are the interactions that can win you fanatical support.

As a marketer, patience is a virtue which sometimes I fail to possess. Social media takes time. It’s an investment which often has you wondering whether any progress is being made. You will have those “eureka” moments though when social media makes you giddy, doing exactly what it’s meant to do from a marketing standpoint.

It’s these times that I am excited social media has become a major landscape for today’s marketing activities.

Social media has become a staple for our society. From iPhones and Blackberrys to Verizon’s new Netbook, we have a need to be connected at all times. It’s a bit perplexing how we might function without our mobile devices.

Case in point. My car blew a tire this past weekend driving 80 mph east on Interstate Highway 10 to Houston. Yours truly assisted my husband with changing the flat tire to a less-than-inflated donut. What would we have done if there had been no spare? The scenario might play out with us attempting to walk 20 miles to the nearest gas station, only to pass out from severe heat exhaustion.

Thankfully, I hopped on Twitter to alert everyone of my status, then we used our handy Garmin to locate the nearest tire repair shop. All this thanks to technology!

Although you may find it strange to see your friend’s mom on Twitter or Facebook, it’s a convenient way to stay up to date with friends and family. Instant notifications of scholastic achievements, births and gatherings make life a little simpler in our increasingly busy lives.

There is one downside. I fear the high school reunion industry may not be so happy with a sudden decline in attendance. Who needs a reunion when we’ve never parted?

Marketing’s goal is to ensure customer satisfaction. All efforts should be aimed at acquiring and retaining valued customers. Through mutually beneficial relationships, conversations are a two-way process of feedback. Any new marketing endeavors should aim to improve upon this principle of satisfaction.

The Internet has created a new landscape for marketers to build upon a product or service’s value chain. We’ve seen various industries struggle with the changing environment; first the dot com boom and subsequent bust, followed by the music industry struggling to solve the illegal downloading conundrum.

The True One-to-One Digital Medium
Social Media Marketing has now emerged as the new marketing phenomena, with new social websites launching daily (and some disappearing). The concept of communicating directly with potential customers clearly attracts marketers. What more of a perfect source of feedback than directly from the customer’s mouth?

It’s no secret sites such as Facebook hold a vast amount of information for marketers, but one of the major critiques of these sites is their inability to generate revenue. Additionally, from a marketing standpoint, investing time within social media sites can become time sink. If managed poorly or inefficiently, valuable time can easily be spent doing the equivalent of spinning in circles.

Define your Campaign Objectives and Goals
Social media is going to work out its own kinks for the next year or so. It will be intriguing to see which sites survive, and how those sites evolve to continue to offer value to both marketers and consumers.

Until then, careful analysis of your goals and target audience will help to determine which social media sites are best for your individual needs. Too often marketers create account on as many sites as possible; definitely the wrong approach.

Just like any marketing campaign, your goals and targets must be identified. Lack of vision and clear objectives have caused the social media frustration, and the tendancy to abandon accounts such as Twitter.

Although the medium may be new, stick with the Marketing principles 101 when outlining your social media campaign.

Not all social media sites are created equal. Certain sites may prove more effective for your marketing purposes, and a carefully tailored social media campaign can raise your online visibility and drive traffic to your products or services.