Shopping online, in the scheme of things, it is a pretty new experience. Most people prefer to go to the store, walk the aisles and find what they are looking for. They want to be able to touch, feel and play with what they are about to buy. Not me, I am happy to just go to my computer and find what I am looking for using my web browser.
This week my family needed a new dishwasher and my wife and I could not find time to make it out to get one. So, we decided to do the whole thing online with Sears. I have to say, Sears could not have made it any easier. They seem to have the perfect mix of traditional and online interactions. Let me share with you some of the “High Points & Low Points” of dealing with Sears. I will do it in list form, as people like lists!
- When placing the order online with Sears I was able to pay a percent with Paypal, Gift Cards, a coupon and debit card. Yes I paid in one transaction with 4 different payments combined!
- I had a question, I clicked on the “Live Chat” and had someone answer a question about the item.
- There was a rebate available for the dishwasher. Their systems flagged it for me. Then after the purchase they sent me an email that had a hyperlink to it. I was able to complete the form, print and mail it all within minutes.
-I never got a confirmation call about when the dishwasher was going to be delivered. I decided to stay home to wait. Being the calm cool person I am I tweeted:
Sears quickly replied:
Then I posted:
I must say.. I was impressed. They responded to my tweet within 10 minutes and I got a calls in the same amount of time! Amazing, great save! They did great!
- The dishwasher was installed last night and it does not fit. Story of my life. I called Sears this morning and alerted them to the issue. An employee named Chris stayed on the phone with my wife and I for about 20 minutes and helped us find one that fit. He was great. After placing the order I got another call from Edwin. He stated his goal was to make sure everything is handled properly. He will be the single point of contact for the removal of the first dishwasher and the replacement of second dishwasher! He gave me his direct line, his hours, etc.
-Then I go a direct message via Twitter from @MySears…it said:
..hmmmm an automated DM.. not good.
As of this post, I am waiting for the second dishwasher, Ill let you know how the rest of it goes.
Overall, I have to say my experience with Sears has been really good. I really like the fact they have found a good mix of using tools like Paypal, Twitter, emails and traditional live person customer service.
I have a good friend, who for some reason about 10 years ago decided to leave lovely California and move to, Nashville. Yes, he did it for a woman. No, they are no longer together. Today, he is happily married with kids, and owns a Smoothie King.
He has been updating his Facebook status with info on the flooding in his area. I had heard in passing about the flooding but did not really pay attention. That was until he started updating his Facebook status with links to videos and websites.
I thought, I should go check what was happening and get more info. I went to CNN.com and saw this:
Where were the amazing links that my friend had? Where was info on the flooding? I could find info on:
-Porn Director Seeks Office
-3-D Gaming
-Photographer Captures Arctic
..and then yes I saw it small references to the flooding in Nashville. With boring articles.
Here is my point, wouldn’t the page have more impact, more information and be more informative if they used things like YouTube and Twitter? Things my friend had been posting?
Here let me list some of them for you, people like lists:
Amazing right? Wouldn’t these videos grab you more and heck, be more informative? More “WOW” factor! More “POP”
Then you have Twitter, where there are real time updates and comments by people. Why is there no feed up? Here is a sample..
Again, comments from real people being shared by real people. I know you have that Ireport thing and your trying, but well.. try a little harder. Okay?
Seems to me your missing the mark here.
Gee, I cant imagine why traditional media is having problems…
-March 13, 2010 SXSW: I was honored to be asked to be on the Community Innovation Summit which is sponsored by PayPal. This panel is the first Community Innovation Summit of leaders of Developer Networks. It is a lively discussion about fostering innovation in online communities. I will speaking with Dave Mcclure of Founders Fund, Wayne Sutton (Twine Interactive), Naveed Anwar(PaypalX) and Evans Cohen (FourSquare)
-March 23, 2010 I will be doing a webinar with David Rodniski for Zubernace. Info on the webinar can be found here
-March 24, 2010 I will be doing a webinar for AARP with Susan Joyce of job-hunt.org. You can sign up for it here
So these events plus my normal daily work for my clients at LSF Interactive is keeping me busy. That being said I am always easy to find on Twitter.
Okay now I need to come up with a real blog post..
I feel like a lot of people think Social Media is, well over rated. Is it? It could be. Maybe it is not.
You hear a lot of Social Media this. Social Networking that. New Media..Old Media…blah blah blah. All these terms being thrown around to describe this new way of marketing, bonding, selling and such. It makes you wonder is it a fad? Will it go the way of the pet rock and Crocs?
I reached out to my network and asked a simple question: “Is Social Media A Fad?” I got a lot of responses on this, alot! I thought I would share some of them with you in list form. People like lists.
-Donny Rhoades, Internet marketing Coordinator for the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin:
Not at all, simple communication en masse or privately among people has almost been adopted by everyone. Social media is a better tool with which we communicate our personal message or our company’s value. Perhaps the fads are the platforms and the applications themselves. It seems like the popularity in each of them quickly spikes and then levels out. Much of the buzz continues to brew because social media continues to evolve other forms of media (i.e. the news is generated and spread much quicker as a result of the widespread adoption of social media).
-Paul Charlebois, Chief Experience Officer at Phresh Communications:
NO!!! A resounding NO! A thousand, nay million, nay hundred million NOs! As it stands, Facebook is the fourth largest nation in the world. Social media is much like the markets of old where people would gather and sell their wares, enjoy conversation, share stories and get news. Social media combines many of the best aspects of newspaper, radio, television and more with the added value of having connectivity to your colleagues and friends. Perhaps some of the tools we consider to be social media such as facebook, twitter and dare i say it, linkedin, will change or even fall to the wayside, much like myspace did a few years ago. But the theory of social media is founded on the basis that people want to connect with other people. This will never change – we have a basic human need to feel connected and have community in our lives. Viva la society!
-Steve Cunningham, CEO of digital marketing agency. Social media book reviewer for @mashable. Write for @bizmore:
I think Clay Shirky said it best in his TED talk ( and probably the most insightful 15 minutes ever spent on the topic): “The choice we face, anybody who wants to have a message heard anywhere in the world, isn’t whether or not that’s the media environment we want to operate in, that’s the media environment we’ve got. The question we all face now is how can we all make best use of this medium.”
No, social media has been around for years. The general public is now embracing social media as part of their lives. The biggest question for most client’s is ROI, effect campaigns produce results. Don’t believe me about ROI, I was given a project to sell modular homes through my client’s FB page, and just today we sold a home by lead generation though the FB page.
-Jayne Cravens, International Development Management Coyote Communications
The term, yes, most definitely. No one is doing things online that wasn’t being done back in even the late 1980s via USENET. So much of the breathless rhetoric now about what’s supposedly happening online is EXACTLY the same as what was said about, say, The Well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL) and various First Class Client communities set up for cities throughout Silicon Valley. That said, when the Web came along, a lot of newcomers to the Internet used it only as an online brochure, and they didn’t think of the Internet as Interactive beyond email. The “older” people all over so-called “social media” were people who loved IM in the early part of the last decade — remember when everyone was breathless about that? But it was Friendster, then MySpace, then Facebook, etc., that got more of the general public focused on more dynamic content and quickie interactions. I have yet to see any real rule changes as far as online communications — I’ve been reading things written back in the 1990s, and have laughed out loud — it’s all the same thing! So, what fad term will be used to rebrand the Internet next?
The question seems simple right? What is Social Media.. well that is easy. The definition of Social Media per Wikipedia is:
“Social Media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Some define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content“.
Makes sense right?
Ya right! That was a mouth full. I do not know about you but I find the above way to deep and complicated. So I reached out to my community and asked them how they would define the term Social Media. I got lots of amazing answers some longer then the wikipedia version, others shorter. . I thought it would be fun to provide you some of them in list form, because well people like lists.
I asked: “What exactly is Social Media?” and “How Would You Define Social Media To Someone in 140 characters or less?”
-Susan Crawford, Internet Strategist : “Although you may be hearing a lot of buzz words like Twitter, Flutter, WordPress, or Facebook, “social media” refers to the plethora of ways you can network online — around blogs, member boards, social causes, kindred spirits (such as sports clubs), issues/editorials, and reviews. You can add your opinion, offer your perspective, clarify a question, share your experience, propose proven solution, lend credibility, or just sympathize wherever people congregate. Just jump in. Listen first. Get a feel for that specific community then join in – frequently. Be conversation (postings of purely headlines are not well tolerated).
The next thing you’re are probably hearing is about the ’social media time suck.’ This refers to the time it takes to write fresh and relevant postings in all your social media places. Time suck is at its worst if you don’t have an intentional social media strategy. You may want to consider Posterous or Ping which are services that can place one posting across all your social accounts simultaneously. “It is better to be a part of social media than apart from social media.”
-Apeksha Bobe, Marcom Professionals : “Social media is all about increasing your touch points with ‘potential’ consumers. It is creating a ripple effect that boosts brand recognition.
For example, a company Facebook page can be shared among thousands of friends. Those friends can share with their friends, increasing brand awareness for the company.
Its also about increasing your visibility. Aside from appearing cool and innovative, engaging in social media builds trust with consumers. ” It is a NECESSITY today.
-Keith Burtis, Keith Burtis Consulting: “Social Media in my opinion is a white board, a blank slate where companies and individuals have the ability to use a myriad of tools including audio, video, and text to effectively communicate, engage, educate, market, and share ideas in a way that is strategically advantageous to the objective of that business, brand or individual.”
-Brigitte Goddemeyer:” Getting authentic transparent messages to a world’s transparent audience”
-Sonia Carreno, Passage Communications: “Online channels for self-promotion and connectivity + ability to sort “friends” and speak to them according to sort structure.”
-Jonathan Silverman, GSA Business Development: “On a business level, it is a ‘new’ (perhaps not so new as each day passes) form of communication that will grow in importance as it gains ever more traction. It will become the primary and most intimate means of business to business and business to consumer communication. It is already forcing marketers to re-evaluate the way brands interact with their customer audiences and potential customers. On a personal level it offers means to connect and reconnect, to play, to belong and to network.”
Ask and you shall receive! I’m easy that way. After I posted 6 Ways Social Media Can Help A Local Business a while back, I got a lot of requests for more tips. So by request, I bring you more tips on how a small or local business can use social media. I shall share these tips with you in list form. As people like lists and they are fun.
-Change your brand/companies message to fit the social network you are on. So you may post “@pizza is here to help with all your pizza needs” on Twitter. Well that will not fly on say Plurk or youtube. (Always have to work Plurk into a blog post, it is just fun to say.) Make sure you know the basic ins/outs of the site you are on. Think of it as when you travel to a different country. There are different customs in each you should follow. Things you do and things you do not. (This actually is good practice for any size business or brand.)
-Cool it with the cross posting. For those of you do not know let me give you the definition of cross posting. It is when you take the same single message and post it on multiple social networks and forums. Sure it makes your life easier one post that hits many websites. I get it. The problem is that the same people may follow you on Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, etc. You need to mix it up. I promise you that if you post the same message to all your networks, you will lose people from your community. Also, I think posting a link on Facebook directly looks a lot better then just placing the url.
-Time Shift your messages. So when you want to post about a special going on or a blog post you just wrote, do it on different days at different times. Some people may be online at 10:00 am others may be on at 4:00 pm. Thus, they maybe more likely to respond and see your message at different times. Play around with it and mix it up. Personally, I have had a lot of success updating my networks late at night. It allows me to get the attention of people I may never have.
-Do not post the same exact message over and over. Just last week Twitter has begun enforcing the TOS of not allowing recurring Tweets on Twitter Accounts. Why? Its annoying, plain and simple. Though I do not see why you can not mix up the message and tweak it throughout the day. I have used Tweetlater aka Socialoomph with much success.(No doubt I’m going to get some nasty comments about my thoughts on this one.)
-What is in it for the customer? Part 1 Have online discounts and promotions. I always get clients who say ” I want millions of Twitter followers” or ” I want everyone to join my fanpage.” My response is ” What is in it for them?” Why should they follow you and fan you? You need to give them something back. It can be a coupon code, a special time sensitive discount, or even early bird passes. There needs to be something in it for them.
-What is in it for the customer? Part 2. In reference to the above item, you don’t have to just give specials and discounts. It could be insight to why your company does what it does. Maybe behind the scenes videos, podcasts or blog posts. You can communicate directly to people who follow/fan you, so do it!! Make them know your listening by talking to them. This has value sometimes that is worth more the items in Part 1.
-There is more to social media then Twitter & Facebook. There I said it. Heck this should be a blog post by itself. (Actually I think this will be my next post.) If you targeting people who like wine, find a social network about wine. You want to sell comic books, there is a site for that. Heck.. just check out Ning you can find anything.
BONUS: So let us say your company is Ed’s Vacuum Cleaner Repair. Why not start a Fan Page, Twitter Feed, or Ning site about Vacuum cleaners? Create an online community for people you know will have a need/like for your product! Bottom line: If you cant find it online, create it yourself!
Yep, I got paid to have this ad run in my Twitter feed one time.
A company called Ad.ly approached me about signing up to have these ads run in my feed. After reading an article in Time Magazine about “Sponsored Tweets” about what Ted Murphy at Izea was doing, I thought why not?
Am I sell out? Am I going against everything that Twitter is about? Will you stop following people who do it? I am very curious what you guys think about it. I have already been approached to do it again.
Here is the Ad:
Oh and it seems celebrities are doing it as well. Here look:
Now you might have noticed the (ad) at the end of the tweet. That is so people, who pay attention notice that it is an ad, not my tweet. Though I wonder how many people notice.
These are the celebs that have signed up to be part of it with Ad.ly:
Is this the sign of things to come?
Oh and Steve Coulson, remember about 2 years ago for an April Fools Joke, you pranked everyone with a company that would pay for tweets? It has become a reality….
I’mmmmmm back! Miss me? Guess it is kind of hard for me to be gone when I am Tweeting and Facebooking all the time. So for those of you who do not know, I just got back from The 140tc conference in Los Angeles. To sum it up, excuse my french, it was “KICK ASS!” It was possibly hands down one of the most insightful, and educational events that I have attended in a long while. It was also an amazing networking event for making great connections. Oh and it was.. fun! I thought it would be great to share some of the things from the event. I will do this in list form, because, well people like lists. So in no particular order here you go:
-Well, this is not something that happened at the event, but for the record. I was invited to speak at this event. So this post has nothing to do with that. If I spoke at the event and did not like it, I would tell you. Heck, just ask the New Media Expo folks last year. I wrote a “not so nice” blog about them , which I am too lazy to link to.
-Biz Stone Keynote: Instead of being short and sweet or with his crew, Biz gave great insight to the history of Twitter and how things happened. He spoke for 40 minutes! No, he did not take questions and was gone fast. I think he left skid marks on the floor.
-Gavin Newsom is one cool dude. His wife just had a baby and could not make it to the conference, heck, he still had the hospital band on. So he used Skype video to chat about Twitter and how the city of San Francisco uses it. Well done.
Gavin Newsom via Skype
-The comedy panel was great and was well.. HIJACKED by The Iron Sheik. Seems he decided he wanted to be part of the conference and jumped on the panel. Most of what the Sheik said started with “F***” and ended with “Hulk Hogan”. Oh, and I personally really enjoyed Loni Love and Chris Hardwick. Both Loni and Chris took the time to talk for a while. Oh and both are wicked funny and witty.
Chris Hardwick and Loni Love
-The Dr Drew panel was one of my favorites. I went in there thinking “a bunch of celebs, what are they going to say worth learning?’ Boy was I wrong. It was fascinating to learn how they use it, what they get out of it, their end goals. Dr Drew brought up how regular folks were using Twitter, then Hollywood rushes in and gets hundreds of thousands of followers and they move to top of the heap, per say. Seems that the Celebs feel the same way about Ellen as we do about them he joked. He really put them on the spot, which made this a successful panel. Also, I enjoyed how they hung out with everyone after the panels, took photos and joined the after party.
-The Tony Robbins Keynote. The guy was amazing. He did not talk long at all, only about 120+ minutes. Okay, maybe just a little too long. Yet, he was worth it. I’m not one for “inspirational and self help stuff(no doubt I need it) but he won me over. I may need to buy one of his books. Oh and the thing I liked the best. He tied his presentation into Twitter. He talked about how he uses it, why he uses it, etc.
-Oh and everyone of the celebs does not have someone post for them. They all do it themselves. None of them will allow someone to do it for them.
-Causes and Campaigns panel. Great stuff. Really insightful stuff on how Twitter is used to spread the word, rally the troops, help others and do good.
-Growing your brand panel. Lead by Guy Kawasaki with one goal.. get the Kogibbq truck to the event for lunch. The Kogibbq guy almost pulled it off if it was not for the permits. Oh and Guy, don’t call a panelist business “A Roach Coach”. Im thinking that is not a great move in branding.. I’m just saying. Oh and great insights by Brad Nelson of Starbucks
-The oneforty store launched. Pretty cool. An appstore that offers hundreds of applications built on the Twitter API
-TidyTweet . It along with 6 other applications presented to the judges for the right to demo to the conference as a whole.(I was one of the three judges.)
-The Today Show. So here is a great example of the power of Twitter. On my panel I gave an example of the number of followers The CBS Early Show has Vs. NBC’s The Today Show. In short I gave praise to NBC. Not even an hour after I am done. I get a Direct Message from The Today Show with their phone number. 10 minutes later I am talking to New York one of the people behind the Today Show Twitter Feed. He had been watching Twitter and saw the tweets about The Today Show. How cool is that? I still am amazed about things like that. Oh and.. CBS..tweet me , you need help.
-So I know I talked about the celebs a lot, but there was more to this event. The panels on brand building, brand growing, social crm and more were great. They had the right mix of both areas to make this a good event.
-Now for some random shout outs: Well done Steve Broback! You too Jason Preston (though we never meet). Krystyl best travel buddy ever, except for the cookie incident. AdventureGirl and Phil.. thanks for feeding me and your kindness.Elizabeth Cron sorry about the teasing from Tony Robbins and myself! I want to drive the Batmobile! Brett..Brett..Brett..fine..Ill say it.. your the man. Jade you owe me an In N Out Burger, Ill take bacon from the Wynn please.
My last post on tips that brands can use to build Customer relationship got some amazing feedback. So much so, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of it with you. Of course there are the comments below that you can see. When your using Social Media to get your message..aka content..Blog post out conversations can happen on many different sites. So here are some of them for your review. I will share them in list form, as people like lists.
-Rich Goldsmith, Senior Account Executive at Padilla Speer Beardsley:
Social media is an opportunity to not only listen in on what your customers are saying about your brand, but to also really establish a brand identity, even a persona. Taking advantage of that opportunity, however, has tripped up a lot of companies — most of them because they’ve either been dishonest in their approach, or shortsighted and fallen victim to the “it’s really cool” factor of social media.
Essentially, people need to ask themselves what they hope to achieve with social media, and then tailor their strategies and tactics toward those objectives. There’s a huge universe of potential activities associated with social media, and it grows every time someone does something new with Twitter’s API or develops a new iPhone app. But too many brands don’t take the time to craft a social media strategy that will actually move their businesses forward and improve their relationship with their customers in a meaningful way.
Do you want to improve customer satisfaction? Personalize the brand? Improve customer loyalty? Something different altogether? While these objectives can play off each other, each one requires a slightly different approach. Social media can do many things to improve brand equity and customer attitudes, but you have to know exactly what you’re setting out to do before you can be successful at it.
-Janelle Yates, Owner/Operator at The Little PR Company:
Use it to actually interact, not sell…I see it as a method of two way communications with current and potential customers.
I think it is also important to use it as a call to action for events, brand development research, PR/marketing campaign research and recognition of who your consumer base and target audience is.
Heather Whaling, Communicating … Connecting. Strategic, results-driven public relations, social media, marketing:
There are *lots* of ways companies can use social media to create stronger relationships with consumers. The answer to your question depends on the specific goals you’re trying to achieve. For example, if you develop a product, you can use social media to identify how people are using your product, what enhancements would be beneficial and general satisfaction levels. You can also use it to improve customer service through tools like Twitter or Get Satisfaction.
If you’re trying to position your brand as a thought-leader, blogging (on your own and guest-posting) can be very beneficial. Use this also as an opportunity to show some of the “inner workings” of your company — helping people relate more to the brand.
If you provide a service, you can develop relationships with people who might be in the market for whatever you’re offering. Also, monitoring tools can help identify people asking questions that you can answer, positioning your brand as a valuable resource.
Whatever your goal, it’s important to remember that social media is about conversations — between business-to-consumer as well as consumer-to-consumer. After you create your strategy, remember to keep your eye on the goal, but don’t forget to be personable as well. If you take a strategic approach to social media, take the time to listen, and understand the existing sub-cultures on the various networks, you’ll see that social media can be very beneficial.
