When you’re the top specialty tea company in the United States, you reach a lot of tea lovers. Our client Bigelow Tea is using social media — from Bigelow Tea’s Facebook (and, yes, MySpace) pages to their YouTube channel, Bigelow loves to share their tea knowledge with the world. (After 65 years in busiess, they know a thing or two about tea.)
But how often do their customers have a chance to share what they know with each other? Normally, it’s not easy. Fortunately, we at Creative Concepts are helping Bigelow Tea bridge that gap.
Last month, the Bigelow Tea Twitter account asked its followers if they had any tea tips worth sharing. The results were instructive, and they formed the basis of a helpful blog post that allowed Bigelow’s fans to learn from one another.
This isn’t Bigelow’s first foray into customer connectivity. Earlier this year, they hosted their first Bigelow Tea Social in New York City, where bloggers and foodies alike came together to talk tea (and get their fill of free samples). How was that live event conceived of and managed? Why, on Bigelow’s blog and Twitter account, of course!
And while tea is obviously a communal drink to begin with, Bigelow Tea isn’t the only company finding new ways to bring their customers together. Our client Ecover celebrated their 30th anniversary of creating ecological cleaning products with a live event that united green bloggers, media-makers and innovators, all of whom swapped stories and tips until the party ended. How did we at Creative Concepts help Ecover organize this event? With a Facebook contest hosted on Ecover’s blog!
Social media: bringing companies and customers together — with the emphasis on together.
While the world debates the meaning and the merits of Julian Assange, Wikileaks and our expected right to privacy, we at Creative Concepts can’t help but wonder… how interested would Assange be in sifting through your emails?
One of the basic tenets of social media is the call for transparency. As the theory goes, the more openly you engage with your customers, the less ambiguity there is in your actions and the less “dirt” there is for others to dig up, should they choose to do so. (For a deeper examination of the business approach to transparency, check out the book Tactical Transparency by our friends Shel Holtz and John C. Havens.)
But despite the public push toward openness, that doesn’t mean companies and brands don’t still have their secrets. Tactical transparency doesn’t preclude tactical advantages. And, as Christopher Penn reminds us, some companies are built on secrets.
The question, therefore, is this:
Are your public actions drastically different from your private motives?
People tend to be most vocally concerned about privacy when they’re worried that the image they’ve publicly projected would be somehow damaged or destroyed “if certain information got out.” In the case of military positions or diplomatic strategy, that concern can be understandable. But in the case of brand management?
Perhaps the Assange affair is a timely opportunity for you to reconsider your brand’s public image and its private intentions, and to make sure that they’re harmoniously reconciled.
The world has enough secrets. Does your company have too many to hide?
This is about more than lulling potential customers into a false state of security so you can take financial advantage of them later (although that’s obviously reprehensible). This is about making sure that what you want and how you’re getting there isn’t in conflict with who you are.
And just who are we? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook to learn more!
Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party in NYC. Photo by Kate Eisemann
Despite the impressive track record that comes with being a 30 year-old international brand, our client Ecover is still facing one big hurdle when it comes to increasing audience awareness in the United States:
They weren’t here first.
While Ecover was establishing their brand of ecological cleaning products in Europe before they ever crossed the pond, competitors like Method and Seventh Generation were becoming the common names that people in the US tend to think of as “clean and green.” And although Ecover has effective partnerships with retailers like Whole Foods, they’re still seeking new ways to connect with potential customers who might not even know that they exist (yet).
So, yes, Ecover is on Twitter. And yes, Ecover is on Facebook. And yes, Ecover has a blog.
But when Ecover celebrated their 30th Anniversary in November, they saw an opportunity to connect with those bloggers, tweeters and Facebook fans in a whole new way: in person.
We at Creative Concepts helped Ecover create a “30 Under 30″ contest to celebrate the contributions of America’s young eco-innovators. The contest’s winner, Ryan Arnold, was announced live in New York City on November 10th at Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party, held live in the Environment showroom in Manhattan. Ecover also partnered with EcoStilletto, who organized a green blogger panel during the event which focused on the future of sustainability.
The result?
Increased brand awareness, compelling conversation and positive post-event coverage on blogs and Twitter alike. Plus, Ecover CEO Mick Bremans got to meet dozens of young eco-minded entrepreneurs and media makers who are passionate about the future of sustainability which was a great opportunity for him and the finalists!
This kind of personal connection can be started online, and we certainly expect it to continue online long after the event is over. But no matter how electrified your Facebook community is, nothing replaces the power of face-to-face communications to build tangible relationships.
Are you building relationships that bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds?
Need help building those bridges? Join us on Twitter or Facebook!
Picture the audience that you think is currently reading your tweets, streaming your videos and liking you on Facebook.
According to the 2010 US Census, your picture might need some tweaking.
As the census indicates, Hispanic and African-American audiences are the fastest-growing segments of the online population In fact, based on these statistics, eMarketer predicts that more than 60% of the US’s Hispanic population will be online by 2012. And that means the potential audience for every online brand is becoming more diverse by the day.
Since the dawn of the 2000s, social media has been trumpeted as “a conversation.” And as that conversation becomes more diverse, more multicultural, more nuanced and more open to interpretation, it creates a whole new set of opportunities and challenges.
Take a look at the way you’re currently using your social media channels. Now, ask yourself…
How broad is your existing customer base?
How diverse is your messaging?
Are your products and services appealing to multiple demographics?
Are you focusing (whether consciously or unconsciously) on too narrow of an audience segment?
Are you equipped to address concerns and answer questions from potential customers who fall outside your expected demographic?
This isn’t just a question of ethnicity or cultural diversity. This is a consideration of gender, age, region, income and education. It’s also a welcome reminder that the Internet allows you to connect with everyone… if you’re prepared to do so.
Yes, the people you expect to be in your audience are probably there… but so are lots of other people you might not expect to be there, and might not be prepared to engage and support. (Yet.)
So why not find ways to diversify your conversations now, before your competition does?
Mathematically, business is all about profit. And, subconsciously, we all understand this. But when the holidays roll around, people get so inundated with sales messages that they become desperate for an emotional life raft that can reconnect them with their own greater humanity.
Could that life raft be your brand?
Here at Creative Concepts, we’re huge proponents of humanizing your brand. We believe that people want to do business with (surprise!) other humans, and that any effort you can make to remind your customers that your company is still a group of people who are just like them will help them feel better about doing business with you.
So why not consider the holidays to be your opportunity to say “thank you”?
Whether you’re a small business or an international conglomerate, you’re still people. So instead of focusing on coupons, sweepstakes or clearance sales as your way of rewarding your team, why not send a holiday message that’s focused less on dollars and more on sense?
What if your company’s blog hosted a Thanksgiving message from your customers, detailing what they’re thankful for?
What if you asked your vendors for their New Year’s resolutions, and used them as a springboard for a larger conversation about goals and dreams on Facebook or Twitter?
What if your company’s Christmas or Hanukkah cards were hand-signed by all of your employees?
By incorporating the voices of the people who aren’t usually front-and-center in your messaging, you’ll remind your customers, your vendors and your employees just how much you respect, honor and value them — as people.
Our client, Ouidad, has been helping women take control of their curls for over 25 years. After one mind-blowing appointment, when they finally see how great their hair can look, many of these women say “I wish I’d known all about this when I was younger!”
So, naturally, we helped Ouidad find a way to scale their hair care tips down for kids! (Or, in this case, for moms, who sometimes feel like a straightening iron or a ponytail is their only recourse for getting the kids to school on time.)
Wondering whether your content might scale to kids and parents? Ask yourself these questions:
What are your brand’s core beliefs / offerings / products?
Do the problems your brand solves also occur for kids?
How would your products’ implementation change in the hands of kids (or parents)?
How could your packaging or marketing change to appeal to kids (or parents)?
Are kids (or parents) reachable via your current messaging channels? If not, where are they reachable — and how would your message need to be adapted?
In Ouidad’s case, their core products solve a universal problem: “How do I look good without taking forever?” Their products improve their customers’ self-esteem and self-awareness. And these same needs and impacts are just as valuable (and maybe moreso) to kids and parents.
It helps that Ouidad has a line of KRLY Kids products specifically designed for kids’ hair. But even if that weren’t the case, the same basic principles of content scaling apply. Once you’ve identified your brand’s core values, adapting them for kids and parents is a great way to expand your customer base while simultaneously endearing your brand to a whole new generation.
And if your content (and your products) could be useful to children and parents, who else should you be reaching?
When the US recession was in full swing, the government conducted a stress test of the banks to see how much trouble those banks could handle before they’d collapse. Understanding potential worst case scenarios should, in theory, help an organization avoid them.
Have you conducted a stress test of your marketing or PR team, to see how much trouble they can sustain before your reputation — or your business — would fall apart? (Good news: it’s probably more than you think.)
On the other hand, how much positive feedback can you process before even the nicest compliments start sounding like white noise to your overtaxed brain? (Do you even know what you should be listening for?)
As exciting as the immediate connectivity of social media can be, that immediacy comes with a price. Bad news can travel fast, while good news can become a tsunami that overwhelms our ability to make use of it. The key is to understand your limits at both ends, and to plan for both the best and the worst-case scenarios. Ask yourself questions like…
In an emergency, how many people would we need to operate our social media channels?
Are there well-known protocols to help everyone stay on the same page?
How bad does a situation need to get before we need to make a public statement?
Or, while thinking happy thoughts…
How are we separating “good” feedback from “great” feedback?
How much of our feedback is actionable, and how much doesn’t require a response?
Can we identify potential partnerships and opportunities by studying our metrics?
The better prepared you are for both the highs and lows of real-time engagement with customers, competitors and the general public, the easier it is to capitalize on your upsides and mitigate your losses.
For example, our client Bigelow Tea has been doing some great contests, with prizes that range from free tea to free tickets for Wayne Gretzky’s annual hockey camp. The cost of entry? Simply liking Bigelow Tea on Facebook. Who wouldn’t trade the few seconds it takes to click a button in exchange for a chance to meet The Great One? (For all you non-hockey fans, that’s Gretzky.)
When Bigelow recently gave away the herb plus tea gift set on Facebook, the one-week contest earned them more than 400 new Facebook fans. That’s a 7% increase in their total number of fans, which rose from 5720 to 6162. If they did that every week for a year, they’d nearly double their fanbase in 12 months.
And what’s their investment in this venture?
A prize (obviously, the more interesting the prize, the better)
Time (planning, designing & promoting the contest)
Shipping the prize to the winner
What would your company be willing to invest in a year-long doubling of their marketing reach?
Because you can rest assured that your customers are willing to invest the time to click.
Today, if you’d like to, you can hop on a plane and fly from New York to San Francisco and back. The process of crisscrossing the country has become so automatic that it’s easy to take it all for granted.
But if you’ve read up on Lewis & Clark (or played the Oregon Trail), you know how daunting America’s westward expansion really was. In the 1800s, our maps were still being drawn by hand, and our railroads, highways and airports were but a distant dream.
Yet, every time another covered wagon arrived at the Pacific coastline, word was sent home: “It can be done!” And the more the pioneers succeeded, the more others wanted to follow in their footsteps — especially because doing so became both easier with experience and more cost-effective with demand.
Getting companies to buy into social media was an uphill battle. Concepts like transparency, connectivity and conversations with the public were seen as potential threats to financial stability, rather than assets that could actually improve business.
Today, as the social marketing field grows and matures, getting started is becoming ever easier. The maps have been drawn. The studies have been conducted. The pioneers’ wagons have crossed the rough terrain and now the towns they’ve built at the edge of the water are booming with great expectations.
If your company hasn’t explored the world of social media yet, now you can learn from the successes (and failures) of thousands of brands who’ve gone first. These pioneers have figured out what works and what hasn’t (yet), and many of them are selflessly sharing their own experiences to help others find their way.
Why?
Because those boom towns need new arrivals in order to keep growing.
If your competition is succeeding in social media, they need you to succeed alongside them. When an entire field or industry embraces new technologies, it increases general customer awareness while simultaneously driving down entry costs. And when everyone is on the same page, disruption becomes innovation and everybody wins.
Simply put, the better you do at social media, the better we all do at social media.
So here’s to you, and to your co-opetition. May you all keep redrawing your maps until you find the best, fastest, most scenic and most effective routes from where you are now to where you’d all like to be.
Back in February, we at Creative Concepts were scheduled to film a video for our client, Ouidad, better known to curly-haired fashionistas around the world as “the queen of curl.”
The video was supposed to be simple: a before-and-after interview with the winner of Ouidad’s “If These Curls Could Talk” contest, including a glimpse of her fabulous post-makeover ‘do, live from Ouidad’s New York City salon.
But we had one problem: the East Coast had just been buried by a blizzard.
In fact, the winner herself lived in Baltimore, which had just set a snowfall record. Amtrak wasn’t running, the highways were shut down, and there was a very good chance the shoot would have to be canceled.
And then, miraculously, everything came together.
Trains and buses began running mere hours before the shoot was scheduled, and the winner arrived just in time…
… and with straight hair.
For those of you who don’t spend your lives in a hair salon, this is the equivalent of winning free tickets to a hockey camp and then showing up with a broken leg. Whatever the camp intended to teach you, they suddenly realize they’ll have to heal you first.*
So Ouidad and her stylists set to work, not only to give their contest winner the curls of her dreams, but to help her understand why straightening her hair wasn’t the best idea in the first place. We’re pretty sure their advice worked, because the contest winner was awestruck by her new look and her newfound understanding of how to best care for her curls.
So remember: in social media, there’s no such thing as a true negative. Every stumbling block is really an opportunity for improvement, and another positive just waiting to happen — and when it does, you end up with an even better story to tell!
(Speaking of improvement, for more helpful haircare Q&As, visit Ouidad’s info-packed website. If you’re not curly by nature, you’ll wish you were!)
* And speaking of hockey, enter this Facebook contest from Bigelow Tea — who is also our client — and you could win tickets to Wayne Gretzky’s hockey camp in 2011! (But be careful about that broken leg. Seriously.)
Want to turn your troubles into treasures? Join us on Twitter or Facebook!
