New JT Member Matt M. shares his thoughts on the growing power of social with a creative twist of wit and subtle sarcasm.

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m writing to you with a clear purpose of expressing my newly discouraged sentiment over what your company claims to be its exceptional product and customer care. In past experiences, I would have taken my words to pen and pad, tri-folded it inside a plainly labeled envelope that through appearances, could never express the betrayal from which I feel about how your company has handled my grievance.

Not this time. Gone are the opportunities for corporations, like you, to quietly brush the “experiences gone wrong” under the rug. Today rather, I have a voice; a voice that can reach listeners well beyond earshot when I yell at my loudest pitch. It’s a message that’s seemingly echoed from wall to wall, reaching thousands, remaining in electronic immortality.

And the message is clear: I, the consumer, your customer, have the power to change the way your company is viewed by others.

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow me a megaphone and a soapbox bigger than one in Speakers’ Corner that’s 50’ tall. From my blog to my tweets, I can sound the alarm to other consumers, like me, venting frustration. And please don’t assume that your customers aren’t there and won’t hear me.

Just today, statistics show that there are over 800 million active Facebook users. Out of those users Facebook claims that almost 25% are from the United States. That’s about 200 million U.S. Facebook users.  That’s over half of the United States population. It’s an understatement to say your consumers are there, talking about you.

The funny thing is, my negative experience could be avoided. I don’t enjoy spreading negativity about your company, but when I’m ignored the gloves come off. I’m going to talk about my experiences and express my concerns whether you know it or not. Scary enough, the communication channels through which I discuss them are the biggest in the world.

Social media is not a fad. In fact, it’s the fastest growing and most preferred method of communication of consumers today. People are putting down the phone to call you, getting out of their cars instead of driving to your location, and checking out your social presence before your company website.

So you’re left with a simple choice: do you want to be part of the discussion; or are you comfortable leaving your company image for others to define?

Don’t be the metaphorical bug on the windshield. Be the car itself and drive consumer engagement and discussion on how to improve your products and services, and ultimately the customer experience. The consumer is the blood running in your company’s veins and they have good things to say! So make yourself heard, and more importantly, listen, listen, listen.

Sincerely,

Your New Brand Loyalist

By Nicole Fletcher

Social has revolutionized the way we communicate, the way marketers market, the way customers consume and the way we all engage with brands. It really and truly is the missing link the marketing industry has been waiting for.

Instead of putting up a billboard or publishing a print ad and hoping the design/messaging is enough to inspire a sale, we can include calls to action and actually know what works and what falls short. We can offer incentives to engage on social networks, capture email addresses from Facebook, drive traffic to the website from print collateral, inspire conversation from email marketing, offer customer service online in real time…the list goes on.

Social Marketing translates your brand into a living breathing personality online and gives you the opportunity to flex your creative muscles. Social is the fuel that powers every other marketing initiative – thereby allowing you to meet your customers no matter where they are or what medium they consume. Whether they’re watching television, reading the newspaper, checking their email or on Facebook, social marketing gives you the tools to supersede all marketing channels and get the greatest return on your investment.

Social Marketing is not in any way reinventing the wheel. On the contrary, it simply applies new technology to the classic marketing principles we’ve used for decades past. It’s finding, capturing and engaging in the conversations that are taking place both on and offline. It’s finding those prospects and being there for them in their moment of need. It’s providing them with information when they need it, support when they ask for it and rewarding them for being loyal customers. Social marketing is establishing a presence you’re proud of and making sure you will be the first company people think of when they need your product.

Social Marketing is the way of the future. The options are: evolve or face extinction.

By Nicole Fletcher

In a mad dash to get ‘with the times’, people seem to be flocking to their designers and agencies in a desperate attempt to ‘get social’. Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare icons in addition to the newer QR Codes are popping up in print collateral everywhere…but are they working? Clearly there’s a line between brands who ‘get it’ and those who don’t, as if you just took a moment to think about marketing from the consumer side, you would clearly realize the short comings of the majority of this ‘new age’ marketing.

Clear calls to action are the name of the game. You want to give people as few ‘jobs’ as possible, eliminating as many obstacles between them and their transaction (whatever that may be) with your brand. That said, if you’re trying to drive traffic through your doors, you’re not going to say “Look for us San Diego” – you’re going to give your address to them. Eliminate the obstacles. Similarly, you wouldn’t say ‘Find us on the Internet’ – You’re going to provide your website address. Social should be no different. Don’t slap a Facebook icon on a flier and call it a day. Provide the url. Facebook search is an imperfect place and with duplicate page names, people, etc, you want to be as clear as possible. “But my url is full of numbers, letters and gibberish”, you say. Fair enough. Set your custom Facebook url (provided you have at least 25 likes) by visiting facebook.com/username. BEWARE: Once you set this puppy, consider it stone so be sure to spell everything correctly and avoid a rebrand in the near future.

What not to do:

As you see above, they tell me to go to Facebook. Ok. That’s vague. You don’t know my level of tech savoir faire- break it down.

What to do:

This one’s better. Foursquare is geo location based so you’re not going to provide a url necessarily but Facebook is clear and ready to go.

Moving onto QR Codes, if you have a QR Code, make sure you use it right. Since they’re newly popular, you might want to include the name of the app to download and a brief how to with respect to QR Code Scanning. Drive traffic to a mobile friendly site…NOT your full website..especially if it’s built in Flash (flash is NOT mobile friendly). That can be overwhelming and you’ll lose your prospect right then and there. Ideally you’ll send them to a mobile landing page with a simplified version of your website catered to the mobile market. For example, if you’re a fast food joint, I don’t want to see your full site. I might want to see a simplified menu, a location based restaurant finder, a coupon or a new commercial or funny video to name a few. Always keep your user in mind. Make the transaction as easy as possible.

In sum, think about your user. Think about what you want them to do – ultimately - and what channels you can use to get them where you want them to go and to do what you want them to do. Ease is the name of the game.

By Nicole Fletcher

So I was hangin’ out relaxing all cool last night when a Kenmore commercial came on. Surely I was impressed at the capacity of the refrigerator, all chrome and sparkly – I mean wouldn’t you be? You can fit anything from a pizza to a teared wedding cake in there…and don’t even get me started on that salad crisper. I digress..the end of the commercial came and what happened, you ask? Well as is the latest trend, a flurry of social icons: Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, came into view. Take a look at the call to action…pretty weak if you ask me. Do they want me to go to Sears, check out the sears Facebook page or their own? I went ahead and assumed their own and they better well have something awesome waiting when I arrive. And so, challenge accepted Kenmore, I WILL check out your social networks.

Facebook seems to be everyone’s fan fav these days so I’ll start there. I found them and was immediately disappointed at their profile picture. So many pixels of real estate wasted. No call to action, no cool design, nothing. And what’s worse? The non fan landing page (the page that people who do not yet ‘like’ the page land on) is the wall. Ugh.

They do though have some custom tabs so I thought I’d check those out. One is called Live Studio. I don’t know why. I assume this was supposed to be the non fan landing page as there is a call to action to like the page. I get it…but strike one as that was not set up correctly. That button at the bottom though generates a popup (pictured below) asking the user to like the page from it as opposed to the conveniently located like button already statically up top. Doesn’t seem like the best expenditure of developer time to me. That said, maybe I just don’t know what Live Studio is (and everyone else does?) and maybe I’m not their target market..but regardless of those issues, applications on Facebook should be designed to take advantage of the real estate you’re give to work with…and there’s not a lot. You, as a brand, want to get something  out of someone landing on your page. They’re there for a reason. Now, it’s your job to get them to stay…and come back..time and time again. Mind you, they have 300,000+ likes, which is impressive…but arguably, it’s pretty easy for a brand like Kenmore to get that many likes by virtue of their age and brand reputation. It takes more than that to have a successful social strategy and to actually see a ROI from your social efforts.

As for twitter and youtube…I was slightly more impressed. Their conversations and uploads were recent, helpful and informative..which is good. I must say though I’d still like to see some sort of solid campaign/strategy out of them instead of posting random videos here and there with tips, commercials etc. There seems, yet again to be no clear call to action and while I certainly appreciate a tip here or there, I’d like to know more about the tips I’m getting into before watching the commercial. Finally a really important thing to note: unless your twitter handle/facebook url is your name EXACTLY, you have to write that url in your print and television ads. If you don’t, this is what happens. @kenmore is not @kenmore connect. Make that clear people.

One last thing I’d like to note is that brand voice is a really important part of your game plan. Don’t have too many people posting. It tends to kill that ‘voice’ you’re trying to create…if you’re trying to create one..which you should be. Kenmore’s voice is fine…it sounds like Kenmore. Do I think creating brand personalities that make users feel like they’re talking to a person is more effective? Yes…but this will do for now until they solidify their strategy.

Remember there’s a difference between doing social media for the sake of doing it and being strategic about it. The later will surely give your brand a better chance at seeing a return. As a parting note, don’t drive traffic to your social sites if you don’t have anything going on. Don’t put those icons in your tv commercials if you’re not ready to receive that traffic (I’m not saying Kenmore is one of these brands mind you..they have some work to do but they’re ready for the traffic). Don’t advertise social if you’re not going to deliver (I was at House of Blues the other night and saw a poster advertising foursquare specials…but there were no specials). Conversely, if you do advertise in print and on tv, you’re lucky. Take advantage of those mass audience channels. Get something measurable back for the cost of those ads. Drive traffic to those sites. Get those emails and likes and follows and as such, get the most out of your entire marketing efforts. Remember, social should weave through all channels…from print and tv, to PR, web and word of mouth, it’s now the name of the game – evolve or become extinct, the choice is yours.