Have a Boring Product or Service? Locate Related Passions!
I was having a discussion with Shannon Boudjema a few days ago about which brands are best to utilize social media. Her answer was that she could not think of one industry, service or product that could not benefit from the social space. We agreed that social can benefit PR, Marketing, HR, and a myriad of other divitional functions. However, speaking purely in the social sense of brand awareness that leads to real engagement, new leads and real sales I ask, “Should ALL companies, brands, products be involved in the social space?”I still do not have the answer but what I do have is a way in which companies can leverage and interact in the social space. The concept is to tie back to Related Passions!
Lets look at a few examples:
I asked Shannon if a toilet paper company like Charmin should be in the social space. After all it is just toilet paper at the end of the day right? Who is passionate about toilet paper and going to the bathroom? Don’t answer that question! Shannon’s retort was that a related passion around toilet paper might be the fact that it is or is not Eco-Friendly. Wow! Stroke of genius right? You might not find Charmin creating a facebook fan page, or knocking out viral videos on YouTube (but then again you might) but they might have success getting culturally involved in, enabling, and fostering communities around eco-friendly topics. Please note that I am not a certified environmentalist and really have no idea whether Charmin is eco-friendly or not, but it’s the idea that counts.
What are the related passions in your business or industry?
Do you sell monogramed hats like New Era? The related passion might be fashion or sports.
Do you have a consultancy or firm? How can you tap into the passions of your current customers and potential customers? Maybe a golf outing? How about a cruise that links a common interest similar to the way the guys at Social Fresh are approaching their event?
Enable Follow up
Once you have found that common passion or multiple passions for that matter give your community ways to follow up and engage. Community is big! It’s not a buzzword. Studies say that 43% of people engaged in an online community hold that community in as high esteem as they hold their offline communities. Remember to be of constant value and feed the need for new support and content around the passions of your community!
Rubbermaid ~ A Great Success
I want to leave you with a great success story on the theme of sharing passions. Rubbermaid, the maker of storage products, garbage cans, and totes took what I would say is a quite boring product and succesfully tapped into peoples passion for organization. Jim Deitzel and his team at Rubbermaid have enabled and supported the communities that are passionate about organization. They have a twitter page, website and even reach out to professional organizers at industry events creating a passionate ecosystem with the Rubbermaid brand tying the whole concept together. I would recommend checking out the work that Jim and his team have done for great ideas on how you can tie the related passions of your customers back to your brand.
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Comments
Rich, I agree and you make good points on the topic. The question often becomes for me whether it is worth the time, energy and investment. In most cases I think it is. There is so much more to digital and social than pure interactions. The Google and SEO benefits are of amazing value all by themselves! I think the majority of companies these days just lack the knowledge and creativity. That will all change in the next few years or someone else will just take their place at the top.
johnpiercy hey keith ,, my recent poor experience with Joby ( makers of GorillaPod’s ) led to me to believe that you either get 100% committed to the SM Space or you dont.
There is no sense creating a twitter account and using it as billboard. Oneway communication …
After trying to get in touch Joby on several occasions through twitter , I finally had success with their “get satisfaction” web based forum board . I spoke to a Joby company employee the other day who explained to me that they have several company people that use/interact with the single @jobyinc twitter account. Too me that spells confusion. No wonder my requests for info from joby were not answered .
Many companys are using all aspects of SM in a very positive and interactive ways . Griffin Technology comes to mind of a very passionate and community oriented company.
With so many SM tools at a companys disposal , using them effectively and often is a sure sign of strong and forward thinking company ….
john piercy
Great post, Keith! There are too many people, companies and organizations out there who see the social space as an “either, or” situation: Either people are enthusiastic about your product/service and want to talk about it, or you have a product like toilet paper that doesn’t inspire much conversation, so there’s no need to become involved
…but that’s only upon a quick glance.
The fact that there are so many intertwined and related interests to our products and companies is something that needs to be talked about more in the social space. Some companies may have a product/service to talk about, but only talk about that product/service without engaging in any constructive conversations.
Taking up a cause like your’s and Shannon’s Charmin example can be much more productive than having a company push its products only, all the while ignoring the communities.
Very inspiring read!
Rich (@rpulvino)