Social Media Gutcheck! Why do brands bother Pointing to Twitter & Facebook?
I have been observing as many of you have the recent uptick in promotions to Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts by large companies in mainstream media. It’s hard to open a newspaper, turn on the TV or open a magazine without seeing companies asking you to follow them on twitter or fan them on Facebook. Frankly, in most situations this is a HUGE fail! Fifteen years ago companies were asking what they were supposed to do with websites and many of them still have no clue how to manage a web presence beyond hiring a firm to create them a fancily designed digital brochure.
The Shift
I want to start at the beginning here and talk about the huge shift from brick and mortar establishments to online spaces. Just a few years ago you could walk into just about any Best Buy in the country and you would have had to wait in line to cash out and fight with crowds to check out the newest iPod release. I don’t know the exact facts and figures here, but what I can tell you is that I have been in two Best buy stores in the past month. Once on a weekday and once on a Saturday and I could have driven a golf ball through them both without fear of hitting anyone! These customers have not disappeared! They have not fallen off cliffs and interest in high tech items has not fallen off. The attention has simply shifted to online retailers. I know it looks like I am picking on Best Buy here, but this phenomenon rings true with tha majority of all industries.
Companies Observing the Shift and Fearing for their Life!
I gave a presentation recently at Blog World Expo and I was approached by a company executive of a large fortune 50 company who told me that they will not engage in social media because the space is too wild, uncontrolled and chaotic. My response to him was simply “The space is chaotic when the attention has shifted by the consumer, but the organizations focus continues to hold on to the past!” If you had 500 customers in a brick and mortar location and only had one person to check them out, service them, answer questions, and stock shelves…then YES it’s going to be real chaotic! How many massive retail based websites do you know of that have zero human presence? What gives?
Old School Agencies and consultancies giving really bad advice!
I am banging really hard on my laptop keys now as this subject raises my blood pressure about 100 points! Lets look at a possible scenario. Company X sees profits declining in their traditional business model. Company X receives reports telling them that mainstream ad’s are dropping in effectiveness and that ‘The Twitter’ and ‘The Facebook’ is where they need to set up shop now. So naturally Company X approaches their 3rd party agencies about reallocating investments to the digital and social media space. Well, like any good agency they run over and google ‘How to set up a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account’ and off to the races they go! Maybe they even work in some mainstream ad promotions to beef up the follower counts of these well oiled (sarcasm) social media initiatives.
The Fan Woody – TGI Fridays Fail
I can’t tell you how much I despise writing about social media failures. This space is so new that it seems unfair to be picking on a company for trying. However, that being said it is important to at the very least understand the basics of social media before going all out. Check out this TGI Fridays ad that ran about a month ago all over the US.
The initiative was to get Woody (TGI Fridays) 500,000 fans by September 30th 2009. In return these fans would then receive a coupon for a free Jack Daniel’s Burger. Well they did it. In fact they were able to generate over a million fans to their Facebook page! Sounds great in theory, but what really happened was they brought over a million people into one place with full freedom of speech and they had no moderation or understanding of the implications. When no one actually received their coupon for a free burger chaos ensued and is still going on in their facebook page 24 hours a day seven days a week. Here is a screen capture of the fanpage.
It’s pretty clear here that people are not becoming advocates for the brand, enjoying the experience or finding satisfaction in any way. This is not an anomaly as I have visited this page three times and each visit has been really ugly. What can they do? Today Woody has approximately 300,000 fans. Thats a drop by over 700,000! MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY LOST!
Please Understand! It’s a human Web!
The Image here represents what I love most about the new socially driven web.
This is a picture of Katie Richman from ESPN kissing her kids goodnight from the hallway floor of Blog World Expo. I am leaving you with this image because I believe it shows not only the humanity of the web, but also the possibilities!
Stop leaving your online properties unattended! The web has shifted from metal boxes and wires to heartbeats and humans! Treat us with respect!
Please feel free to leave your two cents in the comments! If your brand tell us why this space scares you! If your an individual tell us how you want to be treated. At the end of the day we are all both brands and individuals. This should be a no brainer!
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Kris, you said “Customer Care is the FIRST reason I would use it, and tackle marketing (which will happen by nature of being present online) come afterward.”
Marketing is the whole of the experience that a customer has with a brand. I would say that customer service is 90% of that. If you can create a company culture that effectively manages customer needs then you are miles ahead of the rest!
If you do nothing more than create a superior product and take superior care of your customers you might not need a marketing budget. Enable them digital venues to talk about their experience and you have a full on marketing program. Thank you for this comment. It’s all about the conversation.
The laptop kissy bit gets to the core of what it’s all about. I find that most companies jump on the social media bandwagon without being ready to steer it. If they’re not already able to answer their customer support calls, they won’t be able to deal with the influx of communication once they open the floodgates of Facebook and twitter. These new tools aren’t simply operated by pouring in money… it involves pouring in time to nurture and grow with a company’s public community.
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Scott Meyer Great points here Keith. The question or dilemma then for those of us working in the space is how do you convince companies to pursue (and pay) for that kind of attention. If they are struggling to meet the bottom line and are only willing to spend enough money to create .gif icon, is it better to do nothing or to just say no unless they’re willing to dive all the way in?
Scott, I am not 100% clear on your question, but I will take a stab. In the case of TGI Fridays, they poured millions of dollars worth of mainstream ad production and air time to generate the million plus followers they got to their fanpage. To ask a company like that to run 10 less TV spots so they could afford a social media team for a year seems hardy daunting. The real question here is why are these Ad Agencies selling these companies on promoting facebook and Twitter if they have no idea how to manage the accounts or how to follow through.
They spent Millions to generate this follower base. Do they not realize that these spaces are opt in and that anyone can leave at any time? What were they doing to compel followers to stick around? All they did was piss them off by not distributing the coupons. A situation in which they can very easily rectify but choose not too.
I would say these guys dove in head first and naked into the deep end. they were going for it, but they were riding on a platform of push advertising rather than understanding the space.
keithburtis´s last blog ..Social Media Gutcheck! Why do brands bother Pointing to Twitter & Facebook?
Scott Meyer I definitely hear you on the TGI Fridays case. I’m thinking more of small businesses who want to get in on the social media action but don’t have the budget. We often have small businesses that come to us and want us to help them get started but they don’t have the time/interest to do it themselves, nor the cash to pay someone like us to come in house and run their account for longer than a month or two. At that point do we just say, don’t do it?
Scott, it’s an interesting conundrum and one that needs to be answered based on the specific company, but let me give you a sample of how I have approached this.
I am working with a small business that outsources HR services and they have an office in a good size complex. I asked the owner how many people walk by each day, see his shingle and inquire about business. His answer was ZERO.
We were able to show him the numbers of people that were searching for his service types in out specific area. Add to that the fact that no one had a significant presence and we were able to convince him to take action on a blog and even some twittering. It is very important to understand that not all businesses need YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Many of them simply need to optimize home base. In my next blog post I am going to get into that very topic.
As far as paying you to help them…I don’t have the answer. Small businesses need to see real value and ROI. No one is cash heavy right now and you need to prove your model… especially in the first three months.
keithburtis´s last blog ..Social Media Gutcheck! Why do brands bother Pointing to Twitter & Facebook?
I agree on some levels with the TGI Friday case. This is an example of using a promotion to promote trial (In this instance, the trial was visit the Facebook page.)
By their nature though, promotions attract non-fans of the brand. People come for the shiny free thing, then leave. So it’s not entirely unexpected that many fans would leave.
To your bigger question, this promotion didn’t let people know what was expected of the people who stayed on the page. The ‘brand’ page is filled with people talking about the brand, but that gets boring after a while. But if behind the scenes, TGI Friday’s was using the e-mail feature on Facebook to target certain people and reward them for being fans (come into the TI friday’s near you and get free appetizers when you say Facebook), then it could be “working”.
My point: just because it appears things aren’t going well, it doesn’t mean they aren’t. We don’t know the strategy, nor do we know the outcome.
And BTW, this is the first time I’ve looked at TGI Friday’s Facebook page, so I have no idea what their intentions are. But I like that they tried to use TV and social media together. That’s a start. Because TV is still one of the bet ways to market a brand. Social media is one of the best ways to let fans market the brand to their friends. When the two do work together, it can be magic.
Matt, we always seem to disagree and thats healthy I guess. It’s good to have another view. My whole point in this article is to say that it’s important to be educated before trial. Are you seriously saying that they did a good job with this because they ran a multi-million dollar trial only to create a shitstorm for themselves?
They very clearly don’t understand the medium, the culture or the space. When you are talking about emailing everyone you are talking about more push marketing. I am making the point that social media is 100% opt in. No one gives a crap about the brand, they give a crap about what that brand can do for them. You say they didn’t set expectations. I disagree again. The people that joined as fans expected to get the coupon for the free hamburger. I signed up and I have not gotten my free hamburger. That’s why people are pissed. They spent a ton of money vying for our attention, offered a free promotion and didn’t follow through.
keithburtis´s last blog ..Social Media Gutcheck! Why do brands bother Pointing to Twitter & Facebook?
I never once said they did a good job. I said I didn’t know the right answer yet.
Lets take you for a second.
You appear to have joined the page for the free hamburger, not because you’re a fan of TGI Fridays (if you didn’t bear with me on this tangent)
That’s a promotion changing a behavior using social media. You 100% opted in, and there you are, one of the 300K fans. Now, what if they sent you a targeted message that said if you come to the Main and Chippewa TGI Friday’s for Game 6 of the World Series and say Facebook, we’ll buy your entree. Then, when you’re there, someone at TGI Friday’s takes your picture and asks your permission to place it in an album on the page.
As you say, that’s Push Marketing, but you talk about it like it’s a bad thing. To me, that’s using the medium to reward Fans, then letting fans be fans. That’s an engagement that can be measured, scaled, and promoted.
My overall point is this: while I’ll concede that they screwed up not sending you their hamburger, my point is they most-likely scrwed up not thinking about what’s next, and what they will do next. But I don’t oficially KNOW they screwed up, because they aren’t done. If they have something like what I propose coming, then I’ll applaud. If they don’t, then I’ll give them a fail.
Matt´s last blog ..A social media bubble?
Hey Keith: Excellent insight, and very much needed. I just blogged about a competitor that has reassigned their community manager because they feel the community is now robust enough and sustainable all on it’s own. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen! What kind of mindset is that? You can build it, nurture it, gain traction and then LEAVE!! I like how you liken it to having 500 customers in a brick and mortar with no human presence. I was also on a panel recently and had to chime in when one of my co-panelists told the audience of 150 business professionals that he had 6 twitter accounts, leading them to believe that’s what they need to do to find success. They were already overwhelmed by social media and then he offers up that nonsense? I provided a different perspective and people managed to calm down. On another note in the fail department, I just read a press release issued by a company yesterday about it’s new twitter account that will retweet info from another account. Yes, that was in a press release. But I digress….
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Angela, thats a great post and very insightful. If your in community you need to be reading Angela’s blog. The link is right above this comment! Thank you for adding value here. I hate focusing on failures, but a failure for one is a tip for another.
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Every executive that I’ve met with to discuss social media initiatives leaps on the concept of “Free.” “Free” media channels. With “free” platforms, tools and widgets. And every message sent “free.”
The only question they have is: Where and when can I get me some of that?
The bright shiny object syndrome apparently overwhelms any subsequent discussion of the true human costs of social media, since being social actually requires the interaction of a real, live human. And this human draws a paycheck.
(Cue sound of screeching brakes)
When this realization sinks in, the typical response is “my people don’t have time for chatting and wasting time.”
So, the inevitable happens. Lured by the prospect of “free”, they fire up a blog, set up a Facebook Fan Page, create some Twitter accounts and sit back and wait for the adoring throngs to express their undying love and appreciation of their company.
Lively content? (Buzzz)
Genuine conversation? (Buzzz)
Real-time interaction? (Buzzz)
Logically, then, the only lesson that can be gleaned is that social media is a huge waste of time. Unless it’s done thoughtfully as a part of a strategic program aligned with the company’s marketing efforts with specific goals and objectives and sufficient resources applied to training, content development and execution. But that stuff’s just not as fun as tweeting and Facebook friending.
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I’m writing from South Africa where all this stuff is all pretty much limited to a small percentage of the poulation.
With that said, most social media efforts revolve around a small handful of “luminaries/digital pioneers” who go round “consulting” and strategising on behalf of some big companies/brands. It usually involves the holy trinity of getting a blog up, and setting up a Facebook page and lately Twitter account and then cross-linking all this into one another.
Where I see it failing is exactly a point you’re trying to make, the online space is becoming increasingly human, a social media manager need to be a “personality” just like in real life when you meet new people and start hanging out with a certain group of friends.
You need to stay in contact and constantly do different things and retain the interest and connections e.g going to shows/concerts together, hanging out at a favourite bar, texting and e-mailing one another about significant ups/downs in each others’ lives.
Long-term bonds of friendship is built like that
Now companies decide they need to get into social media cause everyone else is and they don’t wanna seem uncool or behind the times, they hire someone to set up the blog, facebook page and twitter profile and then let that person go. Now some sterile corporate drone/intern sit there and from time to time churn out these uninteresting corporate facts and figures. It just won’t do and that is why many social media efforts fall flat and then the whole thing turns sour and people start pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame.
Social Media cannot be outsourced, the people who run the company, knows the business model and what they’re supposed to be doing, selling needs to get in there and act just like they would in a real life social setup.
And this is not impractical, just realistic, people need to get over themselves and just Tweet themselves about their company and be live, real people with personality. This gets picked up on by whomever happens by and whether or not it actually leads to sales in the end is not the point, all this obsession with ROI etc is SO NOT what it should be about. If you let people see you’re an interesting human being with interesting links and personality to share and you just SO HAPPEN to represent a company that sells shoelaces, they may just next time when their shoelaces get chowed by the dog send you an @message or click through to your website and order some shoelaces just because you’re that nice new Twitter friend with the funny quips who just happen to work for a shoelace manufacturing company. How incredibly serendipitous is this whole Tweeting business!
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Yes to all. To every word, I mean. The picture of your friend kissing her laptop screen is precious. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve involuntarily touched my hand up to the screen when a friend says something sweet or touching, or held my iPod to my heart when I look at dear one’s pictures.
But that’s an individual facet… what you are saying regarding companies limiting themselves and regulating social media to its marketing or PR department is SPOT ON.
People cannot seem to comprehend both the opportunity and the reality of maintaining a social media presence. You said… “If you had 500 customers in a brick and mortar location and only had one person to check them out, service them, answer questions, and stock shelves…then YES it’s going to be real chaotic!” This is obviously their fear, and what a waste of time it is to worry about this.
What companies need to do instead is embrace full-scale, enterprise-wide social media training. Whole Foods Market has 165 Twitter accounts, and growing all the time. I don’t know their policies – I think a few people in each store are responsible for their own accounts. But if I had it my way, ALL the employees (the bulk of them) would have a part to play in serving customers on the phone, in the store, and online. A lot of folks want Twitter and Facebook to be about marketing, but Customer Care is the FIRST reason I would use it, and tackle marketing (which will happen by nature of being present online) come afterward.
I began doing web design in the mid-90′s, when we had to teach ourselves how to hide ugly beveled borders with special HTML code. The purpose then was to get online and engage with people using new methods. People think “social media” is so new, but really since the early days of creating “sites and pages” this has always been it’s purpose. Companies are as guilty of pride as we all can be when they think that to refrain from the conversation means it isn’t happening. One thing I’ve noticed on social sites is that brand fans and detractors are going to shape the image of your brand whether you are there to participate or not. If I were the brand manager for a company, I wouldn’t let that happen without my involvement in a million years. The same people who talk about your company are the same people who open their purse and buy your product… the same people who return things… the same people who call their friends and tell them they should or should not (insert brand mention here.)
Organizations with physical locations don’t seem to mind interacting with their customers or prospects – why then is it so different online? As you point out, it’s not. We just need to keep trying to explain why they need to do this, as we do to a company who needs a website or Google Local listing (at least) because customers are seeking information like hours of operation. For us, as for them, nothing has changed. Those who know must attempt to spread the word.
I love this post!!! This was an excellent morsel to chew on before I go to bed. Thanks, Keith!