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Apr 29 2011

Connecting with a Mobile Food Shopper

April 29, 2011 – 9:50 am

By Jason Stemm  @NYCubsFan

Since the days of open air markets and general stores, the food shopping experience has been in person. Trips to the grocery store have started with a list and ended with a cart full of groceries filled with planned and impulse buys. Retailers have relied on these incremental purchases to improve margins and increase sales. As the In-Store Sales Begin at Home evolves and gas prices rise, grocers have adapted to service their new consumer.

For some time, and spurred by the economic downturn, consumers have been using the internet to find bargains. The model for supermarkets has been to use store ads featuring popular loss leaders to draw consumers into the store, likely to purchase a myriad of items on their way from the front door to the checkout line. With the advent of online shopping and delivery of mobile information, new approaches must be considered to counter the loss of impulse buys.

Online Communication  In data collected January 2011 by Lucid Marketing, 93% of moms use Facebook and 91% use email to communicate. E-mail marketing of store circulars has been evolving. Some chains are offering exclusive communications to subscribers and social network followers. Ads and coupons are still a prime driver for consumers, but others are going further. Kroger has developed a Culinary 411 program offering recipes with videos demonstrating preparation. Recipes are a great way to motivate customers to click on a few more food items to try a new dish at home. A chain’s website serves as a critical hub for this information, but without active communication by email and on Facebook, a huge pool of prospective sales are being lost.

Grocery Delivery  It used to be a convenience for busy people, but as gas prices rise, consumers are making fewer shopping trips. Fresh Direct and Pea Pod have had recent success, but I still find their websites miss opportunities. Fresh Direct does provide recipe links at the bottom of an item’s page, but there is nothing to draw shoppers to them. Once they do, there is a handy tool where all items in the recipe can be purchased from that page. Photos could easily be added to entice the eye and draw clicks. How-to and cooking videos would also enhance the pages clicked through during shopping. A video showing best practices for cooking fish or handling artichokes may help a timid cook to add it to the virtual cart. If they don’t have the content, or the desire to produce it, they could easily tap resources from the food companies and commodity boards that supply them. They have a wealth of recipes and educational content they would be happy to share at no charge to entice purchases.

Grocery Pick-Up To address customer demands for convenience and desire to shop online, many stores are offering pick-up service. Superstores Walmart and Meijer have been the latest to allow customers to select groceries online and have them collected and waiting for pick-up. With new shoppers not getting far past the entrance, the impulse shopping happens online, where comparative pricing among local and online competitors is only a few clicks away. Many of the techniques described already, are applicable here. I’m interested to know how the pick-up process works. Certainly perishable items need to be kept at different temperatures, and I can envision wait periods where customers get frustrated. This could be a good opportunity to offer samples of new products or coffee with the opportunity to easily add it to their online purchase.

Mobile POS Paper and cardboard have ruled the aisles for years. Food companies and marketing groups have delivered these in-store attention grabbers to stores free of charge to entice shoppers to their products. As mobile adoption expands, there are new ways to connect with these mobile consumers. If you have a mobile app, what are you doing to entice usage? Pushing out exclusive deals or encouraging social sharing (e.g. rewarding a customer for tweeting a special or sharing on Facebook) is one way, but dangers alienating non-adopters. If you don’t have an app, a mobile website can be as or even more effective. Streamline the information on your website and make it mobile-friendly to deliver information. Shelf talkers can now include short URL’s or QR codes directing them to special content and an alternate way to take advantage of specials. The content available is limitless.

All of these platforms offer food retailers new ways to provide customer service and enhance the shopping experience. At the same time, they are for-profit businesses. There is a reason that the bread and milk are in the back corners of the store. They rely on additional purchases made by the shopper’s eye and stomach. That is why I try never to shop hungry. Today, the eyeballs are moving, and marketers must find new ways to hit this moving target.

Photo Credits: The General Store In New England ©Copyright 2003 Eva Deutsch http://www.austingrocer.com/

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Stemm | Posted in Digital Marketing, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)
Apr 28 2011

Hi, I’m a Gen-Yer and I Like to Complain On Twitter

April 28, 2011 – 12:38 pm

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By Toni Carey (@toni_carey)

In an age where time is money and money is time, most businesses have either forgone their customer service initiatives or put them on a back burner. While the majority of consumers have given up on “stellar” customer experience, I’m one of the few people that still snail mails companies to provide feedback on my experience(s) with their staff.

As a Gen-Yer who has worked in retail, I have to admit that my expectations on quality customer service and the timeliness of a response to a complaint is high.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) technology has made it easier for consumers to complain. It would be easy for companies to take the easy way out and not integrate technology and social media into their customer service model, but several companies are taking advantage of the medium to directly connect to their consumer base. It’s well known that Twitter users like to complain and vent. And I’m one of those people.

If you aren’t using Twitter as a customer service tool, you should. Here’s a few tips to make the most of out of it:

Create a Social Media-Marketing-Customer Service Twitter Task Force: Your social media, marketing and customer service departments should be working together to tackle tough questions and address criticism. Don’t just listen, respond. Ask how you can make a bad situation better. A little love goes a long way.

Tone Matters: Recently I vented on Twitter about how disappointed I was that Nike sold out of their newly launched Nike+ Sportwatch and how I’d spent the money I saved on new clothes. Their response was not only timely, but made me laugh. I briefly forgot how ticked off I was that these cool watches were out of stock. Although every complaint/criticism/rant should be taken seriously, you can lighten the situation by showing a sense of humor. No one wants to feel like they’re talking to a robot or stuck in voicemail hell.Capture3

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Make It Easy: On the other hand, I took to Twitter again to complain about a recent experience with a postal service. They replied and asked me to email them to explain my experience. While I appreciated their response, I didn’t have the time to stop what I was doing and write an email. They could have easily DM’ed me to get more details and handle it from there. Don’t make your customers take extra steps that aren’t necessary. I think that it’s important to note that before I posted my complaint on Twitter, I complained to the delivery guy and the local store. It got me nowhere.

The Customer is ALWAYS Right – Even When They Aren’t.: Yes, the saying still holds true, at least in the minds of consumers. The easiest way to maintain and/or save your reputation is showing your customers you appreciate them, even if they are wrong or don’t have a valid complaint. If not, they might just make a music video about you. Ask United Airlines how that worked out for them.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By tcarey | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (3)
Apr 26 2011

Hello, Playstation, Hello?

April 26, 2011 – 7:00 am

By Mike Mulvihill

Boys

My 15-year-old son is fairly immune to most of the crisis communication situations we see in PR. But Playstation Network being down for five days and counting?  Well, now that’s a different story.

Why is this a big deal? Well, it isn’t unless you’re a gamer. They are livid. What was originally stated as a one- or two-day outage has turned into five days and all Sony has to say is that they are completely “rebuilding” the Sony Playstation Network.

The biggest draw of most popular Playstation games is the online, multi-player action functionality. Playstation Network also offers online access to Qricoity (music) and Netflix movies through their consoles. Since April 20th, none of these services have been available to an estimated 70 million registered users. The much anticipated Portal 2 online game had just launched one-day prior to the outage (yet Portal is still running TV ads prominently featuring a Playstation review).

Apparently, per Sony Playstation’s updates, the outage is the result of an “external instrusion” (i.e., they’ve been hacked). First the outage was for a few days. Now it is five. And the latest update simply is asking for patience while they sort things out.

CNN’s request for a comment was not returned. The company has been silent other than some fairly uninformative online press announcements – despite the fact that it has been widely reported that the security breach likely exposed user data, including credit card information.  Sony has said they’ll contact you if your personal information got hacked. How comforting!

Is it me or does it appear that Toyota, Tokyo Electric Power and Sony just don’t get how to handle crisis communications? Laying low, providing little information while the technical folks figure out how to fix things just doesn’t cut it, especially when your 70 million users are used to getting data instantaneously. Sony’s actions clearly state they don’t have a clue how severely they’ve been hacked, that the lawyers are running the show and 70 million users can just wait. Can anyone say X-Box?

Oh, and so much for that new PSP Go (online game downloads only from Playstation Network) I bought my son to play on the airplane on our Easter travels. It was a wonderful paperweight while, thankfully, his iPod worked just fine.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Apr 25 2011

A Hat Tip to the Social Media Purists

April 25, 2011 – 1:14 pm

By Mike Nelson (@Michael_Nelson)

The internet is where we communicate, conduct business, socialize and consume news – in many ways it’s become our second world. Everyone who has designed a webpage, developed an app or Internet meme or created a social platform has helped shape the infrastructure of this new world, and, to our good fortune, made it a relatively productive place. Once our world was built, however, we needed social norms to guide us on our new way of life in the otherwise free wielding internet.

A group of activists, the social media purists, saw the potential of the internet, not as a one-way channel for pushing and consuming information, but as a two-way channel for communicating. This group of motivated, smart visionaries scratched and clawed their way to a more conversational, transparent internet than what we would otherwise have today. They took it upon themselves to make the internet a place worth coming back to.

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(Photo Credit: Charles Williams’ Photostream)

What would have happened if the social media purists didn’t exist, or didn’t win in the fight for an open internet? What if corporations refused to relinquish control? What if there was no move to engage, ask and respond? What if the spammers won? Or, what if advertisers laid the ground rules?

There has been marked change on the social web over the past few years brought on by the prevalence of social media in business today, but the norms set by the earliest social media practitioners still guide internet culture. For example, there has been a wonderful convergence of advertising and social media, especially in the past two years. It’s beautiful how advertising is now being used to introduce conversations to highly targeted individuals on Facebook, and point them to Facebook conversations about a cause, contest, product launch or opportunity they’d likely be interested in. Because the social media purists (mostly professional communicators) won, advertising  is now being used to amplify online conversations, taking communication efforts even further, not pushing out one-way messages.

As communications professionals, how can we stay rooted in the guiding principles set out by the social media purists as we engage in social media for our clients? Here is a list of seven fundamentals to being a good citizen on the social web:

1. It’s all about the relationship: Online communities are continuously growing, and they thrive on participation and interaction. Think of your online relationships as investments in your brand.

2. Listen to your community: Monitoring and aggregating feedback from the social web, and then implementing a commenting policy that helps you stay connected and your community stay informed.

3. Have personality: There is a tremendous amount of noise online. Post with purpose, and give your community a reason to engage. Being conversational with social updates – not only tweeting/Facebooking press releases, etc.

4. Avoiding astroturfing, spamming, and overt link baiting: Call it out when you see it.

5. Comment often: Consume as much of the good content posted online as you can, and then share your opinion. When you see something relevant, interesting or provocative, comment on the blog post, retweet or share on Facebook. Personally, make a goal to comment or share on at least one post per day. On behalf of your clients, make a list of the top 10-20 blogs in your category and add them to your Google Reader, then monitor and comment.

6. Avoid ghost blogging: if you don’t have time to blog – don’t blog. If you only have time to blog occasionally, write bylined articles and submit them other relevant blogs. You’ll likely gain much more visibility and SEO benefits that way, too.

7. Golden rule: remember that the internet is full of real people. Treat them that way.

Certainly, this is not a comprehensive list. What else would you add?

Lastly, take a moment to think about how the internet impacts your life. Then, tip your hat to those who developed the infrastructure, and, more importantly, fought for the open and transparent type of communication we generally enjoy today.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Apr 22 2011

5 Simple Tips to Make Corporate Anniversaries More Meaningful

April 22, 2011 – 8:24 am

candle_cupcake_thumbnailBy Jeff Wilson, APR (@wilson0507)

Last night, Tina Fey and the gang at “30 Rock” celebrated the show’s 100th episode. The episode was full of the standard anniversary clip montages and the ubiquitous lineup of guest stars including Michael Keaton, Rachel Ray, Matt Lauer, Brian Williams, Tom Hanks and Dean Winters, the actor who stars as Mayhem in the cool series of Allstate commercials and formerly of “Oz” and “Law & Order SVU” fame.

It was a pretty good episode, which got me to thinking, why do we place such emphasis on anniversaries and other milestones?

Art Markman, Ph.D., a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas, says that we impose a psychological order on the world using numbers that doesn’t really exist.

“Numbers are a mathematical construct,” Markman writes. “Yet, our perception of numbers is affected by our experience with them.”

He goes on to say that focusing on round numbers gives us a reason to mark landmarks in our lives by those numbers.

“We measure the performance of new Presidents by the activity in their first 100 days in office. We go to class reunions after 10, 20 or 25 years. In fact, many of the days, weeks and years in between landmarks may feel like a blur,” according to Markman. “We mark landmarks in time like birthdays and anniversaries as a way of remembering what we have done in that time period. They make the passing months and years more memorable.”

Given that we inherently find comfort in round numbers, it makes since that major numerical milestones, such as 25th, 50th or 100th anniversaries can be important occasions for reflection and celebration for companies and other organizations.

My agency, CRT/tanaka, has considerable experience helping companies and organizations make the most out of anniversaries. We helped Mount Rushmore commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1991 and the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ historic first flight in 2003. We even helped Eskimo Pie celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary in 1996. Currently, we’re working with the Council of Better Business Bureaus to mark the organization’s 100th anniversary in 2012.

So what are some of the rules for making the most of corporate or organizational anniversaries? Here are five simple tips to consider.

1. Tie the anniversary to business goals. While milestone anniversaries can be wonderful opportunities to throw a great party for employees and other stakeholders, companies also should use the anniversary as a chance to re-enforce strategic business goals and objectives. Announce future growth plans or new initiatives. Carefully plan what strategic messages about the company will be conveyed in anniversary celebrations.

2. There is no substitute for meticulous planning. As the old adage goes, “the devil is in the details.” Planning for a major anniversary takes time. Some companies begin planning a year or two in advance. Remember that anniversaries are pretty commonplace. Everybody has one. So when planning, consider the types of corporate stories, information and events that will capture the attention and interest of the media in order to generate positive media coverage and engage stakeholders. Often, companies will tie anniversary celebrations to cause-marketing efforts, as an extension of their overall corporate social responsibility initiatives.

For example, as Eskimo Pie approached its 75th anniversary, CRT/tanaka helped promote the company through a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. CRT/tanaka orchestrated a formal donation of more than 500 items to the Smithsonian amid a news conference and ceremony that became part of an exhibit on the history of ice cream titled “America’s Romance with Ice Cream.” Along with garnering major national media coverage, an estimated 10,000 people visited the National Museum of American History the day of the event. The Smithsonian requested that the Eskimo Pie artifacts be made a permanent addition to its archive collection, thus sealing Eskimo Pie’s place in history.

3. Don’t think of the anniversary celebration as just one day. Use the anniversary as an opportunity to plan commemorative events throughout the year. For the Centennial of Flight celebration, we used the year leading up to the actual anniversary to plan and promote events across the country. The actual Centennial celebration – which included a reenactment of the Wright brothers’ first flight in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. – was used as the culminating event of a year of celebrations.

4. Carefully consider appropriate commemorative marketing material for the anniversary. Is it feasible and cost effective to create a special anniversary logo to be used on all marketing material throughout the year? The commemorative logo should adhere to the already-established brand standards of the organization, and if possible, incorporate the existing logo into it. This anniversary logo can be used on collateral material, the company’s website and other commemorative items and gifts. The logo also should be incorporated into any company advertisement throughout the year. Some company’s even commission books or documentaries to commemorate significant anniversaries.

5. Money is an object. It’s very easy to get caught up in planning anniversary events and thinking of elaborate gifts for employees, investors and other stakeholders. Establish an anniversary budget as part of the planning process and stick to it. Remember tip #1 and make sure that everything planned and all expenditures allocated for the anniversary re-enforce strategic business goals and objectives.

When planning milestone anniversaries, it’s okay to celebrate and commemorate, but remember that an anniversary is just as much about the future of your organization as it is the past.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jeff Wilson | Posted in PR Industry Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
Apr 20 2011

The Importance of Storytelling and Listening…Then Re-(tweet)telling.

April 20, 2011 – 11:43 am

THE BOOZE BIN

By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)

storytelling Stories move us. They give us meaning and help us sequence otherwise overwhelming messages and facts. For marketers, storytelling authenticates all, especially when the big fish speaks directly in-person to the consumer.

Storytelling is how to get the consumer to join your tribe.

Last night I attended Australia Redux, another Noble Rot event, hosted in collaboration with Bernard Hickin, Chief Winemaker at Jacob’s Creek Vineyards. I enjoyed tasting the wines, while discussing how (entrepreneurially) inspiring the Banksy documentary is with event-designer mastermind Adam Aleksander, and chatted with Darryl Robinson on the importance of educational marketing campaigns, specifically with wine products.

So in between the catch ups, winemaker podcast and noshing on Tuck Shop meat pies, I realized that these events are the best added value a wine brand can offer, to achieve endearing loyalty.

And on this note, I shall take the opportunity to plug that my team anmark_twaind I excitedly just announced our Thursday, May 5 livestream of the upcoming 2011 Rioja Grand Tasting events. During the live broadcast, wine aficionados all over the globe can tweet questions to Rioja winemakers, and to cool folks like Paul Grieco, co-owner of Hearth Restaurant and Terroir in New York.

In the spirit of Mark Twain’s famous words, below I included the Australia Redox invite—a great example of how to peak interest.

Friends,

History will tell you that Australia is a continent of vast unknown and traversed landscapes, home to a ruling majority of the world’s most deadly creatures, arid deserts and unexplored hotbeds of archeological history. Australia may contain the secret to life itself…! And of the scores of European cultures that have descended upon its shores in efforts to populate and conquer the continent, we may in the coming years be thanking the many early German Farmers who begat Australia’s wine country. As the wine-growing community undergoes its Renaissance, the fruits of their labor will undoubtedly yield great benefits to us all, and so it is in the spirit of defining a wine culture that we present an evening of Australian Regionality with one of the country’s most well-known wines: Jacob’s Creek.

The year was 1847. The man was Johann Gramp. He missed the wine he used to drink in Bavaria, his homeland, and so he planted some vineyards to make a wine. Join us as we explore Gramp’s present day wines and learn of their evolution over time .

And here is what you may expect:

  • SIP: A welcome glass of JC’s blended Charonnay/Pinot Noir Sparkling wine to liven your palate and perk up your senses.
  • LEARN: The Noble Rot Talks - a short recorded podcast with Jacob Creek’s Chief Winemaker, Bernard Hickin. We’ll learn about Australia’s grape-growing history and Germanic roots and discuss the differing micro-climates of Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra and other wine regions you’ll eventually be able to pronounce. Mr. Cigar and Bernard will attempt to out-saber each other with wit and claims of legitamate wine-speak, as you sip faithfully on a crisp and delightful Chardonnay.
  • DRINK: Taste your way through JC’s: Adelaide Hills Reserve Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir, Barossa Shiraz and Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.
  • FEAST:  An array of small plates, paired to highlight each wine by Chef Christine Wells of The French Cullinary Institute to entice your palate throughout the evening with delicious Tuck-Shop meat pies lending a local-Australian flair to the night.
  • CHALLENGE: Sit down at the Sensory Challenge Table with Bernard and the Noble Rot crew and test your own sense-memory and vocabulary. We’ll have aromas in the form of liquids and solids reminiscent of flavors in the wine as well as black glasses that will confound you in your efforts to recall what you’re tasting.
  • Full pours, incredulous banter and side-line encouragement from Noble hosts, Jonny Cigar, a self-appointed Master Sommelier and Brian Quinn, a State-Certified Absolute Gentleman.
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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Cassandra Bianco | Posted in Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Apr 18 2011

Out the Way– Mobile and Internet News Are Taking Over

April 18, 2011 – 10:22 pm

By Mike Mulvihill

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To effectively communicate, we must know our audiences. In public relations, a gatekeeper between us and many of those audiences is the news media. Which is why this year’s Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism report http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/overview-2/ is a must read for anyone and everyone in public relations

Traditional media relations no longer exists as we once knew it. In its place is a mash-up of traditional media outlets, news aggregators and social media that morph, feed off of – and upon – one another in a semi-cannibalistic, yet symbiotic manner. Consider the following findings from this year’s survey, produced by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in association with the Knight Foundation:

  • Mobile has already become an important factor in news. Nearly half of all Americans (47 percent) now get some form of local news (weather, information about restaurants and other local businesses, as well as traffic) on a mobile device. And the move to mobile http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/mobile-survey/ is will only grow. By January 2011, 7 percent of Americans reported owning some kind of electronic tablet – nearly double the number reported just four months earlier.
  • In 2010 every news platform saw audiences either stall or decline — except for the web. Cable news, one of the growth sectors of the last decade, is now shrinking, too. For the first time in at least a dozen years, the median audience declined at all three cable news channels.
  • For the first time more people said they got news from the web than newspapers. The internet now trails only television among American adults as a destination for news, and the trend line shows the gap closing.
  • A notable development is the expansion of news aggregators into news gathering. In 2010, some of the biggest new media institutions began to develop original news gathering in a significant way. Yahoo added several dozen reporters across news, sports and finance. AOL had 900 journalists, 500 of them at its local Patch news operation (it then let go 200 people from the content team after the merger with Huffingtonpost)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/. By the end of 2011, Bloomberg expects to have 150 journalists and analysts for its new Washington operation, Bloomberg Government. News Corp. has hired from 100 or 150..
  • Meanwhile, the study estimates that 1,000 to 1,500 more newsroom jobs have been lost, reducing the size of traditional media newsrooms by 30 percent since 2000. As a result, traditional newsrooms are smaller, their aspirations have narrowed and their journalists are stretched thinner. But their leaders also say they are more adaptive, younger and more engaged in multimedia presentation, aggregation, blogging and user content. In some ways, new media and old, slowly and sometimes grudgingly, are coming to resemble each other.

All this means that effective public relations programs require more effort to reach a broader range of journalists that ever before. Successfully seeding a story can come from many different sources, and more and more often the best way to create momentum starts with social media, and from the sounds of it, that may soon become the bastion of beefed-up news aggregators turned news originators.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (2)

It’s Not YOU…It’s Your Company Culture That’s Not Ready for Social Media

April 18, 2011 – 2:28 pm

By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)

Organizational Culture and Leadership Key to Social Media Adoption: Don’t blame it on yourself

Social mediaI am sure you have all kinds of friends and I am also sure you also have two distinct sets: the ones that are always saying “No, that’s not possible” and then the others who say, “Hey, that sounds cool, tell me more.” Organizational cultures are somewhat similar to the friends’ groups. Some companies have a culture and leadership style that is hungry for learning and look for ways to enhance their business efficiencies and work smarter while others choose to carry on business the old fashioned way. I have no problem against the latter as long as you are positively affecting the company’s bottom line and meeting your goals but I do have a few things to say to social media strategists who have been hired to do their job but end up spending more time just wrestling within their office corridors to go “social.”

I realize there are several unanswered questions, debates, fallouts around “What does social networking do for my business?” “Where’s the ROI?” “I don’t have the time/money to spend on social media” but just ask yourself one simple question, “Where are people going more and more these days” and you will nod with me in agreement that Facebook and Twitter have become a “must-have” for any brand these days. Having at the least a page on Facebook and a Twitter profile is like having an online business card. So enough of that ranting about why you must have a social presence and let’s consider some key organizational/leadership characteristics that I think is crucial to your success as a social media manager. I have personally experienced these in helping several CRT/tanaka clients who represent a wide variety of verticals from retail, consumer, high-tech, non-profit, higher education.

Learning organizations do better with social media: Not to get all theoretical on you but you will like the definition of a “learning organization” from Peter Sange (named Strategist of the Century by Journal of Business Strategy), “Learning organizations are organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.” Initially I was biased and thought only tech companies who need to keep up with ever changing landscapes which also makes them learning organizations get social media. I was so wrong. One key commonality that binds high-tech, government agencies, non-profits to embrace new tools and technologies to better communicate is their appetite for constant learning. How do you learn when you are happy being a frog in the well and nothing wrong with that. But if you want to swim in the ocean, learning to adapt and embrace is key, right?  

Collaborative environments facilitate faster social media integration: We all in the corporate communications world think the C-letter word, “Communication” is a challenge for organizations. Well, let me tell you there’s another word that just seems to be a harder sell, “COLLABORATION.” A good majority of companies still operate as individual units who are tasked with their own specific goals and responsibilities and don’t necessarily communicate or collaborate amongst each other to maximize efficiencies. The best environments where social media adaption is faster facilitating its usage for internal communications, customer service, marketing etc. are COLLABORATIVE environments. The mindset in these organizations is “We, us and let’s make it happen together” versus “I, You, I am not responsible for social media.” There is a link between the learning and collaborative environments because fundamentally these are folks, who like to push the envelope, look for new opportunities and hence collaborate!

Open cultures more receptive to social media: I use “openness” in the context of interactions with your external environments and deriving value out of those interactions. An open organizational culture is one that builds bridges and not walls around itself to facilitate new ideas and new information. This is easier said than done but I have seen social media strategists that work for “open” systems do way better in terms of engaging both online and offline versus those that are still working on winning their executive buy-in to proactively comment online. Social media crowdsourcing efforts like Dell’s Idea Storm or IBM’s Smarter Cities project are good examples of companies leveraging their communities to take them to the next level and this wouldn’t be possible without an open-minded culture.

Top-down leadership with resistance to technology makes it harder: The head of the organization definitely impacts the social media adaption rate. The key decision-makers need not be social media savvy but their realization and acceptance is hugely instrumental in steering the company in the right direction. I have seen where the head of Marketing and or CEO are gung-ho about new media, their teams are that much more effective in leveraging new tools to market themselves. On the contrary when you have to explain and pretty much act as a social media salesperson to your boss, the enthusiasm and productivity of the social media strategist takes a hit. I want to quote Chrisie Scott, VP of Marketing and Communications at Meridian Health, one of the largest hospital systems in New Jersey who I met at a healthcare social media workshop. Chrisie said, “Priya, I know social media just enough to where I have hired someone who can stay focused on engaging online and ensure we are tapping into new platforms where our audience is spending more and more time. I trust Margaret Fontana, our social media lead and know that she is doing the right thing for Meridian Health.”  

Yes, change is hard but may be that rhetoric needs to change and become, “Change is Constant.” Don’t lose hope if your company culture is not ready for social media integration. There’s a reason why they hired you and with a little bit more push and pull, you can make it happen. I like Kotter’s 8-Step to Change Management which holds true in our case as well:

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If you have managed to cross all the roadblocks and are on your way to implementing a company-wide social media progra, we want to hear from you. Tell us more!

Image courtesy: http://www.socialsignal.com/cartoon/we-mean-you-no-harm

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Priya Ramesh | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (17)
Apr 14 2011

Facebook Plays an Important Role for Grieving Families

April 14, 2011 – 9:12 am

By Debbie Myers (@debamyers)

Online Community Support

I admit it. I’m a big fan of Facebook. I love the connectivity it gives me to family and friends. I obnoxiously chronicle vacations and events with pictures and anecdotes. It’s even become a breaking news source – sometimes beating out my CNN news alerts I receive through my email. In fact, Facebook has become a major source of news for many people.

So it should not have surprised me that Facebook would play such an important role when tragedy struck last week. I received two texts within seconds of each other from my daughters alerting me that Travis*, the son of a dear friend, had died. They learned the news on Facebook. I immediately headed to my friend’s house and stunned her with my unexpected visit. She was surprised how I heard the news.

“Facebook!” she said. “But I’ve barely started making calls. You were next on the list.”

Indeed, Facebook had overtaken phoning and texting as the main communication channel people used to share the news of a young man’s untimely death. Young and old, it seemed everyone was in the loop within a few hours.

A few days later, we gathered at the funeral home for the wake. Young Travis lay there in his Army uniform, with his mother standing at his side holding his hand. You can imagine the sadness in the room. My friend then turned to those gathered around and said, “Have any of you looked at Travis’s Facebook page?”

A smile came to her face as she began to tell some of the stories her son’s friends shared on Facebook. My friend said reading the postings had brought joy to her and she was glad to know that Travis was loved by so many people. She said that Facebook was her main channel of communication when Travis was in Iraq and, and now, it was serving an equally important role.

Spending several days with my friend and reading the posts, I came away with a few learnings:

  • Share Stories and Remembrances: Telling stories plays an important role in the grieving process, and Facebook provides a great forum for doing this. Besides, there’s a mother or brother or friend on the other end who will treasure them.
  • Think Before You Post: Don’t say things like “Is this a joke?” or “Hey, man, what happened?” Instead, they should have taken a second to realize that it’s more than the individual; it also publically involves the readers who would visit the page.

News travels fast, and good or bad, Facebook, Twitter, texting have accelerated the speed news travels. However, it’s important to take the time to think about how your comments will affect the reader on the other end.

*Not his real name

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Debbie Myers | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
Apr 13 2011

The ROI of Social Media and Your Mother

April 13, 2011 – 9:00 am

THE BOOZE BIN

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

garyvee “What’s the ROI of Social Media?” – Future Social Media Marketing “Expert”

“What’s the #*@% ROI of your Mother?” – Gary Vaynerchuk

I first heard this amazing one liner online last week after attending the Nomacorc “Marketing to the Next Generation of Wine Drinkers” Symposium from wine and social media ninja Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee). From a quick Google search, Gary might want to trademark this expression, because it seems to be working for him on the speaking circuit. The New Media version of a “yo’ momma” joke, this is one of the funnier things I’ve heard about social media in a while. That’s not saying that much, because let’s be honest, humor about social media is normally pretty nerdy.

Speaking of nerdy discussions, I finally “get it” as far as why Gary is brought in as a keynote speaker so often. With his awesomely inappropriate trucker’s mouth in tow (although he went a little more G-rated at the Nomacorc conference), he is commanding and captivating, clever and charming (disclaimer: excessive use of words that begin with “c” is entirely coincidental), and yes Gary, just a bit better looking in person. For those of us who swim in the warm waters of social media for a living, much of what he said was not earth shattering. He did not give us a step-by-step playbook on how to achieve social media greatness, or the secrets of digital life, but then again, that’s not the point.

Gary-V-Signs-My-Tit from WinergyIncGary’s purpose is to inspire, and in that, he was successful. All the wine marketers in attendance left with a renewed energy to get out there, digitally speaking, and try a little harder and care a little more. The point of his soon-to-be signature expression is to point out the difficulty in assessing the return on investment of a human-based relationship. Should we even try? Are we focusing so much on ROI for our clients that we’re missing the best opportunities to deepen relationships, and further their business along the way?

Gary thinks so. I’d tend to agree, but that doesn’t change the fact that our clients will always and forever ask for measurable goals. It is our job to help them understand the value of the unmeasurable, but also strike a balance in providing the measurable (reach, engagements, e-sales, etc.). Here are some other key take-aways from Gary’s speech at the conference and the corresponding quotes (courtesy of Wine Business Monthly):

· Learn How to Tell a Good Story

“There’s been a gross misunderstanding in this industry of what stories to tell the consumer. No customer cares about how many yields per acre you’re picking at.”

· Social Media is Not a Tactic; It is a Tool

“Social media is a buzzword and people are going to do it. …There are people like VinTank pushing the envelope … People are doing their thing. Things are happening. Fine. So you’re going to do it. But most of you are going to do it wrong.”

 

“I watch a lot of your engagements on social media and guess what you’re all about? Open house this, two bucks off now, do this, we’re tasting here, push, push, push, push, push. It’s all you guys do. … a social media campaign is not a one night stand.”

· It’s about Caring…or, You’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

“How am I going to do my real job if I’m going to engage with customers 24-7?’ I hear that all the time. I don’t know. When did your ‘real job’ consist of not actually talking to your end-user?”

“It is time for every single person in this room, no matter what your brand is, to take full control of your brand and engage directly with the consumer. Don’t be in the position where you’re at the mercy of anyone between you and the consumer…the problem is that collectively wineries and wine brands got real lazy.”

To give you a deeper sip of the best quotes from the conference, check out Cyril Penn’s wrap up on the Wine Business blog. For a sampling of his speech and a post-conference interview, check out this video courtesy of fellow speaker/panelist and all-around nice guy, Joe Roberts of 1WineDude

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Paul Sahner and Winergy.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Pia Mara Finkell | Posted in Digital Marketing, The Booze Bin, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (16)