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Customer Service In 140 Characters or Less #SXSW

Rosie Siman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:42:22 +0000

Today I attended a panel titled Customer Service in the 140 Character World which discussed customer service within social media outlets – specifically Twitter. As a social marketing strategist who manages brands profiles online, I’m especially interested in the customer service aspect. As a consumer, I’m particularly annoyed with the way that most brands misuse these platforms that are almost built for their success. [I actually wrote another post here titled 'Customer Service is the New Marketing']

Why is social media built for customer support? It allows one on one interactions in almost real time. It avoids automated response systems, support forums and 1800 numbers that provide more annoyance than answers. There is a built in community element – sometimes I get answers from the community surrounding the brand instead of the brand itself.

Agencies talk about customer service with social media a good bit – It’s an unavoidable topic amongst marketers because social media lends itself to support. We’re consistently seeing consumers bypass FAQs and automated messaging systems for real people and real answers. But agencies talking amongst themselves only goes so far. On the panel today, we heard from brands who were not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. Sure, Zappos was almost built around social media – But Comcast? Dell? HP? These brands fall into that “traditional” category… And they are making it work.

A few key takeaways:

- Customer Support is Still Too Siloed. This is a change that has to happen internally. Are PR and Customer Support one in the same? The panelists said yes. They said it was essential to create a workflow that allows for quick approvals and answers from the appropriate people. It’s internal structuring and it’s a change that HAS to happen. How to implement? They advise to start with putting TweetDeck on the CEO’s desk with a Twitter search about the brand.

- Get Feedback and Do Something. As a company, you have to invest in the way that you listen to consumers. The most important thing about feedback is what you do with it. Feedback is worthless unless you are willing to make changes and show your customers that you’re implementing their suggestions.

- Give Answers. It doesn’t matter if someone has 1 follower or 1 million followers, they are all your customers. Give them the answers they are looking for in the platforms that they are on. Take time to explain “why” and give them the whole story even if it is technical and/or boring. If they understand the “why,” they are much more likely to support your brand for the long haul. The Comcast rep said, “We can’t make cable free, but we can tell our customers exactly why it costs what it does.”

Agencies can only do so much. People in the audience representing brands were advised to look to agencies as consultants. As consultants, they can help you understand the space; They can come up with forward thinking ideas; They can teach you the appropriate social interactions. But in the end, the brand has to be willing to make changes and talk to the consumers themselves.

Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, it requires organizations to acknowledge and embrace the power of social media. But it’s not impossible. Customers aren’t going anywhere and neither is social media.

What do you think are the best ways for brands to active customer support through social media channels?

[Full panel notes generously provided by William Hertling here]

Digital and IRL Worlds Collide With Facebook Printing

Rosie Siman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:26:02 +0000

Kodak recently announced that beginning this summer Facebook users would be able to print their pictures directly from Kodak printing kiosks.

After logging into your Facebook account from the kiosk, you are asked to pick pictures from those that you’ve uploaded. At this point, it doesn’t appear that you can print pictures where you’re tagged if they were uploaded by other people.

Worried about the size? Kodak will show an icon if your pictures aren’t high enough resolution to limit disappointment.

For a walk-through of how it works, check out the video posted on Kodak’s “Plugged In” blog here.

The only bad thing I have to say? The contact info they give on their press releases is TinyURL.com/emailkodak. [Why would anyone use any URL shortener other than bit.ly?!]

With Kodak taking this step, I think we’ll start to see other printers doing the same. We may even see sites like Facebook and Flickr add an element of digital printing/ordering to the site itself. What do you think?

Creative & Social Filtering

Rosie Siman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:32:18 +0000

I definitely think that will all the publishing platforms out there, we’ll see more and more around creative (and social) filtering. (Maybe we can even convince brands to play in this space?)

One iteration, by Kikin (a Firefox add-on), allows you to search Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, Google Reader, Wikipedia, YouTube, Bing etc, from within your Google search.

But then the cool stuff happens – If you connect Facebook or Twitter, you can choose to see public comments or comments just from your friends. If you’re looking at a product on Amazon, a Kikin bar will come up at the top of the page that shows you recent searches along with feedback from FB/Twitter.

What do you think about Kikin?

DOWNLOAD // EXPLORE // PLAY: http://www.kikin.com/

Social Sponsorship

Noelle Sadler — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:56:36 +0000

This morning I attended a panel hosted by The Advertising Club about sports sponsorship, held at the New York offices of the USA Today, and featuring speakers from Mastercard, Nascar, Madison Avenue Sports & Entertainment, and MetLife. How I’ve convinced myself that 8am conferences are a good idea is beyond me, but after an almond croissant and a cup of coffee, at least I started feeling like a human being. What I really wanted to understand was weather the archaic sponsorship model (ie – pay outrageous sum of money, have name plastered on stadium or team jersey) is shifting to become more social and, as a result, more profitable for the sponsor and more appealing for the consumer.

As consumer faith in corporations stumbles and the public gets more antsy about how money is being spent, a brand that wants to splash its name up on a stadium or a sports tour really needs to think about why. Why this sport? Why this athlete? Why any sport? Why not … musicians? Or awards shows? Why will a sports sponsorship make consumers like us more and make them choose us over the other guy. Because while brands and corporations see sports as a way to tap into consumers’ passions and really engage, consumers are more often than not thinking “what’s in it for me?”

Which leads me to wonder… why do so many major companies have a sports sponsorship team, which is separate from the digital/social media team? (As has apparently been the case at Mastercard, we learned today, until very recently.) Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to work together? So when the sports sponsorship team inks a deal, the digital team is right there with them, figuring out how to give that activation legs online and make it work harder for the brand and for the consumer.

A great example is Target’s NASCAR sponsorship. Team Target has been a fixture at NASCAR since 2002, with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel since 2009. JP Montoya, who has previously raced in Formula 1 and Indycar, shares the latest news with his 125,000+ Twitter fans, building a following not just for himself but for Team Target. Two weeks ago, he proudly posted about the big rig hauler for the Team Target race car, and last week he posted a link on his Facebook page to a Target photo shoot, garnering over 150 “likes” and dozens of appreciative fan comments.

Is all of this in the Team Target contract? Unlikely. When JP and Team Target signed this deal, I don’t think there was any mention of how many Tweets he must send, or how often he should update his Facebook status. Should it be? Perhaps, and maybe in the future it will be, if only because athletes are human, and they make mistakes. But, more importantly, this is a relatively simple way to get more out of your big, expensive corporate sponsorship. Give consumers what they want anyway – access to great stuff, exclusive content, interaction with their favorite athletes and teams, and a better experience at the stadium, in stores, and in front of their computers. Because it’s not enough to put a banner up and toss some logos around the stadium. You’ve paid all that money… why not get more out of it?

What’s in a number?

Bea Villamor — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:40:07 +0000

How many Facebook friends do you have?

I have 1,226 friends to date but only 150 of them are meaningful, according to a new study by Robin Dunbar. The Oxford University Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology will soon publish his research, which reinforces his earlier theory that an individual can only manage up to 150 social relationships.

In a Times interview, Dunbar says, “The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world. People obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s.”

In the same interview, Dunbar also points out that gender plays a key factor: “There is a big sex difference though … girls are much better at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other. Boys need to do physical stuff together.”

For social marketing experts, Dunbar’s latest research is important to note – while social media has effected a number of behavioral changes, Dunbar’s numbers reinforces that certain social habits and capabilities remain constant.

Do you think social media networks have greatly changed the way you establish and maintain relationships with people? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below or ping me on Twitter!

Are you a Conversationalist?

Bea Villamor — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:56:47 +0000

There’s a new user label in the social media world: Conversationalists.

In 2007, Forrester developed profiles of social media users and visualized this in their “Social Technographics” infograph, which details each profile’s characteristics as well as its position in the social media hierarchy.

But behaviors change, and Forrester is now adding a rung for Conversationalists: Facebook and Twitter users “who update [their] social network status” on a weekly basis.

Conversationalists are ranked second only to Creators, individuals who create their own content and share it online.

Interestingly, 56% of Conversationalists are female and 70% are 30 years old or older. MediaPost has some detailed age breakdowns as well.

So, what does this mean for social media marketers?

The emergence of the Conversationalist profile reinforces that numbers do not determine one’s social media currency – a high number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers are only significant when the user regularly communicates with their friends and followers. There is greater value in an individual’s level of engagement, which determines their clout online.

So are you a Conversationalist? I know I am, so share your thoughts by posting a comment below or by pinging me on Twitter.

Facebook Status Updates as News Source

Bea Villamor — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:31:50 +0000

As social media specialists it’s always interesting to watch the increasing impact of social media on more mainstream news outlets.

A great example is the reaction to a post on Motorola Europe’s Facebook page [Disclaimer - Motorola is a Cake client] on Android 2.01 and 2.1 updates for its Android devices – as expected, fans immediately responded to the information we shared, but more surprising was how news outlets started to quote Motorola Europe’s Facebook status update as a news source:

SlashGear

SoftPedia

Talk Android

Technology For The Soul

The Unwired

By quoting the Facebook status update and using it as a news source, the media have further confirmed the importance and credibility of the brand’s communication in the social media space.

Clearly, the role and relevance of social networks will continue to grow and shape the new media landscape and we look forward to sharing more interesting developments with you here.