See original story on SDNN

Monday, August 3, 2009

Angela Cortright, founder of Spa Gregories, which recently opened a branch in Del Mar, uses social media to find new potential customers.

“We’re trying to reach out to the local community through Facebook and Twitter,” she said, “It helps us by word of mouth. This is just a new mouth — it’s a digital mouth, instead of calling my friends.

Cortright and about 75 other business owners attended a workshop on “Internet Marketing 3.0″ last Friday in Mission Valley. The event organized by Score, a non-profit business training group, was the first of its kind offered by the national network and the highest-ever attended in San Diego. The workshop will be held again on Tuesday, Aug 18 in Carlsbad.

Social media brings fear and opportunity to many business owners.

“They’re very fearful because they don’t understand,” said Score counselor Fred Schlaffer. “These are small businesses usually that have very, very limited resources. So to get involved with social networking means more of their time or (the need) to hire somebody.”

But Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, YouTube and other networking sites are places to attract customers, build loyalty and ultimately generate more revenue, said workshop leaders.

“The opportunity is huge, because it’s a very cost-effective way to get to a large group of people and build that (customer base) with little investment,” said Schlaffer.

Building trust

Trust is a critical part of social media, said one workshop leader Bill Trumpfheller, president of Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, a public relations agency.

He cited statistics showing that:

— 91 percent of 25 to 61 year olds buy products and services from companies they trust.

— 80 percent of 34 to 64 year old read online reviews.

— 90 percent avoid hotels with bad reviews.

Companies that build trust develop “brand advocates,” who help market the business online by word of mouth. This is a more powerful, yet cheaper form of marketing than traditional advertising, he said.

Stonyfield Farm, an organic dairy company, has five blogs targeted at each of its market segments. The blogs convey the ecological values, issues and activities that the brand supports. These blogs have built large followings of customers who share these values, while solidifying brand loyalty.

Bad management

The reverse is also true. For United Airlines, one online rant was a PR disaster. A customer who was upset at the company for breaking his guitar wrote a song and uploaded the video on YouTube.com. Posted July 6, the video has had more than 4.5 million views.

Conference attendees

In another case, Lifestyle Lift was fined $300,000 for posting its own positive reviews. The cosmetic surgery company required its employees to write glowing testimonies on consumer Web sites, to counteract negative reviews from real customers. The New York attorney general’s office nailed the company.

“Ethics need to be part of the social media space,” said Trumpfheller. “If you’re not operating in an open and transparent manner, and really managing that trust with your customer, you’re gonna get caught.”

Attract customers

Companies can improve service by listening to what customers say in social media. When Trumpfheller started working with the makers of WD-40, the do-it-all lubricating spray fluid, his team noticed that many customers were griping online about losing the long, red straw that comes with the can.

The company responded by sending replacement straws to these customers. It also changed the product design so the straw is permanently attached to the can. Such actions create happy customers, who become brand advocates, said Trumpfheller.

Grow business

Customers can also use social media to grow business. In one case, Splitends Salon in Orange County noticed it was not attracting new customers, despite ads in the Yellow Pages. So it started asking customers to write reviews on Yelp.com, a consumer-driven site. Now, the company gets five to 15 new client calls a day, said Trumpfheller.

KogiBBQ, a Korean-Mexican food truck which travels throughout Los Angeles, sends daily messages stating its next location. It shares these messages to its more than 38,000 “followers” on Twitter.com, which caps posts at 140 characters.

The mobile vendor typically has hundreds of customers waiting at a location by the time it arrives. These fans then write Tweets while standing in line about how good the food is.

Social media has its detractors too.

“Who cares?” asked one woman in the workshop, wanting to know how such niche companies build a following on Twitter.

“Are people really searching for Korean tacos in a truck?”

“People follow people who have content they are interested in,” said another workshop leader Teresa Siles, an executive at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker agency. One Tweet that interests one person else can get forwarded, or “reTweeted,” to others who share the same interest, thus creating a community of followers.

But companies need patience, said Siles. “It’s a slow build.”

Add value

The key to a strong social media program is to consistently add value to conversations, said Siles. In addition to listening to customers online, this also means contributing comments that are relevant to a particular community.

Siles noted that when she sends out messages on behalf of clients on Twitter, only about one-third are brand messages, while two-thirds are interesting comments, tidbits or forwarded “reTweets” pertaining to its followers.

“You have to add value,” she said.

Follow Helen on Twitter @helenchang.

By Helen Kaiao Chang

See original story on SDNN

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Would your company let employees spend time talking to a cat?

If you are Natalie Davis’ boss, you would. Davis, director of e-commerce for the pet supply company Petco, sometimes talks to animals via their owners.

In one conversation that took place on Twitter, “Brian’s cat” wanted Davis’ cat Leo to come out to play. Here’s an excerpt:

Brians_cat: Do you let your cats tweet every now and then?

NatalieatPETCO: I would gladly let my cat Leo tweet every now and then, but I’m not sure he wants to. He hasn’t quite figured out twitter yet.

Brians_cat: I’m sure Leo will get the hang of it, once he gets past all this “human keyboard” nonsense : )

NatalieatPETCO: Maybe so. Leo has a lot of attitude for a cat and probably just thinks he is ‘above’ twitter right now. he’ll get over it.

For Davis, tweeting with “animals” is just par for the course at work. She has also talked to ChloeWaterDog, Max the cat, and Ralf the Hamster, who shared about things like spinning in his wheel, needing more water and why his owner wouldn’t change the bedding in his cage.

Davis was part of a speaker panel held Tuesday in downtown San Diego discussing effective social media strategies. The panel featured Jamie Dicken, the sales vice president of Brickfish.com, as well as two social media strategists from Red Door Interactive, a San Diego-based social media management company that organized the event. Reid Carr, president of Red Door Interactive, served as moderator.

Manage conversations

Social media acts as a powerful marketing tool that enables companies to “manage the conversation” that customers are having about them anyway,” said Cosby Noricks, a Red Door strategist. “You can take the conversations that are already happening and turn those into messages that extend and are relevant and worthwhile to the customer.”

These tools include: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other sites or technologies that allow people to communicate with each other online.

Social media is becoming the primary form of marketing, as more people get their information online and build virtual communities they trust. The fastest-growing demographics are 35-to-49-year-olds on Twitter, and women ages 55 and up on Facebook, said Brickfish’s Dicken.

Research shows that when people get information from a friend, 78 percent are more likely to believe it. An online “brand evangelist” – a loyal customer who spreads a company’s brand message to others – can typically influence 150 people, said Dicken.

“So that power of getting that network started and tracking that conversation is really powerful,” said Dicken.

Gain customer insight

Social media also enables companies to gain insight into their customers and build brand loyalty, the experts said.

Red Door’s Noricks told of one marketing campaign she managed for Souplantation restaurants to promote a lemon menu. The company invited customers to submit photos and videos of their best “puckerfaces” – which yielded images of children, couples and grandparents.

“Demographics is not just a chart on a page,” said Noricks . “You can actually see their faces.”

Twittering for cash

Can all this activity turn into cash? Petco’s Davis, who previously ran one segment of the social media department at Dell computers, said one Twitter account they had brought in $1 million revenue while she was there. The account @DellOutlet offers special deals to its 600,000 Twitter followers.

But it took time to build the customer base, said Davis.

“You have to build a fan base and gain trust,” she said. “You can’t promote deals until people know who you are.”

Dicken said that one client built up enough trust that each customer spent 14 minutes with the brand, which is a long time online. By using social media, “You start learning who your audience is,” she said. “What drives a purchase and truly motivates your consumers.”

Set clear goals

The experts emphasized that businesses also need to be clear about their purpose and goals for using social media.

Since success can be measured in so many ways, marketing managers should set clear targets. For some, that might be to attract 1000 Twitter followers in a month. Another goal might be to collect addresses from followers. Another might be to have followers go to a URL link. Still another might be to download something at a Web site.

“You need to know your strategy and decide the value,” said Morgan Witt, a senior strategist at Red Door Interactive who spoke. “Set your metrics up front.”

Social media needs to be part of an overall marketing strategy that integrates other marketing tactics, such as press releases, blogs, Web sites and traditional media, said the panelists. It also requires long-term, ongoing commitment.

Dicken said her company focuses on helping clients place content where the consumers might be, not the other way around. For instance, they created a content module for one client that could be easily shared among Facebook users.

“It’s about distribution,” said Dicken, “not destination.”

Passionate topics

For Petco’s Davis, part of the goal is to engage consumers with topics they are passionate about. In one conversation, they asked followers which they liked better: cats or dogs. The conversation went crazy. Between all that, Davis’ team also shares company news and gives away $25 gift certificates.

“We try to have conversations with people,” Davis said. “We’re getting people to engage with our brand and talk about something they are passionate about with Petco.”

Helen Kaiao Chang is SDNN’s business editor.