Marketing
Jason Bourne vs. Jack Bauer
I asked Twitter the other day, “Who would win in a fight between Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer [link]” (because that is the kind of dorky stuff I like to do on Twitter).
The answer was obviously Chuck Norris (as pointed out by Michael Wouri).
The Chuck Norris facts are some of the funniest and longest running internet memes that I know of.
It got me thinking. Would you not love to be the 3rd answer in these conversations as a business?
Not the 3rd best, but the unique brand in your arena, the purple cow as Seth Godin would say. The brand that people bring up to break a mold, the trump a conversation, to make the conversation more interesting.
Beyond starting a 5 year long hilarious self-perpetuating internet meme, what are your options? Being sexy is not always the answer. Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer are well known badasses from their respective Hollywood domains. But Chuck, he has an empire of fans devoted to his remarkable nature. He is different. Remarkable.
Remarkable scales.
Topless Photos Only
It is hard to beat simple, creative ideas.
That is what a sign read over a chair at the first local beach bar we stopped at in Cozumel, Mexico today. We were the first ones there and every group of tourists that happened upon this little reggae bar spent time talking about or taking photos in front of the sign. As photo pops go, mission accomplished.
I am currently on the Social Fresh Cruise with a great group of folks (more on that later). Our stop in Cozumel has been amazing and filled with simple pleasures. The water, beaches, and event the guacamole are amazing.
This little island is built on calls to action for tourists. There were some pretty great little marketing tricks and spins, the topless photo spot being just one.
Gotta Wanna Needa URL
Fast food chicken chain and southern standby, Bojangles, ventured out into the social space earlier this year with a solid presence on Flickr, Youtube, and Twitter, all titled as “GottaWannaNeeda”. It is a play on their jingle “Gotta wanna needa getta havva Bojangles”.
One problem, they never registered GottaWannaNeeda.com (I did, see footnote). If you are going to invest that heavily in a username on multiple social networks, then please spend the $10 to register the domain, even if it is just a redirect to GottaWannaNeeda.Bojangles.com (currently does not exist) or to their Facebook page (50k+ fans). It is a simple step that gives Bojangles an opportunity to make their social media presence a little more cohesive.
Erik J. Heels (a social media savvy lawyer) speaks on why Brands should use the same name across multiple social networks, and why brands need to ensure they have their domain names on Twitter. Both make several strong points about consistency. These really simple steps avoid confusion, give the brands more control of where their audience finds them, and really just makes it look like they care and know what they are doing.
Bojangles also does not have the “gottawannaneeda” Facebook personalized URL. They rightly snatched up Facebook.com/Bojangles. But there are other page/profile opportunities that I think would have allowed them to use this. And of course, it would be nice to see them integrate these efforts on their main site.
They already have someone (either PR firm or internal) making the effort to upkeep a Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook presence. Not having a blog as a home base that they actually own, aggregating the rest of their social media activity, is a big misstep. It could even go on GottaWannaNeeda.com.
I am not trying to pick on Bojangles. They are just my most recent example. I think this is a sign of a larger issue. We are to the point now, where most people realize they need to jump on this social media bandwagon. Two problems take hold for the company entering the social media space for the first time.
Testing the Waters Syndrome
Every big brand especially wants to somehow test out social media. This is understandable. To them it is an unproven medium and sinking big money in such an open, scary marketing channel is not an easy step. Testing is usually a smart move. Advisable even. However, this “test the waters” syndrome can easily lead to a half-assed effort. If you are going to put your brand out there into social media with any branded effort, make sure it looks like you have thought it through. Take the extra time or the little extra money it takes to care for the details.
Not Enough Experts
Many would say there are no “social media experts”. For the sake of this point, let’s just say there are not enough. Every major advertising agency and PR firm in the country is now getting asked to “do social media” whether they know what they are doing or not. They read a couple case studies. Learn some insights from a few blog posts, and put something out there for the brand to taste. This is natural with a new marketing channel. The brands and their agencies need to give care to these efforts. Pushing forward within social media is great, but be sure you give it the attention to detail that you give to your traditional marketing channels. Don’t be afraid to bring in a savvy consultant. Even asking the audience for advice is helpful.
I am glad to see Bojangles getting out there, and as I said, I am not trying to pick on them. Many companies make these small mistakes daily. It is important for all companies to remember that social media has many nuances. Give it the care and attention needed to get the details right. People will notice.
Since I put it out there that this domain was unregistered. I went ahead and grabbed it myself so that someone did not try to squat the domain and keep it from Bojangles. If they want the domain, it is theirs. I do not need it and don’t want to make money on it. Just preventing others from doing so. For now, it redirects to this post.
44 Ways To Help Your Customers Fly
Word of mouth is great. It is marketing’s pot of gold. But one step beyond good customers talking about your business, are customers that become crazy, enthusiastic fans of your business. The ones that tell everyone about you and your product, the ones that sing your praises.
Call them champions. Call them evangelists. With a little help from you, more of your best customers can rise to that next level. Shouting your good deeds from the rooftop (or Facebook even).
Having a quality product is of course step one (let’s hope you have that one covered). Being remarkable in some way can create plenty of word of mouth on it’s own. And many of the steps below can be summed up as “building real relationships with your customers”. Still, I am thinking 44 concrete examples might help a little.
Please feel free to reblog this if you want, just please link back 44 Ways To Help Your Customers Fly.
Make Customers Feel Special
- Create a reward program, allowing customers to accumulate points, earn discounts/prizes
- Allow customers to influence your products/services (see Dell’s IdeaStorm)
- Have contests that require very little action by the customer (”100th customer of the summer gets a free reward”)
- Have customers give away swag for you (see @MommyBrain at Blogher)
- Create official champions that believe in your company, that can help you hold events, educate other customers, and create content
Simple Steps
- Start internally, look to employees, relatives, and friends for your biggest evangelism opportunities (see IBM’s employee blog network)
- Teach Employees to spot potential evangelists
- Create tags/hashtags/keywords that allow your customers to signal when they are discussing your company online
- Take surveys of your customers, display the results (on and offline)
- Encourage customers to check in on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (see Jet Blue at SXSW)
Connect and Educate
- Hold classes, webinars, seminars to teach customers relevant skills (see Hubspot’s webinar series)
- Provide content that helps customers that are parents teach or entertain their children
- Find customers that are using your product or service in a unique way and feature them for others to learn from
- Create a meetup group around a topic relevant to your business (discussion group, monthly book club, health/fitness club)
- Build communities online around existing social networks (see Graco’s Flickr group)
Content Creation
- Interview happy customers on video (case studies, testimonials, reviews, unique use of products)
- Quote customers as often as possible. Other consumers will trust them before they trust you
- Customer submitted product photos (see Threadless, Carhartt)
- Customer submitted video contests (see Late Night Jimmy Fallon Dance Challenge)
- Feature customers on blog posts, give faces and personality to your community
Customer Service
- Use unique feedback channels (Facebook, Twitter, Online chat)
- After resolving customer complaints, ask them what else you can do to improve their experience
- Suggestion box, online or offline, reward customers who make suggestions (see My Starbucks Idea)
- Forums, allow customers to help one another, answer each others’ questions
- Monitor blog searches (Google Blog Search, BackType) for comments and posts that complain about or suggest improvements to your business (and respond to them)
Be Creative
- Photo opps, bold visuals for customers to share online (see Dominos)
- Interview current evangelists about what they love about your company
- Give your customers business cards to give out (discounts would help of course)
- Ask customers to help hold an open house, or anniversary event
- Give away swag (customers wearing t-shirts, hats, bags, etc. are strong reminders), especially to return customers (see free Gmail stickers)
Blogging
- Exchange discounts for part time bloggers
- Let customers decide between two coupons that you will offer each week or month
- Feature vendors/partners and how they help you offer a better product
- Make it easy for your readers to share your content (Sharethis, Addthis, Tweetmeme)
- Create a podcast where your customers are the stars
- Feature photos of your customers with your products and at your events (see Zappos photos on Facebook)
- Wish your customers happy birthday – simple and easy – we all like birthday wishes
- Help promote community events and events hosted by your customers
- Hold contests for your Facebook fans, give them riddles, ask them to write haikus, celebrate the winners, give them prizes (see Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice)
- Become a fan of and participate on community related pages, for your city, your neighborhood, local philanthropies
- Link to your customers – again, feature them as the stars (see Trader Joes)
- Use Twitter Search to look for links to interesting stories relevant to your niche. Share them and give credit to the source (see Whole Foods)
- Ask questions of your followers and write a blog post that quotes the best responses
- Study and respond to your critics, or better yet, study and respond to the critics of your competitors
Be creative, have fun, invest in your customers – and they will invest in you.
Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments. The more the merrier.
Photo Credit: Anirudh Koul
Your Blog As A Beer Tasting
I’m thrilled to see North Carolina is on the verge of approving a bill that will “permit beer companies to hold tasting sessions in food stores.”
I hope it raises the level of the beer culture in this blue law heavy state. And who doesn’t want to taste a good beer in the grocery store?
The product sample is an old marketing method and is about the lowest barrier to entry you can give the customer. Take the concept online, and the economy of free really negates the free sample, or more correctly, is an extreme extension of the free sample.
Consider all the free content you produce online as a taste of your full personality or company culture, a sample of what you have to offer as a person or business.
What Does Your Culture Taste Like?
The entire art of writing a blog is a free sample of your business or personality, a taste. You are sharing insights and stories for free, as an investment in your audience. So what does this sample taste like?
How are your readers remembering you? Does your content taste like everything else that is out there? Is it refreshing? Is it a deep, strong flavor?
One thing I have had to get better and better at as a blogger is writing as a person and not as a journalist. I think the best blogs share a lot of personality and culture of the writer or company. A personal touch builds more of a relationship, more of an investment.
photo credit: dave apple
