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Chipotle’s Organic Social Strategy
While I was in Florida preparing for Social Fresh Tampa on Feb 8th, I got the chance to meet and speak with Chris Arnold, Director of Communications for Chipotle Mexican Grill, and we discussed their slow, but deliberate, adoption of social media as a corporate controlled marketing channel.
From taking over a customer created 500,000 fan Facebook page to supporting consumer driven blogging, Chipotle is focused on staying true to their word or mouth and earned media roots while evolving their social media efforts.
Not everyone has the good fortune of a massive and committed fan base, like Chipotle. But for them, their decision to allow their social presence to happen organically is sound. It reminds me of Apple’s no social media policy and Ford’s no blogging decision. When a business generates online communities with their brand loyalty alone, they can definitely skip some steps.
Superbowl Commercials and Youtube with Bridgestone
Bridgestone has had several top ranking Superbowl commercials over the last few years and has seen great return from them. From this, they have begun to see the value in sharing that media through social sites like Youtube and are beginning to actively invest in these tools and social media as a whole. Michael Fluck, Director of Brand and Retail Marketing, had a quick talk with us about this and more.
Bridgestone will be attending Social Fresh Nashville, a one day social media conference for marketers, on Jan 11, 2010
One of my favorites of their Superbowl Commercials
Foursquare Goes to College
100 cities strong since their last roll out, Foursquare seems to be gaining some traction across the country. 
Everyone is making their predictions about whether Foursquare is the next Twitter [including me].
I have been using Foursquare for months now in other cities. When it hit my hometown of Charlotte a couple weeks back, I was surprised how many people jumped on. I had 150 friend requests the day after Charlotte was opened.
UNC Charlotte, my alma mater, only took about a week to see the potential of Foursquare on their campus. Last week they became the first University in the country to offer promotions through Foursquare across their campus.
Foursquare Goes to College
I interviewed Brian Baute, IT Director for Business Services at UNC Charlotte, about what their goals are for using Foursquare campus wide.
According to Foursquare, the only other campuses using their promotions are Columbia, who has one promotion running for their campus movie theater, and Harvard who is developing something campus wide.
College students are an interesting niche for testing Foursquare. While they love their smart phones and Facebook, they are not in tune with much else in the social space.
However, Foursquare is similar to Facebook in the fact that it let’s you see up to the second information about your friends. Foursquare is simple in that respect. I can see college students, who are always looking for the next party, latching on to the “where is everybody at” aspect of Foursquare pretty easily.
Why Do Conferences Suck?
I absolutely crave face to face time with people. I see offline relationships as the heart of marketing.
This is why I keep going to conferences despite the face that most conferences suck. I am in the heart of this world now since creating my own social media conference series, Social Fresh. Here are just a few of the things that encouraged me to find my own solution.
The Four Horsemen of the Conference Apocalypse
Too much hyperbole there?
- No Networking – Many conferences just cram as much content in as possible and lose track of encouraging conversations. Provide physical space that encourages connecting. Provide time in the day that allows connecting. Create reason for people to connect.
- Bad Speakers – Where to begin… Unreadable slides, reading from slides verbatim, simply boring, no examples, no case studies, and please, I do not need your life story as an intro. Cut to the meat.
- Too Big – Don’t get me wrong, I love SXSW and Blogworld, and Web 2.0 for the shear scale of what they do. And they fill a need. But at some point, finding good content, relevant connections, and just navigating these events successfully takes too much effort.
- Too Serious – Yes we are there to learn. No, I don’t need an all day happy hour. But, please lighten up a bit. Throw some spice into the recipe. People like getting away from their desks. Make the day a little more than just instruction. Make it an experience.
Complaints that don’t bother me so much
- No Wifi – I get it, we all want to tweet about an event. It is worth complaining about, but let’s face it, there are plenty of venues and cities that just have crappy cell and wifi capabilities. Wifi does not make an event. And I can attend a great event with no wifi and get just as much out of it.
- Bad Food – Again, I am not there for the food.
- Too Expensive – It is business. Charge what you want. I either think it is worth it or I don’t. Conferences can be expensive endeavors. This value equation is completely different for each person.
Over the last year I have shifted from spending most of my professional time on social media consulting to spending most of my time working on Social Fresh. It is much more rewarding. But it is also not for everyone.
Social Fresh is simple. It is specifically for marketers that want to see the full potential of social media. We bring big brands and smart people in the social media space to a city near you. Big event content, small event networking and discussion.
Simply Remember to Take It Offline
We all know real world relationships are the goal of our networking. We talk to people a world away online. We form relationships with people all over the country on Twitter. But the real tangible benefit of these relationships, personal and business, happens offline.
It is important to not get stuck inside of social networks and the virtual interactions they make so easy. Take the conversation to email, call someone, meet them for coffee. When you go to conferences or visit other cities, look for people from your online networks there.
Experiences within social media are most engaging when they echo the real world. Audio, photos, video, etc. The ability to use Twitter and other social media to make easy introductions with all kinds of great people is truly valuable. But if it stops with an online introduction, you are missing out on the most rewarding parts of these relationships.
