Tag Archives: Twitter

The New Media Relations

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When you pull up your media list to do story pitching for a client what information are you looking at? A phone number? An email address? Maybe even the occasional fax number? What about links to their professional (and not so professional blogs)? Are you friends on Facebook? Have you been chatting on Twitter?

My guess is it depends on the client and whether you’ve made that leap yet. (If you’re vying for JetBlue as a client you definitely are because they don’t even want to hear your agency pitch if you can’t find their VP on Twitter.) As clients both big and small start to appreciate the value in a blog post that makes its way steadily through the Twittersphere as much as the 200 word write up on the launch of their new service we will have to rethink what it means to communicate with journalists and which ones we really want to reach in the first place. Is it the guy at the local news desk or the popular local blogger that finds her way to the hippest events in town and brings the crowd with her?

Some big companies are starting to bet on the bloggers. The obvious, and much talked about example, is Chevy’s unabashed attempt to take social media by storm with a South by Southwest invasion that included road trips to Austin in Chevy vehicles by well-connected social media users who shared their experiences via Twitter, blog posts, Flickr, and YouTube, as well as a flood of Chevy vehicles offering free rides to conference goers. Chevy even invited some geek superstars like Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki to an exclusive test-drive of their teched-out Chevy Volt and probably got the best SXSW endorsement of the year, Scoble saying “The geeks will love it.” The idea? Provide an influential, prone to sharing group with the Chevy experience, hope they love it, and hope they get a couple thousand of their closest digital friends to check it out.

By most accounts Chevy has been lauded for their effective influencer marketing strategy and ability to leverage others’ social networks to change perceptions and build awareness of the new line of Chevy’s, rather than going the traditional trade publication and auto show route (which I am sure they will still do, but it’s significant that the launch focused on social media). I agree that it was fantastic digital media relations outreach that showed the multi-platform, far-reaching impact of stories shared on social media outlets. Chevy also gets props for doing their homework and understanding their audience. No hard sells here, no press releases, and no “you can share this, but you can’t share that” legal documents were handed out to the participants. Instead, Chevy accepted the loss of control for the big payoff of being readily accepted by a group of users that tend to be pitch and brand skeptical.

What I feel uneasy about is Chevy’s vitural non-existence on these platforms before they dished out big bucks for an SXSW sponsorship, hauling a fleet of cars to Austin, and organizing interactions with top influencers who did the engaging for them. I get that they’re playing catch up here, trying to insert themselves into this space in time for the launch of their first line of cars that make sense for the typical social media users. It would have taken time to build an authentic, loyal community and the influencers already have that (Chevy has 3000 followers on Twitter, Guy Kawasaki has over 200,000).

But this is a bad lesson for your average brand that doesn’t have the resources to buy their way into the space. The same rules of listening and actively engaging your customers have to be followed, even by the big guys. Hopefully in the next couple of months Chevy will start participating in the conversation in a more active way, capitalizing on the jump-start they got from a digital media relations blitz at South by Southwest.

Hi, I’ve got a problem…

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No one ever calls a customer service line to talk about how thrilled they are with a product or how fantastic their experience with the company has been. No, usually those phone calls involve a slightly frazzled to full blown furious customer who is having a less than stellar experience with your company. So the person who picks up the phone in the call center matters. They shouldn’t just be clicking through modules, giving prepackaged answers, processing a customer who not only wants a resolution to their current problem, but wants to be truly heard and reassured that your company will be there for them in the future.

Sounds a lot like relationship building, right? Then why do so many companies take a quantitative approach that focuses on call time rather than recruiting a brand advocate? Why are call center departments so rigid and problem focused, rather than collaborative and brand opportunity focused? How can this model work in the age of social media that boasts the most empowered generation of customers to challenge the corporate world?

Well it really can’t and industry leaders are noticing. Comcast has been successfully using Twitter to help customers on a platform that requires authentic relationship building. Their profile isn’t splashed in red and black with a huge Comcast logo; instead, the profile picture is of the guy (Frank Eliason) who is actually helping you and an unimposing, slightly optimistic (if you’re fuming over cable problems) cloud image. Rather than letting customers broadcast their problems to the Twitterverse unanswered, Comcast employees tackle them head on and lend their side of the story to the interaction. At SXSW Frank said the personal, instantaneous interactions that the team has online has affected the entire service culture at Comcast, improving their focus on quality interaction in the call center environment.

Then there are the companies who breathe their culture into all of their service platforms like Zappos. They have been a Twitter staple for quite some time, interacting with customers who both praise and criticize them in a brand voice that is fun and helpful. Zappos employees are empowered to use social media to talk about the company, interact with customers, connect with other distant employees, and let their own individual personalities shine. So what happens next when customers can’t quite get the answer they need in 140 characters or less? The customer connects with a compassionate, dedicated customer service representative who ditches the typical script and engages the customer in a real way. In a sea of online retailers Zappos has stood out with their ability to “deliver happiness” that extends past the shoe box and through the entire customer experience. The value proposition is so strong that Zappos is going the Google route and using “old fashioned” TV spots to recreate the customer-employee interaction in living rooms across the country.

As customer service continues to become more social, consumers will have more personalized, streamlined, and useful interactions with companies and companies will be able to better assess what we need from them and how they can better deliver it to us.

The Day Shamu Fell Silent

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Crisis communication is hard. It’s really hard. No, really. It’s hard.

Every brand has their everyday face. The face that makes you smile with quirky ad campaigns. The side that moves you when you hear a news story about the community investments they are making that transcend them beyond a simple business and closer to a model citizen. If brands are lucky (read: smart) they invest enough time in their culture and their story that when crisis strikes they have a plan. Not just a plan on how to address the “right-now” situation, but a strategy that allows them to preserve the brand they have worked so hard to build and leverage it as part of the healing process.

But what happens when you are smart, you do invest that time, you do nurture your brand advocates, you are a model citizen, but the very image of your brand is at the center of the crisis? What happens when people stop using smart, entertaining, and inspiring to describe your business and start using dangerous, horrifying, and irresponsible?

SeaWorld is in an almost impossible place this week. Not only did they lose an invaluable team member, they lost her to another invaluable team member, Tillikum, the killer whale involved in the incident yesterday, and one of the main attractions at the park. Not only does SeaWorld have to answer to their internal stakeholders, their guests, and the media, but they have to fight against activists who use sensationalized angles to insert themselves into the story as experts.

SeaWorld has moved into social media over the last year to both entertain and educate their audience. Their ability to execute a strategy before an event like this occurred allowed them to have some say in that space this week even if they still didn’t have control of what everyone else was saying. (The Twitter search is as bad as you think it is).

So what social media tool is working for SeaWorld? Their blog, which they have used to post immediate reactions as the story progresses. The blog has been active since October 2009, giving SeaWorld time to build up a following that isn’t attributed to a quick crisis communications fix. This is a great example of how blogging can establish thought leadership for a brand and build a community of brand advocates who know to go to your hub first for the real story. Not only do they get your content, they leave incredible comments supporting your work and bringing the focus back to the positive. It’s the things you don’t say, but inspire others to say that work best for you in times like these.

What could SeaWorld have done better? They should have been sharing engaging, multimedia content highlighting the park’s commitment to wildlife conservation and programs that impact local and global communities before this happened. The more we know about the brand before these incidents happen, the more likely we are to stay loyal to the story we have experienced, rather than being persuaded by detractors. Plus, social media and its ability to inspire community is just a perfect fit for CSR initiatives.

And what’s not working at all for SeaWorld? @Shamu. Literally, he’s been shut down. Well more like shut up. The Twitter account for Shamu was launched a year ago and puts a branded voice to the character. Shamu is sarcastic, funny, and acutely aware of his surroundings. His 140 character discourse on the day’s events are pick me ups for Tweetdecks everywhere, but even more important it links the park to journalists, some of their spontaneous star story-tellers. Journalists dig this angle.

So obviously when this struck journalists were going to the outlet they were used to engaging with to get Shamu’s soundbyte. Unfortunately he didn’t have one. Instead it was link to the CEO’s apology letter. A letter that completely contradicted Shamu’s way of communicating in that space.I get the reasons to silence the account, but if you are going to go that route, pull down the killer whale imagery and replace it with something else. Do something to take away that eerie feeling I get when I look at this page. Don’t just abandon the platform and assume it goes away.

Personally, I would have put Shamu on the record. If you’re going to bend enough off brand to post the CEO link then bend Shamu’s voice. Could you imagine the power a statement from that account would have? It would give SeaWorld the chance to take real ownership of the situation and dominate the story.

It’s scary, but it’s necessary. After all, they embraced the good when the Shamu voice was driving people to the platform, and now that tragedy has struck it’s time to keep leveraging that branded, integrated approach to reach your brand advocates in an authentic way that keeps them faithful and empowers them to share your story.

Jess Gone Viral

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I buzzed by BarCamp Miami yesterday to soak in some more local expertise on everything from Gables Home Page’s struggle to bridge the gray divide online for the Coral Gables community to an impromptu discussion on why Twitter facilitates more meaningful business connections than LinkedIn.

While I was there I ran into some familiar faces from WordCamp Miami and some unfamiliar faces who wanted to hear more about my WordCamp presentation on “Finding Your Voice” when writing a blog. As more people began to approach me about it I realized that many of these people hadn’t attended WordCamp at all. So how did they find me? My new friend Cesar Abueg quickly enlightened me saying, “Oh yeah Jess, you’ve gone viral.”

Courtesy of alexdesigns.com

Now obviously this was somewhat of a joke, but it made me think about that term in a different light. What does it mean to truly go viral and how do you do it?

With the advent of YouTube, MySpace, and now even Twitter super stars, both individuals and brands are seeking new ways to reach more people through viral content. Cisco recently launched a campaign leveraging user-created videos from both celebrities and everyday people to help the Flip Cam become a tech tool you just can’t live without. Cisco used 68 percent of their budget to launch the spots through traditional channels like television and only 18 percent of their budget to facilitate distribution through the social media channels that made going viral relevant in the first place. Seems a little lopsided, right?

Viral content is valuable, and in fact viral, because of its ability to create a meaningful experience for the viewer that then makes them want to share that experience with others. While the number of viewers certainly matters it seems like cheating when you spend millions of dollars to guarantee those hits. Instead, both brands and people should focus on creating content that serves a purpose and making that content easy to access through social media channels. That purpose might be a bit of comedic relief during a long work day or an educational experience that gets your creative juices flowing. If you provide your viewer with a service they can appreciate on a platform that makes it easy to share that experience they will be inspired to pass it on, leaving you with the benefits and impact of an organic viral spread.

I may not be the next YouTube phenomenon, but I feel honored to have been a SlideShare favorite for bloggers trying to tap into their voice to enhance their content even if it was only for a weekend. And all it took was a SlideShare account and a couple of tweets.