Mars Landing, social media style. A {growtoon}.
Aug 10th
Join the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events.
Joey Strawn is a social media strategist that loves enjoying a good book and then drawing in it. Check him out on Twitter: @joey_strawn
Adopting a Piggly Wiggly View of Social Media
Aug 9th
By {grow} Community Member Lou Hoffman
Companies understand the intellectual argument for embracing the digital world. Prospects, job candidates and other target audiences increasingly conduct due diligence on the Net before making decisions.
That’s the easy part. Most marketing execs get this and the need to come up the digital curve.
But expertise by itself isn’t the game changer.
Mark hit the nail on the head in a recent post: “… social media success is not going to be a function of marketing vision or budget. It’s going to rely on radical organizational transformation.”
Amen.
But this transformation goes deeper than org charts, training and replacing the Friday jelly donuts. I think the game changer lies in companies changing from a mentality of centralized control to one that cultivates a distributed approach of digital actions.
Getting Past the Fright
This is a scary proposition. I can hear the lament echoing in the corporate corridors:
“It’s tough enough that our comms team is deploying social media that generates real conversations, dialogue we can’t always anticipate and with people we don’t always know. And now you expect us to proactively put these tools in the hands of amateurs. Borrowing from Match Box 20, you might not be crazy, but you’re certainly unwell.”
The shift away from a command and control model always causes heartburn.
When the Piggly Wiggly invented the self-serve grocery store, the common wisdom was that customers would steal them blind. The idea of picking your own groceries from the shelves instead of ordering from a single counter was viewed as totally radical in the day.
As it turned out, people lived up to the trust.
Last year we went through the exercise of helping a client CMO sell the idea of a hybrid decentralized model – select employees from all functions across the company would be trained and guided in social media – to the rest of the executive management team. The CEO put the kibosh on the proposal. His rationale – as a public company, they carefully scripted what they’re going to say during each quarterly earnings call and the last thing they needed was some guy in procurement tanking the stock price with an off-hand tweet.
Being a glass-is-half-full type, I told the CMO this is a good start. At least your CEO knows what a tweet is.
Here’s the part the CEO hasn’t figured out.
It Comes Down to Trust
If Piggly Wiggly can trust customers, you can trust your employees. With the right training and guidance, their use of social media will become a net positive and expand the company’s digital footprint.
A few companies have the right spirit.
My favorite example of an organization willing to give up control in exchange for the multiplier effect of social media is the Department of Defense. In fact, the DoD established a SlideShare platform to support the rank and file on topics ranging from how to tweet to tips and tools for YouTube.
Look, I don’t pretend to have all the answers on how a company can harness the collective power of its employees in deploying social media.
But I do know this. If companies don’t start rethinking their centralized mindset, trusting their employees and trying new things, the answers will never come.
Lou Hoffman spearheads a global communications consultancy and writes about storytelling through a business prism at Ishmael’s Corner. You can follow him on Twitter @LouHoffman.
Andy Warhol on social media
Aug 8th
I’ve often wondered what would happen if a great creative mind of the past came into our present world to see how we create and communicate today. Here’s my imagined conversation with Andy Warhol, whose creativity extended to almost every medium of his time. Here is his introduction to Facebook, after being asleep for nearly 25 years …
Me: Welcome to the future Mr. Warhol. That thing in front of you is an iPad and with that you can instantly connect with people from all over the world through Facebook.
Andy: The device is sleek and beautiful. But this Facebook looks stupid. How do you read this? Everything is small and crammed together. Why would you limit your personal expression to these little boxes?
Me: It does have a terrible interface but I guess it makes up for it in your ability to connect instantly with ideas and people from all over the world.
Andy: It looks to me like it is mostly cats, jokes, and inane self-help sayings.
Me: Well … true. People like to have fun with this. It’s a good creative outlet.
Andy. I see little creativity here. People keep sharing the same jokes and photos over and over again. I would use this tool to bring people together to discuss new ideas — to find the odd things that make you think. Sort of a creative salon like we had in New York.
Me: Well, the odd things probably don’t make it to your news feed. Only the most popular ideas appear.
Andy: And who is determining what is popular?
Me: Facebook. They edit your newsfeed and only show the items with the most likes and comments.
Andy: So an unpopular viewpoint is suppressed? New ideas stay buried?
Me: Not always. Sometimes a new idea catches fire and goes viral. In fact, it’s an amazing opportunity for new artists to become known internationally. Like … umm … Justin Bieber.
Andy: Not exactly a creative revolution, is it? And how does Facebook stay in business?
Me: They collect all of your personal information and create targeted ads for their advertisers.
Andy: And do they give you a share of the money?
Me: No, in return you get to use their service for free.
Andy: So they own your very art, your writing, your photography, and anything you post … and sell this information for their own economic gain?
Me: Yes, that’s it.
Andy: That will never work. People would never let them do that. (distracted) Now what’s this thing?
Me: An iPhone. Most people are using this, or something like it, to connect on Facebook.
Andy: This small screen makes the thing even worse, doesn’t it? How can one expect to create something in a space this small? Do people really use this thing?
Me: Oh yes. Some people spend several hours a day typing into their mobile device and viewing content.
Andy: Fascinating. (lighting a cigarette) It seems inhuman. They do this of their own free will … or is this some kind of … punishment?
Me: Oh this is by their choice. In fact, it’s common to be using this device even when you are physically with your friends. Today, this is by far the most popular way to see art, photos, and videos.
Andy: Seriously? On this screen that is smaller than your hand? This is how people see the world? So these digital artists now have to create their greatest works … to be viewed on this little device?
Me: Well, yes. For a lot of creative work today … that’s true.
Andy: So let me get this straight. The world’s most popular way to communicate is though a company that is collecting all of your most private information and profiting from it. You are being forced to create your content in unreadable little boxes. The company censors what you see and suppresses everything except the most popular ideas. People are tethered to communication devices that track your movements and your beautiiful art and motion pictures are relegated to a space that fits in the palm of your hand.
This is a nightmare.
I’m almost afraid to ask this question. Did all of this come about because of a war that happened while I was asleep? Did the Communists win?
Social media case study: It’s not just a brand, it’s a buddy
Aug 7th
I love Home Depot. It’s my favorite store.
I’ve been going to Home Depot for 20 years and have spent untold thousands of dollars on home improvement and landscaping materials. I am a totally loyal customer.
A few months ago, I bought a dozen small bushes for my front yard. About half of them died. The store has a one-year guarantee on its plants so I took a picture of the dead plants (instead of uprooting them and carrying the six dirt balls in my car) and went to the store for a refund.
When I presented my claim to the service clerk I was told that I would have to drive home, dig up the plants and show the evidence before I could get my refund. When I explained that I wasn’t about to make another 40-minute round-trip visit to get the dead plants, the clerk said, “Well, for all we know that could be a picture of your neighbor’s yard.”
This is not a post bitching about Home Depot. It’s a post about the feeling we have when we’re rejected by a favorite company. You see, to me, Home Depot is not just a brand, it’s a buddy. It’s somebody I thought I could trust.
Brand betrayal
I felt like my friend was calling me a liar. After all we have been through? The epic kitchen remodeling? The new tile in the bathroom? The rock garden? After all that, my friend wasn’t about to help me out on $20 worth of plants?
I caught myself actually feeling betrayed. For decades, I had been loyal to Home Depot … but I wasn’t feeling the love back. I felt kind of sheepish and silly. Why would I expect anything in return …. they were just a big company, right?
And yet, don’t we form these strong relationships with our favorite brands just like we form a friendship? Friendships don’t happen immediately. It takes a history of small interactions that slowly builds trust, and eventually an emotional bond.
That’s really the amazing opportunity with social media. too. It allows us to make a series of small connections with potential customers that lead to trust and eventually relationships. That’s why in my books and lectures I emphasize that success on the social web is no longer in the form of B2B or B2C — it’s P2P, Person to Person.
With this experience with Home Depot. I felt it was B2N — Business to Nobody.
Building something better
Let’s rewind the clock and see how this could have been much different. What could Home Depot have done to provide a constant drip, drip, drip of consistent, helpful, small interactions that would have built our “friendship?”
A few years ago, I signed up for the Home Depot Garden Club. Since I buy so much stuff from them I figured I would get some good deals for my loyalty. Turns out it was a huge bust. All I got were some flyers and useless emails. Let’s create a plan where a series of small, helpful interactions would lead to loyalty and increased purchases:
- Home Depot has a record of everything I have ever purchased. Why wouldn’t they send me email offers based on what I have bought, the season of the year, and the region where I live? They could actually forecast my needs.
- Even better, wouldn’t it be cool if I received a tweet reminding me to give my bushes a little extra water because of the drought conditions in my area? Or maybe offer me a free drought-resistant plant that they just introduced?
- These small interactions could lead me to helpful tips on the Home Depot site. They have nearly 11,000 posts about gardening ideas and yet I probably would not think to go there unless they make an effort to connect with me in a way that would lead me to their blog.
- Once I arrive at their site, I would like to log-in to a personal area where I can see an inventory of every plant I have bought and reminders of fertilizer and pruning needs. Why not have a “buy now” button and have my purchase delivered to me the next day or waiting for pick-up at the store?
- I would like to be invited to submit photos of my landscaping accomplishments. After all that sweaty work, why not show off the results and become inspired by the work of others?
- Finally, when my bushes die, it would be nice for the customer service agent to ask me if I am a member of the Garden Club, look at my purchase history, confirm that I bought the plants and be empowered to solve my problem on the spot.
You can see how these small, consistent, meaningful interactions would absolutely lead to customer loyalty, word of mouth recommendations, and increased purchases.
So Home Depot, I still love you, even though I feel jilted. I’m hoping you’ll come around. After all, friendships are about second chances, right?
I would love to hear from you in the comment section. What companies are doing a great job providing you with helpful, small interactions? How are you doing that for your customers … your loyal friends?
Illustrations: Photos from my garden.
Welcome to {grow}
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Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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