Archive for the ‘ Social Profiles ’ Category
Social media’s landscape is ever changing and one of Rocket’s founders – Craig Howe - recently sat down to chat with Fast Company to answer 9 burning questions, including his thoughts on where Social Media will go, in the upcoming year. Read on for some of his smart and thoughtful insight here and let us know what you think @RocketXL!
Within the digital sphere, we all move lightning quick to continuously educate our Clients and push campaigns to new fronts. One of the most important things to consider in any project is to have a deep rooted understanding of how people will act and react to your work to help drive campaign objectives. Here at Rocket XL, our CEO Anson Sowby, always asks a key question before we execute, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”
Wondering what else it takes to run a thriving creative digital agency? Check out Anson’s interview with The Agency Post here for more insight!
Have any direct questions for Anson? Tweet them to us @RocketXL using #AskAnson!
With the election this year, it seemed as if politics had its own Facebook account with the amount of posts dedicated to it! Facebook even went so far as to dedicate an application to it, which you can see here. Usually, I’m one to ignore the numerous musings of the political masses. However, one politician really stands out to me in social media. No, it’s not him. Or even him. It’s Cory Booker, mayor of Newark.
Just by looking at his profile, you wonder: how did the mayor of a city in New Jersey amass over 1.3 million followers? Well for starters, he kept his followers abreast of the situation during Hurricane Sandy and even responded directly to those with issues (and hilariously downplayed a few unrelated ones).
However, a recent Twitter conversation with a follower inspired a social campaign he is calling the #SNAPChallenge. Basically, he will attempt to live off of the $30 that SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) provides in food stamps to each NJ citizen every month. Furthermore, he has encouraged others to partake in the challenge and raise awareness for both frugal living and assistance that is needed with welfare programs. You can see more about it in the video below:
As well as the items that Mayor Booker has purchased for the challenge:
Are you going to try the #SNAPChallenge? You can follow Mayor Booker at www.twitter.com/CoryBooker
For many, the earliest and most logical reason for brands to enter the social media space was also a simple one: connect with your customers. This could mean simply being where they are and/or listening to what they say, but for most it also meant communicating directly with them. Those who experienced early success in social media were those who simply took the time to directly communicate with a handful of people (how else do you think Ashton Kutcher amassed more followers than people with actual talent?).
Did this mean that you needed to respond to every single person who spoke to you? Absolutely not. In fact, even if you didn’t respond to everyone, people would still see that you responded to SOME of them and that your brand is making a connection with its consumers generally. Indirect positive sentiment at its finest!
So why am I pointing out things out that are simple and have been discovered already? Because for some reason, some people still do not understand this concept! First, let’s look at the stats: 48% of brands do not respond to users in social media. When you consider that, according to Twitter, 88% of users follow at least one brand and that one social media consumer will tell 42 people about a good customer service experience happening on Twitter, that’s a HUGE missed opportunity to create a little bit of good will and positive sentiment for your brand. To put it another way: if one of every 2 brands are responding, which one would you rather be, and which one would you rather your competitor be?
For the emotive side of this point, I turn to my personal experience with a NYC restaurant called Mad Dog & Beans. Aside from having outstanding Mexican food, Mad Dog has quickly become my favorite restaurant in a city with over 4,200 of them. How did they BECOME my favorite as opposed to just BEING my favorite? Their social media interactions with yours truly. Let’s consider the below:
1. They appreciate you following them
Using the above math, about 176MM people are raising their hands and following a brand on Twitter. How many of those people do you think would appreciate a Brand going the extra mile to thank them after they just went the extra mile for the brand?
2. They encourage feedback
Would they listen and apply my feedback if I gave it to them? I’m not sure. But it doesn’t hurt to ask! After all, I could simply say that the painting on the wall is a little crooked, and it would take them about 2 seconds to fix it. Brand looks more professional + User feels listened to = Win-Win!
3. They answer questions about their promotions
This exchange related to a promotion following Hurricane Sandy that they are offering. By simply responding to me, I can plan out my trip.
4. Responding when they really don’t have to
I realize that these are not the most Earth-shattering insights, but with 52% of Brands NOT responding to their fans in an innocent and easy way, it seems irresponsible not to remind people. Like I said before, Mad Dog BECAME my favorite restaurant in all of New York City (out of over 4,200) with the help of 4 quick messages. If you were a brand and could create that kind of sentiment in 51 words (yes I counted out the above messages), wouldn’t you?
These examples are not exclusive to restaurants with a single location. Global brands can apply these tactics anytime! Below are two quick examples of brands with a global following who took no more than 10 minutes combined to create enough good will to ensure that I use their product instead of their competitors (Note: after these, I absolutely would):
With Nor’easter hitting the east coast, I was nervous about how this would affect my travel plans. It didn’t help when American Airlines cancelled flights heading out of my airport. Did this include my flight? A quick tweet and about 6 minutes worth of exchanges helped solve that issue (Answer: it didn’t). The result: in an industry where something as volatile as nature can lead to losses in the millions of dollars, 3 quick branded tweets not only kept my business with them, but left me saying “American Airlines will help me with my problem, and I don’t have to spend 2 hours on hold with Customer Service!” How would you feel about a brand after saying that?
Bank of America took a moment of frustration and spun it in their favor. Again, do I think they’re going to share this with the branch? I’m not sure. But the fact that they said “we hear you and want to do better for you specifically” wiped away a good amount of negative sentiment.
This week, Hurricane Sandy made its way through the Northeast and has left much of New York and New Jersey to pick up the pieces. While it has been a devastating force for much of the region, it does provide a very interesting social media case study in crisis management.
Much of the Facebook/Twitter conversation during the past few days has relayed updates to displaced citizens, transit information from government officials, and general musings about the experience. Soon, up to ten images featuring the hashtag #Sandy were being uploaded to Instagram and Twitter every second! Everything from the damage in Queens, NY to flooding along the Jersey Shore has been shared across the globe in real-time. And family & friends can receive updates to the condition of loved ones.
As mentioned before, both NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NY Governor Andrew Cuomo have used their personal Twitter feeds to relay relevant information to citizens in between televised press conferences. Furthermore, people have lauded these efforts, as these government officials would rather update citizens in 140 characters immediately than wait for prime TV placement and multiple updates.
Brands affected by the hurricane have also used Twitter to alleviate pressure on their toll-free phone numbers. For example, American Airlines has spent hours responding to those whose flights were cancelled due to the storm. In this case, they have asked fans to Direct Message them so they can continue the conversation and have basically created an additional Customer Service outlet.
Personally, this highlights the importance of social media in a big way. While I’d certainly prefer that hurricanes not damage areas of the globe, real-times updates from everyone involved has helped keep people informed with what’s going on. And as a result, it helps put people at ease as well as plan accordingly for any changes they need to make in their daily lives. Before this tragedy, I would’ve pegged Gov. Cuomo as someone who sees Twitter as a place to post a re-election campaign message every couple of weeks. However, his decision to use it as a vessel to update all citizens speaks volumes for the importance of Twitter in everyday life (and I’m more than happy to be proven wrong in this case). Furthermore, airlines keeping in contact with travelers help address the concerns that come with flight cancellations due to weather.
What do you think? Has social media helped you stay informed during this time?
Some additional readings:
Hurricane Sandy: A Perfect Social Media Storm: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-perfect-social-media-storm.html
11 Viral Photos That Are NOT Hurricane Sandy: http://www.buzzfeed.com/reyhan/viral-photos-that-arent-hurricane-sandy
Hurricane To-Do List: http://thebebetterblog.com/post/9398919213/be-better-at-weather
Not Cool, Cookie. It’s amazing what a simple, quick response can do.
A couple of weeks ago, Oreo posted a tweet asking fans if they sneak their cookies into a movie theatre. They knew about the “No outside food/drink” policy that most theatre’s implement (since the tweet incorporated the hashtag #slicksnacker), but instead of making it sound as if they endorse rule-breaking, the tweet had a more playful tone to it.
Eight minutes after the original tweet from Oreo, the community manager for AMC Theatres responded in kind with a simple three-word comment about the original post. Over 1,900 retweets and a feature in Ad Week later, the tweets are a fantastic case study in brand-to-brand Twitter interaction.
What made this so successful? Did Oreo and AMC Theatres include this in their media plans and navigate through months of brand and legal approvals? Was this part of some overarching campaign? No. This was rooted in brand trust.
As an agency, one of the primary goals you hope to achieve with your clients is brand trust. You want your client to trust that you understand their business so well and have their best intentions in mind with every idea, message, tweet, post, etc. You want them to feel that when you represent their brand, you already understand their voice and every red flag that the legal department would raise and have already successfully addressed these issues beforehand. This could not be more important in social media.
The aforementioned tweet isn’t clever. And like I said before, it wasn’t planned. So why did it work? Because it was posted so immediately. The community manager established enough trust with his brand and their legal department that he could confidently post the statement without their review. It’s that sense of immediacy that people love about social media. The same can be said about the Old Spice YouTube campaign (ever heard of it?). These videos and posts weren’t reviewed by the brand, go through multiple revisions, or spend a week with the legal team. Enough brand trust existed that a simple message could be posted, while keeping the company’s best interests in mind, in a matter of minutes.
According to SocialBakers, the average response time for brands on social media is 26 hours, and some brands take up to 8 days to respond. Do you remember exactly what you told your friend about a brand 26 hours ago? It’s safe to say your consumer probably doesn’t, but they would if the brand responded immediately in a fun, light-hearted way. And they’d probably “Like” you for it.
You can read more from the community manager of AMC Theatres and the idea of brand trust on his blog: http://shanelife.com/2012/09/26/very-cool-cookie/
Yesterday, The State of Washington announced it would allow residents to register to vote via a new Facebook application that should be released as early as next week. Registrants are able to “like” the application and share it with other Washington residents, as a way to boost voter registration.
“In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered,” said Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections.
According to Washington State officials, Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have been working hand in hand to develop this app since last fall. Is this the right direction for voter registration in America? Will this help it, or lead to other issues in the Political system? Let us know below!
The NBA awards has taken to the social channels- Finally. On June 6th, the NBA announced a special segment of the NBA awards to be dedicated to active players, owners, and fans whom excel at using social media. Awards will celebrate social media success on platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, according to league representatives. Awards recipients will be the player who best uses social media across all platforms, the team or players who created the season’s most viral blooper play and the team whose social following saw this biggest boost this year. The NBA has proven to take what I believe is a proper route in dealing with the new social platforms, instead of discouraging players from reaching their fans via Twitter, instagram, Facebook, etc. The NBA is the first, will the rest of the sports leagues follow suite? What do you think?
In the all-too-thin file of “Thing Facebook has Done Right Lately”, we find a quiet app launch that greatly eases the lives of community managers everywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Facebook Mobile Page Manager.
Equal parts “hooray” and “finally!”, page managers everywhere no longer have to make a dash to a PC whenever they want to moderate a comment thread, post an update, or pull up some insights on the fly. The full feature set includes:
The catch? It’s currently only available on iPhone, so all you android users are still relegated to your PC’s. Oh, Facebook…
Another chapter in our on-going study of the habits of millennials online. Here’s a quick re-fresher – Millennials (aka Gen Y) are generally anyone in between the ages of 18 and 34. A broader definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
Ok so back to the data, we’ve come across some interesting stats lately that I thought I’d share. Some of these are pretty amazing.
- Receive 40 phone calls per day
- 150 IM’s per day
- 80 Social Networking notifications per day
- 250 emails per day
- 75 texts per day
- Spend 2 hours per day on Facebook
- Milllenials watch less than half as much TV as Gen X
-Their purchases are 30% more influenced by friends as compared to Gen X
And probably the most amazing one of them all…..Millennials spend over 20 hours a day using media!
Follow Us!