Many retailers have indicated that they plan to promote and sell their merchandise via social media sites this holiday season.  Most people don’t join or participate in social media networking so that someone can sell something to them.  People join social media networking sites to socialize, connect with friends or business associates, discuss topics of common interest, share experiences, and be part of a community they choose to be associated with.

Most people are online to learn, do research, get information, have fun, be entertained, pass time, socialize, express themselves or advocate for a cause or interest.  People only go online 31% of the time with the intent to shop according to a survey by Ruder Finn.  See the Capitalizing on why people are online article for more details on how and why people spend time online.

It will be interesting to see how various retailers approach prospective buyers on social media sites to sell their wares this holiday season.

Social media is not an Outbound Marketing Channel.
Retailers typically use outbound marketing channels such as TV commercials, print advertising, radio, direct mail, email blasts, etc. to reach prospective buyers.  It’s the traditional push style of marketing that uses intrusion and interruption tactics to broadcast messages to the masses to attract the attention of those who may have a need for what they’re selling.  Retailers who plan to use outbound marketing methods for social media will get disappointing results and annoy or possibly alienate prospective buyers.

Social Media is an Inbound Marketing Channel.
Inbound marketing is a pull style of marketing focused on providing information and resources to help prospective buyers find what they need and help them make a good decision when they’re ready buy.  Typical inbound marketing channels are websites, search engines, blogs, social media sites, videos, etc. Inbound marketing is about creating a presence and positioning for a business/product/service/solution for buyers to find what they need.

Social media should not be viewed as another way to sell stuff – people on social networking sites don’t want to be sold to.  Social media should be viewed from a buyer’s perspective – people on social networking sites may appreciate availability of information and resources to help them find and decide what they need to buy.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• If you plan to use social media sites to promote sales of your product/service/solution, don’t do it by just reusing existing outbound advertising materials in this channel.
• Target relevant social media communities.  For example, Facebook provides many ways to analyze and subset a relevant target audience, Twitter followers are self-selected based on interest, and blog readers are self-selected based on the blog area of focus.
• Provide information and resources in the buyer’s context.  Don’t overtly sell something, rather think about how you can help buyers find what they need and make an informed buying decision.
• Since you are able to target specific audiences with social media marketing, consider tailoring your information and communications to each targeted group.  Speak to the issues and concerns of the specific audiences you are targeting.
• Track activity and analyze metrics to determine how to tune and improve response and conversion rates.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on October 5, 2009 published new Guidelines Concerning The Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which will become effective December 1, 2009. The new Guidelines reference is 16 C.F.R. part 255 and available for download on the FTC website.

This action by the FTC was prompted by consumer complaints about the lack of disclosure related to websites, blogs and other social media content that pose as product/service reviews and ratings, but are actually paid endorsements. Consumers have no way of knowing whether bloggers or social media authors received endorsement or corporate payments for writing about various products or services such as nutritional supplements, exercise equipment, diet programs, financial services, Internet service providers, etc.

Although the rules in the new Guidelines aren’t really new, what is new is that the same truth in advertising rules that previously applied to TV, magazines and other advertising media, now equally applies to social media sources and consumer generated content. This means that bloggers and other social media content generators must adhere to the same professional standards as other businesses regulated by the FTC regarding endorsements or reviews for which they receive any exchange of value or quid pro quo consideration.

What this means is anyone who receives any type of exchange of value, including free products or services, whether solicited or not, must disclose the endorsement and/or material connections as part of the blog, article or content. This applies regardless of whether the endorsement is negative of positive. If you are receiving any consideration in any form for writing a product/service endorsement or review, you must disclose it in the endorsement or review.

Another aspect is that you must be a bona fide user of the product/service to review or endorse it. Being paid to write a review about a book you didn’t read or a product you’ve never used is considered deceptive and not allowed. However, you can still write a review for a product you own and don’t need to make a disclosure as long as there no exchange of value or endorsement for doing so.

Violators of these new disclosure Guidelines face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• If you or your business receives any exchange of value, whether monetary or otherwise, for endorsing or reviewing a product or service on a website, blog or other social media property, you must provide disclosure of such consideration according to these new Guidelines.
• If these new Guidelines apply to you in any manner, thoroughly review the Guidelines for applicability to your situation and seek legal and/or professional assistance if needed.
• These new Guidelines are effective December 1, 2009 – ensure that you have revised policies and procedures in place to be in compliance.

Disclaimer: This article is just my brief interpretation and communication to make you aware of the FTC 16 C.F.R. part 255 Guidelines (81 page document) and should not be construed as legal or other guidance on dealing with these new Guidelines. The Guidelines are published on the FTC website and should be thoroughly reviewed to determine applicability for your or your business social media and/or blog activity. Please seek legal and/or professional assistance if you have any questions or concerns about these Guidelines.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

LinkedIn has over 47 million members around the world and continues to add new members at the rate of about 1 per second. Over 50% have management / director / executive titles and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are members. Over 50% of LinkedIn members are business decision makers. LinkedIn is a major social networking website for business people around the world that you can leverage to market yourself, your business and establish valuable business connections.

The first step is to create a complete and relevant profile. LinkedIn is for business networking – complete your profile from a business perspective. Research indicates that LinkedIn members with a 100% complete profile with comprehensive and appropriate business-oriented information are 40 times more likely to receive requests for connections, jobs and other opportunities.

• LinkedIn tracks your profile completeness – get it to 100%.
• Always include a good, recent photo – just you, no pets, significant others, toys or anything else in the photo.
• Include maiden names, nicknames, AKA names, etc. to help people to find you.
• List and provide links to your business-related website(s) and blog(s).
• Include acronyms and spell them out to ensure you are included in relevant searches.
• Include relevant keywords in various areas of your profile to help being included in searches.
• Review your profile – are you representing yourself in the manner you wish to be known?
• Thoroughly edit your profile – no grammar or spelling mistakes or other typos.
• Personalize your LinkedIn URL and make your profile public.

Having a 100% complete profile with comprehensive content is just the beginning – the real value is participating in the LinkedIn community:

• Connect with people. Find business associates, current and former colleagues, customers, etc. to invite to your LinkedIn network.
• Do not try to connect with people you don’t know, if several people respond with “I don’t know this person” you will be required to know people’s emails to initiate future connections.
• Write recommendations for others and ask them to write recommendations for you. Recommendations significantly improve your credibility and network presence.
• Join and participate in relevant groups.
• Start your own group if you are willing to make the time commitment to manage it.
• Answer questions to demonstrate your expertise and build credibility.
• Provide regular status updates of interest on your profile.
• Check the various updates from your community on your home page every day. Find possible participation opportunities and members to invite for connecting with you.
• Add a link to your LinkedIn public profile to your email signature.
• Depending on your business and objectives with LinkedIn, consider whether the additional fee-based services and advertising are worthwhile.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Think of LinkedIn as your expanded calling card on the Internet – if people want to know who you are or who is behind a particular business, they’ll search on LinkedIn or find your public profile via a general Internet search.
• You and your business are intertwined – a good business-oriented personal profile and appropriate participation activity can promote your business.
• Don’t be spammy to promote yourself or your business. Participating and contributing to the community and demonstrating your expertise by helping others will produce much better results.
• Check out what your competitors are doing on LinkedIn and who they are connected to.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Two separate, recent reports from Nielsen provide interesting and insightful information for marketers from trends in advertising spending.

Nielsen’s Global AdView Pulse, which reports advertising across 27 markets in Asia, North America, Europe and Africa, shows overall advertising expenditures decreased 6.8% for the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Regional differences are more indicative of the current economic situation with North America down 15.9%, Europe down 9.1% and Asia Pacific up 2.2%. The biggest losers for advertising spend in North America are magazines (down 22.9%), Television (down 14.9%) and Newspapers (down 14%).

In a separate report, Nielsen provided data related to social networking and blog websites:

• Time spent on social networking sites almost tripled from 6% in August 2008 to 17% in August 2009 of all time spent on the Internet.
• Estimated online advertising spending on the top social networking and blogging sites increased 119 percent during the same period.
• The share of online advertising spend on social networking and blogging sites has more than doubled, from 7% to 15% percent during this period.

Industries with the largest gains in social networking and blogging sites advertising spend are entertainment, web media, public services and health. Hardware & electronics, software and automotive posted the largest declines in social networking and blogging sites advertising spend.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Social networking and social media marketing continues to gain traction and attention as evidenced by these data.
• Businesses are taking note of this trend and moving advertising spend to where their prospective buyers and customers are spending more time – on social networking and blogging sites.
• Social networking and blogging sites provide advertisers with highly attractive options to target people with specific demographics and interests with tailored and custom advertising.
• I’ve written a number of articles in recent months about the potential of social media marketing for businesses of all types and sizes.
• An increasing number of businesses are spending an increasing amount of their advertising on social networking and blogging sites – what is your plan to establish a presence on these sites with social media marketing?

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Feedback from several business owners/operators I’ve talked with recently revealed a common concern with using social media for their businesses – what should they use from the growing list of hundreds of social media applications available in dozens of categories? Seems that almost every week a new social media application is touted as the next big thing.

Rather than try to review and follow all the available social media applications and new developments, consider the challenges and opportunities for your business that you can address with social media applications. Start with the business objective, then select an appropriate social media application.

The top 5 social media applications businesses use are Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. The following are the 5 major categories of social media applications to consider that cover the primary social media objectives for most businesses.

Blogs – the primary objective of a business blog is to connect with your audience of customers and prospective buyers by providing valuable and useful information. Blogs are usually complementary to a business website, providing advice, guidance, instruction and other information not typically covered by the company/brand/product/service/solution orientation of a regular website. Blogs also enable interaction with the audience via the comments capability. See the What is a “blog” and how can it improve your business? article for more information on using blogs.

Social Networks – provide the means to build online communities of people with common interests and/or activities. If your business is primarily B2B, a social network such LinkedIn has many communities (Groups) of business people sharing information and ideas with each other. Although Facebook started out as a personal social network, many B2C companies have a presence on Facebook to connect with consumers in an interactive social networking setting. Check out what companies such as Starbucks, Microsoft, H&M, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Coca-Cola and others doing on Facebook for ideas on what you can do.

Micro-blogging / Texting – is a form of blogging based on sending brief messages that can be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group chosen by the user. Although these micro-blogging messages are intended to communicate a concise message in a limited space, many include links to more detailed information. Twitter is the most well-known and widely-used micro-blogging service. See the 20 Examples of Business Success with Twitter article for more information and ideas to use Twitter for your business.

Video Sharing – although YouTube started off as a personal video sharing application, many businesses are actively using YouTube as a social media marketing and networking resource. Initial business interest in YouTube focused on creating viral videos that attracted millions of viewers such as the “Will it Blend?” series of videos from Blendtec. Today, many mainstream businesses use YouTube as a social media marketing channel with product demonstrations, practical instruction on how to do something, community participation contests and other ways to engage with audiences using video. Companies are increasingly using video sharing as an integral component of marketing campaigns.

Social Bookmarking – when someone finds something of interest they wish to share, social bookmarking enables the accumulation and sharing of bookmarks on the Internet. These bookmarks are public for anyone to see, use, rate and add more bookmarks of common interest. Social bookmarking is another way to develop communities of common interest and influence people to visit your website or blog. See the Expanding your business Internet presence with Social Bookmarking article for more information.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Start with the fundamentals and which aspects or activities of your business can be improved or expanded with social media.
• Develop specific plans on what you want to accomplish, which applications you will use, how to do it and how to measure progress and success.
• Social media applications and social networking are serious business tools with great potential and associated risk. Acquiring the right expertise and guidance is crucial to success and avoiding pitfalls.
• Explore and learn from what other companies are doing. Look at major corporations, companies in your industry, companies with similar challenges or opportunities, competitors, etc. to get ideas and insights.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Many business executives/owners/operators and marketers are unsure about how to use Twitter effectively for their business. They understand it requires more than just posting frivolous updates in response to the Twitter “What are you doing?” question.

Rather than go through an academic discussion of the various aspects to consider for using Twitter to connect with customers and promote your business, I thought that this list of 20 real-world examples would provide ideas and inspiration for using Twitter in your business:

1. Several computer vendors and retailers offer exclusive discounts to their Twitter followers and bring in substantial revenue from this additional source.
2. A coffee shop in Houston uses Twitter for customers to place to-go orders so that their order is ready and waiting for them at the drive-thru window when they arrive.
3. At that same coffee shop, customers can Tweet their orders directly from their table without going to the counter to order.
4. Various hotel chains send special offers to their Twitter followers to fill vacant rooms.
5. Several airlines provide informational updates, customer service, competitions, promotions and general dialog with customers.
6. A bakery in London uses Twitter to notify followers when baked goods are fresh out of the oven.
7. Event organizers use Twitter to notify attendees about logistics, updates, schedule changes and other information about an event.
8. The staff at a New Orleans Pizza restaurant sends information about the healthy and fresh ingredients in their organic pizzas and details about special deals.
9. A hotel chain provides concierge services via Twitter to answer guest questions about getting around the local area for a particular hotel.
10. Street vendors in several cities notify their followers where they’re parked at different times and what specials they have that day.
11. Home improvement stores provide tips, suggestions and how-to advice to their followers.
12. A Research firm notifies their followers when new research, articles or discussions are published.
13. A food supermarket chain gets input from customers on what they like as research to determine what to stock in each store to meet local tastes and preferences.
14. An online retailer has developed a huge following on Twitter by encouraging employees to communicate with customers about a wide variety of topics of mutual interest.
15. A tax preparation service provides question-and-answer services to their customers via Twitter.
16. A cable operator provides real-time customer service and problem resolution on Twitter.
17. A fast food chain uses Twitter for customer comments and feedback. They also send coupons to followers.
18. A car manufacturer provides updates on their green vehicles and sustainability initiatives across the business.
19. Several news organizations provide news headlines and breaking news to followers.
20. An online retailer specializing in selling clearance products has over 1.3 million followers by posting daily sale items on Twitter.

Disclaimer: I’ve collected the above examples and stories from various blog and Internet sources. While they are mentioned in multiple sources and appear to be genuine, I cannot vouch for the accuracy or authenticity of the above examples. I also elected to omit company names to keep focus on the ideas rather than a particular company.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Avoid the pointless debate about whether Twitter is a fad, appropriate for business, has a sustainable business model, etc. It’s working for many businesses – determine whether and how to make it work for your business.
• Ensure that you have the committed resources to maintain and sustain your Twitter activity once you get going.
• There is no cost to use Twitter – all it takes is time to participate.
• Twitter is another marketing channel for your business, but it’s mode of operation is different from other marketing channels.
• Take the time to learn, research and determine how to best use Twitter for your business rather than just diving in to see whether something happens.
• Regardless of whether your company actively uses Twitter, consider using tools such as Twitter Search, TweetDeck and Twendz to monitor and track any discussions about your company/brands/products/services/solutions.

To learn more about using Twitter for your business, check out the free Twitter 101 Business Guide which also has more detailed case studies of businesses successfully using Twitter.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Forrester Research recently published their third annual Social Technographics Profile research review of social media participation. Forrester categorize 6 groups or levels of participation in an incremental ladder of participative activities as indicated in the following diagram:

These are some interesting highlights from the 2009 report for the USA online market:

• Approximately 80% of all online Americans participate in some level of social media activity at least once a month.
• Joiners, those who maintain a profile on social networking sites, grew significantly from 35% to 51% of all online Americans – a 46% year-over-year increase.
• Spectators, those consuming social media content, grew to 73% of all online Americans.
• Inactives dropped to 18% with less than 10% of people under age 35 being inactive.
• About two-thirds of all online Americans aged 55 or older participate in social media.
• Creators, those publishing social media content, grew from 21% to 24% all online Americans.
• Critics, those who post comments, ratings, reviews and contributions on content produced by Creators, remained steady at 37%.
• Collectors, those who actively participate while consuming social media content increased from 19% to 21%.

European adoption is somewhat slower than the USA with about 40% inactives in countries surveyed by Forrester. Social networks are most popular in the UK; Italy has the most Creators, and Netherlands and Sweden have the most participation. Participation in Asia is similar to, or higher than, the USA.  For example, South Korea only has 9% inactives.

The bottom line from this survey is that social media participation and consumption is an increasingly integral part of being online for the vast majority of people.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• People are participating and consuming social media at ever increasing levels. These people are your customers and prospective buyers.
• If you’re not participating in social networking you’re missing out on a communication channel of growing size and importance to connect with customers and buyers.
• Businesses not using social media for marketing are now regarded as being laggards in marketing practices and activities.
• Do you have a business plan for social networking participation and social media marketing? If not, it’s time to get a plan in place now. If you do, when last was it reviewed and updated according to the current situation and trends?
• Read the What is Social Media Marketing? article for more information about using social media to market your business.
• Ensure that you have a social media monitoring and response plan in place for managing your online reputation.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

In today’s digital and social networking world your personal brand and reputation are key to success on the Internet. Whether you are looking for a job, developing your career for long-term goals, changing careers, starting your own business, or whatever; you need a strong personal brand and digitally distinct identity on the Internet.

When people want to find out something about you, they’ll search for your name on the Internet. The search results provide an interesting perspective about who you are in context of what the digital world knows about you. Try a search on your name using your favorite search engine – enter “your name” (with quotation marks) in the search box and see what results you get. If the search results come up with none or a few items, you’re a digital nobody. If the search results return many items, what story do they tell someone about you? Is it the right story of how you want to be known?

The Online Identity Calculator is an interesting tool that steps you through the process to determine the relevance and strength of your online digital identity. Try it, and find out how distinct your digital identity is. This Online Identity Calculator was designed by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, authors of Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand, a bestselling book about personal branding and career success.

Underestimating or disregarding the importance of having a strong and positive personal presence can have serious negative consequences in many areas. Recruiters and hiring managers at most companies do searches on applicants to prequalify them before they talk to a candidate. Job applicants do searches on recruiters and people associated with a prospective employer. Buyers do searches on suppliers and salespeople. Salespeople do searches on prospective buyers. Managers do searches on employees and employees do searches on managers. People now have unprecedented means to vet with whom they associate or do business.

There are many ways to develop and improve your presence, personal brand and digital identity on the Internet – here are some to consider:

• Setup a full profile on LinkedIn.
• Join relevant LinkedIn groups and comment on discussions.
• Write a blog relevant to the presence and identity you want to develop.
• Comment on other blogs relevant to your interests.
• Setup a profile on Facebook and participate in appropriate conversations with friends.
• Use Twitter to connect and exchange information with people with similar interests.
• Setup profiles on various sites such Google, ZoomInfo, Spoke, Xing, etc.
• Setup a Google Alert to monitor who is saying what about you online.
• Buy the Internet domain for your name – it’s easy to do and approximately $10 a year at GoDaddy. Owning your domain name gives you a good place to develop a blog or website when you’re ready to do it.
• Get the Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand book for more details and guidance.
• This task is never done – maintaining a current and relevant online presence is a continuing effort.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• People do business with people. Your personal identity and brand is an integral part of your business.
• Do you have a good presence, personal brand and digital identity on the Internet to support your business?
• Does your business have a good presence, brand and digital identity on the Internet?
• You should use the Internet to find out more about people you hire or do business with – knowing more about who you’re dealing with is advantageous for making good decisions, negotiations, etc.
• Do searches on your competitors – you may learn something interesting to use for competing more effectively.
• Ensure that your online identity and brand is congruent and complementary with your brand and identity in the real world.

No matter what you do, someone is checking you out online. Are they finding you and are they getting the right and positive impression?
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

You’ve probably noticed those little icons on blogs, news sites and other websites inviting you to bookmark or share the article, story, news item, blog post, etc. you’ve just read. See the end of this article and other articles on this website for an example. This article will help familiarize you with social bookmarking and how it can expand your business presence on the Internet.

Instead of trying to save links in your browser Favorites or Bookmarks, social bookmarking enables you to describe, categorize, rate and share them with everyone on the Internet. For example, you may be interested in learning more about Internet marketing for your business. When you find something of interest you can bookmark it on a social bookmarking site and accumulate your bookmarks of interest. What makes it social is that other people with similar interests will be saving bookmarks too. Since the bookmarks are public anyone can now see, use and rate all the bookmarks of common interest.

Anyone can submit links for bookmarking at social media sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg, Stumble Upon, etc. The bookmark contains the title, link address, comment and tags. The tags are like search keywords enabling you and others to easily find the bookmark. The bookmarks are automatically organized into collections based on the tags, and popularity based on usage and ratings/reviews by the community.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Social bookmarks are another way to drive traffic to your website. Hyperlinks drive the Internet – getting a link to an article or item of interest on your website from a social bookmarking site provides additional visibility for people to visit your website. Social bookmark links to your site also increase your presence and page rank in search engines.
• However, you need content of interest for your target audience. Blatantly trying to just promote your business or website with product/service/solution information won’t work and could harm your online reputation.
• A blog associated with your website is an excellent way to publish articles or news of interest for your target buyer community and get them listed on social bookmarking sites.
• Encourage your blog readers to submit your articles to social bookmarking sites with easy to use social bookmarking submission links. AddThis is a commonly used service for this or check the functionality your blogging system provides.
• Do your own social bookmarking submissions for your business gradually over time to avoid search engines considering a flood of submissions from one site or one submitter as spam.
• Build a bookmarking community by sharing bookmarks from other informational sources related to your target audience.
• Start by researching and observing what others are doing to formulate your plan for using social bookmarking.

You’ll need an account at one or more of the social bookmarking sites to get started. Review Del.icio.us, Digg, Stumble Upon or any others and do some checking to see which may be better suited for your business and what you want to accomplish. Try bookmarking this article using the links below to get started.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Two recent research studies indicate that many businesses still fear social media. The primary reasons for this fear are security, trust, employee productivity and lack of knowledge about social media. According to a research study by Sophos in April 2009, 63% of the business surveyed worry that workers are sharing too much information on social networking sites. In a July 2009 research study by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, 81% of respondents perceive social media as a corporate security risk, and 51% fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity.

The Russell Herder / Ethos Business Law research provides some interesting findings about the current state of social media in businesses:

• Over 80% believe social media can add value for enhancing customer relationships and building the company’s brand.
• 40% of companies block employee access to social media sites. This is a similar statistic to the Sophos study.
• Senior management are primarily using social media in a reactive manner for activities such as reading what customers are saying about the company, monitoring competitors, watching what employees are sharing, etc.
• However, 87% do not have social media included in crisis communication plans.
• Of those not using social media, 51% are because they don’t know enough about it.
• 73% of companies surveyed project increasing use of social media in the next year.

The research highlights some interesting contradictions. A significant majority of business managers recognize the value of social media. However, many are not proactively pursuing social media as part of their core business or marketing strategy. And there are still 2 in 5 companies blocking their employee’s use of social media.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Social networking isn’t new – it’s been around forever. People meet in social situations inside and outside of work and discuss work related topics. They meet on golf courses, around the proverbial water cooler, conferences, pubs, etc. Social media uses the power of the Internet to add new capabilities and instant worldwide communication with larger groups to social networking. Consider it within this context to formulate a social media plan and usage guidelines for your business.
• You need to participate in social media. Although there is risk, there are significant opportunities for your business – see the What is Social Media Marketing? article for more information.
• Another reason to participate in social media is to manage your business reputation. See the Managing your online reputation article for guidelines to deal with social media comments about your business.
• You can’t and shouldn’t avoid social media – as more Millennials and subsequent generations join the workforce and move up in organizations, they will actively use social media to become part of the regular business environment. Millennials are a growing segment of your customer and employee community.
• Fear of social media is mostly based on insufficient knowledge and misunderstandings. Learning about social media and participating on an incremental basis is the best way to overcome the fear, manage the risks and pursue the opportunities.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

The “United Breaks Guitars” video post on YouTube is another example in a series of incidents demonstrating how customers can voice complaints about poor and indifferent service from businesses. If you’re not familiar with the “United Breaks Guitars” incident, Dave Carroll is a professional musician who’s $3,500 Taylor guitar was broken by baggage handlers on a United Airlines flight. After many months of dealing with indifferent customer service staff, United decided not to compensate him for breaking his guitar. So Dave wrote and performed a song about the incident and United’s customer service response, which he posted on YouTube. This video got over 4 million views in 3 weeks since it was posted.

Obviously this is a major public relations nightmare for United Airlines – well deserved, but completely avoidable. If they had done the right thing by compensating Dave Carroll the $3,500 for his broken guitar in the first place, it wouldn’t become a fiasco costing United millions of dollars in lost revenue, PR response costs and untold damage to their reputation.

The amazing thing about this incident is that United Airlines never paid attention to or learned anything from the many previous incidents of people using social media to voice their frustration about lousy customer service from businesses. Some companies such as Southwest Airlines understand the power of social media for customer interactions and monitor social media sites as part of their social media customer outreach and marketing efforts.

Indifferent customer service and unresolved customer complaints are nothing new. Used to be that people would tell someone about a problem, but the traditional word-of-mouth grapevine is slow with limited reach. Social media has changed that by enabling people to voice their problems and opinions with fast and extensive reach.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• No business is too big or too small as a customer complaint target via social media channels. Be prepared – see the Managing your online reputation article for more information.
• It’s not customer service as usual – all customer service staff must be trained to deal with customer complaints and problems personally, proactively and speedily within the reality of social media recourse.
• Establish an escalation procedure that everyone in your business follows if a problem continues to be unresolved or deteriorates.
• If something like this happens that affects your business/products/services/solutions, respond quickly, directly, openly and positively.
• Don’t make the situation worse by citing policies and procedures that don’t help the customer. Figure out how to make lemonade from the lemon.
• Use the incident as a positive PR opportunity to show off how you work positively with customers to solve problems.
• Look for opportunities from other’s misfortune – the following businesses are a few of many examples who connected with the “United Breaks Guitars” incident:
  • Clam CaseXtreme posted a video to show how their guitar cases protect guitars from damage.
  • Taylor Guitars posted a video with tips on traveling with a guitar and promoting their repair services.
  • There’s comedians, T-shirt sellers and others riding the coattails of the publicity from Dave Carroll’s video.
• Monitor comments and complaints about your competitors for opportunities to promote your business/brands/products/services/solutions.

It’s also worth noting that Dave Carroll has probably generated more publicity for himself with this one incident than in his entire music career to that point. That’s smart marketing – he leveraged social media to voice his frustration about his situation and promote himself in a positive manner.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Regardless of the size of your business and whether or not you or your business participate in social media, you need to pay attention to what is happening in the social media world. You can no longer bury customer complaints and problems in the bowels of your service department. Customers and prospective buyers have unprecedented access to increasingly powerful social media tools such as YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, Forums, Blogs, Rating Sites, and more, to express their frustrations and dissatisfaction with lousy services and products.

The “United Breaks Guitars” incident is one more example in a long list of customer service and PR debacles for businesses caused by their own poor or indifferent response to customer problems and complaints. Companies that don’t pay attention to what their customers are saying about their business/brands/products/services/solutions via social media sites pay a serious penalty in bad publicity and lost revenues.

Your business/brands/products/services/solutions reputation is open to positive and negative social media discussion online. This is your reputation – you need to be engaged – you need to monitor what’s going on – you need to respond appropriately.

The first step is to monitor who is saying what related to your business, brands, products, services, solutions or other business properties. The easiest way to do this is to setup Google Alerts to monitor any activity for each term of interest. Choose the ‘Comprehensive’ search type and have it delivered ‘as-it-happens’ to an email address you check regularly. Although this is a good automated, no cost monitoring service; I recommend doing direct searches on various social media sites on a periodic basis – depends on the frequency of post incidents for your business.

Once you find a post, do a quick and careful analysis of the situation:

• If it’s positive, thank the customer for the comment. If you want to reward them with a coupon or discount do it privately not to set a precedent for everyone to comment just to get a reward. If it’s negative, continue reading…
• Get the facts and reading of the situation from both sides. Listen without being defensive no matter how harsh the criticism.
• Assess the situation – there are different degrees of negativity.
• Get an unbiased view from a neutral 3rd party if necessary. Sometimes you’re too close to the situation to objectively interpret the intended message of the comment.
• Check whether this person has posted other complaints elsewhere. There are some constant complainers and angry people out there. Do a search on their name or alias to get as much information about them as you can – make sure you understand who you’re dealing with.
• Get agreement and ensure everyone knows and understands how you will respond and the ideal final resolution you wish to accomplish.

Now you’re ready to respond:

• Be ready and be quick – don’t exacerbate the problem by letting the comment sit out there for more than a few hours without a good resolution. Other Internet users will see it.
• If you don’t have the definitive answer immediately, respond anyway that you’re aware of their comment and you’re checking the situation to get back to them ASAP.
• Before you reply, remember that you are replying to the social media world, not just the complainant – be professional and use regular, moderated language.
• Stay calm, be sincere and don’t get into petty arguments. Rise above any bad language or baiting from the complainer. Sometimes the complainer wants to make you look like a jerk – don’t get sucked into their agenda.
• If it just requires clarification of a misunderstanding, step in and explain.
• If your business screwed up in any way – make amends in the best possible manner. Bite the bullet for a replacement or refund if needed – it costs much less than the bad publicity and potential for lost revenues.
• If the customer has buyer’s remorse or they screwed it up – try to resolve it in the most amicable manner for the customer. Even though they may be annoyed, you can turn them into a fan with a good resolution.
• Respond quickly, fairly and decisively – don’t let it drag on for others to pile on with “me too” supporting comments.
• Once resolved, end the discussion with 3 take-aways:
  1. Thank them for bringing this to your attention.
  2. Offer them an alternate route to get this type of issue resolved directly with your company if it should happen again. That way, you avoid the whole social media rigmarole for future incidents.
  3. Promise to do better – whatever is relevant for the situation.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Regardless of your personal social media participation or opinion, you cannot disregard social media conversations about your business/brands/products/services/solutions.
• Develop a social media monitoring and response plan for your business incorporating relevant points discussed above. Communicate it to everyone in your company – not just service staff.
• Develop a crisis plan if things go wrong and the problem escalates. You need to respond and resolve the problem before someone makes a video.
• Educate everyone in your company on the importance of good customer service, the ramifications of indifferent service, and everyone’s customer service role.
• Don’t let these situations fester – respond quickly and resolutely.
• Develop consistent messaging that everyone in your company follows for communicating with customers.
• Minimize PR and reputation damage. You may have to offer a resolution that you’re not entirely comfortable with. Bite the bullet and minimize the damage.
• Use the opportunity to respond and resolve in a manner that will turn the dialog into a favorable experience for others to read.
• Treat every incident as a learning experience to communicate with everyone in your company.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com