CBS Breaks Social Media Trust

Ok, I admit it: I watched Big Brother tonight and enjoyed it.  They had these people crawl through this caramel sludge and then dig stuff out of this gigantic mound of popcorn.  It was great.

They also have borrowed a page out of another reality show’s handbook by placing a “saboteur” in the house.  This adds a new wrinkle to the show but it also facilitates a great opportunity for social media interaction.  And CBS is taking full advantage of this.  Their website is fully integrated with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook allowing viewers to submit ideas for the saboteur.  Sounds fun, right?

The only problem is that they took a little too much advantage of the situation and squeezed two tweets out of me when I was only expecting one.  I definitely submitted the top tweet (yes, my idea for the saboteur was to clog the toilet – that would be great TV!).  But I didn’t submit the bottom, or first one.

CBS, is this really worth it?  Is it really worth compromising the trust of your viewers for an extra mention Twitter.

I say it isn’t.

A Photo Contest That Works

It seems like at some point, in every social media brainstorming session I have ever been a part of, the idea of a consumer photo contest comes up.  Rarely is it an idea that actually makes sense.

Domino’s Pizza has recently launched a contest asking consumers to take photos of… their pizzas?  Yes.  It seems a little weird, but I think it might actually work.

Why?  A few reasons:

1. People like to take photos of food – myself included.  Next time you’re on Twitter, keep an eye out for how many TwitPics have something to do with food.
2. The contest is integrated with the messaging objective – The smart element that Domino’s added into this contest is that the low-resolution photos and bad lighting of the photos is embraced and enhances the promotion.  Domino’s wanted to appeal to consumer appetites by showing them how delicious their REAL pizzas look.
3. Realistic prizes – sure Domino’s could have offered more than $500 bucks for a prize, but then that might actually influence fewer consumers to participate.  Consumers are more cynical than ever and if the prizes are too good, I believe that it actually stimulate LESS participation.  It’s counter-intuitive, but think about it.
4. It influences a sale – If you want to participate, you gotta buy a pizza!  Online social media is great, but it’s all about influencing the offline activity.

Here’s the video and the website.

What is YOUR definition of Social Media?

I had an interesting conversation today.  The question posed to me was, “What is the definition of Social Media?”

Good question.

I probably think of social media in the same way you do.  Something along the lines of “the sharing of real thoughts, ideas and questions questions via online platforms like blogs, Twitter and Facebook.”  The executive that I was talking to considered all word-of-mouth to be part of social media.  Their point was, “consumers are talking, that’s social isn’t it?”

Yup, it sure is.  So IS word-of-mouth social media?  Or is social media word of mouth.

In my opinion, yes and yes.

In this age, for either to be effective they need to work together.  There are so many conversations happening online that if your word-of-mouth isn’t making it’s way into the social media space, it’s probably not working.  And if your online social media initiative isn’t jumping over to the real world, it’s probably not resulting in sales.

WOM/social media, it’s one and the same to me.

And by the way, it’s also a good idea to make sure everyone on your team is aligned to all of the buzz words everyone is throwing around the office.

Thoughts on Corporate Social Media Guidelines

I had the pleasure of drafting our employee social media guidelines today.  Fortunately, there are already quite a few resources available and written better than I ever could have.

Here are some of the best ones I found in my research:

PR Squared shares 10Corporate Social Media Guidelines

The Greteman Group shares their Social Media Guidelines for their agency

Both are great resources and every company, agency or non-profit should use these examples as a starter for drafting their own set of guidelines.

Consumer Sharing and Participation Higher than Even I Expected

Here’s a good piece from emarketer that reveals some interesting statistics about on how consumers pass along brand information on and offline.

The percentage of people who claim to help a friend make a purchasing decision didn’t surprise me.  In fact, I might have thought it would be higher – and that’s saying something considering how much I believe in the power of word-of-mouth marketing.  But I was really surprised on these stats

• One out of five people contribute to a forum
• One out of five people attend offline events with people of a similar interest – Like a Tweetup.
• 40% of people actively share information they find online

Just more reason to find your influencers, build a relationship with them and empower them to spread the word.

The emarketer piece also has some information on which age demos are more active in sharing information.

Hardee’s Successfully Integrates Mass and Social Media

Many try, few succeed. I’m talking about successfully integrating mass media with social media. But it looks like Hardee’s might have found the sweet spot with their new “Name Our Holes” campaign.

Many of you probably know that Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr are basically the same company, but just called different names in different markets.  I happen to live in a Carl’s Jr market, so I heard about this campaign from my friend Tim, who just happens to be the guy conducting the “consumer research” in the videos.

The whole thing works because it includes all of the necessary mass and social media elements

1. The videos are edgy, funny and memorable.
2. The TV spots encourage the consumer to get involved and contribute the the fun they’re seeing on TV at the website.
3. The website does more than just repeat what consumers already saw online.  It offers up a few extra “too edgy for TV” spots so that they can be spread around the web.
4. The website allows consumers to participate at various levels of engagement. If you want to record a webcam video, you can. If you’re not that kind of person, you can do a write-in. And if you just want to watch and vote, you can do that too.  Too many campaigns rely on getting super-engaged consumers to participate. The reality is that they’re aren’t too many of those out there.
5. The website facilitates sharing. They make it easy to embed links, post them on Facebook or Tweet them.
6. Then they figure out how to make even the lesser engaged consumers feel like they’re a part of the process by emailing them a custom video featuring their content!  I’m not the type of person who records webcam stuff, but I did submit a name for their holes and found it to be pretty cool to see my name on their commercial.
7. Most importantly, the whole campaign stimulates on and offline word-of-mouth.  Yes, it’s cool for consumers to spread the videos around using social media platforms.  But it’s even cooler when consumers talk about and recommend the brand because they came up with a funny name.  Plus, Hardee’s really wins because they don’t even need to use the silly, sexual innuendo names.
8. The campaign will continue to live when the TV commercials are long gone because Hardee’s gave consumers permission to call they whatever they want.  A great example of  letting consumer take control of the brand.

Nice work, Hardee’s. Really nice work.  And I gotta say that my friend Tim’s great role as the  straightman makes the videos even funnier.

Big Companies Freak Out Way Too Much

Last week when I participated in a panel discussion in Chicago at the KMG Marketing Symposium, the subject of big companies participating in social media came up.  One of my fellow panel members brought up a story about his client Frito-Lay freaking out when a person they hired to manage a activate social media mentioned Coke on Twitter.

No big deal right?

No, it’s apparently a HUGE deal because Frito-Lay is owned by Pepsi.

Here’s the deal with social media: it works best for brands when it’s a free-flowing conversation built on trust.  It’s inevitable for these conversations to occasionally mention your competition.  Or your holding company’s competition.  Or the competition of your CEO’s spouse’s company.  It’s gonna happen, and it’s totally ok, people.  One mention or acknowledgement of the competition is not going to affect sales.  In fact, acknowleging the competition will grow trust between you and your consumers.

It you don’t believe me, go back to believing in the mass media model that says that impressions = sales.  We don’t want you in the Social Media neighborhood.

Is Social Media a Fad?

I’m taking part in a panel discussion this weekend at DePaul University’s Kellstad Marketing Group Symposium.  Our topic of discussion is: Social Media – It’s Not a Fad Anymore.

Really?  We’re already SURE that it’s not a fad?

But what’s your definition of “social media?”  Is it just blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc?  Or is it the intersection of online interactions, sharing and conversations?

If it’s just the current online networks like Twitter, then I say it’ going to be a fad because the technology isn’t going to stop and there will always be new “networks” that break on the scene.  Think about MTV 20 years ago vs the MTV of today.  It’s not nearly as relevant or important now as it was back then and I see social media networks sorting out much like television networks of the past 30 years.

Let’s look at the numbers.  Here are a few examples (as of 4/21/09) of how many people are following some HUGE brands:

• Direct TV: 3380
• Rubbermaid: 2769
• Burger King: 2598
• HP: 2093
• Esurance: 293

With big brands like those still talking to small numbers like that, I’m just not ready to declare that Twitter will be around forever.  A brand like Rubbermaid could still go have meaningful conversations with 3000 consumers in one day AT the point of purchase without spending much money.

Maybe the real issue is that mass media is a fad?  Maybe marketers are finally coming to the realization that anything that doesn’t include conversation is a waste of money.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all over Twitter and Facebook.  But I’m also all over talking to consumers any way that I can, which includes at email, retail, at events and anywhere else I can have a meaningful conversation.

Nightline Covers PR Disasters in the YouTube Age

In case you missed it, Nightline did a piece on the Dominoes YouTube disaster and interview John Bell from Ogilvy 360 ( @johnbell ).  Worth watching. Run time: 6:11

Brand Audit: Ford Fiesta

Ford Fiesta, you ask?  Yes, Ford Fiesta.  Ford is bringing it back.  It’s not like the Fiesta has the cache of the Mini, GTO or even the Thunderbird, but they’re bringing it back nonetheless.

Although I’m not such a fan of the name, I do like how they’re launching the brand.

Here’s my take on how it works: Ford has found (maybe hired) 100 people to drive a Ford Fiesta for 6 months (free of charge, of course) and share their experiences via blogs, twitter and online video.  Through the 6 months, the Fiesta Movement website will gather all of this content and share with consumers.

The Fiesta Movement campaign combines all of the key elements from social media, word of mouth, ambassadors and transparency.

Social Media – they’ve created an environment for people to share and people to watch what being shared.

Word of Mouth – the campaign is built on talking, sharing opinions and insights.  Opinions from real people are much more likely to be shared than what a brand is forcing upon consumers via mass media.

Ambassadors – the campaign sought out people who were interested in participating and then narrowed it down to a select group.  This process allowed Ford to choose a group of consumers who wanted to be marketed to and wanted to be marketers.  In other words, they’re influencers.

Transparency – This partially remains to be seen, but it appears that Ford wants honest opinions from these “agents”.

Nice job, Ford.  Keep up the good work.