Perspectives
Categories
Commitment Stage
Department
Industries

Is Crowdsourcing Business Ideas the Right Use of Social Media?

Date: Jul 20, 2012
Leave a comment
Posted by: Adam

The latest trend in brand engagement for social media is to have your customers submit ideas, pick the top few and then have your fans on Facebook vote for their favorite. Brands like Sam Adams and Arizona Iced Tea have done it, and now it is Lays Potato Chips turn. http://usat.ly/Ly8Rz4

On its face, it seems like a great way to increase buy-in from your customers, and validate the customer feedback loop. And clearly the bandwagon has started. But here are several reasons why it is probably not the best idea for your brand:

• Social is virtual. You can’t launch a new product without the tactile. So this approach is incomplete at best.
• Great brands lead. This approach makes your brand a follower.
• Social media should extend your brand; your brand should not get extended by social media.
• If it looks like a gimmick and acts like a gimmick. It is a gimmick. Don’t think your customers are that naïve.
• And finally, say to yourself – would Apple do this? I think you know the answer.

The Hoopla Over General Motors Pulling their Spend on Facebook Ads

Date: May 18, 2012
Leave a comment
Posted by: Adam

Media loves controversy, and what could be better than a major brand with a multi-billion dollar advertising budget reporting that Facebook ads do not work – and right before the IPO. This made great news, and all of our clients want our thoughts. So here they are:

First, I am suspect that the news reports are the full story. If you ask yourself the question, “why did GM do this and why now” – there is no easy answer. There must be a back-story and an ulterior motive. And if there is, then the truth in the report must be questioned.

But even if you take GM at their word that the ads are ineffective, you must also ask the question – “what did GM expect from their $10 million on Facebook?”

I read the articles, I cannot find an answer to that question. GM is an experienced brand with a $3 billion ad spend, and they have a comprehensive analytics group to assess the performance of the ads. I suspect that is the problem – that GM is evaluating Facebook ads using the same approach they evaluate traditional ads.

GM has 63 brands in the US alone. If they spend two-thirds of their money in the US, it equates to $100,000/brand or $8,000/brand/month. What effect did GM expect for $8,000 per month?

In our work, effective Facebook advertising can generate a new “like” of your brand page for about $1 per “like”. There are a number of studies that show the value of “like”. Here is link to a slightly dated study on the topic.

$10 million in Facebook ads will not change brand awareness. $10 million in Facebook ads will not sell cars. Done right $10 million in Facebook ads could build 10 million new fans across the GM brands, which could be built into long-term relationships with customers.

Facebook ads are an “invitation” and once a person accepts the invitation, the Facebook brand page relationship will determine whether there is value for the customer.

The Bottom Line – GM’s reported lack of success with Facebook should not discourage others. Facebook ads are a cost effective way to experiment with messages to reach well targeted audiences and initiate relationships with customers.

CBS’s “Social Sweeps Week”: A Case Study in Enterprise Social Media

Date: Nov 15, 2011
2 Comments
Posted by: Adam

A few weeks back CBS announced a comprehensive social media marketing campaign where all of its primetime programs would have the actor’s take over the program’s Facebook and Twitter pages for a week, and it occurred to me that this was a great example of an enterprise social media program for a company with multiple, disparate brands.

While the “Social Sweeps Week” received a lot of buzz, I thought it would be beneficial to review the program to see if it was “effective” with the general public. (I should note that I do not have any inside knowledge of the program investment or expected goals – all of the analysis is done as an outsider). To my surprise, the campaign appears to be a success in both concept and delivery. Below is how I come to my conclusion.

Before I get into the program results, I think it should be recognized that the launch of the campaign was a success for CBS and social media in and of itself. While it seems like a straightforward concept, the execution of this program is very difficult. To start, each show is its own brand. It has its own management and its own talent, and they all have agreements with limitations on what they will do. Additionally, the shows have different brand “personalities” (comedy, drama, reality). And some shows were new, and probably happy for any marketing support, while many others have been established for years. CBS received participation from all shows which is a significant accomplishment and means the program was properly supported by senior management.

To evaluate the results I examined the Facebook and Twitter pages for all of the shows in the morning early in the week and then again right after the week.
• The CBS shows have about 115 million fans and 1 million followers – 2 and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory and How I met Your Mother Account for half of the activity.
• Overall the programs were able to general about 500,000 Facebook fans and 50,000 Twitter followers in a 5 day period. Annualized at this rate CBS would drive 35 million new fans and 3 million new followers for its shows.
• The Facebook “Talking about this” metric increased about 25% during the week from about 1.2% to 1.5% of Fans, and when you look at that in relation to 115 million fans the increase is significant. In addition, most early finding show that large brands have a “Talking about this percentage around 1%, so 1.5% is an achievement. If CBS was on this list of top Facebook brands (http://bit.ly/tuRqd6) they would be first.

Of course, the C- executives will be asking if the Social Sweeps Week helped drive overall show ratings and thus ad dollars. Unfortunately, I cannot fully answer that question without more data from CBS. But even without that data, as television evolves, shows will have to find ways to engage with its fans, and it appears that Social Sweeps Week is a good start.

The Debt Ceiling and the Missed Opportunity in Social Media

Date: Nov 15, 2011
3 Comments
Posted by: Adam

(I wrote this a few month’s back but forgot to post) Like many American’s I have become fed up with the debt ceiling debate. How many articles do we need to read about potential solutions that our government cannot deliver due to the contentious nature of politics in Washington? The situation became so bad that President Obama and John Boehner spoke directly to the American people trying to drive support for their plans. The President specifically said, “So I’m asking you all to make your voice heard. If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of Congress know. “ Multiple news sources cited a significant increase in calls and email to the White House and Congress, but it is having no impact.

There is the missed opportunity. Neither party championed social media to generate public support for their ideas. Neither party promoted a Facebook page or another social network site to ask Americans to publically support their plan. All attempts to generate support are behind closed doors and inconsistent with today’s more transparent communication protocols.
The only way to break the impasse in Washington is for the public to rise up and tell Washington what it wants. And the way the public rises up in 2011 is in social media. From Egyptian revolution to the crisis of cottage cheese prices in Israel, time and time again, the way to champion change is through rallying support in social media. Imagine Obama asking for 50 million people to “like” his solution on Facebook. That would force the rest of the politicians to listen.

The lack of a social media strategy by either side shows they are out of touch with the American public, and it is unfortunate, because I believe a comprehensive deal on debt reduction (at least $3.5 trillion) is what most people want. Today it looks like that is not possible, but if we all joined the Facebook group “Get a Real Debt Deal Done Now”, the politicians will be forced to listen.

Best Practices of Building a Corporate Facebook Page

Date: Oct 21, 2010
4 Comments
Posted by: Adam

At the recent SOCAP annual conference, I had the opportunity to sit in a session with Colleen Sullivan, Director of National Accounts, Facebook.  She is one of the few external facing employees of Facebook and she helps business build a smart and successful Facebook page.  Here are some of my notes:

  • A company’s facebook page is a distribution channel – not a destination.  The primary goal is to publish into people’s News Feed, because that is where most content is consumed.  Unlike other social media, you should think of Facebook like a radio station, not as a conversation.  A small number of people call into a radio broadcast but most don’t.
    • Another way to think of facebook is “lightweight social action” – Most people tend to “like”, “comment” or “share”, and you should promote that activity.  Very few people put lengthy posts onto a brand site.
  • Good brand examples are Levis, Starbucks, Nike and US Weekly.
    • Starbucks is the number 1 brand site with over 15 million “likes”
    • Everyone says fans should grow virally, but that is not how it really happens.  Brands must invest significant time in their page strategy and market that strategy to consumers.  Brands with over 1 million fans advertise to drive consumers to their facebook page.
  • The engagement rate for brand pages is highest on text, then photos, video is the lowest (if you post a video, it better be entertaining for people to care).
  • Do not set up a separate customer care page.
    • The Best Buy page is one of the strongest facebook sites as it relates to use for customer care.
  • Brands should build a content calendar – so you can schedule and control the content delivery
    • Brands should not publish content more than 2x per week.
  • The tabs are useful but should not be the focus for brands.  Most consumers will not use the tabs so your investment in them should be limited.  They recommended a limited investment in creating a tab and then reviewing consumer interest before a big effort on the tabs/
  • Don’t let your agency manage your facebook page, because why would you outsource your “brand voice”.
  • There is no absolute figures to measuring the value of a facebook fan, but there are some studies beginning to get published.  These reports are putting significant value on facebook fans, but some are questioning the accuracy.  See the attached link (http://bit.ly/aRsWBZ)

Linksys Replacing Call Centers with Online Communities

Date: Oct 18, 2010
4 Comments
Posted by: Adam

I recently sat in on a presentation by Lithium.  They gave one of the most impressive social media technology presentations I have seen in a while.  The reason – they focused on case studies that delivered measured value to their clients.  One story they told detailed the work they did for Linksys to facilitate customer resolution of router issues.   During the holiday season, a storm in Asia knocked out a Linksys’ call center.  At a critical time for consumer support, the traditional 1-800 number was not working.  Linksys routed users to the online support community (created for Linksys by Lithium) as an emergency measure.  After the crisis was over, Linksys researched the impact of the failure of the call center and consumer satisfaction with online communities.  In doing so, they learned that most consumers were at least as satisfied resolving their own issues with the right online resources.  Based on this emergency action, Linksys significantly reduced its human call center in Asia drove more customers to the online community site and reported a savings of $20 million.   Case studies like these help demonstrate the value of customer service in online communities and the potential ROI of such efforts.

Gatorade’s Mission Control Center

Date: Oct 18, 2010
3 Comments
Posted by: Adam

Wall Street Journal recent ran an article about Gatorade’s social media mission control center (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703466704575489673244784924.html).  I believe this is a coming trend as clients try to get more engaged in social.  The reason the mission control center is such a powerful concept is because it consolidates disparate social media activities throughout the organization and allows for consolidated performance measurement.

There are a few interesting areas of the article that I would like to note and comment:

  • First the Mission Control center is a great term for their social media engagement center.  Shows CMO Sarah Robb can market.
  • Gatorade uses R6 and a custom build IBM solution.  For many companies, there is no perfect system for social media engagement in social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  Once IBM (and the agency) the price tag is easily 7 figures.
  • Gatorade’s CMO is reluctant to discuss ROI performance measurement.  If they are similar to my other clients, first they are measuring their teams engagement performance, the volume and sentiment towards the brand, and the perception of Gatorade with key influencers.  After these is quarterly metrics are established, Gatorade will further investigate how changes this metrics impact consumer behavior.  For example when they launch

GAP and Social Media

Date: Oct 18, 2010
5 Comments
Posted by: Adam

I recently worked with a financial analysis firm to study the GAP black magic campaign.  We studied the impact of the launch of the recent focus of GAP of the staple of black pants.  What we found in that study was that GAP generated no passion about their Black Magic campaign as measured by the consumer voice online.  Conversations about the campaign were abysmal and GAP’s effort did nothing to drive more conversation about purchasing black pants by the campaign.  Black pants are a staple, and admittedly it may be difficult to drive consumer passion.  My interpretation of the goal of the campaign (although I had to dig it out) is that the 7 varieties of pants meant everyone could find the “magical fit”.   What I found as a social initiative were behind the scenes footage of the making of their ad posted to Facebook and YouTube.  The videos have generated a few thousand views and a few hundred “likes”.  Not going to move the needle for a major consumer brand.

Separate but related, GAP recently announced that they are pulling their new logo design because stark consumer outcry to the new look and feel.  Attached is just one of many articles about it. http://bit.ly/a9f6oc.  One of my partners, Visible Technologies, also got a nice quote in the article.

The two events lead me to the following conclusions that GAP has not learned how to take advantage of consumer conversations to drive positive results.

Below of a few things they could have done better:

  1. Black Magic – For 20 years, GAP has achieved great success with the options and great fit of their jeans.  In fact, jean conversations far outnumber GAP conversations online.  GAP should have leveraged the positive brand association with their great fitting jeans and tried to extend that magic to their new line of black plans.  One example of a social media marketing tactic could have been to engage fans of their jean and offer them first look at the new black pants line.  Or they could offer incentive to those who were willing to share their stories about their GAP jeans and were willing to try the new black pants. GAP needed to create a bridge in the consumers mind between a magical experience with an existing item that fit great and their new black pants.  They did not do that.
  2. Logo – I am sure GAP did plenty of research on the new logo but they did it behind closed doors.  I wonder if they chose the same firm that did the Tropicana redesign.  This is an old school approach that leads to consumer surprise.  They need to invite their consumers into the process (which by the way appears to be what they are doing now).

The good news on the logo change is at least GAP is listening and that is a step in the right direction.  In addition, I saw GAP run a very successful program on GroupOn.  At least they know how to discount.

Pharmaceutical in social media and the SHIFT e-book

Date: Oct 18, 2010
2 Comments
Posted by: Adam

Pharmaceuticals, like other regulated industries, are slow to get up to speed on social.  Resources are now expanding that can help those inside and out get best practices and the knowledge they need to successfully launch social media programs.   In general a pharmaceutical company or brand faces 4 main challenges when dealing in social:

  1. How to adapt and handle communication messages to the fast pace of social media when every word requires several levels of approvals.
  2. How to understand the different stakeholders in online communities
  3. What technologies pay a roll and how are they properly managed
  4. How do we deal with potential adverse events

Trying to sort through this has led many companies to put their head in the sand.  There have been significant steps made in the last few years, like the efforts GSK has made with Alli and Nicorette.

These efforts plus a growing array of resources are helping lower the bar of resistance.  Below is a link to the latest release from SHIFT communications on getting started right in pharma social media, plus a few other sites with helpful info:

Other helpful sites:

Old Spice Social Media Ad Campaign

Date: Oct 18, 2010
6 Comments
Posted by: Adam

There has been a ton written about the Old Spice social media campaign where they took their Old Spice Guy and created custom YouTube videos for consumers and bloggers writing about the TV ads.  This mashable article, http://bit.ly/atKdKL , really consolidates a lot of the stats about the program’s success.

The stats are amazing:

  • $6 million views in 24 hours and an estimated total reach of over $100 million
  • If I read right, per Nielsen, right after the campaign, the overall sales for Old Spice body-wash products are up 107% in the month following the campaign and up 55 percent in the last three months.
  • 180 videos were created in a one day (not sure if that is true) using an actor, agency creative team and a production team in a single location.

Well that sound great, but if this is the flagship story for social media buzz in the last 12 months, I could not find any full ROI calculation.  So let’s try to extrapolate one:

Cost – Less than $200,000 (Actor for a day $50,000.  Production team $15,000.  Agency Fees $100,000. Editing $35,000)

Sales –

  • In 2009, Men’s grooming products sales in the US were $14.1 billion (http://bit.ly/2UYK0K)
    • If we estimate that the body wash makes up 5% of that market, and Old Spice makes up 5% of the total body wash market then Old Spice 2009 annual sales were approx. $35 million and avg. monthly sales were approx. $3 million. (Can anyone help me with the actual market shares?)
  • If we use one month results to show the direct impact of the campaign and sales jumped 107%, then sales after this campaign jumped approx. $3 million.  At 50% net margin, this campaigned delivered a 1 month ROI of 750%.
  • If we use 3 months to show the halo effect of the campaign and sales increased 55% over 3 months, this would mean additional sales of approx. $5 million and a 3 month ROI of 1,250%.

This is a simplified calculation that estimates a lot of numbers that are not publically available.  In addition, it is much simpler than the data we can develop when working directly with a company.  None-the-less, there was definitely a huge ROI.

News Feed

Insights from IBM's Global CMO Marketing Study

http://bit.ly/n7eyOz

What Are Good Engagement Levels for Top Brands on Facebook?

http://bit.ly/q6quMN

7 Ways to Create a Memorable Customer Experience with Social Media

http://on.mash.to/u1xpoX

Changes To Google Reader Drag Us Kicking and Screaming Into The Google+ Era

http://bit.ly/ujEDu4

© FreshTrack Advisors