10 Social Media Marketing
Ideas From Big Brands
Rohit Bhargava
There is an under appreciated difference between a story
and an idea.
A story is captivating and memorable. It entertains and often
stays with you for longer than you thought it would. An idea,
in contrast, is a spark. It happens in a moment and then it’s
gone. And if you missed it or if you never acted on it … then
you lose it.
Recently I’ve been to several storytelling events. One gathered
together a dozen innovators to share their stories on human
behavior. Another curated every form of storytelling you
could imagine – from stop motion Vine video creators to
street opera singers. Each offered an amazing collection of
stories that entertained and inspired. And I remember those
stories.
Today I have been moderating an event filled with ideas
instead of stories. The Corporate Social Media Summit in
San Francisco (#CSMSF) is the second edition of a popular
series from the Useful Social Media team that includes a
flagship New York event, the West Coast edition today, and
a European edition next month. In listening to more than a
dozen brands sharing their experiences with social media
– there were several ideas that emerged which got people
talking. Here are just a few of those ideas:
1. Deflection Isn’t Engagement
As more brands turn to tools like Twitter for customer service
– one of the increasingly common strategies is to “escalate”
issues to the call center. What this actually means is that
brands immediately engage with customers who share a
question via Twitter by telling them to call the 1800 number
to speak to a customer service person. As Adobe Director
of Strategy and Business Development Jeff Feldman shared
in the opening keynote session, this type of deflection isn’t
optimal. Instead, brands that aspire to provide great service
need to answer questions in the channel they are asked
(unless you truly need to access their private information, of
course).
2. B2B Is Better Than B2C For Social
Thanks to the visibility of efforts from leading brands like Coke
and Oreo’s, it is easy to focus attention on the role that social
media has taken in helping major consumer brands to create
lots of buzz and some engagement. Instead, Dell’s Global
Director of Social Media Richard Margetic pointed out that
social media is actually better for B2B brands because they
tend to be far more about relationships than B2C brands.
As a proof point, he noted that more than 9,000 of Dell’s
employees have gone through social media training and are
allowed to represent the brand in their engagements online.
3. Social Gratitude Is Powerful
It is no secret that people passionately share stories and
images of pets online. So when Kat Smith, PETCO Director
of Social Media and Commerce took the stage to talk about
how social media could engage pet owners – the opportunity
was pretty obvious. Still, the big question was how a brand in
the popular pet category could engage with these passionate
pet owners in a way that wouldn’t just try to upsell them
more supplies and materials. One great strategy Kat shared
in her presentation was the power of offering validation
to customers. Simply by having the brand like customer’s
Instagram photos, for example, PETCO could offer tangible
proof that it was listening and engaged in its community. And
this one act caused intense consumer gratitude … which then
led to engagement and conversation.