Starbucks "Gets" Social Marketing

I finally did it.

I finally bit the bullet and signed up at the first, ever Starbucks venture into social media. Yes, I joined My Starbucks Idea. And, I LOVE IT!

The site has been in action for only three weeks. The entire purpose of the site is to solicit ideas from customers about how to do things better. I'm amazed at how smart and creative people are. Some ideas are no-brainers (free WI-FI!), and some are quite creative. A sampling of these ideas:

• Free birthday drink
• Extra shot in venti drinks (currently it's the same as grande--did you know that?)
• Separate line for those whose order is plain ol' coffee (like me)
• Something to cover the lid opening so that coffee doesn't spill in transit

And, here's the excellent thing--Starbucks is actually, actively acting on these ideas! They've already introduced a new type of stirrer that fits in the lid so that coffee can't seep out. And, if you've heard of their new Pikes Place blend--well, that's a mellower roast specially created for all of the folks that call Starbucks: "Starburnt".

You know, we can all learn a thing or two from Starbucks. They have jumped into social media in just exactly the right way. They put together a very nice site soliciting customer input. Then, they are showing us how they're acting on this input. They're implementing ideas in a timely fashion. Their site is interactive and fun to navigate.

Now, I know I'm a Starbucks fan and a really good customer. But, I'm taking the time out of my day to think about ways to improve their business. How cool is that for them? They've harnessed the minds of thousands (soon to be millions, I'm sure) of customers to help them evolve. What a way to keep a competitive edge.

We all know that Starbucks has a hard time living up to their stellar expectations (how can you sustain their quick growth and high profitability?). Well, I think that this website is just exactly what the doctor ordered. It fits in with the Starbucks brand and culture. They seem committed to it and they're really listening to what their customers are saying. They've used the best parts of social media and claimed it as their own.

My only question--why did they take so long to jump on the social bandwagon?

Case Study Monday: Social Marketing to Market Niches

We'd thought we'd present a case study today on one of the growing trends of 2008 and beyond, and that is the prediction that social media growth in 2008 will emerge from more targeted offerings that attract users based on interest.

So, in addition to the massive Facebook and MySpace sites that attract millions of users, new niche social sites are popping up on a daily basis.

As direct marketers, we couldn't be happier with this trend.

We were pleased to see this case study about Loop'd Network, a site that features action sports and appeals to a young, adventure-seeking crowd. The site is relatively new (just launched in November) and already boasts 240,000 members. Even more important, Loop'd "has been able to lure advertising from some of the biggest brands in action sports, including Oakley, retailer PacSun and Monster Energy drink."

It sounds like they're building the site the right way. For example, they're counting on user-generated content to help build momentum. "With the help of Loop'd, Oakley is inviting amateurs to submit videos of themselves doing their best tricks in six different action sports, including skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross. In the past month, about 1,500 users have submitted videos of themselves that have been judged by other users and Oakley employees as a way to reward emerging talent and foster good will among action-sports enthusiasts." Sounds fun to me!

Believe me, social marketing is big business--and niche social marketing is seeing some significant growth. "According to eMarketer, which tracks online media, companies will spend $1.6 billion this year – a 69 percent increase over 2007 – to advertise on social networking sites."

Although the bulk of those ad dollars will go to the social networking behemoths, smaller sites such as Loop'd are projected to account for 10% of the spend in 2008. Hmmm. Let's see, 10% of 1.6 billion is a heck of a lot of money!

Direct marketers cannot ignore the power of social media sites, especially now that so many targeted sites are popping up, and growing in popularity. What a fun and creative way to reach our target markets!

Customer Trust is So Important...

We work so very hard to get our customers to like us, to buy from us and, ultimately, to trust us. Isn't trust really the epitome of customer loyalty?

Then you read about customer trust gone awry, as in the case of Target misusing social media. It kills me that one of the few huge corporations that actually buys into the value of communicating with customers and prospects through social networks didn't put into practice what I believe is the very essence of social networking. A little thing called Honesty.

From the Star Tribune article: Target, "the Minneapolis-based discount retailer is being outed in online blogs and discussed in college ethics classes after students allied with the company (Rounders) were told to "keep it like a secret" while singing the company's praises on the social network site Facebook.com."

Target gave their 'Rounders' discounts, CDs and other prizes for marketing Target products to their Facebook friends and providing the company with feedback.

Rounders were okay with this concept (heck, they loved the free SWAG!), until in one campaign, they were instructed by a Target-sponsored newsletter to "try not to let on in the Facebook group that you are a Rounder."

As you can imagine, this rubbed some kids the wrong way and (take note here) one Rounder used the Facebook forum to 'out' Target. I love the irony of using the very medium that Target was attempting to control to put out the honest story.

Lesson learned: if you are trying to generate a buzz for your product on places like Facebook, MySpace or even in the blogosphere, do it with integrity. Let your product virtues sell themselves. Manipulation will most likely backfire on you, creating the exact opposite effect of what you were trying to achieve.

Yes, Target did get some word-of-mouth. Sadly, I don't think that this is the exact kind of 'buzz' they were hoping to generate...

More From BlogWorld: Corporate Blogging

As promised, here is more from our learnings from the BlogWorldExpo. Again, we think that blogging and social media participation will become imperative to your successful direct marketing strategy.

One of the first sessions that I attended was on CEO and Corporate blogging. Needless to say, this was a very interesting session. Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, did a great job of moderating the session. Corporate bloggers on the panel consisted of Jennifer Cisney from Kodak, Pete Johnson from HP, John Earnhardt from Cisco and Paula Berg and Brian Lusk (AKA BlogGirl and BlogBoy) from Southwest Airlines. So, all in all, a good cross-section of Corporate Bloggers.

Here are some of the key learnings from this session -- and we think, excellent ideas to consider when pondering whether or not to start a corporate blog.

• Blogging is the beginning of a new revolution. Those corporations not jumping into it are not doing so because they are either fearful of losing control or of being criticized. Those who are should not be . . . the bottom line is that you set the rules for your blog and can control it. Think of it as your editorial channel and a great way to get the good word out about your company. In addition, you are providing an excellent opportunity for your customers/potential customers to not only get to know your company but to actively engage them to participate and interact with your company.
• CEO Blogs rarely work -- except for Mark Cuban's (see yesterday's post). This is because many CEO's simply aren't the best writers and/or communicators. However, you can definitely highlight your CEO in your corporate blog by including his or her insights or interviews with them from time to time on your blog. Some even ghost-write for their CEO's -- and anyone at the conference can attest that this is, indeed, quite the controversial topic.
• There are different ways to go about creating a corporate blog -- and all are equally effective. For example, HP has over 50 blogs. Anyone at HP who wants to do a blog within HP can. They are careful to keep it to a technical discussion of their products and keep customer service out of it (i.e., they refer customer service questions to the customer service department). Cisco also encourages employees to host a Cisco blog in order to participate in meaningful discussions with their audiences. And, here, the Cisco CEO does both participate and see the value of this -- he does one video blog per week. Kodak does it somewhat differently -- they have employees post poignant stories of how they've used Kodak products. You can imagine it -- how getting your photos out when your house burns down helps to ease the pain of loss, the pictures taken during the birth of your children, etc. Very cool blog. Southwest uses their blog to run ideas past their customers -- trust me, I'll be commenting on their latest numbering system. It turns out that I was a big fan of the cattle call.
• Moderating your blog is a must to protect your brand. Most companies allow people to post pretty much anything -- but most moderate the comments to get rid of swear words or personal attacks. In addition, if your company issues a press release, it's a good idea to blog about it so that people have the opportunity to comment about it. Southwest did this for their new seating idea and immediately got 700 comments -- they got immediate and passionate feedback from those who vote with their dollars -- their customers. How valuable is that? Talk about direct marketing -- this is as direct as it gets!
  
• In order to have an effective Corporate blog, you have to have an inside evangelist to take a leading role and convince the leadership that it's worth it. Most corporate bloggers contribute along with doing their real jobs. All panelists seemed passionate about their blogs and insisted that everyone involved really wanted to be involved. They also said that it's important to ensure that your blog is deliverable by email. Sometimes the RSS feeds are behind Corporate firewalls, so those who may wish to subscribe to them can't.
• Your culture is important. If you are like Southwest whose culture allows the employees to take risks, your blog will probably be more successful than a company who is more risk averse. Also, blogging can make your company very transparent. So, if your corporate culture isn't all that great, a blog is probably going to expose that fact. It may be wiser not to blog if this is the case. : )
  

Overall, this session was just full of great stuff to ponder. I hope you've gleaned some good ideas from this post on launching your blog -- Corporate or otherwise. For more on this session, please see another great blog -- The Scratching Post. You'll love KT Cat -- I know we do!

Harnessing Passionistas Through Digital Media

Well, thanks to our friends at Yahoo! we have a new study and a new title for a group of passionate consumers. The Yahoo! study, which was entitled"Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers, tracked the online behavior of consumers with specific passions including health, sports, food and entertainment, and it showed that Passionistas spend significantly more time engaged in activities related to their passions than the average consumer." Hence, the name!

And it really is quite interesting. When you think about it, whenever individuals are passionate about anything, they tend to spend more time thinking and talking about whatever it is. Here are some highlights from Yahoo!'s study:

-- For every one minute a typical Internet user spends online with the same content, Passionistas spend six minutes.

-- Passionistas will visit a website related to their passion three times more than a typical user.

-- Passionistas search online for information about their passion 184 percent more than typical users and conduct more than 100 related searches related to their passion per year.

-- Passionistas heavily engage with communities of like-minded consumers who use email, text messaging, and instant messaging significantly more than typical users, and are more likely to create and share user-generated content online such as photos, blog posts or videos about their passions. Because of their intense engagement around sharing information about their passions through digital media, Passionistas are natural brand advocates and 52% more likely than typical users to recommend or influence others about brands aligning with them.

Wow! So how can direct marketers successfully find these passionate folks and make them passionate about their specific products and services? Well, Mark McLaughlin, Vice President of Audience Strategies at Yahoo! states it this way: "Marketers who build their campaigns from the start with the goal of tapping into passions are inviting consumers to get engaged and create an authentic dialogue."

In addition, the study found that timing is critical in making a connection with passionate-types of consumers. For example, noteworthy events such as "Britney Spears' appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the beginning of the NFL season, the premier of a new TV show, or the opening of a new restaurant" get our passionate crowd going! These types of "triggers" make Passionistas excited about the topic of their passion and get them to become engaged in all sorts of sharing activities, like blogging, IM'ing, or participating in some other type of social media. In fact, Jim Kite, President of Connections Research and Analytics at MediaVest, states that, "Accessing Passionistas online also offers the ability to track this valuable group's media consumption habits, enabling brands to optimally -- and accountably -- leverage their advocacy power."

This is why we are so excited about utilizing social media/marketing channels as part of our overall marketing strategy. How better to get prospects and customers involved in what you sell than to get them to do all of the talking about it? Picture this: Consumers are online shopping, blogging, sharing links, etc., about what you offer . . . and there simply is no better advertising than word-of-mouth. It is the ultimate testimonial about the greatness and value of your product or service.

We advise you to take a look at this excellent study -- and thanks to the creative folks at Yahoo! for bringing these compelling results to us.

MySpace for Geeks. CRM Geeks, that is...

Just in from today's "CRM Buyer": Web 2.0 Portal to Link CRM Job Seekers

Apparently, a group of CRM consultants (BPT Partners) has developed a site (myCRMcareer.com) that promises to help CRM professionals with career development and advancement.

"Besides employment opportunities, it will offer career management and placement services, general industry resources, exclusive content -- Greenberg is the author of "CRM At the Speed of Light" -- and Web 2.0 tools for users."

"MyCRMcareer.com's goal is to increase industry competency for the CRM professional. The integrated platform will allow CRM professionals to network with peers, much as people do on Facebook or MySpace.com, to develop their own content through such tools on the site as podcasts, audio files, blogs and videos and to showcase their own skills and accomplishments."

I personally applaud the effort, and I just might participate on the site. As a business professional (and I don't think I'm alone here), I've been struggling with how to use social sites like Facebook and MySpace to help build my business. I'm even having a hard time understanding how to maximize LinkedIn. Yes, I diligently grow my network. And, yes, it's fun to find people that I worked with eons ago, but other than that, I haven't figured out how these sites can impact my marketing consulting work. (As a side-note, if anyone has any suggestions on this, please do share.)

But this new site promises something extra, I think. First of all, it is targeted to a fairly narrow group of professionals. Some could argue that CRM could mean all things to all people, but it is much more focused than most social networking sites. If it is widely adopted and people start to use it to share successes, discuss technology, etc, I will definitely be participating.

And, of course, it's always great to see what jobs are out there, too :)

The site will be launched next week. I'll be one of the beta members!

More on Privacy

On Friday we posted about what the marketing world may look like in 2020, specifically how our privacy will be impacted. Interesting stuff...

Then today I came across this article that specifically addresses the wealth of information that consumers are voluntarily providing when they participate in social sites, like Facebook. From CNN, the article is titled: The sinister side of social networking.

The article discusses how consumers need to be especially careful about what we publish about ourselves. It gives examples of companies that are scouring the web for what they term "digital litter"--that is the personal tidbits of information that may be useful for direct marketers or thieves out to steal your identity.

The article pointed out that Facebook will soon be changing, and not in a way that will protect our privacy. "A soon to be added public search feature on Facebook will mean that user profiles can be found through search engines such as Yahoo and Google."

"What was once a cozy world between friends (you had to join Facebook before you could access such information) is now available to anyone.

Facebook hopes the move will drive more users to the site and boost advertising revenues, which analysts believe are being under-realized.

Technology expert Om Malik wrote in his blog this week: "This move transforms Facebook from being a social network to being a quasi-White Pages of the Web."

Facebook's public search feature has raised eyebrows among security experts. As users have to "opt out" of the service rather than opt in, it could mean up to 39 million profiles becoming viewable when the service goes live."

Although I normally see articles like this one as ways to frighten consumers and point the fingers at nosy direct marketers who are out to collect data on everyone, I do agree with the article that we need to understand and do all we can to protect our privacy by being careful about revealing our personal information.

And, I agree with the tips included within the article on steps you can take to safeguard your private information:

Equifax Top Tips for Using Social Network Sites:

• Don't include common verification such as your date of birth or your mothers maiden name

• Set up privacy on your profile so only close friends can view your information

• If you are going on holiday or you will be left in your home alone, don't put it on your site. This could leave you vulnerable to break ins

• Potential partners and employers are often searching names on these sites. Don't put anything on your site which could ruin your chances of a new job or boyfriend/girlfriend

• Be wary of anyone you meet on these sites. The photo may be deceptive and they may have different intentions

Seems like common sense, no? But, pretty important as data collection technology evolves and as social networking expands.

Social Media: Will it Replace E-Mail?

It is becoming very apparent that e-mail marketing is firmly esconsed as an important element in our direct marketing arsenal. However, with the increasing popularity of social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, is e-mail marketing already becoming a dinosaur? Social media sites have become successful because of how they operate, letting users control their experiences, i.e., who they connect with (or not), when they choose to communicate, what information they decide that they want to see, etc.

However, e-mail is still an instrument that is used to reach out, gather information, and direct market your product or service. We think e-mail -- when done correctly -- is growing in popularity because people increasing want to be communicated with via this channel. And the younger segments (Millenials) of our population are definitely on board with this . . . just as they are the pioneers of social networking sites.

In a recent DM News article entitled, "The Impact of Social Media on E-Mail Marketing," this topic is discussed. Author Raghu Kakarala advises: "Rather than rush to the assumption that social media is killing e-mail, marketers should instead consider the principles driving interest in social media. They may discover that not only is there still a place for e-mail, but also an opportunity to leverage social media within their marketing programs." Kakarala does think that as social media becomes more mainstream, it will impact e-mail marketing: "As we increase our usage of social networks, our use of e-mail will inevitably decline, reducing the success of e-mail marketing campaigns. Marketers need to take the time to understand what sites their users are comfortable with and then evaluate marketing opportunities in those spaces."

The exciting part of this is that we have been awarded with another channel to use for direct marketing. And the beauty of social media is that it is built on the preferences of those who use the sites. What we have to do is to figure out how to best integrate this channel into our marketing mix -- and how to utilize other channels in concert with it. As Kakarala says, "This doesn’t mean e-mail is dead. Instead, marketers will be forced to think more strategically about their e-mail marketing programs, and then develop more segmented, relevant and personalized messages."