Case Study: Social Networking

Today's case study comes to us from Chief Marketer. It's an interesting discussion about how the Broadway musical, First Wives Club is using social networking to build a fan base, and an audience for the musical. What I learned? For the right target market, making the effort to build and manage a social network absolutely makes sense.

Below is the case study in its entirety.

First Wives Club Engages in Social Networking

When you're going through a tough time, you need friends more than ever. And if they an identify with your experiences, even better. FirstWivesWorld.com recently debuted social networking features to help divorced and soon-to-be-single-again women do just that—and have laugh or two in the process..

The venture began when Jonas Neilson and his partner Paul Lambert acquired the rights to produce a Broadway musical based on the 1996 film "First Wives Club."

In the process of reinterpreting the movie for the stage, the duo ran a series of focus groups with divorced women. Unlike typical focus groups, champagne was served.

"It was really kind of interesting, because they were more like cocktail parties," says Neilson, it wasn't long into each session before the ladies were laughing, crying and exchanging business cards. "There was an unspoken bond between the women. They had a commonality which immediately created a sense of belonging to the group."

There was a real need there that wasn't being met online, says Neilson, for women to connect with other people who were going through the same experience.

Over time, the site morphed into a destination for divorced women to find networking, resources and entertainment, such as "Hot Flashes," a fictional blog by Mimi Schmir, a writer who has written for "Grey's Anatomy," that take a humorous look at failed marriages.

While some might think a site devoted to divorce would be maudlin, Neilson says with First Wives World that is most certainly not the case. He says most divorced women he's talked to say they were miserable in the marriage, and the divorce became a shot at a new life.

Neilson says he thinks that the next frontier for successful online communities is taking those relationships offline, into the "real" world.

As for the musical, it will premiere at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in July 2009, with a goal of hitting Broadway in 2010. Getting the word out via the site is a natural fit since the profile of many users—women who are 40+—dovetails what who buys the majority of theater tickets.

The portal is generating about 100,000 page views per month. Right now, Neilson says FirstWivesWorld.com is concentrating on building an audience, rather than measuring a hard ROI.

"We want to keep the network 'sacred' for women" who are gathering information on how to deal with their divorce, Neilson notes. "We don't want to inundate them with banners. We want them to feel this is their space."

Of course, he notes, that doesn't mean that the site isn't looking for unique ways for sponsors to integrate their marketing messages into the site. It's a good demographic, Neilson says, because at this point in their lives, these women are very open to changing things like brand loyalties.

Ultimately, Neilson says the site will help fund the musical. "Instead of creating the product and then trying to find an audience, we're building the audience first."

Social Networking Comes to Banking

Like most people, I like to complain about my bank. Why do they hold a new clients' checks for 10 days, before depositing it to my business account? What's up with these outrageous ATM fees? Why, when I call customer service with a question about a credit card I never use, I'm treated like a pariah, even though this same bank has my mortgage, some serious investments and my checking business? Why can't they understand the entire relationship and treat me like a valued customer???

Oh, most of us have lots of things to say (usually not very nice things...) about our bank.

Well, now you have a place to vent! Just announced this week, a new social networking site, called My Bank Tracker, that allows consumers to rate and review financial offerings.

From the introductory press release:

The "My Bank Tracker" site is designed to present sophisticated information through a visually uncluttered and an intuitive user interface where consumers can interact with each other and where local and national financial institutions (virtual or physical) can present their many product offerings. "MyBankTracker.com realized that there was a need for an online banking services information destination that allowed users to comparative shop for a service that was best for them while leveraging the knowledge and experience of the millions of existing banking customers," said Alex Matjanec, Media & Communications - My Bank Tracker.

"With the launch of My Bank Tracker, we're taking the personalization and social networking movement a step further by leveraging the power of the internet and of consumers, to inform and educate in ways that were up until today lacking for traditional institutions such as banks," added Matjanec."

What will be very interesting, I think, is to see how banks react when their esteemed institution is being bashed by an angry customer. The smart banks will participate openly in this new community and address criticism honestly. They need to tackle issues and show that they are making positive changes as a result of hearing feedback.

Banks need to look at this new networking site as an opportunity to learn more about customer needs. It's also an opportunity to highlight their competitive and unique offerings to a captive audience of financial services shoppers who are actively seeking financial information. Talk about direct marketing!

On the flip side, there are lots of things that banks should not do. For example, they absolutely cannot become defensive. They don't have to agree with criticism of their services, but they need to answer concerns politely and with facts. Moreover, if the customer complaint is legit, they need to fix the problem immediately. And, most importantly, if this site takes off, they can't ignore it. Banks need to be vital contributors to this community.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the different financial firms embrace the concept of a social networking forum dedicated to them.

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!

Using Mobile Marketing for Social Networking

The Coca-Cola Company is hoping its new mobile site for social networking, Sprite Yard, will become the MySpace of the cellphone world. This is reported in an article from Commercial Alert.

Over the past 2 weeks, we've discussed Mobile Marketing a lot. Well, Coca Cola is about to dive into this area-- head-first -- with their new mobile site. According to Mark Greatrex, Senior VP for Marketing Communications and Insights of Coca-Cola, "People will type in codes from Sprite bottle caps to redeem original content, like ring tones and short video clips called mobisodes. Recently, one of the most redeemed prizes from Coca-Cola promotions has been virtual clothing and furniture to use in virtual online worlds." Yes, we now have other worlds for our alter-egos (i.e., Second Life) to vicariously live through. Coca-Cola is definitely using cutting-edge marketing here.

It will be interesting to see how widely and quickly Sprite Yard is adopted by teens. Not many big companies have been brave enough to do this to date, and those who have tried have had mixed results. For example, BudTV (introduced by Anheuser Busch last February with original content), is cited by the article as having lagging web traffic.

However, the fact that Coca-Cola is the first to really commit to using mobile as part of their marketing mix is a good sign that this may become a viable channel for direct marketers. Kudos to Coke for being pioneers in this exciting new space!

Social Shopping the next "In" Thing?

As we discussed on Friday, our monthly newsletter (which will be distributed today) will highlight the world of Mobile Marketing. I learned a lot in the 6th Annual Global Mobility Roundtable sponsored by USC's Center for Telecommunications Excellence this past weekend.

One of the topics that is closely intertwined with Mobile Marketing is Social Networking. Obviously, the wireless phone is becoming another way to interact with friends, business and all types of social networks. The concept that drives this is Web 2.0 -- as defined by Wikipedia, "a social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and the market as a conversation."

In a post by Mitch Joel of Twist Image, he points out that a new social network is taking hold -- Social Shopping. In fact, Joel feels that by looking at how far online social networking has come in the past few years gives us a realistic indication of where Social Shopping is headed in the very-near-future. Joel states, "If we’re currently doing it to find other like-minded people who have similar interests, what makes you think we would not do the same thing to find others who are similar to us in terms of our commercial interests … especially if the price becomes more attractive as the social shopping network grows."

As direct marketers, we need to pay close attention to this rapidly growing phenomenon. It will change how our customers interact with us, and those who change their marketing paradigm quickly in order to embrace it, we believe, will become direct marketing leaders within their industries.

Jump on board!