Different Drummers

Just Do It

As I'm speaking to people about our social media campaigns, a recurring question that I'm getting asked is...

How do you get buy-in to use social media for a large corporation (or any company)?

One of the easiest answers is to "Just Do It".  Instead of waiting around trying to figure out the best approach to venture into the realm of Web 2.0 or build consensus around the value of social media to get some of that elusive media budget coming your way - jump right in (the water really is warm). 

Where is the jumping off point?  How do you just dive into social media not giving marketing budgets another thought?  Start exposing the value of social media by using some of the free (but powerful) avenues of social media.  It all starts with listening to your customers.  Here are a few quick ways to get started.

Blog Monitoring
What are people saying about your company online?  Is it positive or are customers exposing areas where your product or service is failing them? By listening and responding you can reward an advocate with affirmation that you’ve heard them (or maybe even provide an extra goody like a special discount or company swag). If it’s negative, you can try to save the customer by repairing their bad experience. The moment of truth for a company is often how they treat their customers when something does go wrong. Beware: often a customer who is public about an issue has already been failed by the normal customer service channels – you need to be able to help the customer by resolving their issue or getting them to an escalation group. 

There are many companies who are putting together tools to help monitor your brand online.  But, if you are working without a budget scour the web by using Technorati, Google Blog Search or set up an alert on Google Alerts. Be sure to read what people write about your products on sites like Amazon or search some customer complaint sites such as My Three Cents or the Complaints Board.

Twitter
Although Twitter has had some technology challenges this past weekend, it is still a great listening tool.  Twitter is a micro-blogging system, but I like to think of it as a group instant messaging.  However, don’t go into Twitter thinking that you are going to broadcast your brand message far and wide.  That would be spammy. Create a brand profile on Twitter and join in the conversation. Think about how your brand is relevant for the community. For example, at H&R Block (@HRBlock) we provided some tax tips and advice throughout the tax season. We also started listening and helped Twitizens from resolving a customer service issue to how to find employment with H&R Block. The CEO of Zappos (@zappos) is constantly tweeting about his personal life and giving away things like tickets to the Van Halen show in Vegas or Zappos merchandise.  Even Comcast is using Twitter to monitor and resolve customer service issues (I guess they need to be very proactive after that video with the sleeping technician).

There are many different Twitter tools that you can use too.  Tweetscan is great.  Just enter your brand name and you can see who is talking about your company or product.  David Berkowitz has a wonderful blog on how to search for Tweets.

Yahoo! Answers
And the final mention of the day is Yahoo! Answers. Like the Blog Monitoring, you can perform a search and see what people are saying about your brand.  If the question is still open, you can offer some advice publicly. If the question is closed, you may be able to respond directly via IM or email. In addition to monitoring what people are saying about your brand, you can offer advice. Again, set up a brand profile in Yahoo! Answers. This will allow you to build credibility and recognition of your brand as a trusted adviser when answering questions and let people know that your brand cares when trying to resolve a customer issue.

The value of “Just Doing It” is many-fold.  First, you will get hands-on experience in the social media world that you can use to better evangelize the benefits internally.  Second, you begin to understand where and how your brand can play in social media and begin to establish your brand persona. And most importantly, you will begin to build a case-study to support your internal sales effort for social media.

My Welcome Post

It was time to start a blog.  I've been thinking about it for a long time.  However because I work in a very competitive environment, I've put it off for a few years.  I'm putting it off no longer.  Welcome to my first blog.

Why is it important that I blog?  I'm a firm believer that if you are going to use new media in business, you must have an intimate knowledge of the medium.  This is the reason why I have a family channel on YouTube, a Facebook profile, a Twitter account and a Second Life avatar.  But, I had not taken the leap to creating my own blog.  I was afraid that I would provide too much information for the competition to read, get too personal, or just not have anything worthwhile to say. 

So as I pondered my dilemma, I also tried to think about what I would name my blog.  Most everything I thought about was too narrowly focused or didn't have enough meaning to make me excited about sharing my thoughts.  It wasn't until I started getting some calls for interviews about the social media marketing activities I'm driving that I found my calling. 

The desire to help others understand and learn from my experiences is the inspiration behind "From the Inside".  I'm a wife, a mother, a parent to a parent, and a marketing/e-commerce executive for a Fortune 500 company where I'm championing the use of social media.  So "the inside" can represent the inside challenges of blazing new paths in corporate America, the inside of a relationship with my husband, children or parents or even the innermost inside thoughts of my soul. 

I doubt I will get this right the first time through.  I guarantee you that I will make mistakes. It will take some time to learn my voice.  But , I promise that I will be honest and transparent and share where I can.