A few weeks ago Jeffrey Hayzlett (the tweeting CMO of Kodak and the man often credited with helping turn Kodak around) and I were chatting through Direct Messaging on Twitter (which means that the conversation couldn’t be seen by others) and he mentioned that he would be in Israel soon. The conversation went on about us meeting up when he said “Tweetup?” and I said – “Great idea, consider it done.”
And so it was. I organized the evening at Pre HaGefen, a great wine bar in Neve Tzedek (4 Ahad Ha’am in Tel Aviv) that only serves Israeli wine. The place was on my list of considerations, but was tipped to the top with a special request from Ahuvah Berger. And it’s a good thing, my original first choice would never have held the 80 or so guests who came (thank you Yael Beeri for sending an invitation to the Tel Aviv Beeri Tweetup).
Now that the credits are done I can get to the most interesting (at least to me) bit – conversations of the evening. The following is a random synopsis since I had already had some wine and wasn’t exactly in taking notes form (don’t judge me – it was a tweetup, not a lecture.)
Kodak has two corporate Twitter accounts – but the rest are all people tweeting under their own name. Jeffrey believes in building the brand of the individual along with the brand of the company. By being personal, people build relationships with the individuals working at Kodak. This translates to loyalty to the brand and builds up the Kodak name.
Another thing Kodak has done to increase the self-branding of their employees is change the look of their business cards. Now the employee photo is smaller, the twitter and facebook information are available under the photo (or should I say “avatar”?) and the entire back of the card is left for a personal photo of the employee. Leading one to ask, what about legal? Well, the worst case scenario is you find out who is an idiot, fire them and issue a press release.
Kodak has also created content that is helpful to their customers. They have the blog and have distributed a PDF of Social Media Tips which has been downloaded countless times. The Social Media Tips PDF is especially good, as it has never been advertised, yet it has been used by thousands.
What happens when a company gives you something completely unrelated to their product, but it was something that you totally needed – and they give it for free? The company builds reciprocity with you. Say I’m a professional print shop who needs to use social media to connect with my customers and don’t know where to start. “Here, have a guide from us”, says Kodak. I appreciate the help so much, Kodak is in the front of my mind the next time I want to buy a large plotter or printer. It’s mixing customer service with marketing – and it’s the best way to build loyalty to last the long term.
Did you know that 80% of Kodak sales are B2B (business to business)? Or that the Kodak small video camera is now selling more than the Flip camera? (And yes I will be ordering one when I go to the US next month.)
Jeffrey is notoriously blunt with haters – Unfollow works just fine. He doesn’t feel the need to justify his life to anyone (some followers give him flack about his love of hunting, for example), and quite frankly – fair enough. Kodak was one of the favorite “every mistake that could possibly be made” cases during my Kellogg MBA and this man is one of the many credited with turning Kodak around. You know what? More companies could learn from him. I know I have.
