Let people opt-in. They’ll thank you for it.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Now that social media is a regular tool in the marketing arsenal, bringing customer relations to the forefront (where it belongs IMHO) there’s the issue of: How human do companies want to appear? That is, do they tweet from a corporate account where the tweeter has no name or do they add a face to the name? If someone mentions Scott Monty I automatically think Ford. I couldn’t imagine Scott not being there. Their names are now married in my head. On the other hand, Sony Electronics doesn’t bring anyone to mind. Their tweets are personal and they answer questions so they are definitely engaged in “the conversation” but there’s neither a face or a name to the account.

In today’s hi-tech world people don’t stay at companies the way they used to. No one is expecting to receive a gold watch after 40 years of dedicated service. If you stay somewhere longer than 7 years you better have started as the mail sorter and ended as the CEO when you leave. Or you were the one who started the company. Otherwise, the average employee in hi-tech lasts between 2 – 5 years. However, will that be for the best of the company once a face goes with the name? People like familiarity, familiarity breeds trust and trust builds sales. It makes sense to invest in the face of your company, so will this mean a lower turnover rate for companies in general as people begin to be known not only for who they are, but the companies they work at (like Zappos COO Alfred)?

Will social media change organizational behavior?

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid52412902001

Yesterday Olivier Amar and Branko Rihtman came over with their families for a fun day of food and kid mayhem. This in itself is not worth a blog post – but during the day Branko mentioned the post Twitter Is Not a Social Media Strategy by Sarah Goodwin. Apparently he liked this post so much he tweeted it (and made the off-handed comment that it was perhaps the only social media post he’s ever tweeted). Olivier liked it so much he re-tweeted it.

In short – I had to read this post.

And later last night I did. It’s a good post, makes sense and I generally agree with it – until I got to the last line: “Lyndoman recently blogged that it’s not about the conversation, and I agree, for me it’s about the strategy.”

That’s when she lost me. Which in fact isn’t such a bad time to lose someone, I mean, it would be much worse had she lost me in the beginning or middle – but I digress…

It can’t just be about the strategy. A strategy that a company can’t implement is useless. I’ve been reading “Major Accounts Sales Strategy” by Rackman and there’s a fantastic quote which sums it up beautifully: “…unless strategy can be readily translated into specific actions within individual accounts, then it’s just empty jargon.” Now this book is specifically about selling – but this relates to every strategy at the end of the day. So it can’t just be about the strategy. Tactics matter – they are the cookie shell that keeps the creamy center strategy together.

One can not be above the other, nor can one exist without the other. Implementing tactics without a strategy is like shooting blind. You may end up hitting your mark, but most likely you won’t – and goodness knows what you will hit in the process. Announcing a strategy that you have no idea how to implement (or can’t be implemented) is just as bad. Here you leave your people flailing for direction grabbing for those random tactics (which often results in shooting blind).

Management needs to work with their team on strategic decisions – discussing the implications of the strategy for the long and short term and making sure all understand the difficulties which will be encountered when implementing a new strategy.

In the case of a social media strategy:

1. What is your goal? (Build loyalty? Get feedback on new products? Blast information to 30k more people? Increase sales by 10%?)
2. Who is your market? (Geeks? Moms? News junkies? Fashionistas?)
3. Where does your market go online? (Facebook? Twitter? MySpace? Bebo? Flickr?)
4. How do you want to get their attention? (Fan page? Application? Posts?)
5. What is the message you want to relay?
6. How much do you want to engage?
7. What is your complaint procedure? (If you’re The Gap you have none – which is why they don’t actually reply to anyones messages. This will never cease to confuse me because they have such awesome customer service in their stores.)

My point is this: Just like Oreo cookies, strategy and tactics forever go together in the classic combination. (And taste the best with milk… )

As you know from my previous post where I go on and on about my love of BlueHost (kidding) – I’m now searching for a new hosting service for my various blogs (basically this site and Tchochkes) Some people who were obviously paid by other hosting services started to message me advertisements for hosts on Twitter and after checking their stream (and seeing the same message over and over) I blocked them for spam.

However, there were a few who did it right. One guy wrote to me simply “Can I help?”, which started a discussion. It turned out that he has a small hosting company, and while Tchochkes is too large and growing too fast for his hosting service (we have a ton of photos – it is a design site after all), had that not been the case he would have closed a sale right then and there. He was nice, helpful, personal, attentive and obviously on Twitter (i.e. available) much of the time.

Others were friends who recommended the hosting companies that they use – always a winner. I already trust the source.

A hosting company also approached me in a nice way. Instead of sending me uninvited spam they simply followed me. I then checked out their account, which led me to check out their corporate site (my need for a hosting company is already apparent, so they didn’t need to ask me to do this), and I then followed them back. Unfortunately, this is where they dropped the ball (hence no name here) – had they written to me after I had opted-in for their connection they might have had a sale. However, I haven’t heard from them since. By following back my actions are showing that I’m interested in their service – I have given my permission to be contacted. They obviously aren’t tracking who they are following and when the follow back happens. This is a pity. They should have a formal approach set up when approaching targets on any network – because it’s all about follow through.

How to create that formal approach? There are multiple sales tools available for companies to record this information, but if you are a one person organization who doesn’t want/need to invest in such a tool, it could be as simple as an excel spreadsheet with the columns: Target, Need, First Contact, Response, Second Contact etc…

For example:

Target   –   Need   –        First Contact   –     Response   –                          Second Contact
Shira     –    Hosting   –  Follow Jan 10   –   Follow back Jan 11th   –   Message (URL of tweet) Jan 12th

This way you can track the effectiveness of your work and see if there’s something wrong. How many people follow back? Of these – which end up buying and why? There should be a methodology to it all. It takes a bit of time, but it gives you valuable information for your efforts.

Are you tracking who you contact and how you are contacting them? Have you looked at the methods you have used and analyzed which are the most effective and why?

There are a few truths that I hold self-evident:

1. It costs less to keep a current customer than get a new one.
2. The easiest and best way to grow a business is to sell more (services / products) to a current customer.
3. The best new customers are ones referred by happy current customers.
4. The customer is always right, even when they aren’t.

Last night was pretty much the classic nightmare for any blogger – someone had hacked Tchochkes, the blog I started over 2 years ago. We thought the hacker had wiped the database, so we went to our host – Bluehost – to find out if they could recover the site from their backups, because we haven’t been backing up as we should have.

Now, I know you’re going to tell me that I should have been backing up the site myself regularly. I’ve been working in the internet now for 12 years – I have worked for companies when sites have been hacked. I know that backup should be done nightly. It wasn’t. Yes, my bad. That isn’t the point here.

We contacted Bluehost to see if they could recover the site from a recent backup, as their site states:

It turns out that they have “never” done a backup of the site. Then the customer service person informs me that only so many files are allowed for sites to be backed up and we have well passed our limit. I understand and respect this – companies can only do so much, fair enough. However, my automatic response was – why didn’t you let me know? The answer was “we expect our customers to be adults”  and do it themselves, “it’s in the terms and conditions. ”

Excuse me? I’ve made a mistake, am convinced that I’ve lost 2 years of data and hard work of a lot of people (we have over 8 writers now) and you’re insulting me (the adults comment)? Is that really they way they taught you to behave (remember number 4 above)? Bluehost claims to have “24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support”. I am stating quite frankly: this is a lie. They have people working, but the way they respond is the worst experience I’ve had in years. In fact, after the “adult” insult I now hate Bluehost even more than I do the hacker who took my site down!

But I digress, I kept digging with the CSR to find out why Bluehost doesn’t inform their clients that they have gone over a limit for backing up their files. It seems a natural way to get an upsell, and a silly thing to lose out on (see #2 above). I was informed that they only have so much space and that it needs to go to the customer. Which makes me wonder about the claim on their homepage (below.)

I also checked out other hosting sites where I saw that they put a limit on total file size per section (Silver / Gold / Platinum) and the backend system informs the website owner that they are using too much space for their section and need to upgrade. This tells me that this functionality is not over the top and totally feasible to implement. If I were Bluehost it would make sense to me to want my current customers to buy more when they need to – so contacting them and letting them know that they have exceeded the limit for backup would be a courtesy mixed with a potential up-sell. This is a win-win. Why would a company not want to do that?!

Ok, Bluehost didn’t do that. Fine, it makes sense and it could earn Bluehost more money. But Bluehost doesn’t have to. However, it could have been handled like more like this:

“I’m so sorry your site has been hacked. I know that is a really upsetting experience. Unfortunately, you had gone over our limits for backup on your current plan. You’re right that it would be a good idea to inform the customer of something like this. [Back to Number 4 - the quickest way to calm someone down is to tell them that they are right, even when they are not] While I unfortunately can’t help you in this current situation, I would like to help you make sure that it doesn’t happen again. This plan would be perfect for the growth your site has now…”

Instead – I was argued with, insulted and informed that they expect their customers to behave like adults and do it themselves. They even gave me a metaphor that if someone is speeding it is the speeders responsibility to know the law. Another thing I didn’t need to hear at the time. I knew and understood the mistake was mine – but rubbing salt in the wound was wrong. Epic customer service fail. Every step of the way. Empathy – that would have saved this customer from moving. There was zero empathy for my situation. Instead I was insulted and kicked while I was down.

The cost to Bluehost?

Good question. I’m simply one of over 1,000,000 domains that they host. However – I tweeted about it A LOT last night and a bit this morning. 20 people either responded directly with a mention or DM’d (direct message’d) me to send their condolences. This 20 represent those who chose to say something – I have over 2,600 followers on Twitter – I’m sure more read about it but didn’t say anything. I also wrote about it on Facebook where I have over 700 “friends” (I actually have friends on there going back to pre-school – and we moved a lot – I know a lot of people). I’m putting this on my blog and I am actually considering buying www.ihatebluehost.com – because shockingly no one has done this yet – and posting this rant there. Yeah, I didn’t take their “Superb” customer service very well at all.

I guess the real question is: How much would it have cost Bluehost to simply be nice?

“I have a different question: this is going on with or without company involvement. Is your company ready for no voice in the conversation, or are they willing to hear the voice of the people?” – Chris Brogan

Chris is so right. Whether companies like it or not the conversation will go on with them or without them.

Then what?

It takes a level of awareness in upper management to make the sort of changes needed in order to make social media work. In companies that have an upper management focusing on the bottom line instead of core competences the customer will probably come in last. It’s the wrong direction, but a typical one in a bad economy. People get so stuck on the tree they forget to see the forest.

How does a company take a step back and remember the forest?

1. Upper management has to come to a consensus decision to focus on the customer. The rest of the company will follow top-down. This decision has to be reflected in all company decisions – and if there are cutbacks they can not be in a way that will affect the final product or the customer experience. In other words, executives get to skip the company jet and fly coach if necessary.
2. Customer service needs to be melded with sales and marketing and shouldn’t be considered a cost center. Typically customer service is the bottom feed of the organization, which seem silly in my opinion as this is the one group (along with sales) that has a clue what the customer actually wants. But as Customer Service isn’t seen as income generating it’s considered a place where costs can be cut. As Dell learned when outsourcing to India and losing their competitive advantage – customer service needs to be a core confidence. Customer service is your investment in your current customer – and it costs less to keep a good customer than to find a new one – so by investing in your customer service you are sending the message that your customers are the top priority. Your customer will reward you in turn by recommending you to others (and the best new customers are typically those that are referred by existing customers.)
3. Now the social media begins. (Why only now? Because without having the systems in place to handle the feedback, asking for feedback but offering nothing in return would do even more damage to your company’s reputation.) Outreach to show you care about the customer on the relevant social media platform for your niche. The relevant tools depends on your niche – do you know where your customers hang out online? Have you ever asked? Now’s the time to research where your platinum customers hangs out – and follow them them there – and listen to what they have to say.

Any questions?

Social media opens up a door. A door that isn’t so easy to close once it’s been open. It means a company is willing to commit to its customer in every way. Willing to accept all of the good and the bad comments the customer will make, will listen and respond. This isn’t a small level of commitment.

Typically a college student will not have the level of clout in an organization to get something fixed if flags are popping up from the various social media tools. There’s also the possibility that the student may not care enough or have enough experience to even notice the flags, and if flags are recognized – have the experience to know who to go to in order to be certain something can get fixed properly. Organizations need to realize – social media is direct contact with your customer in a very public and loud platform. The repercussions of things not being handled properly can be quite loud. I’m not saying don’t hire a student to for daily management of your platforms – but make certain that an exec is reviewing that dialog daily as well.

I’ve been researching various companies and how they use social media this holiday season (for a lecture I’m giving next month in India on Using Social Media for Competitive Advantage – more on that later) and I’ve been seeing the frustrated, negative comments from buyers on Facebook pages and twitter. The smart companies allow for comments, the smarter companies actually respond to those comments and follow through. And the level of appreciation from customers once the follow through happens is huge. Especially if it’s partnered with an admittance of guilt and an apology (e.g. Yes, you should have received your item on time and we are so so very sorry that we have dropped the ball. Here’s what we’re going to do to fix it… and this is how we’re going to make it up to you… ).

Allowing for comments infers a very high level of commitment to the customer. Basically, you’re asking the customer for trouble – as it is almost inevitable for people to complain about things gone wrong when they know they will be listened to. And by asking for this trouble you are committing to stepping up to the bar and sorting it. In other words, don’t expect to be able to have comments on your Facebook fan page and not do a blessed thing if someone posts something wrong. You could end up with something like a United Breaks Guitars on your hands.

Eventually, if you engage with your customer and treat them fairly you will have your customer going to bat for you. Take the example from L.L. Bean, below.

Someone posted a negative review of a skirt after all previous reviews had been deleted. L.L. Bean has created such a loyal client base that another customer wrote in to defend the skirt and explain that there used to be more comments there. This is really the goal of social media. Creating such a relationship with your customer that they will go out of their way to promote you. But this takes time, effort and commitment from a company. Fortunately, it does work and it is worth it.

The question is – is your company ready for that level of commitment?

The above picture is an example of what not to do on Twitter. This is called spam. It’s annoying. It’s rude. It lowers your influence and loses you followers. Don’t do it.

Think about what Twitter is – a microblogging tool. Blog infers content. If this is your content, what value are you giving your readers? Another thing – Twitter is social media – which means conversation. This is talking at someone, not with them. Please don’t do it. Thank you.

So what to do:

1. Engage and converse with the people you think would be interested in your product / service.
2. Tweet about things you’ve read that are interesting to you (or about things on your site that others might like)
3. Respond to others when they message you
4. Be nice

Is it that hard?