Archive for the ‘Relationship Marketing’ Category
Marketers are often afraid word-of-mouse will hurt more than help because it appears consumers take more time complaining than complementing in online reviews. But do businesses really need to fear these negative voices taking over their brand image? We say no. Not if the marketer commits to being actively engaged.
We don’t mean hiring one of the current snake oil reputation management firms that promises to have negative reviews removed, while posting an untrustworthy number of fabricated positive comments. Studies show customers see through these even faster than Google and Yelp’s supposedly legitimate algorithms. By actively engaged we mean offering a variety of different places for customers to form an opinion of your brand. Certainly Facebook and Twitter are two obvious sources, but there are plenty of other powerhouses. For example, what about making a name for your company as an expert in answering questions on related forums, or Ask.com, or even Yahoo!answers?
How about not only having a blog, but sharing it’s content via Digg, Stumble Upon, and Reddit? And don’t forget about YouTube. As the online world over saturates us with written content, people will defer more and more to video for everything from shopping decisions to consumer opinion. What about telling your brand story in pictures? There’s almost always a way, so use photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa.
And yet, just being on all these sites is not enough. Updating new and interesting content at least twice a week is a must – everywhere. But even more important than staying active is being creative and interesting. If you give customers other online opportunities to get to know you, you’d better give them good reason why they should prefer you.
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? It is. But just having a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account is not enough these days. You need to create two-way conversations everywhere you can. That way, even if some negative reviews pop up, customers have a variety of other venues to learn more about you and what you sell. Venues that can tell a great story – the story you want them to know.
What’s the best way to win advocates for your brand? TRUST. What’s the best way to win trust? Be helpful. What’s the best way to be helpful? Give consumers useful information they wouldn’t expect to get free. Information that will save them time, save them money, make them smarter, make them happier, make them feel better about themselves – and you.
Since its inception, the Nordstrom brand has centered around being helpful, right? Like a phone call telling you they remembered you were looking for shoes to go with the suit you bought last month, and they just got the perfect pair in. Or how about the American Express openforum.com, a free website with tons of information that claims huge success in helping business owners succeed. Oh, and its content contributors are donating their brains and talent at no charge to American Express.
It’s easy to talk about big brands like these, but how about the success some smaller brands are enjoying due to their helpfulness? Like Kellogg Garden Products, with a website full of gardening tips from soil calculators to fun kid gardening activities. Their website Analytics show a huge percentage of visitors time being spent on the pages they’ve built simply to be helpful, and their brand recognition confirms this.
Big or small, these brands understand they must give in order to receive. Paying it forward may end up being the most successful marketing mantra for the 21st Century. The question is, is your brand ready?
Remember the days when you had a best friend, and then maybe 5 or 6 other close friends? That circle was enough, wasn’t it? Spending quality time with them was usually very rewarding.
Now we move to the digital age. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and others, where popularity is based on the number of friends, connections, how many people “like” you or your business, or how many places you’re the “Mayor”. And heaven forbid if you show only a few!
Obviously it’s easier to have more friends these days. And easier to stay in touch. For one thing, you can talk to all of them at the same time via most of these social media tools. And it doesn’t matter where they are. Heck, it doesn’t even matter what language they speak because Google will translate it with one simple click.
But, what’s happening to the quality of friendships? Quantity is often forced to replace quality in the digital world unless you want everyone in your growing circle to know the finite details of your life that you might otherwise only share with a few close confidants.
Time will tell how this new world of mass-connections pays off. No one can say at this point. But we do know that society is changing because of this technology. What we need to remember along the way is that it’s a choice we make, not a mandate.
You have those who don’t like Google, fearing it will take over the world. They’re already ragging on Buzz. Then you have the rest of us. The other 98% who say, aha, here’s where Twitter, Facebook and their long tail cousins might actually come together as one. Here’s where the noise that has become way too loud for most of us can get filtered. Best of all by the one company that knows how to do it best.
But let’s back up for a second and quit talking like everyone on the planet uses Facebook and Twitter. Let’s talk about the most used tool on the Internet that even non-techies use every day. It’s called e-mail. That’s where Buzz is brilliant. It’s right there with your email, on your desktop, laptop AND mobile device. It’s in an environment where the vast majority of online users still spend most of their time. It’s using Google search algorithms to help filter out content that you’re not interested in, and it’s quickly addressing the privacy issues that caused such a ruckus with Facebook users a while back.
So, do we need one more social publishing service? No. We need a few less. Maybe, just maybe, this will be it.
Android. Google Earth. Google Maps. Adwords. Adsense. YouTube. Ad Planner. Google News. Google TV. Chrome. Google Docs. Orkut. Picasa. Knol. G-Mail. Google phone (aka non-virtual hardware). Wave. Google 411. Google Images, etc., etc. etc. You get the idea.
Google. First of all, is Google a “them” or an “it”? For conversation sake here, let’s just call them/it Googzilla.
I just finished reading “Googled – The End of the World as We Know It”. Absolutely fascinating. The author, Ken Auletta, gave an interesting inside view of Google that I would say is mostly unbiased, and certainly daunting when you realize how many things Google has its virtual hand in.
The pervading message throughout the book was Google’s ability to abuse their power and knowledge if they ever choose to do the opposite of their corporate mantra, “Don’t be evil”. Yet this message is countered with the consistent theme from founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, also often chimed by Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO), that they just want to help make interactive technology a great, user friendly, reliable, relevant, safe resource.
But here’s the twist – every step Google takes to be more useful is often because they’ve learned more about us. For example, search relevance improves via behavioral targeting because they’re watching us closer. Our continued diminishing privacy makes the web more convenient for us. Not to mention that opting out is a lot more complicated than opting in. The trillion dollar question is – do we really care?
It comes down to this simple dividing line. There are those who trust Google and those who don’t. And, as long as there are more that do, Google will continue to grow and own the online world. Could that change? Sure. If they mess up. If I had to bet, I’d say they probably won’t. But then again, in spite of all their algorithms, PhD’s, and rocket scientists, they’re only human.
What do you think?
