Is the customer ALWAYS right?

Image courtesy of http://www.customer-lifetimevalue.com/

 

In dealing with social media platforms, for some it is difficult to measure the ROI (return on investment) an organization can see by utilizing a certain channel. How do you measure customer engagement with a content driven post through social media? Many will reply by the number of likes, clicks, shares, etc. that the post receives. Or by how many click throughs it received to its landing page. None of these are necessarily incorrect however, most organizations want their ROI delivered to them in dollars, not likes. Enter CLV!

CLV stands for customer lifetime value and “is loosely defined as the net dollars a customer contributes over their life as a customer” (Pear Analytics Blog, n.d.). I.E. how much your customer is worth or will spend with your business (cha-ching!). You can learn to calculate your CLV here! “CLV has a central strategic importance for a company, and more and more managers are discovering that their most important asset is not the company’s inventory but its customers…” (Clark, 2010). By determining your customers lifetime value, you can then calculate what the cost is to acquire a new customer (CAC), how much of your budget you should be spending to do so, and eventually how many individuals you need to drive to your landing page to get 1 potential customer to convert. (Seeing how much it can cost to acquire a new customer gives new meaning to the customer is always right!)

Anthony Turner, CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, suggests that “the best way to determine how many customers you’re gaining though social media is to look at the website analytics” (Turner, n.d.). I personally use Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of my organizations website. It provides you with a ton of information including what the referring website was, how long a user stayed on your page, where they clicked next, and even categorizes visits based on traffic type. I LOVE data and mining it to create trends that either support or disprove an objective or goal we have. There’s truly nothing like data.

If a company was looking to increase their CLV, I would recommend they do the following:

·         focus on retention of customers to increase their lifetime and brand loyalty

·         offer complementary or “sticky” products/services to cross-sell customers

·         commit yourself to provide quality customer service and speedy conflict resolution

·         provide upgrades or helpful/education content as an added value to your customers

·         communicate with and receive feedback from customers to make sure you are still satisfying a need/want that they have

For many of the above listed recommendations, when dealing with social media and the web 2.0 world, all of these start with your landing page. But how do people find your social media site or landing page? By searching for a product or service you provide or information you have shared.

David Scott defines search engine optimization (SEO) as “the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases on your site, blog, and other online content are found by the search engines and that, once found, your site is given the highest ranking possible in the natural search results (i.e. what the search engine algorithm deems important for the phrase entered)” (Scott, 2015, pg. 396). By providing great content and using words and a language that your buyers will use when searching for said great content, you will organically appear in front of these potential customers. By appearing where buyers are looking for your (or information you have to offer), this will drive traffic to your landing page, inevitably boosting your ROI as you convert more customers.

 

~Nicole

References

Clark, P. (2010, February). The 16 business benefits of Customer Lifetime Value. Retrieved from http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=119

Pear Analytics Blog (n.d.). The Importance of Lifetime Value in Marketing. Retrieved from http://pearanalytics.com/blog/2009/importance-of-lifetime-value-in-marketing/

Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Turner, J. (n.d.). An In-Depth Guide on How to Calculate the ROI of a Social Media Campaign. Retrieved from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/

To Share or Not to Share... How Secure is your Personal Brand?



Image courtesy of: http://www.gadgetadda.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Protecting-Your-Workforce-from-Social-Media-Threats-Part-II-Applying-Technology-Solutions-resized-600.png

 

In his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David Scott discusses social networking and personal branding (2015).  He urges readers that “an important thing to consider is how your online actions are a reflection of your personal branding” (Scott, 2015, pg. 273). Using Twitter as an example, he outlines several recommendations on how to develop the most effective personal brand through your online presence including:

·         Using your real name

·         Listing “the town or nearest city that makes sense for you” (Scott, 2015, pg. 273)

·         Links to your other corresponding websites or social media platforms

·         Not leaving the bio section blank and attempting to be both descriptive and specific in this section

·         Using a real photo of you for the profile picture

While these recommendation will leave a user with an online personal brand to work with and project, it will also open them up to real security threats.

The Chief Operating Officer of Hide My Ass!, (a VPN solutions provider), points out that “while many people say they want to protect themselves online, it is difficult for them to sacrifice things like their level of social presence” (Morrison, 2016). Both Microsoft and McAfee mention the risks of divulging too much personal information online:

·         “Avoid publicly answering questionnaires with details like your middle name, as this is the type of information financial institutions may use to verify your identity” (Siciliano, 2011)

·         “A common way that hackers break into financial or other accounts is by clicking the "Forgot your password?" link on the account login page. To break into your account, they search for the answers to your security questions, such as your birthday, home town, high school class, or mother's middle name. If the site allows, make up your own password questions, and don't draw them from material anyone could find with a quick search” (Microsoft, n.d.)

All too often users on social media tend to disclose more personal information than they should (we all have those over-sharers in our newsfeed). The following infographic defines different types of social media users based on social and security factors:

Image courtesy of: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-users-unwilling-to-sacrifice-social-presence-for-security-infographic/634403

 

The readings this week show us the importance of protecting personal information and the need to put a system in place in order to manage and control security and privacy online, in order to balance what we learned from Scott (2015) about giving as much personal information as possible.

 

Based on the infographic, what type of user (Reactive, Proactive or Realized) do you most identify with and why?

What advice would you give to someone who is new to social media on ways to protect their personal information online?

Where do you think the balance is between posting enough pertinent information to effectively create your personal brand online and putting yourself at risk for security threats?

 

~Nicole

 

References

Microsoft (n.d.) 11 tips for social networking safety. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/online-privacy/social-networking.aspx

Mitrano, T. (2006, January 1). A Wider World: Youth, Privacy, and Social Networking Technologies. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2006/1/a-wider-world-youth-privacy-and-social-networking-technologies

Morrison, K. (2016, February 17). Social Media Users Unwilling to Sacrifice Social Presence for Security (Infographic). Retrieved from

Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Siciliano, R. (2011, July 13). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved from https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/15-social-media-security-tips/



The Broncos may have won #SB50 but #EsuranceSweepstakes took the advertising cake

Image courtesy of https://twitter.com/esurance

 

For as long as I’ve been studying Marketing (and Advertising, PR, etc.) one of the biggest nights of the year for our industry hands down, is the Super Bowl. Bob Kolt, Advertising Professor at MSU, says it’s “like the Oscars in [the] advertising field, ‘it’s the biggest night of the year and Madison Avenue puts on their best spot’” (CBS Detroit, 2016).

A more and more common behavior that is taking hold of advertising is utilizing a call to action that directs viewers to various social media platforms rather than to a specific product or service. “In the past, traditional marketers didn’t have the luxury of having a two-way conversation with customers, but they did have a captive audience” (Kerpen, 2016, pg. 46).  Coupling this captive audience with the ability to build a relationship through dialogue online is changing the game. Super Bowl commercials (among many others) have bridged this gap by the use of hashtags.

There were many great Super Bowl commercials that stood out to me this year. Upon reflecting Esurance was by far the most top of mind as I woke up this morning wondering how their sweepstakes went (and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one). “The main reason the online insurance brand drew so much attention was that it ran a competition on Super Bowl Sunday, giving away $1 million to Twitter users tweeting the hashtag #EsuranceSweepstakes during and after the game” (O’Reilly, 2016).

Their commercial was funny, intriguing, and pure genius:

Video courtesy of https://youtu.be/WE04KzL4kPs

Dave Kerpen, writer of likeable social media, recommends that it’s better to spark a conversation with your customers by avoiding marketing a product to them (Kerpen, 2016). He proposes that “all you have to do is stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like your consumer” (Kerpen, 2016, pg. 40). Esurance followed this analogy and started a conversation not about a product or service they offer but about a sweepstakes and the chance to win money (who doesn’t want that?!). What’s even more interesting is that the sweepstakes runs until Monday February 8^th, 2016 – a day after the Super Bowl! This very minute followers are still tweeting and retweeting #EsuranceSweepstakes.

Esurance successfully moved the conversation from a TV commercial onto social media, where they can take part in the discussion and consumers are responding like crazy. Sarah Evans, Esurances’ Social Media Communications Specialist said “we wanted to leverage second-screen culture, no on these days is just watching the TV. We’re surrounded by technology. We know the only way into somebody’s house, into somebody’s life, is not just through the TV screen, but through handheld devices and social media” (Castillo, 2016).

According to Amobee Brand Intelligence, Esurance was the number 1 brand with the most twitter mentions during the Super Bowl at 835,101 tweets (O’Reilly, 2016). Second place went to Doritos at 238,770 tweets (O’Reilly, 2016) as a comparison. To me, this campaign was not only successful due to their consumer response and the amount of tweets it received, but it was also just a good commercial. It authentically made me laugh out loud while watching it. My personal favorite? The man rolling through his fence on the lawnmower (https://youtu.be/WE04KzL4kPs).

Esurance has proved one of the many significant points Kerpen discuses. That, “the loudest, costliest advertising formats, such as TV commercials, don’t dominate the conversation anymore because, in fact, they no longer own the conversation. The conversation exists on social networks” (Kerpen, 2016, pg. 69).

~Nicole

 

 

References:

Castillo, M. (2016, February). What was Super Bowl 50’s most talked about ad? Retrieved on http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/08/

CBS Detroit (2016, February 7). Commercials During Super Bowl: ‘It’s Like The Oscars of Advertising’. Retrieved from http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/02/07/commercials-during-super-bowl-its-like-the-oscars-of-advertising/

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Education

O’Reilly, L. (2016, February). The most-mentioned brand on Twitter during the Super Bowl didn’t even advertise on TV during the game. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/esurance-most-mentioned-brand-super-bowl-2016-2?utm_content=10ThingsAdvertising&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Sailthru&nr_email_referer=1&utm_campaign=Post+Blast+%28advertising%29%3A+The+10+things+in+advertising+you+need+to+know+today&utm_term=Advertising%3A+The+Brief

 



How 1912 Pike measures up

 

Towards the end of last year I saw that Starbucks launched a new blog (I still had them set up in my Google Alerts from a previous Masters class I had taken slash I love them). This was actually one of the recommendations my group and I had come up with for our project since their previous blog had not been updated since 2013 (Schultz, 2013). It’s called 1912 Pike (http://1912pike.com/) in recognition of where the first Starbucks store was opened and is “dedicated to connecting with customers and sharing useful information about all things coffee – where and how it’s grown, how it’s best enjoyed, what it means to our planet, and more (Starbucks, 2015). 

In his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David Scott devotes several chapters to blogging and writes about the necessary criteria that should be considered when deeming a blog as being successful or not (Scott, 2015). These chapters spoke to me as I have little to no experience when it comes to blogging (this is my first blog post ever!). Unfortunately in my opinion, 1912 Pike does not measure up to some of Scott’s standards.

Scott recommends to “think carefully about the name of your blog” and points out that “the look and feel of the blog could be complementary to your corporate design guidelines, but not identical” (Scott, 2015, pg. 300). Aesthetically speaking, 1912 Pike is certainly well branded and the name follows the cool, hip, and trendy presence Starbucks strives to maintain but it has a very corporate feel to the page. “Often when people visit a blog for the first time, they want to know about the blogger, so it is important to provide background” (Scott, 2015, pg. 301) which puts a face to the content and helps the reads (or buyers) connect. 1912 Pike needs to pimp out their blog to make it more relatable. “A pimped-out blog shows the blogger’s personality” (Scott, 2015, pg. 302), they should also add some substance to the contributors bio’s; perhaps even include their favorite Starbucks drink or a fun coffee fact like that! The other piece that is lacking from this blog is an about page. If a reader finds this blog and missed the press release indicating its efforts, you would have to sift through the content until you drew your own conclusions on what type of content they were aiming to provide.

1912 Pike gives a reader all the tools they need to share the article through various social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and email, which is good. Regrettably that’s the most interaction a reader can have through this blog due to the lack of comment capability. I understand why some organizations may be apprehensive to allow comments on their blogs “however, one of the most exciting things about blogging is when your reads comment on what you’ve written” (Scott, 2015, pg. 300). This fosters the two way communication between organization and consumer that enables blogs to be a tool for relationship management.

Scott also advocates for employees having access to run company blogs and suggests “implementing corporate policies saying such things as that employees can’t sexually harass anyone, that they can’t reveal secrets, that they can’t use inside information to trade stock or to influence prices, and that they shouldn’t talk ill of the competition in any way or via any media” (Scott, 2015, pg. 95). I think his position stems from the assumption that people are going to do what they want to do so it’s better to guide their focus and efforts rather than completely restrict it. He proposes that “rather than… putting guidelines on blogs and other social media… it is better to focus on guiding the way people behave” (Scott, 2015, pg. 95).

As is true with many corporate decisions, there are obvious pros and cons to allowing employees free access to run blogs.

Some of the pros include:

·         allocating the work load of posting, commenting, and responding in a timely manner

·         shared expertise across different topic areas

·         employee buy in to follow the guidelines in a respected manner

·         utilization of staff’s social network to share content

Some of cons include:

·         lack of control/oversight in what is said

·         inconsistent or unbranded messages being sent

·         lack of transparency (employee posting under a different employees name)

·         potential for breach in privacy or other ethical considerations

I fall somewhere in the middle. I think it depends on the organizational culture, the industry, and the type of staff they employ. Scott’s thoughts and theories may be before their time as many organizations still have not breached the blogosphere. “Blogging is a great front door for any individual or organization because it is real estate on the web that you can own” however, “at the same time, the term blog carries a negative connotation with some people who believe the content contained inside is frivolous” (Scott, 2015, pg. 295).

~Nicole

 

 

References

Schultz, H. (2013, October 7). A Call for Civility and Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com/blog/a-call-for-civility-and-leadership/1272

Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Starbucks Corporation (2015, September 29). Starbucks Launches 1912 Pike, a Coffee Education Blog. Retrieved from https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-1912-pike-blog

Image courtesy of themes.com