Andiamo! - Social Media Marketing Blog

Negative comment about your brand? What to do!

It can be a real bummer when you read an online post that slams your brand. One of the first reactions is typically a defensive one - 'how dare he said that about me?'..'that is completely false, don't they know we just fixed that bug?' and so on. Since hundreds if not tens of thousands of people can read and jump onto that conversation, it's important to take action. So what should you do?

1. Take a deep breath and do not hastily respond out of anger or defensiveness. Due to the nature of the web, people use language and tone that may really overstate their real emotions.
2. But, do respond. A 'non response' can appear as an implicit admission of guilt and lack of a customer-centric brand.
3. Act quickly, bad news travels fast.
4. If necessary, circulate the negative news to appropriate people on your team, and get their feedback. Has customer support already talked with this person? Is product development aware of this issue? Does your PR team need to be aware?
5. Once you have the full picture, respond to the comment online. Use full disclosure here, no cloaking. State who you are, your relationship with the company and a concise, candid response to the situation. Letting people know you are actually listening to them, and that there feedback is important to you is a very powerful thing!
6. Make sure the response comes from the responsible person, not some support function.
7. Don't be sales-y in your response and don't make tons of excuses.
8. Post your entry on your own blog as well, telling your side of the story.
9. Keep an eye on the blog to see if your comment was posted. If not, try contacting the blogger to see if they saw your response. Although you can't control whether or not the blogger will post 'your side of the story' It's important to get it published.

A couple notes:

• If the comment is particularly nasty, you may want to contact the person  before submitting a comment in order to get more context into the issue, and the personality of the consumer.
• We've seen very reputation-damaging posts get diffused quickly by taking the actions above. We have also had several clients tell us that posting a timely, honest response can really help turn a frustrated customer around to a brand promoter!
• A side benefit of responding is due to the sequential nature of most blogs and forums. Newer content is placed above older (negative) content which other people will then see first. Your newer content will also come up higher is search engine results!
• Approaching bloggers on their own terms through comments and posts on your blog create a conversation where the issues can be discussed and explored in the open.
• We usually learn more from criticism than praise:)

WoM: a Billion dollar industry?

PQ Media announced that and further states that Word-of-Mouth (WoM) Marketing is the fastest-growing segment of the $254 billion marketing services sector of the media industry, which includes among others, branded entertainment, direct marketing and public relations. WoM marketing grew almost five times faster than the overall marketing services sector in 2006 and more than six times faster than the overall media industry and nominal GDP.

While a Billion dollars is significant and represents awesome, it far undervalues the true investment size in WoM, as a good percentage of initiatives are grassroots efforts or otherwise unreported. I'd estimate the true investment in WoM, counting soft and other uncaptured and internal costs is probably twice the PQ figure.

The real metric that is missing, is how much revenue is generated via WoM efforts. We're a ways off on capturing that, and we all need to drive to that goal in order for the WoM segment to accelerate its growth and prove its ROI. Anyone have a case study?

See the PQ Media press release here

WOMMA Wrap-up

WOMMA #3 wrapped up on Thursday, and all-in-all it was a pretty solid event with a good agenda. Definitely great networking and a good way to gauge the direction the industry is heading. And it is definitely going up and to the right. Patrick Quinn, CEO of PQ Media, announced a research study that pegs spending on WoM initiatives to exceed $1 Billion in 2007 (more on that in our next post). Measurement and ROI was also a hot topic, and there are several businesses in additional to Andiamo Systems all taking different approaches to providing quantifiable information to measure WoM. The WoM measurement area is, and will continue to be hot, 'cuz as any media planner will tell you, you can't invest in something you can't measure.

The biggest issue I had with this show, as I do with most shows, is the lack of actionable, practical take-aways from the sessions! Most people attend sessions so they can go back to work with solid ideas on how to make WoM work to build their business. A notable exception was a session that included Neal Stewart from Flying Dog Brewery. This guy Broke It Down, and provided great ideas and information that just about business of any size and budget can use to increase market awareness, better connect with customers and target influentials. Basically, start with the basics:

• Start the conversation - launch  your own blog, it helps get the dialog going
• Use email - email your blog posts and blog your emails. Let people access the information how they like to
• Add Stumbled Upon and Digg links to your blog (We're guilty of not doing this, I'm going to add them now!)
• Participate in related blogs - the more venues you're involved in, the more your brand is exposed to new consumers.
• Cede some control - give consumers access to pictures, photos and logos, and let them post their photos to your site.
• Have fun! Sure not all brands can lean on humor to engage their audience, but many that can, don't. Don't be afraid to have fun.

Check out their site, they do a great job of  branding and  leveraging  down-to-earth WoM  principles.

If you do it, Measure it!

Over 2/3 of execs recently surveyed stated that they intend to do word of mouth, 'buzz' or viral marketing programs this year. These businesses clearly understand that the effectiveness of traditional advertising is on the downhill slide, and that brands must deliver relevant, compelling content that helps consumers make a smart purchasing decision. Snappy creative alone is not the answer. 

As with any marketing effort, setting goals and measurement is key. How do you know if it worked otherwise? In fact, 95% of marketers aim to build brand awareness, but only 1 in 3 measure it.

So what are the top ways to actually measure the success of your word of mouth programs?

1) Online brand survey tools. These include popular online survey providers such as Survey Monkey and Zoomerang but also more specialized services such as Dynamic Logic and InsightExpress.

2) Search-based services. These include Google Trends, Yahoo! Buzz and others. Most of these are free, which is great but they don't measure opinion, or give any  relative weight to  Mentions based on the Authority or Audience size of the  publisher. 

3) Brand monitoring services. These offer the most complete set of services to help businesses measure consumer perceptions around their products and services.  The information provided by Brand monitoring services helps businesses:
•    Develop more compelling products and services,
•    Anticipate competitive threats,
•    Better pinpoint marketing messages and ad placement,
•    And manage reputation issues.

Prices vary greatly. A sampling of Brand monitoring providers includes MotiveQuest, Nielsen BuzzMetrics, and yours truly, Andiamo Systems. 

Whatever solution you decide upon, just make sure to decide what your goals are, what metrics you need to measure, and the value of the information to your organization for decision-making purposes. Once you know what affect your program is having on consumers, you can make intelligent decisions that make you relevant and build consumer loyalty!

Using Online Brand Monitoring - It Works!

Last week my wife Janine and I were monitoring buzz for her email marketing company, VerticalResponse. VR helps thousands of SMBs easily get up and running using email and postcard direct marketing to grow their biz.  Mining for her company name, we found an active discussion on the blog for a jewelry e-commerce site, where a couple people were discussing the benefits and challenges of email marketing and their pros and cons of using VerticalResponse.

Realistically, VR was at risk of losing both these customers due to a couple specific, yet definitely addressable, concerns. Janine was able to take immediate action and post a response on the blog, addressing their concerns and asking anyone with an issue to email her personally with their questions or issues and any product features they felt were missing.

The reaction? Two very impressed, and now loyal, customers. And as a bonus, word-of-mouth really kicked in! One of these customers posted on her own business blog positive comments about VerticalResponse and email marketing, introducing VR to hundreds of new people and potential customers. Love it! All for about 15 minutes of Janine's time. Pretty solid ROI, eh?

Try to listen to and take an active role in your customers (and potential customers) conversations on blogs, forums, and message boards. Not only will you learn a thing or two, you may even actually keep your customers longer.