Posts Tagged Online Reputation
The power of Mothers in social networking.
Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Traditional Marketing, World News on May 28th, 2010
Young mothers active in social networks are potentially a formidable force. New online social networks have shifted the traditional dynamics of the consumers products businesses in particular, and on occasion, have undermined a brand’s ability to shape public reactions.
Take Dry Max, the new version of Pampers; officially launched on March 1st in the US. This was billed as the “driest” nappy ever, and the advertising at launch was accompanied with the now familiar strategy of sending samples to bloggers, including Shopping Mama, in order to build grass-roots enthusiasm.
But things started to go wrong very shortly after the launch. Many “mamas” started to complain on social networks and review sites. These complaints increased and now there is a Facebook page claiming children have suffered rashes, burns and the like. This page has over 6000 fans.
After the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) announced they would be looking into these complaints, Procter & Gamble immediately launched a full-scale counter offensive, citing what they described as “growing, but completely false rumours, fuelled by social media”.
Many loyal customers felt offended by the robust tone of P&G. They did not feel their voices were being heard. This only heightened the tension between the two parties.
Procter & Gamble knew it had to do more and simultaneously stepped up plans to engage with the online community. Many bloggers, and key “influencers” within social media, have been invited to P&G’s headquarters, listening to staff discussing the R&D side of their work, and looking at prototypes of future products.
Digital marketing experts are trying to glean the lessons from this whole experience. The episode underlines the challenges for a process of product development that was developed “in a time when consumers did not have a voice, and there was no notion of consumer feedback, reviews and social media.”
Perhaps the lesson is, that if P&G had more consumers involved more intimately in the product development process, they would have been advocates for the product as it comes out. It is imperative now that consumer brands interact with the blogging community early on; certainly before events reach a crisis point.
Most people engage in social media with good intentions..they want to be heard. So I think the point for the brands is not to try to shut them down, but to listen and hear them.
Phrase for the day: “power mom” – bloggers, who are sought after by brands to test or comment upon new products…only in America!!
Talk is no longer cheap in the social media community: Conversations are now Markets
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, Facebook, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Traditional Marketing on May 12th, 2010
We’re seeing an advertising revolution like we’ve never experienced before. Banner ads, adsense, flash messages, coupons, direct mail, spam mail or anything that the advertising and marketing industries have thrown at us in the past simply don’t work anymore. Advertisers can no longer push intrusive ads in our face rather they must start listening…and now some are willing to spend ad money to do it! They will give you money to listen to what you have to say.
The Great Enabler:
Social Media has enabled society in many astonishing ways. However, the ability to “design, produce, direct, and sustain” conversations that have specific, predictable and tangible economic outcomes, remains the Holy Grail of Social Media, and indeed a true Innovation Economy.
The people who have the ability to generate value in this new economic paradigm are those who have the ability to start and sustain conversations in social media space. The objective for those seeking success in social media is to empower and compensate conversation designers, producers, directors, and sustainers.
Perfect information in markets will always benefit the highest integrity companies, the most trustworthy brands, and the most socially relevant industries. Imperfect information favours low quality, corruption, and misrepresentation. Imperfect information facilitates the “transfer” rather than “creation” of wealth. An innovation economy will always seek to create new knowledge rather than suppress it and conversation is the currency of exchange.
Billions of dollars of Advertising revenue is being reallocated to listening to the market rather than shouting at it. The brands are listening to you. Like never before, customers have the control.
Watch what people say about you! You may not like it!
Posted by David Harrison in Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Useful Stuff on April 9th, 2010
Online reputation management (ORM) is one of the big things in the digital space at present and will only get more important – in my humble opinion!
For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, whilst all the Web 2.0 stuff is great for consumer comments, those comments can be both good and bad. When you look at Tripadvisor, it is highly unlikely that all the comments are 100% positive … if there is a negative comment though, how have the hotel dealt with it – did they just ignore it, or comment back and explain the issues?
How did you react in that scenario – personally, if the hotel ignores the bad comment I would consider that a bad comment on the hotel itself – if it can’t be bothered to reply then how will they be at looking after me?!!
These days of course, there are multiple routes available for people to praise your service, or slag you off too. Either way you should be checking what people are saying about you.
This all came to the fore yesterday when a client of mine showed me his own experience. I think it would be safe to say that when this chap became a client he was less than convinced by my evangelism on the benefits of social media! How he has changed! Not only is he now blogging and tweeting away like a good un, he is now going to add Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube to the mix too … and part of the sources for his articles etc will come from what he reads via the alerts he has set up in Google Reader (personally I use Feedly as I think it is more user friendly).
One of his alerts is his company name of course, so when a particular client started something of a rant in a forum, he was alerted to the comments and was able to go back and respond. He may not be able to stop her saying things, but at least he can balance the view.
I would therefore suggest you go do three things right now if you have not done so already.
- Set up Google Reader
- Set up Google Alerts
- Set up Feedly
Of course you may want to add your competitors to your alert list so you can see what they are up to aswell!!
If you have had any experiences yourself, please let me know, or if you use any other tools I’d like to hear about them too please.
