Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

« Older Entries

ADT Saved My House

by Ron on Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Those of you who follow Zavee Thinking may have noticed that this week’s post is a few days late. I was a little tied up this week and when I explain why I hope you will understand that the delay couldn’t be helped.

I was planning to blog about the new Old Spice campaign, in which Wieden + Kennedy’s creative team first seeded Social Media influentials with the idea of tweeting Old Spice pitch-hunk Isaiah Mustafa to ask for a personalized video – and then produced the video “responses” almost in real time. You can read about this amazing campaign here.

But I’m not going to blog about Old Spice. I’m going to blog about my fire, and about how ADT (and others) saved my house.

At 10:06 on Monday morning, ADT, which provides central station monitoring services, detected a fire alarm on the second floor of my home in New Jersey. They called the local fire department, which responded within minutes. Soon, firefighters from no less than 10 different companies – mostly volunteers – were working to put out the fire, which began when wires shorted inside a wall between a bathroom and a closet. No one was home when the fire broke out and none of the firefighters or police was injured.

Because ADT called in the alarm so quickly, the fire damage was confined to a relatively small space. The fire chief told my wife, however, that if we hadn’t had central station monitoring the house would likely have burned to the ground. Since my neighbors were either at work or on vacation it isn’t likely that anyone would have called 911 before it was too late.

As soon as the firefighters finished, we called our insurance company, Chubb. They dispatched a demolition and restoration crew immediately and by that afternoon a dozen people were working to clean and dry out the house. The amount of smoke and water damage is surprising for such a small fire, but while heat goes up, water goes down and smoke and soot go everywhere – especially on a hot day when the air conditioning is blowing. In fact, much of the damage isn’t even close to the site of the fire.

I’m blogging about my fire first, because I want to thank the firefighters and police who burst into a smoke-filled house on a hot July day not knowing what they would find and who used sensitivity as well as skill in fighting the blaze. They could have torn my house apart while trying to save it. Instead they put tarps over the furniture so it wouldn’t be damaged by water and falling debris. Our local firefighters are volunteers and they are at the top of the list of local causes my family and I support.

Second, I want to emphasize the value of central station monitoring. We use ADT and we credit them with saving our house, but any good central station company will do. We were pretty cavalier about our service because we looked at it mainly as a burglar alarm and the house is rarely vacant. And house fires happen to other people. At least we had fresh batteries in the heat detectors. We had changed ours recently and if the fire had happened only a couple of months ago it could have been much worse.

Finally, I think everyone should take a hard look at their fire and casualty insurance policies and make sure that (a) they are adequately covered and (b) their insurance company is willing and able to handle the kind of losses that a house fire can cause. One thing we learned from our fire is that different insurance companies have different perspectives on losses like ours. The Chubb adjuster and everyone else on the team assures us that they have seen far worse than ours. Their overriding message is one that we needed to hear: Don’t worry. Knowing that we aren’t going to have to fight over every penny provides enormous relief at a time of great stress. If you don’t get the same feeling from your insurance company, you need a new one. And if it costs a little more to be confident that you won’t have a battle on your hands if you make a claim, it’s probably worth it.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Central station monitoring can save your house – and perhaps your life.
  • Fire insurance isn’t a commodity – get the coverage and service you need and deserve.
  • Firefighters are amazing – they deserve everyone’s respect and support. They certainly have mine.

1 comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook vs. Twitter: Do You Have to Choose? (Pt.2)

by Ron on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Last week we blogged about how valuable Facebook can be for local businesses and suggested that it wouldn’t take much additional time to add Twitter to the marketing mix. We are strong believers in Twitter as a complement to Facebook, but we realize that many local merchants are able to devote only limited time to Social Media.

HootSuite logo

The key to making Twitter easier and more efficient is to use one of the free third party Twitter management tools instead of Twitter’s own site. HootSuite and TweetDeck let you do two things that can save a lot of time: manage multiple searches and cross-post into multiple Social Media streams.

In a previous post we blogged about four ways that local businesses can use Twitter. Some involve more time and attention than others. First, we suggested using Twitter as a listening post, gathering information from other users. The net you cast can be as wide or narrow as you want. Use your Twitter manager to set up searches for your industry, competitors, community, etc. If you can’t do all of these, establish some priorities and set up fewer searches. Checking them should only take a few minutes a day.

Second, we discussed using Twitter to build your brand. This is the most time-consuming aspect of making Twitter work, and while we think it’s worth the time not everyone will agree. This is where cross-posting can come in handy. You can use your Twitter manager to publish your Facebook posts as tweets – same content, two streams. You can do the same with blog posts (every Zavee Thinking post is automatically tweeted as soon as it’s published). Cross-posting isn’t a substitute for frequent tweeting, but it’s a reasonable compromise between committing to a major brand-building campaign on Twitter and ignoring your brand altogether.

Third, we pointed out how Twitter can generate leads. There is a passive and an active component to using Twitter this way. The passive part involves setting up searches for keywords that potential customers are likely to use when tweeting. The active part involves tweeting with those same keywords. Not enough time to do both? Just set up and monitor the searches and see how that works. You may need to adjust the search terms but that still should take less time than actively tweeting to gain leads. As you get better at finding potential customers on Twitter, however, don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending more time building those relationships online.

Finally, we recommended using Twitter as a customer service channel. At a minimum, you should use your Twitter manager to display mentions of your business on Twitter. Whether and how you respond to tweets that mention your business is up to you, but there is no reason not to see what people tweet about you.

We think that this minimalist approach to Twitter is a good way to start, especially if you don’t think you have a lot of time for Twitter. We also think it’s likely that you will ramp up your Twitter strategy as you gain experience with the medium. Take an hour or two on a weekend afternoon to get familiar with one of the Twitter management applications and play around with both searches and cross-posting. Let the technology do some of the work and you can get value out of Twitter without putting in more time than you want.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Use a third party Twitter manager for multiple searches and to publish Facebook posts on Twitter (and vice versa).
  • An active tweeting strategy takes more time than reading relevant tweets, so if time is an issue focus on using Twitter passively – at least for now.
  • Don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending more time on Twitter than you expected – not because it wastes your time but because it builds your business.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Fun and Games at Zavee

by Ron on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

We came up with a fun idea to attract new Zavee shoppers: a Sweepstakes! Details are available on the Zavee website, but our contest is a random drawing for cash prizes, with a twist. All Zavee shoppers are automatically eligible to win. The twist is that shoppers get an additional chance to win for every new Zavee shopper they refer. The more referrals, the more chances to win. Shoppers can invite their friends right from the Zavee site, which is easy for them and makes tracking referrals easy for us. The contest opened yesterday – the first day of summer – and runs through July 31.

Farmville Badge

via Rusty Boxcars

Adding an element of game play is one of the latest trends in marketing. At first blush, game play might not seem likely to resonate with adult consumers, but we all engage in competition in one form or another from a very early age. The viability of game play can be seen in the popularity of virtual games such as Farmville, which has almost 65 million monthly active users on Facebook. The location-based social network Foursquare also has a significant gaming element, with users earning points and “points” for specific activity.

Why should game play increase marketing effectiveness? The rationale is that encouraging the audience to participate and be rewarded helps a message earn attention in an increasingly noise-filled environment. Game play also is consistent with consumers’ increased expectation of control over the marketing messages they encounter. One result of meeting these expectations is that consumers not only pay more attention to messages presented as games, they have better recall of messages presented in games.

For small businesses, introducing game play into marketing programs can help level the playing field with competitors that have larger budgets. And it doesn’t require a lot of cost or complexity. The key is to figure out how to get the consumer involved in the message. We took a simple contest model and tweaked it by rewarding referrals. Social media platforms make game play even easier to implement. We plan to run a video contest on YouTube later this year, and the cost to us, apart from prizes, should be minimal.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Marketing messages that have an element of game play increase awareness, attention and effectiveness.
  • The key to game play is user involvement, not expensive technology.
  • Small businesses can and should add game play to their marketing.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Can Social Media Clean Up BP’s Image?

by Ron on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Imagine that something having to do with your business goes catastrophically wrong, in public, and you don’t look like the blameless victim. That, and worse, is the situation BP finds itself in following its disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And, perhaps even more than the Toyota recall, social media is affecting perceptions of the disaster and those involved in it.

via Noah Scalin

BP itself is providing a real-time video feed from a dozen cameras of the oil spewing out of the wellhead. This feed is becoming the defining imagery of the disaster, the constant flow representing for many the helplessness of the “experts” on the surface a mile above. BP also maintains a YouTube channel. BP has supplied its wellhead video feed to the web site of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which has maintained a steady flow of press releases focusing on BP. In addition to video, BP’s own site contains maps, claims forms (in English, Spanish and Vietnamese) and, of course, press releases.

BP is also trying to participate in the conversation on Social Media, but does not appear to be having much success in overcoming anti-BP sentiment. The “Boycott BP” page on Facebook is liked by more than 450,000 users, although it is unclear whether this movement will be able to affect BP’s business. On Twitter, an anti-BP impostor has amassed almost 140,000 followers while BP’s own Twitter feed is hovering at about 12,000 followers.

Much like Toyota several months ago, BP cannot expect to be portrayed other than as the villain. All BP can do is communicate openly and actively, and if its mea culpas come off as somewhat self-serving, at least the company isn’t stonewalling. The difference between the recall and the oil spill is, of course, scale. Toyota fixed the problems with its cars relatively quickly and was able to begin to rebuild its reputation. BP faces a much greater challenge, because the spill has not been contained quickly, the environmental impact may be enormous, and as an oil company BP did not start out with the kind of reputation Toyota had among the public.

So far, BP has demonstrated a certain sophistication in not trying to shut down the parody Twitter feed or the flow of satirical treatments of the company’s logo. In March, the environmental activist group Greenpeace provoked Nestle into overreacting to critical videos and Facebook postings that included modified versions of the Nestle logo. BP hasn’t fallen into that trap. Nor has it attempted to co-opt the fake Twitter account. This is a wise choice, since if trying to shut down the account would be bullying, trying to fold it into the company’s own communication strategy would seem, um, slimy.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • In a bad situation, openness and honesty really are the best policies.
  • The better you do at solving the problem, the easier it will be to rebuild your reputation.
  • Frustrated people need to express their frustration. Don’t try to stop them.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

An Open Letter to Zavee Merchants

by Alan on Friday, June 4th, 2010

My name is Alan Pleskow and I’m the CEO and a co-founder of Zavee. On behalf of everyone here at Zavee I would like to extend my personal thanks to every local business that has joined our company as a merchant. I also want to thank you for your patience in waiting for our shopper base to grow. Below is a brief update of what we are doing now and some of the great things you can expect from us over the rest of this year.

  • Merchants – More than 200 merchants are now members of Zavee, and more are joining every day. We have attracted businesses from a wide variety of categories and from all over our Northern Broward – Southern Palm Beach launch market. Many Zavee merchants are taking advantage of opportunities for increased social media exposure by “liking” Zavee on Facebook and following us on Twitter. Later this year we expect to add new features that will make your marketing even more effective.
  • Shoppers – We have completed development of the shopper portion of the Zavee platform, and have ramped up our consumer marketing accordingly. As every business owner knows, it takes time for consumers to learn about any new business – even one as cool as Zavee. The Zavee site is now fully optimized for search engines and we have an active online advertising program through both Google and Facebook. We will be launching our email marketing program in the beginning of June and already have begun our PR campaign. We expect thousands of shoppers to join in the next few months.
  • You Should Become a Shopper, Too - One way to increase the number of Zavee shoppers is for merchants to activate their shopper accounts at www.zavee.com. That’s right – every Zavee merchant is also a Zavee shopper. So next time you log in, click on the shopping bag icon and set up your shopper account. Your customers are earning cash back rewards, why not you? Another way to add merchants is for you to suggest Zavee to your customers. Almost 80% of consumers trust personal recommendations. Your recommendation of Zavee is almost certain to be effective.
  • Causes and Care Shares – Our team also has completed the portion of our platform that lets causes sign up, communicate with other members and receive Care Share contributions from shoppers. We are beginning our outreach program to causes and have been gratified by the response. If you are a member of an organization that you think would be right for Zavee, please invite them to contact us or let us know and we will take it from there. Since causes earn contributions through shopper transactions, it is in your interest as well as theirs for causes to join Zavee.

In fact, we want you to let us know what you think about the Zavee site and platform. Please do not hesitate to contact me at 561-290-0388 ext. 302, or our COO and co-founder, Ron Stack at 561-290-0388 ext. 301, with any questions, comments or suggestions.

We thank you for joining us, and we thank you for your continued patience and support as we roll out a social shopping platform that will help you grow your business through smarter marketing and a stronger local community. We’re glad you’re part of the Zavee community.

And if you’re a merchant in Broward or Palm Beach Counties and you aren’t a Zavee merchant yet, hit us up online or call Jerry Horowitz at 561-290-0388 ext. 501 and learn how Zavee can get you marketing smarter today.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • We are ramping up marketing to shoppers and causes, so the Zavee community is poised for exceptional growth.
  • You can help the community grow, by becoming a shopper, by recommending Zavee to your customers and by telling Zavee about your favorite cause.
  • Thanks, Zavee merchants – you’re the best!

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Checking Out Checking In

by Ron on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Have you checked in yet?

Foursquare @SXSW

Foursquare @SXSW

Location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla make use of the GPS capabilities of smartphones to let users communicate in real time not just what they are doing, as with Twitter, but where they are. They are growing rapidly, and for businesses they are well worth checking out.

Both networks are about two years old but have entered the mainstream only recently. Users of Foursquare “check in” at different locations to tell their friends where they are and what they are doing. Foursquare also has an element of game play that lets users collect “badges” for certain activities, such as earning a “barista” badge for checking into five Starbucks. Foursquare has a large user base that skews young and lives in cities, and has attracted a certain amount of backlash (note: strong language at link), although it has its defenders. Gowalla doesn’t depend quite as much on its game mechanics, but supports media files, such as photos, and claims to be looking for a broader (and perhaps older) demographic.

Businesses seem to have less of a “wait and see” attitude toward location-based social networks than they did toward Facebook and Twitter. It may be that, having been through this before with other Social Media outlets they simply need less persuading when it comes to location-based networks. It may also be that the business case for location-based networks is more obvious than with, say, Twitter. Another possibility is that the networks themselves have become business-friendly faster. Foursquare already has the ability to serve merchant offers based on location, although it is still refining its analytics dashboard. In any event, marketers are not sitting on the sidelines. Recently, Pepsico announced a “geo-based loyalty program” in partnership with Foursquare that will reward consumers who check in via iPhone at businesses that serve Pepsi products. The History Channel also is using Foursquare to promote its show, “America, The Story of Us.”

Do networks like Foursquare and Gowalla have relevance for small businesses? We think they do. Even basic data on who has visited a business, how frequently, etc. adds to the merchant’s knowledge of the customer base. Serving offers and other content to those customers has obvious benefits, although it still isn’t clear how the merchant can get a full picture of the return on investment from that content (merchants will know how many people used (and, presumably, saw) the offer, but won’t necessarily know how many of those transactions were made by customers who would have purchased anyway). Checking in to a business from a location-based network also can provide extended word of mouth for the merchant. It’s going to take time to figure out how to use these services for business, but that was true with Facebook and Twitter. And, as with Facebook and Twitter, there is a lot of potential and no real downside for businesses that experiment.

At Zavee we are currently exploring the fit with location-based networks, but we fully anticipate using this technology to add value to the Zavee experience for both merchants and shoppers. With both cash back offers by merchants and reviews by shoppers, Zavee provides a great deal of content whose value can only be enhanced by becoming location-aware.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • You heard it about Facebook, you heard it about Twitter. Well, location-based social networks aren’t fads either.
  • Businesses have wised up and caught up, and are right on the heels of consumers in discovering how to make these services useful, relevant and rewarding.
  • If you were sitting on the sidelines while Facebook and Twitter were becoming huge, don’t let it happen again!

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twitter for Local Businesses

by Ron on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

When I speak with local merchants about Social Media, I find that they have surprisingly similar levels of awareness, interest and understanding: Almost everyone is familiar with Facebook and YouTube, although they don’t always see the business opportunities, and very few seem to have even heard of LinkedIn. In between is Twitter, which many merchants seem to have heard of but not that many seem to be interested in. The comment I’ve gotten from more than one local merchant is, “I don’t have time for everything and I have to draw the line somewhere.”

The Greater Delray Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce has been kind enough to ask me to speak about how businesses can use Twitter – and why they should. My presentation, which is part of a “Tech Talk and Coffee” about Social Media for Business, is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 at 7:30am. Other speakers will cover Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. The session is open to the public as well as to Chamber members and every local business should find it useful, even businesses that haven’t considered adding Social Media to their marketing mix.

By now most people have heard of Twitter. Oprah uses it. So does the White House. It’s a free micro-blogging service that lets users publish short notes (called “tweets”) of up to 140 characters in real time. There are smartphone applications for Twitter, so it is a fully mobile service. Users can “follow” other users and see their tweets in their Twitter stream. Following and being followed is how users build a community on Twitter. Users also can search by keywords or topics to find relevant tweets. Users can reply to tweets, forward (“retweet”) them, and include links to web sites or other media. Engaging in these conversations is a good way to attract followers.

Broadly speaking, there are at least four ways businesses can use Twitter.

Listening Post. Twitter’s most significant benefit to business is its immediacy. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in January 2009 there were posts, including photos, on Twitter within minutes. If you want to know what your customers, competitors, vendors, etc. are thinking right now, Twitter is a great way to find out. Listening on Twitter is also a great source of ideas and information. Using Twitter’s search functions can widen any business’ horizons.

Brand Builder. Tweeting regularly with timely, relevant information creates interest in you and your brand. This works best when most of the tweets are on a subject that relates to your business but does not overtly promote the business itself. For example, if your restaurant wants to be known for its fresh produce, you could tweet about sustainable farming, its local purveyors, and even the weather. You will attract followers on Twitter who might become customers themselves or retweet your posts to others. Media outlets have become big Twitter users and you could find your restaurant covered in the newspaper just by using Twitter adeptly.

Lead Generator. Twitter lets users form, and join, communities. Twitter’s search functions make it easy to identify other users with similar interests or in similar businesses. Mutual following puts a business’ tweets in its followers’ streams and vice versa. You can get leads from Twitter communities built on common interests both by reading relevant tweets and simply by asking for help.

Help Desk. Twitter is an outstanding platform for providing customer service. Responding in near real time to a tweet that asks for assistance – or jumping in to solve a problem you see on a tweet from a customer even if it isn’t directed to you – not only helps your customer, it helps cement (or improve) your reputation as a business that cares about its customers. One of the earliest business adopters of Twitter was Comcast, a company not known for the quality of its customer service. Comcast now has a full-time staff that monitors Twitter for customer complaints and responds almost immediately. When you ask your customers to follow you on Twitter you are not just gaining access to them, you are providing access to yourself. Since all of your followers will see these interactions the potential benefits of using Twitter to help your customers quickly are huge.

At Zavee we try to use Twitter for all of these functions, and we continue to learn as we go. Here are a few suggestions for getting started with Twitter:

  • If you don’t feel comfortable putting your business name out there right away, start with a personal Twitter account.
  • Listen first, then start asking questions, make suggestions, and in no time you will be part of the action.
  • Pass along stuff, including links and retweets, that’s timely, relevant and interesting, but don’t overdo it. Original material is more useful and will result in more followers.
  • Most important of all, be yourself.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Using Social Media for Marketing Research

by Ron on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Bill Hanifin always poses the interesting questions every marketer should be asking – but might not be. In a recent post, Bill asks, “How do we gain insight into the customer preferences that drive purchase decisions?”

That’s almost a rhetorical question, because there many marketing research techniques available; Bill skewers discusses them in his post. Bill’s really fascinating question is, “How can we re-engineer our methods of collecting attitudinal data from consumers?” Bill proposes some ways in which Social Media can be part of the answer, and I’d like to suggest some others.

Lifestyle Boards/Moodboards/Market Research via designandtechnologystudentSome very quick background: Researchers use both quantitative and qualitative measures to figure out what consumers want and what makes them buy. Quantitative tools, such as telephone surveys, use statistical principles to draw inferences about a large group from the responses of a random sample of that group. However, they are subject to all sorts of bias (usually unintentional) that can affect the validity of the data. Online surveys are particularly tricky, since their self-selected sampling can never be truly random, which means they aren’t as quantitative as they might appear.

Qualitative tools, such as focus groups, don’t provide the comfort of statistics, but instead are intended to produce insights by probing more deeply into the motivations of consumers. This can get marketers to think in new and different directions. Although our experience with focus groups and other qualitative tools was very successful, they can be compromised by the small number of participants, the group leader’s personality, bias and skill, and by personalities within the group. Whether quantitative or qualitative, however, the data never “speaks for itself.” It’s always subject to interpretation, and sometimes to wishful thinking and oversimplification.

Social Media opens up a world of possibilities for marketing researchers, agencies and marketers. Several characteristics of Social Media tools make them ideal for provoking creative thinking and producing insight:

  1. Penetration. Although it is not equally dispersed across age, education and income cohorts, access to Social Media is extensive and growing, even among older consumers.
  2. Speed. Social Media can be used quickly – almost in real time on mobile devices.
  3. Opt-in. Social Media is inherently permission-based. This may not make it easier to find a random sample for an online survey, but it does make it easier to find consumers who will share their opinions, insights and experiences because they want to rather than because – as in the case of focus groups – they are being paid and fed.
  4. Location-based. Social Media is increasingly being integrated with location-based applications. Location is a variable that does not exist for most focus groups, which usually take place in dedicated facilities.
  5. Interactivity. Social Media is … social. The interactions among participants in a focus group frequently are the most valuable part of the group. Social Media facilitates similar interactions on a vast scale.

How could researchers leverage these attributes? Here are a couple of ideas, all of which are qualitative in nature:

  • Discussions on Facebook pages. Marketers could start conversations on issues that range from very concrete questions, such as opinions on new packaging ideas, to strategic issues such as potential line extensions. Consumers also would be able to launch their own discussions, which the company could either moderate or simply monitor.
  • Scheduled conversations on Twitter. Marketers could use Twitter as an extension of the conventional focus group. Many more voices could be heard over the same period of time than with a typical group.
  • Location-based feedback. Suppose a large restaurant chain wanted a snapshot of server performance during the lunch rush, or a retailer wanted to evaluate restocking at every mall-based store. Consumers could check in at each location and provide real time feedback, including photos and video. This would provide data from a much larger, more varied and possibly more knowledgeable group than mystery shoppers, at a fraction of the cost.
  • Consumer-generated video. Focus groups rarely depart from a conversational model. But it might be very useful for consumers to shoot videos in response to specific solicitations by the marketer. “Make your own commercial” campaigns are a start in this direction, although to be valuable the campaign should encourage consumers not to be constrained by the company’s current marketing.
  • Meetups/Tweetups. Marketers could use Social Media as the nexus for live meetings with consumers. Moderators could ask questions of the group, which could be responded to with live Tweets.

I am sure that others can come up with further – and doubtless better – ideas. These techniques are likely to be low in cost, but they definitely have some kinks or at least raise some issues. For one thing, all research involving Social Media takes place in the open. This is not always a problem but if keeping the subject of the research away from competitors is a priority, the research is not a good candidate for Social Media. Second, there is no way to control – or even verify – the composition of the participants. A marketer who wants specific cohorts represented in a focus group will not be satisfied with Twitter-based groups. However, this lack of control doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if it’s dealt with creatively. For example, a marketer of adult diapers might be tempted to decide against using a Twitter-based focus group because Twitter users are too young; but men in their 20s may have valuable insights into a product that is marketed to women over 60. They have grandparents, after all, and their perspective on their grandparents’ experience with the product might be very valuable.

The discussion above involves using Social Media qualitatively. However, it may be possible to use Social Media for quantitative purposes. According to the Los Angeles Times, a team of researchers at HP Labs has developed a computational model that uses the volume of tweets about a movie and their overall sentiment about the film to predict its box office performance over its first two weeks of release better than any other standard measure. The rationale for this result is completely beyond me, but if the methodology stands up, and the results can be replicated in other areas, we may have to rethink what we mean when we say we are looking for statistically significant results.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Marketing research is both art and science, and it influences decisions that affect all of us.
  • Social Media is expanding the range of marketing research techniques, usually while reducing costs.
  • If you think marketing research might be right for your business but the expense has kept you away, try to find a research firm that uses Social Media. You might have to make some compromises on methodology, but you may learn a lot more than you expect.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Positive Side of Negative Reviews

by Ron on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Actor, author, shortstop or chef, no one likes a negative review. But when we were developing the Zavee business model we decided early on that we would have to include negative as well as positive reviews. The goal we set for ourselves was to create a framework for reviews that were accurate, timely and fair – and that meant including negative reviews.

Our commitment to getting reviews right stemmed from our insight that reviews were another form of Social Media and, as such, were going to be a vital component of the Zavee experience and value proposition. We also learned, based on research with merchants, that many business owners who expressed concern about potential harm from fraudulent, malicious or even accurate negative reviews also intuitively understood the benefit of hearing about issues directly from the customer affected.

As marketers are learning, people will say whatever they want to whomever they want, and merchants don’t have the power to control their customers’ conversations. They can, however, do two important things.

First, they can listen, learn and respond. Thanks to Social Media, including reviews, merchants can make necessary adjustments to their business almost in real time. This is something that every business should be doing, all the time, through every available channel. Twitter and Facebook are great listening posts, but reviews are a channel that exists solely to provide feedback about the customer experience.

Second, merchants can participate in the conversation. By actively engaging with their customers merchants can address problems quickly and publicly; they can provide perspective that helps customers evaluate reviews; and they can favorably shape perceptions about the business.

  • Responding quickly is important because unresolved issues tend to fester. Responding publicly is important because it gives the merchant the chance to address at one time a concern that may be shared by many customers.
  • Actively participating is the only sure way to get the merchant’s perspective into the conversation. Both the manner and the substance of the merchant’s response can help customers determine how much weight to give a negative review, while the absence of a response does nothing but add credence to the reviewer’s complaints. A measured, factual response may not erase the impact of a negative review, but at a minimum the merchant will have extended the relationship with the customer and demonstrated both interest and respect.
  • Simply committing the time and effort to engage customers in conversation sends a positive message to all customers and can go a long way toward shaping perceptions of the customer experience. This can reinforce the positive experiences of current customers and build loyalty, but it also can lead non-customers to have a favorable impression of what it would be like to be a customer. In other words, an impressive response to a negative review can actually bring in new business.
Creative Commons 2.0

Reviews (via fengergold)

In benchmarking Zavee against other sites that feature reviews we observed a wide disparity in the treatment of key issues. Some sites filter reviews while others list them all chronologically. At least one site that uses filtering algorithms has had to defend itself against allegations that it improperly manipulated the placement of reviews. We decided not to filter or change the placement of reviews, because we believed that the less we intervened in the substance of reviews, the more confidence shoppers would have in them and, ultimately, in the Zavee brand.

We also observed that some sites permitted reviews (both positive and negative) that described experiences that had occurred long before the review was written. We thought reviews that were dated were so likely to be inaccurate that it would be unfair to both merchants and shoppers to have them on our site. We also were concerned, as many merchants seemed to be, that on some review sites there there were insufficient safeguards against fake reviews or even fake merchants.

We addressed these problems by requiring that any shopper who wanted to review a merchant had to have made a purchase from that merchant within the previous 30 days and by permitting only one review per purchase. Zavee solicits a review after every transaction, and the shopper’s My Zavee page lists recent transactions and the time remaining to submit a review. Zavee automatically rejects reviews that do not meet these rules.

We also were concerned about reviews that, while perhaps not fraudulent, seemed hostile or malicious. We initially considered moderating reviews, the way we moderate comments on Zavee Thinking, but we decided not to. There is nothing wrong with having editorial standards for reviews – we are, after all, responsible for the content on our site – but we thought the better way to deal with potential problems was to let shoppers and merchants have their say but remove reviews that violated our Terms of Use.

Because we passionately believe that reviews should be a dialogue, we also made it easy for merchants to post responses to shopper reviews. Merchants are automatically notified whenever they are reviewed and have 7 days to post a response. Responses appear with the original reviews and always show up together in a search. Shoppers can respond the the merchant’s response, and the entire conversation is threaded so it can be seen by everyone who sees the original review.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • You can’t control what your customers say, but you can listen, learn and respond to concerns – almost in real time.
  • Use negative reviews as a conversation-starter, not a relationship-ender.
  • How you handle unfavorable reviews can shape perceptions about your business, for future as well as current customers. Treat reviews as an opportunity to be impressive – you may be surprised by the results.

Update (4/14/10): MediaPost’s Marketing Daily reports that S.C. Johnson has been receiving substantial negative feedback, including reviews, about a new pet care product – and tells Marketing Daily that it is bringing the feedback to its product development team for consideration.

0 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

« Older Entries