“This is South by Southwest’s version of speed dating,” said David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) at the outset of the Future 15 session on Social Business on Sunday, March 13, at SXSW Interactive. Scott’s description was spot on: ten panelists had 15 minutes each to talk about a topic related to social business. The ten panelists all took advantage of their short stage time by cutting down the presentation fluff and getting right to meat of their discussion. The following paragraphs include a few of my takeaways from Future 15: Social Business.
Think in Real-Time
Scott, the author of a number of books including Real-Time Marketing and PR, said, “So few people are thinking about the power of real-time–the power of instant.” He provided a few scenarios illustrating the power of real-time marketing, including the example of GAP’s logo change in October 2010.
For anyone that missed this epic event: GAP updated its logo from the blue box with white letters to a more contemporary typeface with a small, gradient-filled box pasted on its corner (see picture below).
New GAP logo (left) and Old GAP logo (right)
Consumer sentiment about the new GAP logo immediately became apparent on social media channels and especially on GAP’s Facebook page. Within four days of its new logo announcement, GAP responded to the real-time social uproar and pulled the new logo design. A statement from Marka Hansen, president of Gap Brand, North America, said, “Ultimately, we’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand.” Not a bad problem to have.
Scott performed an analysis of the real-time marketing efforts of Fortune 100 companies. Of these 100 companies, he saw that only 28% of them were engaged in real-time. (Editorial note: I believe this percentage was taken between Dec. 31, 2009-September 3, 2010.)
“The reason that so few companies are doing this comes back to fear,” said Scott. He pointed to the Red Cross’ (@RedCross) timely tweet on March 2, 2011, that used the trending topic of Charlie Sheen for their own messaging (see screenshot below).
The Red Cross example illustrates how developing a real-time mindset can allow businesses to uniquely embed themselves in social spaces. What other companies have integrated themselves in popular conversations or saved face through real-time marketing?
Offer Social Customer Service
Customers expect companies to be social. Chelsea Marty (@TTaxChels) of Intuit, the makers of the TurboTax and Quicken products, explained how TurboTax’s Twitter team (@TeamTurboTax) has developed its social media strategy to address customer service needs and achieve marketing goals. @TeamTurboTax has brought on more than 80 employees to help customers with TurboTax via Twitter. Customers that receive these real-time responses tend to be more satisfied with the product and more likely to encourage their friends to use TurboTax. Marty noted that @TeamTurboTax already has helped twice as many customers in the past two months as they did during four months last year. Businesses that offer customer service through social channels have greater opportunities to acquire new business and retain customers.
Be Funny
Tim Washer (@timwasher) works with Cisco’s Service Provider group, and he moonlights as a comedy writer and actor. Washer has managed to bring late night humor to business advertising at Cisco. “Humor is still surprising coming from a B2B company,” said Washer. To prove his point, he played the following online video that he directed:
The Perfect Gift for Valentine’s Day from Tim Washer on Vimeo.
“The Perfect Gift for Valentine’s Day” video was picked up by New York Times Blog and Light Reading, a B2B publication, contributing to its 180,000 views. After showing the video, Washer explained, “David [Meerman Scott] also talks a lot about humanizing the brand, and there’s nothing more human than humor.”
Create a Culture-specific Social Policy
“This process of becoming more social at the core is a cultural shift,” said Ellen Reynolds (@ellenreynolds), a Social Business Consultant at Dachis Group. Although Reynolds agrees that “policy isn’t a sexy topic,” she said that having a social policy is essential for businesses. Every Social policy should address the following concepts:
- Responsibility
- Confidentiality
- Respect
- Oversight
In addition to these elements, Reynolds said that the corporate tone or culture should come across in your policy. This type of customization can make employees feel empowered and excited about what they can do with social media.
In order to create that cultural voice, Reynolds advises companies to get a diverse group of staff involved in the policy creation and approval process. Staff in human resources, public relations, and corporate relations can provide unique insights for policy creation. Reynolds also recommended that employees that are already enthusiastic about social media get involved. These passionate users of social media also can provide assistance throughout the transition. “Put people on the front lines and let people learn with them.”
Examples of social policies can be found on Social Media Governance (http://socialmediagovernance.com/).
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Two more Future 15 sessions are slated for SXSWi 2011, including Monday’s “Convergence Future 15″ and Tuesday’s “Post Modern Celebrity Future 15.” Both panels begin at 11:00am CST in Ballroom E. To SXSWi Future 15 sessions on Twitter, use #future15.
[Image source: http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/companies/gap_logo/index.htm]
[Image source: @RedCross. (2011 March 2). Twitter. Retrieved on March 13, 2011 from http://twitter.com/#!/RedCross]
