Socialmedialand

Posts Tagged ‘social media case study’

At #180series yesterday the audience asked our panel an interesting question (via our Uservoice forum):

What are some popular examples of social media gone wrong?

I guess there are some very famous examples of social media snafus – Dominos, MotrinMoms, etc. All classic stories of big brands ignoring the online community until too late and then scrambling to do damage control. But the question got me thinking about social media gone wrong from the other side – small brands trying to use social media to increase awareness and buzz around their products and failing to do so.

“Authentic” Blogger Outreach

A little while back a coworker brought me a proposal [edit: I misrepresented this situation in my original post] that an agency (The Agency) had sent to us as a bid to work on one of our current clients. It was a blogger outreach plan complete with an example of previous work The Agency had done for a client that sold organic juice for children (Juice Client.)

In this case, I’m using the term “blogger outreach” in a very broad sense. The basic premise of the campaign was that The Agency had hired 5-7 people to impersonate blogger personas. These people were very close to the personality type they were taking on, but they were not the actual person. For example, one persona was a “daddy blogger” father of two who was very concerned about diet, organic food and nutrition for his kids (Daddy O.) The person playing Daddy O was also a father and may have cared about diet but was not actually Daddy O. In order to fulfill the “authentic” part of the plan, Daddy O created a fake Facebook account and a few other traces of his personality across the web in case anyone searched for him. Personally, I don’t think that’s very authentic at all.

The process was that Daddy O would search for forums and blogs about health and kids and write some sort of response. He would work in how he bought Juice Client product for his kids and they loved it and since it was also good for them, he was happy. Then he would include a link of course. I clicked on some of the links to his responses that were included in the case study to see examples of this in action. In the ones where his post was still there, it was the first and only post that was ever made under that screen name. When people responded to him he didn’t return and continue the conversation, and when you looked at his profile it was basically a short description of his persona and a link to Juice Client. In the other ones it was clear his post had been deleted.

The one question I keep repeating in my mind as I’m reading and looking through all this is: WHY? Why did you have to make up people? There are so many legitimate (actually authentic) daddy bloggers, mommy bloggers, parent communities, etc that you could have reached out to and gotten real people’s honest opinions on this. And that kind of campaign would have been way more beneficial. Because those people are real, and talk about this stuff all the time, if you’d gotten them hooked on your product they would still be singing its praises right now, whereas the fake bloggers you created are only going to do it on the clock and stop as soon as you quit paying them. No wonder it never took off.

There’s an easy way and a hard way to do things. Taking the time to contact bloggers, send them samples of your juice, ask them to post honest opinions on what they thought about it and disclose that they were sent free juice – That’s the hard way. It takes time, some money, and patience. The easy way gets you links right away, quick results that you can show the client and then end your engagement before they realize that won’t last.

Sometimes the hardest thing is the right thing (pretty sure I stole that from some song somewhere – just can’t place it…) and in this case it really is. Social media is sometimes put forward as an easy, quick thing to do when in reality it’s not. It’s a long term commitment where the pay off isn’t always immediate. We, as agencies, consultants, PR professionals, social media experts (or amateurs), or whatever you call yourself, need to prepare the client for that. It’s our job to explain to them how this works and why they need to take the time to do it right rather than go for the easy, quick win. Let’s all take that responsibility a little more seriously.

Thoughts? Think I’m being too hard on The Agency? Share your opinions in the comments!

I’d like to share some personal stories with you about how all this social media marketing has been working on me recently. I know I’m not a perfect case study because I work in this industry, but I think that makes it more amazing. I worked for a telemarketing fundraising group at my college for a short period of time. Ever since then,  I’ve found it to be hard to listen to any telemarketing pitches (though, everyone probably finds that hard.) My point is, in most channels, the more you know about the marketing strategy behind it, the less likely it is to work on you because you can see through it.

That’s why social media is different. There’s nothing to “see through.” When it’s done right, it’s honest, open and completely trustworthy. So here are some way’s it’s worked on me recently.

MoJo Yogurt:

I saw a tweet from @DowntownTempe on Feb 20th about MoJo Yogurt giving out free yogurt samples. So I retweeted it and got a few of my coworkers to go down there tocheck it out with me. It was delicious. Since then I’ve been back to MoJo a total of five times in the past three months. Keep in mind that before this I rarely, if ever, went out for frozen yogurt. In addition there are over three other places on the same street where you can get frozen yogurt. That’s a complete success story. Now for a scorecard:

What they did right:

• Used social channels (Twitter) to spread the word to an interested group – If I’m following @DowntownTempe I probably care about what’s happening in Tempe.
• Gave something away – I know the free sample concept has been around for awhile, but there is a reason it’s a classic.

What they could have done better:

• Used their own Twitter account to spread the word – There is an @MoJoYogurt but since it’s not location based, maybe the person running it didn’t know about the promotion at the Tempe store. Perhaps they could utilize a tool like Cotweet to activate tweeters from every location in order to make it more useful.
• Continued the relationship – Sure, they got me addicted, but when I got my free sample, I gave them my email and I haven’t heard from them since. They could have also searched for people who tweeted about them and followed me to continue to update me with specials occurring there seeing as that got me down there at least once and could work again.

Total score: B-

Rula Bula Irish Pub:

Again, I saw a tweet, this time from @RulaBula (honestly, it must have been a retweet-but I forget who it was from now.) It was about an upcoming Twappy Hour (like a tweet-up, or meet up of Twitterers, happy-hour style.) The tweet said if I sent a direct message to Rula Bula, I could get my name on the list and get free food and complimentary first round of drinks. As Rula Bula is one of my favorite bars, I followed them, retweeted the message and signed myself up. My coworker, Dustin, signed up after seeing my retweetand we both headed over. There was a decent group there and I think all in all, the following will grow and the popularity of those events will too. And although I might be a regular to the bar, Dustin had never been, and now he’s a big fan of the place. Since signing up for the event, I’ve seen several new tweets from them offering “no cover” to Twitter followers (which I’ve used) and letting me know what nights they have bands so I know when the best times will be.

What they did right:

• They capitalized on the exclusive nature of Twitter – People on Twitter like to feel like they have a special relationship with a brand or company, and they do. Rula Bula highlighted this by offering special events and deals to people following them on Twitter.
• Used Twitter to spread the word – The viral nature made it easy to spread around and for interested people to find out. Also, the requirement to send a direct message made it so you ended up following them. They didn’t ask for the follow outright, but they did get it. Tricky, and clever. Of course I could always unfollow – but why would I when they’re giving me so much value?
• They offered something for free – I’m a true believer in “free,” Chris Anderson converted me with his keynote at SXSW. I know this is the basic level of free, just the free trial model, but it’s still a good way to start.  
• They continued the relationship – They’re still giving me value, letting me know what’s going on over there.

What they could have done better:

• What about Facebook? – You can’t forget the big guys. Rula Bula is an Irish Pub, on Mill Ave, right next to Arizona State University. They get college student patrons in droves, and college kids are on Facebook more than they are on Twitter (yes, ok, a shift is happening and that segment is growing on Twitter, but it does not yet have the same market penetration as Facebook.) I told the Rula Bula tweeter the same thing, and hopefully they’ll utilize it more in the future. They have a Facebook fan page, but they should try the same types of tactics on Facebook as Twitter.
• Keeping all the employees in the loop. Every time I have been there, the person at the door didn’t know what I was talking about when I brought up the Twitter deals. I normally have to take out my phone and show them the message. A quick training with the servers and door staff to get them up to speed on the lingo and keeping them aware of the events will lead to a better experience. Other people might just give up if they mention the Twitter deal and get no response, leading them to a more negative experience of the brand’s presence on Twitter.

Total score: B+

Do you have any great experiences of social media campaigns that worked on you? Let’s share our best stories for a little inspiration.