Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Why hire a Corporate Social Strategist?
The world of social media has grown to the point where business is now dramatically getting into these sites for purposes of building “social commerce”. Along with the growth is the rise of a new “C” level executive position called the Corporate Social Strategist. The position is starting to become popular as a result of the fact that so many businesses and corporations have been too slow in getting on board with social media.
The rise of social commerce gives advertisers new opportunities to anticipate, humanize and personalize the customer experience. It takes a selective combination of the right social media outlets, key online linkage and blogging to develop the relationship in an effective and efficient manner.
The future of social commerce is clear. More and more commerce is being promoted online than ever and there appears to be no slowdown in sight. The main reason is that it is so economical and efficient versus traditional media, especially disciplines like direct response or DM/DR!
I think, however, hiring a Corporate Social Strategist may be a good idea but is perhaps a bit premature and expensive as well. We have been providing this kind of social commerce planning and a social media “help desk” on a monthly fee basis that is very affordable for most businesses. Obviously, my answer to the question at the top of this post is “Don’t hire now. Outsource your social commerce planning and monitoring to keep your costs low while figuring out the right ways to use social media to grow your business.”
The rise of social commerce gives advertisers new opportunities to anticipate, humanize and personalize the customer experience. It takes a selective combination of the right social media outlets, key online linkage and blogging to develop the relationship in an effective and efficient manner.
The future of social commerce is clear. More and more commerce is being promoted online than ever and there appears to be no slowdown in sight. The main reason is that it is so economical and efficient versus traditional media, especially disciplines like direct response or DM/DR!
I think, however, hiring a Corporate Social Strategist may be a good idea but is perhaps a bit premature and expensive as well. We have been providing this kind of social commerce planning and a social media “help desk” on a monthly fee basis that is very affordable for most businesses. Obviously, my answer to the question at the top of this post is “Don’t hire now. Outsource your social commerce planning and monitoring to keep your costs low while figuring out the right ways to use social media to grow your business.”
Labels: advertising, food packaging, public realtions, social media
Monday, October 11, 2010
Even the best of plans....
I was just about to began my class at Seton Hall's grad school of communications when the phone rang. It was WCBS-TV's Late News Assignment Editor and it was about 6:45 PM when she called. She wanted to know if I could go to their studios "right away" to do a segment on the announcement by Frito-Lay that they were eliminating their biodegradable packaging on five of their six SunChips flavors because consumers felt the bag was too "noisy". I am not kidding. It seems that what they refer to as their compostable bag which is environmentally friendly actually bothered people because it made so much noise when it was crinkled.
I told CBS that I could do the segment, but that I had a class to teach and couldn't go to their studios on West 57th Street in time for them to do the taping and get it edited in time for the Late News that night. When asked if I would be willing to do it from my classroom at 8:00, I naturally said I could. And, that's what happened!
My class got to see the whole interview and now they think of me as a celebrity! More importantly, this issue got a lot of attention, especially from a branding standpoint. It seems some 44,000 folks complained about the noisy bags on Facebook. The company said it was not the Facebook complaints but the great number of calls, letters and e-mails they received that made them decide to take most of those bags off the market. You see, even it you are trying to do a good thing for your brand's image if something like the packaging (which has nothing to do with the main benefit of the product) can create tarnishment, you must protect the brand. The decision was correct and it didn't hurt the company to issue a press release announcing that they will be working on a "quieter bag" to replace the one they have obviously had a lot of problems with from a marketing standpoint. Amazing story, but true nevertheless.
Labels: advertising, brand image, communications, food packaging, marketing, public realtions, Seton Hall professor
