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Rogers Communications’ case study: Haters can be lovers

May 22, 2012

BlogWell ChicagoJoin us at SocialMedia.org‘s BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media conference on July 18 in Chicago for 8 great case studies from MillerCoors, FedEx, U.S. Cellular, 3M, Kraft Foods, American Family Insurance, Reebok, and Aetna.

Our BlogWell series is an amazing opportunity for social media leaders at big brands to get practical, how-to advice on developing a social strategy, scaling programs, driving sales, engaging internal and external audiences, and measuring it all.

To get a preview, check out this great case study from Keith McArthur of Rogers Communications at our last BlogWell conference in San Francisco:

BlogWell San Francisco Case Study: Rogers Communications, presented by Keith McArthur
View more presentations from SocialMedia.org

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This is how you make advertising

May 22, 2012

Possibly the best Craigslist ad ever.

And a lesson for anyone who creates advertising: Ads have to be worth reading or they don’t work. They don’t need to be silly, they can be informative, entertaining, educational, sentimental — anything works. As long as the advertisement gives you a genuine reason to pay attention.

(Click for a closeup. More coverage: 1 2)

pontiac

(Thanks, Matt!)

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How to turn a bad review into a better review

May 21, 2012

We all get bad reviews. No matter how hard you try, you’re going to screw up a job every so often.

So what do you do?

  1. Respond to the review. Don’t just let the bad review sit there. Most review sites now let you comment on the review.
  2. Stay cool. Just explain what happened and tell your story.
  3. Apologize. Even if you’re not wrong. Take the high road and say you’re sorry.
  4. Don’t fight. Do not attack the customer, blame them, or get into a he-said, she-said. You will look like an asshole.
  5. Write for the future, not the reviewer. It’s not important that you convince the bad reviewer to change their mind. That would be nice, but it’s not the point — especially if you have an unreasonable, angry, or crazy reviewer. Your goal is to write for every future reader of the post. You want them to understand that you tried, you’re sorry, and you’re a reasonable company that means well.

Here’s a great example of how to do it just right:

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Are you missing your easiest advertising opportunity?

May 20, 2012

Your email signature is an incredible way to tell people about what you’re promoting — without being too promotional. It’s an unobtrusive way to feature a message that is specifically targeted at people that you’re already communicating with.

Add up how many emails you send each day. Think about how many emails your entire team sends. And then realize that those emails are all going to active, interested readers who already have a relationship with you.

Every time we do a conference, everyone in the company puts an event promo in their emails. We hit almost 1,000 people every day this way.

My current signature is too long, but I wanted to let everyone know about the new book. I was also frustrated with the number of people who don’t know what I do for a living, so I explained it:

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Are you a social object?

May 19, 2012

I am a social object“Social Object” is a term coined by Hugh MacLeod to describe the subject of a word of mouth conversation. (It’s the parallel to my term WOM Topic.)

You need to give people a social object, or they’re not going to talk about you. Just being there, or just delivering a good product, doesn’t cause a word of mouth conversation. You need to throw out something that is interesting and unusual enough that people want to talk about it.

Equally important is that it’s clear and simple enough that they can share it — it’s not too complicated to repeat.

Great examples: Krispy Kreme’s hot donuts, Zappos’ unlimited returns, Southwest’s amazing customer service.

What’s your social object? What have you given people to talk about?

Read more from Hugh.

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The 3 kinds of negative comments and reviews

May 18, 2012

When someone writes a bad review about you, they have very different motivations. 1. Malicious people. These are people who are out to get you. They want to pick a fight to promote themselves. They have a political agenda. They work for a competitor. They’re just nasty, mean, and like to fight. They may have a [...]

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Newsletter #885: The “Do Something Different” Issue

May 17, 2012

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] When you make something funky, goofy, smelly, odd, or unexpected, you can create something worth talking about. Here are a few [...]

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You put the Word of Mouth Marketing book on the bestseller list

May 16, 2012

My book, Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, had a big week last week: #6 New York Times Bestseller #1 Amazon Business Bestseller #1 USA TODAY Money Bestseller #1 B&N.com Bestseller Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s a nice compliment for the book, but it says something bigger about the [...]

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A name with a bug, part 2

May 16, 2012

Last week we had an amazing conference called the Word of Mouth Crash Course. It was a fantastic day, the third in a series. But it wasn’t as big as we expected, and we discovered a critical reason why: We changed the name of the event — it used to be called Word of Mouth Supergenius [...]

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