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How-To: Deal with Angry Customers Online
As much as social media is a great tool for building your brand’s reputation and community or a promotion avenue; it is also a giant megaphone for upset customers. Dealing with an angry customer online is never fun but while difficult, it can be an opportunity to gain a new brand advocate, whose long-term benefits are immeasureable. Here are a few rules to keep in mind when dealing with angry customers:
1) Pause before you respond
It can be hard not to quickly react when you read that angry tweet or post on your Facebook wall. But never forget that the internet is forever and so give yourself a pause to stop, evaluate the comments and plan out your response strategy all before responding. I strongly advocate a no-delete policy in my social media strategies. This means, I never delete a comment, review, tweet or posting and instead embrace negative feedback as an opportunity for conversation, to demonstrate that my brand cares about the customer and to possibly gain a brand advocate.
2) A little bit of investment can go a long way
Most of the time, frustrated customers mainly want to be acknowledged and feel heard. This is why they are taking their complaints to a forum where everyone can broadcast their thoughts and feelings. The first step in responding appropriately is to acknowledge that you read their comments and to indicate that you are interested in working with them to resolve the situation. I strongly believe that a brand should not take a conversation “offline” as addressing complaints and listening are two valuable characteristics that you would want to demonstrate for your online communities.
3) Be geniune
However you choose to respond, make sure you are being honest and genuine. Perhaps you completly dissagree with your customer’s complaints and you are not interested in offering them any solutions. Then think on what you can offer in a positive context. Can you say that you will take their comments into consideration when evaluating company policies? Or simply that you really appreciate them taking the time to bring the matter to your attention. Try approaching the communications from a very human place and imagine for a moment that you were in their position, what would you want to hear? Consumers are incredibly savvy and can tell from miles away when a brand is being disingenuous with them. They will appreciate your sincere response even if you are not giving them the feedback that they were looking for.
It is neither pleasant nor easy to engage with angry customers but think about it this way: a very vocal individual could be very vocal about how great your brand is for years to come. People will talk, so give them something good to say.
Creative Marketing On The Cheap- A Case Study
Readers of this blog know that I am an advocate of using guerrilla marketing tactics and social media to really push the creative envelope. I’m always on the lookout for companies that are producing creative, innovative marketing content and SoNo Trading Company, purveyors of The Mustard, are the perfect example of entrepreneurs who get it done and have fun doing it. I recently spoke with James Magnatta, the Chief Mustard Operator (CMO) about their approach to marketing The Mustard.
You guys have produced some really funny marketing videos, my personal favorite was the Lavern and Shirley inspired video! What made you decide to take a fun approach right off the bat as opposed to a more serious and/or traditional marketing route?
Traditional marketing route? I’m not even sure what that means exactly. I think when it comes to marketing that the word traditional has no place in the conversation, especially regarding a local artisan mustard company. Tradition is not exactly an exciting word in my mind and SoNo Trading Co. is nothing but exciting. Marketing as far as we are concerned should be groundbreaking or at the very least something that will take hold of someone for a few instances and ideally keep them wanting more. To us that occurs by using humor. It is what drives us from day to day and keep us in the game. Anyone that works with food better be having a good old time cause it’s a hard world to survive in. Hopefully one day we will be laughing all the way to our retirement via The Mustard.
What role does social media play in SoNo Trading’s marketing strategy?
At this point social media is our primary form of marketing. One of the main reasons being that is FREE. This is any small businesses favorite 4 letter word. The only marketing that we tend to pay for as of lately is to attend a food conference or atmosphere where customers can taste our product. So when we aren’t shoving mustard into peoples faces via pretzels and sausages we have to be creative with our writing/video skills to hook people in. We are the product so what we have found is that at this stage people really want to support the underdog. Zach blogs about once a week and I throw out some quick one liners via Facebook and Twitter to keep people interested in our day to day. Social media truly is the backbone of our marketing campaign and as far as I’m concerned always will be.
How have your customers and fans reacted to your marketing videos? I know you recently ran a Kickstarter campaign in which you raised nearly 4 times your goal!
We get amazing responses from our videos. Comments galore when we toss them up on Facebook and Youtube. Some of my favorite responses though are from folks that use our videos as examples to their marketing teams on how to really draw people in. A few of these came in reference to our Kickstarter video that ultimately culminated in us pre-selling over $15,000 worth of The Mustard and other Assorted Goodness as we like to say. These people work for huge companies and use us as examples. They have all the money in the world to play with and reference us who have a marketing budget of zero. They have told me that what they admire is our genuine approach. I think that’s something that gets lost along the way. Many companies that forget to focus on who the company is as well as what they are selling. I personally always enjoy supporting businesses that show heart. We are all heart and I think it really come through when we get to express ourselves through the marketing medium of video.
How do you guys come up with your content/video ideas? Can you tell me about your creative process?
Our creative process is ignited with the consumption of both alcohol and mushrooms. No just kidding. This is actually really easy for us. I wonder sometimes if this is the business that we should be in and not selling products at all but more ideas. We start by really analyzing the point of what we are trying to achieve. In the next half hour we have a solid 5 to 10 concepts that we revisit over the next few days basically through text messages to one another until it has formed a more cohesive concept. We also ask a bunch of our friends for help along the way. We are surrounded by some real characters in our immediate social circles that love to brainstorm with us and we are all ears when it comes to their ideas as well.
Recently, one of your awesome videos was chosen as a top ten finalist in Dell’s America’s Favorite Small Business contest. Can you tell me about the contest and what winning would mean for SoNo Trading?
Sure thing. The winning prize is $50,000 in cash and another $25,000 in Dell equipment to the company that gets the most votes from the general public ending this Sunday the 9th of October. We were chosen from about 200 companies that had also submitted videos by the judges over at Dell. The top ten finalists’ videos are all on display at www.youtube.com/dellbusiness each with a button next to their video saying “vote for us”. Please check it our as there are some great videos up there and please throw a vote our way as we really could use the extra flow to help spread The Mustard about. SoNo would use our winnings to really blow out our marketing concepts by implementing some of our more biggest ideas. I’d disclose them all to you now Laura, but then when they became public it would be like ruining the surprise party. No one wants that now do they.
Thanks for your time James and I wish you all the luck in the America’s Favorite Small Business contest, you’ve got my vote!
What do you think about SoNo Tradings marketing videos? Do you have any other examples of creative marketing? Let me know in the comments.
What is a Twitter Chat and Why Should You Care About Them?
Twitter chats are all the rage these day, mainly because Twitter shared this publicly curated list of Twitter chats sorted by day and topic a few weeks ago. But Twitter chats have been taking place for several years now and are an excellent opportunity for PR and brand engagement. I participate in a few chats regularly either as an opportunity to share information or learn from a particular community. In this post, I’ll give you the skinny on what a Twitter chat is, tips and tricks for joining in and a few ideas on using this platform as part of your social media marketing strategy.
What is a Twitter Chat?
A Twitter chat is simply a group of folks coming together at a designated time and place (Twitter) to discuss a specific topic. The group uses a designated hashtag on all tweets related to the chat. There are a host of clients specific to Twitter chats that can make it easier to participate without the distraction of tweets not related to your chat. I like TweetChat best. These clients will automatically tag your tweets with the designated hashtag for the chat room you are currently participating in.
[Tip- you can make it easier to follow along with the chat without excess clutter by turning off RTs under user control tab, just check the “Block retweets” box]
How is a Twitter chat structured?
Most chats have 1-2 dedicated moderators that will either submit questions to the group or to a guest “speaker” for the chat. They will tweet out questions in this form:
Q1: What is your favorite Twitter chat?
To keep things from getting too clogged with responses, most folks respond to open questions by notating which question they are responding to.
A1: My favorite chat is #SocialChat on Monday evenings.
[Tip- find out your particular chat’s structure (open questions vs designated moderator and guest) so you can follow the appropriate etiquette]
Now that you know your way around a Twitter chat and are ready to jump right in to one, let’s talk about 5 ways you can utilize this opportunity for your company or personal brand.
1) Building Up Your Network and Identifying Influencers
Twitter chats are a great time to find and gain new followers. Since chats are organized around a specific topic or community, this can help you identify influencers to target in your social campaigns.
2) Driving Traffic to Your Blog
In chats that are open forum, it’s perfectly acceptable to link to a blog post in response to an individual’s question. Say someone asks which Twitter chat client is the best and you’ve written a blog post comparing the top 3, then here is an opportunity to link to your post.
There are a few rules to keep in mind on this point. While these chats are great for offering up links to past posts, always, always, always keep it relevant to the question asked or topic at hand, otherwise you’ll be viewed as a spammer.
3) Establishing Yourself as an Expert on a Particular Topic
Let’s say your personal branding goal is to be seen as a thought leader on any given topic, well then Twitter chats are a great place to start raising your profile. Find chats related to your topic, participate regularly and provide valuable content and you will naturally increase your visibility.
4) Crowdsource Free Advice By Offering Yourself as a Case Study
I’ve seen this happen in chats both formerly where the whole chat was structured around giving a business advice, like this SocialFresh chat for Passport Coffee and more organically in chats where people are sharing what does and doesn’t work for their company.
5) Host Your Own Chat!
Hosting your own chat is not for the faint of heart, it’s hard and you’d want to make sure you’ll have the people power to manage and a large enough participate base to make the chat worthwhile for everyone. But hosting one-off Twitter chats can be a fun way to engage with your follower base. Seventeen Magazine’s #17peprally chat is a great example of a well-executed chat. They hosted a chat, featuring special guests from Modcloth to talk about what everyone is wearing for the first day of school complete with a few giveaways.
[Tip- Storify is a fantastic, easy tool for cataloging Twitter chats to share with followers unable to participate.]
These are just a few tips on easy ways to utilize Twitter chats. How are you using Twitter chats, let me know in the comments!
The Most Important Step In An Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy
I recently spent a week in Krakow, Poland and was shocked at the utter lack of social media marketing I came in to contact with while there. For all the stats we read about Facebook use in Europe, in particular, I only saw one business that displayed a call to action for Facebook in 8 days of exploring. I heard Twitter mentioned just twice, once by an American in a cafe and by a visiting Swede at dinner. I asked a few Poles over beers one night about their social media use and observed a few things. Smart phone use is down in Poland and mobile is key, in my opinion, to social media’s longevity. My Polish friends used Facebook and Twitter some, mainly to keep in touch with friends but certainly not to the extent that I am used to in the States.
As a social media marketer this got me thinking about the most important step in designing a successful social media marketing strategy.
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
When starting a social media marketing campaign it can be tempting to dive right in with enthusiasm, spreading your brand thin on multiple platforms. However, you will quickly lose steam and risk missing your success milestones. The most important first step in developing a campaign is to first know the target customer you are attempting to reach. If you are going for teens than your time is better spent running creative contests on Facebook. If your target is baby boomers, writing blog postings and servicing the link through Twitter is one of the easier strategies.
I find it helpful to write up a detailed “sketch” of who the target customer is and then build an appropiate campagin around them. I ask myself the following questions:
What is sex and age range of target group?
What is the target’s main interests?
How does the target group consume news/information?
What does the target do for fun?
What type of entertainment is popular with the target?
How does the target group spend their online time?
This can take a bit of research online to develop the sketch but time invested will go a long way towards a successful social media outreach strategy.
