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Social Media

Discussions, news, trends and tips on how companies can use social media to achieve their goals

owner: Jason Peck
access: public
created on: 2010-04-27 14:41:20
Members: 25

83% of Holiday Shoppers Influenced By Reviews

The holidays will be here before we know it. I found this interesting article today that talks about the things that holiday shoppers are influenced by. http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/09/study-83-of-all-holiday-shoppers-influenced-by-reviews.html

According to ChannelAdvisors’ 2010 Consumer Shopping Habits Survey, 83% of shoppers are influenced by reviews of products they're thinking about buying.

If you're planning holiday campaigns (and you should be doing this now), think about how you can incorporate reviews into your messaging. Maybe showcase reviews from Twitter/Facebook in your promotional emails next to related products or services. Maybe add a tab for reviews/testimonials to your Facebook page and encourage people to submit their reviews. On your website, you might want to reward people who review a product with a coupon for $5 off their next order.

What do you think? How have you seen brands incorporating reviews into their marketing and overall messaging?

By Jason Peck 5 days ago

Comments (3)

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I have not seen any brands that incorporate reviews in their email or social media marketing, but that is great idea! I do see websites like overstock.com, costco.com, and bestbuy.com making it very easy for people to shop by best reviewed products.

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 5 days ago

I have not come across brands using Facebook or other social media sites to incorporate reviews either. I wonder how effective this would be though. Do you think consumers would assume that the reviews posted by a company or brand (about the products they sell or trying to market) on social media sites may be biased?

Commented by Randi Whittaker 4 days ago

Randi - I think the reviews would be effective because people could see they were coming from real people (names would be included). Positive and negative reviews would be pulled in to show that the reviews are authentic/not-biased. People trust others' opinions and pulling in people's reviews from facebook/twitter/other sources could be a good way to show what others think and establish trust.

Commented by Jason Peck 4 days ago

Arts/Photography Community

I found this nice example of an online community focused on the arts this morning - http://www.ovationtv.com/community/

It's very well done and content rich. Content can also be sorted in a variety of ways (type, most recent, highest rated, most viewed, etc.)

By Jason Peck 6 days ago

Comments (3)

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This is another well done online community that I regularly visit. http://community.etsy.com/

Commented by Randi Whittaker 6 days ago

That's a good one. Thanks Randi!

Commented by Jason Peck 6 days ago

I'm an Etsy user and I'm always impressed with everything they do.

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 5 days ago

Turn Your Website Into A True Social Hub

I blogged about some key reasons a company may want its own branded online community. You can see the article here:
http://blog.ewaydirect.com/8-reasons-why-you-may-want-your-own-branded-online-community/

Would love to hear your thoughts.

By Jason Peck 2 weeks ago

Comments (0)

Creating Content to Build Trust, Links

*7 reasons why social media gets better with alcohol
*9 ways social media can help a total sissy survive in prison
*The top 10 most controversial videos of all time about social media

What do all the above headlines have in common?
1) They're catchy and sound like things people interested in social media want to read and share
2) They were created with the Linkbait Generator - http://linkbaitgenerator.com/index.php

Having content that people want to share is crucial in search marketing and social media efforts. The currency of search = links, while the currency of social = relationships. Relationships are often solidified/formalized in form of links. Content can be a great relationship-starter. A blogger may link to another blog because he likes that person's content. Or people may write about and link to a company's content or promotions because of something they saw, liked or heard about. These links and relationships can have a large impact on a company's rankings in search engines and, ultimately, their sales.

The more content (that fits with your brand) you can create that people will share with friends and link to, the better. This content doesn't have to always be funny/entertaining, but it better add some value to the person consuming it.

In today's world, brands and companies need to think like publishers. What do you think? Who have you seen that's doing a good job with content creation

By Jason Peck 3 weeks ago

Comments (1)

Living Social, a company offering a daily deal via email, social media and mobile apps, does a great job of content creation through Twitter. They have a national twitter account and twitter accounts in each of the regional markets. I follow @LivingSocialDC.

They tweet about the daily deal but have a wide range of tweets highlighting local events like festivals, restaurant/beer week, popular food trucks, food reviews, local traffic and weather. They use content from DC blogs and news outlets. They have branded themselves has “your source for fun things” and they hold true to that by sharing fun content other then the deals they offer. They also thank you when you retweet a link.

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 2 weeks ago

Twitter Research - What Are You Interested In Knowing?

Since Twitter is a pretty major topic right now, I'm thinking about doing a study/research on something relating to it.Here are some ideas I have:
-What is the best day and time to post a link and get the most clicks?
- Is there a way to look at most popular topics talked about on Twitter for a week and see if/how it correlates to what people are searching for in Google? Or is there a way to predict search volume on Google from what is being talked about on Twitter?
- Can Twitter be a good source for testing email subject lines and predicting which tweets/emails will get the most clicks?
- Are people who follow a brand on Twitter also more likely to sign up for their email newsletter and/or join their online community?

What would you like to know?

Once we drill down on an initial question people want answered, I will either set the interns (and myself) to work on it or post about it on our blog to see if anyone else has ideas on how best to tackle it--or both.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

By Jason Peck 4 weeks ago

Comments (3)

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Finding and marking the different types of users- like active, passive, and inactive. A lot of people are inactive on twitter, maybe look into stats/rates of active vs. inactive accounts. Like 100 active users per 1,000 followers for a brand. Say that brand wants 100 more active users; do they need find 1,000 more followers to reach that goal?

Maybe think about what is an "active user"- just listening but maybe they do that every day? re tweeting the brand? talking to the brand or about the brand?

Active users tie into re: "are people who follow a brand on twitter also more likely to sign for their emails"--maybe measure active users that sign up for an email vs. passive vs. inactive users.

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 4 weeks ago

Love the thinking Stephanie! Thanks!!

Commented by Jason Peck 4 weeks ago

The term "active user" can be interpreted in different ways, but if you can truly identify which users are actually giving out quality information that could be a major asset. There are so many Twitter users who are following 10,000 people and than they have 10,000 people following them back. It seems like the only reason they are on Twitter is to market their business. People on Twitter are not dumb and they want information that can be of some value to them.

The list of questions that Jason has compiled seem to be a great way to start off the initial research.

Commented by Matt Clark 3 weeks ago

Measuring Online Community ROI

Richard Millington has some nice thoughts here about measuring ROI of online communities. http://www.feverbee.com/2010/08/roionlinecommunity.html

I've covered some of this on our blog before - http://blog.ewaydirect.com/community-measurement-roi/

One thing I think it's important to emphasize is that you need to look at members' spending before vs. after joining the community and see how members' spending compares with spending from your email subscribers and other general customers. Like Rich says, "most communities begin with loyal customers who would have purchased from them anyway." However, you can look at how much they're spending and see if the community has had any effect on this.

What do you think?

By Jason Peck 4 weeks ago

Comments (1)

I think this approach makes a lot of sense. I think there are a lot of metrics that can be assessed when you compare community members to other customers. Average order value, Offer response rates e.t.c can give you an idea of how much of an impact your community is having on your profitability. These insights can lead to the development of tactics such as offering financial incentives to encourage people to join a community.

Commented by Jonathan Lawoyin 4 weeks ago

Practical Social Media Measurement and Analysis

Great read here on how to approach measuring social media efforts. http://www.radian6.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Radian6_eBook_March2010.pdf

Are you or your clients measuring their social media initiatives?

By Jason Peck 1 month ago

Comments (2)

I think it is important to be able to measure your social media efforts separately for your customers and subscribers, and those people you don't have a current active relationship with.

Commented by Neil Rosen 1 month ago

Interesting point, and I think I agree-it's best to drill down as much as possible. Do you also think companies should measure SEO efforts separately for customers/subscribers vs. prospects? Is this possible currently?

Commented by Jason Peck 4 weeks ago

Give Your Community The First Look At New Products/Services

People often wonder what they can give their community members that is better and more special than the discounts and offers these people are currently receiving via other channels, such as email.

One thing you can do is give people an exclusive look at a new product or service. Ford did a modified version of this earlier today.

Ford unveiled the new 2011 Explorer this morning on Facebook. You can see what they've done here - http://www.facebook.com/FordExplorer

Obviously, this is a little different than revealing something new to your real community members. There can be a big difference between people who like your Facebook page and your true/hardcore community members. And Ford also did this more to reach a large audience and supported it with paid media.

That said, there are opportunities for smaller companies to give their community the first look at new products or services. And, even better, use their members' feedback to improve these products/services before releasing them to the general public. What do you think?

By Jason Peck 1 month ago

Comments (2)

Good move on the part of Ford but once again the question is which of those people who "like" the Facebook page are active followers. That seems to be one of the toughest things to measure.

Commented by Matt Clark 1 month ago

Yeah exactly. I think Ford mainly did this as a way to generate buzz (not sure any car company has ever done anything like this). Will be interesting to see the numbers when they come out.

Commented by Jason Peck 1 month ago

Using social sharing strategically

Instead of slapping logos/links for people to share your standard emails on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or whatever social network your audience is using), try this:

Create awesome, shareworthy content that people will want to pass on to their friends and actively encourage them to share it. People like being the ones to "break the news" on something really cool/valuable/funny/interesting to their friends so if you can provide that and help them be the "cool friend" that found it, you will get more people sharing your content.

OR

Create a specific promotion and reward people for sharing it on a given social network. Here's an example:

Dear John,
Since you're one of our best customers and active on Twitter, we wanted to let you know about a special promotion we're running. On Tuesday from 2-4, you can use code TWITTR2 and order 200 business cards for only $2. Since this is a limited time thing, we'd encourage you to share this with your friends on Twitter. Every 10 minutes starting on 2 on Tuesday, we'll be picking 1 person who shares this offer to receive 5,000 free business cards. Thanks, and we hope you have a great day!

*You could also make this a group buying thing- instead of limiting the time, tell people that the deal only kicks in once 200 people share it on Twitter--if people want the deal, they'll be motivated to share it so the deal will happen.

The above example can be tweaked thousands of ways, so hopefully that sparks some ideas. Bottom Line: If you're trying to get more people to share your emails, it's important to give people content worth sharing (and occasionally, reward them for sharing)

What do you think? Have you seen any examples of companies using social sharing strategically?

By Jason Peck 1 month ago

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Instead of slapping logos/links for people to share your standard emails on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or whatever social network your audience is using), try this:

Create awesome, shareworthy content that people will want to pass on to their friends and actively encourage them to share it. People like being the ones to "break the news" on something really cool/valuable/funny/interesting to their friends so if you can provide that and help them be the "cool friend" that found it, you will get more people sharing your content.

Create a specific promotion and reward people for sharing it on a given social network. Here's an example:

Dear John,
Since you're one of our best customers and active on Twitter, we wanted to let you know about a special promotion we're running. On Tuesday from 2-4, you can use code TWITTR2 and order 200 business cards for only $2. Since this is a limited time thing, we'd encourage you to share this with your friends on Twitter. Every 10 minutes starting on 2 on Tuesday, we'll be picking 1 person who shares this offer to receive 5,000 free business cards. Thanks, and we hope you have a great day!

*You could also make this a group buying thing- instead of limiting the time, tell people that the deal only kicks in once 200 people share it on Twitter--if people want the deal, they'll be motivated to share it so the deal will happen.

The above example can be tweaked thousands of ways, so hopefully that sparks some ideas. Bottom Line: If you're trying to get more people to share your emails, it's important to give people content worth sharing (and occasionally, reward them for sharing)

What do you think? Have you seen any examples of companies using social sharing strategically?

Comments (5)

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The classic give to get. Consumers like this,and so do I. It works!

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 1 month ago

The rule that content is king always applies. People want to go to something and get something in return, whatever that may be.

Commented by Matt Clark 1 month ago

LivingSocial, a group buying website gives you a personalized link when you buy one of the deals. You can send the link to your friends and if three or more friends buy the same deal, you can get the deal for free!

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 1 month ago

Matt - agreed

Stephanie - Thanks for sharing. That's really smart for LivingSocial to be doing this!

Commented by Jason Peck 1 month ago

I was just thinking about this concept the other day. You always see the standard Twitter, Facebook, and RSS buttons on emails, but how often do you see the tweets mentioned in your second example. I think the one downside with this approach though is that some people could perceive this as spam or a chain letter. Got to be careful, but a great approach never the less!

Commented by Erik Eitel 1 month ago

Importance of getting your targeting right in a social media world

Early this morning, I got 2 strange emails from AT&T telling me to check out new store locations in Three Rivers, MI and Angola, IN. Since I live in VA and am not used to getting emails where I have to drive 5+ hours to get to a store advertised in an email, I tweeted about it.

It looks like I wasn't the only one to get these strange emails. Here are a few responses I received on Twitter:
* I got those same weird AT&T emails. WTF?
* Got those 2 #fail
* me too- but who wouldn't drive 5 hours for iPhone accessories? #att
* me too, apparently my name is Nigel and I live in Three Rivers, MI. Unsubscribed!

That last one is very interesting to me. Someone actually unsubscribed because of this. Not only did he unsubscribe, he told the world about it. Having all your ducks lined up with your email marketing (and other marketing efforts) is crucial in our increasingly connected world. If a company does something good, people tend to share it with friends via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. But if a company messes up, you can be sure people will be talking about that, too.

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (2)

Yes I got those as well. I thought they were phishy.

Commented by Noah 2 months ago

It is important that through an e-mail marketing platform that they are channeled to the proper people. Obviously something got messed up somewhere or AT&T just found the need to send their entire demographic every e-mail.

Commented by Matt Clark 1 month ago

Types of consumer-generated marketing campaigns

Nice article here from Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influence team. http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2010/07/5-types-of-consumer-generated-marketing-cgm-campaigns-.html

It is very important to understand your audience and how they perceive you before launching one of these campaigns. Also, don't just focus on the numbers. Even if you have only 10 good responses, that may great, depending on what you're asking people to do and what your goals are.

Have you seen any companies using consumer-generated content in their campaigns lately? Old Spice did a great job recently with their campaign, but I'd love to hear about any others you liked (or found problems with).

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (0)

Interesting Promotion from Barbie using Foursquare and Twitter

Even more interesting that Barbie is targeting adults 18+ with this. Here's the link: http://www.clickz.com/3641024

It's fun, but are they targeting the right audience? What do you think?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (2)

I have to wonder what the motive is here. Any thoughts?

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 2 months ago

I think they're just trying to do something that is cool/buzzy. Otherwise, it definitely doesn't hit their typical target audience of under 10 year old girls. Maybe they're trying to get to young moms, who may have had Barbies as kids, but haven't thought much about the brand in years?

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Why Should You Create Your Own Branded Community/Social Hub?

-protect your brand
-control look and feel
-control functionality
-control advertising/marketing messages
-options to give members privacy
-options to give people (and different groups of people) exclusive content and offers
-great source of acquisition
-mine research and insights
-robust metrics
-integration with loyalty programs
-tie together everything you're doing on various social platforms
-boost customer service and reduce costs
-Drive revenue - buyers clubs, rewards systems, product promotion...

What ideas would you add to this list?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (0)

Old Spice Using Audience Responses to Drive Content. Win-Win.

Old Spice may just have the best marketing campaign of the year (or maybe even the last 5 years) going right now. Besides the hilarious commercials, they've taken things a step further by using audience responses/questions to create compelling content. The Old Spice guy (Isaiah Mustafa) has been giving video responses to things people are saying across multiple platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube). You can see an example of a response he gave me here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GV2UqA5ElM

Yesterday, I had tweeted a question re: what to cook for my vegetarian girlfriend, and 2 hours later, the video was posted with the response. Amazing use of feedback in a marketing campaign and a great way to engage the audience directly!

While these responses are probably automated somehow and either Mustafa is insanely witty or he has a great team of writers, it's really cool to see Old Spice pulling this off. What do you think?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (1)

Pretty interesting article in Fast Company about how this campaign was created: http://www.fastcompany.com/1670314/old-spice-youtube-videos-wieden?partner=homepage_newsletter

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

Is Privacy a Social Norm?

Not according to Facebook's CEO, who made the statement, "privacy is no longer a social norm," back in January. This was partly to justify the company's decision to change privacy settings for their users (things became public by default). But in an age where more and more people are sharing their lives, thoughts, pictures, and videos online, is privacy an expectation anymore?

I'm not sure. It also can depend on the type of community you're participating in. The bottom line is that if privacy is something you value, you should definitely not rely on other companies to keep what you're putting online private. Right or wrong, you have to take responsibility for your own privacy.

What do you think?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (1)

I think as soon as we become active online we should assume the information is public. If that is not acceptable, than the responsibility is our own to take privacy steps and to be very cautious about what we 'put out' there.

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 2 months ago

Making Promotions Social

There are a ton of great promotions being run by companies (including some of our clients) online. These can be things such as sweepstakes, voting contests, submitting a picture/story/recipe for a chance to win, etc. I have seen some really creative ones lately.

However, one piece that is sometimes missing is the social piece. This is unfortunate, because there are some easy things companies can do to make their promotions more social and to reach more people. Here are a few ideas:

- Including links on the contest page that people can click to share the promotion with friends on Twitter and Facebook

- Letting people share their submissions with friends on Facebook/Twitter

-Companies can share one of their favorite submissions/entries each day on Facebook and Twitter.

These are all relatively simple ways to generate more exposure for a promotion. What do you think? Do you have any ideas to add?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (4)

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One of the new trends that businesses need to start taking advantage of is foursquare. Why not be part of an application that rewards its customers for checking in with this location based service. Those companies that figure out this trend first could have high rewards. I am curious to see how this will evolve down the road.

Commented by Matt Clark 2 months ago

I like it when a companie shows their favorite entries, when their contests are going on. Not only does it reinforce the idea that the contest is going on, but it raises the stakes of potential people who are looking to join the contest.

Commented by Cole Watts 2 months ago

Matt - Definitely agree that Foursquare can be great, especially when it's a business that has an actual physical location people can go to.

Cole - Love the thoughts. Thanks!

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

One company that uses their Facebook fan page well is Dunkin' Donuts. They have people post pictures of themselves eating or drinking DD’s products and pick one person a week to use in the fan page profile picture with the banner “Fan of the Week”.

Here is the fan page: http://www.facebook.com/DunkinDonuts?v=wall&ref=ts

Commented by Stephanie Ryska 2 months ago

The Boater's Wave and Social Media

Everyone who owns a boat knows about the boater's wave. When you pass other boats in the water, you hold up your hand and give a quick wave to the other boat and people in it. This serves to acknowledge the other boaters and forms a common bond between strangers on the water.

We should all do more things like this--online and offline. Here are a few ideas:

-Acknowledge your LinkedIn contacts by saying hey every so often. Even better, find common ground in one of their status updates, specialties, or past experience to strike up a conversation.

-If you find yourself attending the same industry events, reach out to a stranger you might have seen before and acknowledge their presence. It might even lead to a good conversation or meeting.

-If you're reading some of the same blogs on a regular basis, drop a note to the author and thank him/her for contributing valuable thoughts and ideas.

What ideas do you have for acknowledging and recognizing others, online or off?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (2)

PS - here's a cheesy boater's wave pic if you're interested: http://www.theboaterswave.com/getimage.php?t=cw&id=14

Commented by Jason Peck 2 months ago

I think the LinkedIn mention is a great one. There is a feature not everyone utilizes (or can afford to) where one can see who is viewing their profile. So much can be gained from a quick email rather than taking just a peek. So often we forget to network on our networking sites!

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 2 months ago

Social Media Day

If you ever thought Social Media was just a fad or like a fax machine in terms of just being able to transmit information a new way, check this out.

Today is Social Media Day (http://mashable.com/smday/), which is a worldwide celebration of media becoming social. So far, there are over 10,000 people involved in over 600 meetups around the world to celebrate this. The the city council in Victoria, British Columbia's capital, actually has formally recognized this day/celebration (http://mashable.com/2010/06/28/social-media-day-victoria/).

Social media is changing the world. Have you ever heard of mass meetups happening around a fax-machine or other communication platforms?

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (0)

Your REAL community members

A lot of people may think it's nice to have large numbers of followers on Twitter or Facebook. But those people only had to click a button once to follow you. They're not your real community members.

Your real community members are those that open your emails, buy from you, give you feedback on new products/ideas, invite their friends to check out your brand, talk with your company's employees and about you online.

Your real community members are your best customers; they're the people you really want to build your business around and invite to join your company's community.

Focus your community strategy on your real community members, not just Facebook and Twitter people.

By Jason Peck 2 months ago

Comments (0)

Mobile Facts/Stats. Shocked or Not?

Yesterday I attended a presentation on mobile media (sms, apps, search, etc) and took a few notes on some stats they shared.

* 1/3 of teens send 100 text messages per day
* 1/2 of teens send 50 text messages per day
* Older boomers - more likely to have a phone than be on internet (79% vs. 67%)
* By next year, it's predicted smartphones will outpace other phones in terms of penetration
* 69 million people access the mobile web
* 40% of iphone/droid users browse the Internet more on the phone than the computer
* 47% of people browse social networking sites from their mobile phones
* 33% post photos on social networking sites
* 29% post on a message board
* 35% comment on social networking sites

What do you think about these stats? Do they surprise you? What implications does this have on social media and engaging people?

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (0)

Location is not just physical

There has been a ton of talk lately about companies taking advantage of geo-location services like Foursquare and Gowalla to identify enthusiasts, extend loyalty programs and offer deals and discounts when they check in at a store and/or become "the mayor."

Don't forget that you can offer people rewards and discounts for "checking in" to your website, too.

If your subscriber visits your site (checks in), you can tell what pages they're visiting and send them targeted offers based on what pages they visit and how often they come back. You can also identify enthusiasts who are sharing your content and reward them.

How do you see this working/evolving in the future?

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (0)

Importance of understanding your audience

As marketers, we're all very focused on metrics. With email marketing it's looking at who's opening/clicking/buying/what they're buying/how often/how much and targeting them based on their behavior. With social media, it's looking at what networks/sites people are using, what they're saying about you and what they want. These things should ideally be looked at together.

What things are you looking at in order to understand an audience and give them access to relevant content and experiences?

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (0)

Creating Useful Content/Apps

One of the fundamental principles of social media is that if you're going to participate, you need to offer people content that is useful, informative, or entertaining.

I found this great example of a useful and informative iPhone app recently. The Oil Reporter App lets people report and track on oil contamination in specific areas and its effect on wildlife. You can hear more about the app from CNN - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/05/29/nr.armstrong.oil.spill.tech.cnn?iref=allsearch

What examples have you seen recently of companies that have created content or apps that have been especially useful?

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (2)

Check this out Jason! http://promomagazine.com/viralmarketing/news/0603-kfc-social-media/?cid=nl_dir_newsline

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 3 months ago

Thanks, Jacqueline - cool example!

Commented by Jason Peck 3 months ago

Social Networks and Privacy

Many social networks are free. People join them to be social, meet new people and connect with existing friends.

Since Facebook is free, is it right for people to make demands on what Facebook does with their data? Should they feel a sense of entitlement to privacy? It is a SOCIAL network, after all.

I'd love to hear what you think.

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (0)

Social Media Is Cool...but there are still other ways to engage people

What are some other ways you've seen companies engaging their audiences?

By Jason Peck 3 months ago

Comments (2)

I have heard a lot of buzz about campaigns totally tailored around the iphone and ipad.

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 3 months ago

Good one - it's definitely interesting to see folks starting to come up with device-specific executions and initiatives

Commented by Jason Peck 3 months ago

Pizza Place Fires Waitress After She Complained On Facebook About Her Tip

Pretty interesting story here. A waitress at Brixx Pizza in Charlotte complained about a $5 tip she received after serving a couple for three hours, one hour after she was supposed to have gone home.

Brixx found out about her complaint and fired her. If this was her first "offense" I'm not sure that I would have fired her over this, though I could see why they would want to discipline her for violating their agreement (employees aren't supposed to talk about negatively about customers in public).

Her firing has sparked a lot of interesting discussion (both for and against what Brixx did) on their Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brixx-Wood-Fired-Pizza/84618206631?v=wall&ref=ts

Do you think Brixx did the right thing or that they overreacted by firing this waitress?

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

Comments (1)

I think they overlooked an opportunity to leverage this instance to teach all employees best practices. In essence they reacted negatively to her negative comment which usually isn't the best way to handle things. They might have tried creating a teaching moment around this, for her, and more used social media to share with others.

Commented by Neil Rosen 3 months ago

3 ways to use social media to keep up with topics you care about

1) Go to http://search.twitter.com and search for company name, keywords, competitors, and whatever you're interested in to get a real-time look at what people are saying,

2) Go to http://blogsearch.google.com/ and put in your keywords to see blog posts related to topics you're interested in.

3) Head over to http://alltop.com/ and find whatever subject you're interested in (or the letter it starts with) in the top horizontal navigation bar. Alltop lists some of the best blogs for a variety of topics and it's a great place to go to find some things to read each week.

How do you use social media to keep up with things you care about?

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

Comments (1)

Here's one more - http://www.kurrently.com/ lets you search Twitter and Facebook status updates. Pretty interesting..

Commented by Jason Peck 4 months ago

Facebook calling all-hands-on-deck meeting re: privacy

If you've seen or read about the recent Facebook changes, you're probably aware that many people are not pleased, especially about how they affect users' privacy online.

The main issue is that all people have been opted-in automatically to an "Instant Personalization" service that shares your data with other websites/Facebook partners. Sure you, can opt out, but it's not clear for the average user.

The meeting is set for 4pm today. It will be interesting to see what changes Facebook makes. Will they kill the service? Will they make it opt-in instead of opt-out? I guess we'll see..

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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Facebook Privacy Concerns

Recently Facebook experienced a huge glitch that gave users access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations.

Obviously, Facebook moved quickly to close the loop. But many people remain wary. Companies that are building their own communities, must take steps to ensure that their members feel safe about their data and privacy. This is why it's crucial to own your community, instead of only having a presence on Facebook and being guilty by association whenever there is a Facebook data breach. We hope it doesn't happen...but you never know.

How do you feel about the security of your data on Facebook?

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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I don't feel secure AT ALL. I constantly check my settings and have even considered shutting my page down. Is this valid?

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 4 months ago

I love FB but I admit I'm nervous that private information could be shared with others.

Commented by Luke Haseloff 4 months ago

Thinking about content strategy and ideas

In today's world, brands are starting to look more and more like media companies. They must create content that drives traffic and sales, helps them rank for keywords, resonates with people on social sites so they will share it, and is interesting or helpful.

In thinking about content for eWayDirect, what would you like to see more of from us? What are your (or your clients) pain points we can help address? What problems can we help solve? We'd love to hear your thoughts so we can create content that is valuable to YOU.

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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Facebook Page limitations

Lately, I've been thinking more about the limitations of a Facebook page. Some of them include:
- no way to have public and private groups
- no way to tell which specific fans have invited to their friends to join to reward brand advocates
- no way to fully control look, feel, ads
- no way to get robust metrics
- no ownership of the data for marketing purposes, customer service, etc.

What are some other limitations of Facebook pages that you've noticed?

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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Tea brand doubles sales using social media and PPC.

Very interesting example here - http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/26634.asp

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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Thanks!

Commented by arlington1 4 months ago

Favorite Social Media Example?

What's your favorite example or brand that has done something cool, useful and/or valuable with social media?

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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There are some great beauty sites out there that I think are getting it right. People share reviews, top products, pricing, trends. These sites are definite stops before many of their readers buy a thing!

Commented by Jacqueline Causa 4 months ago

Hi Jacqueline,
Thanks for stopping by. I think beauty/fashion does lend itself well to social media, especially because many people spend a ton of time talking/thinking about it.

Commented by Jason Peck 4 months ago

Let's make this a great group

We want to make this group valuable here. What kinds of things would you like to see? Please feel free to ask questions and share your own tips and ideas. Looking forward to some great discussions!

By Jason Peck 4 months ago

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Do you think Jason that some social networks are just places where people go to hang out, and others, maybe like linkedin, they go to with more of a sense of purpose?

Commented by Neil Rosen 4 months ago