5 Lessons from Reese’s Christmas Tree

Jenna WinslowToday I have a guest post from Jenna Winslow.

Jenna Winslow is a recent graduate from the University of Southern Indiana with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing.  Jenna interned at Signarama Evansville during her senior year and is currently the Digital Marketing Intern at Ten Adams Marketing.

5 Lessons from Reese’s Christmas Tree

Social media is not only a fun place to interact with friends, family, and businesses; but is also quickly becoming one of the leading marketing platforms. Social media offers the ability to reach consumers and to connect with them unlike ever before.  And in our rapidly evolving technological world, social media can either make or break a company.

Unhappy customers often go straight to social media to complain about a product or recent negative experience with a company.  And if they are able to express their rage in less than 140 characters, they typically tag the company’s social media account directly in the post.  All eyes then turn to see how, or if, the company responds.

There have been various cringe-worthy social media fails over the years: companies responding inappropriately to complaints – or just flat out ignoring them.  There are plenty of lessons that can be learned from these mistakes; however, just as many, if not more lessons, can be learned from social media wins – when a company nails their response to public customer complaints, settling the issue.

Reese’s had a social media win of their own after releasing their annual Reese’s Christmas Tree last November.  Social media savvy customers headed to Twitter to express their thoughts regarding Reese’s Christmas Trees – or more like the lack of resemblance to a tree.

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Despite being put in a difficult situation for the entire world of social media to see, Reese’s was not fazed by the complaints and used them as an opportunity.  Their response is what I would call the biggest social media win of 2015.

Reese’s created a Twitter campaign exclusively focused on the ugly, misshapen trees, making it official with the hashtag #AllTreesAreBeautiful.

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Reese’s did not simply apologize to their customers, although they did apologize. Reese’s took their response one step further by admitting the Christmas Trees are not perfect, and fully embracing that fact.  “It’s not what it looks like, it’s what it tastes like.”

Here are 5 lessons we can take away from Reese’s Christmas Tree win:

  1. Your customers are on social media, and you should be, too; build connections and reach customers you otherwise may not have been able to.
  2. Monitor what people are saying; turn complaints or bad reviews into an opportunity to gain feedback and learn from your customers.
  3. Never ignore a complaint on social media; not only does this reflect poorly on you, it could also be a missed opportunity.
  4. Engage with your customers on social media; whether a comment or post is about a great experience or a complaint, it requires a prompt response.
  5. Use social media to improve customer service; this can be as simple as responding to a complaint, and shows customers you value them.

Connecting with customers is easy thanks to social media, creating the opportunity to provide exceptional customer service.  Your next response to customer feedback on social media doesn’t have to become an entire Twitter campaign – but it could!

How Do You Treat Your Champions?

What is a Brand Champion?Cheer

Brand Champions are some of the most valuable assets a business can have. You know the people that love love love you, tell all their friends and family, maybe they write a blog post, tweet, or share photos of your brand or product on social channels.

And that – that is HUGE. A digital Brand Champion who is willing to stand on the digital rooftops and share about you are is more influential than all your paid advertising.  See, as consumers, when we are look at new things to buy, we trust the recommendations of our friends more than the paid advertising spots.

Do you even know who your Brand Champions are?

If you haven’t already, look at who is opening, sharing, and forwarding your email newsletters. Keep a list. Look at who is tweeting, @mentioning you, and sharing your posts. Keep a list. Look at who is sending you referrals on a regular basis. Keep a list.

How do you treat them?

Do you say thank you? Do you retweet, repost, or @mention them on occasion? Do you offer them specials or VIP access to things? Maybe send them some swag? You should. They are fan-freaking-tastic. The influence they have on your potential new customers is priceless.

Want more Brand Champions?

See above. The point is, if you cultivate relationships with the people that are your biggest brand advocates, they will keep doing it. Passion is contagious. Ever notice on Facebook the one thing that 16 people shared? One person was passionate about something enough to share it. That passion compelled another person, and so on and so forth. So, in the big picture of things, if you cultivate the relationship of a few Brand Champions, you can exponentially increase your reach to many.

What went wrong?

If you’re thinking – “People used to love my company. What went wrong?” I ask you,  how did you treat your Brand Champions?  What did you do when your biggest brand advocate had an issue or a problem? Did you go out of your way to make it right? Or, are your britches so big that you said – “Eh, so what? It’s one account, one sale. So what if you go to my competitor?”

I had this happen to me twice in one day! Two separate companies (that don’t pay me or give me anything, yet I regularly give them digital love) both said “Nope that’s the rule, I won’t budge.” I was shocked.
Here’s the thing – if a client is willing to give you a chance to make it right, take it. Most will just leave. If you do make it right, the love they have for you will increase. If you don’t work with them to make them happy, you’re not losing a just a customer. You’ve lost a Champion. Think about that. If they go to a competitor and your competitor is good to them, your competitor didn’t just get a new customer. They probably got your Champion to root for them now.

H Schultz quote

Businesses: Overcome Your Personality Disorder

Guest Post today by Jeremy Secrest

“Wah, wah, wah.” – all the grownups in the Charlie Brown shows.

Is that what your potential customers are hearing when you talk? Are they not connecting with your message?

Maybe your personality (or lack of one) is getting in the way.

Personality can seem like a fluffy term for business. It can come across like a trust fall or some of the more odd team-building exercises.

Yet, your customer has a personality.

And so do you.

 

Your customer is a person. And so are you.

And unless you’re selling to robots, people connect with people.

People who need people.

 

People have personalities.

 

Discovering and defining your brand’s personality is key to understanding how to best connect with your customer.

Not in a smarmy, leisure suit kind of way.

In a people kind of way.

The way you communicate through your emails, sales messages, advertising and social media needs to match who you are. It needs to resonate.

Just like a bookish introvert looks awkward trying to be the life of the party (so I’ve heard), you’ll look awkward if your messaging doesn’t fit who you are. Or sounds like a robot.

You’re not talking with robots.

You’re talking with people who have a desire that you’re working to help them achieve.

To connect with them, the way you communicate needs to be really clear. Which helps them understand how you can help them find what they’re looking for.

Personality helps clarify your message and connect the dots to connecting with your customers.BrandTellShare_Square

How do you discover your brand’s personality?

Check out #brandtellshare, a workshop on messaging, media and marketing April 12 with Dana Nelson, Damon Hancock, and Erin Bemis at Fat Head Media. One day. $99. Learn more and register at brandtellshare.com

Not ready for that, but still want to learn more? Get a free branding starter guide at mybrandstory.co.

Jeremy Secrest is Director of Marketing & Development at the Evansville Christian Life Center and founder of Mybrandstory.co.

It Started With a Pen

This week I Begin a New Journey

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This is my first week as an employee of Signarama Evansville. I have accepted a part time Marketing Coordinator position with them. My position is one that will grow and change as time goes on. That’s really how today’s successful businesses work; ever-changing.  The few people I have told have all asked: “What will you be doing?” Then after answering with the simple answer, “web, social, digital, marketing and special projects,” I got almost the same response, “Duh.”

It’s What I do

What I do isn’t changing. I will still be teaching at the University of Southern Indiana, Northwest Kentucky Training Consortium, and my not yet really announced teaching partnership with Western Kentucky University.  For my existing corporate clients, I will still be here, don’t worry. I will be very selective on any new corporate clients, but I like it that way.

Nothing New/Making Things New

I have been working with Signarama Evansville for years, teaching, training, consulting, reviewing, and strategizing. They have always been a good client. In this regard, not really a new thing. But coming into this position there are some areas of blank canvas. I will be doing some special projects and working on some really exciting things.  I can’t wait to start making some of this canvas come to life and share it with you!

It Started With a Pen

I love the people at Signarama. I first met Debbie Valiant at an event I saw advertised on Facebook. I looked at who was attending and saw that she would be there. I didn’t know her, I just knew I was in the market for a pen. (I owned a computer consulting company at the time.) I sought her out and was quickly impressed not only with her, but the whole company. I love the people that work there already and I know a lot about the sign industry. Don’t get me wrong, I know I have a lot to learn going into a new field, but being with such remarkable people will make it an exciting and fun adventure! I consider myself lucky to work for this company, owned by the Valiants. They are a strong, caring company with values. (I’ve blogged about them before: Valiant Defined)

Let the adventure begin….

 

Using Social Might Not Help

I found today on one of my social networks, the head of a large corporation had made a post. He didn’t boast about how wonderful their products are, even though they are. He didn’t boast about their customer service and a care that you receive, although it’s the best. And he didn’t talk about how much effort and energy they put into making sure each of their locations has what they need to succeed as individual businesses, even though they do.

He instead used his social network to reach out.

He took his reach, his influence, and took opportunity to ask for prayer. The prayer was for someone in his network, a friend in his business. It was an employee.

He used his social influence to ask for prayer, care, consideration,

and uplifting thoughts for one of his employees.

He could have used that social network to post about all those previous things I mention. To me, as a consumer of that corporation’s product, it seems taking the time to show to you care about the people that you work with means just as much as knowing the greatness of their product.

You can be good on social platforms; you can hire someone to be good on social platforms for you.

  • If you have an inferior product, or service, social media won’t help your business.
  • If you don’t care about and respect your clients, social media won’t help your business.
  • If you don’t care and respect the people that make your business function:

Social media has the power to truly break your business.

Use your influence in meaningful ways.

Focus on your product, your customer service and your employees, first- other wise, using social might not help.

 

My 5 Must Have Books

 

#1

Almost isn’t good enough by Wayne Elsey.

#2

Branding Yourself by Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy.

#3

UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. by Scott Stratten

#4

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion  By Gary Vaynerchuk

#5

The Thank You Economy By Gary Vaynerchuk


Fine Print: These are in no particular order. I have not received any money for my endorsements. I did receive my copy of Branding Yourself for free because I hassled Erik to death about it:) The Links are to my affiliate Amazon account.

Are You Responding to Influencers?

Southwest Airlines has long been a leader and innovator in social media. They do things differently and are not afraid to step out to try new things; to be the first guy on the dance floor, if you will.  They are known for their antics and humor online, in the terminal and in the air. But how do they deal with serious issues? With style and grace.

Does every complaint matter on Twitter? @SouthwestAir says ‘yes!’

The above article outlines the story one man’s response to a major renovation in the airline’s rewards program. This one man made a stink and he was not shy about publicly letting Southwest know that he was not happy about it.

Who was this guy?

It wasn’t Scott Statten, who’s lead some very successful campaigns about how airlines treat their customers, with only a few tweets and his army of almost 77 thousand social savvy followers of his @unmarketing twitter account.  It was @SJCsouthpaw With is 106 107 followers that were genuinely upset with the company’s new program. He wasn’t the only one, but Southwest chose to answer him. Why? Because at Southwest “Our strategy is every customer matters, every customer’s opinion matters.”

Was that the right move?

Critics wondered.  Frank Eliason,  senior vice president of social media for Citi, says the airline made the right move, viewing Twitter as a customer service venue, not a PR podium.

“The number of followers is meaningless,” he says. “Today, every customer is an influencer.  If your concentration is follower count, then all you’re doing is managing a PR situation.  In this case it would appear to me that they are servicing their customer.  Nice job, Southwest.”

Are you responding to influencers?

Frank couldn’t have said it better: every customer is an influencer. If your company ism’t monitoring and responding to your brand on twitter, you are not responding to an influencer.

Many companies today use only Facebook campaigns to promote their brand. They delete negative feedback to protect the brand. What they’re missing is that all social media can be used as a powerful customer service tool. If your brand is one that practices the above and uses it only as a promotion tool, or your brand is on twitter, but it is linked to your Facebook, and you’re not responding to comments or complaints on twitter, remember @SJCsouthpaw and @unmarketing – If you delete them on facebook, they are still influencers on twitter, where they can carry on the conversation about you – good, bad, and ugly.

You have a choice in how you use your tools in your tool box… use them wisely.

Content

Day 9 of the Blog-a-Thon

Not just for a blog, but any social media. Content will provide your audience a reason to keep reading, to keep clicking and to return to your page.

Here’s a video of @CC-Chapman promoting his book.  Hope it inspires you to keep working on your blogs and to find your own definition of content.

[vimeo 16063606]

Are You Willing?

I was watching a video of Scott Stratten or @unmarketing as you may know him on twitter. He wrote the book “Unmarketing- Stop Marketing and Start Engaging” He is now on a book tour, really going out into the world and not only engaging with his over 66k followers. But he is doing more than that. He is taking a stand. He is like this wild, radical Canadian man on a mission to change the way people market. Why?

 (Hint: cuz what your doing is not working, it is annoying and not making you any money off me cuz I am tired of this BS you try to sell me all the time.)

He is taking a stand because he, as a human being wants what we all want. He wants to be heard, he wants to be paid attention to, and he wants you to treat him with respect and kindness, as you do business with him. He is pointing out some really obvious facts. He is sharing real life stories of how hard it was. (I love the one where he took 30 days and lived twitter. Tweeted 7000 tweets in 30 days. After those 30 days he had 10,000 followers. )

He rants on people not wanting to take the time to put in the work to create 7,000 tweets, who moan that “tweezer” does not work for them. Then he said it. That moment where if you were in a Baptist church you would stand to your feet and proclaim AMEN! He said:

Social media does not change the fact that relationships take time!

I said yes! When I teach classes people always ask me “how much time…” I hate that question. At first I assumed that it was because I was in denial about my addiction, and just did not like being called out on it. Then I started answering in a very professional way: “That’s not a fair question.” I followed it with- but this is what I do.

 When Scott said that “Social media does not change the fact that relationships take time!” I realized it. I do take a lot of time to build relationships online. I do still play responsibly and work hard to get my offline responsibilities done. –I may work harder and longer, but I just do it, because to me, to my business, the time is well spent.

So if you are not seeing results by auto scheduling your tweets, or running a great promotion, or give away, if you’re still focusing on the media of the term Social Media- forget the push!

Try to find ways to really connect. Listen *Comment* Help* Show you care. The time you spend caring about the people will be time well spent that will change you.

 Social media does not change the fact that relationships take time!

Are you willing to take the time to make this relationship work?

Be Nice Challenge

Be nice today and every day. Take this challenge. No need to sign up or sign on, just tell yourself you’re willing to do it and challenge yourself to be better.

What:

 Be nice to others and show you care.

How: 

  •  Post on other people’s walls or @mention them on twitter. Tell them something nice about their personality, congratulate on a milestone, wish happy birthday – or unbirthday
  • Comment on peoples posts. LISTEN to what people are saying and respond in a way that shows you care about them.
  • Share links or RT posts that help spread community events, or news.

 How long?

 I know you already don’t have time to do what you’re doing now. Do you have a purpose and a plan for what you are currently doing? Then take this plan. Take 10-15 this morning, every morning and be nice to others.

Rules:

  •  Do not post anything about you, your company or what you are selling.
  •  Have fun
  •   Be nice!!

” A tiny spark can turn into a towering inferno… imagine what a little love and compassion can do.” Anonymous