Allie Wester

I asked our staff if they had any thoughts on the matter or if they’d seen some great examples and I got some wonderful responses…

“I LOVE the Pretzel Crisps idea and I expect to see brands do more of this in the future. It’s a smart way to get new customers and reward loyal ones, and of course it has a great pass-along factor to it, too. A lot of brands regularly give out free product as an apology for a bad experience posted on Facebook or Twitter. On the flip side, I would love it if one of the brands I’m loyal to — say, Essie nail polish — sent me a bottle as a “thank you” for tweeting positive things about their polish. It would guarantee my brand evangelism for life, and I’d be sure to tell everyone about it!”

- Allie Wester, Social Media Manager

——————————————-

“Two great examples come to mind…

1. KLM recently did a campaign called “KLM Surprises”. I LOVE this campaign. They basically cyber stalked people who were checking-in at the airport or tweeting about being at the airport for a KLM flight and then surprised them with a little present for their trip right at the gate. These presents were all personalized based on their twitter profiles, check-in comments, etc. and were not even KLM branded. It at first sounds a bit creepy and it’s a bit hard to explain, but they created a great video so I would recommend watching that since it does a great job summing it up. You can watch it here: http://surprise.klm.com/

2. Edge Shaving Gel also did a cool one where they surprised people who tweeted about something that irritated them with a solution. This was all a part of their “anti-irritation” campaign. For example, one man tweeted how irritated he was to be out of cereal and he was surprised with a box of cereal at his front door. Another woman tweeted that the voices in her head were speaking in Spanish — Edge responded with the gift of a Spanish/English dictionary. Here is the link to the Mashable article which gives some good insight on results: http://mashable.com/2011/01/18/edge-soirritating/ ”

- Kate Rafferty, Business Development

——————————————-

“MARS is doing great stuff with their brands. Saw these two…

1. Mars Canada – Random Acts of Chocolate: http://www.facebook.com/marsacts

2. Skittles – Mob the Rainbow: for valentine’s day they surprised a Meter Maid with valentine cards http://bit.ly/iy5Fmp”

- Lisa Warnock, Business Development

——————————————-

“Beyond even calling it “Random Acts of Kindness” – I see this as actually a new form of monitoring. Brands are now going beyond those who follow them/like them to find people simply talking about something relevant and reaching out. I imagine that they are taking a look at who has the most influence before deciding who to reward and who not to reward.

I think this new monitoring trend will become even bigger this year. The mobile extension of this monitoring trend is also forthcoming. Soon, when I check into my Pilates Studio, a brand will reach out to me with a coupon for a smoothie, workout gear, health food, spa treatments, etc. It won’t be just about your location – it will be about your lifestyle.

Check this out: http://adage.com/article/news/kraft-s-jell-o-plans-twitter-mood-monitor/227439/”

- Christy Wise, Social Strategy

Stats
What makes “Random Acts of Kindness” a viable social media strategy?  For starters, consumers are currently disclosing a vast amount of personal information on public forums: about their daily lives, their moods or their whereabouts (whether on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, GetGlue or any other number of social apps).  Secondly, consumers are interacting with brands more and more and they are expecting brands to interact with them in a way that’s rewarding to them.   Last, but not least, brands are increasing the amount of time and resources on monitoring the social web.  Put it all together and you have the makings of a win-win program.

I had a dinner with some friends last night and explained to them what LivingSocial/Groupon was all about.  (see that note below) Then today this too-good-to-be-true offer came in which just emphasized my point on why people love these companies.

Posted January 19th, 2011 at 12:56 pm by Gavin O’Malley

It looks like Groupon rival LivingSocial hit it big this week after offering members a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. “In just the first few hours of the sale, users have already purchased over 243,000 coupons,” reports ReadWriteWeb. How did LivingSocial land such a sweat deal? Well, as you may recall, Amazon invested $175 million into the startup in December. As such, Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Lew calls this week’s deal “the first step of operational integration from that investment.” According to ReadWriteWeb, “Some are predicting the deal is on a course to outperform the previous blockbuster daily deal, when Groupon offered $25 off a $50 purchase at the Gap.” That resulted in some $13 million worth of coupons being sold. With nearly a day left to go, the LivingSocial deal had already sold over $2 million worth of coupons Wednesday morning. The final sales figure likely means little to Amazon, which is more interested in marketing the LivingSocial brand. Indeed, with Amazon’s help, it’s not hard to imagine LivingSocial achieving Groupon-like heights.

From: Larry Weintraub
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:01 PM
To: My Friends
Subject: FW: 50% Off Amazon.com Gift Card

Last night at dinner we had a conversation about Groupon / LivingSocial.  Today this came in from LivingSocial.  $20 gift card for $10 from Amazon.  No expiration date, limit one.

On a typical day and a typical deal, LivingSocial or Groupon will get anywhere form 300 – 3,000 people to buy one of these offers.  Today’s offer from LivingSocial is already over 650,000 and will probably hit 1 million today.  So, if you wonder why Google was prepared to pay nearly $6 Billion for Groupon (which they declined and I bet we see a similar offer coming soon for LivingSocial), now you know why.  They will do $20 Million in business today alone.  Doesn’t mean they are profitable, just gives you an idea of how big these things are.

By the way, I recommend you sign up to LivingSocial today and get this deal.  It only lasts til the end of the day and then it’s gone.  You can unsubscribe after that if you don’t want to get emails every day from them.  But hek, it’s $10 free to spend at Amazon.

Larry

Accounting and consulting firm, Deloitte, reports in its 25^th Annual Holiday Survey that, 72% of respondents said they would utilize the internet this holiday shopping season and 17% of them would use their smartphones in the process. An additional 12% said they would use social media sites such as Facebook to aid them in their purchasing decisions. Of those consumers that said they would utilize social media sites, the reasons they gave included: gift ideas, coupons, discounts and promotional information; which should prove very useful to retailers as the clock ticks closer to Black Friday.

Web analytics firm, Coremetrics, found that social media will be among the top five most effective ways to attract new visitors to stores and websites. “The thing that is really interesting is that the second best channel for getting new visitors has turned out to be Facebook,” says John Squire, Coremetrics’ chief strategy officer.  The result, retailers should see more people in their stores, both brick and mortar and online, and consumers are primed to save a tremendous amount of time and money.

Who is Doing What?

Retailers are already jumping on the geo-location bandwagon and using notable platforms such as Foursquare and Facebook Places to drive people into stores.  Facebook is opening up its 500 Million-plus subscriber base to retailers in the hopes of taking on the geo-location industry leader, Foursquare. Merchants like Starbucks, McDonalds, and H&M have already created promotions, and earlier this month The Gap used Facebook Places to give away 10,000 pairs of jeans across 900 of their participating US stores.

JCPenney is no stranger to online promotions and boasts nearly 1.2 million Facebook fans.  The company is wrapping a Black Friday sweepstakes that offers 15 lucky Facebook fans a shopping spree where JCPenney shopping experts will be their personal escorts. The company has also partnered with The Salvation Army for a holiday season-long Angel Giving Tree campaign that helps children and seniors in need. Additionally, rather than let shoppers leave Facebook, they have integrated an online shopping experience directly into their Facebook page.

Lowes, the home improvement retailer, launched a Black Friday campaign called “Lowe’s Black Friday Sneak Peek Party on Facebook”.  Fans RSVP’d to the event by Friday, November 5^th which gave them early access to tremendous deals.  Customers were given coupon codes of up to 90% off products on their website. The event was so popular that Lowe’s actually extended the event from Friday through the entire weekend.

Kmart is using Facebook and Twitter to promote their extended Black Friday sales and a Christmas trip sweepstakes while Urban Outfitters and Levi’s have integrated the Facebook “Like” button into their online stores, allowing customers to sort products based on the ones “Liked” most frequently – making it real easy for you to buy for someone who loves those brands.

Social shopping is also playing a much larger role this year than in years past. Sites like LivingSocial and Groupon offer great daily deals to subscribers and the latter has branched out to working with national chains like The Gap and The Body Shop.

The Gap recently offered $50 gift cards at half price through Groupon while The Body Shop offered $40 worth of merchandise for $20. Many thousands of customers participated in these Groupon deals and we expect to see many more retailers participating in similar offerings as we get closer to the holidays. LivingSocial plans on launching a promotion called the 12 Days of Gifting, a program that will offer 12 days of giftable deals, ranging from fine dining to retail stores.

This season, both the retailer and the consumer are benefiting greatly from technology.  As a retailer, the opportunity to drive people into your stores has never been better.  As a consumer the chance to save money, time and aggravation is equally as exciting. Hopefully the end result of your social shopping experience will make you, well… more social!

Facebook is already the leader in social networking. With the popularity of the Facebook gaming content and the boom of virtual goods, Facebook credits was created as a way to bring  a universal currency into the social gaming space.

The credits are now making their way from the virtual world into some of the more popular brick-and-mortar stores across the country. Target, for example, began carrying Facebook Credit gift cards in multiple denominations back in September, and more recently, Walmart and Best Buy have also began to sell the cards. The cards, which commonly come in $15, $25, and $50 versions, should help Facebook to capitalize on the huge popularity of social gaming.

Social gaming and their virtual goods are a booming business. It is expected that revenue for online virtual goods is to surpass 6 billion by the year 2013. Not only that, Facebook Credits are already accepted by over 200 Facebook games, and 42% of online buyers are social gamers. By adding the Facebook cards into brick-and-mortar stores across the country, Facebook hopes to garner more support for the virtual currency by adding a tangible product sold in an offline environment.

“The physical representation of a brand…adds more validity,” said Rob Goldberg, the founder of GMG Lifestyle Entertainment Inc., the company responsible for creating the Facebook Credit cards. The company is also responsible for the iTunes cards that are sold in retailers throughout the world.

Facebook Credits have the opportunity to become so successful due largely to the fact they have a very active ecosystem in which to operate. Although Facebook Credits isn’t the first online currency to attempt to unify online monetization,  Facebook’s vast  network  provides the currency with an efficient platform on which to thrive. The popularity of the site itself, as well as countless of other sites which feature Facebook integration, make the concept of Facebook Credits even more ingenious and useable.

More recently, startup Ifeelgoods got the brilliant idea to offer Facebook Credits as a way to persuade customers to sign up for a website, share a favorite product, or even purchase something else online. The concept is interesting, but the company promises Facebook Credit promotions to be more effective and less expensive by using these virtual goods and currencies in place of tradition promotions.

Some critics suggest Facebook should provide ways for users to spend Facebook Credits that don’t just include virtual goods inside their social games. They could do so by utilizing their already enormously popular social networking system, much like Pay-Pal took advantage of the partnership between them and the eBay site.

Facebook Credits are still a fairly new concept, and Facebook has been keeping quiet on the actual direction in which the company intends to take. It is apparent, however, that Facebook wants to create an effective currency system for online social gaming, and hopes to eliminate the issues of international currency conversion fees charged by other companies. One thing is certain though, if Facebook plans to have their credit system become the only major online currency, it’s not going to be without making some key decisions.

The MLB is doing their part, having launched a mobile application – iPhone, Android and Blackberry – that already has been accessed close to 2 million times a day.  On Facebook, 12 million people are either a fan of the MLB itself or one of the 30 team pages. And, another 3 million fans follow MLB-related posts on twitter, which features up to the minute baseball news and information. In fact, Twitter is so popular between athletes of all sports that website Tweeting-Athletes.com has been created to help fans keep track of it all. These numbers are close to triple of what it was just a year ago.

It should come as no surprise that big sporting and entertainment events are becoming more popular and the conversation surrounding them has extended exponentially due to social media. The Super Bowl for example generated more than 60,000 tweets per hour during the February 7^th broadcast and the Oscars, nearly doubled that amount of tweets, with over 100,000 per hour during this year’s awards ceremony. Both events were huge trending topics and both saw huge spikes in ratings over the previous year’s telecast, due in part to social media.

With advancements in social technology and online/mobile social networking, businesses aren’t the only ones seeing the advantages. Sports teams, leagues and professional athletes in particular are seeing the benefits of engaging with fans on this level and are investing more and more resources into it to help ensure a positive image that resonates with their fans.

Whoever you’re rooting for in this series, you will surely find thousands of like-minded fans, just a mouse click or tap of the mobile device away.

From Starbucks and Virgin America to Virgin America and GameStop, Fanscape has compiled some of the best examples of community management.

Starbucks

This is a company that completely understands the power of social media and the influence its supporters have on their brand. In addition to having one of the biggest followings on Facebook (over 15.1Million Fans to date) and over 1 Million on Twitter, Starbucks has its own idea generator community called My Starbucks Idea. The company also manages a number of other Facebook pages that cater to specific locals such as those in the Philippines, France and Argentina. In each platform the community managers actively engage customers, but also allow the customers to talk freely about their product.

Virgin America

Keeping customers informed about flight delays, special deals and issue resolution are at the top of the list for this airline. But it isn’t all they do to manage their community. The team has created an environment that mirrors the company’s exuberant nature and encourages the same enthusiasm from its fans. The managers seamlessly coordinate their efforts on Facebook, but if you really want the best, become a fan of their @VirginAmerica Twitter handle.

Bose

Community management has a lot of facets and you have to be able to balance them all in order to have a healthy community. One of the most important of these facets is maintaining great customer relations and the Bose community team is spot on. The company that specializes in the niche market of high-end noise cancelling headphones has taken to the Twitterverse (and Facebook) to ensure their customers remain happy. The information that is shared within this community inspires brand loyalty and the transparent nature of the customer communications creates brand evangelists.

GameStop

As referenced in our October Industry Newsletter, GameStop has one of the highest levels of online influence in the retail space. This is because the community manager speaks the language. Whether it’s responding to a poll, discussing the best games, or taking advantage of the daily deals, the GameStop community has become one of the most active in the retail space.  GameStop is one of our clients and we are very proud of the work they are doing.

Sony PlayStation

At Sony PlayStation they not only seek out ways to engage the community they’ve fostered around their brand on multiple platforms (their Facebook page, their regular blog updates, their @Playstation Twitter handle, etc.), but they even introduce new ways to take advantage of the type of communication they see from their audience. Playstation.blog.share, for instance, is an initiative they started to give the PlayStation community a venue to suggest new software features and influence the future direction of the brand. Since launching the site in June, the community has already suggested nearly 5,000 new ideas and seen nearly 1.5 million interactions to date.

Radian6

For a company that gets paid for monitoring the conversations of its clients, Radian6 makes a big impact in taking care of its own community. Headed by Amber Naslund, its set of community managers are at the forefront of thought leadership – discussing such topics as redefining community management, B2B Social Media, Program Execution, Nurturing Leads and everything in-between. Radian6 showcases some of the best in knowing your audience and creating content that is designed specifically for them. In addition to it’s highly-effective blog, Radian6 utilizes its @Radian6 Twitter handle to help distribute the content and to further connect with its community.

Skittles

Much like Virgin America, the community managers at Skittles know their audience. In a relatively short period of time Skittles has gone from a delicious bag of rainbow goodness to a social media powerhouse.  Everything they do is surrounds the “rainbow” of colors the Skittles brand represents. The great thing about their community is that they are not all about pushing marketing messages and they allow for a great deal of fan engagement. One only needs to go as far as the brand’s Facebook page to see that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Content is king and this community encourages as much of it as possible. This approach has endeared the brand to its legions of fans.

Hotels.com

Hotels.com has made quite a splash this year in social media. The online hotel retailer’s community managers have delivered timely and relevant content that not only includes deals and resources, but also encourages feedback through engaging questions and topics and blog posts. The community’s involvement directly effects future content, as the community managers pay close attention to what their fans and followers are saying. This loyal online following is growing because fans see that they are shaping the direction of the community, and that they aren’t being  force-fed information. (Full disclosure: Hotels.com is  Fanscape client)

Fanscape: How would you define Community Management?

James Cobo: Community management can take many forms – social property management, managing a profile on a high-value message board, etc. – but ultimately it all comes down to acting as a liaison between a client and the social sphere they’re looking to reach.

Charles Ryan: I would define community management as the being the voice/mediator/ultimate champion of the brand and its fans all rolled into one. Not only does one have a role in developing the fan base and meeting a company’s goals of fan count, participation, and exposure; but to also foster a community that is excited to be there and organically grow.

Fanscape: What are your guiding principles in great community management?

JC: Always try to side with the community; while client advocacy is obviously the “job” part of community management, the only way to reach people in the social space is to come from the same point of view as them, and with very few exceptions they’re always going to put their own interests ahead of the client’s. In that same vein, always try to contribute to the community when communicating with them; do your best to add to the dialogue rather than simply dropping in the client’s messaging and moving on to the next one.

CR: There are five I live by:

• Great customer service – prompt, compassionate, and ready to follow up
• Loyalty – stay true to the brand’s principles
• Taking chances – reach out to fans/customers who have shown their love for the brand
• Consistency – in communication schedule and messaging
• Growth – an interest in growing the community, both population-wise and interactivity

Fanscape: With regard to Community Management, what are some of the things that you do on behalf of our clients?

JC: The primary job duties associated with community management include researching & evaluating communities to identify which ones are most relevant to the client’s goals, then establishing & maintaining a presence on those communities.

Fanscape: What are some of the biggest challenges community managers face?

JC: The primary practical challenge community managers face on a daily basis is easily having to conform to the predefined standards of the community you’re reaching out to. Some communities are aggressively moderated and will edit or delete a post with even the slightest hint of messaging regardless of relevance. Others have stringent rules governing access to board functionality such as quoting other users, hyperlinking, and even permission to post in the first place.

Can you reference other companies and brands that do a great job with community management (based on your principals of great community management)?

JC:  At Sony PlayStation they not only seek out ways to engage the community they’ve fostered around their brand on multiple platforms (their Facebook page, their regular blog updates, their Twitter handle, etc.), but they even introduce new ways to take advantage of the type of communication they see from their audience. Playstation.blog.share, for instance, is an initiative they started to give the PlayStation community a venue to suggest new software features and influence the future direction of the brand. Since launching the site in June, the community has already suggested nearly 5000 new ideas and seen nearly1.5 million interactions to date.

CR: I love what we are doing with GameStop and that has a lot to do with our team and James who serves as the Community Manager. There are a few others that I really like, mainly because of their content and the fact that they have found and embrace their niche community – Skittles and YouTube.

James Cobo is Fanscape’s Manager of Social Media Marketing and Charles Ryan is a Community Manager.

GetGlue is in many ways very similar to the other check-in applications we’re already so familiar with. You begin by either linking your Facebook account online at the GetGlue website, or downloading the application to you phone (iPhone, Android, and iPad compatible). Once logged on, you are asked to begin rating your favorite movies, books, and music to help build your GetGlue profile. Users then can begin checking-in when they listen to music, watch TV, or go to the movies, all updating their profile in real time. Their check-ins and ratings help the GetGlue site tailor suggestions based on the users individual tastes in an attempt to help you find “your next favorite thing”.  Badges are rewarded much like other check-in applications, and points are occurred based on frequency of use.

But what does this kind of service mean for the entertainment industry? Why would networks like MSNBC and HBO — for example — sign up and partner with a service like this? The answer is simple; the same reason that restaurants and retail stores are partnering up with Foursquare, Loopt, and Gowalla – to help build consumer loyalty.

GetGlue seems to have two main objectives. On the user’s side, it helps connect people with similar interests, build up profiles based around individual tastes, and suggest new music, shows, movies, and books to its users based on viewing and listening history. On the industry side, it helps to create show loyalty, as well as encourage live tune-in.

In addition, entertainment companies such as Fox are able to tap into the GetGlue database and effectively market new shows to users based on their viewing history, check-ins, and Likes. People who repetitively check-in to different shows are much different than people who “Like” a show on a social network, providing television networks with the ability to see who the die hard fans are, and who just watches a show once in a while. Recommendations are then handed out according to the users views and the entertainment companies get to target a niche market directly.

GetGlue has been gaining popularity since its original conception earlier this year, and has been rightfully dubbed the “Foursquare of Entertainment”. With more television networks and entertainment companies jumping on board, it’s no doubt that the entertainment check-in is one of the more innovative social media concepts within the last few months.