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Are You Waiting for a Social Media Crisis?

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Drew Neisser

The clock barked 4:30 a.m. Or was it our dog Pinky, whose cries got us out of bed just in time to let the police in. A strange night, indeed, as a deranged neighbor climbed over fences and tried to kick in doors dressed in nothing but his underwear. As New York’s finest took “the loony” away in handcuffs, believe it or not, my wife and I went right back to sleep, knowing all our safeguards had worked. Crisis averted.

The very next day I ran into a seasoned social media executive in a particularly jocular mood. I asked, “Why the smiles?” He explained that an unfavorable video about his company had just gone viral, and now his management would have to take social media a lot more seriously. At that moment I wondered, how many companies are waiting for a social media “break-in” before they install “security?”

Fortunately for you, I’m not the only one pondering this question. Altimeter Group published a study back in August that looked at 50 social media crises since 2001. The report details how unprepared these companies were from both a staffing and planning perspective. It also found that 76% of the crises could have been diminished, if not averted, with proper preparation.

The Altimeter report does a great job of outlining “how advanced companies prepare” for social media crises and is well worth a closer study. So that’s not my purpose here. Rather, I’m struck by the fact that many of today’s leading social media practitioners like Dell, Comcast and Domino’s were all caught off guard just a few years ago. Certainly these social media crises didn’t go to waste.

Dell’s problems began in 2005 when blogger Jeff Jarvis created a firestorm of customer service complaints. “Dell Hell,” as the viral nightmare was called, became front-page news and even hurt the company’s stock price. Since then, Dell has transformed itself into a customer-centric listening machine that even involves founder Michael Dell, who is known to send tweets directly to delighted customers.

Similarly, Comcast’s crisis commenced with the untempered ire of a journalist. Bob Garfield’s “Comcast Must Die” blog went viral faster than you can say “Excedrin headache.” Shortly thereafter, Frank Eliason stepped up on Twitter with @ComcastCares, setting the stage for Comcast to begin a true customer service makeover. Eventually, even Garfield came to admire these improvements.

Domino’s felt the sting of social media in 2009 when two employee/pranksters posted a disgusting video on YouTube. Domino’s sales dropped 10% nationally but not in Chicago, where a local store manager, Ramon DeLeon, waged a localized rebuttal campaign via the social channels he’d already established. DeLeon was prepared to “fight social media fire with social media water,” a lesson Domino’s HQ eventually took to heart as well.

These three examples are worth revisiting for several reasons. First, these crises brought into view broader product and service issues that had festered for several years. Jarvis’ complaints about Dell only snowballed when several hundred other customers joined the gripe-fest. The same goes for Garfield’s conflict with Comcast. As for Domino’s, they soon admitted themselves that their pizza had almost as little flavor as the box it came in.

It’s also significant that each of these companies bypassed a superficial social media response with a tweet here and a Facebook post here and instead implemented much more comprehensive solutions. Dell launched Idea Storm and a social media Command Center, while empowering employees worldwide to become social ambassadors. Domino’s went so far as to completely change their basic product and invited the public to weigh in along the way.

But most importantly, we can learn from their mistakes and do some preemptive corporate soul searching by asking ourselves these three questions:

Do you really need to wait for a crisis to fix those long overlooked product or service issues?
Do you really want to wait for a social media crisis before you start taking all of this social stuff seriously?
Wouldn’t it be nice if a year from now your company was the one that avoided a social media crisis altogether because of your preparation?

The good news is that preparing for the worst actually will create several long-term benefits for your company and/or brand. For example, training employees to be brand ambassadors will improve job satisfaction and retention rates. Implementing customer listening programs will not only improve customer satisfaction but also generate new product ideas that drive future growth. And perhaps best of all, you’ll sleep a little better at night knowing you’re ready for whatever surprises climb over your social media fence.

Note: if this looks familiar, then you saw it first on MediaPost.com

Blogging Insights From an Expert

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Drew Neisser

Jeff Jarvis became a legend when he took on Dell publicly for their service failings several years ago. Some consider this the tipping point at which the balance of power shifted from marketer to consumer leading to the social media revolution. Dell might also identify the crisis Jeff created as the catalyst for becoming a service-centric organization. Jeff was one of the speaker’s at this year’s Pivot Conference and the only one to venture into the crowd causing many to actually look up from their iPads at least momentarily. Of all the speakers I interviewed, Jeff wins the award for being the pithiest–a characteristic this blogger truly appreciates. Jeff speaks 20-30 times a year and if you happen to see him on the agenda, make a point to go listen, learn and converse with him.

DN: Is it harder to engage an audience than it was 5 years ago before WiFI connectivity was a conference mandatory?
Not at all. Quite the contrary.

DN: At Pivot, at least 3/4 of the audience seemed to have a laptop or iPad open while you were speaking. Do you find yourself wanting to say, hey turn those devices off and pay attention?
Absolutely not. Some of those people are tweeting about the talk; others are reading others’ tweets in the so-called Twitter back-channel. And those who are doing neither are being nice enough to occupy themselves and not visibly yawn.

DN: Would it be worth trying to get the audience to shut down their devices momentarily while you speak?
Not at all. The lecture, as a form, is bullshit. See: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/04/18/this-is-bullshit-my-tedxnyed-talk/

DN: Knowing that your audience is on Twitter while you speak, are you thinking while you write your speech—gee that line will make a great tweet?
No. I have always tended to talk in tweetese.

DN: Do you get any feedback from these events and if so, why kind of adjustments have you made based on this feedback?
Some things I can change: saying “uh” or “right.” Some things I can’t: I pace.

DN: Finally, tell me a little about your latest book and how you draw from it in your speeches?
Public Parts is about the value of publicness, the power we all have no with a Gutenberg press in our hands. A speech is another means of being public but what I enjoy most about it is not the speech but the conversation, when I go into the people formerly known as the audience (credit: Jay Rosen) and play Oprah. In Public Parts, I start to speculate about such talks being the basis of my next project. A book, if it comes out of it at all, would be a byproduct then.

Using Social Media to Extend Customer Service

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Drew Neisser

Frank Eliason, currently SVP of Social Media for Citibank, was an early proponent of using social media to extend customer service. He speaks 20-30 times a year, drawing upon his groundbreaking work as the original voice of @ComcastCares and knows more than most about the challenges of speaking in the social media era. I caught up with Frank at the Pivot conference in New York.

DN: Do you find it harder to engage an audience than it was 3-5 years ago before WiFI connectivity was a conference mandatory?
In my view, having a connected audience is better, especially because they help to spread the word to others. This spread of message is the ROI for participating in events like Pivotcon.

DN: At Pivot, at least 3/4 of the audience seemed to have a laptop or iPad open while you were speaking.
Do you find yourself wanting to say, hey turn those devices off and pay attention? Never. In fact many times when I present I have an iPhone, iPad or other device open on stage allowing me to see what others are saying. It is fun to respond to a tweet when I am on stage and it personalizes the interaction with the audience.

DN: Would it be worth trying to get the audience to shut down their devices momentarily while you speak?
I’d much rather have the broader reach, it is one of the better measurements of speaking at events.

DN: Knowing that your audience is on Twitter while you speak, are you thinking while you write your speech—gee that line will make a great tweet?
I tend to prefer a conversational style, so I do not think about that as much. The one thing it has changes about the way I present, is I no longer prepare slides especially because the audience is not looking up as much. I do try to be more animated in the way I speak to ensure I have their attention.

DN: Are social media conferences harder to engage than say a group of bankers who aren’t necessarily trying to be the first to share what they just heard?
I find them easier, but sometimes you have to go where they are engaging, such as on Twitter.

DN: Do you get any feedback from these events and if so, why kind of adjustments have you made based on this feedback?
My favorite feedback is directly from the audience via Twitter, or in person. I do also get feedback from conference organizers. When I get this feedback, I love to read verbatims, which often conflict with others in the stack, but this comes down to we all have very different ways of learning, so different styles help. I think it is important for organizers to try to have diversity in presentation style.

Speaking to a Social Audience

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Drew Neisser

I had the pleasure of seeing Jenny Dervin, VP of Corporate Communications at JetBlue, speak at the recent BDI All Stars Conference. Jenny is a big fan of speaking to social media-engaged audiences (her “peeps”) and based on the live feedback she receives via Twitter, the feeling is mutual.

DN: Is it harder to engage an audience than it was 5 years ago before WiFI connectivity was a conference mandatory?
I think it’s harder to be in the audience than to be on stage. As a speaker, you can always find someone in the audience who is looking at you, so you can make a connection. But I noticed yesterday that as I sat through the other presentations, I found myself looking at the live Tweet stream, the speaker, and to my own iPad. I was very tempted to tweet what I was hearing but I was too busy listening!

DN: At BDI, at least 3/4 of the audience seemed to have a laptop or iPad open while you were speaking. Do you find yourself wanting to say, hey turn those devices off and pay attention?
OMG! No! They may have had the devices open but I had no problem at all finding people to make eye contact with! I think the body language tells you if they’re paying attention – it’s far more distracting to see people whispering to each other than it is to see someone tapping on an iPad.

DN: Would it be worth trying to get the audience to shut down their devices momentarily while you speak?
Actually, I love it when people live-tweet during remarks I give. I go back in the stream to see what landed, based on how many people tweeted the same quote, how many retweets there are, etc. It’s an instant evaluation of my key messages – did they land? If not, what did? It’s very instructive! Also – I see it as a digital way of taking notes. I think and process ideas and new information by doodling or writing them down – it may look like I’m not paying attention but I am, and I’m engaging the creative, associative side of my brain as well. But all of that is said with the assumption that they’re tweeting about what they’re hearing! I have absolutely no problem with devices being used while I speak.

DN: Knowing that your audience is on Twitter while you speak, are you thinking while you write your speech—gee that line will make a great tweet?
I don’t think that consciously, but I do think and write in terms of key messages – what I want to impart to the audience. I try to boil my ideas down to the essence – that becomes my chapter header – and then walk that concept out through examples and so on. Sometimes those chapter headers are twitter-worthy. Sometimes not.

DN: Are social media conferences harder to engage than say a group of accountants who aren’t necessarily trying to be the first to share what they just heard?
No – just the opposite for me! The audience at social media conferences are more of my tribe – we speak the same language. Accountants, as our example here, would make me far more nervous because I worry that in my effort to relate to them, I bungle it. When I speak to non-communicator audiences, I try to give a tad more background in my case studies so the audience has a flavor of how communicators make decisions and why things like meeting deadlines are important. Not relating to the audience or at the very least, not entertaining the audience while educating them a little, is a recurring nightmare for me.

DN: At the BDI Conference, you used an ipad for your speaking notes—how did that work?
Better than I expected! I didn’t have time to print my notes, so I thought, why not? It helped me stay on track of my key points, but it was a little disconcerting to move from my iPad to the laptop (to advance the slides).

DN: Do you get any feedback from these events and if so, why kind of adjustments have you made based on this feedback?
I do, and I welcome it! I have learned that I have no respect for time, so I try to keep my remarks within the time frame. I’ve also learned to speak more slowly – you can still hear a difference in pacing between my prepared remarks and Q&A.

Looking through the twitter stream after I speak is extremely informative. I think it helps hone my instincts so the next time I sit down to prepare remarks, I have the lessons learned from the prior experiences helping me become more quotable or relatable.

Engaging with a Device-Connected Audience

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Drew Neisser

John C. Havens is EVP, Strategy and Engagement at Yoxi.tv , an organization that discovers and elevates social entrepreneurs by leveraging their expertise for global business opportunities. I had the pleasure of seeing John speak at the recent BDI All Stars conference and caught up with him afterwards. Speaking 30-40 times a year, John is a real pro and has lots of great advice for those of you trying to connect with device-connected audiences.

DN: Is it harder to engage an audience than it was 5 years ago before WiFI connectivity was a conference mandatory?
Yes, because we’re all trained like Pavlov’s pups to check our devices every 14 seconds. In that regard, there are less people standing up and walking out of presentations because they have to take a call versus email or text. But it’s critical not to let that digital zeitgeist not get in the way of my cardinal rule of presenting – make every talk a gift to your audience. Meaning, prepare the snot out of your deck and rehearse like crazy and do your best to know the audience you’ll be speaking to. If you do all that and imbue your talk with passion and try to connect to your audience (by looking them in the eyes, etc) you should earn the right for them to put their devices down. Point – you’re the storyteller, so make it enchanting enough that you distract them from distraction.

DN: At BDI, at least 3/4 of the audience seemed to have a laptop or iPad open while you were speaking. Do you find yourself wanting to say, hey turn those devices off and pay attention?
No way. Odds are, at least half of them are tweeting about my presentation and they’re helping market me in real-time! Besides, akin to my earlier answer, it’s not up to me to dictate how someone pays attention. Before digital devices, a lot of people would take notes on a pad. That’s how they learn. If people retain more about a talk because they tweet, who am I to judge?

DN: Would it be worth trying to get the audience to shut down their devices momentarily while you speak? You’d have their undivided attention but not the extended reach of their social networks. Which should be more important to a speaker today?
If I tried to get people to shut down their devices, I might get their undivided attention, but it would be mixed with their ire at being told how they should watch my presentation. I was an actor for years, and it’s essential to know when working with an audience who and when to try to get people to participate. For instance, when I played a scary character in children’s theatre, I’d always direct my lines to the oldest boys in the audience – they loved the attention but I wouldn’t actually frighten them.

In terms of which is more important, an audience shutting down or getting the reach of their networks, the hope is people actually register what you’re talking about besides waiting for the pithy phrase that will make a good tweet. But for me when I speak, the most important thing is blow them away with my presentation – that’s the only thing I have control over. The rest is up to the audience.

DN: Knowing that your audience is on Twitter while you speak, are you thinking while you write your speech—gee that line will make a great tweet?
Sure. Or at least, “this is a good sound bite.” Puns, sound bites, short and pithy phrases are all ways to aid in retention. Humor is also great – I’ve read cognitive studies saying that if people laugh at something you’ve really connected with them and there’s a 50% higher probability they’ll remember what you said than without humor.

Another cardinal rule of mine – never make it difficult for people to remember or share what you say. My old acting agent used to tell me when I came back from auditions they’d call the casting directors to get feedback on how I did. If they said, “John came in here and blew me away” or “John’s choice was way over the top but he was really passionate,” may agent was happy. If my agent called and said, “how did John do?” and the answer came back, “John who?” that’s when I was in trouble.

DN: Are social media conferences harder to engage than say a group of accountants who aren’t necessarily trying to be the first to share what they just heard?
Every audience is different. A hard core Social Media audience like SXSW where I spoke last year is definitely device and dialogue (to their social graphs) focused. But a lot of times they’re the most responsive because they’re already drinking the digital kool-aid. Accountants or folks not as versed in Social Media oftentimes have a vibe/energy of, “prove to me Social Media has an ROI” before you even start talking. So my focus there is usually to not focus on the tools of the trade but the overall value proposition of connecting with relevant to your audience, wherever they get their content.

DN: You mentioned you were an actor in a former life. This sort of gives you a competitive advantage on stage, don’t you think?
Sure. I studied the craft of acting which includes working on your voice, dancing/movement, and projection. But mostly good acting is about connecting with truth to the person you’re on stage with in the moment. Meaning, you can’t be thinking, “this line will make the audience laugh” when you’re on stage or you’re dead. You can try to make a joke, but every audience is different. Your job onstage is to deliver your message or story in a way that best connects to the people sitting in front of you RIGHT NOW. If they don’t seem to be getting your message, use techniques like saying, “Does that make sense?” after you make a point. Or say things like, “anyone else heard of SIRI?” and raise your hand, indicating for them to raise their hand. People don’t mind audience participation if you genuinely seek their response and aren’t a tool. What you should NEVER do is single someone out and alienate them, ala standup comedian mode. Or, if you’re going to try and do that, prove that you’re making them part of the act versus the butt of a joke – say something like, “Hi, what’s your name?

DN: Do you get any feedback from these events and if so, why kind of adjustments have you made based on this feedback?
I don’t get as much specific, actionable critique as I’d like. My old acting teacher was great at this stuff and I recommend this practice technique for any speaker – record yourself rehearsing your presentation. Odds are you’ll see that you flap your hand with nervous tension, or scratch your head every 30 seconds. You have to identify these nervous tics so you can get rid of them and focus all of your energy on speaking in the moment.

I have gotten some good advice on talking about technology. Years ago, someone told me they liked what I said but didn’t get the context of my presentation. I delved right into talking about specific social media tools without providing a backdrop for what an audience learned.

So in that sense I try to always do the following:

Research who I’m speaking to (marketers, digital savvy or no, what level of the organization, where are they geographically based).
Make sure I review the expectations of my talk (what’s been advertised) before I being working on my presentation.
Find a bookend for the STORY of my talk. Don’t just list facts – what is the POINT you’re trying to make?
Remind people throughout my talk what I’m talking about. I’m a big believer in the old adage about what makes a good presentation: Here’s what I’m going to talk about, here’s what I’m talking about, here’s what I just talked about. Less points made well makes for a more memorable presentation than a zillion factoids.

My last bit of advice – change the world with your talk. Why get up and talk in front of a group if you’re not wildly passionate about your subject matter? Pretend you’re at a bar talking to friends, or with your family telling stories around the campfire. This is not about being hokey – it’s an acting technique you need to hone or don’t get up on stage. If you aren’t completely excited to tell everyone your message, why should your audience be excited to listen?

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Drew Neisser

Wallowing in the Yankees pathetic post-season performance, I was momentarily dumbfounded. Should I invest in a review of a peripatetic but ultimately forgettable season or simply look ahead to the infinite promise of a new year and a fresh start? Alas, I did neither. Instead I decided to ask a diverse team of marketers how they felt about their current season and what would be in their 2012 playbook. Thankfully, their answers were instructive if not therapeutic. (If this looks familiar, its because you saw it first on MediaPost.)

2011: Great for Social Media Experimentation
Sure the Yankees lost but that probably made more people happy than sad. Gayle Weiswasser, VP, Social Media at Discovery Communications described 2011 as “a banner year” as they experimented with on-air integration of social media on programs like Science’s An Idiot Abroad. Noted Weiswasser, “social media has proven to be indispensable when budgets tightened.”

2011: Amazing if You Delivered Demonstrable Value
Clearly, I wasn’t interviewing Yankee fans. Jay Samit, CMO of SocialVibe was even more effusive, describing 2011 as “amazing” while dubbing it “the year for value-exchange engagements.” Samit noted that the tough economy has actually benefited SocialVibe as “hundreds of brands have jumped on the bandwagon increasing our reach to over 600 million consumers per month.” No wonder Jay’s beaming.

2011: Brought in the Four Horseman of the Digital Age
Despite being of the RedSox nation, Brian Kardon, CMO of Eloqua said he was “missing 2011 already!” According to Kardon, “2011 was the year that the four horseman of the digital age became real: mobile, social, apps, cloud.” Added Kardon, “we leveraged our online community to help answer customer questions and create new, valuable content faster and cheaper via crowd-sourcing.”

Yeah well, maybe Kardon can crowd-source a new manager for his faltering Sox– which is as good a transition as any to take a peak at the year ahead. By the way, most of the folks I interviewed are speaking at next week’s Pivot Conference (http://2011.pivotcon.com/) in New York City where baseball metaphors will surely be out of play.

2012: This is Not the Year to Hunker Down
It is safe to say that no winning team did so by expecting to lose. Similarly, not one of the marketers I talked to expressed any doubts about the year ahead for their companies. Both Frank and Samit talked about expanding globally while Kardon cautions business leaders who plan to “hunker down.” “When your competitors are zigging, that’s the time to zag,“ encourages Kardon.

2012: Look for More Data-Driven CMO’s
Moneyball is not just a shoe-in for an Academy Award nomination but it is a new mantra for marketers awakening to the power of having better and more accessible data. Explains Hope Frank, CMO of Webtrends, “the shift of analytics from the IT department to the CMO will continue. “ Adds Frank, “clean, simple dashboards allow ‘head of the curve’ marketers like Zinio to develop, manage and measure digital campaigns.”

2012: It’s Time to Add a 5^th P to the 4P’s of Marketing
Frankly, the only P that’s on my mind is P for Pitching but fortunately for you, celebrated CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett is thinking bigger. Hayzlett says “the traditional 4Ps of marketing have been joined by a powerful 5^th P—for people.” “Never, ever discount the Power of One,” explains Hayzlett, since every critic or fan will share his or her feelings. Hayzlett calls this “the ROI of social media—Return on Ignoring.”

2012: Go Mobile or Go Home (We Mean it This Time)
While my aging Yanks are hardly a sure thing next year, mobile has finally come of age. Notes Discovery’s Weiswasser, “mobile is incredibly important to our business” so they are focused on building mobile-friendly sites and apps that “make our brands more accessible and fun.” Adds Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery, “businesses need to engage with customers where their customers are—mobile, social, local, etc.”

2012: Make it Personal
Like any true fan, I took the Yanks defeat personally. Marketers who deliver meaningful levels of personalization in 2012 will be in a league of their own. Mashery’s Michels sees this happening with personalized apps, emphasizing that, “a great app grants a wish for a particular group of people at a particular time and place.” Concludes Kardon, “the dream of personalized digital experiences is finally here: Drew likes the Yankees so he gets invited to Terry Francona’s Farewell Party.”

My complete interviews with all of these marketing “players” are already on this blog.