Heinz Gets Social Media Talking

Heinz recently asked on Twitter for a "vote" on whether the company should launch an official version of mayonnaise-ketchup, or "Mayochup." Of course, consumers have been mixing mayo and ketchup at home to create their own condiment for years. In Utah, it's simply "Fry Sauce."

But now Heinz wanted to know whether demand was high enough for a branded product. And, probably not coincidentally, the social-media "vote" was also a way to get attention for Heinz's branded mayo, which is competing with long-established Hellman's mayo (owned by Unilever).

If Heinz received half a million "yes" votes, it said it would introduce the new product. In the end, Heinz received 511,000+ "yes" votes and announced it would launch the new product later in 2018. Lots of comments, too, and coverage by news outlets.

Next social media question: What should the new product be named, if not Mayochup? No matter the result, Heinz understands that involving the public via crowdsourcing and voting attracts media attention, too.

The Samsung Selfie Seen Round the World

Sunday night's Oscars telecast included one of the most widely retweeted photos ever: Ellen DeGeneres using a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to take selfies with other celebrities in the audience. Here's one shot of the Twitter post...missing the Samsung phone which is in Bradley Cooper's outstretched hand. But the audience watching at home saw the whole thing, and the distinctive Galaxy phone.

Can you read the number of retweets? More than 3.1 million as of two days later, and more than 1.7 million favorites. Enough retweets to briefly crash Twitter. A new record in retweets, as of this moment. This is social media marketing at work during one of the most widely-seen telecasts of the year, doing what it does best: encouraging sharing of positive marketing-related messages (from a group of well-known opinion leaders, no less).

Samsung publicly says it didn't actually stage the stunt, even though it was a major advertiser during the telecast (to the tune of $20 million). Yes, the company provided the Galaxy phones and showed Ms. DeGeneres how to use them. Then the company stepped back and let the improv flow, touching off a viral firestorm that added to the product's high profile. Not exactly product placement, not exactly advertising, but definitely smart marketing.

Apparently the star also used an iPhone to tweet during the show. Still, Samsung was so happy with the results of the selfie seen round the world that it later donated $3 million to charities of Ms. DeGeneres's choice.

Dear CMO: What, No Facebook Page?

Dear CMO:

Ignoring social media is NOT an option in today's highly social world. Surprisingly, however, as Steve Olenski points out by quoting a UMass study, more than 25% of the Fortune 500 corporations have no Facebook or Twitter presence. His analysis is well worth reading.

Going social means giving up some measure of control, and that's why I believe so many of you CMOs are hesitating. After all, some dissatisfied customers may post on your FB page or tweet about problems with your product or service. You already have a process for managing complaints, now figure out how to do it publicly, in real time, so you can protect your online reputation and reinforce brand loyalty.

If you truly want to get closer to your customers, you must be where they are. And your customers, old and young, domestic and international, are very social these days. According to Pew, 65% of all US adults who are online are using social media. This isn't just the Millennials: Baby-boomers are going social at a record pace.

Not being involved in social media is an ostrich decision. Social media are not going away any time soon, and your competitors are already out there, building a follower network or engaging customers in a FB contest. Need some ideas? Here are just a few ways that big firms are using FB and Twitter.

Ford permits comments posted on its FB wall in response to specific posts. Hewlett-Packard hosts a customer support forum on FB. Walmart's FB presence handles public participation by segregating consumer comments on a "feedback" page. Target, a very active social media participant, has more than 200,000 Twitter followers. McKesson has a big disclaimer on the left of its Twitter account page, just in case.

What are you waiting for? 2012 is almost here. Sincerely,

Marian Burk Wood

Will Today's Social Media Super-Stars Go Nova?

Will Twitter and Facebook go the way of Netscape, Altavista, and other e-brand stars that once burned brightly in the Internet universe, only to go nova over time? 

• AltaVista was an up-and-coming search engine developed by Digital Equipment Corp, one of the speediest and most popular in its heyday--until Google came along and stole the spotlight. Today, AltaVista is owned by Yahoo! but the site is quite bare-bones. If you "Google" AltaVista, fewer than 22 million results show up.

• Netscape Navigator, once the premier Web browser, was bought by AOL in 1999. AOL (a former big-shot brand that's fallen from its own great heights) ended its support of Netscape in 2008. Now Netscape is simply one of AOL's miscellaneous brands. Ask a teenager what Netscape is (as I did not long ago) and you'll get a blank stare or a one-word answer: "Huh?" When I "Googled" Netscape, only 116 million results showed up--five times more hits than AltaVista, but still not much of a presence.

These two has-been e-brands have clearly been eclipsed by newer e-brands. For example, do a Google search on some of today's top e-brand and social media super-stars, and here's what you get:

• YouTube= 597 million results
• Google = 9.3 billion results
• Twitter = 9.4 billion results 
• Facebook = 11.7 billion results

Although Facebook has 2 billion more results than Google, that's what things look like today. Given the enormously rapid rate of change in all things Internet, tomorrow's results could look very different. 

My prediction is that Twitter will fade before Facebook . . . and Facebook will be eclipsed within a few years by some yet-unknown super-star e-brand that's the brainchild of a born-digital entrepreneur writing code at this very minute. 

My List of Twitter Lists

Twitter's new functionality allows users to create lists of tweeters and to become followers of lists created by other tweeters. It's great to be able to learn from the interesting tweets, links, and interactions of groups of Twitter users. The Influential Marketing Blog has a good, quick summary of the advantages of the new list functionality.

Here are a few marketing/social media lists I'm following:

• @b2bspecialist/mktgauthors - More than 70 marketing authors who tweet (including me), compiled by B2B expert Chris Herbert

• @ctmarcom/marketing - Three dozen marketing specialists who tweet (yes, I'm on it), list compiled by Coreen Tossona
  

• @jowyang/thought-leaders - List of thought leaders, compiled by uber thought leader Jeremiah Owyang (alas, not including me)
  

• @b2bspecialist/CMO - List of 56 chief marketing officers, also compiled by Chris Herbert (I'm not eligible but glad this list is available)
  

• @websuccessdiva/socialmediadivas - From Maria Reyes McDavis, list of social media experts (I made it onto this list, but I'd follow it anyway!)
  

• @thewebchef/Marketing - From "web chef" Paul Gibler, a listing of must-follow marketing tweeters (I just made it onto this list)

To be continued as the listing of lists grows. Happy Halloween to all.

#Buzz2009

Via Twitter, I've been reading posts about #Buzz2009, which its web site says "is for associations eager to incorporate social media and word of mouth tactics into their overall strategy." Very interesting speakers--Andy Sernovitz and Guy Kawasaki plus, among others, Stacey Kane of California Tortilla and Stephanie Miller of ReturnPath.

To read all the tweets, search #buzz2009 in your favorite Twitter tool and you'll see what everyone's been saying. A small selection of tweets from the audience (not from panelists, who didn't tweet while speaking):

Jeff Hurt: "Want to see ROI, put tellafriend button on your email and everytime button clicked, its worth $1 then you can use hard dollars"
Jeff Crab: "You have many layers of followers - even though only some will RT you...many more read/view your material"
Meet/Collab: "Give people something to talk about and make it easy to participate"
ShowTecAE: "Great point, if you're forcing the viral campaign, you're trying to hard."
The Black Hill: "Justifying social media time to your boss? Set up specific metrics (including hours spent) to measure ROI"

Live from SmartBrief's panel discussion, highlights here.

Tweaking Twitter

Twitter's web presence didn't always look as it does today. Using the Internet Archive site (one of my faves), I browsed Twitter's past.

At the beginning of 2006, the site was rudimentary and to-the-point, with the now-famous blue background and (c) Twitter. Landing-page copy began this way: "Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you are doing."

At the end of 2006, the site looked a bit more recognizable, still text-heavy, and its copyright was shown as (c) 2006 Obvious.

In mid-2007, the site is awash in Twitter blue with round thingies, and at this point it asks the familiar question, "What are you doing?"

For a bit more about Twitter's past, I found this interview with Dom Sagolla. And of course what would we do without Wikipedia's take on Twitter's past?

BTW, according to the Internet Archive, the twitter URL was owned by dotist, a "web business development partner," in 2002. In 2004, the URL seemed to be parked and waiting to be scooped up. . .as it was. What a scoop.

Yanks and Red Sox Online

With baseball's opening day not far off, I took a look at the MLB sites of archrivals Yankees and Red Sox. Both operate off the MLB platform and are similarly busy, with video segments offered in top right corner and live coverage of preseason games in top left corner. Lots of options in the menu across the top of the screen, from the latest news to fantasy baseball info.

A countdown to opening day box is at center, so you know exactly how many days and hours AND minutes are left until the first pitch is thrown. These are unusually engaging sites with a wealth of interactivity so many clickable areas to entertain fans and tempt money out of their wallets.

At bottom left of both sites are blog corners, where the fans are invited to add their own blogs to the list of blogs rooting for Yankees or Red Sox. MLBlogs even have a bracket competition going, playing off the March Madness going on right now in college hoops.

Yanks are on Twitter, of course, tweeting the latest team news, as are Red Sox. Let the rivalry continue.

The Twitter Economy

Twitter is the phenomenon du jour. A Google search on "Twitter" turns up 229 million results. "Twitter services" results: 45 million hits.

Clearly, Twitter has inspired a huge amount of entrepreneurial activity. It's also attracting a growing number of corporate users who see the Twitter base as an opportunity to get customer feedback, provide customer service, sell goods and services, or just plain polish their brands. (Directory of biz tweets here.) Twitter is becoming a center of economic activity around the world.

One example: Tweet Later, a site that helps Twitter users automate their "welcome" messages to new followers, track keywords in the fast-moving Twitter stream, and schedule release of future tweets (like time-release capsules). Fee-based services go beyond the free services and help Tweet Later's founders cash in on Twitter's popularity.

In the corporate arena, Best Buy's CMO uses Twitter to float ideas and drive traffic to his blog, where he posts thoughts and requests input. A few days ago, he blogged about Best Buy getting into the market for used/refurbished electronics. Last year he asked for feedback on a SWOT analysis he was preparing for the retailer--and received a number of thoughtful, serious replies. Now this is how to use social media for business advantage.

Will Twitter be overtaken by some new social media tsunami in 2009? Stay tuned.

Twitter and the Shorty Awards

It was inevitable--awards are given for everything else, why not best Twitterers? WSJ has a good article about tonight's Shorty Awards. Already the marketing hype is on. For instance, here's a news release picked up by MSNBC about a Cardstore.com artist winning an art Shorty for the "Fail Whale," an error message. Awards for error messages! Will the whale be accepting its own award?

clipped from shortyawards.com The best producers of short* content in 2008

Twitter Metrics

Yes, you can count the number of Twitter followers and the number of following. But wait, there's more! Tweeple Twak helps you determine where your followers are, how influential they are, why they stopped following you, etc.

My question: Just how valuable are these numerical metrics? Numbers sound good but so did eyeball counts. And how "influential" a follower is depends on the audience, no?

IMHO, Twitter's power is not mainly in numbers but more in content and utility. It's a great way to know what customers are saying about you, reach out to help customers in a more immediate way, let customers know what's happening. Content analytics are at least as important as number of followers in terms of marketing metrics. And there are some companies doing Twitter conversation analysis. So numbers are nice, content analysis is better.

Twitter Around Super Bowl

Lots of Twitter dialogues going on during Super Bowl. The Twitter/SuperBowl page was the official Twitter feed. The New York Times mapped tweets about the game.

Advertisers also got into the game, as WSJ reported, including: H&R Block (see image); Pepsi; Overstock.com; E*Trade.

Who had time to watch the game with all this tweeting? But seriously, good experimentation. Big question: Do these advertisers have a real strategy for building on these Twitter dialogues?

B of A Twitter Rep Cuts Through Red Tape

Twitter isn't just for "what are you doing right now" comments--a small but growing number of businesses are monitoring consumer tweets and responding. Today's Consumerist.com has this story about Bank of America's official Twitter rep.

According to the B of A Twitter page, the rep's role is "to help, listen, and learn from our customers."

Other companies represented on Twitter include the online retailer Zappos, Dell, BBC, and Starbucks. The list is growing because, in 2009, every company has to have a plan for integrating social media (Twitter, blogs, etc.) into its customer contact activities. This is a must for maintaining a dialogue with customers and others. B of A's description of its Twitter role explains why. Enough said.

Dell Gets Social Media Marketing

I'm always interested in Dell's marketing, not just because I write about it but also because I buy its products. I recently discovered its YouTube channel and found a number of interesting videos, including this 50-second one (without narration) that shows how a customer suggestion submitted to Dell's IdeaStorm site was transformed into a product feature. Customers talk, Dell listens--that's the message.

Dell learned its lesson after the Dell Hell crisis. Now Dell people blog, they're on Twitter, they're on YouTube.

clipped from www.youtube.com Adblock