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Why would I opt in to Wal-Mart e-alerts??

Posted by Matt Kucharski on May 27, 2009 at 10:53 AM

Okay, maybe it's just me, but I think we need to apply a little bit more logic to the use of syndicated alerts by retailers.

The other day I got an email from Wal-Mart (how they got my address, one only knows) with a "Special Invitation." Here's the actual copy:

"At Walmart, we value customers like you. We want you to be the first to know about our wide assortment of new products, Every Day Low Prices and featured values -- available online and at your local store. Watch for our emails in your inbox, and start saving. Visit Walmart.com today." (Side note -- the company's branding police need to pay attention to the Wal-Mart/Walmart thing). But I digress.

Let me think about this. I haven't been in a Wal-Mart in about 5 years, but NOW I can sign up so Wal-Mart can email me to let me know about the great new products available there. I've got nothing against the store, but come on -- do I really need Wal-Mart to notify me when they're selling something new?

I don't get it. Someone enlighten me. Is this really a good use of e-mail alerts?

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Know Thy Differentiation

Posted by Tony Morse on May 20, 2009 at 2:55 PM

Google the phrase "Know Thy Self" and you will discover many blogs discussing Socrates' advice. Rare, however, are those that discuss what it means for an organization to know itself.

As a firm, we have worked through Communicating for Action discovery and planning sessions with hundreds of companies to ensure they understand the people critical to their success and how to engage them in conversations that will help achieve their business goals. Naturally, through this process we uncover the many ways each company can differentiate itself. So far, this isn't rocket science.

However, lately it seems more companies are trying to look ALIKE ... literally ignoring (or forgetting) the uniqueness each posses and the value of that differentiation. One telecommunications company sales person said that they tend to introduce themselves by naming their better-known competitors.

Which would you rather hear from a company that wants to do business with you: "we do the same thing as XYZ company" OR "a lot of people think that we're like XYZ company, but we actually do quite a few things differently, like...."

What makes you different? Are those things that you do every day? Why don't you tell people about those traits more often?

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PR, Social Media and the Multi-Disciplined Approach

Posted by Bob Brin on May 20, 2009 at 8:29 AM

Social media sounds a lot like PR some days:
• Building relationships with an inner circle of influential blogger moms.
• Your story breaks on the AP newswire and suddenly it's all over Twitter.
• Reading and pitching the best bloggers.
• Monitoring and assessing positive and negative sentiment.

That's not to say it's just the same. It isn't. But the reason PR is finding a natural transition to social media, is based on evolutionary factors:
• Most PR pros come from a journalistic background, so the concept of citizen journalists is not that alien.
• Letting go of control is not a new thing. PR is based on the concept that you offer your message/story/content to a tough crowd of journalists who do what they will with it. Now days, control is even looser and your content is even more vulnerable, but the shock isn't as great as ad agencies are finding with their multi-million dollar ad campaigns getting torched via Twitter over a weekend.
• PR is accustomed to immediate and dynamic response, with television, radio and Web coverage happening hours or minutes after your news event
• PR understands that opinion leaders rule. Reporters themselves, industry analysts, early adopters and users all have opinions and that's where people turn no matter how transparent companies attempt to be
• Relationships rule. You don't get to those opinion leaders without carefully, gradually developing trust over time.
• PR's bread isn't buttered by the media buy. It's a business built upon developing substantial information that attracts. When you have to intrigue a cynical, curmudgeonly reporter with a 20-second pitch, you know how to package an idea in its purest form.

What PR doesn't always understand
• We're talking social media. So entertainment and drama is important. Ad agencies get the value of the emotive response driven by compelling creative and theatre.
• The ROI of content and engagement. Digital shops understand the economic connection between individuals and content. They're disciplined at providing rich media and building user bases that scale over time, by constantly analyzing the behavior.
• Creating fake stories and fooling people still doesn't work.

In the end, what's needed, of course, is a multi-disciplined communications approach. And while PR folks need to leverage the affinity of their skill sets, we can't get lazy and think of sparking conversation as "getting coverage" in the new media or that we've done our job by getting some good hits. The conversation goes on.

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Outline for a simple yet comprehensive corporate Social Media policy

Posted by Matt Kucharski on May 12, 2009 at 1:48 PM

Getting a lot of questions from people about what a good "corporate social media policy" should look like. I suppose the "consultant" thing to do would be to commission a huge study, benchmark a dozen "best practice" companies and develop a 15-page document that nobody would ever read.

But the practical thing to do is keep it simple. After all, most companies already have policies and codes of conduct in place, so, here's my recommended "outline" for a social media policy for your company. If it's more than a page, you're over-doing it.

I. Introduction (all that corporate-speak about how this is important and you should pay attention)

II. The three rules you need to remember when using social media:

A. If you mention the company you're an informal representative of the company, BUT YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR THE COMPANY. Say you're wearing a hat with the company logo at the Mets game and you curse the ump because you didn't like the call. Don't go as far as saying that the company agrees with you. The company might be a Cubs fan.

B. As an employee, you're privvy to proprietary information -- about our company and about our customers. If you're at an industry conference, you wouldn't tell a stranger every intimate detail about your secret product developments or how you plan to win that big contract, so why would you do that online?

C. Don't embarrass yourself, or embarrass us. You know that cousin that's in prison? He's got the same grandparents as you.

III. Close with more corporate-speak and where to go for more information if you're dense enough that you don't understand the stuff above.

What am I missing?

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Amazon-azing ... they do listen (via Twitter)!

Posted by Tony Morse on May 11, 2009 at 2:05 PM

So ... I have a Kindle2 and love it. Only one (minor) glitch so far that required interaction with the support team at Amazon. The email team was no help ... so I clicked the link on the email when it didn't solve my problem. I was presented with the option of getting a call from them, which I took to see how it would work. I wanted the problem solved and I wanted to see how the service compared to the call back options from our client Virtual Hold.

I chose to get a call immediately. As soon as I clicked, my phone rang ... but they put me on HOLD!

As I went through a total of about 15 minutes between hold time and support help, I Tweeted the challenges and surprises ... again, in part to see what happened.

Problem solved (no surprise), but the real surprise came later ... when an Amazon contact chose to follow me on Twitter.

A small experiment, based on real-life activities. I guess you just never know who is listening....

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