February 22nd, 2010
by Eric Larson

Recently, we sat down as a team to talk about what makes Projectline different from other customer engagement and consulting companies. As we shared various stories about who we are, what we do, and why it matters, we found that some of the best input came directly from the feedback we have received from customers. Their perspective is probably the best indicator of what it is we do better than other companies.

Of course, we know how we see ourselves as different from our competitors, but that is tied more to market positioning. But in this meeting, I was reminded that it’s healthy to ask your customers how THEY think you’re different. The more you deviate from actual customer feedback, the more you are talking about positioning and less about proven differentiators.

So how can you make sure that your customers’ insights about your product or company are being integrated into your story? How can you use their feedback to tell other possible clients what sets you apart?

• Look for your enthusiasts online. When people tweet that they love you, why is it? Don’t just say thanks—pass those tweets back up to your sales or marketing team or make a note to include their messages (at least in spirit) in your explanation of how you’re different. Bonus: they’re already short and sweet.
• Look to reviews. If bloggers have mentioned you, reviewed your product, or noted new developments in your brand, what have they seen as different? Read between the lines: what made your brand or product worth reviewing?
• As you gather customer evidence, think about using the insights beyond the case study or testimonial. Have sales teams consider what each story teaches them about why the customer succeeded, and consider incorporating those key points into the core story about your brand.
• When advisory boards or customer communities provide feedback for future iterations, use their feedback to inform sales and marketing as well as product development teams. Even if the feedback is critical, look again: customers are often most critical about the features that are most crucial to their business.

tags: branding, customer engagement, customer evidence, customer feedback

February 9th, 2010
by Eric Larson

Just a few weeks ago, we blogged about the Super Bowl vs. Social Media question and how Intel and Pepsi had answered it. Now that the Super Bowl and its commercials are over, let’s take another look. Who made a splash? How did the commercials attempt to engage beyond their 30-second ad spots?

Here’s what we saw on Sunday:

• Pepsi’s withdrawal from the Super Bowl time slot meant an easy monopoly for Coke. Coke ran two ads during the game as well as sponsoring the Hulu.com AdZone 2010 (for those lacking televisions) and running a philanthropy-based promotion on Facebook. As the New York Times’s Stuart Elliott put it, “Coca-Cola is telling Pepsi-Cola that when it comes to Super Bowl advertising, you can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
• Much of the post-game ad-analysis focused on pants (or a lack thereof) and alleged misogyny. In ads for Budweiser, Dockers, GoDaddy, Chrysler, and even Dove, gender stereotypes were trotted out and replayed for laughs or titillation. Unsurprisingly, those ads were also the ones that showed up embedded in critical and defensive blog posts, roundups, and rants. One way to engage people through social media, it seems, is to give them something to be mad about.
• Other companies—like Intel, who we’d discussed in the past—opted for much safer, less potentially offensive material. A cute lunchroom robot and a pair of geeky friends made for amusing, appealing spots that highlighted the passion Intel inspires in nerds.
  But what about Pepsi? Did they miss out by shifting their energy to social media?

Instead of spending on Super Bowl ads, Pepsi invested $20 million ($13 million less than they spent on the 2009 Super Bowl) in the Refresh Project, which will donate that money to social causes nominated and voted on by fans. According to Nielsen Co., Pepsi received over 20% of online chatter about Super Bowl advertisers over the last two months—not a bad percentage for a company without an ad spot.

But to gauge the real impact, we’ll need to watch what Pepsi does with the Refresh Project going forward. Will they give away the $20 million to deserving causes and resume TV ads as usual? Or will they use Refresh Project as a way to transform the way they reach consumers? For instance, what if Pepsi were to film the idea owners and the people they help to show how this $20 million dollar investment changed the world? And what if that inspired others to donate money or create new efforts to help people?

tags: advertising, communities, engagement, media

November 3rd, 2009
by Eric Larson

Fellow Projectliner Anika and I attended the 2009 Summit on Customer Engagement in Quincy, MA on October 19-21. We’ve finally managed to recover and really process all the great presentations on using customer input to drive corporate decisions.

Tim Thorsteinson (President of the Harris Corporation) and Sean Geehan (@seangeehan and Founder of the Geehan Group) started off The Summit by talking about how Harris drives corporate strategy through their Executive Advisory Board. Great presenters from AT&T, National Instruments, Microsoft Interoperability Council, and Intel followed with stories and advice about using advisory boards comprised of influential customers to guide and inform business decisions.

What’s stuck with me longest?

It was exciting to hear from Citrix’s Chris Fleck (@chrisfleck) about how customers’ voices can directly sway new product development. In his presentation, he mentioned that Citrix had intended to build a new Blackberry application. But, suspecting they needed more info, he blogged the question, “Do you want Citrix XenApp to run Windows apps on the iPhone?” When his post got more than 500,000 views, he used the interest to get resources assigned to building an iPhone app. By tuning into customer needs, they were able to prioritize the app that customer wanted most.

So, what’s next?

There seems to be a movement to integrate broader community-based engagement plans, like Citrix’s, with more narrowly focused advisory boards. As companies engage with customer communities, they have the chance to use community input alongside feedback from advisory boards and other councils. By posing questions to both the community and to advisory boards or internal leadership, you can find out whether there’s a single clear direction. Even when there isn’t a straightforward consensus, clear, genuine communication will let your community members and advisory board know you’re listening. Open lines of communication also mean that, if you change your mind based on the reaction from an advisory board or community, you can admit you’re wrong and amend your decision.

The big takeaway:

We came back ready to start working on coordinating advisory boards, communities, and all the other ways of engaging customers. With transparency and responsiveness, they can work together to strengthen your customer relationships—which is always the top priority around here.

tags: customer communities, customer engagement, customer engagement summit, customer reference, events, new media

July 15th, 2009
by Eric Larson

According to the AdAge article “What’s your Brand’s Social Score?,” Razorfish is soon to introduce a social influence marketing (SIM) score to reflect the total share of consumer conversations and the degree to which consumers like or dislike the brand.

Related tools have been around for a while (see HubSpot’s wildly popular grader.com family), and they’re tempting because they seem to quantify something that can be overwhelming. But social media’s value is really in listening and conversations on an individual level. It’s most important to have a listening and engagement strategy that prepares you to listen to customers and let them know you’re listening by taking action on customer feedback. Customer support is a better paradigm for social media than PR. Each mention through social media outlets is an opportunity—and an obligation—to help a customer and learn from them. Over time, what you learn from those interactions will help you get better at the things that should move a score like a SIM in the right direction.

So think of this “social score” as another tool in your social media toolbox to help meet your objectives for engaging with customers and marketing effectively. You’ll need a complete listening and engagement strategy to know what to do with your score once you’ve got it.

tags: customer engagement, feedback, social media

September 30th, 2008
by Eric Larson

One of my colleagues, Greg, told me about this story. It’s an old story about turning around a disgruntled customer using new media–Twitter! (Note: Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows users to send short blog posts of 140 characters or less to other users that follow their micro-blog.)

One Twitter user who just happened to run his own marketing blog (C.C. Chapman, Managing the Gray) was “Tweeting” about the quality of his HD picture on Comcast during a Boston Celtics game. Shortly after his micro-rant, a Comcast service professional sent him a message on Twitter asking him how he could help fix his HD reception.

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tags: blogging, brand, case studies, new media, podcasts, web 2.0, word of mouth

August 15th, 2008
by Eric Larson

I am attending the New Media Expo in Las Vegas for 2 1/2 days of interesting presentations from a variety of speakers.  So far I’ve heard from Michael Geoghegan, who produces Disneyland’s podcast,  Gary Vaynerchuck, podcaster for Wine Library TV, and Scott Whitney, a professional podcaster.

One common theme through their presentations was to make sure that recordings are spontaneous, passionate, and emotional.  Vaynerchuck shoots his video for tv.winelibrary.com in 20 minutes in one take every day without editing.  Geoghegan admits that he doesn’t know much about Disneyland.  When he learns a new Disneyland fact in his podcast he’s genuinely excited and interested, and it shows up in the podcast.  Whitney coaches his clients not to read from a script when he interviews them, and will stop an interview to encourage interviewees to speak from the heart.

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tags: B2B, Best practices, blogging, new media, podcasts, social media, video, web 2.0