Social Media - The Social Media Professor

Taco Bell Stretching the Digital Comfort Zone with Tressie Lieberman

March 30, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Intense curiosity and a willingness to take risks. Those are two requirements to be successful, at least for Tressie Lieberman, Director of Digital and Social Marketing at Taco Bell. She came to share her perspectives with my MBA class in Social Media Marketing at Chapman University and the students were treated to a full menu of examples of how Taco Bell under her direction embraces new platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram with real-time marketing while also balancing legal and organizational considerations.

“I actually get nervous if I haven’t been nervous for a while” – Tressie Lieberman

Experimentation is key and instead of buying research data, the best research they do is in the form of the real-time feedback they get from launching initiatives and adjusting as they move along. Internally, she emphasized how critical it has been for their success with digital efforts to educate and provide reverse mentoring programs internally to get executive buy-in. For example, she spent four hours with the CEO showing her everything starting out with her personal accounts to provide a full picture of how consumers can interact with the brand.

To make it possible to have real-time conversations, Tressie Lieberman talked about how she had managed to reduce the bureaucracy needed for various initiatives on social media at the same time as she wants to clearly identify what they cannot do as they don't want to get in trouble which could stop all initiatives online.

“Don't ever let the lack of a budget hold you back from doing something really cool” – Tressie Lieberman

Taco Bell launched a new app by doing a social media blackout so it looked as if they had zero presence on all networks that day. Also, mobile ordering they launched nationwide day one as opposed to doing a gradual rollout.

This all made for higher levels of social conversations about the brand and people started talking about the app. They broke through the clutter of 1,2 million apps and became a top app almost instantaneously.

In conclusion, Tressie Lieberman says it is the best time to be in marketing and working in digital is like working like a change agent and is very rewarding career choice. Also, it keeps her on her toes as “you are only as good as your last week.”

The Science of Haters with Jay Baer

March 28, 2015 by Niklas Myhr 4 Comments

In his closing keynote at the Social Media Marketing World 2015, Jay Baer stressed how important it is to embrace your critics and “Hug Your Haters” by responding to every complaint on every channel basically all the time. By doing so, companies can significantly increase sentiment metrics such as customer advocacy and conversely, if you fail to do so, customer advocacy will go down according to recent research on “The Science of Haters” that he has conducted in partnership with Tom Webster at Edison Research. He even went so far as saying that “answering complaints can have massive financial impact on your business.”

Niklas Myhr and Jay Baer at Social Media Marketing World 2015 — Giving Jay Baer a good luck hug before his keynote 🙂

Reasons why companies do not respond to all complaints range from an unwillingness to dignify complaints to an inability to manage a large number of complaints or even find them in the first place. Still, Jay Baer suggests that with top management commitment and sufficient resources allocated, a company can, and should, respond to all complaints. He used KLM as a case study and mentioned that when the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano wreaked havoc on flights a few years back, their CEO committed to responding to every complaint. Now they have a full 150 full-time employees dedicated to responding to online mentions across all channels.

An interesting distinction made by Jay Baer was the one he made between so-called onstage versus offstage haters. Offstage haters are those who complain about an experience through a private channel first and herein lies the opportunity for companies to help them out before they go public with their displeasure. Offstage haters skew towards an older demographic and they don't complain as frequently as others and when they do so, they tend to do it from a computer, not from a mobile device.

Onstage haters, on the other hand, are younger, more mobile and tend to also complain more frequently. When they do so, they go to public channels first and expect not only the company to respond, but also that others will see and perhaps chime in on the conversation about the brand. For onstage haters, it is important to have an audience that is watching the duel between the complainant and the company and that is why many review sites are humorous, colorful, and bold.

“Hating is a spectator sport.”

– Jay Baer

White Castle 2 Star Review — This is a 2 star review! How would their 1 star reviews look like?

One benefit of taking complaints seriously is that these can serve as an early detection system by which you can learn about customer sentiments that may become a bigger issue for more people down the road unless you do something about it. Jay Baer also pointed out that most complaints have at least some kernel of truth in them and studied carefully, complaints can provide extraordinary insights.

On another note, Jay Baer brought up Warby Parker as an example of a company that not only responds to complaints but has as its goal to respond to every question posted online. That is, being responsive doesn't have to focus solely on the negative remarks.

In sum, Jay Baer pointed out that having haters is not the problem, ignoring them is. Instead, by choosing to embrace haters, companies have a great opportunity to build customer advocacy.

Jay Baer closing keynote audience — Enthusiastic audience about to enjoy Jay Baer's closing keynote

Consider getting the Virtual Pass to Social Media Marketing World 2015 which should provide a rich library of materials for the year to come, cannot recommend it enough!

Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are so-called “affiliate links” but please note that I only recommend products or services that I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.

6 Steps to a Content Marketing Strategy with Joe Pulizzi

March 26, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Today at Social Media Marketing World 2015 where I am spending Spring Break with 25 of my Chapman University students as volunteers, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute launched his brand new keynote presentation on content marketing here are some highlights. First, he stressed that he was continually amazed over the fact that the majority of companies are still not having a content marketing strategy in place. Amazing to him as it is both effective and not that difficult to do. So, if you want to get started, he suggested the following six-step process:

Sweet Spot. How can you find the right balance between what you are good at and what the market needs. You can niche down really small like a guy who has a big following for his radio show on backyard poultry! What was encouraging to me as a social media professor is that he really emphasized the need for you to also have a passion for teaching. You need to demonstrate your expertise to your community.
Content Tilt. While finding your sweet spot in step 1 is necessary, it is not sufficient as you still need to provide a story with a twist to motivate people to follow you and not someone else's content on the same topic. For example, nobody would care if you release one of ten million SEO ebooks unless you provide some compelling reason for reading yours. One way of doing that is to connect your story to something that is new or current and in this regard, he finds that Google Trends is a very underutilized tool. In the end, you should define your content marketing strategy with the following three elements: (1) core target audience; (2) what will be delivered; and, (3) the outcome for the audience.
Niklas Myhr, Joe Pulizzi, Larry Benet, and Wes Schaeffer before Joe's talk

Building the Base. Once you have defined your content marketing strategy, you essentially should embark on the age-old process of publishing. Here, Joe Pulizzi really stressed the need to be focused at first. Specifically, he suggested that you start with only one content type on one main platform on which you consitently deliver high quality.
Harvesting the audience. The key here is to not only provide valuable content but also to harvest the audience by getting them to subscribe to your email list. You should focus on number of new subscribers as a key metric and he was critical of Starbuck's major investment in building communities on Facebook, etc, as these communities are outside of your direct control. To build your base, he also shared how Content Marketing Institute systematically built their following by identifying and leveraging relationships with influencers in their field and how they gradually got them to begin sharing the content of Content Marketing Institute.
Diversification. Again, Joe Pulizzi doesn't believe that you should start out on too many platforms and media types at once but once you have acheived some traction, he believes that you should consider complementary avenues to add value to your audience whether it would be through more online platforms, books, or in-person events, etc. Joe Pulizzi predicted that we will see a lot of mergers and acquisitions as some are good at building an audience while others are better at monetizing content. For example, HubSpot just bought Agency Post.
Monetization. Patience is needed and Joe Pulizzi has seen that some of the most successful content marketers don't even try to monetize in any way until they have built a really strong and loyal following which could take a couple of years to achieve. However, once you have a community developed, then you will likely find multiple ways in which you can serve your customer base with products and services you didn't even anticipate upfront but have discovered along the way as you got to know your community better.

In conclusion, Joe Pulizzi suggests you create a content marketing plan and focus everything on building a loyal audience. Also, you really have to find out where you have a special story to tell in order to break through the clutter of numerous offerings available from others. So, good luck with your content marketing strategies!

Please see below for the full slide set of Joe Pulizzi's presentation.

6 Steps to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy – #SMMW15 from Joe Pulizzi

Social Networking in Real Life

March 18, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Steve Farber, Martin Shervington, Niklas Myhr, Derek Coburn, Chris Brogan, and Marla Schulman at Social Media Marketing World 2014

At last year's Social Media Marketing World, I had the honor of meeting up with many masterful networkers such as Steve Farber, Martin Shervington, Derek Coburn, Chris Brogan, and Marla Schulman, all of whom effectively use both on and offline means to build and nurture their networks.

Even if I am enthusiastic about the opportunities for online networking, I never dismiss the value of meeting people in real life. By contrast, I not only encourage students and professionals to take advantage of varied sets of offline networking opportunities as the bond that you can achieve face-to-face usually is stronger than the one you can develop online only. It doesn't have to be at expensive conferences but can also be during free events in your local area.

I find that on and offline interaction can build on top of each other. Networking with people online actually makes offline encounters both more fruitful and less awkward as you have already broken the ice and gotten to know a little bit about each other beforehand.

Similarly, the online interactions that you have with someone after having met the person face-to-face can be more meaningful and natural as well. Not only have you gotten an opportunity to better learn the interests and personality of the other party, but also you may have gotten a sense of how they usually prefer to communicate whether it be on or offline. Sometimes the best way to learn this is to simply ask where they prefer to communicate.

Even in cases when you have not directly communicated with someone online before you meet in person, you may still have an easier way to take your face-to-face interaction to a higher level if you know a little bit about the other party from following their online activities and public postings. It could obviously turn creepy if you reveal that you know almost too much about the other person.

Still, in most cases, I think such preparatory work helps you form a bond quicker as you can more readily find common ground. Also, most people would be pleased and flattered to learn that someone have read or viewed their updates.

Good luck in your own experimentations on how to achieve the ideal mix between on and offline networking and let me know if I can expect to see you at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego March 25-27. If you can't make it, I highly recommend you get the Virtual Pass to gain access to all the sessions from your home.

Intern, Go Make that Viral Video, please!

March 17, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr and Jonah Berger at Chapman University

Yesterday, I asked my students to name some videos they thought of as “viral,” that is, something that had been shared extensively. We also discussed some of the factors that they had in common and recurring themes centered around humor, cuteness (read: cats/dogs), and emotional appeal. Here's one of the videos we looked at in class (also boosted by a $4+ million Super Bowl ad spot…):

Just remember that identifying common traits among videos that became successful does not necessarily tell you why they became successful unless you also consider all the videos that had similar characteristics but did not become viral. Otherwise, your analysis will be subject to the so-called “survivor bias.” Jonah Berger points this out in his excellent book Contagious: Why Things Catch On and strikes home the point with the statement:

“But these ‘theories' ignore the fact that many funny or cute videos never take off. Sure, some cat clips get millions of views, but those are the outliers, not the norm. Most get less than a few dozen.”

Perhaps in another blog post, I will discuss Jonah Berger's take on viral marketing in more detail and I also hope that he remembers from his visit to Chapman University that he has promised me a podcast interview 🙂 In the meantime, I highly recommend you get his book Contagious yourself and learn more about the six factors that Jonah Berger argues are scientifically established as positively contributing towards a higher likelihood of something going viral:

Social currency
Triggers
Emotion
Public
Practical value
Stories

Chapman University going to Social Media Marketing World 2015

March 16, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

The Social Media Professor Niklas Myhr at Social Media Marketing World #SMMW15 — Pic from Social Media Marketing World 2014

Next week, I am excited about returning to my favorite conference, Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. I am particularly happy and grateful that my friends over at Social Media Examiner who runs the show have allowed 25 of my Chapman University students to volunteer at the event. This will give the students access to phenomenal learning and networking opportunities at an early stage of their careers and for me, it is difficult to see a more fun way for them to spend Spring Break 🙂 The world's top experts in many areas related to social media and digital marketing will speak and the 2,500 marketers attending will provide plenty of chances for good networking and discovery.

I cannot put my finger on exactly what it was that made last year's event such a success. However, I think it has to do with the culture of generosity and openness that Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner, has managed to instill. I got the chance earlier to interview Michael about the origins of Social Media Examiner and it is quite clear that he has found a winning recipe.

By being a pure play publisher, he sets up true win-win scenarios as he lets his invited experts to shine in the spotlight at his prestigious events while they return the favor by doing it for free for the most time. Michael Stelzner is also very humble and low-key in his personality which makes him accessible and someone that people would like to help.

Another reason that Social Media Marketing World has been successful is undoubtedly that Michael has managed to assemble a strong and very committed team to help scale the operations. Last year, it was quite impressive to see how relaxed Michael Stelzner actually was even when the event was in full swing and this shows that he has been a good delegator. I was happy to meet up with the event director of Social Media Marketing World, Phil Mershon, and learned about all the focus that goes into the details of ensuring a high-quality event experience for all attendees.

Consider getting the Virtual Pass to Social Media Marketing World which should provide a rich library of materials for the year to come, cannot recommend it enough!

Social Media and Quality Management

March 9, 2015 by Niklas Myhr 6 Comments

Niklas Myhr, The Social Media Professor, and Ted Rubin at Social Media Marketing World 2014 USS Midway — Niklas Myhr and Ted Rubin at Social Media Marketing World 2014 aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier

Inspired by Ted Rubin's post Social Media is the New Quality Control, I began to reminisce about my past as a Quality Engineering major at Linköping University in Sweden. Perhaps that past of mine is not so unrelated to my current focus on social media marketing after all?

I can definitely see that Ted has a valid point in that attempts by brands to divert attention away from product flaws can backfire as those glitches will resurface sooner or later anyway. Passionate users like the brand advocates Ted focuses on are also likely to be amongst the first ones to discover any issues with a product.

The connection to quality that Ted makes is that you can use your advocates as a Social QC (Quality Control) and you will basically get the brand reputation that your product deserves. A faulty product will not get good word-of-mouth but a “flawless product” will get some serious buzz by your brand advocates. Picking up the relay baton from Ted, I suggest that you also can make some additional links between social media and quality management and here I elaborate on some of those.

You can use social media to identify brand advocates that you can invite to play more active roles than in the past at much earlier phases in the new product development process. Social media platforms can be used to communicate with those advocates during the process as they convey their feedback. This is consistent with emerging practices of crowdsourcing and open innovation where you open up holes in the product development funnel for outsiders to take a peek at what is going on inside and dig in and do some work when called for. The potential benefits of such initiatives are that you can both expedite development processes with external help and increase the accuracy in terms of securing a tight product-market fit. In short, you can increase the attractiveness of the end result at the same time as you can eliminate or fix problematic issues before they are set in stone. Addressing challenges early both in the production and the design processes is definitely a core principle of quality management.

Services is also an area of quality management that has come to the forefront in recent decades and here social media is already playing a major role at many companies as they monitor and respond to concerns and opportunities discovered on various social channels. The reason why service quality has become such a critical factor from a competitive standpoint is that this can be the area in which companies can still differentiate themselves while many physical goods manufacturers have found themselves embroiled in fierce competitive battles as their physical products have become more or less commoditized.

To the extent that service delivery requires the active participation of service representatives, a high-quality service experience also represents an important opportunity to develop stronger relationships. If nothing else, that aspect I am sure that Ted “Mr Return-on-Relationships” Rubin will appreciate! I hope that I can discuss this further with Ted in a few weeks in San Diego and I hope that you will be joining us there as well at The Social Media Marketing World! A fantastic event with the opening networking party again taking place on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. For those unable to go this time, I recommend that you consider going there!

The Social Media Professor

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