All around us is talk of social media influencers. Whether it’s a brand wanting to mimic trends on TikTok, shifting budgets to accommodate influencer partnerships, or meetings about what makes content “authentic” or not. 

Oftentimes in the marketing space the largest question for a brand is how much of their content should be influenced by the influencers. The truth is, like any good marketing strategy, it depends on the company, the audience and the marketing objectives. So let’s break it down into a few major topics that should be considered for thought-starters. 

What do you have to offer?

Ask yourself this question, but go beyond products and services. Yes, it is important to get your company offerings out there, but a whole feed of videos that look like ads is where we draw the line for any brand. Too much branded is just that, too much. 

Let’s think more about what your brand has to offer beyond the products. Another way to think about this is by asking, “What makes the brand unique?” So instead of saying: we sell clothes, it’s a matter of saying, “our clothes are the best products for outdoor activities.” 

When you’ve established unique attributes, think about what you can offer to the community that enjoys your products. If the brand offers luggage this could be providing travel advice, packing tips, beautiful images of places to add to a bucket list… There are so many possibilities to share useful, enjoyable content that is still on brand—and provides plenty of opportunities to share your brand. 

One of the biggest brands who has embraced “what do we offer” beyond products is Apple. Technically they offer phones, computers, headphones, etc. But their Instagram is all about providing photo tips for followers. 

What does your audience want to see?

This may be where influencers vs. branded content weighs most heavily on the conversation. When you consider topics and individual posts that are relevant to your brand and audience, think about:

• Who is best equipped to share the info? 
• What will resonate with the audience? 
• What kind of formatting makes most sense? 
• Should it change based on the social media platform?

The answers can change depending on what’s happening. The brand itself may be the best to post deep insights about a specific product, but a review from an influencer could be a better way to share an overview that followers can resonate with. 

Check out organicgirl’s answer to balance—a mix of studio-made recipes, influencer content and audience reshares. 

How can you stay authentic? 

There is no completely wrong way to go when determining how much influencer vs. branded content—unless you’re trying to do 100% of one of the other.

As we mentioned earlier, too much branded content will often come across as an ad. But too much influencer content can take away from your main goals: interest in your services. Authenticity is finding a balance that is true to the brand. 

Let’s take Summer Fridays as an example. Almost every single post is about a product, yet many of them mix product with influencer-feeling content—and with amazing follower results.

One of the biggest mistakes brands make on social media is trying to be everything to everyone. What makes you unique as a brand is also what makes your audience like you. Stay true to this and you can remain authentic through both branded and influencer posts. 

Looking for more great branded vs. influencer examples? Stay tuned for our next post with a recap of Reel favorites, and why they resonate. 

Last Wednesday the Twitter world was abuzz with their newest updates, mostly aimed at larger accounts. Among privacy updates to help reduce abusive comments, they also added a Super Followers option for accounts with over 10,000 followers that post at least 25 times in the last 30 days (this feature is also reserved only for those over 18 years old). 

So just what is Super Followers, and how does it compare with other social options creators are utilizing? 

The Super Followers Facts

In short, Super Followers allows high-profile users a way to monetize their content. As we stated earlier, there are some stipulations for who can do this, and even if you meet all the qualifications you currently need to add your name to a waitlist for Twitter to approve. 

Is this an end to free Twitter content? Not at all. Even if an account decides to employ the Super Followers feature, the idea is that they will only gate off “exclusive content” beyond what they normally share. 

If this sounds familiar, it’s because this type of idea is already used by many creators through other platforms.

How Does This Change Paid Content? 

As many news outlets have assumed, Twitter is adding this feature, among other privacy options, to help keep the big fish using their platform—and by extension the 55.6 million users that are on Twitter following the big accounts. 

But being paid isn’t new to Twitter. Like many platforms, including Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube and others, Twitter creators have long been paid by the platform itself to generate content. 

The difference with this feature is that it allows creators more control over what content they want to generate revenue. And isn’t that a portion of what’s made social media thrive? Starting trends, sharing something new, standing out with ideas others haven’t thought of. 

With this new option Twitter joins other platforms like Discord, Patreon and Clubhouse in allowing influencers a new way to gain revenue for the work they put into their content. While this may not mean much right now for advertising, it does have the potential to add another shift in the way influencer marketing works. 

There is no denying the popularity of TikTok among viewers of all ages. And while not every consumer is on TikTok, nor is it the place for every brand, there are many things that can be gleaned from it’s popularity. Like why it grasps users’ attention, and how principles used can inform content on other platforms. 

The Basics of TikTok

While TikTok is the clear leader in short-form videos, it doesn’t have all of the capabilities many brands need to more thoroughly connect with their target audience. But what it does have is short, interesting content that is easily watchable on mobile. 

Videos are often engaging in themselves, or joining in popular trends. At the onset of TikTok videos could only be 15 seconds long, although there are ways around that time limit now.

Animated Posts on Social Media

So just how does the TikTok format translate to other platforms? From organic posts to paid advertising, we’ve seen a significant increase of views and interaction when using movement in content. Best practices are to keep videos short, with special attention to ensuring the first three seconds will captivate your audience. 

The easiest rule of thumb for this is to simplify the ad/post to the single most important message; something you would put if all you had was space for a static banner ad. That should be your first three seconds. 

After that, keep the length to no more than 15 seconds unless your content really deserves something longer. Examples of longer content would be how-to videos or occasional announcements that need more in-depth explanation. The likelihood of your audience watching past the first 15 seconds of a standard ad or post is very low.

Best Ideas for Social Posts

Knowing what to post on social is really all about your audience. When you think about videos though, take another cue from TikTok. Not everything has to be high budget, but depending on your brand the level of refinement and company tone should be reflected. 

It also doesn’t have to be a literal recorded video to watch. Animated illustrations, effects applied to still images, or other types of movement can all bring the same amount of engagement. Content can also vary, from product highlights or service information, to influencer content or shared videos from followers. 

The best way to find out what works best for your brand? Start creating and sharing, and see what sticks. A major plus to social media is the ability to track successes and react quickly to feedback and data.

Recently the New York Times ran a story about a new adaptive clothing company that had its ad blocked from Facebook, even though it didn’t violate the policies Facebook said it did. Although in the end the issue was resolved, it got us thinking about ads we’ve placed on Facebook on behalf of clients, and hoops we’ve occasionally had to jump through to get them accepted by the platform. 

Have you ever had problems with Facebook’s marketing platform? Have you wondered why your seemingly non-controversial Facebook ads have been rejected? We’ve looked into some of the recent issues that brands have faced, especially with the iOS14 update. 

Is Facebook rejecting more ads?

In the case of the above story, the photo in their ad was for a popular sweatshirt, but Facebook’s algorithm flagged it for promoting “medical and health care products and services including medical devices.” And they aren’t the only adaptive clothing brand that has run into this problem.

From a non-AI standpoint, it’s easy to see where the automated algorithm Facebook has made a mistake. Yes, these mistakes have always occurred, which is why Facebook allows you to appeal the rejection to have it reviewed by another party. The difference in rejections now is that the algorithm seems to be checking things more thoroughly, and including a longer list of why you can be rejected. 

One of the reasons for this can be traced to the iOS14 update, and the subsequent changes that were made to Facebook Ads Manager to work with that Apple update. If Facebook is being held to stricter standards, reason would follow that they are upping their standards for others, and being quicker to act on the flagged items.

How can you avoid Facebook ad rejection?

One of the downsides of how Facebook rejections work is that they don’t give very specific feedback. Yes, they may tell you what part of their rules you violated, but they don’t tell you what part of your ad violated those rules. So it can feel like a guessing game when you’re trying to avoid future rejections. 

For our clients, we always advise following the known rules as closely as possible. One of the simplest things to start with is to read Facebook’s ad policies thoroughly before starting any strategy or advertising plans. 

Ask yourself some of the following questions:

• What topics about my company could trigger ad rejection?
• Are there images we use, or products we feature, that could trigger ad rejection?
• Is our account set up correctly (including verifying domain and setting up two-factor authentication)?

Understanding where your sore spots could be can help with strategizing how to say what you want without wasting time creating marketing materials you can’t use. 

What can you do if your Facebook ads are rejected?

As a digital agency, we have created and posted ads within many different business sectors. From our experience, there is no 100% way to guarantee your ad will not be rejected, simply because the AI used to judge them is completely capable of making mistakes. Just like it did with the clothing brand in the NYT story. Just as important as mitigating ad rejection is having steps in place if rejection occurs.

The first step is typically to appeal to get your current ad running. Check your account for the message from Facebook first. Reaching out to a Facebook representative is the most ideal way to appeal. If you don’t have someone to reach out to, Facebook chat can also help you start an appeal process. 

Through the appeal process you will typically learn more details about what caused the ad rejection. If it isn’t approved as-is, you’ll be able to pinpoint what needs to be changed for the ad to be accepted. 

After finding out what needs to be changed, the next step is deciding what to do about it. It may be an easy fix, or it may be more strategic to use a different ad altogether. This can come down to budget and timing as well. How you proceed with a new or altered ad is all up to what choice will best support your brand and marketing targets. And like any other marketing or advertising out there, learning from mistakes can help further avoid ad rejection in the future.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google itself, and caters to 2 billion monthly users. This makes it the second most-preferred platform for watching among 18-34 year olds, with 70% of views determined by YouTube’s own recommendation algorithm. Sure, not everyone has the need to start a YouTube channel, but the numbers are pretty compelling if you want to get your brand in front of that audience. 

While search priority can be divided into two basic factors, engagement and SEO, there is a lot that goes into the YouTube algorithm to push videos in front of viewers. Understanding these needs can put into place a strong strategy for your channel, and help determine what videos should be created and shared for maximum return. 

Your audience & competition

One of the first things for any advertising platform is to define your audience. Although YouTube is no different in this aspect, because it is a social platform the landscape of competition can vary. 

Take for example a food brand. While they may be competing against other food brands during a TV commercial or magazine ad, on YouTube their videos are competing against thousands of professional cooks and at-home makers who are all vying for more viewers and subscribers. Researching and understanding every type of competitor for your business can help you understand what content is already out there, and what part of that engages your audience the best. 

Analyzing ranking & engagement

As we mentioned earlier, ranking can really come down to two things: engagement and SEO. YouTube wants to give fresh, exciting content to viewers that they’ll want to watch, and using a complex algorithm is how it is determined. While views is the top determination for their algorithm, followed by likes and subscribers, every element can play a part. Here is a breakdown of things to consider:

Engagement

• Individual videos: While video views is the number one factor, YouTube also takes into account likes/dislikes, comments, video duration and estimated watch time. 
• Full channel: Other factors include overall channel views, average views per day (channel and video), subscribers and channel comments. 

SEO/Technical

• Keywords: Research should be done to ensure the best keyword match and amount for titles, descriptions and tags. 
• Length: Length of any copy areas, including descriptions, tags and titles for channels and videos can also play a role in determining ranking.
• Power in numbers: The number of domain links, embedded links, channel videos and days since publication are all accounted for in YouTube’s algorithm. 

Increasing subscribers & views

While video views are the most important factor for YouTube, for new players in the game other things need to stay in focus to get that viewership up. 

Things like paid media, contests, website embeds, links from other social platforms or partnerships can all help push viewers to your videos without YouTube’s algorithm helping out. Once on your channel or video, it’s good to crosslink to your other content with end cards and thumbnails; or simply asking viewers to comment, like and subscribe can increase viewership organically. 

Another important aspect is to stay engaged as a brand, to really build a community with your viewers. Viewers and subscribers will notice if you’re always asking for comments but never giving responses in return. 

Here are some questions to ask to keep engagement top of mind:

• Do we have a face for these videos?
• Are we communicating with our audience/asking for feedback in comments?
• Do we ask viewers to like/subscribe?
• Are we talking about future content to get subscribers coming back? 
• Have we found partnerships with other channels/influencers? 
• Are we consistent with content/showing things subscribers want?

Nurturing engagement requires developing a community of loyal return visitors, meaning that strategy and questioning should be constantly reassess. Top YouTubers don’t stay at the top without keeping attune to their audience needs, analyzing their channel and video analytics, and making changes as needed. Keeping on top of these things will help your brand presence grow on YouTube, keep subscribers engaged, and help the platform share your content with new audience members.

To maintain and grow your brand on a digital level, social listening can be one of the most important tools you deploy. Social listening is crucial for a brand that is trying to connect with current customers, especially during events like we’ve been experiencing these last few months.
Here are ways to use social listening to help your brand better understand:

Analyzing Sentiment

Reviewing and analyzing current conversations on places like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram can help in understanding what customers are currently feeling towards your brand. This can be useful in two ways. First, it can provide valuable insight into keywords and topics you can use to connect with existing sentiment and need. It can also help you quickly react to consumers. Especially in a situation we are in now, where brand conversations can shift quickly, it’s important to know what people are needing and wanting.

Understanding Conversations

For first-time analysis, it is recommended to do social listening for the full prior year, if the brand has conversation volume to do so. Beyond that quarterly review is typically advised, although more updates can help if the conversation is changing rapidly.

Reviews look for main keywords, top mentions (such as influencer conversation), and which social platforms have the majority of the conversations. Analyzing these, in correlation with daily mentions, whether sentiment is positive or negative, and demographics of the topics/keyword mentions. It can also be useful to target groups like Millennials, etc. if that’s where you know the conversation is happening. For global brands, looking into language or country separately can be necessary too.

Filter What’s Important

Scouting keywords and tracking quantitative data is one thing, understanding the quality of the data is another. To best utilize social listening you need to have strategy and discernment for which conversations to follow, and which to leave behind. For example, a brand we do social listening strategy for recently launched an IGTV channel, prompting a spike in conversation. It’s important to relate the spike to the event to know why the spike occurred to respond accordingly.

Some of this can be found by specifically finding keywords that fit your brand, versus more generic terms that can throw off findings and results. It also helps to read context into conversations, looking for spikes and patterns of conversations/keywords, and analyzing the data in relation to things like new product launches, company updates or current events within the community.

Understanding all aspects of social listening can help with organic content creation as well as advertisements in both digital and other channels. As quickly as conversations and sentiments can change, so can the digital platforms you’re listening on. Every day hashtags shift, platforms add services to entice brands, and the volume of conversations is altered. Truly connecting with your audience, and responding to their current needs and wants, can bring stronger brand loyalty, recognition and drive more meaningful conversations in return.

A lot of clients and potential clients inquire about best practices for social platform selection and how to determine posting frequency.

With a clear picture of your target audience, we recommend that you ask the following questions:

• What are you using the platform for? (i.e. Brand Awareness? Referral Links?) What are our goals?
• Is this platform relevant to the selected target audience?
• Is the target audience active on this platform?
• How do your competitors currently use the platform? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Does your budget allow for optimization of the platform’s capabilities?
• What is trending?

Post frequency varies by platform and is closely related to content strategy. Here’s a good chart from Hubspot about post frequency for CPG, Retail and Ecommerce Brands:

And here are few rules of thumb that we’ve honed over time at Flightpath:

• Facebook: Posting 3-4 times a week has been proven to be successful, assuming that all posts can be boosted. Posts that are not boosted will not be visible to most of your fans.
• Instagram: It is important to post daily since organic reach is still significant for this platform. The success of Instagram Stories makes testing this option important and will allow for new key learnings about how things are evolving.
• Twitter: This varies from 3 to 30 times a day. Tweets have a short shelf life, so it’s important to spread your tweets at different times. Twitter has evolved as a niche platform for industry news, PR, events, customer service and more specific content that works well “in real time” or in a more supportive role.
• Snapchat: Recognizing that the majority of users are under 25, it’s wise to consider that they’re up later, and on their phone frequently throughout the day. We recommend testing various content series’ and monitoring ongoing engagement to see what works best.
• Customer Service: Consistent monitoring and community engagement is an indispensable piece of any social strategy.

The most important rule of thumb is to test, test and test some more. Platforms and consumer behaviors are constantly evolving and what works for one brand at one time may not be true at for someone else or at another time.

We’ve talked about this phenomenon before, when it happened to Netflix and other companies, but a new social media revolt that has emerged in the last couple of days is particularly interesting: Progressive Vs. comedian Matt Fisher and Social Media. Fisher wrote a blog post called, “My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance To Defend Her Killer In Court,” detailing how his sister, Katie, died in a car accident and the ways Progressive has tried to avoid paying the balance of her policy – such as providing legal assistance to the other motorist during the resulting trial. (This is is something Progressive disputes.) As a result of the post, Progressive was bombarded with social hate mail. It’s hard to blame people for reacting the way they did; it’s an ugly story.

But this whole issue, from the brand side, raises real questions about social media. Should all types of businesses have a social presence? Is there a quantifiable value in having Facebook and Twitter pages? Are you only on Facebook because your competitors are, and is that reason enough? Social has created a new dynamic in customer service and relationships, as things can get very public very fast, and the more damning the experience, the bigger the story is likely to get. And most brands are still figuring out how to manage public relations issues in the digital landscape. It’s not easy, and it just goes to show what powerful tools these channels are, for both brands and customers.

Today, Progressive announced a settlement with the Fisher family. Would it have happened this quickly without the pressure brought about by social media? Probably not. Will the whole ordeal do lasting damage to the perception of the company? Hard to say, but these things do tend to fade away over time. But if ever there was a cautionary tale about how social media has changed the way we interact with each other and with the companies that play a role in our lives, it’s this. Ultimately, the one basic truth about social media is that it amplifies conversations and is empowering, for better or worse. For better, because it gives people like the Fishers a chance to get things done and speak their minds, and maybe enact real change; and it does give brands a chance to really engage with their customers, in good times and bad. For worse, because of the anonymous pile-on element that social seems to provoke in people. And you have to be prepared for both. Progressive learned this the hard way.

Around almost every holiday, brands and stores launch marketing campaigns with the goal of promoting sales, generating buzz and reminding the world that, “Hey – we still exist.”

One of the most important marketing tools going today is email, where the stakes are perhaps biggest: brands have to strike the right balance between spammy/informative, fun/cloying, design smart/confusing. If people sign up for your email list, they’re more-or-less willing to at least hear you out, so a poorly constructed email is truly a missed opportunity. Here are some July 4th/summer email campaigns (all clothing related, just to narrow the playing field) that we think are doing it right.

Uniqlo
For a clothing retailer without an online store, Uniqlo’s mastery of all things digital (its Pinterest page is awesome, if you haven’t seen it) is all the more impressive. The “Summer Festival” email campaign matches the visual style of Uniqlo’s stores and logo with a clear red and white color scheme, elegant design, and sale items easily laid out. It contains a lot of info – a calendar, product images, even an in-store drum show schedule (!) – but is successful because no single element detracts from any other, and it’s all easy to understand and navigate. Not easy to do.

SuperHeroStuff
Starting with the intentionally-cheesy Photoshopped sunglasses on Wolverine, which conveys a welcomed sense of humor about comics and superheroes, SuperHeroStuff’s email grabs your attention. And the imagery flows nicely, from Wolverine to the “Save 13%” banner and back again. From there, it’s all messaging, as their summer sale is successfully driven home with nicely placed copy above the main image, inside it, and below it.

Original Penguin
Original Penguin’s campaign is among the best we’ve seen in email design aesthetics this summer. The smart incorporation of the Original Penguin logo into a vintage-looking American flag lets you know what this email is about even without copy (of which there is little), and it matches the brand’s tone effortlessly. These things can be easy to screw up – the font color is too close the background color, the logo looks tacky on the flag, etc. – but Original Penguin’s email hits every beat perfectly.

So, within more or less a week, we all got to see the full breadth of living in the viral, social media “activist” world of 2012. Three unmistakable cues to the times we occupy.

Madonna pulls off a stunning Super Bowl half time event complete with historically compelling “people as props” staging and her co-performer M.I.A. flips the bird and mouths off verbal no-nos. The drama didn’t end at halftime, as NBC totally blamed NFL Productions (and vice versa) in a kind of “Human Malfunction” and You Tube is getting page views like crazy – quickly approaching 2 million.

But as Dustin Hoffman’s character in Wag the Dog said, “That’s nothing.” That’s nothing compared to Gisele Bündchen, wife of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, calling out her husband’s teammates for dropping a few too many passes. Yes, she was egged on and yes, it was captured as content and also uploaded to YouTube, where it gained traction. I think the big winner of Giselegate (we know who the losers are) is the guy who got her to make those comments and video it all. He gets drinks for life at any New York bar by just saying “I’m the guy that…”

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure went public with its intention to stop grants of $700,000 to Planned Parenthood because of a “congressional investigation,” Planned Parenthood launched an articulated, highly mobilized and coordinated response that included traditional media tactics – like giving the lead to the Associated Press, ensuring blanket coverage – direct mail to supporters, and a rigorous social component.

According to Opposing Views, “More than 2,000 supporters shared the above email they received immediately on their Facebook wall and on Twitter. Planned Parenthood wrote, “ALERT: Susan G. Komen caves under anti-choice pressure, ends funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood health centers.” More than 500 Twitter users retweeted that message.” The numbers and support over social media is astounding: On Facebook, Planned Parenthood has added more than 32,000 fans since last Tuesday; Twitter users sent more than 1.3 million Tweets referencing Planned Parenthood, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and related terms and hashtags, according to a Twitter spokeswoman. This pressure got Komen to change its funding position and gave the VP/strategist behind the move no way out but to resign.

I wrote this blog from the point of view that all three stories couldn’t be more different, yet are similar given the social media forces. People get emotionally into “issue driven” content that is provocative, unscripted, unintended or random – just ask M.I.A. or the now reclusive Gisele. But people really get into content that is agenda based or political (or seemingly so) when it is about people we love or emotional connect to.

After the 2004-05 lockout, NHL popularity dropped significantly: TV ratings were low, attendance was down. While many rule changes and innovations post-lockout – most notably, the fantastic Winter Classic outdoor game – have helped the league recover, it’s the use of social media that has taken that recovery to another level. With the rise of social, the NHL has been able to reach fans directly, and that direct contact was integral in repairing the damage from the lockout. But more than just using social media, they’re using it well.

The Rangers and Flyers just completed this season’s hugely successful Winter Classic, and much of its success is owed to the excitement and hype drummed up by the NHL’s social channels. To mark the occasion, I’m delving into the NHL’s superb use of social media to see how they do it.

Constant Updates. The NHL itself and its 30 teams are on Facebook and Twitter, and they all provide a steady stream of content through every channel. It’s a multi-pronged approach, where they supply news, marketing, or mask marketing as news, but it’s highly effective and does not stop during holidays or weekends. Whether promoting the build-up to the Winter Classic, giving score and penalty updates or celebrating Sidney Crosby’s return to the Penguins, the tweets and Facebook updates come often.

Quality Video Content. In addition to news or fun stuff, there’s also some pretty great exclusive video content being provided on Facebook and Twitter. The NHL is something of a master in online video, and the sharing of highlights is a big part of its social media identity. Beyond in-game highlights, the league offers content that would appeal to even non-fans, such as a very cool time-lapse video of this year’s Winter Classic rink, going from construction to game in just over a minute. And that’s content you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

Playful Tone. What’s most refreshing about both the league and team accounts is the positive and playful tone of its social media content. On January 3rd, with the New York Rangers holding the best record in the league, the team posted a screenshot of the standings to its Facebook profile, writing, “Who LIKES the look of this!!!” It’s fun, it’s celebratory, and it entices fans to engage.

Encouraging User Interaction, Physical and Digital. As a Rangers fan, I follow their social channels. During last year’s celebration of the team’s 85th anniversary, Twitter was a key component. Contests where users had to go to a surprise physical location to win autographed sticks or merchandise were all done with Twitter. It was handled so well that I even hopped on a subway to try and win something, and I never do this stuff.

In addition, the NHL created the LIKE/DISLIKE Facebook post, where users are challenged to Like something (a play, a game outcome, etc.) or explain why they don’t. It’s simple but effective, and can often spark some smart debate, and at the very least, gets people clicking.

They Respond and RT. Not all brands, even the smallest, take the time to answer tweets, and that’s a mistake. When a brand interacts with fans on Twitter, it’s a recognition that the customer exists and is valued. The brand hears them. So, when small companies don’t reply or acknowledge Twitter correspondence, it’s even more admirable for a major sport to do so. Imagine being a young fan and having your favorite team respond to your tweet? It would feel empowering and exciting. The NHL and its teams routinely retweet and answer questions, and their Twitter presences are more powerful as a result.

The NHL’s success with social shouldn’t be measured absolutely in number of Likes or in purely mathematical numbers, which are impressive anyway. But rather in the quality, human element it brings to social media. Marketers would be smart to watch and learn from them.

Welcome to the latest installment of The Flightpath Roundtable, where we gather various Flightpath employees for a discussion on the hottest topics in digital.

Today, we discuss the phenomenon of customer feedback via social media, and the impact it’s having on brands – in particular, the recent highly-publicized social media backlashes against Netflix and Bank of America, among others – as well as our own use of social to praise or complain about products and brand experiences.

The participants in this discussion:
Dan Brooks, Digital Marketing Manager
Denise de Castro, Director of Production
John Lee, Director of Digital Marketing and Analytics
Cliff Medney, Chief Creative Strategist
John Whitcomb, Social Media Strategist

Dan: Alright, I thought it would be interesting to talk about the relationship between social media and customer feedback, because there have been a couple of high profile cases in the last couple months where social media users have had a real impact on brand decisions even before a product is released. Things like Netflix with the whole Qwikster thing, where they ended up cancelling it based on the negative buzz online. And Bank of America with its plan to charge people just to use their debit cards, and there was such negative feedback on social that it forced them to cancel the program.

I feel like in the past, people used to vote with their dollars, and now it’s not even coming to that. It’s like before they even have a chance to do that, they’re just using their voices via social media. So I wanted to start off with your thoughts about this. Maybe it’s a new phenomenon? John [Whitcomb], you can go first.

John W: Well, you know, from personal experience, I had a Bank of America card and we switched to The Credit Union when we saw that there were [new] debit card fees. I didn’t go on and blast it in social but I did actually let the dollar speak. So, I don’t know if it’s so much a matter of people just not letting the dollar speak as opposed to kind of doing both.

I think that Facebook and Twitter give the consumers a voice that they didn’t have before and they utilize that to voice their displeasure with these companies over policies. I think the bottom line that made [Bank of America] switch is the tone of the conversation as well as the actual results from the consumers. Because I do think that a lot of people had already switched over to other banks, and they saw that, and needed to do something. So I don’t know if it’s a direct result of just the outcry on social for that particular case. I do think it’s kind of the combination of the actual results of that outcry on social that in that particular case and getting people to drop their cards.

And for Netflix, I don’t really have that much of a personal attachment to it, but I would venture to guess that it’s kind of the same. I think Netflix was scared of all the personal outcry and you know, the displeasure that consumers expressed, but I’m not sure that’s what caused them to change as much as when they actually looked at the numbers and saw that people were dropping subscriptions because they were upset.

Dan: Do you think it’s almost like the dark side of having a presence on social – maybe fans feel more connected to a brand, and when they’re offended by something, that is also amplified. You can have instant feedback with the brand on Twitter and on Facebook, and that can be positive, but you also have the negative, which can be amplified.

John W: I remember last year, I think it was Jeremiah Owyang – he gave the keynote out at WOMMA, and his main thing was how we need to train the consumer that social media is not just a complaint vehicle and that it’s not a help desk. Basically, consumers right now are being trained that if you have a problem, go to [the brand’s] social outlets, and they will resolve it. Before, it may not have been a problem that they could have gotten resolved for whatever reason, or it might have been such a small problem that they wouldn’t have bothered, and this sort of gives them a new avenue to connect to the company and get those problems fixed. And his worry is that over the next few years, consumers are only going to use social for that purpose, and instead of an actual positive engagement with the brand, and kind of learning from them, it’s just going to be a complaint hub.

Dan: When you go to a Facebook page and all that you see is people complaining about stuff, I mean, that can’t be good.

John L: Since the beginning of message boards, the Internet has always been an outlet for people to complain. People love to complain online because it’s somewhat anonymous, and it’s always been a place where people like to start flame wars and things like that. “Voice of the customer” is nothing new, but with social it just makes things a little more public. High profile platforms, ubiquitous platforms, like Facebook , Twitter…it’s not as unknown as something like, a slash-dot of the ’90s, where people complain about stuff. Most people didn’t even know what the hell slash-dot was, even though it was a great message board. But now everybody knows what Facebook is, everybody knows what Twitter is, and so there are a lot of eyeballs on it. It’s very mainstream, and so the complaints are just a little more visible for everybody. So that’s why the corporations are a little bit more aware of those complaints rather than it being placed on more unknown site.

Dan: Do you think there is an element of bandwagon jumping? With the Netflix price hike and then Qwikster announcement, the outcry was crazy. Even I wrote some blogs about it, and how I didn’t like what they were doing. Ultimately it was just about DVD rentals, and for Netflix users, it was like the world was collapsing around them.

John L: Well, that’s basically it. They saw that they were going to be charged a little bit more, so yeah, there’s going to be an outcry for that, right?

Dan: Right.

John L: I don’t think there would have been as much negativity if they were actually getting a price cut [with Qwikster]. I doubt the whole Qwikster thing would have been thrashed on the way it was, but I mean, everyone is going to complain if they have to pay a little bit more.

Denise: Well, I don’t really have much to say about the Netflix thing besides seeing it all on my Twitter feed, and it was getting very annoying because everyone just wanted to complain about it. One person starts and then everyone starts complaining about it, even if they don’t subscribe to Netflix. They just jump on the bandwagon and Tweet, “Yeah, I’m so with you on that!”

Dan: You’re very active on Twitter, right?

Denise: Yes.

Dan: And have you ever complained about anything?

Denise: Plenty. Plenty of times. I guess the first complaint I ever made was last year. And I complained to Saks Fifth Avenue because they sent me a shipment that I had to do a special order on, and I was so excited, ready to use it and then I found that the product was used. So right away, I went to Twitter, because that’s my outlet. I got a response within a couple of minutes. They had a sales associate that lived by me drop the new product at my apartment and had it all taken care of.

Dan: What was the tone of your message to them? Was it very angry or was it more calm, like, “Hey, I have a problem…”

Denise: I wasn’t swearing, for sure. [Laughs] It was calm.

John L: I remember this. I think you were like, “Ew, gross!” And you actually included a TwitPic.

Denise: Yes! I did a TwitPic of it! That’s what it was. And you know, a picture speaks a thousand words, right? So I let the picture do the talking. So then that eventually spread out.

Dan: Do you ever, on the flip side, have a good experience and let the brand know?

Denise: Yeah, plenty of times. If I have a great hotel stay, I do say that. I do a #TravelTuesday for them as well. If I have a good dining experience, that goes out on my food Twitter handle. I don’t necessarily go onto Facebook to say, “Oh my gosh, you guys are great!”

I try not to complain. I went to a conference last year. I can’t remember which, I think it was 140 Conf. or one of those other social media meetups, and they said that social media is more of a cathartic platform, because everyone can complain on it. And ever since I heard that, I was like, “Shoot! Maybe I should change the way I Tweet and not be so negative.” So I keep that in my mind. But in general, everybody just likes to complain. So sometimes I just hit that off button or use my TweetDeck to just to sort out the negative people.

Dan: For me, it’s sort of the last straw in dealing with a brand, that makes me complain on Twitter. So I don’t really do it that often. Except this one time I went to Hale and Hearty soups and I didn’t think there was enough crab in my crab soup and I complained about it. [Laughs]

Cliff, I wanted to ask you, because we’ve talked offline about New Coke, and I know you were working through that whole thing – do you think that whole debacle would have been changed in any way if, let’s say, before Coke released New Coke, they announced what they were doing and people had a chance to go online and talk about their feelings? Would it have been with the marketing blunder it became? Could it have been avoided if social media was around back then? What do you think?

Cliff: Right. I think the interesting part of the question is, they did a lot of research. You would have thought that they would have secured the kind of sentiment that most brands don’t go to the lengths, historically, but now they get it naturally through social media. Coke had 200,000 people in the queue, in terms of the quantitative range of people, they engaged. Not just quantitative, but focus groups, blind taste tests over a huge population and they thought, very projectable.

Now, because social is real time, all the time, they might not have looked at it as a research endeavor; they might have looked at it as real backlash that they had to manage, which is the difference, right? I think brands inherently look at social as something like Denise was saying: it had to be managed before it got out of hand. And Saks, which is such a premium level player, and they are under such competition, they want to make sure [the brand does not get hurt by influencers]. They might have already identified you as a taste maker, they might have known your score, and how influential you are, so all of a sudden – boom! They took care of you and the problem. Whereas in research, they talked about, you know, what happens in a customer service environment, because they do all this testing and drilling. So, I think social now, has upped the ante.

If you were New Coke all the way back when and you got a crap load of sentiment of, “You’re screwing with an American institution,” it wouldn’t have been a couple of percentage points that said that in focus groups [that was drowned out by the positive feedback]. But if people were saying that you’re messing with Americana, and then people started commenting on the comments, you could imagine it going viral and it would have made a real difference than just what goes down in focus groups.

Research is viewed, all too often still, as academic and not real world. The real versus academic is what’s social now. Really.

Denise: I can say that the use of social media, in terms of complaining or getting some sort of result, is sort of more effective than the old fashioned “picking up the phone.” Because my husband had issues with his Droid, now iPhone, and he would like, call Verizon Customer Support, over and over. He would talk to them for hours, over any given amount of time. And it got to the point where I was like, “You just wasted so much time. How many “x” dollars is that?” So he eventually Tweeted it out and then he got the issue resolved in just a couple of minutes. So hours on the phone versus a blast…it’s unfortunate that you get faster of results on social media. But you know, now all the issues are resolved. All it took was one Tweet versus many phone calls.

“A Facebook Like or a Twitter follower has no value to a brand until they are activated.” – Zuberance CEO, Rob Fuggetta

This quote was made during a recent panel discussion put on by Zuberance and Big Fuel. The panel was titled “How to Turn Word of Mouth Marketing into Sales,” and focused on utilizing a brand’s advocates as their best marketing tool.

Turning a customer into an advocate doesn’t always happen automatically, and as marketers, it is not our job to produce the great product or create the great service. Instead, what we are charged with, especially in the age of social media, is utilizing tools and platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to encourage this activity and help our client’s bottom lines.

So how do we encourage this behavior and turn more consumers into advocates?

• Utilizing a platform to create a shared experience
  
  This speaks to giving relevance to a conversation between consumers. By allowing them to have a shared experience, you give them something to talk about and connect with that they are passionate about. A great example of this concept was the JetBlue “All You Can Jet” program.
  This platform allowed customers to purchase a ticket for a one-time fee and use it to fly as many times as they wanted on any of the Jet Blue routes during this period. The program utilized Facebook as a place where consumers who had participated in the promotion could congregate and share their adventures with each other, or propose the way they would use the ticket once they purchased it.
  This sense of community developed to the point that the members launched their own event that was attended by over 200 people in Las Vegas. Jet Blue did not set this up, but instead the consumers themselves organized and hosted the event on their own.
• Create content of value

  This means that in social you can’t use the platforms as a sales channel only. In fact, one of the panelists even went as far as to say in his mind that a brand has to earn the right to talk about their product.

  Instead, your content should be something that provides value to the consumer. Huggies traditional media focuses on the product’s value proposition, i.e. best absorption, most comfortable, etc., but in the social space their content is centered around being a resource to help moms with potty training. They focus on helping to solve this problem and develop a relationship with the consumer by being a resource on this issue.

• Don’t pay, but thank
  
  Social Media is all about transparency, and if you are given a recommendation by someone but later find out it was bought you, feel shilled, and it harms the reputation of the person making the recommendation. However, it is important to thank a consumer once they do advocate on your behalf. This shows other consumers that you appreciate the action taken and they might be more willing to engage in that action themselves.
  
  
• Allow the advocate to feel invested

  To further the concept of thanking the advocate, you also have to make sure that they feel their feedback is important as well. By opening up the lines of communication through the social channels, you allow the consumer a feeling of importance, and if you take that even further and utilize that information, you provide them ownership. If you feel like you own something, you most likely will want to share it.

<

p class=”MsoNormal”>Building up a large number of likes or increasing your followers is a great accomplishment in the eyes of most brands, but being able to turn that community into an energized group of advocates is where the real value lies.

For more insights from the panel check out #NYBAS on Twitter.

Everyone knows by now that social media in general and social media marketing in particular is incredibly fluid and dynamic. With that disclaimer, I want to introduce a new Flightpath deck entitled ‘2011 Social Media Marketing Trends and Best Practices.’

Some of the ideas and concepts contained herein date back 2008 and publication of the breakthrough book ‘Groundswell,’ by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Some of these innovations were introduced by Facebook last week. Some of these points are common sense and some of them are open to debate.
It breaks down as follows:

PART 1: SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY – With facts, stats and observations about the overall SM landscape

PART 2: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MECHANICS – Presenting overarching themes for development of Social Media Marketing campaign

PART 3: KEY CAMPAIGN COMPONENTS – With practical, usable guides to things like Facebook Ads, effective Facebook Promotions, building a Twitter following, and key social media campaign measurement stats

We welcome your comments on the deck and hope you’ll share it with friends and colleagues that may find it to be of interest.

Follow this link to download the deck.

If you look at marketing magazines and read all the industry trades, social media seems to have been widely adopted and understood by everyone. However, sometimes as industry professionals, we get wrapped up in our own game of inside baseball. We forget that for a lot of America, and some of our clients, this is still an unknown area, and therefore a little bit scary.

I recently attended an event that reminded me of this fact and was the inspiration for this post. The event was Social Media Boot Camp, and it was a daylong workshop of various sessions dedicated to different topics. Throughout the day, I realized that the attendees in the room had varying levels of experience within the social space, and therefore, their comfort levels were different as well.

Empathy is a human emotion that we strive to achieve, and when dealing with clients, empathizing with them and understanding their fears is a huge help—especially in the world of social media. Imagine if you were about to embark on something that scared the bejesus out of you—like starting a company Facebook page. For me, personally, a good example would be to go skydiving. I am not a fan of planes, in general, and the thought of falling out of one, with only a parachute, is not a very comforting thought.

Now, if I do decide to go for it, I want an instructor who is patient with me. Someone who won’t try to force me into something I’m not ready for. The ideal instructor would understand why I am scared, and really make an effort to make me feel at ease. This may mean that it takes more than one plane ride to summon the courage. And it may also mean that I need to take some incremental steps to feel comfortable with the big leap.

When discussing social media with clients, I always try to be this instructor and understand exactly what fears the client faces. It could be they are scared of the negative feedback. It could be they are worried about the business infrastructure they have in place, and they wonder whether their business is truly ready. Or it could be they are worried about wasting their investment—with little or no return. I make every effort to understand these emotions when planning campaigns for clients.

It’s worth it to take the extra time to be a client’s social media (read: skydiving) instructor. Making sure they understand the basics of the platforms, the how and why of the various tools, and what measures they can take to safeguard their reputation, builds trust. It also makes explaining the business case of social media, and how it does affect their bottom line a whole lot easier, too.

Once you have explained the safety features, you still need to gauge whether clients are comfortable assuming the risk. Because like in skydiving, we can’t guarantee the future and can never eliminate risk completely. What you CAN do is make sure they understand how to mitigate risk, and make clients feel confident because you’ll be right there with them—freefalling in the digital open.

I could write with a lot of passion about my day at Social Media Week Boot Camp (#smwcampny) all the great sessions, the cool things I learned, and meeting some wonderfully creative and inventive people.  But that would be too easy, and besides, I’ll include a couple of key links, Twitter handles, etc. for you to get the information directly.

The beauty, the reality is the longer I am in the ever-evolving world of social media, the more I see the reality of real openness and sharing. It’s a truly “real time” re-definition of communication transparency, corporate and societal. Compared to partially closed societies, authoritarian nation-states, or even less evolved organizations, the overwhelming sense from a conference like #smwcampny was being in the widest, most open ecosystem of people, places, and things imaginable.

Being on the inside is everywhere on the social web. Therefore, ironically, it makes the inside irrelevant. The “back office” complaints of yesterday are totally done, gone.  Anything a company does can be C-suite level concern incredibly fast.  United Airlines was highlighted at #smwcampny regarding the widely known, like 9,000,000+ YouTube view known,  guy who wrote and sang some damn good songs, glorifying (gore-ifying) United’s total disregard for his guitar. It just proves you don’t mess with a guy’s guitar, even if his name is Dave (and not Slim) in today’s often overexposed social media world.

I’ll take liberty to reflect a little bit here. I have been in love with the idea of totally exposing yourself (in a non-porn kind of way) since watching the value of it in my third-favorite movie of all time, 8 Mile. The essence of this kind of exposure is revealed in the scene where Eminem as “M” freestyles against the reigning champ Papa Doc. M totally outs himself about his pill-popping mom, along with his upbringing and various other issues, including a friend who shot himself—all so Papa Doc would have nothing to say that wasn’t already said. M not only understood the power of transparency, he got the social media reality of today that being first out and owning (therefore managing) even negative stuff is a success-driven strategy.  BTW, how hot is Mr. Mathers after the Chrysler “Detroit” Super Bowl spot? He’s been trending on Twitter and huge on YouTube. Gotta love how he always connects his humanity to his world at large…very large.

My final reflection is about what was so great about #smwcampny. It was the breadth of involved people, from the highly experienced to newbies in marketing or the social space, and in some cases, both. This is what made it a Shake-Your-Boot-Camp kind of event. See some of #smwcampny for yourself, and/or follow these tweeps who I got to see and really rocked as embracing and engaging presenters:

• Chris Kieff @ckieff
• Matt Schwartz @mjsearch
• David Berkowitz @dberkowitz
• Howard Greenstein @howardgr

As 2010 winds down and we all gear up for the start of a new year, there will be many posts about the topic of resolutions. The New Year gives us an excuse to start over and have another shot at making this year the best yet. There will be resolutions for weight loss, quitting smoking, spending more time with family, and all of the other classics. Since I am immersed in social media on a daily basis, I am also sure I will see many resolutions in regards to social media.

Most of these resolutions will come in one-size-fits-all dimensions and will not be tailored to the individual. So instead of doing a broad post about what you should do, I am going to share my personal social media resolutions, so you can take away from it what you will and maybe apply it to your work, life, or whatever. Without further adieu:

Continue to expand my knowledge base: One of the most important aspects of my job is to stay up to date on the latest and greatest trends that are happening in the social media world. So in 2011, I will make a dedicated effort to spend some time each day to read the blogs that will help me do that.

Document more: I don’t know about you, but my head is always filled with various trends and ideas, tools and more, that I usually learn about from following my first resolution. The next step in making all that knowledge applicable and usable is to do a better job of documenting what I read.

Improve my writing: Even though social media is a different kind of communication than formal writing, improving this skill is a great asset that can help me in many ways. Professionalism is still a very important skill, and nothing looks less professional than updates or e-mails with spelling and grammatical errors. In my case, it also will help streamline the process and make it less burdensome on the rest of the team.

Process is important: One of the things I learned over the last year is that you can have the best idea ever, but without the proper process to make sure it comes to fruition, it can quickly die a tragic death. This ties into resolution #2, because having a properly documented process can mean the difference between a ship-shape team and total chaos.

Prove value: Another important takeaway from 2010 is realizing that not everyone perceives value the same way. It is important to not only show the value in our actions and plans, but also to make sure we are cognizant of how others perceive value. With that insight, it’s much easier to understand how to prove our actions are adding value.

So there you have it. These are my personal resolutions for Social Media in 2011. As I mentioned, I hope you can look at these and utilize the concepts in your own resolutions. I hope you accomplish all of the goals that you set for yourself this year. Happy New Year to everyone.

Some of us need a little nudging—more like a good shaking—to remind us we’re actually not at work. The pull to check your email, send a file, tweak a deliverable, or post to a work-related social media account is constant and tempting. Even chocolate and good company is no match because separating yourself from something you’re deeply committed to and engaged by is a challenge.

But in the end, the people that really suffer are the people you care most about—your friends and family. Your kids can’t get through to “Blackberry Dad” and your friends don’t want to hang out with “Social Media Sarah.” It’s a conundrum you have to find a graceful way out of, and there are definitely some things worth trying to make it work. No judgments here, just helpful rules, from equally tech-work absorbed people, for making the most of your time off for the holidays.

Rule #1 – Turn off all work-related devices and streams. Go cold turkey for a few days. Not every email needs a right-now response, and you’ll be surprised to find that some things work themselves out when given a little bit of time.

Rule #2 – Make every computer/mobile interaction just for fun. It’s impossible in this day and age to unplug completely, and why should you when technology is this much fun? So when you find that shiny new iPad under the tree, boot it up for no other reason than entertainment.

Rule #3 – Set up emergency contact protocol and stick to it. Not everyone can abide by rule #1. Some gigs are just too demanding, but you can filter what’s important. Give your contact info to someone you trust, and tell them to reach out only for emergencies. Then, relax and enjoy yourself.

Rule #4 – Spend some quality online time with the kids. Hang out with your kids online over the holidays, and get ready to learn a few things. You may not make it on their Facebook profiles, at least the one their friends see, but you’ll get to see what sites they like and what digital haunts they frequent.

Rule #5 – Let yourself be engaged by the present moment. Living a digital life, one gets pretty used to navigating a constant stream of information. This is a good thing when you’re trying to manage a project with several moveable parts. It’s not a good thing, though, when grandma is telling you a story. Just listen. Don’t think about your next tweet or worry about shaving more time from a task to stay on track.

All right, enough with the instruction manual. It’s the time of year when sharing time and making memories with the important people in your life is the hippest and most connected thing in the world. Everyone does this in their own way, and the time has officially arrived. I’m signing out now to spread the joy.

Word of Mouth Marketing is the one of the oldest forms of marketing that there is. It refers to the process of recommendations about a product or service from one consumer to another. This basic premise is still one of the strongest influences on purchasing behavior. New online tools have increased the importance of word of mouth marketing because they allow for greater and faster sharing of information among consumers. The bad part is that keeping up with new technologies is a 24/7 endeavor by itself. So instead of focusing on merely keeping up with technology, it’s much more important on using the right technologies in the optimal way. That’s where the three E’s come in:

1. Engage – Engagment is the first step, assuming that you have already been listening to your consumers and know their digital hangouts. It involves reaching out and starting a conversation. There are many way to engage your consumers, such as blogger outreach, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, discussion boards, and the list goes on and on. Just remember if you are not engaging in conversation with your consumers, then you are missing valuable opportunities to make real connections—and you’ll wind up playing catch up when a crisis arises.
2. Encourage – This next step has two main components: making all of your content shareable and making it really easy for your consumers to share your content. When you make content shareable, you encourage your consumers to talk about your products and services all over the web. But first, you’ll have to create content that people will want to share. All content a company produces should be from this frame of reference. Then, close the Encourage loop by putting all necessary share icons in place—Facebook, Twitter, Digg, del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, etc. A little research will tell you which ones matter most to your consumers.
3. Empower – The is the last step in the three E’s process. It goes beyond encouragement, as it involves freely giving consumers the information or resources they need to become a brand advocate. A great example of this is the new Ford Fiesta campaign. Ford realized that, in order to encourage buzz around their new car, they needed to harness and empower individuals to do so. Ford gave away a number of the new cars and allowed select people to test drive them and share their experiences. By utilizing these ambassadors, Ford went from just encouraging organic sharing to actually empowering their consumers by recognizing them as brand advocates.

Despite the tactics you use, and which of these three steps your tactic focuses on, there is one more overarching E that also needs to be considered: the Emotional connection between a consumer and a brand. Because let’s face it, without this connection, it is very unlikely that a consumer will share their experience.

Fall is always a fresh and interesting time of year for me: the end of summer heat, the crispness of the early AM chill, and warm afternoons filled with memories of seasons gone by. This change of season could not be a better, timelier metaphor for the new Flightpath website and blog that launch today. Without going point by point, comprehensively, let me say our change to a fresh site design and a re-focused blog is based on our evolving point of view of the real importance of emotional content in a digital world.

What I am saying surely rings true for many of us who started early in the brave new world of digital marketing. I launched the agency that is now Flightpath back in 1994, and for quite some time, strong visual design and breakthrough technology won the day. That said, great technology is no longer the killer app (pun intended) of great digital marketing but, rather, functions now as a practical and understood fundamental. Visual design is still important, but as a means to an end, rather than an end unto itself. As an agency steeped in a constantly evolving skill set, we know and thoroughly appreciate the importance of the many sides of what digital fluency means today—from the broad view of the social web to the opportunities of dynamic SEO/SEM nimbleness to being very hip to app development and deployment.

So what’s the Flightpath story as we race toward 2011? It’s not a design story and it’s not rocket science either (read: tech). Our work on behalf of many of our clients over the past 12-to-18 months or so reflects a real evolution into what we think of as rich “emotional currency,” the telling of important and insightful brand stories.

Digital platforms, social media, and even the specific world of blogging have provided incredible tools to deliver compelling “humanity-infused” brand value and story. This is the first of many posts that will thread this discussion.

Our blog historically, over the past two years, has been about a collective agency review of “everything digital.” While this blog will still patrol the digital landscape for important, influencing developments across the industry, our refocused Flightpath blog will really earn its keep by focusing the majority of its time/posts on connecting across the “digital un-divide” between the digital and emotional world. We know there is a lot to explore, a lot to say regarding the how (let alone the where, when and why) of digital platforms, and a lot to share about these brand stories told from a very human vantage point. I love adding value to clients and to our readers. It’s why the idea of creating “emotional currency” really works for me; it’s a declaration of value.

Thanks for reading and welcome to our brave—yet quite emotional—new world.  Welcome to the New Flightpath Site – And Blog.

I witnessed a compelling presentation from BJ Emerson, Social Technology Officer at Tasti D-Lite at today’s BDI Conference. The conference was dubbed “Mobile Social Communications” and BJ’s Case Study presentation was called “Using Social Technology to Reward Brand Loyalty.”

While far from purely focused on mobile, BJ recounted the path of his organization from analog entity to social media poster child, sharing a number of great insights along the way.

1. Avoid Social Negligence: BJ explained that one of their first (successful) steps in the social space was to identify/locate existing brand advocates, connect with them and turn them into energized ambassadors. Engage with them directly and/or send them some freebies. This is a great way to get started.

2. Leverage Search Engines: Cross-link between multiple channels (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.) for maximized search engine visibility in order to achieve the largest number of potential customer interactions.

3. Use Targeted Twitter Searches: BJ told a great story about how he searched for “Empire State Building” within Twitter when they wanted to promote Tasti’s new ESB location. He hit the mother lode by identifying an ESB-dwelling blogger. Then, rewarded him with coupons and followed up with a delivery of physical goods to his office. This key influencer became a great ambassador/mouthpiece for the brand.

4. Integrate Your Efforts: Tasti’s efforts peaked when they replaced their old-school loyalty punch cards with electronic smart cards that feed a master CRM database and even integrate directly with Twitter, automatically informing followers when you’ve made a purchase at Tasti.

5. Foursquare Connections: Tasti D-Lite has effectively used Foursquare’s “Specials Nearby” engine to drive store traffic and spike sales.

Some of BJ’s final takeways included: “invest in relationships, “think long term,” “trust your customers.” From the mundane to the sublime, this set of actions has helped dramatically impact Tasti D-Lite’s growth. According their CMO, Bill Zinke, 90% of all of their marketing is now digital/social vs. 10% “traditional.”