Bubblegumkitten

Want to engage your customers using social media? Can Facebook really return a high ROI for B2C campaigns?

These are questions I have been asking myself more and more recently.

Is the use of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social media really something that can directly increase profits and return a high ROI? Are such activities useful for brand awareness and for increasing your online presence in a way which will only ever indirectly increase businesses and will always be a secondary activity? Or is it just something everyone is doing, so we feel we should be doing as well – even if the market is so full now, with a mix of those doing things well and badly, that people are beginning to ignore attempts to engage them in their social networks… will they end up being ignored more and more and go the way of the banner advert?

I think the answer is yes and no – for some companies the use of social networking is more about shouting information to their potential consumers – asking them directly to buy or do something that benefits the company asking. Those people will find their use of social networking will fail quite swiftly. However, for those who use the channel to give potential consumers and existing customers what they want… I can really see a bright future ahead.

One of the best examples of a combined marketing strategy (and I say combined as I do not think social media is a reason to stop using other avenues of communication with customers) to engage consumers which has worked has been Compare the Meerkat – http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/.

Compare the Market started their kitch tongue in cheek adverts with Alexander the Meerkat and simultaneously launched a dedicated spin off website, viral ‘out takes‘ clips on the dedicated site and Youtube as well as a whole host of other strategies including setting Alexander up with a Facebook page and twitter account. Now a lot of people I know added those pages and shared those Youtube clips. They interacted directly with the character Compare the Market had created and he has become a household name, people share the new ads over Facebook as they are looking forward to the next installment – they also pass around the website URL via social networks. Compare the market have sucessfully turned their entire image around by creating this character and endeared themselves to their target audience.  No one dislikes the campaign, it is spot on and has successfully grown from one TV ad spot into a fully fledged character in it’s own right. The advertising serves to greatly improve the consumers idea of Compare the Market as a company, as the use of the Meerkat idea shows they have a sense of humour and are able to poke fun at themselves, making them more human to the consumer. It also allows them to subtly include links and ads to their main site within all the media for the meerkat items, which encourage sales via a non-offense series of funny banners which say ‘Not looking for Meerkats? Try Compare the Market.com for cheap car insurance’. Compare the Market were just one of many, many comparison sites, until they launched this campaign, now they are a household name, and one which we enjoy talking about.

Another company who were heading in the direction of getting it right were Burger King with their ‘delete 10 people and get a free burger’ campaign, sure it was pulled after a week – but a lot of people installed that app and passed it to friends and the follow up marketing was quick, intelligent and spread the word further than if they hadn’t been blocked. (I recommend you read my review of the rather brilliant BK campaign here if you missed it – http://www.bubblegumkitten.com/2009/01/burger-king-gets-peope-to-dump-facebook-friends-for-free-burgers/)

My last example is from a article I read on the ‘Email Responsibly’ blog: here.

Jordan Lane explores the ways in which email and social networking can be combined into successful campaigns to gain sales and also promote social media channels to people who use their other channels such as email or their website.

His example is a company called ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’, one of the larger retailers of sporting goods and clothing in the USA. Dick’s released a simple but effective campaign which gave the consumer what they wanted. Rather than going down the humour route they have opted to offer an incentive – with retail this is often a good way to gain interest and engage the customer – also as they sent this via email and their site, they are looking to improve relations with already engaged consumers rather than spread brand awareness, making this a sensible strategy. Rather than just the promise of interesting tweets and offers if you join, they make the offer first. Add them on Twitter and receive 20% off just for the add. We aren’t talking rocket science here… this is a plain and simple bribe and they aren’t pretending it is anything else. An open approach adds transparency and the email also details the future benefits they will receive. But really, this is a win/win situation. The more people follow them, even if they immediately unsubscribe after receiving their voucher, the more sales they receive – their is a direct and high ROI on this offer. Emails are cheap, Twitter is free, sales will go up. People are also likely to send this offer onto friends virally as well, so really they cannot loose.

It makes me wonder why more companies aren’t taking this approach. I see so many companies either half heartily offering entertainment and their campaigns falling down and even more just asking people to subscribe or add / follow them online but without giving them a reason.

I think the key is, do not directly approach consumers and ask them for something, give them something they want and they will share without you even having to ask, just use social networks to make it as easy as possible for them to share, used a mixed media approach and link everything together.

In the land of B2C marketing, all the useful information & statistics in the world will not get much of a response – because consumers want to be engaged more as entertainment – they need a completely different approach. And depending on the audience you want to attract completely different strategies are needed… If you want them to feel valued and for customer relations to improve, telling them why they are good won’t help, they are not on social networks as a source of factual information spoon fed to them. It is for the very reason implied in the name – they are there to be social, have fun, share fun and be entertained.

Companies such as Burger King and Compare the Market have done just that, and are reaping the rewards – their campaigns became household names, with consumers eagerly awaiting their next installment.  I believe making social media work for your company isn’t about how large a budget you throw at the campaign but rather how much time you spend coming up with the right idea and tone of voice. But it is a risky strategy – aim for humour and miss and you risk a lot of negative publicity… Try to spend 70% of your time and budget on the idea and only 40% on the execution… If you want to know why this approach works, think about how successful the rather silly Icanhascheezeburger.com is, and try to think of anyone who uses social networks who hasn’t heard of or received a lolcat image in their inbox in the last few weeks… think how many people you might have sent an email onto had it followed that Dick’s Sporting Goods example if it was for a brand you shopped regularly with. Would you follow Amazon on Twitter for an instant 20% off? I think so…

With such a crowded online space, ideas are the things we need to get right, the execution is important. But a poor idea well executed will have a negative effect, whereas a great idea on a low budget can still make the headlines…