Leave a comment

[Social Media Showcase] Bathroom Brands Using Humour to Break Through the Clutter

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on May 19 2013 in Brand Marketing, Social Media

Let’s face it – what are you going to say about your bathroom product that hasn’t already been said? When you’re in  this rather boring industry filled with generic products, you have to find a way to grab attention and quickly.

Solution? Humour!

Check out how these brands that could have gone completely unnoticed used humour and cleverness to grab attention and go viral.

1. Old Spice (deodorant) – Between their snarky tweets, getting into tweet-wars with other brands, and their over-the-top advertising, there’s no end to the entertainment they provide (even if Terry Crews is totally corny).

2. Charmin‘ (toilet paper) – Dancing bears and hip hop music! Who comes up with this stuff? Also, check out their #tweetfromtheseat hashtag. Explosive!

3. BodyForm (sanitary napkins) – Most brands shrink into a corner when a fan goes off on them online. Not Bodyform! They took the opportunity to respond to Richard in the most entertaining, yet truthful, way possible.

Related articles
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Permalink
2 Comments

What Does Your Dad Know About Social Media

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on May 19 2013 in Brand Marketing, Social Media

Stone Age Dad on Social MediaFew things are more entertaining than having a discussion with my dad on social media. In the beginning, he  had no clue what it was about but slowly he got into it. He’s matured from ‘What is a Facebook?’ to insisting that I share my bad experiences with companies on Facebook so they can see. Along with this, he now has a Facebook and Tagged account, watches endless YouTube videos of courtroom reality TV, old  movies and music he thought he’d never hear again, and can’t get enough of Skype convos with my sister  in Qatar and my uncle in China.

A year ago he wrote the piece I’m sharing below about the impact of social media on businesses. It’s quite insightful and I was such a proud daughter reading it that I thought I must share it with the world. So here goes:

Successful companies win customers and bring them back for  more.

Customer loyalty brings long term sales.

Today’s belt-tightening consumers choose to buy from businesses they know and trust.

The above are self-evident truths which are a part of the grammar of successful marketing.

Today’s technology has revolutionized communications and has benefitted both the consumer and the agile and adaptive  organization; and has given rise to the interactive/social web. This, in turn, allows marketing professionals to work with PR individuals, advertisers and journalists to target and highlight brand values and afford two-way dialogue.

These innovations establish relevance and ultimately prominence in consumers’ hearts, minds and markets. They result in voiced sentiments in the public spotlight.

But successful businesses can’t just connect with prospects and consumers for special sales. Relationship-building strategies must be employed to transform a company into a valuable resource for consumers.

I get the feeling he wasn’t quite finished writing but what’s said here is enough to show the thought process.

So what do you think? Is Daddy any good at this whole social media thing? Maybe you could give him a follow @toradoman to boost his confidence if you think he is (he doesn’t tweet though).

Related articles
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Permalink
1 Comment

Important Business Lesson from the Worst Episode of #KitchenNightmares

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on May 14 2013 in Brand Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Social Media

It’s funny the places you learn life lessons. Sometimes you’re looking for them but so many times they hit you when you least expect it.

Tonight I got hooked on Kitchen Nightmares – a reality show where famed Chef Gordon Ramsay goes to struggling restaurants and help them to revamp and get on the path to success. The first episode that caught my eye – Amy’s Baking Company – did so because they were so bad that Ramsay gave up on them. They just couldn’t be helped. Mainly because the female owner could not take criticism at all. She constantly believed her food was the best regardless of the number of people telling her it sucked. She got irritable, fired staff, screamed at and chased customers out of the restaurant – all because she was convinced that her food was great but others weren’t.

But here’s the thing, Amy… When it comes to being in business, you have to listen to customers. No matter how great you think you are, if customers don’t, you might as well shut down. Your livelihood comes from satisfying them and them paying you to do so. If you’re not listening, taking feedback and making changes to suit their needs, then they won’t be your customers for very long.

Now I’m not saying please everyone. You won’t be able to. You shouldn’t try to. But once you’ve identified the type of people you want as your customers, make sure you keep abreast of what they want and fulfill those needs.

And most importantly, never let pride or your own taste get in the way of sensible business.

Any other important lessons you learned from watching this episode? I found so many…

Related articles
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Permalink
Leave a comment

Statistics sugg…

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on March 20 2013 in Uncategorized

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.

Zig Ziglar

Tags: , , , , Permalink
Leave a comment

No @ScotiabankJM I Will Not Email the Issue I JUST Described

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on March 19 2013 in Brand Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

*sigh* Companies stay pissing me off on Twitter.

The issue: I’ve been unable to log in to Scotiabank’s iPhone app for a few weeks. They are pretty active on Twitter so I thought I would reach out to them and see what they had to say. The conversation:

Followed by DMs:

Hi. When I open app, front page comes up, I click on Banking and then an error message comes up. Don’t have the exact working now but…

Something along the lines of online banking is unavailable right now, please check back later. Been getting that for at least a wk

They responded asking me for the error code I see when trying to log in. (I have ethical issues with posting other person’s DMs, so I won’t.) I respond…

I can’t right now. At work and don’t have my phone. I will when I can.

They tell me to send the info when available.

Later when I retrieve my phone, I decided to send them a screenshot of the issue but then remembered I couldn’t do that through Twitter. So I indicated in DM that I would tweet the screenshot and proceeded to do so.

AFTER ALL THIS, THEY THEN TELL ME THAT I SHOULD SEND AN EMAIL ABOUT MY ISSUE TO THEIR CUSTOMER CARE DEPARTMENT. WHAT?!

First of all, if you handle your customer issues through email, should you not have sent me there from the INITIAL TWEET which clearly indicated that I am a customer and I’m having issues? Secondly, if you are directing my queries to email, doesn’t that make me outlining my issues to your social media team, well, irrelevant? Thirdly, I just spent half a day sending you all the details I have of my situation, can’t you send this to your email team yourself? Why do I need to repeat all the things I just told you in an email when I JUST TOLD YOU?!

Only after I started to #getdawk did they realize that, OMG it is totally possible to like forward the information to their relevant like department like OMG.

LESSON: If you’re offering Customer Service through Twitter, consider your customer. Try to resolve as many queries through Twitter as possible and, if you must send them to email, try to identify this need as early as possible to avoid the frustration of them having to communicate their issue multiple times. Also, anyone can send an email.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , Permalink
Leave a comment

No, @WhitebonesSeafo(od), I Will Not Be Your ‘Friend’ on Facebook

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on March 18 2013 in Uncategorized

Dear Whitebones Seafood,

I see you over there, girl, stuntin’ with your lobster and your snapper and whateva. Tryna act like you know ALL the celebs to make you look all fancy and sh…but hey, I got a message for you.

Ya don’t know me. We are not friends. I barely even know you existed before you popped up on my Facebook feed with a friend request. REALLY? If we were friends, you’d know I don’t live in Kingston, where you are located, and that I haven’t for some time. You’d also know that I’M ALLERGIC TO SEAFOOD so I have no reason for going to a seafood restaurant.

But what should I expect, really, from a business that sets up a personal Facebook profile to promote their restaurant. Should I really think better would come from a business that opts for @WhitebonesSeafo as their Twitter name…that ain’t even a word!

Now I understand ‘it’s just a harmless request‘ and I can turn it down and move on but I think this is something you need to know. And regardless of my harsh tone, I feel a little sympathy for small businesses tryna make it on social media so I’mma give you a simple 5-step program that may make me feel better about you and share you (in a positive light) with my seafood-lovin’ friends (and they are plentiful). So here goes:

  1. Convert that personal profile to a Facebook Business Page
  2. Get a different Twitter name – @WhitebonesKgn or @WhitebonesJa might work
  3. Hire someone to develop a posting schedule for you based on content and promotions that work best for Jamaican restaurants on Twitter and Facebook OR take some time to research and come up with your own
  4. Schedule content through easy-to-use software like Pagemodo that people will share and attract others so you can get back to making (I hope) great-tasting seafood
  5. And stop shouting out Twitter celebs that don’t respond. You would be much better off getting to know your customers and giving them a hail.

PS. If you are actually the representatives from Whitebones reading this and you wanna give me a shout, go right ahead through my Contact page.

Go forth and be social!

 

Disclaimer: I work for Vistaprint, the company that owns Pagemodo, but I have used it in a former life and still think it’s great!

Permalink
Leave a comment

What’s The Point of Social Media Marketing Anyway?

Posted by Stacy-Ann Hayles | Social Media Chica on February 27 2013 in Uncategorized

Image

It’s NOT getting fans…

It’s NOT building conversations and comments…

It’s NOT community building…

It IS about making money. Full stop.

A business exists to earn profit. Any activity that it engages in, it does so to turn a profit. There may be short-term ways and long-term ways but in the end, that’s what you ought to be getting out of it.

So if you’re engaging in social media marketing because it’s the ‘fun thing to do’ or you just wanna ‘create a buzz’, stop now. You need to review your options, plan according to your business goals, activate your strategy, be alert and monitor your activities and those of your fans and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, measure your results. Without doing this, no matter how many fans you get, conversation you start, communities you build, you’re going nowhere…and fast.

Are your social media activities making money?

Permalink
%d bloggers like this: