Yesterday, when Jay Baer stopped by our office to give us a full run down of the latest in SM, one particular discussion stuck out to me.  While we constantly remind our clients of this as we pass the SM torch over to them, it really is essential that companies utilize Facebook and Twitter accounts as an added component to a customer service team.

Jay noted that when  a woman calls a company to reach customer service, she almost expects to basically get no where.  When she emails, she may expect a response within a few days.  But, when an individual hops on Twitter and Facebook and posts to a brand that has so openly requested her to interact, she wants a response/solution to her issues RIGHT NOW.

Below are some simple strategies to implement customer service into your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Using Social Media for Customer Service

1)  Monitor your social media accounts daily.  Engaging posts are important, but know that you can’t always plan for what a fan/follower may post.

2)  When a fan complains about your product, don’t delete the post.  Let it be an open dialogue where you assure your fan that the problem is going to be addressed.

3)  Respond to questions, concerns, and even positive feedback immediately.  And by immediately, I mean within an hour!  If you don’t generate a response quickly enough, that may be a lost follower forever.

4)  If the issue requires tech support or help from a separate department within your company, respond within the hour to tell them that you are sorry for the frustration, the issue is being addressed and you will respond with an answer/solution within the next three hours.  (And follow up with that guarantee.)

It’s probably a good idea to have some simple responses to questions that tend to pop up regularly on your fan pages and Twitter feeds, but know that you can’t plan the day to day.  Just be confident in your brand and remember that these fans/followers trust your social media involvement as a part of your customer service initiatives.

What brands do you think utilize social media for customer service best?

Perhaps it’s not politically correct for the CEO of a digital marketing company to express his disgust with a strong new entry into the social media consciousness, and yet here I go.  I hate Foursquare.  OK, my kids tell me that “hate” is a really strong word, so let me rephrase – I strongly dislike Foursquare. And I don’t care who knows it.

Advocates of Foursquare say it’s the next big social media marketing platform.  They say that businesses small and large should try to attract members of Foursquare because it will help them promote their business online. Even the New York Times has picked up on the hub-bub, so it has officially entered the public lexicon.

Foursquare is basically a social media game, which requires players to “check in” at various locations they visit as they vie to become the Mayor of that location.  A dubious honor, this mayorship can sometimes lead to – are you ready for it? A free cup of coffee!  Coupons for dollars off a sandwich!  Maybe even a crown you can wear around town to let people know of your superior status.

So why do I hate Foursquare? Because its participants — many of whom reside in this very office and are people I trust and respect — continue to feel it necessary to share with me through their Twitter and Facebook streams exactly where they are at all times, and what they are buying/consuming/eating etc. Frankly, I do not care where you are.  I don’t care that you are bra shopping. And I don’t care that you just unlocked the super-sonic, gold-plated badge level like some Worlds of Warcraft fanboy.

And I certainly don’t care that you are the mayor of the Hillcrest Subway. Or the mayor of Bailey Gardiner for that matter.  What makes you think anyone actually does care, except for you and the owner of the business you are promoting by telling me where you are?

There are a lot of great online business models that already offer geolocation services and popularity ratings – and way better in my opinion. User generated content and public rating systems are not new, and there are great platforms like Yelp, Loopt, Chowhound, and even grand-daddies like TripAdvisor, that allow me to check people’s opinions about all sorts of things. But on my own time and according to my own set of search criteria.

Having people barge into my social media stream with updates about their current location is pretty much spam.  It’s uninvited information from people I actually like, making it really hard to just turn off their Facebook updates or unfollow them on Twitter.

So do us all a favor Foursquare junkies – disconnect your relentless updates from your social media streams so we don’t all have to witness your trips to Subway, Starbucks and Target. Then you can become the Mayor Of Wherever The Hell You Want, and I don’t need to know about it.

Because really, no one cares except for the brands you are helping by mentioning them.

When ordering pizza with friends a few days ago, I was surprised at the level of interaction Domino’s Pizza offered their customers. Here are five of the ways that Dominoes is giving consumers what they want online:

1. Real time tracking of your order. Minute by minute, your order is tracked from “Order Placed” to “Out for Delivery.” The tracker even shows you who is making your pizza and who will deliver! Social media and online ordering has created a real time consumer.

2. Sharing every moment of your life. No matter how boring. Domino’s made it easy for me to connect to Facebook and share that I am about to have pizza. This message is then displayed on my wall and the news feeds of my friends.

3. Domino’s monitored social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp and listened to their critics. They took all of this feedback and re-created their pizza. Then, they went on the road and found the people that were their “harshest critics.” They called this promotion the “Pizza Turnaround.” They showcase their videos on their YouTube channel and on their own website.

4. Notice in the picture just above that they highlight their Twitter stream about their new pizza. They realized they needed to listen to their customers and make things right.

5. They genuinely want to know how they are doing. They make it easy for you to leave comments and feedback about your pizza and your experience.

6. Last but not least. The email follow-up not only confirms your order and tells you that you can track your order online, it also has a “come back” message:

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

If you work for a public relations firm, why wouldn’t you do your own PR and practice what you preach?

A while back, Jennifer from our advertising team blogged about Bailey Gardiner’s ad in USA Today. But like she mentioned in her post, advertising is only part of the strategy in branding yourself and working with the types of clients you want to represent. Creating an integrated strategy by adding public relations and social media to the mix is like the one-two punch. Ready? And go.

Here are just a few ways to PR your agency’s work:

Share Agency News

You’re proud of the work you do, right? Announce new hires and share your agency wins with PR trades like PRWeek and Bulldog Reporter as well as local business publications and online. PitchEngine is great service that makes it easy to create a social media news release and your own social media newsroom.

Utilize Social Media Platforms

Whether it’s creating mobile video or doing industry-specific public relations,  showcase your agency’s brilliant thinking on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, or make it easy for people to find you with a Twitter handle or Twitter hashtag.

Position Key Staff as Experts

Another way you can use PR to promote your agency. Pitch senior staff as experts available for interview and for speaking opportunities.

Being the go-getters that we are at BG, we never shy away from a challenge. So when San Diego Hospice and the Institute for Palliative Medicine (SDHIPM for short) approached us to help them with an integrated local outreach campaign, we jumped at the chance not only to help an incredible organization, but also to learn about an industry that none of us had much experience with.

Despite being far and away the leader in non-profit hospice care and palliative medicine in CA, SDH faced numerous challenges in attracting people to its service:

• Public sensitivity about the very topic of hospice
• Widespread misconceptions (that even we ourselves held) of hospices as somber places where terminally-ill people go to give up and die
• Increasingly aggressive competition from for-profit hospice providers in the local market
• Niche target audience

Our reeducation began almost from day 1, when we paid a site visit to SDHIPM’s Hillcrest care facility. With Melissa De La Calzada, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications, as our capable guide, we learned so much about the benefits of what SDH actually provides, and the truly inspiring stories that result. We came to understand that far from being the “death-house” that people tend to imagine, hospice is not a place, but a philosophy that focuses on alleviating physical, spiritual and mental pain, to allow people to live life to the fullest.

With this fundamental understanding, we set to work developing a strategy for reaching our target audience of both the terminally-ill and the people (typically family and friends) who are caring for them. Recognizing the sensitivity of our topic, BG’s creative team came through beautifully, with the simple, yet warm “It’s Time” campaign, that conveyed the compassion, understanding and most importantly, support that SDHIPM offers to caregivers as well as those in need of care. The message played out over an integrated, locally-focused media plan encompassing behaviorally-targeted online advertising, email outreach, custom landing pages, and even Twitter, Facebook and their very own blog, that would maximize coverage, but also minimize the exposure of our message to people outside of our target market. Below are some examples of the creative:

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Thus, the end result of countless hours of research, consideration and careful honing of creative is a campaign that is making a tangible impact on SDHIPM’s patient intake, not to mention a powerful learning experience for all of us in a new industry that few advertisers would think to take on.

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

Media relations and writing successful pitches are two skills that get better with practice, much like how wine and cheese get better with age – two of my other favorite things, in addition to public relations. My first successful pitches were written during my days as a PR intern at Bailey Gardiner, and I’ve since learned a few tips on writing pitches that work and deliver results, like one to LA Times’ Brand X for Electra Bicycle Company.

Electra bikes featured in LA Times' Brand X

• Consider starting with a question and keep the intro brief. I started this pitch by asking, “Are you familiar with Electra Bicycle Company?” Then, I summarized what the company is known for in one sentence. Reporters are people. Have a conversation.
• If what you’re pitching isn’t new, make it sound new. It’s all in the delivery and how you phrase your sentences.  Are you pitching a story angle the publication has not yet covered? Can you offer the reporter an idea of what’s to come next from your client and when?
• Pick one angle and stick to the point. Electra has four bike lines and more than 200 different styles of bikes. Where to start? I picked three bikes and explained in three bullet points why readers would want these specific bikes.
• Be specific in your ask. Instead of closing with something general like, “Please feel free to contact me with questions or more information,” try closing your pitch with something more specific. Offer photos or an interview.

Now, it’s about landing the PR hit by following up and calling the reporter. What other tips do you have for writing successful public relations pitches?

We’ve learned a lot about social media over the past couple of years and while you may think you’ve figured out the PERFECT social media program, there’s always more to be learned.  Below are five social media secrets from an agency that, occasionally, has had to learn the hard way.

Social Media Secrets:

• Facebook has secret groups – Whether it be because your forum users have run a muck on your public space or email conversations between 100+ people isn’t working, one social media secret you may not know is that Facebook offers what could be your most successful crisis communication tool yet: secret groups.  Admins must invite Facebook users to even see the content.  And these groups are unsearchable so they offer a safe, secure means to open discussions for companies.

• Twitter doesn’t save tweets forever (at least not for public viewing) – For many of us, part of our responsibility when running a social media campaign is measurement.  And while that does mean different things to different companies, most can agree that recording follower interaction is part of any measurement document.  However, according to this article from ReadWriteWeb, Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone explains that Twitter “does save all tweets, but search focuses more on newer content.”  Because of this, you should always be aware that those awesome @replies and RTs from Twitter power users a month ago, may have disappeared into the abyss.  It’s always good practice to try to count or document those interactions on a weekly/biweekly basis.

• Facebook fan page creators will ALWAYS be admins – When an individual creates a fan page for a brand from within their personal account, she cannot remove herself as an admin.  Why is this a problem? 1) Admins can’t ever write a post on the fan page without the post coming from the brand. 2) If that creator is an employee of a company and loses the position/account, he will always have access to the page – that even means they could remove every other admin of that given brand’s page.  Not Good!

• Facebook status updates with links, photos or videos are NOT updates, rather wall posts – We’ve had a few clients question why their “status updates” aren’t updating at the top of the fan page.  The answer: an “update” with a link, photo, video, or other embeddable character isn’t recognized as a simple update by Facebook.  Remember that anything posted by a fan page is added to a fan’s feed, no matter if it’s a post or a status update.

• Internet browsers can sometimes be the culprit to painfully sluggish activity – We’ve had the luxury of dealing with images that don’t seem to want to upload to our albums.  After trying the refresh button, cursing the social media gods and pounding our hands and fists in frustration, we finally discovered that a simple transition from Firefox to Safari (for Macs) was all it took.  Don’t pretend this hasn’t happened to you…you all know you’re relieved that you’re not the only one to deal with browser issues.

This just skims the surface of the secrets of social media. We’d love to hear your additions!

Advanced social media users often struggle to get new information at social media seminars. To that point, this post was meant to be a recap of a recently attended social media conference that discussed measurement of social media campaigns.  However, this particular course vaguely touched on measurement and repeated what we’ve been hearing at almost every other conference we’ve attended.

And it seems the more conferences our public relations and social media teams attend, the more we begin to realize the need for a leveling system with entirely different information for advanced social media users.

I’ve decided to share my recommended leveling system for all AMAs, Ad Clubs, and any other conference coordinators, to help as they’re planning their social media conferences:

Novice Social Media Users: This would be geared towards clients and marketing professionals trying to break into the social media world, but are overwhelmed with where to begin.  Basics would include: which platforms make the most sense for your clients, how to put together a social media plan for your clients, and how to begin building and best utilizing these platforms.  Attendees would learn, based on provided case studies and overall breakdown of platforms, if they should use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube or implement a blog strategy.

Intermediate Social Media Users:  Geared towards professionals already utilizing social media platforms, this level would share how to make platforms more searchable, more engaging and more time-manageable.  Discussions would include Facebook and Twitter apps that increase fan interaction, and simple SEO strategies to keep bringing traffic to Flickr, your blog, or Facebook fan page.

Advanced Social Media Users:  Assuming attendees already have social media plans in place for their clients or brands, advanced members would learn how to provide comprehensive measurements to their clients, as well as a list of tools and applications that aid in the management of each platform.  Some of the best tools and applications BG has found has been through trial and error or personal recommendations by experts like  Jason Baer, Chris Brogan and Mashable.  These conferences should offer recommended social media behemoths for professionals to follow. After all, we are attending these educational courses to share and learn new techniques.

Do you think there should be a leveling system to these conferences?  If so, what do you think should be taught at each level?

Image via Wikipedia

Blogworld is a 3-day conference in Las Vegas where bloggers and social media fans gather to learn, share, meet and drink (well, c’mon, it’s in Vegas). I have been thinking about some of my big takeaways from this year’s event and finally have a chance to share them with you.

Here are the most important social media tips straight from the experts:

1. Laura Fitton (@pistachio) has a heart of gold and her attitude on life and work is one worth sharing (no wonder she has so many followers on Twitter). Loved this nugget from her keynote on Being Awesome:

Learn to be lucky.

Isn’t that simple? I think it’s true. Here are the other bits to that sentiment:

Maximize chance opportunities

Listen to lucky hunches (in other words trust your gut)

Expect good fortune

Turn bad luck to good (what you make out of any experience is really up to you, isn’t it?)

2. One more from Laura (she’s that good)

Think about how you are going to use social media in a crisis. Southwest Airlines has already scripted tweet posts for potential crisis situations. That is being on your A-game. Have you thought about what your potential crises might be and how you would manage on the social networks (hint: silence is not an option).

3. Frank Eliason (@comcastcares) was one of my faves at Blogworld last year and he did not disappoint this year. He pointed out that the social media space is about passion (that was a consistent theme this year).  Companies mess up because they don’t put their most passionate people in social media roles. It doesn’t matter what department they are in, the person who LOVES it will make it succeed for their company.

4. Frank (yup, he’s great) also explained how he got Comcast into social media and told us that he listened through Twitter search, a powerful tool indeed, for two months before jumping into the conversation. Giving the time to listen is critical to social media success.

5. Justin Levy (@justinlevy) shared a nice case study about using social media for a small business (a free-standing restaurant). They had one goal in their efforts – to lift their searchability on Google with key words that people would use to find a restaurant in that area. It worked and the effort resulted in a 20% lift in business that has continued ever since.

6. Has anyone who reads this blog not heard of Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan)? He talked about his move back toward email this past year and its importance in the marketing chain. Email provides targeted communication to those who want to hear from you. Key quote, “You live or die by your database.” Nuff said.

7. Really think about who you are trying to talk to in social networks. That was the mantra of Mari Smith (@marismith), another social media maven. Write it down, find them and talk to them. It’s easy to get distracted in social media, you must focus and follow one course until successful (love the belief that eventually you will be!).

8. If anyone ever doubted that blogs are becoming a business, Richard Jalichandra (@jalichandra) put the kibosh on those silly thoughts. According to Technorati’s Annual State of the Blogosphere the number one change/trend in 2009 was the rise of the professional blogger. People are making money writing blogs and it seems that will grow now that blogs are considered mainstream media.

9. Which led to takeaway number 9, which is that anyone who wants to figure out how to make money with their blog needs to dig deeply into Affiliate Marketing. Kim Rowley (@kimarketing) told us her shoe blog, shoeaholicsanonymous, pays for her mortgage. Look closely at that blog to start figuring out how to monetize your efforts. Here’s a clue – what looks like her blogroll is really a list of affiliate links. Smart lady.

10. We received a whole list of prognostications from Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), which is probably a post for another day, but I couldn’t leave him off the list. So here’s one of his crystal-ball predications – social personalization is on the way. It’s just starting this year but it’s moving fast. Smart companies will start pulling from and using robust identity profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Programs like Facebook Connect and Google Connect will provide personalized content, personalized advertising and experiences.  Sony used Facebook Connect for the release of Zombieland, which not only integrates the user into the story, it also provides a button to enable sharing with FB friends. Owyang says that if you give Sony access to your FB profile, you will have a better experience when you log on to its page; it will make personalized recommendations based on what you share. Kinda scary, but hey no one makes us share this info, we’re all volunteers in this experiment.

As we round the corner into the home stretch of this year, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at which vaunted predictions of internet marketing’s up and coming trends came true in 2009, and which failed to materialize. Kudos to those who called it, and to those who didn’t, well, there’s always next year!

1.    “Social Media Advertising Will Come of Age” – eMarketer

A spot-on prediction, eMarketer! With the explosive growth of Twitter, Facebook, etc. making major headlines, advertisers were bound to take notice. Example: Facebook is on track to surpass a 70% increase in ad revenue over 2008. Anecdotally, I’ve never sat in so many meetings with so many different clients, where people are openly discussing advertising opportunities in social media – it makes my heart sing with joy!

2.    “Microsoft will change MSN/Live/or whatever it’s called to something else that nobody can remember” – Mediapost

Half-congrats to MediaPost on this 2009 prediction. While they nailed it on the name change, who could forget Bing’s first take on its launch campaign? Or Microsoft’s latest effort, “Bing: Vampire Decision Engine”?

3.    “Exclusivity trumps accessibility. Having thousands of friends becomes ’so 2008′ and defriending becomes the hot new trend, driven by overwhelming rivers of newsfeeds.” – Charlene Li, of Altimeter group

Nice one, Charlene! Some of you may ask how this predicted trend relates to internet marketing? Well, it seems Burger King was listening when Charlene dropped this gem, and responded with their infamous “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign. Facebook is unamused.

4.    “Mobile search will increase massively.” – Mark Johnson, Latitude

A tip of the hat to Mark Johnson at Latitude. While mobile search may not be on the tips of tongues right now, consider the reflex action that occurs whenever you ask an iPhone owner a question they can’t answer – “One sec, let me check Wikipedia”. With smartphones becoming increasingly common, can mobile search’s time in the spotlight be too far behind?

5.    “The Internet Assistant will be born. Think of this as your own personal technological concierge that can integrate all your disparate data and put it to work, probably via your phone.” – Mark Anderson, Strategic News Service

Last year, Mark scored a whopping 96% hit rate on his predictions, so we can probably give him a pass for this one. He might not be too far off, though, and as far as excitement factor, for me personally, this one’s off the charts.

What do you think? Did you make any marketing predictions that either came true or failed to materialize in 2009 (c’mon, be honest)? Let us know in the comments!