I work with a few ad networks, and one of them had a quick phone call with me today. They said, “we hear you like to keep a lot of control over who your advertisers are.”
“Yes, ” I said, “I like to make sure that there’s nothing wildly off topic, like WalMart or processed foods. I’m difficult…” I said.
“So I heard.” They involuntarily replied.
Jane burst in the front door this afternoon, her hair was damp from the swim party, her cheeks red, her jeans skinny and eyes huge.
“Mom I have Mrs. Lodge for my mentor teacher and my locker is on the bottom but it’s under a new boy and I tried for thirty minutes to open my locker and I only got it open two times but the new boy promised me that he’d help me open my locker and I’m in advanced Spanish and I’m scared of Señora and I have all my classes with Sophia and I love middle school.”
And she said it all without taking a breath.
What I heard was, “The new boy likes me and Spanish might make me cry.”
Recently I wrote a post that outlined the Five Simple Steps to Bringing a Brand to their (Virtual) Knees. I can’t offer you a problem without a solution.
Brands really don’t need to be afraid of bloggers, they just need to think like them (a little bit) so here are six tips for brand managers. Please feel free to add more in the comments if you think I’ve left something out.
1. Build Social Capital early and often: The best way to make sure you never have a big problem with bloggers is by participating in their discussions before the drama. If you follow folks like Scott Monty and Christopher Barger on Twitter you’ll see that their streams aren’t just about Ford and General Motors, they are simply on Twitter to be part of the online community. I’m quite certain that they are listening intently for their own brands, and for automobile news too, but both men have tweeted about their shoes within 24 hours of writing this. Now, you may think that they are wasting their time, but I can tell you that I personally have emailed each of them (called one of them on vacation) when disaster looked like it was looming. Both men interact with a diverse community, and the Social Capital they’ve built (and continue to build) acts as a set of eyes and ears, even when they are on vacation.
2. Do not hand social media over to interns: Interns are adorable, and I recognize that businesses need them for things like answering phones and fetching coffee. However, when your intern is in charge of your facebook page you’ve just handed the keys over to someone who was probably delivering pizza last month. I know any idiot can “do” facebook, but it takes a non-idiot to figure out which gripes require your attention, and when your silence will be deafening. Social media is maturing, and there are pros available. Hire them before you have to shop for a crisis communicator (I hear those guys are expensive).
3. Monitor your brand round the clock: Small businesses do it, because they have to. You need to also. It doesn’t have to be one person, but at the barest minimum a google alert with YourBrandHere and boycott, sucks, or criminal as a keyword will keep you informed of a tempest brewing. If you’ve hired a pro they’ll be able to look at it and see if it’s worth paying any attention to (not all shrieking matters). Again, if you’ve built social capital you might have eyes and ears everywhere.
4. Respond truthfully: One big criticism of of the Motrin fiasco is that the apology wasn’t sincere (authentic). Seth Godin says “This isn’t a honest note from a real person. It’s the carefully crafted non-statement of a committee. What an opportunity to get personal and connected and build bridges…” To a degree he’s right, but my understanding is that J&J’s hands were tied because of legalese required by drug companies. I may be wrong, it may have just been a crappy reply. What works though is a well thought out reply that explains why you are an important part of a community. Just this weekend Rufus from Babble added a very long comment at phdinparenting that included these two paragraphs:
I encourage everyone who is concerned about this to spend some time on Babble reading about breastfeeding — just type in “breastfeeding” in our search box at the top of the page. You will see that we have worked hard to cover the breadth of breastfeeding issues in a way that is rational, non-judgmental, and supportive of women in their efforts to breastfeed for as long as possible. Katie Allison Granju wrote a wonderful post on Babble — Confessions of a proud Breastfeeding Zealot (tongue and cheek) — http://bit.ly/b8i2MZ — in which she concluded: the challenge is to create a supportive breastfeeding culture while being respectful of people’s individual choices. I think that’s well said; it’s what we aspire to do at Babble.
Here are some other interesting Babble takes: Madeline Holler on breastfeeding her daughter until she was almost 4 (http://bit.ly/dhOjQk); Tricia Grissom on why she had to switch to formula after a few months (don’t pounce on her until you read about her ordeal – http://bit.ly/9VApUq); and Kate Tuttle on the growing popularity of exclusive pumping (http://bit.ly/ayvXu9), and Madeline again on The Case Against the Case Against Breastfeeding (http://bit.ly/bmXO5R).
Clearly Rufus (and Babble) value the community at PhDinParenting, and clearly Babble supports moms and breastfeeding. It seems to me that his entire comment is the gold standard for how to respond when your brand is attacked.
5. Don’t participate if you don’t have the resources: Really. I honest to goodness recommend that brands stay out of social media if they aren’t going to make it part of their business. Do not set up a facebook page and then let it sit there. If you want to protect your name online buy your URL’s, take your twitter ID’s and just park them. Don’t invite a conversation you won’t show up for. People will take over your page. I think everyone remembers when Nestle set up a facebook fan page and then had no idea how to handle it. If you don’t know how to administer a fan page, if you don’t know a tweet from a grunt, do not jump into social media alone. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you need help, or deciding that you don’t have the resources to grow your brand online.
6. Just be yourself. Social media isn’t about your brand, it’s about you. If people like you they will help you. It’s just like high school, only everyone’s pretty now.
Yesterday my husband left work early and we were chatting about the rise of the Internet Alpha Mom, and I said to him, “Just you wait, something will happen this weekend. The Moms will be working.”
And they were. Now, I’m not certain that the Mom Bloggers were consciously thinking I’ll get them, but I do realize that a long weekend is the perfect time to rally the troops. I’m not suggesting that Mom Bloggers (or any sort of blogger for that matter) should take their hard earned social capital and spend it on trashing a brand (corporation, company, whatever…), but there does seem to be a bit of a formula to it, and I’ll give you five simple steps to bring a brand to their knees.
My suggestion is that brands pay close attention. Bloggers already know exactly what to do:
1) Timing is everything: Large corporations close up in the evenings, and many are completely checked out on weekends. If you post something critical of them on a Friday evening, you have a two to three day head start on your buzz versus theirs. A well timed blog post puts you days ahead of the evil corporation.
2) Ask readers to take an action and report back: When you post about the evil corporation be sure to ask your readers to do something other than just read. Ask them to call or email (letter writing campaigns have gone the way of the brontosaurus). If you are looking to build your site, ask them to report back to you in the comments, if you are looking to build momentum, ask them to post on their own sites.
3) Track and share the momentum: Set up a google alert. If you’re asking people to say #xyzstinks then you will want updates as quickly as possible so that you can support people who write #xyzstinks. As people are writing be sure to share it in public forums like Twitter, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg. As you are sharing this valuable information you’ll be promoting others, and your cause.
4) Go multimedia: Really, multimedia doesn’t mean internet, TV and radio. Multimedia (in our frame of reference) means text, audio and video. Post your message to your blog, to cinch, and to YouTube. Once you have the message of #xyzstinks available to every kind of content consumer you can pitch the local media.
5) Get redundant: Stay on message and repeat it ad nauseum. I recognize that after a day or so it’s unlikely that you will care any longer, but stamina is everything. Constant blog posts in every blog you contribute to are key. Repeat steps one through four tirelessly.
When the long weekend finally ends you will have cultivated several hundred posts, a few thousand tweets and (if you’re lucky) a few passionate co-conspirators. If the weekend has gone well, and all executives are at their beach houses, you will have begun a movement. If, however, the company monitors their online reputation, and hasn’t outsourced their phone center to India, you might have had some level of resolution, and the storm may not be brewing.
The 2010 Lexus GS Hybrid left me confused. I mean, I understand that it’s a sedan, and I certainly understand that it’s a hybrid. I surely comprehend luxury for it’s own sake, but I’m a one trick pony, and I never really thought that there would be a luxury sports hybrid sedan.
Make no mistake, I LOVED driving it. The Lexus GS is a beautiful, low slung sports sedan that uses every bit of space to remind you that you are in the lap of luxury. With a lower price point (the one I drove was $65,000) than many cars in it’s class, it still boasted every feature imaginable, from top grain leather, to air conditioned seats, and a glossy wood steering wheel.
The Lexus GS is like a jackrabbit, hopping off the line faster than most sedans without groaning or sacrificing a smooth ride. When you put the car into sports mode, you realize that you can take corners at ridiculous speeds without giving up any control. This car handles like a dream, it’s comparable to the 5 series BMW without the stiff German ride.
Here’s what baffles me. The Lexus GS is a 340 horsepower V6 engine, yet it’s a really fast car. This sedan does 0-60 in 5.2 seconds. Now I recognize that the 2010 Camaro SS does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds, but folks the Lexus GS is a luxury sedan and it’s only a V6 not a V8 like the muscle cars it competes with.
I loved the silence of the GS. As a busy mom my life is made up of hurry up and wait moments. I’m dropping kids off at schools, camps and playdates, I’m the perfect candidate for a hybrid. What doesn’t make sense about this car (if you’re looking for a hybrid to save the planet) is that that it’s still only getting 25 mpg when you’re driving kindly. I got more like 20, but to be fair I drove it like a manic a little hard so I could report back to all of you.
As a consumer, I’m just not sure who needs a sports hybrid.Well, scratch that, I know people don’t need their sports cars, I’m still figuring out who the buyer is.
I love hybrid innovation. I swoon that Toyota and Lexus have put so many resources towards greener cars, but this doesn’t stand out as having crazy fuel economy.
Again, I loved driving this car, and if money were no object I’d consider it as my kinder gentler sports sedan, but I’m not sure that I wouldn’t just grab an ultra luxury diesel instead.
The exterior styling is superb. I love the soft lines and the gentle arcs, but most of all I loved driving a car that was low to the ground without bottoming out on speed humps, or scraping fenders while in parking lots.
The interior is actually better than the exterior (you hear that? It’s better than superb). To the left of the steering wheel the side mirror controls are tucked away behind a facade, leaving the car looking fresh and crisp.
If you’re interested in drivetrains, 18 inch wheels, or the chassis you can click here for the detailed specifications. It has enough safety features that I’d happily put my kids in it any day. This is NOT a small car, and it’s practically brimming with airbags.
In all the GS is a beautiful car, and I’m a lucky lady, I get to drive a lot of beautiful cars. Mostly when I’m test driving them I think to myself, “now who would buy this?” And with the GS I’m still not sure. I guess it’s good for folks who want a hybrid, but still want to race like kids through the Hollywood Hills.
Oh, wait, maybe that’s me?
Jessica Gottlieb is a blogger in Los Angeles who is passionate about the intersection of family life and technology. Continue...
