Why “surprise and delight” is still a tried and true tactic in social media

May 3, 2013 by Deanna

If you’ve worked in any capacity of marketing, PR or advertising, you’ve probably heard, used or implemented the phrase and practice of “surprise and delight.” Whenever social media really took off (from a business perspective), giving your customers free stuff was THE thing to do. And today, as social media grows up and evolves, it’s still a great thing to do, to a point. If you work in the retail/consumer space, surprise and delight is still a tried and true tactic to implement in your overall social strategy. Here’s why (in my opinion).

The other week, I was scrolling down my Instagram feed (per usual), when I saw Pretzel Crisps posted a photo montage with a beer koozie with one of my favorite phrases on it, “These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty.” (For those of you who live under a rock, it’s from Seinfeld.) First, that’s super smart of Pretzel Crisps for putting that on their packaging. Marketing brilliance, if you ask me. I casually commented on the photo and asked where I could find that gem of a koozie. Much to my surprise, I was greeted by a friendly email in my inbox a couple hours later from a woman from the company asking me for my address so they could send me one. Talk about making my day! The next week, my day was made yet again when I got a package on my front doorstep with about six koozies and six bags of Pretzel Crisps (in assorted flavors). Score! I immediately took to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to share with my networks my awesome swag.

So why’d it work?
Pretzel Crisps saw that I genuinely liked the product, wasn’t trying to “get” anything from them, and have a decent social following. So, why not? They didn’t ask me to do anything either, which I think is great. I wouldn’t have minded a note with the package with any calls to action to follow them or post about them, but I did it anyway because that’s what I do for a living and love to share personal stories from brands I experience. Pretzel Crisps showed me they are listening and wanted to reward me for being a fan. Now I am stocked with delicious product. (Jalepeno is my new fave.) And it’s not a (sometimes worthless) Klout Perk that half my Twitter friends got, too. It’s targeted to me individually. Klout Perks are just blasted out to an audience in hopes of making people feel “influencial.” It’s not genuine in my opinion. Surprise and delight is.

Some other prime examples of surprise and delight

Taco Bell (source: Post Advertising)

No explanation needed here. Mad props to that high schooler for being awfully clever and Taco Bell for knowing who its target niche is and obliging. I basically love everything Taco Bell does in all of its touch-points – packaging, TV, digital, in-store, etc.

Aetna (source: Likeable Media)

A man battling advanced colon cancer used Twitter to debate with the CEO of his insurance company, Aetna. He was facing potential medical bankruptcy. To his surprise, Aetna’s CEO responded to address the issue and agreed to pay the medical costs. Now, we can’t all just pay for someone’s medical bills, but the CEO took to Twitter to make things right. It’s not often the CEO of a major company like Aetna casually tweets with his or her customer or user-base. This example showed they are listening and value their customers.

There’s a fine line between surprise and delight, and buying off your customers
Remember on Full House when DJ got mad at Uncle Jesse and he bought her a drum set to make up for it? (Yep, I just referenced Full House.) Well, DJ was pretty pumped but wise Mr. Danny Tanner stepped in and reminded Jesse that “buying” DJ’s love wouldn’t work every time he messed up. They needed to talk it out (which happened on every single episode of that show) and get to the root of the problem. The same thing applies to surprise and delight in social. Think about the “real life” aspect of it. How many times have you been out to dinner and something went horribly wrong and the manager stepped in and offered a free dessert or took something off the bill? That works with some, but really, they need to get to the root of the problem. If the pizza was cold, they need to cook their food longer. If the server took 45 minutes to wait on you, they probably need to up their staff or go through some more training. So, if a consumer complains on social media, instead of just shipping them a free box of something, ask them what you can do to make it right, and follow up to let them know the issue was resolved. Some people are free-stuff-loving, coupon mongrels (thanks for nothing, Extreme Couponing), but others are legitimate consumers not looking for free stuff, but quality service and/or products. Making it right goes way further than a free coupon in the long run, and that’s how you’ll keep those people and turn them into brand advocates. Oh and if all else fails, you can show up at their door and give them a hug like the Tanners would (although that could cause a restraining order…)

Final thoughts
Surprise and delight doesn’t need to happen when something bad happens, either. I personally am a bigger fan of companies rewarding customers for just hanging out and interacting with their pages rather than trying to fix a problem (like Taco Bell). If you marry surprise and delight with active listening when there is an issue and letting your fan base know you will make it right, things should run pretty smoothly on your page(s). So keep on innovating in this space, but also stick to the good old fashioned roots of surprise and delight since it still goes a long way (says the now loyal Pretzel Crisps fan). Oh and it doesn’t have to be giving away free stuff either. It could be as simple as acknowledging a fan in a tweet or post. I STILL get excited thinking about when Target tweeted to me two years ago. I’m not kidding. #TargetFanGirl

Do you agree or think this tactic is SO 2010?

How to: Get Google Authorship with Social Media Pittsburgh and Lunametrics

March 14, 2013 by Deanna

Last night, I attended my first Social Media Pittsburgh event. Social Media Pittsburgh is an informal group of Pittsburgh’s social media professionals. They aim to share best practices and local knowledge through their monthly speaker series. Before I get into my overview of last night’s discussion, I must say that I took home with me a few pieces of valuable knowledge that I can actually apply. So important when you sign up for a professional development event.

The evening’s discussion was led by Dan Wilkerson of Lunametrics, a Pittsburgh-based company and Google Certified Partner. They bring the complete digital experience to your brand using innovations in Google Analytics, SEO, PPC and Social Media. Dan is Lunametrics’ social media project manager and I instantly knew he was going to give a great presentation from his opening “about me” slide (click the image for a larger view):

Genius.

On to the presentation:
Dan spoke about something I had never heard of before, Google Authorship. On my little blog, I had never thought about that before, but now I’m on a mission to become an author. Why? It can increase click-throughs on your pages by 30-150%! So what’s authorship? Let it be known you don’t have to be “techy” to do this. Actually, it’s a really great tool for all writers on the web. (Copyblogger just wrote about this subject the other day.) It makes you more searchable, more visible, and more authentic. It’s a little easier than the the old school tactic of commenting on other blogs to hopefully drive traffic back to yours (although that still works and it’s still important to share the love). Anyways, according to Copyblogger, “authorship is the method to display authorship information in search results for the content you create.” Basically, it makes you stand out in search. There are a few simple steps to achieving authorship, and all it takes is having a profile on a little thing called Google+. (Sneaky, Google, I see what you’re doing there ). So what do I mean “standing out?” Let’s compare. First, a writer without authorship (unfortunately, me, until I set up my page in a bit):

This is a post I wrote last month. Yes, it says deannaferrari.com, but there’s no byline, no image. Basically, there’s no authenticity about it. Now, let’s see what a blog post would look like WITH Google authorship (image from Copyblogger):

Now we know it’s written by Brian Clark. He’s got 41,911 connections in his Google+ circles, I last visited his page in January, and oh look — his image! You can even see more articles written by Brian. See the difference? If Brian and I wrote a post on the same subject, I bet you’d click on his post in the search results, right? I just blew my own mind.

To set up your own Google Authorship, just be sure you’re signed up for Google+, log in, and then visit https://plus.google.com/authorship. (The only tricky part is you need to enter a little bit of code in there. If you don’t know basic HTML, see a developer near you for help).

Dan went into more detail on this process, including how to measure your efforts through Google analytics. I’m also going to be learning more about Google analytics in the coming weeks since I need to up my analytical game. Lunametrics puts on fantastic training sessions about learning Google analytics, and you can also check out Conversion University.

Social media is a HUGE world. Many different industries tackle it — from the marketing side of it, to the content, to the measurement. Social Media Pittsburgh understands this, and is putting on events monthly to discuss all there is to know about this broad and ever-changing, fast-paced landscape. For ten bucks, you can learn something new each month (FREE for students!!) and network with other professionals in the process. It’s an incredible resource and I plan on checking out many more!

You can follow Social Media PGH on Twitter and like them on Facebook for more information on future events. (The next event is April 17 and will discuss building social media relationships). They also post relevant and insightful articles on their social media platforms.

Thanks to Social Media Pittsburgh for allowing me to check out last night’s session and blog about it!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Young Professionals

March 27, 2012 by Deanna

When I graduated from college, I didn’t have a job. Since my junior year at Slippery Rock University, I had wanted to work in an agency and do PR. I had a very specific goal in mind, yet I was nowhere near getting it. I had one internship under my belt, but it was hardly the experience I needed that would resonate with any firm. (I worked in the promotions department of a radio station.) So I needed to get crafty. If I wanted that coveted position I yearned for, I was going to have to work extra hard. I got a job, but it wasn’t until a year and a half later that I landed an agency gig (an apprenticeship at an ad agency). This May, it’ll be six years since I graduated. In that time, I quickly climbed up the ranks and now still work in an agency, and hold a manager position. I didn’t get where I am today doing the bare minimum. I’ve worked hard in the last six years, so I wanted to share some “habits” with college students and young pros alike that can give them the boost they need to succeed.

Habit 1: Stand out
Everyone is different and unique, yet so many resumes are just ho-hum. Yes, you could have gone to a great school or did a great internship — but what sets you apart? When I applied for the apprenticeship, I did my research on the agency, learned the client roster, and brought in a press release I had written on one of the clients to my interview. Was I asked to? No. But I really wanted to show them I was a go-getter and could write well. I set myself apart. After I had been working there a few months, social media for business started to come into play. It was in its infancy, but I took an interest into learning more about it. Of course everyone knows it BLEW UP, and I was there with the knowledge, so people looked to me to know more. I ended up handling one of my client’s Twitter pages before that really became the norm, and it was the first social media initiative my agency had done. It brought revenue in, gave me this special knowledge, and catapulted me into a social media professional. I set myself apart.

Habit 2: Network
Everyone always hears they should network. Well, it’s true. My first year out of school, networking was all I could rely on to get me anywhere in my industry. In my networking, I made some connections. I just set up informal coffee sessions, or met people at their offices to talk about the industry. I’m not gonna lie, A LOT of it was a bust. It will be for you, too. However, there will be important people you meet along the way. In 2007, I met Paul Furiga, president and CEO of WordWrite Communications. His PR agency didn’t have any openings at the time, but Paul was still gracious enough to meet with me, give me advice, and help me find more networking connections. In 2009 when there was an opening at WordWrite, Paul remembered me and although I had an agency job, he reached out to me to come interview anyway. I ended up getting the job. See — networking works! And a piece of advice — don’t ever stop networking. You never know when you’ll need someone for a job, advice, a reference or just talking shop.

Habit 3: Use your current situation to your advantage
Don’t have a job? Well that gives you time to network, go to events and volunteer. Have a job you don’t like? Use your lunch break to meet professionals for lunch and network. Or start a blog to talk about your passions. Have a job you do like? Kick ass in it. Everyone has different situations. Use it to your advantage. In Habit 1, I talked about learning social media for business when it was new. Maybe your company could use someone to do extra research on a particular area, and could add that capability to their repertoire. Be the person to go the extra mile. If you want to go far, you’re going to have to work more. It’s that simple.

Habit 4: Participate
When I first started working in PR, I immediately became involved in PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) Pittsburgh. I had been involved in the student society in college, PRSSA, so I wanted to get involved again. It was a great move, because I joined a committee and got to meet lots of PR professionals from all over Pittsburgh in different areas – agencies, corporations, non-profit and solo practitioners. I quickly became a board member and have some great experience under my belt from just that organization, including event planning, judging for awards, non-profit, media relations and social media. It got me experience in addition to my job and so many more connections. Not to mention a resume boost. So get out there and participate in an organization or volunteer for a non-profit.

Habit 5: Be proactive
Did you know this is an original habit from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Yeah, I stole it, and the title. But it applies to young pros as well. No one ever got anywhere by just doing what they were told. You have to be proactive and bring things into your company. Perhaps it’s a vendor you noticed on Twitter, a lunch and learn you think would be beneficial, or you started a project early. I HATE it when my boss or client brings something up that I was already planning on doing. Like the status of a project or something we had talked about doing in the past. So I always try to bring it to them first, or least shoot them a quick email that says where I am with something. Also, I’m a big component of the saying, “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.” 9 times out of 10, someone will be glad you did something proactively, especially if you have the results to back it up. Just be mindful.

Habit 6: Speak up
Sometimes, you just need help. Don’t be afraid to ask for it. Maybe you don’t understand an assignment. Instead of thinking you’ll look stupid, why not just ask? I’ve wasted a lot of time not asking enough questions and having to re-do something. Get all that you need and don’t be afraid to ask. You’ll end up doing a great job if you know what’s expected. Also — if someone presents an idea and you have a different opinion on how to approach it (or additional idea) — speak up! Even if it’s to someone who habitually (no pun intended) thinks they’re always right, don’t be afraid to challenge them professionally. Just be sure to pick your battles. It’s so not worth the energy every time. And the more often you challenge, the less effective you’ll seem.

Habit 7: Keep learning
When I was little, I used to watch “Reading Rainbow” all the time with my older sister (LaVar Burton rules!). That show was so corny, but it was super entertaining AND educational. I didn’t have to watch it, but I chose to. And I’d want to read all the books they recommended. Today, I take that same approach. Yes, I’m college educated and have a job, but I want to keep learning. I want to learn about other disciplines in my agency, best practices of my industry, what other brands are doing in social, etc. I take note when I read magazines, watch commercials, and go on websites and social media to see what people are doing because that applies to my work. I try to read blogs and articles, participate in webinars and conferences, and keep learning. You should do the same, no matter what your industry. The more you know, the better you’ll become, and there’s ALWAYS more to learn.

A lesson in (lack of) marketing integration with Toys R Us

December 21, 2011 by Deanna

I’m usually not one to sit online and complain about things. Or use my blog or Twitter page to bash brands. I work with a lot of brands and sometimes, brands make mistakes. But last night I had a learning experience as both a marketer AND a customer that I just have to share. And this is more of a lesson than a complaint or bash. Let’s back up…

Toys R Us. 8 p.m. on December 20. That alone is enough to make me run for the hills. But I had little kid shopping to do, which usually brings me to this store around this time of year. What kid wouldn’t want a Christmas present from Toys R Us? Anyways, I was at the register ready to check out when I told the associate I had a Google Offer (I snagged a great $10 for $20 offer last week in my gmail knowing I’d be at that store in the near future). I gave the associate my phone with the barcode to scan. It didn’t work. He looked perplexed. He tried again and scratched his head. I asked him to try again and maybe ask for help. So he called for another person to come over. Another woman came over and basically just told me it wasn’t going to work. Fail #1. I had bought my offer fair and square. I was redeeming it within the allotted time frame. She told me to call 1-800-Toys R Us to get a gift card. Oh joy. A Toys R Us gift card. Just what I want AFTER my shopping is done. I usually have little patience for this type of thing but I politely paid full price and left the store. Since I had a-ways to drive home, I decided to call the 800-number immediately and tell them the story. So I was directed to customer service and told the lady on the phone about what happened. I then had to describe what a Google Offer is, exactly. Now I’m starting to shake my head.

“I think I’ve heard of that,” she said. “Oh, good,” I thought. “‘I think’ is exactly what I want to hear.” Sarcasm. So she goes and talks to her supervisor. At this point I am thinking they will refund me or give me the gift card I don’t want. But no, wait for what happened next…

“Ma’am, I talked with my supervisor and we’ve only heard of this one other time. We believe you got scammed.”

At this point, my heart sunk for a moment. I once had a run-in with a debit card thief in 2005 when I first tried Ebay. Memories were brought back of this. But then I quickly snapped back to reality and realized that this woman had no idea what she was talking about. Scammed? I was completely flabbergasted. I received this offer from GOOGLE, then downloaded the app on my ANDROID, the Google operating system. No way was it a “scam.”

“You’ll have to call your credit card company and have them refund you.”

So what did I do? Call my credit card company? Nope. I just hung up and then looked at Twitter. I found Toys R Us’ official, verified account. And alas, ten or so tweets down saw this:

Oh yeah. That looks like a scam to me. Sarcasm again. Fail #2.

At this point, I thought about finding the CMO of Toys R Us’ email address so I could email him or her directly. A nice, “Heads up, buddy, but half your company has no idea you’re running a deal,” would have sufficed.

But with this new information I learned from Twitter, I decided to call customer service back. I spoke with a different woman who put me on hold for 12 minutes. At minute 13 I hung up and called back because I have no patience for hold music. So after speaking with my THIRD customer service woman, I again had to explain what a Google Offer was. “Think of it like a Groupon,” I said. Then she called Google “Groogle.” Oy vey. Finally, she directed me to the online department, where I was connected to the most friendly southern woman ever. She affectionately referred to me as “honey” and “darling.” Which if you are a southern woman, I gladly appreciate.

When I told Southern Gal my story, she sounded completely embarrassed. When I asked her if she knew what a Google Offer was, she knew right away. “The 10 for 20 offer?” she asked. Exactly.

I leveled with her. I said that I had a baby gift to buy for a friend’s baby shower next month, and she’s registered at Babies R Us, so I would try again. This time online. She said online was probably the best way and if I had trouble, to call back the online department. I’m sure if I had nothing to buy she would have helped me get my money back. It’s only $10. But this is all about the principle.

So what’s the moral of the story? Two words: Integration and Communication.

Social is great. It’s such a nice tool to be able to speak with your audience directly, and get actionable feedback and insights. And do some pretty fun and cool stuff to boot. However, if you have brick and mortar stores, it would be wise to bridge the gap between the online and offline employees. If you launch a great offer right before Christmas, you should make your employees in- store aware and be able to scan a mobile phone. You should also make your customer service folks answering phones aware of how to fix the problem if there is one. It’s the same thing as having a Facebook or other social deal or promotion. If you’re a retail giant like Toys R Us, make sure that all channels are aware and educated before launch. Do a lunch and learn. Or at least a company-wide email. Social and online marketing budgets are growing and growing each year. Only having a small portion of your company aware of online initiatives is grounds for customer frustration. The same goes for educating your online employees of things happening offline and in store. They go hand-in-hand, and if they work together, can be a great thing.

So you landed a social media job…now what?

October 27, 2011 by Deanna

I frequently write about the job searching process, and tips for students and young professionals. Job searching is hard and long (that’s what she said).

But what happens when you get that job? You’re in the door. You’re sitting at your cube (or office). Now it’s time to knock your company’s socks off. Social media jobs are a hot commodity these days, and popping up all over the place. My position as social business specialist is the first of its kind at my agency. So there has been quite a lot of navigating, and quite a big learning curve (for my company AND me). I can’t really have a social-specific mentor with 10 years in the field, because no social media pro has been around that long. We’re all figuring it out. But since I’ve been doing the social thing for a few years now (in PR roles prior, now primarily social), here is some advice I have learned along the way that I can pass along. Disclosure: My career has been in the agency world, so it’s all I know. But, agency people like myself are versatile for any organization, so this can apply to more than agency pros.

Tip #1: Carve out time each day to read, learn, tweet, skim, and take it all in
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I don’t have time for social media.” I get it. It takes time. And some days, I can barely come up for air juggling six projects at once, let alone crawl the internet for tweet-worthy content. But each day, I am out there. I don’t go one day without going on social media (except of course a lot of weekends…girlfriend needs a break). Granted, I get PAID to peruse social media, but my job is not to tweet, necessarily. I am in meetings, strategy sessions, building out social plans and calendars, managing social monitoring and reporting as well as overall social projects, and keeping my clients happy. But I carve that time out each day to learn. Almost every day I find an important tweet that helps me in some way. Perhaps I bookmark it for later, or use it in a Powerpoint presentation, or email my team or client, or actually apply it right then and there to work. If you keep up with the right network, it’s worth it. So maybe you spend your first half hour in the office in social. Or, you wake up and grab your coffee, and scroll your Facebook news feed, RSS reader, Twitter and LinkedIn news on your cell. Not to mention, the internet = free resources.

Tip #2: Share, share, share
Being a social media manager (and the like), you are constantly getting asked social questions. I recently tweeted a tip that helps me tremendously. Every time you reply to a social question via email, cc or bcc yourself. Then, create an “FAQ” folder in your email, and move those emails there. Next time you’re asked that question, you can copy/paste. BOOM.

But that’s the reactive sharing…what about proactive? People love to be in the know. So, when I get a really good piece of information (i.e. Facebook changed some setting/layout/policy for the 14309549058 time), I send it out to either my team or entire agency. I am getting in the habit of sending something out agency-wide at least once a month. I also signed up for a series of webinars by Facebook Marketing that I shared with other disciplines in the social space at work, and I plan on setting up a room for them that we can all gather and learn together, rather than at our desks. Double learning, FTW! And be quick — social moves so fast that you need to be ahead. I hate reading something that I saw on Twitter five days ago. So, share it. Just don’t over-share. No one likes constant emails with just links to articles that most likely aren’t moving your business forward.

Tip #3: Learn the overall marketing and/or PR objectives of your business
This one may seem like a no-brainer to some, but social needs a strategy behind it. Many people get on a certain network for the sake of being on it, and don’t stop to think about strategy. This has been a frequent conversation lately at work, and it’s something so important. But first — what’s the overall marketing strategy? Most likely, there’s a business plan for this fiscal year. Get a copy of it. Learn what it is. And for the next plan, be a part of those meetings. Then take that plan, and apply it to social. Maybe garnering Facebook likes is your goal. Or maybe it’s activating your fans. It would be so nice to directly correlate sales to social, but if you can’t do that exactly, set something that you can measure. Or use the insights you gather from social for your brand’s overall operations. You could make some changes internally that will resonate with fans externally.

Baking social media cupcakes help

Tip #4: Make some contacts
We all would love to have a Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and/or YouTube contact. Someone you can shoot an email off to and get an answer straight from the horse’s mouth. Unfortunately, when you’re using a free service, these people are hard to come by. So there’s two options here. 1) Spend money on advertising. Sad but true. You throw dollar signs at Facebook, and they will be more likely to talk to you. I don’t blame them. That’s how they are so profitable. But not everyone necessarily WANTS to advertise on Facebook (or other social networks). Or, not everyone has the budget to do so. We all want to be on the Facebook “client council,” but we all can’t be. So that brings me to our second option: 2) Make contacts the old fashioned way: organically via social. Do some Google searches, and you can find employees of Google, Facebook, Twitter and the like all on social media. You can add them on Google+, subscribe to their public Facebook updates, and follow them on Twitter. Once you find and add them, please, don’t be creepy! Or annoying. Don’t respond or like every.single.post they make. Or don’t send them annoying @replies or DMs. Get to know them first. Engage in casual conversation. Find common interests. Let them talk to you. Then you can politely inquire if they wouldn’t mind you emailing them about a question you have. It’s like a good PR pro making a connection with a journalist. Be patient, do it naturally, then you’ll have your contact.

Bonus tip: This tactic works well to find other social media managers on social. I follow lots of them on Twitter, and find it interesting what they’re tweeting about, and what their brand is doing to move the social needle. I just add them to my ongoing Twitter list.

Tip#5: Make friends with other disciplines
I have a whole crew of developers and designers I work with. And they are super smart. They make stuff actually WORK. It’s been a definite learning curve moving from PR to interactive, and there have been a lot of times where my coworkers shake their heads when I ask them a simple question. Or they tell me about a wonderful tool named Google. Har har. But I work with them so they make things like a simple Facebook tab simply awesome. Or there’s the broadcast team, who is teaching me all about what types of video files we have and which are approved for internet use. And then how to properly upload them online. Who knew so much went into it? I’ve been taking the time to listen and learn from these people. Because all my great ideas cannot happen if I don’t have the brains of these people behind me.

Tip#6: Try it, then try again
I could go on and on about social and all the tips I’ve learned along the way. But if I give out anymore free advice, you’re gonna have to pay me . But my last tip might be my most important: try. I like to bring all kinds of ideas to the table in social. There is no right or wrong answer in the space. There’s lots of good and bad, but this is your room to try. And here you have to educate your bosses, coworkers and clients. They aren’t going to give you money to do something they are unsure of, so continue to seek out case studies and statistics, blog posts and other brand examples, so you have examples to back you up. Try new things. Look at what other brands are doing and put your own spin on it. You’re never going to get anywhere unless you keep trying.

Social media loser: Wheat Thins

January 20, 2011 by Deanna

There’s a lot of brands I talk about who I think are doing a great job in the social space. My post about “The Big 3″ has some of those examples.

There’s also some brands I like to talk about who are not doing a good job. Why? Well, as part of my job I research a lot of companies doing social right and wrong to learn from them. I like to affectionately refer to these brands as “Social Media Losers.”

This post I’d like to dedicate to a new loser: Wheat Thins. I’ve always been just ehh about Wheat Thins. They’re pretty good, nothing to write home about. But, this isn’t about the product itself. This is about the brand’s new ad campaign “Crunch is Calling.” Have you seen it? Take a look:

OK, so this is not a novel idea. First of all, Domino’s has been doing pretty much the exact same thing. Also, integrating people’s tweets into your ads isn’t cutting edge so much, either. Remember in 2009 when Trident took out a full page ad in USA Today of people’s tweets? That was pretty cool at the time.

So I’m being a little unfair. Advertising doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. It just has to sell your product. So then I got to know just who Wheat Thins is trying to market to. What I came up with? Teenage boys. Really, Wheat Thins? I mean, I suppose teenage boys will eat just about anything. But I don’t think Wheat Thins is really top of mind for them. I’m guessing they enjoy the likes of Taco Bell, Dorito’s, Mountain Dew, and other similar products. Yeah I am being stereotypical but shouldn’t marketers be? Don’t believe they are marketing to them? Take a look at some of their tweets. Also, I took a look down the page of the boy in their commercial, a teenage boy it looks like. I leave you with some of his tweets. He’s pretty deep:

Bottom line, I’m confused.

Can we (and should we) move past Facebook and Twitter?

January 6, 2011 by Deanna

Over the past few years, I’ve worked on, read about, and attended events that are all social media-focused. I can safely say we’ve made tremendous progress as a collective group (i.e. PR, ad, marketing, digital), but no one’s “there” yet. We haven’t got it all figured out yet. Even the companies who have done an excellent job aren’t there yet, although they’ve set quite the mark for the rest of us, and given us all something to shoot for.

Everyone wants to set themselves apart in the social space. They joke about clients just wanting to “get them a Facebook and Twitter page,” when new tools are coming out all the time. Case in point: This week’s tool du jour Quora. Not sure what the value is yet, but it’s spewing out all over my Twitter feed faster than Lindsay Lohan returning to rehab.

People want to be trend-setting and innovative, constantly trying the newest platforms in hopes of getting some acclaim. People say Twitter and Facebook might be good, but everyone is on those channels. It’s more than that. So they put efforts in elsewhere…

…but let’s back up. Everyone is on those channels? Well, doesn’t that mean that’s where your customers are?

The numbers alone are reason enough to stay on (and focus on) Facebook and Twitter:

The ‘book:

More than 500 million active users
50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

The Twitter (as of September 2010):

175 million registered users
95M tweets are written per day

They may be the standard and safe, but let’s face it: If your customers are in the boomer demoraphic (55-65ish), why on earth would you be on a social platform such as Quora? No offense to my boomer peeps, but they will most likely think Quora is a grain. I mean, they still think Twitter is something about a bird.

Not all brands can stray afar and still do well. Most brands are traditional with a more traditional audience that is on the social platforms their friends and family are on: Facebook and Twitter. Think about it: Successful social case studies like Southwest, Comcast, Ford and Old Spice were mainly done across Facebook and Twitter (and our good friend YouTube).

So stop trying so hard and do what’s best for your brand. Once you get a sense of what your audience likes, complains about, and questions, then it’s time to get innovative. And perhaps that innovation can happen right on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Stay thirsty and keep tweeting, my friends.

What I’m thankful for…in social media

November 22, 2010 by Deanna

This is one of my most favorite weeks of the year: Thanksgiving Week. Where I have to buy bigger size pants, and enjoy all the glorious food, friends, football, family and spirits I can handle. By Sunday, I will need a major trip to the yoga studio to sweat out all that stuffing and booze. And with Thanksgiving, we celebrate all of our thankfulness. Yes, I am thankful for a lot of things (family, health, etc.), but let’s talk about what I’m thankful for in social media.

The “Block and report spam” feature on Tweetdeck
Because let’s face it, I get more tweets in Portuguese than any English speaking person should

The “Hide this post” option on Facebook
Because I don’t care what your horoscope for the day is, or that you need help building a Jackalope Lodge in FrontierVille. By the way, WTF is FrontierVille?

The “ignore” button on Foursquare
Because I really don’t want some creeper from a city I’ve never heard of with 5,000 friends and badges knowing where I am

The spam filter on WordPress.com
Because as much as I appreciate a comment from “Colon Cleanse,” I’m pretty sure I don’t want you on here

OK, we are seeing a pattern here. What else am I thankful for?

People that have their photos set for “friends of friends” on Facebook. Hello, 140 new photos! Don’t mind if I do
Tweeting a question/thought on Twitter and having a plethora of responses (thanks, guys!)
Checking into a bar on Foursquare and getting a free drink just for doing so
YouTube videos of anything my heart desires – old TV shows from the 80s, American Idol performances from 2004, Glee songs, my new haircut…
The wonderful people who read my blog and comment on it…all 3 of you

Happy Thanksgiving! May you have many tweets, lots of turkey, and little spammers this holiday season.

(Image ~~stolen~~ borrowed from here.)

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