Frontrunner Social

Customer Service for Loyalty

I had a really interesting consumer experience this weekend.  The metallic skin for the battery on my MacBook Pro had begun peeling off.  This was, as you can imagine, disconcerting but I've owned my MacBook for about 3 years and traveled all over the world with it.  After 3 years, for something minor to go wrong did not seem unrealistic  I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to buy a new battery and move on with my life.

I went out the the Mac Store on 14th & 9th this Saturday.  As I entered I was immediately greeted by a group of concierges who proactively engaged me and asked why I made the trip.  I mentioned the battery issue and before I even pulled out the computer, they were thinking about how to replace the item without charging me.  Once they saw the computer, the diagnosis was a "bulging battery," which apparently is pretty common.  After about 5 minutes, the new battery was loaded into my computer, no questions were asked about whether my Apple Care was still active (which it is not), and I was happily on my way.

Outside of the store, I quickly Tweeted a note to friends and followers: 

@Fasciano: Apple store on w14th provides the best customer service experience I've ever seen. Replaced my battery- no questions asked - took 5 min

Yes, I work in social media.  Maybe I'm not the average customer.  But I still think there is a lesson here.  What happened is very simple: Apple turned a bad customer experience into a really great customer experience.  And for that, I wanted to tell my friends - which in effect, became positive press for their brand.  And further - here I am blogging about it.

For lot's of clients, I've seen a customer service approach that is focused on putting out the fires - the "wack a mole" approach.  The key to customer service in social is that true success comes from building customer enthusiasm - which easily turns into loyalty and advocacy.  These goals are achieved by being genuinely helpful, teaching your customers how to take full advantage of your services and support, and proactively minimizing the time it takes to identify and service present and future issues.

Ten minutes after I Tweeted about my experience, iMacWorld was following me on Twitter.  They not only made a customer happy - they also identified an opportunity to build a long term relationship with a new brand advocate.

If social is about finding customers who will find your business more customers - service and support will be the foundation of any effective social strategy in the new digital age.

Social for Luxury: Soho House

Platforms for luxury can do great things for a brand.  They keep people in-the-know about events and they facilitate networking amongst uniquely like-minded people.

One brand that is taking a really resourceful and effective approach to social is Soho House.  As self-described on it's own website, "Soho House has established itself as the preeminent private members club for those in the creative industries."  SH has not gone to great lengths in terms of building out a customized community platform but interestingly, it does have a Facebook group.  Currently, the group has 1,388 fans, displays 9 photo albums from various member events, and publishes frequent updates about about parties, concerts, screenings and other member events.

This is interesting because an inclusive platform like Facebook (which anyone can join) is being used to extend an exclusive club experience into digital.  Traditionally, you would think that luxury brands would want to build their own communities because they want their digital extensions to maintain a premium experience.  Further, what we have here is a "private club" sharing member experiences in a very public manner.  

It seems, however that they members have no problem with their clubs foray into Facebook.  Just taking a quick look at the group, you can see members from London reaching out to New York members to connect during their quick trip across the Atlantic:

"Hey NYC members, I'm a member at High Road House in London and visiting your fun city, and catching up with some lovely friends. I'm always up for meeting new fun people, so if you'd like to say Hello, while I'm here and catch up at Soho House, NY, do drop me a message! Denise"

Further, recaps from the events by both the club and it's members keep everyone enthusiastic about their membership.  The group displays an ability to broaden awareness of an exclusive "scene" and also promote loyalty among it's current customers.  Overall, it's interesting to see how the taboos of social media are evaporating, bringing about the entry of new players with innovative and original applications of social for their businesses and brands.

Social for Luxury: The September Issue

In the uncharacteristic making of The September Issue, legendary Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Magazine, Anna Wintour boldly turns the cameras on herself and the publication that she has presided over for 20 years.  The opening interviews display alarming cynicism when Wintour declares that outsiders have no understanding of the fashion world and in fact envy the privilege of having a place under the lights. Such brutal honesty is balanced with a humanizing exploration into the parallel pasts of Wintour and her visionary counterpart, Vogue Creative Director, Grace Coddington. While the documentary offers a unique look at the inner workings and evolution of the $300 billion fashion industry at present, make no mistake about it, this film is marketing for Vogue at its very core.

And while The September Issue is undoubtedly a marketing play, it is smart, discreet and ahead of its time.  The film’s narrative focus draws upon themes of working relationships, shared pasts, and common passions that provide unwavering strength in the face of overwhelming industry demands.  The return on investment for Wintour and Vogue should be significant.  The film explores Wintour’s marketing achievements over the years, such as the unprecedented decision to align Vogue with celebrity culture in the early 90’s.  In the creation of this documentary, the audience witnesses yet another reinvention of Vogue; this time with the creation of an alternate docu-reality production that takes readers beyond the pages and into the back-story of a publication evolving in an era of print’s downfall.

The September Issue primes Vogue for a launch into social media.  The film humanizes the Vogue brand, showcases its innovations and establishes a storyline to hype each future September issues of Vogue.  Further, it sparks interest in what inspires the editors, executives and creatives of the publication.  Activating such personalities via blogging, micro-blogging, social communities and shareable content would be the logical next step for Vogue to build off of the social equity that has been generated in the making of this film.  Because of fashion’s event-oriented culture, elevating the editors of the magazine to celebrity status could pay-out in the end and form the foundation of Vogue’s future relationship with its readers. 

Social for Luxury: aSmallWorld

Over the past months I've found myself in a number of conversations around social media for luxury brands.  For that reason I'll be posting a series in the next week exploring how luxury brands are leveraging social and calling out the considerations and opportunities that brands need to keep in mind.

If you understand social, luxury should make a lot of sense.  Luxury consumers are often more likely to connect high-end products to their identities and discuss the role of those products in their lives.  Luxury marketers should encourage and empower individuals to share passions and experiences related to luxury brands.  These brands in particular can become focal points for social activity that facilitates new relationships amongst like-minded people who trust one another in especially unique ways. 

Just as is the case for all social media, luxury brands can achieve many goals.  Three such goals are:

1. Gain unique insights by listening to luxury consumers
2. Build relationships to foster loyalty and promote advocacy
3. Create platforms that foster long-term, brand-related social identities

For this first post on luxury, let’s examine social platforms:

Social for luxury demands that you establish a more exclusive social experience.  Often, social is about inclusive communication and connectivity that operates in terms of "one to many."  This type of broadcast communication can be useful for community discussion, collective action, and collaboration.  However, while luxury consumers are excited to socialize around their passions, they often want to make sure it's with individuals who will appreciate their tastes.  Fostering a sense of one-to-one and brand-to-one relationships is where social can be very compelling in the luxury context.

Recently, I had a great conversation with aSmallWorld, which is an invite-only, private community targeted towards a luxury savvy audience.  ASW's value for consumers is the idea of being connected with people who are in the know when it comes to desirable info in global cities such as New York, Paris or London.  To continually deliver on that value proposition, ASW only seeks to expand off of a core audience, and to limit blind friend requests.  Only about 20% of its members can invite new entrants.  Further, if you friend request those you don’t know, you may be flagged and exiled to aBigWorld, which effectively ends your membership.  The goal is to make existing members feel comfortable in the environment and, of course, to play off of the old saying that "everyone wants what they can't have."

The traditional nature of social networks is to drive engagement by facilitating connectivity.  While ASW’s rules reflect an exclusive approach that maintains mystique, the site faces a trade off between fostering elite social connectivity, while at the same time trying to grow as a media company.  To grapple with that dilemma, the community positions the ASW Magazine as a focal point, and often uses it to promote events and opportunities.  A prominent ASW publication promotion at current is around driving a Mercedes 2010 SLS AMG at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey Peninsula, CA.  Top down activations such as the publication, events, exclusive experiences and community personalities will be the only way that people have reason to return to the site.  Of course, that costs money and we will have to wait and see whether ASW is a sustainable  model as a digital platform for luxury networking.

To explore social media for fashion, also read Rohit Bhargava's recent post.

Mobile Blog Posting

This is a big deal because it brings substance to instant connectivity and media capture.  Roles are changing everywhere.  The role of the witness or the audience member or the event attendee has never before had so much significance.  The pressure for immediate, nimble journalism has never been so great.  The ability to share and describe media on the go will have lasting effects on how moments are experienced, reported and remembered.

Geova - Fashion do Brasil!

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Geova presented at The Casa do Brasil, just around the corner from the Bryant Park tents.  Upon entrance, one was taken away from the rain, corporate sponsorships and star-gazing and to a place of ply-wood runways, freshly tanned Portuguese speakers, make-shift lighting and a simple stage with glitter streams.  Also flying just under the radar: a drum set - waiting to be played.  With the crowd settled, two jolly musicians – one with spiked, bleach blond hair and the other in a blazing red blazer walked on stage – both with happy-go-lucky smiles that could only signal unusual fun.  The drummer dived right into a radical intro of snare, toms and symbol crashing – accompanied by an electric acoustic guitar reminiscent of Tropicalia and the legendary Brazilian band, Os Mutantes.  Long shirts with stitched, exotic patterns were the main event.  The entire display was charged with a youthful and free spirit that was refreshing to the bossa-nova core.

David Armano's "Social Business by Design"

This presentation provides an excellent snapshot of where the blending of social media and business is at right now. Overall, it details the massive opportunity and the challenges that need to be considered by businesses. I've witnessed first hand how many clients want social now but are wrestling with the considerations and mindshift that is required for making this transition. The most important closing point is that "social" media will inevitably become the normal way that businesses operate, both internally and externally. As I'm reading through this I'm thinking about the great imagery that Obama used in his recent speech - "We cannot fear the future, we must shape it." Seems that many social media professionals right now are like the "Ted Kennedy's" of their businesses - fighting the good fight to help their organization evolve with changing times.

Social Business By Design

View more documents from David Armano.

Foursquare Signals GPS Future

Foursquare has been a hot startup for location based social networking for some time.  Last fall Wired Magazine ran a great issue on the GPS Revolution.  The lead article is about the future of mobile phone apps and Foursquare was one of the first to be mentioned.  Wired GPS Article   The author discusses the new application that allows him to chat with people who are within a certain local area.  His first post is an obvious first question: "why am I trying to chat with people who are local to me?"  The immediate response is a blunt - and game-changing response: "To get laid genius!"  It's a funny moment but it points out an important development in how local brings extra meaning to social connectivity in digital environments.

The application of social connectivity could mean a lot for people trying to meet their next significant other in a bar or in the park.  It can also mean a lot for targeted advertising.  For some time now the idea of local advertising has been a unique and compelling pitch by emerging ad networks and news aggregators.  GPS enabled mobile takes the value of local beyond the traditional model.  An early expectation is that local businesses will be able to push product to individuals who are socially active in specific localities.  This can mean a lot for promotions and for perishible product that needs to be liquidated in a timely manner. 

Claiming social territory may also play a big role in the evolution of media.  Foursquare calls the most active members of a locality "mayors."  This is a great model because it incentivizes participation and ownership of territory - something that feels close-to-home for the individual.  Will social networkers begin to claim their territory in the near future?  Will the emerging social nature of local communities demand businesses to contribute to the community - not just advertise to them?  And most important - will it help me pick up more ladies at my local bar?  Local is going to be big - and is going to be anything but predictable.

Take a look at the TechCrunch article which discusses the latest round on investment in Foursquare.  Foursquare in TechCrunch

Smart Phone Content Distribution

The scaled adoption of smart phones means a lot for content distribution.  It connects email to content consumption on-the-go, which in turn makes those finicky newsletters and rss feeds that always seemed to clog up your inbox a lot more interesting.  Recently I've gotten into the habit of actually reading those newsletters and email feeds on the subway.  For the first time I actually feel as though I'm deriving some value from them.  Newsletters no longer seem like self-inflicted noise - but instead snackable content.  It's great to have some quick articles around consistent themes that keep your train of thought connected to important issues.  Mobile consumption of email has increased the significance of the newsletter no-doubt.

Further, in the land of podcasts - what was once a laughable medium is now one of scale, personality and on-demand usability.  Podcasts are great because they are generally conversational in nature, feel very much like on-demand radio - and require very little brain power to enjoy.  Often I find a podcast much more relaxing to listen to than the experience of digging my way through dozens of articles and newsletters.  Podcasts feel more fluid and human in some regards.  While they take more time to convey basic information, arguments or messages, they are excellent for establishing radio-like personalities that audience can easily become loyal to – and the production requirements are very minimal.

 

The opportunity that emerges is one where if you can create premium content every so often – the streamlined workflow of newsletters, blogs and podcasts can maintain scaled engagement between the less-frequent release of premium content.

Chris Anderson's "Free"

Chris Anderson's new book, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" should prove to a an important read for anyone working in the digital / information - based economy.  Essentially, Malcolm Gladwell notes in the New Yorker that Anderson's book is an elaboration of Stuart Brand's famous quote that "Information wants to be free."  I thought it was amusing that Thomson-Reuters was advertising next to an article about this development in the information world.

For newspapers and traditional publishing the world of free information could be alarming as information distribution platforms such as Amazon's new Kindle place overwhelming downward pressure on the cost of information.  In this new age of free information, so the argument goes that the people who make a living off of ideas need to focus less on selling the idea and more on the exposure that their ideas can garner.  But everyone needs to make money and while exposure is flattering... how do journalists make a living now?  Anderson makes some predictions about journalism:

"There may be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media.  But they may be paid far less, and for many it won't be a full time job at all.  Journalism as a profession will share the stage with journalism as an avocation.  Meanwhile, others may use their skills to teach and organize amateurs to do a better job covering their own communities, becoming more editor/coach than writer."

Probably one of the best examples of this new breed of journalism is Current Television's Vanguard Journalism program.  What you see with Current is a national television station that has crowdsourced it's journalists from the internet. Some are in it to get their big break as a journalist - others are in it just to get feedback on their work - which they pursue more as a hobby.  The point is that while journalists feel far more competition sprouting up around them - those newbies are looking for direction and are willing to pay.  The demand for basic media skills has never been higher.

Media education is a funny business.  For the summers of 2004 - 2006 I worked as a teaching assistant at the International Film & Television Workshops in Rockport, ME.  This was a funny time for the school because access to information about basic production skills was increasing but the demand for those skills was not broadening at a sufficient pace.  Now demand for classes such as "DV Journalism" are in high demand and are proving to be a new opportunity for the school.  However, will such classes prove to be a saving grace for the institutional education model?  I have to believe that this type of training will need to scale down to the individual or collective model.  This should be very exciting for journalists and media professionals who enjoy collaboration and community.