Gucci.

Synonymous with high end. The very word dribbles down your mouth and slides onto your body in the form of the perfect ensemble. Scores of men and women pay ultra high prices for the ultra exclusive social status that comes from being seen inside of it. Since 1921, Gucci, has established itself at the top of the social ladder.

Welcome to the world of luxury, if you can afford it.. If you can’t however, now you can pine for it on FacebookFacebook.

Yes, Gucci, one of the most exclusive luxury brands in the fashion industry has a Facebook Page, and it’s brilliant. You see there’s been a bit of a debate about whether luxury brands can integrate into public social networks without losing that aria di esclusività. However The House of Gucci has accomplished this splendidly.

Their page is simple, (while it is still a facebook page and lacks the elegance of the Gucci brand, they kept true to their name) they feature a brief history of the brands’ less than humble beginnings in Italian and English.

When you visit their “wall” you find a plethora of “updates” featuring their latest campaign ads; needless to say the images are exquisitely produced. The real brilliance however is the apparent paparazzi shots of celebrities unsuspectingly toting Gucci products. Amongst them are Salma Hayek, Sienna Miller, and Camille Belle. Each celebrity shot is lnked to where YOU can purchase the product on the Gucci e-store.

So, lets do a quick recap… Gucci boasts 421,555 fans, and to those fans they transmit, on a daily basis, updates on their campaigns, seasons’ ensembles’, Gucci insider’s news, and celebrity product shots (i.e. free sponsorship). Now, although only Gucci Facebook admins can post on the wall, the updates are open territory and they portray the story of international desire for Gucci.

The verdict is in, social media’s versatility allows it’s campaigns to be molded to any brand.. So the next time you want to stand out, take a page from The House Of Gucci and try something a little more.. avant garde.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

Please… correct me if I’m wrong; but advertising/marketing is about finding the single most appealing cultural relevance of any given brand, and coming up with the most spontaneous way to make a connection with any given demographic, right?

In order to do so, as professionals helping brands make such connection, we still need to have the ability to observe from the outside, and be attentive to everything that is going on beyond the Social Media halls: read magazines, books, pay attention to outdoor advertising, what type of concerts are going on, what’s selling at music stores, how outdoor advertising is being displayed and -simply- just how people go about their daily lives making their way through everything mentioned above. These will give us the ability to make a better and smoother transition from one way of communication to the other, without falling into the same old same old.

Why are we so determined on the idea of handling this new way of communicating (as a business model) the same way traditional media handled theirs? As an industry, we did a great job to bring advertising to what -I’d like to think- we all wanted it to become: a true and direct connection with our consumers. I mean, that was the thinking behind the minds of our pioneers (I refused to quote them, because by now, I’m sure you all know hundreds of their quotes), and now that is here we will halt its evolution if we don’t stop for a minute and think.

Although I’m a firm believer that brands can’t just come into our lives, one day to the next, invade our personal space and expect to be received as any other human out there, the level of intimacy brands are able to reach with their consumers is that of a human - a person, even a friend. Therefore they need to be treated (from our pov, as the ones shaping the brands’ personality) as such - with common sense. I don’t think any of us go around our circle of friends stating the obvious: “hey we’re going to this meeting, you need to be polite, shake hands and be respectful…” (If you do, I’m sorry). Instead, we could, however, tell them: “as we walk into the room, Mike is the person you should shake hands first, he likes baseball and hates the Yankees…”

The reason why I draw this simple analogy is because they are just that: simple, not very difficult to come up with, to notice, to see with just a little bit of common sense; and it bothers me that companies spend so much money on “research” that tell them just that: state the obvious.

In addition to the link/example above, and with all due respect to the people at white paper source, they came up with a Social Media Marketing report that had been well received (and appreciated) within the industry, and people are going crazy over findings such as:

“Nearly all marketers who’ve been doing social media marketing for years report it generates exposure for their business and a significant 64.86% strongly agree.”

I mean, I would hope so. If I were aspiring to become a professional athlete trying to to catch the attention of scouts/professional teams, and have years trying, I hope my chances of being noticed increase over time (assuming I’m talented enough and have the right agent = for our sake, a good Social Media marketing agency).

“Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise (and most reporting a strong improvement).”

Again, if out of all the guys trying to get signed, I’m the one who’s been doing it the longest (and assuming we are all at the same level), I should be ahead in the ranking, don’t you think?

The idea of Social Media is to be spontaneous, genuine, personal, using common sense; and although the program has some great information, we should try to devote our resources (time, money, personnel) to figure out what are the ever-changing cultural insights that can help us make a human connection with our consumers without being intrusive, and help this new business model evolve.

Aroldo Nery

Social Media Brand Director @ The Re Agency

I read a postPost reviews at Social Media Optimization that made me think about what is it that a “valuable brand” means nowadays; and I look forward to hearing your opinion on this one.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, valuable means:

1 a: having monetary value b: worth a good price
2 a: having desirable or esteemed characteristics or qualities <valuable friendships> b: of great use or service <valuable advice>

In today’s ever-changing cultural landscape, I have to go with 2b. SM (social media) isn’t about cluttering every possible medium with your colors, your brands, your products; but rather an opportunity to create an environment of support and/or service, selecting specific channels to reach your audience. Therefore, I find it unnecessary to categorize brands by “most valuable” and/or “mavens, selectives, butterflies and wallflowers,” according to their SM activity (find the study here). The concept of a valuable brand is so subjective, making it impossible to determine whether any of those brands within the top-ten are more valuable than the Corner Store Down The Road is to its community. A few days ago, the NYtimes published an article on the results one of the many social networks has had on its users, and to save you the time to read it; it pretty much draws a picture in which all brands can be as valuable to their specific niche.

As an industry, we need to stop making such specific categorization causing marketers to believe that being “mavens” is the only way to succeed in SM; when it is not true. These sorts of categorizations tell us that one can’t be “selective” and expect the same results, when the idea of SM is exactly that: to be selective. To find your niche and create an environment of support that -if done right- will bring your brand the monetary value you’re looking for: ROI. Just because a valuable brand within the top-ten has thousands and thousands of followers and friends, doesn’t mean that it is more valuable than the Corner Shop in a community of twenty thousand people and four thousand followers and friends (20%).

This is a new way of communicating, people, and there is no room for such specific categories and lists in a world in which we (as consumers) have the freedom to jump from niche to niche as we please.

You can be anything you want; maven, selective, butterfly or wallflower, so comparing yourself to such specific brands is no longer an option to measure your success. You are unique, so your value is the one given by your specific community; while we -as an industry- need to start thinking smaller and smaller… on terms of execution.

Aroldo Nery

Social Media Brand Director @ The Re Agency

When you think of social networks and social media in general you don’t quite conjure up an image of Albert Einstein and Sir Issac Newton gushing laughter and tweeting away about their uber productive days. The image tends to create itself in a (let’s say) less advanced light.

However the days of social networking are evolving, in the least likeliest of places.

A recent endeavor funded in part by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) could be the beginning of something that will benefit and connect the greatest minds of the 21st century.

Known as myExperiment; the new forum will essentially be a social networking site where scientists can share information and make connections with other scientists.  The site was developed in a joint venture by  Professor David De Roure and Professor Carole Goble and their goal is simple, to facilitate and aggregate information in a digital community.

‘We are introducing new approaches to make research more reproducible, reusable and reliable…‘Research Objects are self-contained pieces of reproducible research which we will share in the future in the way that papers are shared today.’ as said by Professor De Roure.

myExperiment will be synced with other established e-science sites already in use; Eprints which is a research repository in Southampton University and the new e-Scholar institutional repository from Manchester University.

Although it may seem a bit strange at first, it’s not surprising that the worlds most brilliant minds are using the new mediums of communications to possibly save the world.. and do that other amazing stuff they do that I can’t even wrap my mind around without having a stage 5 panic attack i.e. space time continuums, black holes, and such.

Transmitted via Southampton School of Electronics and Computer Science

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

The buzz is heard all around, top news channels are reporting it, hundreds of thousands of blogs are blogging about it, newspapers are writing feverishly about its effects, and seemingly every major international media source is throwing the phrase “social media” around. Everyone’s concerned and everyone’s engaging.

And now after 5 years of hearing about the benefits of engaging in social media we’re finally starting to see positive numbers indicating what we’ve all been waiting for, the solid proof that social media strategies can bring (more) financial success.

So, for the few skeptics that are left out there, a not so surprising report has just been released by a joint venture between Altimeter and Wetpaint. The report details the depth of engagement by top brands in social media and the ROI they’ve seen since integrating. Quoting the Altimeter Blog

“But even more interesting is that we also looked at the financial performance of the brands, grouping the companies with the greatest depth and breadth into a group called “Social Media Mavens”. These Mavens on average grew 18% in revenues over the last 12 months, compared to the least engaged companies who on average saw a decline of 6% in revenue during the same period. The same holds true for two other financial metrics, gross margin and net profit.”

And they took their research a step further observing in detail the “engagement best practices of four companies: Starbucks, Dell, SAP, and Toyota. Some of the key findings include:

• Emphasize quality, not just quantity. Engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. It’s also about keeping your blog content fresh and replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status. Don’t just check the box; engage with your customer audience.
• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.The best practice interviews have a common theme — social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead, it’s important for everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.
• Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something.The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.
• Find your sweet spot. Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be consistent and participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.”

So there you have it, the first breaths of proven success from in-depth integration into social media, now I’m not the type to rejoice in others errors, but quite frankly…

We Told You So.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

The social network is a delicate place.

A place where humanity displays all those relevant traits we studied in psychology and sociology. For better or for worse.

A place riddled with landmines, where one must know where it’s safe to tread, and where it’s not. Every company takes a different approach to integrating themselves into the “social craze”, some succeed and some fail.

Essentially, social media is us.

Some marketing departments are simply unprepared, and don’t expect such brash truth and anger from the consumers they only knew as graphs and statistics for so many years. It can be quite a shock when that 25% of seemingly harmless unsatisfied customers is calling you any number of obscenities and holding you personally responsible for every bad customer service experience they’ve ever had.

Of course they may be right, the service the company is providing may be shoddy, they may be price gouged, they may be taken advantage of by “The ManShe’s the Man reviews” and feel powerless to do anything about it. So they’re entitled to take their concerns to the streets and riot.

When dealing with a riot, its important to remember to always keep calm, and find a way to soothe the situation. Do not fuel the fire by defending your actions and refusing to see your flaws, rather help put it out, by listening, remaining flexible and offering constructive solutions.

Either that, or watch everything burn.

Case in point, I’ve been following AT&T’s Facebook for a few days now and I’ve watched as their attempts at putting out fires only seems to start more trouble. The recent iPhone 3GS issue has begun a series of uncontrollable events that have led to FacebookFacebook upheaval. AT&T has done some things right and they’ve done somethings wrong. I think there are simple rules to adhere to when you’re making the move into social media, especially if you’re a large corporation experiencing some.. technical difficulties.

First of all, it’s to remember that social network users do not want to speak to a corporation, rather they’re seeking out new media channels to do the opposite. To relate to a real person, representing their beloved, or not so beloved brand.  The whole point of social networking is too humanize companies so that they can emanate the traits of a brand that can be loved and befriended. AT&T commits the mistake of overwhelming their Facebookers with company policy, corporate rhetoric, and PDF documentation that really doesn’t say anything but “Here’s our corporate explanation, see, it’s a fact, this is what it is.”

Although these efforts work well when covering yourself legally, it doesn’t leave followers satisfied, rather it makes them feel like they’re being talked at and not talked to. It’s the equivalent of having your mother say “no, you can’t do that” and when asked “why not?” she simply says “because, I said so.” This behavior does not produce a positive reaction but rather stirs more fury into those people who are already at their wits end. A better approach is to accept that social media is about change and true interaction. Waving documents and saying “that’s the way it is, look, you see!?”, sending an automated message, and giving some ”please visit one of stores” jargon are not effective social media strategies. Offering real solutions and genuinely showing concern will shift the conversation in your favor. Provide responses to issues that require your attention, these issues if ignored can grow to very large proportions and can instigate even stronger reactions that will be uncontrollable if avoided. By dealing with problems head on and admitting fault you’re putting your best face forward, which is a very positive strategy in social media.

Another faux pas corporations seem to be making, is missing strong structured communication with their employees regarding social media initiatives. As happened with AT&T, where an employee posed as a customer standing up for the company, which of course he was outed by a saavy Facebook follower on the page, this no doubt caused a major backlash and huge embaressment for the company on their own facebook site. Now, since social media is a relatively new form of marketing but has become necessary a addition to any successful marketing and adveritsing campiagn, it’s understandable that holes might exist in certain cases. Learning from these cases provides us with more of  the knowledge needed to eventually create flawless campaigns. So making sure that your employees know not to fake being regular customers when they have an 8 year record with the company, is great example of something that is MEMO worthy. Bearing in mind that it’s perfectly acceptable to have them state opinions, as long as they clear the fact that they are speaking as employees. “Transperancy is best” as stated by AT&T, who dealt with this issue really well and accepted fault in another post from the same person who caught the employee.

It’s simple, don’t involve yourself in social media if you’re not prepared for negativity and have a solid plan of action to redirect the conversation. Social media users are intelligent individuals who’s fellowship you can benefit from, their feedback is genuine well though-out (most times) and can provide your company with a starting point for policy revision and change. Offering real solutions may not be a an easy approach, but it’s an intelligent one that followers will appreaciate. If your consumers reach out to you in large quantities about displeasure, change your options around, or I can assure you that they will.

And you’ll probably be on the negative end of that change.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency

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* Please note that all names and images have been erased for the purpose of protecting Facebook users privacy. All media is accesible at http://www.facebook.com/ATT.

To those of us well versed in social media, it doesn’t take much to see how small changes can lead to big innovation.

The success stories are lined up everywhere we look.

All the while the Top Exec’s watch idly by, not really grasping the scope of what’s going on,  simply because there are  “far more important things to do than worry about some website.”

I sympathize with this majority of “too busy to care exec’s”, I really do.

It leaves all the profit for the type of entrepreneur that see’s beyond “Grandpop’s Marketing” and manages to turn a $4 million business, into a $45 million business by creating an online Video Diary called WinelibraryTV and introducing the company into various social networks.

I’m speaking about Gary Vaynerchuk Director of Operations from Winelibrary. Gary realized early on that not only paying close attention to social media, but becoming a sort of web-star in the presence of the new media uprising could prove to be quite fruitful. His ingenious strategy of starting an online program that see’s beyond the stereotypical “industry–conceited sommeliers, snobby shopkeepers unwilling (or unable) to educate their consumers” and all other “mystical conventions all combine to make wine seem intimidating to the uninitiated” opened his market up to unimaginable proportions. Using video as a medium and social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, Gary started a viral phenomenon.

The show now boasts about 100,000 views a day and propelled his business into one of the top Wine Sellers in the world. More importantly thousands of loyal shoppers are all part of an enourmous online community built by WineLibrary.  Along with various spots all over mainstream media which you can see here at the bottom of the page.

How’s that for PR?

I found out about Winelibrary amidst trying to decide the appropriate wine to take to a formal dinner. Seeing as the only schooling I’ve had in wine involves free trials at Whole Foods, I had to do some research. Gary’s choice of branding as “WineLibrary” exudes the personality of a company whose well-versed compendium of wine knowledge is comparable to that of an actual library. By optimizing his search and having several friends lead me to the twitter account @garyvee he made it possible to for me to stumble upon his site almost too quickly.

There lay the masterpiece of his social media collection, 700 videos to date all informing, entertaining, and drawing me into a world of wine expertise. About 2 hours later, I pulled myself out knowing the value of each and every different grape and process.

WineLibrary gave me exactly what I was looking for when I was looking for it. Earning a follower, and a brand new connoisseur of fine wines.

Interactive visuals are undoubtedly an excellent source to get your brand across the vast universe of social networking. They provide a human face to a brand and bring the consumer that much closer to becoming enthralled with who your company is and what you can offer him. It’s a known fact that today’s consumer suffers an audio visual assault to his senses everywhere he turns, advertisements yelling ” SHOP HERE“, “BUY NOW“, “SALE SALE SALE“, enough to make any consumer to crawl into a cave and hibernate his wallet.

Seriously.

See, we’ve been going about it the wrong way, instead of interrupting and thereby irritating your prospective clientele. Why not inform him, and make things available when he needs them and he wants them.

This is the thesis of social media, the ease of getting exactly your requesting from the company you should be getting it from. It’s all about the solutions to the conundrums consumers have, and the creative ways you pose those solutions. Guaranteeing a consumer-company bond unbreakable by your competitors.

So, don’t force your consumers into hibernation with the droning tone of one way communication, but rather awaken their senses once again with social media’s alluring ways instead.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency