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

Since we’re all about helping brands and companies connect with their consumers in new and innovative ways, we’ve created a visual guide of how social networks can help you do just that..

So for those of you who need to get up to speed and simply want to learn how social media builds links to consumers. This breakdown’s for you:

Enjoy!

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.

It feels like just yesterday we where watching our kids Facebooking to their teenage friends about TwilightTwilight reviews, or observing in horror as our college students posted rambunctious pictures of long inebriated nights.

And although there’s still a staggering amount of this tween and young adult activity that fueled the start of facebook, a new trend is rising.

Suddenly of seemingly no where, the 55+ group has got a fever for facebookFacebook..

That’s right Facebook is more than just a teenagers clique site and there’s proof.

This data may come to a surprise to some, but it seems more like common sense to the experts @The RE Agency. Regardless the information is extremely useful for anyone trying to tap into social media. An analytics’ company named iStrategylabs has recently released the demographics stats from Facebooks’ Social Ads platform and what they’re showing us is a rising trend in the ages accessing the popular social network site.

As seen in the chart below, the growth percentage for ages 35-54  has grown 109% while 18-24 grew only 4.8% between January and July 4th.  And which age group showed the most increasing interest in Facebook?  Not tweens or even Facebooks’ jump off point: high school and college students, but rather their their older counterparts. The 55+ group grew a staggering 513.7%, from 954.680 to 5.8 million in 6 short months.

Facebook Demographics Statistics 2009

It’s especially important to note that the largest percentage of users are in the  35-54 demo which leads me to believe that if iStrategyLabs results are accurate Facebook might have just graduated… with an MBA.

Congratulations Facebook!

Seriously though, what these results really go to show us is the immense capability Facebook has a communication tool that appeals to an extremely varied demographic. Young or Old it’s a great resource for research, promotion, and general branding with any age group.

It’s the power of 200,000,000 + users…

Are you there yet?

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency

For the past few days the only thing anyone seems to talk about is the passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, seemingly the most important topic of discussion on TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, and CNN. But how did the news of his death spread? How did speculation become fact over the course of a few minutes throughout the social networks?

Who reported first?

To begin with, i think its particularly interesting to note that his death ratified the fact that social media is quickly building itself up as a news source. Remembering of course the US Airways plane that was forced to land in the Hudson River some months ago and more recently the out pour of multimedia sent through Twitter, YoutubeYouTube and other social networking sites during the massive blockade of journalisim and communications after the Iranian election.

However Michael Jacksonmichael jackson reviews out shined them all, logistically speaking.

Below I’ve included the way speculation of his death spread through a series of linked social networks traveling throughout the internet from network to network until eventually reaching your ears and the mainstream news stations as well.

1. The Celebrity Gossip site TMZ publishes a blog post at 4:30 PM EST stating that Michael Jackson had been transported to the hospital via ambulance due to a cardiac complication.
2. Twitter users who read TMZ start circulating the story, from there it spreads to Facebook and several other blogs.  Speculation and mass circulation begins.
3. At exactly 5:02 PM EST TMZ updates that Michael Jackson had passed away.
4. The story becomes the focus of every social networking site, and blog in the world. Servers from Twitter, Facebook, and Google nearly crash from the overload.

Curiously enough none of the major news channels like BBC and CNN informed the public of his death until well after 7 PM. They had however given vague details about the possibility of Mr. Jackson being comatose, which wasn’t received until after 5:30, which had you noticed TMZ had already confirmed his death 28 minutes before. Once again we see citizens’ journalism beat out the major broadcasting networks with a simple tweet.

However, this type of journalism has yet to evolve and strengthen to become more reliable. While on Twitter the news story of the moment was the passing of Michael Jackson, there were also rumors about the supposed death of actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford, which goes without saying are not true.

The analytic data impact that the Michael Jackson news story generated throughout internet media: According to the company of logistic and analytical inter studies Compete, on the day of his death the words Michael and Jackson where searched more than 9,981,000 times.

And even more shocking was the user participation on the official Michael Jackson site displaying more than 423,000 messages from fans all around the world from the time of his death to the moment this post was being posted.  Indicating about 10 posts per minute, some with a few brief words and others extended to lengthy paragraphs.

More importantly than deep analytical research in this particular case it’s important to mention the participation of the users who left commentary on the digital wall for the late musician and entertainer,  messages whose number relied on nothing more than the need of fans to express themselves.

Proving once again the vanguard nature of Social media and its shocking possibilities to communicate globally to and from the masses.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @The RE Agency

You hear about it at work, it comes up in random conversations, published all over the news, and constantly in your face, on the tip of everyone’s tongue, a social networking powerhouse that started with the mere inklings of simply bringing people together for the purpose of communication. And it has accomplished that indeed, boasting over 200 million users and showing no signs of stopping its friendly takeover of the world.

But where does this overwhelming success lie? And more importantly how can you benefit it from it?

Unlike any other site FacebookFacebook provides a personal look into the lives of the user, not as consumers but as human beings. A site where full names are displayed, relationships are exposed, and the intricacies of global consumption are revealed. Updates, public wall posts, messages, and comments, are littered with opinions, suggestions, complaints, preferences, and information about what one 5^th of all internet users are thinking about brands, products and services.

Most major corporations have already created their Facebook profile in the pursuit of attracting hoards of fans and would be fans to their sites.  Among them Starbucks displaying 3,418,687 fans, (all of which who by the way had to choose to become fan members) along with a plethora of campaigns within their wall such as a recent update about the new drinks offered in stores across the world, and photos of Howard Shultz (CEO of Starbucks) traveling to Rwanda to open a farmer support center (a recent charity endeavor headed by Starbucks).

Now grasp for moment what Starbucks managed to share with their 3 million or so fans.

Not only did they implement a strategy of promotion of their new beverages, but also worked on their PR by showing the “human and giving side” of the company and CEO. Throw in the announcement for a mini Starbucks card offering rewards to heavy Starbucks users and you’ve just covered a half a million traditional ad campaign. For the cost of opening a Facebook account which in case you’ve been residing under a  rock is $0.

And even more incredible than that, are the 500 results generated when I typed Starbucks in their search box. All of which were created by users who freely decided to start fan sites commemorating their love and affection for the brand, among these fans sites where “Addicted to Starbucks” with almost 200,000 members.

Basically, not only are we provided with a real time updated web page, as well as PR, and an endless promotional tool with the capability of reaching 200 million people worldwide and somewhere between PR, Marketing, and in depth strategies a surprising thing has occurred, a literal throwback to beginning of what sparked the company consumer relationship: the consumer has taken the initiative to promote the companies they love or hate. Spreading their concerns and commentary throughout Facebook.
Ushering in the age of digital word of mouth.

Leading us to the next set of questions;

What are you as a company doing to be loved?

More importantly do you have a Facebook fan site?

And more importantly still are you taking advantage of this site to it’s full potential?

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency