Brian Heil with Social Wildfire

This blog post is guest-written by Brian Heil, Social Media Consultant at Social Wildfire. We asked Brian to share the story of the social media success of his client, Dingo Brand.

Dingo is a leading dog treat brand that has lately also become a rapidly growing interactive organization by connecting and resonating with savvy, articulate consumers. In addition to partnering with Bazaarvoice to capture, display and amplify consumer contributions, Dingo also aimed to increase its interactive footprint by engaging Facebook users. To do so, they decided to run a promotion through the social website that just surpassed 500 million users. In just 3 days, Dingo went from 330 Facebook Likes to over 6,000. How were they able to foster such success so quickly? Simple: Dingo put the power in the hands of the consumer.

Just one of the 1,000+ posts from Dingo's Facebook fans

Their goals?

• Capture more Dingo users, adding to their existing database of power users.
• Find dog owners who haven’t tried Dingo and drive trial of their product.
• Utilize the power of Facebook to build a community in which Dingo could have easy, real-time interaction with consumers.

Facebook users love Dingo, too!

How? Dingo challenged their existing fan base of 330 people to help get their Like count to 5,000. The first 5,000 Likes who provided their e-mail address would receive a $20 coupon redeemable at Dingobrand.com. In order for anyone to get the $20 coupon, Dingo had to reach at least 5,000 Likes. Then, in order for the individual consumer to receive their coupon, they had to submit their e-mail in the “Join My List” tab (powered by a Constant Contact Facebook app) which added them to the list of emails that would be able to use the coupon.

What happened? The original 330 started posting the link on sites like My Pet Savings, Nana’s Deals and More, and the promotion spread virally. As the fan base grew, its rate of growth accelerated. Dingo exceeded their initial goal and surpassed 6,000 Likes within 3 days! They gave the consumers the task of finding Facebook Likes for them and that is exactly what happened.

Are there some users that signed up because they just want free stuff? Of course. Does that muddy the waters a bit? Definitely.

However, in one week there have been almost 1,000 posts and comments by Facebook users on the Dingo fan page, an amazing amount of user generated content. In addition, there have been almost 250 photos posted of users’ dogs, many of them enjoying Dingo products – priceless content. All the while, Dingo has kept up with the posts and has been using this as an opportunity to have a flowing conversation with what has become a living, breathing community.

Within 3 days, Dingo was able to significantly increase their database of prospective customers, have them try their brand, and create a rich community of dog owners who can be utilized as a learning lab as well as a medium to promote new products and programs.

Who else is doing what you're doing?

There's no one doing exactly what we're doing, the way we're doing it. There are "lighter" solutions for smaller retailers. But our real competitor is the belief a company can do what we do with internal IT resources. The only one I know doing this successfully is Amazon.com, but they've been at this strategy for 12 years. Many who started with in-house builds have switched to our hosted technology and service, which includes consulting, moderation, analytics, integration with partners, etc.

What trends do you see in this space, both in terms of what companies are doing and what they're not doing? If they're not doing this and they should be, why aren't they?

The three hottest topics are social, mobile and multi-channel. And by hot, I mean most companies haven't figured them out!

As it relates to social, most CMOs struggle with what to do first, how to measure results, and how to scale a program. Facebook and Twitter continue to get attention, but people seem to mistake them for strategies, not tools. I think we're entering a phase where companies realize that having fans and followers doesn't really mean much in terms of the P&L. There is a trend to make social more measurable and integrate social activities into the fabric of the marketing strategy and business (including customer service).

A recent study we conducted with the CMO Club found that 64% of CMOs plan to increase their social marketing budget. But here's the kicker: in 2009, 72% of CMOs reported they had no measurement of revenue linked to social. But of that same audience, 95% of them expected to link up to 10% of the revenue to social marketing programs this year. That begs the question… how!?

I think this trend swings in our direction, for what we call social commerce. Simply put, it's tying the social interactions closer to products and shopping, and using the content and data in many ways to increase the impact of multiple marketing programs. This strategy brings social into the center of marketing and the products you sell, rather than being a pet project for a couple of people in the PR team.

One of the things I like about your service is that it will enable companies to do a better job of answering customer questions. In my upcoming book (and this blog), I talk frequently about how making a sale always involves answering customer questions successfully. And I find that most companies do a very poor job of this – they don't even know the questions that customers are really asking.

Have you ever had a question about a product before you buy? Yes. Do marketers do a great job of providing the content on a web site to answer those questions? Usually, no. I was in that position when I managed the Dell.com consumer site. When you are busy and insulated, it's difficult to create content that speaks in the customers' language, and keep up with content and copy that addresses questions where they need it. So, Ask & Answer simply puts the questions and answers in the hands of the customers, right where they need the content – it gives consumers a way to ask a question, publicly, of a brand, where the brand or another consumer can answer it (and others can benefit from these answers).

Catch the rest of the conversation over at Revenue Journal.

Traditionally, companies have focused on these key areas: sales, finance and operations. This is natural because they provide real, solid, measurable numbers: you can quantify cost savings from operations and you can measure sales in very specific ways (by region, by product, by sales rep). These are the metrics that count, right?

Sales and operations are not the only important measurables. They’re like the engine room of a ship. It’s important to make sure the engine runs smoothly, but how important is this if you are headed in the wrong direction, or toward an iceberg?

Recognize Dan Hesse from the commercials?

Marketing can be the internal champion for a new customer-centric focus. Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, took the stage at the Forrester Customer Experience Forum in New York this week to talk about Sprint’s customer-centric approach. Imagine his outlook and options on his first day as CEO: In 2007 the company lost almost $30 billion dollars. In Q1 2008 alone the company lost over a million customers.

If Hesse was like most CEOs, he would have spent all his time in the engine room, believing this was the heart of the problem—the heart of any possible positive change. He would have been under enormous pressure to engage in broad cost-cutting and to focus almost exclusively on improving internal efficiencies and operations. And he probably did a fair amount of this type of work. But Dan’s number 1 priority was improving customer experience. He knew that making customers happy is a good strategy for long-term success. He refocused the entire company around three key initiatives:

1. Customer Experience
2. Build the Brand
3. Conserve Cash

Every single Sprint resource was realigned around these three objectives.

During his talk, Hesse outlined his “magnificent seven” change-drivers:

1. Align compensation and rewards
2. Knowing the agenda and knowing what the boss checks on
3. Root-cause analysis/data
4. Accountability
5. Project leadership
6. Simplify
7. Living the brand

Instead of going on a cost-cutting spree and inflating prices, Dan chose to simplify Sprint’s product offerings, making them easier to understand, less expensive to customers, and ensuring a better overall customer experience.

“Our core problem is cost cutting that led to customer satisfaction problems”

The result? $2 billion in savings just from customer service operations. Simplicity and better customer experiences result in fewer, shorter calls to customer service. Sprint was recognized by Forrester by having the highest improvement in customer experience across all industries by earning a 15-point jump. They were recognized as #1 in customer satisfaction for mobile, and J.D. Power recognized Sprint with a 17-point improvement.

The effect on earnings? In Q1 2010 the company reported their first profit (EBITDA) in a long time, the best improvement in net post-paid customers in five years and the first sequential increase in net revenues in three years. Sprint is not at the finish line, but is clearly getting there.

Hesse understands the value of satisfied customers and the power of word of mouth:

“In terms of how much will it influence customer purchase behavior, a TV ad would probably be a 1. A really good TV ad is probably a 2. Someone you know telling you about a product they like is a 9 or 10.”

Here's Dan Hesse announcing Sprint's "wireless revolution", back in early 2008:

What is far more interesting about Harris Interactive’s new research is that it doesn’t just explore what people are sharing online, it delves into why they’re sharing it.  According to the poll:

• 38% of online adults say they aim to influence others when sharing opinions online
• These numbers are higher for people 18 to 34, with 45% aiming to influence their networks
• 46% feel they can be brutally honest on the internet.

These results mirror a survey we did in 2007. When asked why customers write reviews, 90% of respondents indicated that they write reviews to help others make buying decisions. It makes sense – reviewers want to help people like them find products they’ll love (or avoid products they won’t).

This motivation seems to play into eMarketer’s recent suggested correlation between Facebook use and online spending. According to this study:

• The heaviest Facebook users also spend the most money online
• The top 20% of Facebook users spent an average of $67 online in Q1 2010
• Medium users spent an average of $61 online in Q1 2010
• Light users spend an average of $50 online in Q1 2010.

The numbers keep coming in. Consumers are increasingly listening to others online to guide their purchase decisions. Businesses that embrace this word of mouth and facilitate customer conversations are coming out ahead. Social commerce is no longer just an idea—it is reality.

Reviewer Intent Survey Summary

Our joint study with Keller Fay Group uncovers the motivations and behavior of your most important customers – those who interact with your brand through UGC. It’s available for free download here.

Are there businesses that shouldn't engage in social media marketing?

I used to think there were many verticals, business types and industries that should refrain from social media marketing all together. Now, with the ever-widening array of tools and platforms, coupled with skyrocketing consumer use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter worldwide, I'm less certain this is the case. I think that for most businesses, there is a way to use SM for marketing, but it may require inventive thinking and substantial resource investment.

Jason Trout was adamant:

Absolutely!!!

1) Those that do not know how to utilize social media correctly and do harm to their brand

a) do not update regularly

b) do not engage correctly

c) do not communicate professionally

d) are not knowledgeable about the tools or keep up with the trends

e) do not invest proper resources

2) Those where social media activities will not add any value to the company – yes, these companies still exist.

I’ll concede his first point; of course businesses out there that consistently make these mistakes should either quit or reformulate their social media plans, but this is a bit like saying that bad writers shouldn’t try to be professional authors. As for his second point, I’d like to know more—which type of company or industry?

Annie Noll’s thinking mirrors my own, and she illustrates an important point: Whether we value social media often depends on our understanding of the different ways people use it.

I think every company and industry can find a use for social media. At least all the ones that I can think of. I remember I was at IMS09 in October and there was a person there from the federal reserve. She asked if they should use social media because they really don't have any competitors. The answer was yes, because social media can be used for so much more than just promotion (internal communications, etc). It is simply the way people want to communicate now!

I do social media for a university and am finding so many different ways social media can be used in our classrooms, in our admissions offices (we are getting admissions essays through Facebook), for our alumni. It does take innovative thinking, but it pays off really well.

Modeling our use of social media on the successes of others is only valuable insofar as the model applies to us, but we always need to think of new ways to use the tools at our disposal. There is no guidebook, and this causes both anxiety and excitement. But it’s also a huge opportunity, and people that look at it this way, people like Annie, are the ones that implement winning social strategies.

B2B companies, Brad Shorr argues, have had a tough time with social media, but that’s changing:

As recently as a couple years ago, certain industries could safely avoid SM because on the whole, customers weren't really frequenting SM sites in significant numbers. I think that's changed. B2Bs can take it for granted that their market is present in SM – the only question is, where?

The pervasiveness of SM in business is the result of two factors, as I see it. First, non-business SM platforms like Facebook and YouTube are so ingrained that it's no longer a big leap into the unknown to use social platforms for business purposes. Second, the line between business and personal use of SM is starting to break down. People no longer compartmentalize their online activities. On Twitter or Facebook or even LinkedIn, you can follow up a highly personal interaction with one that is all business, and go back and forth all day long. In this kind of SM environment, just about any brand is a consumer brand. It would take some pretty compelling reasons to deter a firm from incorporating SM into its marketing program.

Spot on. We’ve seen our B2B clients embrace social media and customer-created content to drive serious ROI, and new use cases for B2B engagement in social media are occurring to sharp folks like Brad Shorr every day.

Social media marketing is all about amplifying the voice of your customers, says Chelsea Mueller:

Often people think of social media marketing as a brand new avenue, but really it's all about word-of-mouth marketing. Social media is about getting your customers to talk, to brag about your company/product/service. The online setting has just accelerated our ability to connect with these customers in an immediate fashion. We can spark conversion and provide the tools for our clients to become brand ambassadors.

Any business — B2C, B2B, non-profit — can benefit from the word-of-mouth buzz associated with correctly leveraging social media trust and engagement.

Highly-regulated industries, Peter Landesman argues, may have more hurdles, but can and should find solutions:

I have come into contact with a few firms — especially those that are involved in wealth and financial management. These industries are highly regulated and SM is discouraged, if not completely forbidden. In my opinion, firms in these industries need to develop a workable solution so that SM can be used as a platform to interact with clients and prospects within the rules of governance. Let's face it … we're all creative people and I am confident that these kinds of workable solutions are out there.

I couldn’t agree more, and companies like LendingTree and Nationwide have saddled up and seen measurable results.  I’ll let Peter wrap it up, because he does it perfectly:

There is no valid reason for businesses to eschew or avoid SM, but there seem to be plenty of excuses.

What do you think? Are there any businesses that shouldn’t engage in SMM? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Learn why top CMOs plan for more social media spend.

Download our free white paper.

While the long-term implications of Facebook’s new platform features – Social plugins and their underpinnings, the Open Graph protocol and Graph API – are up for debate, I have a few thoughts to share from the Bazaarvoice perspective. Over the last week, since f8, we have received questions from current and prospective customers about what these developments mean for their business, social strategy, and relationship with Bazaarvoice.

First, we believe that the boldness of Facebook’s vision is a net positive for our industry. The ease of integration and use of Social plugins will reduce the barriers – technical, usability, psychological, etc. – for social interactions across the Web. Clicking the Like Button for a product on a retailer’s website, like Levis.com, can trigger a series of increasingly valuable social interactions that escalate that consumer’s loyalty to the brand and acquire new shoppers along the way. Our whitepaper on Participation Chains describes this process of value creation through linked social interactions.

The coming ubiquity of the Like Button and other distributed social interactions – enabled by Facebook, Bazaarvoice, and others – is a good thing for brands and consumers because these interactions build relationships that are mutually desired and transparent, a relatively new concept in marketing and advertising! Facebook has enabled these relationships to be created at a scale that will absolutely revolutionize the way companies manage their brands, marketing strategy, and customer relationships. The wake of opportunity created by Facebook’s actions is massive and will fuel even greater marketing and technology innovation in the months ahead.

Second, we believe that Facebook’s strategy is complementary to our own. The forms of user-generated content captured by the Bazaarvoice platform – Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, Stories, and more – help consumers at and leading up to the point of purchase. In concert with the Bazaarvoice platform, a retailer can use Social plugins to acquire new shoppers and help consumers discover products and services of interest, engaging shoppers early in the purchase process. For example, seeing on Facebook that a friend liked a new model digital camera influences you to click through to the camera retailer’s website, where you read customer reviews of the product as well as recently answered shopper questions on the camera’s features and technical specs. Based on these social influences, you buy the product and two weeks later write a product review (powered by Bazaarvoice!) on the retailer’s website. In the process, you elect to publish your review to Facebook for other friends to see. This cycle can continue perpetually, with exponentially increasing value.

Through our work with TurboTax on their “Friendcasting” campaign (which involved integration with Facebook Connect), we have a ground-breaking example of how the social graph can be used to surface the most relevant and trustworthy advice for a key purchase decision. In this scenario, you determine that TurboTax Premier is the best edition of the popular tax preparation software for your financial situation, especially after reading positive reviews from Steve, your neighbor and Facebook friend who happens to be a CPA. This is a reality today, along with Bazaarvoice platform features like ShoutIt! and TweetConnect. In addition, we are powering complete social commerce experiences within Facebook. Check out our deployment of Ratings & Reviews within Facebook for Benefit Cosmetics. With Facebook’s Graph API and Open Graph protocol, we are now able to envision and develop even more innovative uses of the social graph to enhance every stage of the purchase process. In fact, we have a dedicated team, Bazaarvoice Labs, devoted to rapid prototyping and collaborative development of new ideas like these.

The Bazaarvoice platform provides a foundation for our customers to experiment with and optimize their use of Facebook’s new features and whatever may come next. Facebook tipped the first domino (or rather, kicked it), but there are many others yet to fall. Our fully-hosted technology allows us to rapidly deploy new features and third-party plugins such as the Like Button across our entire network of customer websites. Through that network, we have served over 110 billion impressions of user-generated content, playing a leading role in the socialization of the web. The strategic value of this for our clients isn’t simply the business impact or innovation that we deliver – it is our ability to “future proof” their websites and online business strategies. The form and function of Facebook’s platform features are sure to evolve. Google Social Search is in its infancy but will evolve as well. Something completely unexpected will come out of left field. The flexibility and openness of the Bazaarvoice platform will enable our customers to take full advantage of these developments, while leveraging the influence and voices of their most loyal and engaged customers.

Over the last 10 days, we have experienced a truly revolutionary change in the way the web works. However, as we approach the tipping point of the web becoming pervasively social, there will be hiccups. Privacy and security are paramount concerns, and Facebook’s actions have attracted government interest in short order. Brands that abuse these new capabilities will pay for it in lost consumer trust and reputation. As you contemplate the impact of Facebook’s new features on your social strategy, remember to take full advantage of your partnership with Bazaarvoice. We want to share our insights and lessons learned from serving the world’s leading brands and influencing millions of purchase decisions each day. We welcome your input on our strategy and want to collaborate openly with you on yours. On the social web, there’s no such thing as going it alone!

Notice the new Like Button below? Try it out and let us know what you think!

Digital Nomads is a Web community powered by Dell that caters to individuals "who live a lifestyle where their laptop and other electronic devices create the center of their office and/or play-space." The site offers a forum for mobile-oriented news, ideas, and best practices.

Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt recently spoke with Digital Nomad Bruce Eric Anderson about the power of word of mouth marketing specifically for mobile-device users. In the video interview, Brett discusses his personal experience as a digital nomad, and how Bazaarvoice services have evolved to target this demographic.

Sam and I will also be speaking at the conference Lisa is organizing, Online Market World, this October 3-5 in San Francisco.  I will be speaking about driving customer acquisition and conversion through word-of-mouth marketing.  I hope to see you there, and I'll probably see you at Shop.org's Annual Summit in Las Vegas first.  It is rumored there are well over 2,500 confirmed attendees at this point, making it the largest online retail conference in history!  I will be speaking about monetizing Web 2.0 at the Summit with Pinny Gniwisch, founder and EVP of Marketing at Ice.com, and Matt Corey, VP of Marketing at Golfsmith International, one of our earliest clients who has recently started to leverage ratings and reviews content in their print catalogs.