Social Media Tools for Parents (Part 2 of 2)
August 19, 2010 @ 1:58am
Updated — August 22, 2010 @ 7:08pm
by Andrew Kim
Welcome to Part 2 of this week’s look into the significance of social media in hands of consumers. All it takes is one mother to take down Pampers’ new line of diapers overnight. Like I mentioned last week companies have used social media and networking intensively in their websites, packaging, and PR in all medias. There is a dark side to this when your premier relaunch of your product line goes into a downward spiral.
Proctor & Gamble’s strongest baby brand is Pampers’ with a line of baby diapers and wipes. Pampers’ earlier this year revised certain diapers with Dry Max Technology. Without a doubt a prestige brand like Pampers’ would test their products extensively before releasing it. Slowly individual mothers have been reaching out to the internet and social media in sharing stories. The product that came into question was Pampers Swaddlers or Cruisers with Dry Max. At some point several mothers in different markets started a new movement on Facebook. The controversy started with a mom noticing several diaper rashes and investigated it with her pediatrician. Diaper rash has been a common problem for newborns and young toddlers, and there are plenty of solutions in dealing with it. No matter what advices, diaper creams or old wives tales that she encountered it didn’t help her baby. I personally used the product as well and my own child would have similar symptoms. These mothers eventually concluded that these several rashes or in some cases chemical burns have originated from the Pampers’ diapers.
Proctor & Gamble responded with normal PR practices in showing proven tests from various sources that these diapers were clearly 100% safe. With social media mothers continued to unite with one voice and demanded a recall of these diapers. Since May 2010 several mothers in Ohio have gone into court filings against Proctor & Gamble. What we can learn are companies cannot be naive any longer where social mediums have given mothers the tools to take down a Goliath. Of course I’m not scaring future businesses in avoiding social media, but to use it to stay ahead or be on guard of the modern consumer. The public are forgiving people, until a company thinks they know better. Elative marketing’s approach with clients is to look into long-term strategies and anticipate for anything.
Recent Article #1: Social media empowering parents with complaints against Pampers
Recent Article #2: Procter & Gamble in Bind Over Moms’ Web Attack on Pampers Brand
Recent Article #3: Pampers Parents Irritated at P&G Push-Back
Recent Article #4: Parents upset over P&G’s Pampers diapers
Tags
baby, child care, Facebook, newborn, Pampers, Parenting, pediatrician, Proctor & Gamble, social media, Swaddlers, twitter, Yelp
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Social Media Tools for Parents (Part 1 of 2)
August 9, 2010 @ 10:42am
by Andrew Kim
Part 1: Sooner or later parents of different generations and ethnics are getting involved with the basics of social media. Not as intensive as tweeting, but Facebook has strengthen family networks and rapid fire feedback. In this week’s blog is about the highlights of search engines and social media networks for parents. Next week I’ll give an example of a PR disaster companies need to be aware when their brands can be disseminated and easily tarnished overnight. 
Using Google, Bing, Yelp, and Wiki-Everything on the iPhone has given my wife, wealth of knowledge from the apple tree in a matter of seconds. As first time parents we are constantly seeking new methods and make split-second decisions as a family. What’s great is pulling information from several websites or batch of links from Google before getting it from the doctor’s office. Relying on the feedback of hundreds of other blogs has given us the second opinion we needed. Yelp has been the best in finding hopeful brick and mortar business where they have effective in seeking the right care for our child. Of course if something is obviously wrong and want more thorough information please consult with your pediatrician.
Facebook has been a great asset to get information, promotions and a structured way in giving back companies our feedback. How valuable is that? Companies not yet in online marketing must take advantage in these technologies, before spending critical funds elsewhere. Elative Marketing has the strong platforms for clients and companies can use to implement immediately.
Tune in next week.
Tags
baby, child care, Facebook, newborn, Parenting, pediatrician, social media, twitter, Yelp
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Tweet Your Menus, Dine with Immediate Satisfaction
August 2, 2010 @ 12:39pm
Updated — August 2, 2010 @ 12:52pm
by Andrew Kim
Having that midnight craving or sick of fast food solutions at work? Give your local social media food trucks in your neighborhood a try. Out the door of the usual greasy, iced, and forgettable foods, say hello to the new tech buffet line. How can we say no to Twitter, Facebook, blogging and every other social media avenue? It’s the perfect vehicle for informing your customers instantly of your restaurant or event. You can actually enjoy something good and know when and
where to be back for more. Significant challenges for meals on wheels are telling their customers when and where to find them. Today’s iPhones and smartphones give businesses affordable way to mass market their brands overnight.
A combination of Elative Events and Social Media services can provide businesses with direct marketing and cost-effective feedback. Utilizing social media for events, product release dates, PR alerts, and limited promotions are great to put information out there. Setting up these services for your website or business can save you on traditional marketing and reinvest where its more important.
So do yourself a favor find your local food trucks and treat yourself.
Kogi BBQ Truck, Greater Los Angeles, California
Dessert Truck, Greater NYC, New York
General Bao Bun Truck, San Francisco Bay Area, California
Tags
dessert, Facebook, food network, food service, food trucks, restaurants, social media, social networking, twitter
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The Last Wave?
November 5, 2009 @ 12:40pm
Updated — November 16, 2009 @ 3:25pm
by Austin Edgington
Every twenty five years or so, a really big communication wave comes along that sweeps innovation and change into our lives. The first one I remember occurred when network television replaced radio as a focus for info-tainment and created modern advertising; so nicely portrayed by the butt puffing men of Mad Man. Yes, I’m old enough to remember when a ‘Winston tasted good like a cigarette should,’ and other tobacco pedaling jingles. In the 80’s, cable TV launched and undermined the network’s dominance by decimating advertising revenues with lower costs and wider choice of programs, characterized by re-runs, ESPN, and faux news show.
Then Web 2.0 crashed on our shores a few years ago, washing in social media and revolutionary web platforms like Facebook and Hulu.com. What’s interesting about this shift is the audience social media created. Techies, artists, writers, housewives, students, innovative business leaders, anyone with an opinion and others looking for connections beyond their daily toil flocked to Vox, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Linked In, and more. They formed communities, groups, relationships, and trust arising from dialogue among one another in ways not imaginable by marketers in the past. It’s weird, it’s wonderful and it’s happening now.
The reality is that this new media, a term I use to describe the aggregate of social media and new web offerings, has disrupted marketing. For example, blogging news sites like the Huffington Post changed the way public relations is conducted. Social utilities like Facebook allow businesses to easily run ads and changes the way ad agencies can reach target audiences, while social media platforms like Vox, where people from tight, trusted neighborhoods converse about everything from their parents divorce to whether to purchase a VW or a BMW…changed web marketing as we knew it.
The traditional paradigm of engaging customers based on creating awareness, to create interest, which leads to a desire that prompts a consumer to purchase has been replaced by a new model that has more steps, but, paradoxically is more immediate and happens virtually 24/7.
In the new media model consumers take different steps purchasing. We call it the “Five R’s”;
- Referral – A potential customer can easily be referred to your product or service by a friend or neighbor from their social network, and often the customer has never met the friend or even know their real name.
- Research – Based on their online buddy’s referral (or not), they can research your brand on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Conversely, you must now research where they are, what sites they travel, and what they have to say about your brand to be effective in reaching them.
- Relationship – In doing so they may develop relationships with other brand users and further discuss brand attributes. They are developing a now have a relationship with your brand and are arriving at the purchase decision.
- Reliability – Now the ball is in your court, and you must easily, seamlessly capture the purchase, facilitate the delivery, and follow up with customer service. This is more and more becoming what is known as the annoying ‘pile-on’ method, which often erodes your credibility. Comcast will drive you nuts with this approach after a botched service implementation.
- Responsiveness – Being responsive to your customers needs in a reliable manner is most important. Drop the ball on this and immediately negative responses will begin to emerge on the very sites you are searching for customers. Two great examples of doing this right are Zappos and Amazon.
With the current wave washing away the way marketing has been conducted in the past, which is often last month in new media time, the question often posed by clients is: What’s a marketer to do? The answer is innovate. As the late great Hunter S. Thompson once quipped, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Marketers need to look the weirdness of social media in the eye and turn social media pro. They need to think like those they wish to engage and go where they are; and do so with the credibility and authenticity the defines the trust that hinges the culture of the new media together. If you’re a CEO you will get much more mileage out your blog or tweets if you pen them yourself, even if you are not a witty communicator like Tony Hsieh of Zappos. The medium is the message, and authenticity rules the message.
The way to ride this wave is to embrace change, innovate, and partner with those who are riding it with knowledge of the waters they navigate and an eye on the future. After all, in new media time, it will soon be the last wave.
Tags
Bing, communications, Facebook, Google, marketing, social marketing, social media, twitter, web 2.0, Yahoo
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Where were you when….?
June 29, 2009 @ 2:07pm
by Mason Razavi
Where were you when you heard Michael Jackson had died? I was in my office, and found out when I switched tabs on my browser and saw a friend’s Facebook status. How did you find out about the passing of the world’s foremost pitchman Billy Mays? I found out through some Twitter posts, and learned more about it using Scoopler.
Though I could go on about paying homage to the tragic deaths of a handful of celebrities and TV personalities this week, I won’t. There are a million sites and a million blogs and a million groups on Facebook for that. So, I hope you don’t mind if I set the emotions aside and instead focus on the technology that empowered me to stay connected with these stunning current events, as well as a question to you: where were you?
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, social media has in many ways risen above traditional media in delivering up-to-the-minute information on a number of topics (Iran, anyone?). The past couple of weeks in particular have made for some tumultuous times and have provided incredible examples of how social media works in the context of our times.
So, where were you when David Carradine, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcet, Ed McMahon, or Billy Mays left us? How did you use social media to find out about it, communicate others, organize groups, etc? I’d love to know! Let’s see some comments about how we’ve used these incredible tools to talk to each other.
Tags
Billy Mays, David Carradine, ed mcmahon, Facebook, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Scoopler, social media, twitter
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MySpace Giving Way to Facebook, Twitter
June 9, 2009 @ 7:06pm
by Mason Razavi
“Why-eee-iii-eee-iiii-eee…..yeaaaa….MySpace is dead….”
MySpace seems to be suffering the same fate as the Our Lady Peace, the band who’s lyrics I so artfully butchered. Like the mid-nineties pop-rock outfit, MySpace got its 15 minutes of fame and now seems to be on its way to the land of irrelevancy.
In the world of social networking, it’s all about what’s hot, what’s new, and what everyone else is doing. We’re nothing if not a society of sheep!
In an article from CNN, the author points out the decline of MySpace and the rise of Facebook, as well as the social media tool that may eventually dethrone Facebook: Twitter.
Really, who uses MySpace anymore? It may be better for blogging, and it is certainly a better site for bands, but for the average Joe who wants to connect with his network, Facebook and Twitter have successfully usurped MySpace as the industry leaders.
What’s your take?
Tags
CNN, Facebook, MySpace, Our Lady Peace, social media, social networking, twitter
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Marketing and The Economy
May 12, 2009 @ 5:22pm
Updated — July 6, 2009 @ 5:26pm
by Mason Razavi
We all know what happens when an organization starts to lose money: the creative departments are usually the first to take a hit.
Take public school systems for example. When there are budget issues (and believe me, us Californians know about budget issues), the art and music departments are shut down and the teachers running those departments get the boot. This is all too sad, but I guess some school districts feel that the investment we make in trying to develop creative-minded individuals who are not just left-brained robots is a boondoggle.
In the business world, it’s the marketing and advertising arm of the company that gets downsized. After all, pretty pictures of a company’s products are more of a luxury than manufacturing and other departments, right?
I hate to talk about the economy, as anyone who has had any contact with any news source over the past year and a half is probably tired of talking about it. To that end, I won’t dwell on the economy, but rather the shift in marketing resources and the rise in email and social media marketing.
Excited? Good! You should be.
I was reading an interesting article from the Associated Press about how companies are turning to more cost-efficient, internet-based alternatives to their traditional marketing tools.
That article is a well-written testament to the power of the internet when it comes to contemporary marketing strategy. In a day where companies are forced to steeeee-retch their dollar, e-mail marketing campaigns and websites like MySpace and Facebook are coming to the forefront as powerful and cost-efficient marketing tools.
Some companies have gotten clever and have put together an integrated online marketing strategy. This would involve putting up a website as well as accounts on all of the popular social networking websites. Then, updates are made on all of the websites to reflect what is happening with the company. Smart organizations track who follows them on which website, and they use the information they gather to come up with focused, targeted advertising campaigns. As the Associated Press article says, there is some cost involved in terms of paying the right people to execute such a strategy, but there is no doubt that that the return is significant.
Tags
marketing, marketing promotion, social media, social networking web 2.0, strategy
