As I’m sure you’ve heard (because it’s nearly impossible to avoid), there’s been quite a bit of political excitement happening in Wisconsin over the past month. I promise to leave the actual politics out of this post and instead focus on some interesting examples of how local Wisconsin businesses have used social media to listen and communicate with their customers during these events. 

One shining example comes from Ian’s Pizza on State, located downtown Madison. As the number of hungry protestors grew at the capital, they responded with nearly round-the-clock pizza deliveries – at times, suspending normal in-store and delivery operations to focus solely on the protestors.  News of the pizza deliveries spread on the internet and within days the restaurant was receiving orders for pizza deliveries for protestors from around the world – as far away as Egypt, Korea and Denmark, and from nearly all 50 states.

The restaurant used both Twitter and Facebook to communicate with its customers – giving thanks to those sending in orders and keeping local customers up-to-date on current operations. Recently when donations exceeded the need for pizza, Ian’s set up an online poll, allowing customers to respond and vote for where they’d like to see the money donated. And, in one more excellent PR move, the restaurant included “free slice” cards with all local deliveries as a way of saying thank you to their regular customers.  Ian’s said helping with the deliveries has allowed them to stay politically neutral during a heated time in Madison – they just deliver pizza. 

One very different example involves a local Madison café. After a particularly poignant event in the Wisconsin political debate, the owner of the café took to the restaurant’s Twitter profile to share his support of the event, without first considering how his customers might react to his views. Within minutes, his Tweet spread, resulting in some very vocal disapproval from the café’s loyal customer base. The owner was forced to do damage control immediately, deleting the controversial tweet and apologizing to those he offended. This example is just another good reminder to think before you tweet – know your audience and anticipate how your message will be received. 

~ Megan

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Last year, a new business guru recommended that we could increase traffic to our blog and website by mass following on Twitter. It seemed like a sound tactic — identify people who could/should be interested in what our agency has to say and follow them on Twitter, so they follow us back. The more followers we have, the better the chances of someone hearing our message and contacting us when they have a need, right?

Wrong.

What we ended up with was a huge list of followers who weren’t following us because they cared what we had to say–they followed us because we followed them, and they were trying to build their follower list, too. Our feed became cluttered with spam, some of it questionable or tasteless. We stopped building relationships with followers and became one more voice shouting into mass noise. We focused more time on managing  Twit Adder–finding, following, unfollowing–than we did on creating actual, valuable content and connecting with people.

What’s worse, the program didn’t even work. We didn’t receive one referral to our website from Twitter, not one direct message (other than spam pitches) and not one real, viable new business lead.

So we ditched it. I spent a morning checking each and every follower and dumping the spammy or inappropriate ones. We went from following more than 2,500 people, to following about 100. Our follower list dropped, of course (down to under 400) but I suspect (hope) a greater percentage of them follow us because they actually are interested in what we have to say.

I’m focusing on quality over quantity now–real people who want to read our tweets, check out our blog and maybe retweet what we share because it’s valuable. Because in the new business game, it’s all about relationships, demonstrating competency, adding value and being top of mind when there’s a need. Twitter is a great way to do that…if you’re doing it right.

~ Valette

Want to connect on Twitter? Check out @ValettePiper

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It’s 3 p.m. Do you know where your customers are?

Are they watching  Oprah or the Dr. Who marathon on SyFy? Are they picking up their kids from school in their car? Are they sitting at their computer, brain-dead now that their afternoon snack has worn off, ready for a little online industry reading  as a way to stay productive?

The answer of course, depends on who your customers are.  It’s important know more than their sex, age and geographic location—you need to know what they care about, what they watch/listen to/read/consume (plus when and how), what their other choices are, and what motivates them. You need to know who they really are. And then develop your plan accordingly.

That’s why we are “tactic-neutral” at S&B. We’re focused on the customer and will recommend strategies and tactics that hit them where they live, whether it falls under “advertising,” “public relations,” “interactive media” or “social media.” How only matters so far as it gets our message to the right Who.

~ Valette
This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCOs at S&B.

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LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for connecting professionals. Yet I admit it’s my least favorite social media tool and the one I spend the least amount of time with. It’s, well, sort of boring.

But I recommend it to clients as part of B2B outreach all the time. It’s a great way to recruit new employees, position yourself as an expert or resource, connect with prospects, and advertise to specific business-oriented target audiences.

I’ve had a LinkedIn account for a couple of years. I still have a basic account and my profile is still only 90% complete: me. So I’m going to complete my profile. I’ll write a short summary about myself, and I’ll get/make another referral.

And I’ll stop treating LinkedIn like the ugly stepsister. I’ll join a group or two that could help me professionally, and help me better serve my clients and their customers. I’ll answer questions when I have a genuine, different perspective. I’ll recommend colleagues. Maybe I’ll even check out an application or two. And I’ll encourage my fellow CCOs to do the same.

~ Valette

This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCOs at S&B.

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birds2This resolution in particular hits home for me.  I love Twitter for so many reasons. It’s a constant news feed. It helps me monitor conversations and coverage for my clients. It provides a welcome distraction on a Friday afternoon. It helps me catch up with friends and colleagues on Monday morning. But, notice none of my “loves” have anything to do with me tweeting…

It’s not that I’m lazy or that I don’t “get” Twitter or that I don’t have anything to say (believe me, I do).  It’s just that the “tweeting” part falls to the very bottom of my to-do list day after day. And, I know I’m not alone. In 2011, I vow to be a much more active participant on Twitter. I encourage you to join me and help keep me accountable. You can follow me @meganbykowski.

~ Megan
This is one of 31 entries that will be posted during the month of January describing the New Year’s resolutions proposed by the 40 vibrant and talented CCOs at S&B.

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