Recovery Systems Institute

Earlier this month, we wrote on how Gremln’s new compliance tools can help companies in the financial services and healthcare industries adhere to social media guidelines set by regulatory agencies. This week, guest writer Cecile LaBore brings us a practical look at how healthcare providers can effectively use social media as part of their communications plans.

Cecile LaBore is Administrator for Recovery Systems Institute.  RecoverySI focuses on bridging the gap between treatment and recovery by providing information, tools, and resources for people in recovery and their families, clinicians, and addiction treatment programs.

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It’s a big field, and includes everything from prevention to long term recovery services, nonprofits with no paid staff to big companies with dozens of facilities, and approaches that vary from the medical to the spiritual and all points between.  But we all have one goal in common:  If we’re going to help, people have to know who & where we are– and what we can help with!  That’s where social media comes in.

But many of us have been putting off diving into the social media arena, or have maybe just “dipped a toe in.”  Maybe a Facebook page with hardly any posts.  Or some staff presence on LinkedIn.  A dormant Twitter account.  We know we should do better, but we’re worried:  Will social media become a “time sink” that uses up effort for an insignificant return?  Will it even work at all?  Worse– will we make a terrible mistake that could get us in trouble, precipitate a lawsuit, lose us a contract?

Here are six “Dos” and six “Don’ts” that can help you get started on the right track with Social Media:

Do invest some time in planning.  Do some homework, and then sit down with key decision makers to identify what you want to achieve and what you will need to invest.  For the “homework” part, nothing works as well as getting in there and seeing it firsthand.  If you don’t have personal accounts, set some up (there are great online tutorials to help, and to address your concerns about privacy and security) and spend time exploring.  Search hashtags in Twitter (#recovery, #anxiety, #prevention…); look up competitors’ Facebook pages. Think about what you want from your audience and what they want from you.  Social media services have different strengths.  Think about how you might use each one, which seems the best fit.  Research best practices for data security, and implement them from the start.  Develop a social media policy that defines your own “dos and don’ts.”  The more time you spend studying “how it works,” the better you’ll be able to make it work for you.

Don’t “stick it over there.”  As in, don’t regard social media as a separate, stand-alone segment of communications/marketing that can run in its own little vacuum.  To be done right, it will have to be hooked into everything else.  Even if your “IT Department” is one computer-savvy staffer or volunteer who knows how to use email, they’ll need to be involved in setting up your social media accounts, maintaining them, and making sure they’re used safely and easily.  Your program people will have to be involved- they need to know what’s going on, and they’re a source of ideas.  If you’re offering a discount, your billing and finance people need to know.  In fact, with the possible exception of building maintenance, there aren’t too many aspects of what you do that don’t connect somehow to your online presence.

Do establish reasonable expectations for your return on investment.  The good news is that you can establish a compelling presence in most social media without having to front a lot of cash.  Basic accounts are free.  Most third-party apps and management tools (like Gremln!) have free introductory levels or periods.  There are plenty of good free “how to” resources & tutorials online.  But using ‘free’ stuff does cost something:  Time. Time to learn, time to practice, time to create.  You can trade off time by spending money to buy expertise- there are plenty of good paid services & consultants to help.  Either way, you’ll invest, so think about what you want in return, and be realistic about the time horizon.

Don’t mistake quantity for quality.  If you’re Coca-cola, or Nike, you’re operating in an arena where more is better, sure.  But buying a soda or a pair of shoes is a very different kind of transaction than what we deal in.  Even for the big treatment providers with dozens of facilities, we’re talking about “conversions” that are based on establishing a high level of trust.  For those of us trying to be effective in prevention, in getting research funded, in changing policies or building community resources, the measure of success is “informed & engaged.”  We need to develop reach to find people -I’m not dissing numbers!- but our success devolves to finding the right people.  Numbers are nice.  Quality is better.

Do frame your goals in terms of your mission and services.  If you’re a treatment provider, you want to expand your customer base, obviously.  But remember that “referents” (people who refer clients to you for services) are customers, too.  Maybe you want to add value to your services by establishing an alumni program for families & clients?  Social media is your tool- and a great one.  If you’re in prevention, getting the information disseminated as widely as possible might be a goal.  Match your mission goals to social media strengths.  The easiest things to measure are reach (how many people are you making contact with?) and engagement (are people clicking on links, attending events, downloading information).  Direct conversions can be measured but may require a little more investment and creativity.

Don’t take big bites.  “We’re a high quality Eating Disorders program!” isn’t compelling.  “We provide individual nutrition planning and follow-up meal coaching” is compelling.  “Support our efforts to reduce the stigma of mental illness!” doesn’t generate action.  “Come to our Survival is Strength rally (and print out this coupon for a free coffee while you’re there!)” gets action.  A 30-page .pdf full of dense text on how to recognize the symptoms of a disorder may be popular with a few clinicians. That’s fine if that’s who you want to reach.  But even they are more likely to click on a 1.5-minute slide show with engaging music and graphics on the same topic (then maybe download the .pdf!).

Do put a premium on creativity.  Creative thinking is critical to success.  If you don’t have it, import some, even if it means recruiting volunteers or paying outside help.  Here’s a great idea for nonprofits:  Find some young people engaged with the issue and recruit them as social media consultants.  Here’s a great idea for smaller for-profits:  Tap the local community colleges or adult ed programs, offer some paid internships or prizes for design & strategy ideas.  Use “Crowdsourcing” resources on the Web to help.

Don’t leave out the details.  While your social media communications need to focus on short, sweet & snappy, if you’re all surface, you’re not trustworthy.  Somewhere in your online presence (a blog or website is a good place for this,) be sure that your audience can access all the important information about you, including how to contact you directly by phone, email, etc.  Be sure that your social media profiles have a clickable link to take folks there.  And be sure that it goes all the way “to the top.” If you’re a branch of a larger entity, link to the larger entity’s information, too.

Do remember that the first word in social media is “social.”  As in, not business.  Not advertising.  Not even marketing.  We may be using it for those purposes, but it won’t work for those purposes effectively unless it’s done, well, socially.  People spend time on social media notbecause they want to find a particular product at a particular location or price (they could do that with a search engine & save time!) but because they want to interact.  So tell stories, give information, feature real examples, bring your own experience online and share it. Of course, protect anonymity and respect HIPAA (Gremln can help), but engagement depends on authenticity.

Don’t bait and switch.  “Click for info about dating in the recovery community!” may get you 100 clicks.  But if clicking that link takes them to a sales pitch for your new sober living house and a sidebar of dating tips, 95 of those folks will never click on another link from you.  “Click to learn about our sober living house and get sober dating tips!” may only get you 50 clicks.  But they’ll all be willing to click another link from you (unless your link led to boring or off-putting information, of course.)

Do give it time.  We get deceived by the short time horizons of the online world, and it feeds our desire for instant gratification.  Many of us do work that depends on establishing a “therapeutic relationship” with our clients.  We can’t expect them to move along a spectrum of learning and recovery unless that relationship happens, and deepens.  Social media is like that, too.  The “thousand followers overnight on Twitter for $15!” are not likely to click our links, support our work, access our services. The three hundred followers we build up by engaging with them will.  And they’ll pass on our tweets to friends.  And our follower base will grow.  It takes time.  But it’s worth doing right.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Social media has blossomed into a multi-faceted tool, and each service is more effective when it’s coordinated with other services.  Tweets drive clicks to your blog.  A Pinterest album drives clicks to your Facebook page.  Facebook “meet the staff” posts can drive interest to your LinkedIn profiles or discussion group.  Don’t try to do everything at once, naturally, but your long term goal should be to build a multi-layered social media presence with each aspect reinforcing the effectiveness of all the others.  Start with your blog and a Twitter feed.  Or your website and a Facebook page.  As you get comfortable and learn the tricks of managing each source effectively, branch out.

We’re in an important business.  Never has there been a greater need for our information, our services, our presence in our communities.  Mental illness and addiction affect millions, cost lives and money and untold numbers of tragedies.  We’re here to bring hope and health, and we should use every tool available.  Social media can boost our effectiveness in so many ways.  Let’s get started!

Soon, Gremly will be taking over the Gremln Facebook page and bringing you 365 Days of Fun. That’s right. We’re bringing you one whole year of games, challenges, quizzes, contests, prizes, jokes, riddles, dares, and more, with a new bit of social media levity posted to our Facebook page every day. Gremln’s 365 Days of Fun is going to be so full of fun and ridicularity that we had to make up the word “ridicularity” just to describe it.

There’s just one problem. If you head over to our Facebook page, you’ll notice that Gremly’s all ready to board the Roller Coaster of Fun, but he’s not quite tall enough yet.

That’s where you come in.

Every time someone “likes” the Gremln Facebook page, Gremly will grow a little taller. We’ll update his growth every week so you can follow along. The more likes we get, the faster he’ll grow, and the quicker we can get down to the very serious business of having very serious fun. So tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell your shockingly Internet-savvy pets. Tell your co-workers who are constantly looking for an extra few seconds of workday distraction. Tell your grumpy neighbor who really needs a little more fun in his life. Tell everyone you see, because as soon as Gremly is tall enough to board the coaster, it’s going to take us all on one crazy, 365-day ride of social media fun.

Need some help spreading the word? No problem! Just join our “365 Days of Fun” Facebook event, then invite your friends and family to get in on the action. It’s a public event, so all are welcome to join!

Now, who’s ready for some fun? Click here to be whisked away to our Facebook page, where you can “like” Gremln and help us get one inch closer to a whole years’ worth of joy.

Together, we can keep social media fun!

But with the growing importance of social networks, financial services institutions can’t afford to avoid Facebook and Twitter and still hope to thrive in an ever more digital marketplace. So the question is, how can companies like Gremln help brokers navigate the compliance minefield of social networks?

First, let’s examine what exactly is it about social networking that poses a potential threat to financial services.

Regulatory agencies like FINRA and SEC exist to protect consumers from financial industry malpractice. FINRA’s mission, for example, is “to protect America’s investors by making sure the securities industry operates fairly and honestly. These regulatory bodies ensure that financial brokers work for the best interests of their clients, rather than for themselves. To this end, regulators have enacted a series of guidelines that mandate acceptable behavior for financial services employees. Financial institutions held accountable by these regulators are obliged to comply with the guidelines they set forth, or else risk penalties. FINRA can charge non-compliant companies fines upwards of $100,000 and can limit their contact with other financial services organizations. Penalties from the SEC can be even harsher.

Some of the rules these regulators have put into place concern the communication of services and service-related items to customers and potential customers. This is where social media regulations come into play. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter provide excellent opportunities for marketing and informational communications between brokers and their audiences, and because of this, all rules regarding overall broker-to-client communications must apply to social media as well.

For example, according to FINRA, “Every firm that intends to communicate, or permit its associated persons to communicate, through social media sites must first ensure that it can retain records of those communications…” It makes sense that firms should have to keep updated records of communications for liability purposes. After all, if FINRA suspects a company of communicational non-compliance, both sides are going to need those records to make a solid case. To a certain extent, this record-keeping mandate is easy to do when the main communications channel is email. Emails are already typed up and stored online, they can be easily downloaded, and most email programs make it extremely easy to archive messages within the system. But social media sites make it pretty difficult. Facebook communications remain on the social network, but in a rather organic, disorganized manner, and Twitter only maintains records of past messages for several months. The level of record-keeping required for any broker using social media can be overwhelming, to say the least, and likely plays a large role in the decision of financial services companies to steer clear of social media.

Another FINRA regulation states, “…firms must supervise these interactive electronic communications…in a manner reasonably designed to ensure that they do not violate the content requirements of FINRA’s communications rules.” In other words, one or more managers at each financial services company must be responsible for supervising the messages that their employees broadcast via social media to make sure that each message is within the bounds of compliance. According to FINRA, any message sent via social media must be suitable for all potential audiences. This means that brokers cannot offer personalized investment advice to any one person, or any one group of people, through social networks, because that investment information may not be suitable for other potential investors. Social networks like Twitter make it so easy to share one person’s messages with countless others, so even private messages or Twitter @mentions must be suitable for all audiences, lest they become shared publicly and have negative repercussions on external investors.

This need for supervision means each FINRA-compliant company must have at least one person monitoring all outbound social media communications from all company representatives. If the need to keep detailed records on communications isn’t enough to make a manager throw up her hands in frustration, the added stress of micromanaging social networks almost certainly will be.

Keeping a company within the bounds of social network compliance is a big job with potentially severe repercussions. Heavily regulated industries are in great need of a toolset that helps them navigate the dangerous social terrain.

And that’s where we come in.

We here at Gremln are excited to announce our upcoming social media compliance tools designed specifically for industries that adhere to strict regulation. This includes not only financial services, but also healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, which need to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Our compliance tools make it easy for these companies to utilize social media while remaining within the bounds of regulatory compliance.

Team and Message Supervision
Gremln’s Team Management tools make it easy for a communications supervisor to organize the company’s social media efforts around a group of people, whether that group is a small, dedicated social media team or the sum total of every broker in the office. The Team Management tools allow various users to post to the same social networks while automatically keeping tabs on which user posted which messages. It also includes a message assignment feature, so any member of the team can assign incoming messages to the most appropriate social media respondent.

Keyword Compliance
Sometimes, in order to remain compliant with regulations, supervisors will need to edit, or altogether delete, messages before they make it to Facebook or Twitter. Gremln’s keyword compliance tool makes this process a snap. Just enter a list of non-compliant keywords and phrases that should either rarely or never occur in your company’s tweets, and Gremln will alert you any time a team member tries to send a social message containing this keyword. If your company is not allowed to guarantee return on investment in its outgoing communications, simply add the word “guarantee” to your list of compliance keywords; Gremln will flag any messages that contain the word “guarantee” and pull them aside so that you can edit or delete them before they hit the public forum. This tool even has a profanity filter that blocks those delicate words and phrases that should never appear in corporate messages.

Message Archiving
Gremln keeps all of your outgoing messages on file in your account. You can access them at any time, and you can sort them quickly and easy by date, by network, or by the name of the team member who sent the message. If you’d rather compile your archive on your own computer’s hard drive, Gremln provides a quick and easy export tool that will convert all of your messages into an Excel file or a flat file.

We’re extremely excited about how these new compliance tools will open new doors for highly regulated industries. These companies will no longer have to shy away from the vast potential of the social media marketplace, and we at Gremln are proud to be a part of that important transition. If you’d like more information on Gremln’s compliance tools, contact us here, or leave a comment below!

Hmm.

As someone who works in social media, it’s always exciting to see small businesses trying out new digital marketing tactics. The fact that this coffee shop has so fully embraced the QR code that the managers spent money to have them printed on company t-shirts is proof that there are small business owners everywhere are not just recognizing, but taking advantage of the vast opportunities presented by digital media. The desire to innovate is there. The problem is, it’s sometimes difficult to translate that desire into an effective promotion. It’s easy for us to get so excited about the fact that we’re using new technology that we don’t take the time to evaluate how we’re using it.

The t-shirt QR code is a great example.

The first problem with putting a QR code on someone’s sleeve is the location of the image on the shirt. The sleeve is an awkward surface to scan. T-shirt sleeves are rounded and flimsy, so to get a decent scan of the code, you’d need to have the barista smooth down her sleeve and hold it flat against her arm while you scan it. I’ve scanned QR codes on completely flat posters measuring 10 feet by 10 feet that took several seconds for my phone to focus in on. Trying to scan one from someone’s shirtsleeve must be a nightmare.

But perhaps more to the point, it’s just plain weird to ask someone to hold still and pose so you can digitally scan one of their body parts. Sure, as far as body parts go, a bicep may be a pretty tame place to hover with your smartphone, but still. It’s a body part. It’s pretty awkward.

The second problem is the geographic location of the person wearing the QR code. The barista is in the coffee shop. There is literally no better place in the world for you to introduce me to the finer points of your brand than when I’m in your brick and mortar store. So why bother asking me to scan a QR code? Surely there are better ways to alert customers about your specials than by sending them to a slowly loading mobile website that lists them. You could, for instance, just tell them, since they’re already standing in your store and have already decided to make a purchase.

I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in trying out “the next cool thing” that we forget what makes these new technologies so hot in the first place. QR codes are useful for quickly directing people to a mobile website where they can glean more information about a product or company. They’re great for placing on store windows with heavy foot traffic where pedestrians can say, “Gee, I’ve always wanted to know more about Company X, I’ll scan this and see what they have to say.” But once you’re in the coffee shop, you’re in the coffee shop. You’ve already heard what the company has to say. You’ve made your purchase decision, so what further good can the awkwardly placed in-store QR code hope to deliver?

Another great example of good technology gone bad is the use of QR codes on highway billboards. I understand what problem these marketers are trying to solve; how do you get your billboard advertisement to resonate so strongly with someone that they’re still thinking about your website an hour later, when their commute is done and they’re sitting in front of a computer? In theory, the QR code on the billboard bypasses that problem altogether. If you scan the billboard’s code, you’re taken directly to the company’s mobile site, and the hour-long attention deficit crisis is averted. But in the first place, it’s almost impossible to hold your phone camera steady for any length of time when you’re cruising down the highway. More importantly, it’s just plain dangerous. The last thing I want the person in the lane next to me to do is pull out his phone and try to scan a billboard at 70 miles per hour. In a very real sense, the billboard QR code promotes unsafe behavior.

And just like that, a company goes from digitally innovative to socially irresponsible.

One other great example is Shazam’s interactive commercials. Shazam, the popular music identification app, recently started partnering with major retailers like Old Navy to make interactive television ads. You’ll know one of these ads when you see it because the black, white, and blue Shazam logo will appear in the corner of the screen. The idea is that when you see the logo, you should open Shazam on your phone and have it analyze the commercial’s audio, which will then take you to specially created interactive content that you can only access through Shazam. In theory, I think this is a great idea. It rewards Shazam users with “members only” content, and Shazam’s partner companies can design the content to fit whatever marketing campaign they’re currently executing. It’s some pretty slick cross promotion. But, of course, there’s a downside. Most television commercials are thirty seconds long, and Shazam can take ten seconds or more to fully analyze a song. That means you have less than twenty seconds to pull out your phone, wake it up, open the app, and hit “Touch to Shazam.” If you’re not watching TV with your phone at the ready, there’s a good chance the commercial will be over before you capture the song and get the extra content. Not only does this make the experience frustrating, but from the company’s perspective, you, the customer, just spent 30 seconds futzing with your phone instead of watching the commercial.

This disconnect over digital media integration seems to manifest itself most often in times of “merge confusion,” or when we try to merge traditional promotional methods with new, digital strategies. Billboards and t-shirts can be great promotional pieces, but they’re not good fits for QR codes. Television advertisement is one of the most impactful types of marketing, but it’s severely limiting from an audio recognition point of view.

It’s an understandable source of confusion. After all, technology has given us some really interesting and engaging methods of digital communication, but your customers live in a very physical world. Before they can explore your digital content, you need to make them aware of it in a tangible way. You have to showcase your QR code on a tactile background. You have to link your Shazam content with some sort of audio marketing piece. You have to promote your social networks somewhere besides your social networks. At some point, your digital strategies are going to cross paths with your traditional, tangible media. When that happens, how do you avoid merge confusion?

1. Is this a good fit for my campaign?
Before committing to a any digital strategy, you should make sure it’s right for your marketing campaign. If you want to use a QR code, make sure you can create worthwhile content that’s easy to access on a mobile device. If you want to hold a photo contest on Instagram, make sure your theme is appropriately visual and ties solidly into your product. Never take a hot new digital approach just because it’s the hot new digital approach. Some digital tactics will be a good fit, others won’t be. If the next one isn’t, save your resources for a tactic that is.

2. Is this a good fit for the medium?
Once you decide on a digital strategy, you’ll need to promote it…but how? What promotional medium will you use? If your digital strategy involves mobile device photo capture, maybe the Chicago elevated train is a better promotional platform than an employee’s t-shirt. If it involves exclusive Shazam content, maybe a 2-minute YouTube video is a better fit than a 30-second television commercial. When you’re choosing how to promote your digital media, put yourself in the end user’s shoes. Walk through the steps of your own promotion. If it’s awkward for you, it’ll be awkward for them.

3. Is this a good fit for the geographic location?
Is the side of the interstate the most logical place for your “text to donate” message? Common safety sense and several states’ driving laws say no. Instead, place your promotion in a spot where cell phone use is common (and safe). Is your coffee shop the best place to ask people to scan a QR code to learn something about your new product line? No, of course not. Your employees are the best resource for disseminating that information. Instead, place your promotion in a spot where people are likely to find themselves feeling tired and in need of a pick-me-up. Find a place that makes geographic sense.

There’s no doubt about it—traditional marketing and digital media need to coexist peacefully within our marketing plans. They don’t always work together seamlessly, but with a little careful planning, you can find the combinations that make sense, both for your customers and for your brand.

Do you have any memorable merge confusions you’d like to share? We’d love to hear them! Tell us in the comments below!

Exhibit A: One estimate from the Harvard Business School study says that about 70% of all Facebook activities revolve around photos, whether people are uploading, viewing, liking, or commenting on them. For a social network with 800 million users, 70% of the activity is nothing to sneeze at.

Exhibit B: Pinterest, a wholly image-based social network, was the fastest independent site in history to snag 10 million unique page visitors. This picture-pinning program is already the third most popular social network in the U.S., and it’s only two years old.

But pictures aren’t just important for individual social media users. They’re also vital for successful social media marketing.

Pictures are great for your company for several reasons. First of all, they’re easy to share. Literally. When you update your status on your company’s Facebook page, your fans can either like that status or comment on it. But when you upload a photo, that magical “share” link appears, making it incredibly easy for your fans to repost your images to their own circles. They can’t share your status updates, but they sure can share your photos.

Secondly, images are quick to digest and easy to remember. Cliché as it may be, a picture really is worth a thousand words, and there’s no faster way to get all one thousand of those words across than to put them in an image. A picture can tell a much deeper and more emotional story than your status updates ever will, especially when you’re posting via Twitter, where you’re restricted by that pesky 140-character limit. Linguistics professor Mark Lieberman says that the average length of a word on Twitter is 4.8 characters…so if a picture truly is worth a thousand words, than tweeting that picture one time communicates your thoughts better than 34 separate tweets.

Thirdly, people just seem to like interacting with photos. Your social media fans and followers are more likely to retweet, like, share, or comment on your post if it’s image-based. And when it comes to digital marketing, this interaction is key. Each time a fan engages with one of your posts, she puts your company on display to her own social circles. Social media interaction can be a huge catalyst for brand growth, and since photos are the best drivers of that interaction, strong images can really accelerate brand success.

Finally, photos can really humanize your company in a concrete and relatable way. Photos give your customers the chance to peek behind the content curtain and see what really makes your company tick. Copywriters can spend hours, days, even weeks on a marketing message, carefully massaging the words in order to illicit the best possible response, and of course there’s tremendous value in that. But an Instagram photo tells the story of now. It says, “This is who we are, and this is what we do.” And there’s value in that, too. Real, monetary value.

Social media photo sharing was worth one billion dollars to Facebook. How much will it be worth to your brand?

If only there were a fast, efficient, and inexpensive customer support solution available to everyone, one that millions of customers were already using and wouldn’t need additional training on in order to connect seamlessly with the company’s issue resolvers…

Oh. Wait. That program does exist. It’s called Twitter.

Believe it or not, Twitter might be the best customer support software out there. If your company has a Twitter account, then millions of people have direct access to your support staff through the popular social network. Customers can tweet their problems at you quickly and easily, and it’s a win-win situation; they don’t have to deal with the frustration of calling and navigating a complex telephone system, and you don’t have to ease your way through needlessly long complaints (thank you, 140-character limit!).

Customers already have strong motivations to use Twitter to voice their complaints. They’re familiar with the program, they’re virtually guaranteed that a company representative will see the complaint, and, perhaps most importantly, the openly social aspect of Twitter means that any negative comment about your company has the opportunity to go viral. Could there possibly be any better incentive for your company to take quick, restorative action?

As a company representative, you’re also undoubtedly aware that a good experience can go viral as quickly as a negative experience, and Twitter gives you the opportunity to address complaints almost instantly. Furthermore, with the help of a program like Gremln, you can also keep a permanent log of issues and assign incoming complaints to the customer support team member that’s best equipped to resolve the issue.

Yep, Twitter is a pretty outstanding CRM tool. So why aren’t more companies taking advantage of it?

Late last year, Maritz Research released a study about consumer expectations when it comes to Twitter complaints being addressed. The study found that only 30% of companies actually respond to complaints directed toward them via Twitter. That means 70% of businesses out there are either unaware of or uninterested in their customers’ negative tweets, despite the fact that approximately 50% of people who complain on Twitter expect some sort of response. Add to that the fact that out of all the research subjects who did receive a Twitter response from a company, a whopping 74.4% of them reported being satisfied with the response. 3 out of every 4 issues were solved with a quick Twitter reply, a reply that cost the company zero extra dollars and, in all likelihood, less than one minute of a customer service representative’s time.

So I ask again; why aren’t more companies taking advantage of Twitter?

My guess is, many business managers just haven’t put in the time to examine the value of customer service tweets. The fact that there is value seems pretty indisputable, both because of research studies like Martiz’s, and because when it comes to customer service, you need to be in a good position to listen to your customers, no matter how or where they’re sharing their feedback. Even if only 5% of tweeters expected a response, and if only 1 out of every 100 tweet responses resulted in customer satisfaction, there would be value. Customer input is priceless, and because Twitter makes it so easy for customers to express it, we should all be keeping our ear to the social network rail. Combine that with the fact that Twitter is both cheap and easy to use (not to mention apparently quite successful as a customer satisfaction tool), and it’s surprising that 70% of companies are wasting such a significant customer service opportunity.

Do you know any business managers in the 70%? Share this blog with them, or direct them to the results of the Martiz study, which you can find here and here. Let’s expand that 30% in 2012! Together, we can save customer service!

SXSW is generally lauded as the conference for launching exciting new social products. After all, it’s where Foursquare debuted in 2009, and though it wasn’t exactly the network’s official launch, Twitter really started gaining attention at SXSW 2007. New apps and services are unveiled in Austin every year, and marketers spend big bucks to make sure their booths and launch parties stand out from all the rest. But the conference can also be a good reminder that marketing promotion doesn’t always have to be expensive or flashy to add value to your product. Sometimes, all you need is a little fun.

It’s extremely difficult to measure the economic value of fun, and because of that, it often gets overlooked as a main tenet of marketing. Instead, we usually focus our efforts on campaigns with measurable results. If you offer a discount code, you can count exactly how many people have used it to purchase your product. If you sent out a tweet, you can see how many people retweet it or reply to it. If you post links to your website on Facebook, Gremln can track exactly how many people ended up at your purchase page after clicking those links. But if you create a marketing strategy dedicated to fun rather than sales, how can you measure the positive impact on your brand?

It’s tough. And by tough, I mean “darn near impossible.” But that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in fun. Even though we can’t always measure it, we know intrinsically that it’s true. Because we, as individuals, value fun. That value, though pretty immeasurable, was nonetheless palpable at SXSW.

One of my favorite examples of sheer fun marketing came from Skype, the oh-so-popular video chatting service, which provided SXSW with its very own town crier. The Skype Town Crier was a gentleman with a British accent who wore a blue and white colonial outfit, complete with white stockings and a tri-corner hat. Wheresoever he went, the crier set up a sign that read “A Town Crier For Your Tweets” and, with the help of a not-so-colonial iPad, shouted out tweets that contained the “#skype” hashtag. Onlookers were more than happy to provide the crier with silly tweets to shout at the top of his colonial lungs. If this doesn’t sound like fun to you, I suggest you head to YouTube and check out a few of the “Skype Town Crier” videos people have posted. Then I dare you not to smile.

So where’s the value in this marketing strategy? There is a measurable aspect of the campaign, which is the number of tweets sent with “#skype.” Skype is able to tell how many people actively participated in their stunt, but that’s about it. They have no way of knowing if the town crier actually inspired people to sign up for their service, so they can’t tell if this strategy resulted in any sort of ROI. But believe me, there was value. It was written on the faces of the people who swarmed the crier every time he set up shop. Watching the crowd was like watching kids at a circus. The silliness of the whole thing visibly delighted everyone within earshot.

The town crier didn’t not have much to do with Skype’s actual product–sure, Skype is a communications platform, and the Town Crier encouraged two-way communication between himself and the members of the audience, but that’s about where the connection ends. But what the crier managed to do was impress a general feeling of levity and happiness on the SXSW crowd under the familiar sky-blue and cloud-white branding. Skype didn’t try to hard sell its product. Instead, it did something much more effective; it gave people the opportunity to view Skype as a delightful company.

I think people want to be reminded that businesses can have fun. As Guy Kawasaki has famously pointed out, we want to be enchanted. In today’s marketplace, there are so many organizations with similar product offerings that it’s not just what your company does, but also how your company does it. What can you do that brightens the spirits of your customers? How can you be enchanting? How might you provide your clients with the immensely valuable commodity of fun?

We’d love to hear about some of your favorite fun social strategies. Share them in the comments below!

The site already has well over 10 million users, and in fact, according to marketing company Lemon.ly, they were the fastest independent site in history to hit 10 million unique page visitors. They got there faster than Facebook, faster than Twitter, even faster than Google+. Clearly, there’s something to love about Pinterest.

If you haven’t used Pinterest yet, it’s definitely worth checking out. You can request an invite, or, if you want access a little more quickly, just find a friend who has an account, and she can send you an invite instantly. Once you’re in, the process is simple; create boards; pin things to boards; repeat. You can find things to pin on pretty much any website, or, if you want, you can search through the items already pinned by other users, then just repin the picture onto your page. Do you like the Muppets? A quick search on Pinterest will bring up thousands (and then some) images of Muppets for you to browse through, enjoy, like, and repin.

It’s a great network for quickly and easily sharing images with your friends, and it’s also useful if you want to keep an online collection of ideas and inspiration. Thinking of redecorating your living room? Start a board called “New Living Room” and pin every piece of furniture, every paint scheme, and every set of drapes you find that you think you might like. Getting ready for some spring landscaping? Create a board called “Landscape Ideas” and pin all your favorite landscape shots from around the Web.

The possibilities are virtually endless.

But how can Pinterest help you market your business?

Pinterest is already a hot spot for many companies, and as the site continues to grow, so will the need to give the Pinterest public easy access to your business and product. After all, not only does being on Pinterest give you another outlet where you can reach potential customers, but if you pin items directly from your website, anyone who clicks on the image will be redirected straight to the source, and just like that, your webpage has another unique visitor. The question isn’t really if your company should be using Pinterest, but how.

Some industries are easy, natural fits for Pinterest. Any company focusing on style and fashion can use Pinterest to showcase their designs and motifs. Take Benjamin Moore Paints, for example. Their Pinterest page is full of boards that showcase not only various color palettes, but also inspirational images of what you can do with a little (or a lot of) color.  Better Homes and Gardens has a similar page, where various boards like “Holiday Decorating Ideas,” “Quick and Easy Recipes,” and “Livable Living Rooms” offer inspiration straight from the pages of the magazine. Looking for an update to your wardrobe? Barneys New York has over two dozen boards showcasing various styles and trends.

Pinterest is also a great fit for people who work in graphic and visual arts. Some photographers, like Emily Smith of Emily Rose Studios, utilize Pinterest as an online portfolio space, and the site is loaded with talented graphic designers showcasing their own work and pinning up the work of others that they find inspiring.

But what if your company sells something that doesn’t easily lend itself to visual representation? Or what if you provide an intangible service? How can you utilize Pinterest when your company just isn’t a natural fit for a digital bulletin board? Well…then it’s time to get a little creative.

For example, check out the Pinterest page for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Whether you’re a hockey fan or not, there’s a lot to love on their page. The team has found some creative ways to use boards to help promote their overall brand. The “Penguins Pics” board has some images of the team at work on the ice. “The Burgh Board” showcases some of the team’s favorite Pittsburgh places. “Pens Fans” shows…you guessed it…photos of some die-hard Penguin fans. They even have a board called “A Great Snack for Hockey,” where they pin up some fun hockey-themed food creations. The Penguins have taken their Pinterest page and turned it into a space to show off not just the Penguins, but a whole host of things a Penguin fan might like. They’re taking a wider view of their brand than just “a professional hockey team.” They’re expressing themselves as community oriented (with “The Burgh Board”), fan-appreciative (with their “Fan Photos” board, where they pin up photos submitted by fans), and just plan fun (with the food board, and with “Beyond the Rink,” which offers pictures of hockey-themed home goods).

There are a lot of great examples out there about how you can have fun with a company Pinterest page, even if you don’t sell a tangible, visible product. We at Gremln provide a service that’s tricky to represent visually, so we decided to use it as a basis for strengthening our connection with our users. We use our Pinterest page to give them a glimpse of some of our favorite things. Several of our employees keep their own, individual boards on the Gremln Pinterest page, and we each use our own board as a space to show the Gremln community what we’re like as individuals. When our Pinterest followers repin or comment on our pictures, we get the opportunity to learn what they like in return. It really helps us to feel closer to our customers, and it’s been a tremendously fun project for us to work on.

So yes, even if Pinterest doesn’t seem like a good fit for your product, you can still use it to strengthen your brand. It may take a little creativity, but heck; that’s the fun part!

What are some of your favorite companies to follow on Pinterest? Tell us in the comments below—we’d love to check them out!

This number of click-throughs not only tells you how many people thought your link was worth clicking, but it also helps you discover the best time(s) of day to publish posts, what sort of teasers are best for your links, and what sort of content really interests your fans and followers. Heck, with Gremln’s Target Pages tool, you can even track link clicks from your tweet all the way to the actual sale. ROI measurement doesn’t get much better than that.

But the number of clicks can only take you so far. At some point, you’re going to need to sit down and answer the question, “How many clicks is enough?” How many times does your adoring public need to click on a link before you can call your tweet a success?

To answer that question, let’s turn briefly from the world of social media ROI and examine the equally exciting topic of wingsuit B.A.S.E. jumping.

That’s right. Wingsuit B.A.S.E. jumping.

Now, let’s pretend I don’t have a crippling fear of heights and that I’m interested in buying my very own wingsuit. But wingsuit jumping is something I have absolutely zero experience in. I have no idea what the value of a wingsuit might be in dollars. I honestly wouldn’t know if I should expect to pay $500 or $50,000. So how can I determine how much I should pay for a decent wingsuit?

The answer is by comparison. As human beings, we often derive value by comparing similar products. That’s one of the reasons we do comparison shopping. We want to determine the best value for our money, based on what companies commonly charge for similar items. So when it comes to wingsuits, I need to do some comparison to determine what price is a good price*.

The same is true for link clicks. There’s no hard-and-fast number that marks your social network post as a success. After all, one person might be happy with 100 clicks, but another might not be satisfied until he hits 10,000.

The key to success measurement, as in value measurement, is comparison. If you posted a link that got 300 clicks last week, then a link that gets 400 clicks this week is more successful by 33%. If your first tracked link receives 50 clicks, then anything higher than that for the second post is a success, and anything lower than that isn’t as successful as it could have been.

The number of people who click on your links can depend on so many factors. How many Facebook fans do you have? How many Twitter followers? How many of your fans and followers are active, rather than passive? How many of them are online when you post your message? How many retweets and likes and @mentions are you getting? What’s the overall exposure of your link? There are so many variables to the equation that reaching a high target click-through goal can often be (at least in part) beyond our control.

So when you’re trying to determine how many clicks is a good number of clicks, look back on how your links have performed in the past, and make your determination based on that comparison. And always remember; the value of statistics lies in how we perceive them.

*For those of you wondering, I did indeed do a little comparison shopping. $1,000 appears to be a pretty good price for a beginner’s wingsuit. If you buy one, let me know how it is.

Social media play huge roles in today’s marketing plan, spurred on not only by the widespread appeal of networks like Facebook and Twitter, but also by the relative inexpensiveness of using them as marketing tools. The number of employment positions dedicated solely to social media marketing and content production is surging. A company’s Twitter feed used to be an intern project. Now, in many cases, social media marketing is a team effort.

While this is an exciting shift in the marketing dynamic, it also presents its own unique set of challenges. When you’ve got a few cooks in the social media kitchen, it’s easy to step on each other’s toes, and team management becomes incredibly important. As the leader of a social media team, it becomes all too easy for other members to post content that you feel is inappropriate, inaccurate, or in some other way not in lock-step with your brand. There can be some confusion as to who should respond (or who has already responded) to which Twitter question or Facebook issue, and we’ve all heard the horror stories of company employees accidentally posting their personal tweets to their business accounts. So how do you run a tight social ship?

Whether or not you use a social media management dashboard like Gremln, it’s important to set up a concrete structure before you turn your company’s social media management into a team sport. Your team structure should answer a few basic questions:

1.    Who is ultimately responsible for content?

As with any team, the social media crew needs a leader. Who in your group will be the one responsible for what the team posts? This is an especially important distinction to make when all the team members are at the same employment level, with no senior manager to assume implied responsibility.

2.    Should the team members act autonomously, or should their posts require approval from the team leader?

As the team leader, how much do you trust your teammates when it comes to content? Do you trust them to protect and enhance both your brand and vision on their own, or are you more comfortable requiring moderation and approval of each post? If you do require moderation, how will you set up your message queue so that messages and responses can post in a timely manner?

3.    Who will handle the various incoming messages?

A big part of social media management is customer service. Your fans and followers want to ask you questions and interact with you in the social space. But who responds to what? And how will you make sure the responsible team member receives and responds to the messages assigned to him?

4.    What do you do in case of social media emergency?

Even with careful planning, mistakes happen. Unauthorized content gets posted, or tweets get sent to the wrong account, or something meant to be humorous is taken as offense. These things happen, and it’s important to be prepared. How will you handle a social media emergency? (We have a few tips of our own.) 

Working on social media as a team requires a lot of organization and attention to detail, but fortunately, Gremln can help. We offer team management tools as part of our Small Business and Premium accounts, which allow you to coordinate with multiple team members, assign incoming messages, and allow you to choose whether your team’s posts need to be moderated or not. And coming soon is our Content Filtering tool; just type in a list of keywords you never want to send from your social networks, and Gremln will automatically grab any posts containing those words and make sure they don’t sneak by. (Then, of course, you can either edit them and publish, or delete them forever.)

But regardless of whether or not the Gremln Small Business account is right for you, it’s vital to the success of your social campaign to consider these questions and have a solid team structure in place.

Does your company have a social media team, or is one person responsible for all the social content? If you work as a team, what other tools do you think would be helpful for your success? Tell us in the comments below!