This year, Welt noticed that, more than usual, Super Bowl commercials are being previewed before the big game. As of February 1, fourteen brands, including the ever so anticipated Volkswagen, had launched the commercials. But why? Anticipation makes the commercials all that more exciting.

Below are some previews. Sorry to ruin the fun if you haven’t seen these already, but we want to know what you think of this strategy? Does it help build your momentum? Are the brands hoping to recreate the “Wassup” saga? How disappointed will you be if they’re the same commercials broadcast during the game?

Hit us back!

Volkswagen

Pepsi MAX

Toyota Camry

Go Daddy

Check out our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at  WeltBrand
Connect with our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything

Don Tapscott’s research program known as Marketing 2.0 initiated Wiki Brands. Dover ran the operations for this program while Sean Moffitt, co-author of Wiki Brands, wrote its research papers in conjunction with other faculty members. The two were granted permission to take existing work and expand it to book form by continuing their own research as well as updating existing results.

Here is a sample of their findings:

Brand managers make a series of mistakes in their branding efforts, which can be simplified into three elements.

1. The main obstacle in branding revolves around philosophy and support. Having upper level executives on board to support and maintain efforts goes far.
2. There is a flip side to a brand’s success: consumers crave authenticity and a brand needs to be honest to facilitate their trust. Trust is also built through consumer engagement and word of mouth promotions, which require long-term effort, strategy, and maintenance.
3. Brands should leverage in individual employee skill sets. Do not hire a tech junkie to manage your social media or public relations – hire someone with communication skills and passion.

Dover also mentions that when brands establish a presence on social media they should clarify ownership of the communicating pages or handles. For example, is your brand’s Twitter activity tweeted through a brand handle or an individual handle (i.e. your VP of marketing)? Ownership is especially important if that individual leaves the company, and this should be predetermined and identified in a Social Media Policy.

Additionally, brands need to be reminded of the importance of the growing net generation. As baby boomers and generation y are rotating out of the market place, companies should be focusing on net generation characteristics and market behavior. Dover defines individuals in this generation as scrutinizers with much different and much higher expectations. Net gens are cynical: less likely to trust and more likely to question, criticize, and research your claims. They will call you out on your mistakes and your lag time. “They care more about things like speed, concept of performance review, feedback: feedback everyday. These consumers expect their voices to be heard and to be responded to very quickly.”

The best way for brands to have any chance in keeping up with these expectations is to engage, discuss, and become as transparent as possible. Create a brand community.

About Mike Dover

Mike Dover is a public speaker, consultant, and a professor of Marketing and Global Business at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He favors public speaking because he enjoys the excitement people have regarding his topics. When he is not teaching or consulting he is in and out of speaking engagements. In his global consulting career, Mike prefers working with companies that are just starting out because he has a clean pallet to work with. In fact, a lot of his consulting is actually considered custom research.

Vote for Wikibrands:

Wiki Brands has been nominated for Best Marketing Book of The Year by Expert Marketeer. Vote now!

To stay up to date with Wiki Brands:

Visit www.wiki-brands.com
Buy the book on Amazon
Tweet the authors at Wikibrands
Check them out on Facebook
Read their presentations on SlideShare

For more of Welt Branding in the digital space, engage with us here:

Check out our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at  WeltBrand
Connect with our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything

Ford – Campaign: “Drive One” and “Swap Your Ride”

Growing up, everyone we didn’t like owned a Ford Explorer, and unfortunately, we began to associate our dislike for these people with that of the Ford brand. This past year, Ford has been heavily marketing its brand and products through a couple campaigns.

The “Swap Your Ride” campaign allows customers to drive a Ford vehicle for a week and then talk about their experience. The advertisements that cover this campaign are hosted and endorsed by Mike Rowe – who was named by Forbes magazine one of “Hollywood’s 10 Most Trustworthy Celebrities”.

The “Drive One” campaign is composed of actual Ford customers who come to the dealership to take part in a focus group. When they arrive they are led into a room that opens up to a surprise mock press conference.

These 2011 campaigns changed how we saw Ford, although both debuted a few years ago: “Swap My Ride” in 2007, and “Drive One” in 2008.  We don’t cringe at Ford cars anymore, in fact, we “check them out” when they drive by on the highway – and we’ll admit we’re very jealous of their 40mpg fuel economy.

Perrier – Campaign: “Melt Campaign”

When the temperature outside is pushing 100°F and humidity is soaring, we think of water (or ice cream!), but more specifically we think of still bottled water or still ice water. We do not think of Perrier – a luxury water that we associate with expensive restaurants.

In the Perrier “Melt Campaign”, one commercial follows a woman who is clearly dehydrated and is walking though a steaming hot city that is melting all around her. She makes it to her apartment just in time to see her beloved Perrier fall off her balcony. Switch camera to the bottle falling and her mid-air behind it. She lands in a refreshingly looking pool and drinks her Perrier.

This campaign – which originally aired in 2009 – has us re-thinking our beverage choice. Chances are that next time it’s hot outside, we’re going to want to try a Perrier. Call us suckers, but it actually made us want one.

Progresso – Campaign: “Ring Ring, Progresso!”

We love soup, but we’ve always opted for the lower priced and arguably more popular Campbell’s. Although the campaign launched in 2009, this year we’ve noticed that almost every time we sit down to watch some TV one of the “Ring Ring, Progresso!” commercials air.

We’re not entirely sure whether the commercial evoked a sense of nostalgia in us through their can-and-string phones or if it was the wholesome kitchen setting that reminded us of home – but the campaign pushed us to not only notice Progresso more than usual in stores, but try it too. We’ve found we much prefer its taste and will now shell out the extra cents to have Progresso over Campbells.

Dominos Pizza – Campaign: “Raising The Bar”

We don’t think many people associate great quality and Dominos; and in the brand’s new campaign, “Raising The Bar”, CEO Patrick Doyle admits to the pizza’s shortcomings. The great thing about this campaign is Dominos simple messaging. Doyle identifies what Dominos did wrong in the past, how they are going to make it right, and that customer feedback will help fix their problems. Though we rarely order pizza, it’s safe to say that next time we’re in the mood for a pie we’ll be calling Dominos.

Small Business Saturday – Campaign: “Small Business Saturday”

The “Small Business Saturday” campaign was created by American Express OPEN, which is the small businesses department for Amex. This campaign urged shoppers to shop small the Saturday after Thanksgiving. On it’s Facebook page, consumers were (and still are!) able to look up local small businesses via zip code/geoLocator, and download guides for small businesses in major cities. Business owners can still ‘rally’ their customers or create an offer that is showcased on the page.  The campaign also became a trending topic on twitter as #smallbusinesssaturday and #SmallBizSaturday.

Not only did this campaign generate tremendous amounts of awareness, but it was for a decent cause – promoting local businesses that are struggling next to big-box retailers. Additionally, the campaign swayed our after-thanksgiving shopping habits.

Check out our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at  WeltBrand
Our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything
Or take our poll!

Brandlings put together a list of our favorite Christmas songs and songs that remind us of the Holiday season. Initially, we intended to create a top 10 list that we would share with our readers, however… when compiling everyone’s favorite songs, we very quickly realized that top 10 actually meant top 30.  Who really has just one favorite Christmas song anyway?

So, clank your mugs of egg nog, decorate your tree, enjoy your family, and get into the holiday spirit! This list has something for everyone. We have funny songs, hidden gems, classical, pop versions, and, of course, traditional.

Here is sample of what you have to look forward to:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Jackson Five
Christmas Time Is Here, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi
Baby, It’s Cold Outside, Dean Martin
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, Thurl Ravenscroft
All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey
Carol Of The Bells, John Williams
Do They Know It’s Christmas, Feed The World, Band Aid
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald
Santa Baby, The Swingle Singers
Rock Around The Clock, Bill Haley

If you want to listen in, we’ve shared the play list through Spotify on our Facebook page. Check it out!

Our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at  WeltBrand
Our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything

Q: Joe, tell us a little about yourself, what do you do?

A: I’ve been a video editor for almost 25 years with CityTv, MuchMusic and now the SPACE Channel in Toronto, a science fiction/genre themed specialty channel within the Canadian national network, CTV.  On summer weekends, I’m a skydiving instructor and coach. I’m 43 years old and I have two teenage daughters.

Q: So What’s tit4tat all about? What Made the Issue Important for You?

A: The project has just really started to evolve recently but it began as an idea for a coffee table book probably 20 years ago.  I’ve always been known to friends as a “boob man” and the idea for the book was that each page would feature an actual-size picture of ordinary women’s breasts.   Old, young, big, small, no airbrushing, just real boobs, real women, no faces, just the boobs.  For fun, women could actually hold a page up to their own chest to see what those boobs might look like on them.

At the time, it was not the easiest thing to pull together; there was no internet then, and asking women to let me take a picture of their boobs was daunting to say the least.  Along with the book however, I thought it would be a good idea to donate a percentage of the sales to cancer research.  Unfortunately the idea was shelved and sat there as a quirky memory that I would pull out as an interesting topic of discussion once in a while.

Just this summer, I was out with friends and the story of the coffee table book came up.  As I told the story, and we laughed at the idea, one of the women at the table with us was listening pretty intently and when I finished she just looked at me and said, “That’s a really good idea.” From there, I talked about it a little more with friends, and the more I did, the more I kept getting positive feedback from people.

I was growing tired of the pink [Breast Cancer Awareness] campaigns and this “Breast Cancer Culture” that seemed to be growing and almost romanticizing the disease.  From a cancer research funds point of view, the pink ribbons seemed to be more about selling unrelated products than curing cancer.  Cancer is an ugly, horrible disease that kills and maims people every day and instead of letting people think that they’re doing something by wearing a ribbon, I wanted to take a more radical approach and show some of the reality! I just thought, let’s showcase the real women that this disease can effect and get them to donate a product that they have, that others will want to purchase and the money raised can go to cancer research so that hopefully one day we won’t need a campaign like this. I think we are close to a cure, and I’d like to see one in my lifetime and I’d like to know I was a small part of it. Cancer has been prevalent in my family; grandparents, aunts and uncles have been taken by various cancers over the years. Both my father and my sister are cancer survivors.  Since 2008 I’ve lost 5 people – friends and family- to cancer.  I decided it has to stop. This is a personal venture most definitely, but it’s also of global importance, and we’re hoping to branch out beyond the borders of Canada with this campaign!

Surprisingly, a lot of women are stepping outside of their comfort zone and contributing photos.  I’ve received several emails from women telling me what a wonderful, different and aggressive campaign this is, as well as having a bit of anonymous, guiltless fun for a great cause.  Something I wasn’t expecting was an email from one contributor who said that after taking this picture [for the campaign], it forced her to be introspective and that it became an exercise in improving her self-image!   I wasn’t really expecting that sort of secondary effect, but I’m really touched by letters like that and that I continue to get so much positive feedback. Really, this is just an idea I had; the real heroes are the people fighting cancer, and the women contributing to this campaign to help them in that fight.  Part of the reason why I think many women are okay with stepping outside their comfort zone, is that all submissions remain completely anonymous.   There are no faces shown, no names and any tattoos or identifying marks are removed at their request.

Q: So now you have this idea, how do you go about asking women to participate [and send in photos of their breasts to be used in a poster.] It must be pretty awkward, huh? What kind of reactions do you get? How do you bring up the topic?

It kind of evolved on its own! The first girl, a friend of mine, said she was ‘in’ when I told her about it! So, I thought, “Wow that was easy, I’ll just ask!”

I sent friends on Facebook a note detailing what I was doing, and to be perfectly honest, I expected more negative responses than positive, but instead, the majority said ”Yes, I’m in!” or, “I’ll send one to you now!” and those who chose not to contribute, said they would share the idea with friends they think might.  I said to myself, “I gotta start doing something serious here.” So I created a gmail account, a Facebook group and talked to a very talented graphic designer who agreed to help me with the actual design of the poster.  Eventually, I plan on developing a website where women can upload pictures anonymously and anyone can purchase tit4tat products, get information on cancer research and of course, donate.

In order to get the ball rolling, I began sending out messages to friends, and asking them to help and pass it along to more friends, as well as asking them to send pictures if they wanted that we could use for the poster.  Eventually we’d like to use those images and expand to other products such as clothing, mugs, and calendars, anything that can have the tit4tat logo as well as incorporating the images of boobs where we can.  I know not everyone will be able to display the boob images everywhere, but the logo is boob free and tells the world: “Show your boobs… save a life!”

Q: Let’s say that you wanted to contribute, but you aren’t a woman. What can you do to help get this going?

A: Guys can buy the products: the poster, the coffee mugs, the calendars, [and whatever comes out next.] I think it’s going to appeal to both men and women; in fact I have more women friends interested in the products than men!  Men like me, who are tired of seeing what media constantly portray as the “perfect” boobs, airbrushed, flawless and plastic will appreciate the diversity and revealing look at how real boobs are supposed to appear.  Any one of the women on these products could be someone you love, your friend, your mother, your sister, or just the woman next to you on the bus – it could be anybody, and that’s who cancer affects: anybody.

Want to contribute to the campaign? Interested in purchasing a poster to help support the campaign when they become available? Check out their group Facebook page

As marketers, we hold our breaths as the Black Friday numbers roll in. And as quickly as they do, we strip the mall of the red, white and green colored ornaments and dress it again, this time for Valentines day.  But everyday, in every conversation I hear, someone inevitably says “I can’t believe that it is already (month goes here)”.

I suspect, as I dash through my middle years, that one day I will regret not taking the time to wrap my arms around the “small hours” that make up the best parts of our lives. Maybe I will wise up, and enjoy every chance I get to spend some time with my incredible niece, my very strange, but very warm sister, my remarkably fun in-laws, and the few friends I have managed to stay in contact with.

Nordstrom is a retailer that may be getting it right.  They are asking us to give each holiday enough space to become meaningful, to be a full memory. They are making the request that we see the holidays as more than something we all “get through”. Instead, maybe we can embrace them as something we “get to do”. Something we get to do with the best people we know, if only for a few small hours.

From our family @Weltbrand to yours, a happy and safe holiday season!

Welt: How did the idea originally come about?

Donny: It started in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, with a couple of friends talking about ‘80s fashion and how everything cycles back into vogue. They decided then and there that the moustache was the perfect old school fashion that needed a comeback. That November, they got 30 of their friends together to grow a Mo, Aussie slang for moustache, re-naming the month Movember.

The rules were simple: Start the month clean-shaven, and grow a moustache for 30 days. The guys had so much fun, and were shocked by the amount of conversations started by the moustache. They decided to grow the following year, and to do it for a cause. Inspired by the breast cancer and women’s health movement, they chose an under-served disease that affecting 1 in 6 men, prostate cancer.

The following year, 450 Aussies raised $55,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia… And that was the beginning of the men’s health movement.

Welt: Currently in the US, $7,091,183 has been raised. What has not proven to be effective in your social media efforts to help raise this number?

Donny: We are thrilled with the amount raised so far this year (nearly $7.2M) and how far we’ve come from last year. In 2010, we had nearly 65,000 registered Mo Bros and Mo Sistas participating and they raised $7.5M ($81M globally, with 450,000 global participants). We are only 18 days into the month and already have 138,000 US participants and close to $51M globally! We are honored to have this overwhelming support.

Our community is a fun, strong and dedicated force – they understand our messaging, believe in the cause and spread awareness in their own unique way. We support our Mo Bros and Mo Sistas throughout their Movember journey by providing the tools and resources for them to have meaningful conversations, educate others and above all have remarkable experiences throughout the month.

Our community is very active on Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs and, of course, in-person. Our research found that each Movember participant speaks to an average of 61 people about men’s health and our cause during the month.

This year we’ve added more tools to their arsenal, like our first ever Android app (and revamped last year’s iPhone app), which gives participants the power of the Mo in the palm of their hand.

Another first are our three Facebook Apps – Recruit-A-Mo (allowing Mo Bros and Mo Sistas to recruit others to their team or to start their own team), Adopt-A-Mo (support a registered Mo Bro or Mo Sista’s commitment to men’s health by adopting and pledging to nurture their Mo by donating $1 a day for the full month of Movember), Request Adoption (participants can ask for adoption).

Welt: How many people are likely working/volunteering to execute these social media efforts (in the US, if possible)?

Donny: We have a digital strategist who helped create the Movember Facebook apps, but as Movember is a grassroots, word of mouth campaign, it’s our community that pushes the word out to the wider population. For instance, to date the iPhone App has been downloaded by 96,945 people globally.

Welt: How have partnerships/your support helped your digital marketing efforts develop and have wider reach?

Donny: We are so appreciative of our amazing partners, who bring so much to our Movember campaign each year. They bring Movember to their community, growing the movement with new groups and audiences. After we turn over our brand assets to our partners, we work closely to align our messaging, we draw up social media plans and then let them run wild.

We find that partners have the most success (and fun) when they can “own” Movember in a way that makes sense for their company and community. Mo photo contests, creative videos, etc are all ways to engage participants and reach more people. This year we were thrilled that Google Chrome chose to feature Movember in one of their films – so far seen by over 1 million people. Not to mention all the amazing work Break Media has done – their Moustache Rap has been viewed over 40,000 times and their 40 Moustaches in 10 seconds was shared 223 times from our Facebook wall.

Want to read more about Movember? Visit these links:

• US Website http://us.movember.com/
• Facebook
• Twitter

Let’s face it: we’ve used firming crèmes, lengthening mascara, push-up bras, Spanx, and hair extensions just to feel pretty. I’ve even gone so far as to wear colored contacts! Our definition of “pretty” is often defined by pop culture and advertisements that are endorsed by gorgeous models with perfect…everything. So, regardless of the assumption that even the models in these photographs don’t actually look that good without digital alterations, we still feel bad about ourselves.

What happened to inner beauty and character in flaws? Or the beauty in smile-wrinkles and, God forbid, letting your personality shine?

These ridiculous standards are contextualized in advertisements that we consume every day. We can always complain about this, but what exactly can we do to help minimize these standards?

Seth and Eva Matlins, co-founders of www.offourchests.com have initiated a campaign, The Self-Esteem Act, which stands against digital manipulation in advertisements. This bill will be presented to Congress in an attempt to mandate that all advertisements that have airbrushed or photoshoped models contain a Self-Esteem Act label that serves to identify the use of digital alterations.

Humans are naturally social beings. Our sense of self-worth is greatly affected by how we see ourselves in comparison to how we see others. This is especially relevant in teenage years when our environment is extremely influential and our physical appearance matters. In fact, when we are rejected we experience physiological pain and to make ourselves feel better, we adapt.

We can’t force all marketing efforts to change content they put in their advertisements. After all, isn’t the whole point of their marketing efforts to make us want to look like the models and somehow achieve what she has by using the product she endorses?

What we can do is ask these brands to add a label to their ad that serves to remind us that beauty standards in these pictures are not realistic. If passed, the bill will hopefully lower these statistics:

• 53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies; by the time they’re 17, 78% of them will be;
• 7 million girls and women under 25 suffer from eating disorders;
• 80% of women feel worse about themselves after seeing a beauty ad.

And to all of The Self-Esteem Act haters out there: yes, we can tell our children they are beautiful and do our best to make them feel a part of our society – but some things are out of our hands, and it’s important that when parents are not there, these girls and women will have a reminder that they don’t need to look like the model in an advertisement to be beautiful. This Act is part of a much larger effort.

Have you ever opened a magazine and didn’t see yourself fitting in there? What is your experience with trying to reach these standards? Comments? Questions? Hit us back!

For more of Welt Branding in the digital space, engage with us here:

Our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at  WeltBrand
Our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything

Social TV allows audiences to engage in social interaction with their TV shows — enabling people to chat with characters, post comments, and even create trending topics for popular opinion, during and after airing. Rick Lieblind, director of digital strategy at Coyne PR defines the interaction between an audience and their entertainment as intermedia, adding that “as social TV gains momentum, savvy networks like [AMC, USA], Bravo, MTV and The CW are poised to take advantage by engaging their audiences in new and compelling ways.”

One of the hottest social media games: Psych's Hashtag Killer game, which releases a new part to the game every Wednesday. Participants earn points as they progress and share.

The whole point of social platforms is to engage an audience – social TV doesn’t just fuse audience and brand, but, rather, goes one step further and engages the audience with the components that make the brand what it is! After all, what would Jersey Shore be with out Snooki or The Situation? These characters are what audiences actually care about, and leveraging their popularity through social networks can increase engagement and ultimately, ratings.

AMC’s Mad Men was one of the first adopters as early as 2009, but recently reality shows on Bravo and MTV live tweet, post status updates, and even SMS text during airtimes, which allows viewers to better interact with the reality stars. A blog written by Anne Sherber on Digiday explains it best, citing how Lisa Hsia, EVP of Bravo Digital says how “convincing viewers to tune in to both channels of programming may have an effect on program ratings: engaging users with second screen experiences increases viewership during a program’s first airing.” In the article, Hsia is quoted as saying, “People want to meet in real time and talk about it as it is happening.”

So how do you convince audiences to participate? And what is better than being able to #fistpump along with Jersey Shore’s MVP?

Well, it seems that the more creative you are, the better the chance viewers will check-in. For example, USA Network’s show Psych embraced social TV by creating a social game called the #Hashtag Killer that evolves past the show’s airtime. What it is: a game that allows viewers to help main characters, Shawn and Gus, solve their next case. The game is progressive, meaning that you watch weekly episodes that build on previous episode experiences. There are a total of seven weeks and the game encourages you to check in every day as it progresses in real-time.

To give you an idea of it’s popularity: two million Facebook users “like” it, 188,000 GetGlue users have checked in, and the Twitter handles @Hashtagkiller and @Psych_USA have over 67,000 followers.

Networks use social TV intermedia to help rate the social popularity of the shows for the targeted demographics using quantitative metrics from sites such as GetGlue.com, which is an entertainment version of FourSquare that allows audiences to check-in to TV, movies and music, Twitter, and Facebook.

Although there is no agreed on best-measurement for social platforms, TV executives now must consider these platforms in addition to traditional standardized ratings. Social TV adds quantitative metrics as well as involving qualitative points of view. After all, the content on these sites regarding TV shows could provide important insight to viewers feelings and connection to the shows plot and characters in addition to encouraging retention and tune-ins.

Social TV is changing how we consume television. It helps advertisers build on their fan base. Live shows are spreading past just television sets. It gives TV superstars an opportunity to better express their character with fans.

This is big. This changes things. This is something we should all pay attention to. Do you think social TV will change how we consume TV? Hit us back…

For more of Welt Branding in the digital space, engage with us here:

Our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at   WeltBrand
Our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything

As “civilians,” social media makes it easy for us to share our feelings, ideas, viewpoints and ourselves. We touch a lot of people in one post. But when you’re a business, or more importantly a brand, the implications and interpretations of this information are also limitless. There are many ways to abuse and over-use social media. More importantly, social media isn’t (necessarily) meant to take the place of other media, it’s a tool to improve our ability to connect, and in most cases should be used in conjunction with a solid mixed media approach. Social media requires support and a lot of hard work, right?

Well, considering we use social media to better connect with our consumers, it might be worth taking a look at how the platforms affect them. A research study at Edinburgh Napier University suggests that Facebook usage creates stressors that impact users anxiety levels. Psychotherapist Stacey Nunez agrees that Facebook can cause severe angst and even depression. She explains that cyber-stalking and romanticizing about photos makes it difficult for a person to connect via face-to-face interaction, it creates false expectations, and that it lowers self-esteem. In short, she asserts Facebook enhances stressors and makes it difficult for managing adversity.

But users are addicted, and even though it might be bad for us, we can’t stop. We spend hours of our free time looking through overwhelming amounts of photos, profiles, and counting our followers.

There is an old saying, “the more the merrier.” But from a business perspective, the more is not the merrier! Friend counts have nothing to do with the quality of consumer experience. The bulk of businesses also tend to loose grip on the quality of their consumer relationships as the number of followers increase. The reality of our situation is that we do not know the majority of these people, and our conversations with them may not overlap into our actual business plan.

It’s crucial to note that although these people are our followers, they are also overwhelmed by other brands. We need to post concise and attractive content in order to clear their landscape. If we leverage social media in a positive way, we open up opportunity.

A Verizon case study in The Social Media Monthly magazine covered the launch of the Verizon Idea Exchange, an online forum where customers are given the opportunity to exchange and discuss product/services ideas they’d like to see implemented. The magazine described the community, saying: “The Exchange is aimed at capturing, categorizing, and ranking customer ideas based on the votes and comments of community members…[and] this encourages the product teams to interface with the community members.” Based on the suggestions from Verizon customers, 85% of new attributes for the Interactive Media Guide were a result of this Exchange.

This platform supports consumer feedback while implementing their ideas into Verizon product. There are more than just “likes” and follower counts here – there is actual engagement. Not only does Verizon encourage meaningful and quality conversations, consumers are able to integrate themselves in the brand. It enhances consumer experience.

Overall, utilizing social media to start conversations and relationships is important because you want to create a volume of exchange to enhance and build brand experience. Remember that your consumers are also plagued with other options, so being clear and showing your appreciation to their loyalty is important. Don’t discredit what goes into building a strong relationship – it’s a two-way street. Making the most of social media’s groundswell and leveraging on its power keeps a business connected with consumers and can facilitate growth, but content is important.

How often do you think companies misinterpret follower counts as success? Do you have any examples of social media gone bad? Gone good? Hit us back…

For more of Welt Branding in the digital space, engage with us here:

Our Facebook wall at Welt Branding
Tweet us at   WeltBrand
Our LinkedIn group at Welt Branding: Challenge Everything