4 Social Media and
Your Targeted
Audience
As millions of people use the web for conducting detailed research on
products and services, getting involved in political campaigns, joining
music and film fan clubs, reviewing products, and discussing hobbies and
passions, they congregate in all kinds of online places. The technologies and
tools, which many people now refer to collectively associal media, all include
ways for users to express their opinions online:
• Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn help
people cultivate a community of friends and share information.
• Blogs, personal websites written by somebody who is passionate about
a topic, provide a means to share that passion with the world and to
foster an active community of readers who provide comments on the
author’s posts.
• Video and image sharing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, SlideShare, and Instagram greatly simplify the process of sharing and
commenting on photos, graphic images, and videos.
• Chat rooms and message boards serve as online meeting places where
people meet and discuss topics of interest, with the main feature being
that anyone can start a discussion thread.
• Review sites such as Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, and TripAdvisor
are places where consumers rate products, services, and companies.
• Wikis are websites that anybody can edit and update.
• Social bookmarking sites like Reddit allow users to suggest content to
others and vote on what is interesting.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, 61
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
62 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
• Mobile applications with GPS-generated location services add the
component of identifying exactly where each user is in the world.
What Is Social Media, Anyway?
Since social media is such an important concept (and is so often misunderstood), I’ll define it:
Social media provides the way people share ideas, content,
thoughts, and relationships online. Social media differs from
so-called mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on, and add to social media content. Social media can
take the form of text, audio, video, images, and communities.
The best way to think about social media is not in terms of the different
technologies and tools but, rather, how those technologies and tools allow
you to communicate directly with your buyers in places where they are
congregating right now.
Just as a point of clarification, note that there are two terms that sound
similar here: social media and social networking. Social media is the superset
and is how we refer to the various media that people use to communicate
online in a social way. Social media include blogs, wikis, video and photo
sharing, and much more. A subset of social media is social networking, a term
I use to refer to how people interact on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
similar sites. Social networking occurs when people create a personal profile
and interact to become part of a community of friends and like-minded
people and to share information. You’ll notice throughout the book that I use
both terms. This chapter is about the larger concept of social media, whereas
in Chapter 14 we dive into detail about social networking.
I’m fond of thinking of the web as a city—it helps make sense of each
aspect of online life and how we create and interact. Corporate sites are the
storefronts on Main Street peddling wares. Craigslist is like the bulletin
board at the entrance of the corner store; eBay, a garage sale; Amazon, a
superstore replete with patrons anxious to give you their two cents. Mainstream media sites like the New York Times online are the newspapers of the
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 63
city. Chat rooms and forums are the pubs,saloons, cafés, and coffeehouses of
the online world. You even have the proverbial wrong-side-of-the-tracks
spots: the web’s adult-entertainment and spam underbelly.
Social Media Is a Cocktail Party
If you follow my metaphor of the web as a city, then think of social media
and the ways that people interact on blogs, forums, and social networking
sites as the bars, private clubs, and cocktail parties of the city. To extend the
(increasingly tortured) analogy even further, Twitter can be compared to the
interlude when the girls go to the ladies’ room and talk about the guys, and
the guys are discussing the girls while they wait.
Viewing the web as a sprawling city where social media are the places
where people congregate to have fun helps us make sense of how marketers
can best use the tools of social media. How do you act in a cocktail party
situation?
• Do you go into a large gathering filled with a few acquaintances and
tons of people you do not know and shout, “BUY MY PRODUCT!”?
• Do you go into a cocktail party and ask every single person you meet
for a business card before you agree to speak with them?
• Do you try to meet every single person, or do you have a few great
conversations?
• Do you listen more than you speak?
• Are you helpful, providing valuable information to people with no
expectation of getting something tangible in return?
• Or do you avoid the social interaction of cocktail parties altogether
because you are uncomfortable in such situations?
I find these questions are helpful to people who are new to social media.
This analogy is also a good one to discuss with social media cynics and those
who cannot see the value of this important form of communication.
The web-as-a-city approach is especially important when dealing with
people who have been steeped in the traditions of advertising-based marketing, those skilled at interrupting people to talk up products and using
coercion techniques to make a sale. Sure, you can go to a cocktail party and
treat everyone as a sales lead while blabbing on about what your company
does. But that approach is unlikely to make you popular.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
64 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Guess what? The popular people on the cocktail circuit make friends.
People like to do business with people they like. And they are eager to
introduce their friends to one another. The same trends hold true in social
media. So go ahead and join the party. But think of it asjust that—a fun place
where you give more than you get. Of course, you can also do business there,
but the kind you do at a cocktail party and not at the general store. What you
get in return for your valuable interactions are lasting friendships, many of
which lead to business opportunities.
This chapter is an introduction to the concepts of social media. In
subsequent chapters, I go into much greater detail about blogs (Chapters
5 and 15), video (Chapters 6 and 17), and social networking (Chapter 14).
“Upgrade to Canada” Social Program
Nabs Tourists from Other Countries
The travel market is crowded. Consumers have lots of places to find
information about places to visit. In this environment, the best content
and the companies that are most engaged with social networks can win the
day.
Canada Tourism engaged travelers with a terrific social networking
program called “Upgrade to Canada.” Representatives from Canada Tourism
intercepted travelers at the Frankfurt and Lyon airports and tried to
persuade them to switch their holiday plans, on the spot, to visit Canada
instead. People had only a few minutes to consider the offer. Fortunately,
many of them were open to the serendipity of a real-time travel change, and
they spontaneously changed their travel destinations.
Canada Tourism then created real-time social content about the travelers
and their experiences once they arrived in Canada, and the tourists themselves eagerly shared on their own social networks, including Twitter,
YouTube, and Facebook.
“The results were extraordinary,” says Siobhan Chrétien, regional
managing director for Canada Tourism. “Not only were we able to share
firsthand the travelers’ stories with the world, but online we received
further upgrades from over 100 countries by travelers who switched to
Canada.” Social networking drove awareness of Canada as a destination.
Canada’s share among competitive destinations increased by a remarkable
21.5 percent.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 65
I love the idea of requiring people to make a decision in just a few
minutes. The real-time nature of how people then share their experience
separates “Upgrade to Canada” from other social media campaigns from
tourism organizations.
“No matter how sexy a destination is, promoting a country for tourism
purposes has its challenges,” Chrétien says, “especially with the world now
being a smaller place with many travel options and competing experiences
and destinations. The traveler of today and of the future has a vast array of
options. It is not enough to run slick ad campaigns or hope that price alone
will drive a sale and convert a tourist. The traveler needs to be inspired,
motivated, influenced, and in some cases convinced on the spot that the time
is now to make the trip!”
Smart organizations understand this new world and build a buying
process around the realities of independent research and the power of social
networks. Instead of generic information dreamed up by an advertising
agency, they tell authentic stories that interest their customers. Instead of
selling, they educate through online content. Instead of ignoring those who
have already made a purchase, they deliver information at precisely the
moment customers need it.
It’s not just travel destinations that can benefit from social engagement.
Every market is influenced by what people are saying on social networks: the
good, the bad, and, in some cases, nothing.
Social Networking and Agility
Social networking allows companies to communicate instantly with their
existing and potential customers. That Canada Tourism built an entire
awareness campaign around real-time strategies shows the power of instant
communications. Yet many organizations don’t respond to people quickly
on social networks.
I’m a “Pro” user of the Hightail file sharing and storage service. I’ve been a
loyal customer since January 2009, paying more than $100 a year for my
premium services. In December 2015, I received an email offer from Hightail
with the subject line “Complete your list with our great discount.” The offer
promised if I would “Upgrade to Hightail Professional” that day, I’d get
50 percent off the annual subscription price. Hightail subscription plans had
confusing names: Hightail Professional is an upgrade from the Hightail Pro
service I was using at the time.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
66 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
The offer sounded good, so I clicked the “Get the deal” button.
However, when I logged into my Hightail account to complete the
transaction, I got a nasty error message: “Your account does not meet
the prerequisites for using this Sku code.”
This was frustrating, so I tweeted a message to Hightail (@HightailHQ)
and waited for a response. And I waited some more. When I didn’t hear from
them for three days, I chose to look into competing product offerings from
other companies.
When responding to a negative comment in a social network, it
is best to reply quickly, honestly, and in the same medium.
Not responding quickly is a huge missed opportunity. When you reply to
user messages in real time, not only do you keep the customer up to date, but
you also show the world through your public feed that you’re engaged.
When customers are happy, they keep their product longer, they spend more
money over time, and they share their happiness with others, either in
person or on social networks. Hightail missed an opportunity to engage with
me. And there’s no doubt that some of my more than 125,000 Twitter
followers noticed Hightail’s lack of interest in responding to a customer.
The team at Hightail did finally get back to me and worked with me to
solve the problem. I remain a customer, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Contrast the long delay at Hightail with an experience around the same
time with @JetBlue. In this case, I received a reply in just two minutes. Talk
about speed! No wonder JetBlue has nearly 2 million followers on Twitter—
it communicates in real time.
Or consider the speed at which the iconic Mary Kay Pink Cadillac
responds on Twitter. Yes, the car has a Twitter feed.
In 1969, Mary Kay Ash purchased five Cadillac Coupe de Villes, had them
repainted to match the “Mountain Laurel Blush” in a compact she carried,
and rewarded the company’s top five salespeople with the cars. Since then,
General Motors has painted more than 100,000 custom cars for Mary Kay,
Inc.
“Today the Pink Cadillac is as vivacious as ever!” says Rebecca Gibson, a
manager on the corporate communications team for Mary Kay, Inc. “She’s
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 67
launched her own Twitter feed and has even recently served as a company
‘spokesperson’ via social media to spark excitement about its car programs—
and career opportunities.”
For Halloween, the Cadillac “dressed up” in various costumes, and fans
could vote for their favorite. “Help me pick my #Halloween costume! RT
favorite to vote,” the Pink Cadillac said on her @MKPinkCaddy Twitter feed.
Of course, the Miss Piggy costume won.
The Pink Cadillac Twitter feed is used to communicate in a fun way. In
fact, “she” does not talk about products at all. That’s what the main
@MaryKay Twitter feed does.
But that doesn’t mean @MKPinkCaddy isn’t serious about real-time
communication, as I learned when I tweeted to her:
@dmscott: Hey @MKPinkCaddy – Learning about what you’re up to from
@beckgibson at #DSAGameChange – Glad to hear you’re enjoying
your 40s!
@MKPinkCaddy: @dmscott I’m loving every minute of being 45, including the fact that I still have no wrinkles.
@dmscott: @MKPinkCaddy Not to mention a beautiful pink complexion!!
@MKPinkCaddy: @dmscott Oh stop, you’re making me blush!
What a fun conversation! Something as simple as a Twitter feed can
humanize a brand. The Pink Cadillac is treasured within Mary Kay and is
famous around the world. But to many, it might seem dated. The car’s realtime Twitter feed helps modernize the brand by making its icon retro cool.
When Social Networking Doesn’t Work:
The Cannabis Business in America
In this chapter and throughout the book I talk a lot about how social
networking is a great way to reach buyers. But occasionally a market exists
where social networking is not appropriate.
As American voters pass referenda permitting the use of medical marijuana and legalizing it for recreational use, many businesses have cropped up
to service this emerging market. As I write this, 28 U.S. states have legalized
medical marijuana, while seven, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized
recreational use. However, because it is still illegal at the federal level,
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
68 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
laws often forbid the use of social networking to market products from this
fledgling industry.
“Marijuana from a marketing perspective is fascinating, because you can’t
market in the usual way. It’s illegal,” says Larry Schwartz, president of
Cannabiz Media, the most comprehensive source for U.S. marijuana licensing information. Data from Cannabiz Media helps journalists, regulators,
researchers, businesspeople, and investors understand and operate confidently in the evolving U.S. marijuana marketplace.
When Schwartz firststarted to market his business, he tried to run Google
AdWords and Facebook Ads but was quickly rejected by both companies.
Twitter and Instagram also forbid such advertising.
Google’s representative emailed Schwartz: “Thank you for calling the
Google AdWords Welcome center. I looked into and tried to see if there was
a way that I could help you to be able to advertise with AdWords. However I
was unsuccessful in my pursuit. Google won’t allow your website to be
advertised with AdWords. While your Business model is solid and company
is legal it does fall into Dangerous products or services. With that being said,
your ads can show organically. The Search Console will assist you [sic]
Organic ad results.”
“We realized we had to go the old-fashioned route,” Schwartz says. “In
the marijuana business, believe it or not, print magazines are huge. I think
there are about 20 magazines in this space, titles like Cannabis Business
Times, Marijuana Business Magazine, and Marijuana Venture. So for us, our
marketing strategy quickly became trade shows, getting out our own email
list, and bartering with these magazines and trade show providers. We’ve
got deals with all the big guys now where we trade them our database for
free ads and trade show booth space. This was the way everyone marketed
15 or 20 years ago!”
Most of the online action happens on more specialized marijuana search
engines and review sites. “Dispensaries are the ones who need to advertise to
consumers,” Schwartz told me. “And each state has different laws regulating
marketing. For instance, in Connecticut and Massachusetts if you put a
website up, the state has to approve it. It gets complicated and there are a lot
of really strange laws. Now people are bypassing Google and the other
traditional search engines and they’re using weed search engines like Leafly
and Weed Map to find dispensaries, strains, news, all sorts of information.
These are big marijuana search engines, and that’s where consumers are
going.”
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 69
Schwartz’s business is booming. Whenever companies want to enter the
cannabis businessin a new state, there is a whole new set of lawsto deal with.
And those laws are constantly changing. That’s the case in my state of
Massachusetts, which legalized recreational marijuana on Election Day
2016. Schwartz’s business tracks all of those new and changing laws and
regulations.
“This business is going to go through a gold-rush mentality,” Schwartz
says. “It’s like the dot-com boom starting in 1995. When California legalizes
marijuana it will double the size of the market. And then we’re going to have
a big bust. Then we’ll come back again, just like the Internet business over
the past 20 years.”
As new states permit medical marijuana or legalize cannabis for recreational use, there are more and more people who want to grow the plant as a
business. And with that an entire industry has grown to service cannabis
entrepreneurs. As a marketer, I am fascinated by the business-to-business
marketing strategies these companies must use.
“We are witnessing a dramatic shift within the USA. Cannabis can now be
grown out in the open and with commercial greenhouse methods,” says Tom
Springer, founder and president of NurserySource. Springer’s company has
been selling RediRoot root development containers and GroPro root development fabric bags since 2010. The products help growers’ profitability by
increasing their yield due to root health.
Springer says that 2016 was “the first year we marketed directly to
cannabis growers. The changing state laws have certainly encouraged us,
but since we manufacture an agricultural product, we have needed a few
years of field testing to make sure our products worked as well in
developing cannabis roots as they do developing shade tree and conifer
roots.”
Springer faced a number of marketing challenges. “Suppliers who service
cannabis growers are quickly learning how to service full-scale and open
commercial enterprises who are paying hefty tax rates,” Springer says. “This
is entirely different than servicing a more clandestine, black market group of
growers utilizing cash for all their supplies. Cannabis farming is maturing at
a rapid rate, and grow equipment suppliers are watching margins shrink and
sales channels constrict. The market is hyperdynamic, and numerous people
will be getting rich over the next few years. And a ton of people will go broke.
Companies wishing to stay in this market long-term must utilize good
business principles to survive.”
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
70 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
It’s rare that a market emerges from nothing and grows into a multibillion-dollar industry in a few short years. And just as we saw in those early
Internet days, the rules of marketing in this industry are still being written. I
expect that over time the cannabis business will be marketing via social
media like so many other industries, but for now marketers like Schwartz
and Springer must use more traditional marketing strategies.
The New Rules of Job Search
Company lost its funding. Outsourced. Caught in a merger. Downsized.
Fired. It seems like every day I learn of another person who is in the job
market. Usually that’s because when they need a job, all of a sudden people
jump into networking mode, and I hear from them after years ofsilence. Hey,
I’m okay with that; it’s always good to hear from old friends. And I’ve been
fired three times, so I certainly know what it’s like to be in the job market.
Since looking for a job is all about marketing a product (you), I wanted to
include a section in the book for those of you who are currently in the job
market, soon to graduate from college or university, or otherwise looking for
a career opportunity.
If you’re like the vast majority of job seekers, you’d do what everyone
knows is the way to find a job: You prepare a resume, obsessing over every
entry to make sure it paints your background in the best possible light. You
also begin a networking campaign, emailing and phoning your contacts and
using networking tools like LinkedIn, hoping that someone in your
extended network knows of a suitable job opportunity.
While many people find jobs the traditional way, social media allows a
new way to interact and meet potential employers. The old rules of job
searches required advertising a product (you) with direct mail (your resume
that you sent to potential employers). The old rules of job searches required
you to interrupt people (friends and colleagues) to tell them that you were in
the job market and to ask them to help you.
As people engage with each other on social media sites, there are plenty
of opportunities to network. Just like at a physical cocktail party, if you are
unemployed and looking for work, the people you meet may be in a
position to introduce you to that perfect employer. The converse is also
true: Smart employers look to social networking sites to find the sort of
plugged-in people who would fit in at their company or in a certain job. In
fact, on the day that I wrote this, a friend asked me to tweet a job
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 71
opportunity. Had you been watching my Twitter feed that day, perhaps
you’d have a new job now.
To find a job via social networks, you have to stop thinking like
an advertiser of a product and start thinking like a publisher of
information.
So you want to find a new job via social media? Offer information that
people want. Create an online presence that people are eager to consume.
Establish a virtual front door that people will happily link to—one that
employers will find. The new rules of finding a job require you to share your
knowledge and expertise with a world that is looking for what you have to
offer.
How to Find a New Job via Social Media
It’s not just travel destinations, cosmetics, and air travel that can be
promoted via social networks like Twitter. It’s also you and your career.
Let’slook at how people use social networksin the job market. David Murray
(@DaveMurr) says that after being laid off, he immediately did the traditional things, updating his resume and calling a bunch of contacts. But he
eventually realized that he would also have to change gears and pay attention
to blogs, social networks, and online communities. Murray already had a
Twitter account, so he reached out to his Twitter followers and publicly
announced that he was looking for work.
“I guess you could say I used a new tool for old-school networking,”
Murray says. “The response was overwhelming, and I received several
leads and opportunities that were far more fruitful than my previous
attempts.”
Murray then hit on a creative way to use Twitter Search in his job hunt. “I
came across a comment from Chris Brogan [@ChrisBrogan] on how he used
Twitter Search to keep track of his tens of thousands of followers using RSS
feeds,” Murray says. “So I simply began entering keywords in Twitter Search
like ‘Hiring Social Media,’ ‘Social Media Jobs,’ ‘Online Community Manager,’
‘Blogging Jobs,’ and so on. I then pulled the RSS feeds of these keyword
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
72 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
conversations and made it a habit to check these first thing in the morning
every day.”
Bingo. Murray came across lots of conversations related to his keywords,
and if something sounded like a good fit for him, he took the liberty of
introducing himself via Twitter. “Many times, the jobs had not been officially
posted,” Murray says.
How cool is it that on Twitter you can express interest in a job
opportunity that hasn’t even been announced yet? It’s like getting inside
information!
Hired. It didn’t take long at all for Murray to land the ideal job. His
example is of someone who had already established himself in his career; he
was looking for a new job because of a layoff. But what about new (or soonto-be) university graduates searching for an entry-level position?
When Lindsey Kirchoff was a graduating senior at Tufts University near
Boston, Massachusetts, she started a terrific blog called How to Market to Me.
In her blog, Kirchoff offers her opinions on how to market to millennials like
herself. “The blog is my opinion,” she says. “It’s about the advertisements
that ‘get’ me as a collegiate and 20-something consumer—the companies
that understand my values, participate in my humor, and reach me when/
where I’m most likely to need them. It’s also about companies that don’t do
any of those things and how they can better reach me (and people like me)in
the future.”
She used her comments on other people’s blogs, her Twitter feed
(@LindseyKirchoff), and other social networking tools to share her ideas
about how companies should market to people like her—a focus that also
served to showcase her understanding of marketing.
At the time, Kirchoff was on the hunt for a job upon graduation, hopefully
at a mid-to-large marketing firm with a strong entry-level program. Soon her
active social networking led to discussions both online and in person with
marketers at a Boston-based software company. Partly based on her solid
understanding ofsocial media as demonstrated by her blog and use of Twitter,
Kirchoff was hired full-time and started working soon after graduation.
What Kirchoff and Murray both did was to show potential employers that
they were available and ready to contribute. They put their enthusiasm and
expertise out there to make themselves stand out from the other candidates,
who would simply send a paper application or CV.
Some people might argue that this technique works only to find jobs
related to social media and marketing (like Murray and Kirchoff did). While
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 73
it’s true that social-media-savvy people are often the first to use these
techniques, I’m convinced that they would work for many other kinds of
job seekers. These days, Twitter is used very widely, and tweets like “I’m
looking for an accountant to join my London office” appear frequently. You
should be monitoring what people are saying in your field. Plus, if you’re an
accountant, salesperson, or production manager looking for work, then
you’re really going to stand out from the crowd of 1,000 resumes if you use
social media to find a job.
As long as we’re discussing social media and job searches, here’s an
important consideration: What comes up when you Google your name with the
name of your most recent employer? Potential employers do that all the time.
And you can influence what they see! Remember, on the web, you are what
you publish.
Social Networking Drives Adagio Teas’
Success
Associal networks become more important for organizations of all kinds, the
challenge becomes how to integrate them effectively. Adagio Teas, a familyowned gourmet tea company, has used social networking to become the
most popular online destination for tea enthusiasts. Social sharing and
crowdsourced product creation aren’t “bolted-on” strategies at Adagio
Teas. Unlike at most companies, social networking is a critical component
for driving business.
I learned about Adagio Teas from my daughter, Allison. She’s a loyal
customer and eagerly shared with me how the company works. As of this
writing, Adagio Teas sells a remarkable 68,050 blends of tea. The vast
majority of blends are created by its customers either for their own enjoyment (think private blends) or as a blend that is sold to others on the site.
Creating blends via crowdsourcing is a brilliant strategy for driving social
interaction, because people are eager to share their creations on networks
like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
“The idea of customer-created blends came from growing up in a Russian
background,” says Ilya Kreymerman, chief technology officer and member of
the family thatfounded and runsAdagioTeas. “Tea was alwayssomething that
was in the house, and when my mom and dad had company over, they would
always drink this blend of tea that my mom made herself. So the idea of having
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
74 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
people create these unique blends was second nature to us. We found a way
that people can not only make it but also share with friends, the same way that
my mom would share it when people came over. The idea is not just making it
for yourself but making it for yourself and for a large community.”
Avid tea connoisseurs can search the database for a perfect blend, or, as with
Amazon’s bestseller list, browse teas based on popularity and customer
reviews. That’s another important social aspect: Like popular authors on
Amazon, those who create delicious blends build a following with Adagio
Teas’ customers, driving sales with their ratings and reviews. If you like a
blend, you can see what other blendsthat creator has made. Repeat customers
can create a profile to keep track of teasthey enjoy most, and they can also add
teas they want to try.
For example, a top-ranked tea as I write this, Sherlock, is a blend by Cara
McGee: “All at once exotic and mysterious and perhaps a little bit insane,
with a lingering hint of smoke. Inspired by BBC’s Sherlock, which I am in no
way affiliated with. This is created purely for my own enjoyment. Ingredients: Lapsang souchong, Assam melody, Oriental spice.”
McGee uploaded a video where she talks about the blend. There are also
customer reviews and social sharing tools that include Facebook (with over
1,000 likes), Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. The Sherlock blend is part of a
theme that Adagio calls Fandom Signature Blends, which also include such
teas as Avatar, Big Lebowski, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, and many more
blends based on popular movies, TV shows, and books.
“A lot of what drives people to buy the tea is not really the tea itself—it’s
this story around the tea,” Kreymerman says. “You take a pot of tea and
infuse it with a character or TV show or video game and suddenly people
have an attachment. You’re piggybacking on their love for a specific
character. Instead of it just being a cup of tea, it’s now got all of this
background and emotion baked in.” And people are naturally eager to talk
on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks about tea that has a
connection to the books, movies, and TV shows they love.
Anothersocial aspect kicksin when customers add friendsto their profiles.
If you log in to Adagio Teas with a Gmail account, you can instantly find out
whether one of your contacts also has an Adagio Teas profile. Or if you’re
reading a review and like someone’s taste in tea, you can friend that person.
With all the sharing going on with customers at Adagio Teas, it’s no
surprise that the company itself is active on social networks. It has an
excellent Tumblr blog (“The official blog from the people behind Adagio”),
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Social Media and Your Targeted Audience 75
and is active on Twitter (@AdagioTeas, 26,000+ followers), on Facebook
(61,000+ likes), and on other social sites.
“People historically have spent a lot of money to advertise products,”
Kreymerman says. “But we never use traditional marketing, advertising,
things like that because it’s incredibly expensive. You’re kind of shooting in
the dark. I think the more interesting thing is to provide customers with
value by putting the money towards a really interesting site or really
interesting idea or making their experience better instead of just kind of
directing them towards yourstore. We listen to the audience, and a lot of our
good ideas come from listening to what people are talking about on Twitter
and Tumblr. And once in a while, we hear the same question coming up over
and over again and realize that we have to address it.”
And Adagio Teas really is active, using social networks to communicate
with customers. The mistake made by so many other companies is just using
social media like Twitter as a one-way broadcast advertising channel. For
example, @AdagioTeas tweeted: “We are developing a wish list feature &
would love feedback. Would you use it as a bookmark for yourself, or as a list
to help guide others?” A follow-up tweet thanked customers for their
suggestions, announced the launch of the wish list, and prompted further
discussion.
People love this kind of interaction and happily talk up organizations that
provide it. For example, @jamieworley tweeted: “It’sso cool that @AdagioTeas
sends me twitterDMsto let me know wheremy tea shipmentis!”And itis cool.
I wish some ofthe companiesIfrequently do business with usedTwitterDirect
Messages (DMs) to communicate.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Allison made her own blend because she
wanted to have interesting Christmas and holiday gifts for family and
friends. The “Create a Blend” widget is really easy to use. Many people
love mixing teas, and Adagio has made it fun and easy to mix different flavors
to create a unique and tasty blend: You name your creation and choose the
types of teas and the percentages of each. You then have an opportunity to
create a custom label, either simple text or something much more elaborate.
Here social networking pops up yet again, because you can upload a
Facebook photo to be part of your custom label. Instead, Allison made a
hand drawing for her label, which she scanned and saved as a JPEG and then
imported into Adobe Photoshop. There she added text before uploading the
image to the Adagio Teas app. Her “scottea dog” blend is “Just a cute jumpy
Christmas blend of assam melody, hazelnut, and peppermint.”
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
76 The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Another fun social aspect of Adagio Teas is that the creator of a custom
tea earns points whenever a customer buys that blend. Points can be used
to get discounted or free tea. This encourages social sharing by people who
create blends—when their new blends are ready to be sold, many people
will tweet about them, or post an image of the label with a link on
Facebook, or make a Tumblr post talking about the blend. After all, it’s in
their best interest to do so.
By building social networking features into all aspects of the customer
experience, Adagio Teas drives business success. As customers talk about
teas on social networks, fan their favorite blends, or even create their own to
share with their friends, new people learn about the company. It sure beats
traditional advertising to get the word out.
Social media sites are places where people congregate to discuss things
that are important to them. Where are people discussing your industry and
the products and services you offer? If that place already exists, you should
monitor it and participate as appropriate. If it doesn’t yet exist, consider
starting a place for colleagues and customers to meet and revel in information that is important to your market.
Now let’s turn to blogs, another form of social media.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications,
Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.pCreated from bu on 2022-05-03 22:58:16. Copyright © 2017. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
