I un-liked a brand I love today

Those of you who attended FranCamp 2012 or watched on Ustream saw me say that I really love Dr. Pepper.  Especially the new Dr. Pepper 10.  I'm drinking one right now as I write this.


Today I un-liked Dr. Pepper on Facebook because I just have had it with the number of times they are marketing to me on Facebook right in my newsfeed. 

Do you think this is too much?  8 Posts in the past week.  5 since Friday.

• Sunday May 13th at 6pm
• Sunday May 13th at 1030am
• Saturday May 12th at Midnight
• Saturday May 12th at 4pm
• Friday May 11th at 5pm
• Monday May 7th at 10pm
• Monday May 7th  at 629pm 
• Monday May 7th at 1250pm

At least Edgerank appeared to spare me from about 8 MORE posts that are on their Brand Page that didn't make it into my newsfeed.

I know you've paid a lot of money to be a promotional partner to the Avengers movie that opened earlier this month, but I don't care!

I'll still love the product but I'm not liking this at all!

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FranCamp 2012 Follow-Up

Ooooh there's a brand in my stream...

At FranCamp 2012, during my presentation on "Building the Perfect Social Media Campaign",  I posed a few questions.

1. Is there such a thing?
2. If so, how do you recognize it?
3. Do small brands have the same opportunity in social media as big brands ?
4. Do people really want brands marketing to them in their social media streams?

In future blog posts I will try to open up the discussion on these questions in more detail with the hopes of getting your thoughts and creating a discussion.  

But I want to start with the last question:   Do (normal) people want to hear from brands?  And if so, when, how often, in what form, etc?

My conundrum is that all the research would indicate that people don't want to be marketed to in their social medium streams.  They joined Facebook, Google+, Twitter and others to primarily communicate with their family and friends.  

Here's a link to a simple infographic showing some of the research.

But if consumers say they don't want to be marketed to, then why do brands like these have some many followers and likes?

At FranCamp, someone asked the question if this is self-reported data.  It appears so and we all know that self-reported research and actual activity don't always match up

My takeaway and thesis is that there are characteristics that will cause a brand to be followed or liked.  The consumer has to:

1. Really "love" the brand to be liked or followed.
2. Have been incented with a coupon or discount (and the follow-up communication from the brand has been meaningful and/or valuable to the consumer to avoid drop-off)
3. Had a long relationship with primarily BIG brand (which I believe have an advantage in social media)

If you're not Coca-Cola, Red Bull or Starbucks, you should focus on the following:

1. Have realistic expectations for the number of likes, fans, followers (you don't need 20 million "likes").
2. Focus on creating meaningful content always with a focus from the consumers' perspective.
3. Leverage your traditional marketing to grow your social media consumer engagement.

Next blog post we'll dive into some specific big brands mentioned at FranCamp and what we can learn from their activity and results.  

What do you think??  Leave a comment.

Here's the video of my FranCamp 2012  presentation:

And here's the link to all the FranCamp 2012 presentations.

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FranCamp 2012 Pre-work

By Todd Leiser


Listen to the April 19th discussion of the "Perfect Social Media Campaign" on Social Geek Radio.  Hear how the Dr. Pepper & White Castle social media campaigns tie into the Pepto-Bismol Social Media Campaign both socially and in reality!

Listen to internet radio with Social Geek Radio on Blog Talk Radio

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Ahead of my presentation at FranCamp 2012 on May 4th -- "Building the Perfect Social Media Campaign", throughout the month of April, I will be posting some elements that will be helpful for attendees (and non-attendees) to review prior to the event:

Since FranCamp is in Atlanta, the home of many iconic companies, I'm going to highlight some that are deeply committed to figuring out how to leverage social media, for many different objectives.

Probably the most impressive strategy and transparency to that strategy, is Coca-Cola.  Take the time to watch these two short creative videos and see how they are incorporating social media as part of a plan to double the size of their business.

Part One:

Part Two:

Delta Airlines took their own people and taught them about social media rather than hire an outside firm and teach them about their business:

Here's a link to the slides referenced in the above video.

And also this is a really good short 4 minute video that shows Delta's Social Media strategy in action. Creating a customer for life is very cool:

UPS presents how they use social media for customer service (sorry the audio is poor).   

And be sure to register for FranCamp today

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