Social Media Lesssons from Shell Oil

Coming back from FranCamp (hard to believe it's been a month), I'm still fascinated with the whole big brand vs. small brand debate and why certain brands get more "likes" on Facebook and "follows" on Twitter.  I really want to find the time to get to the core with the goal being how small brands can learn from the big brands, particularly in franchising.

One of the elements that I think we all know is that a consumer really has to be passionate about the brand and really really LOVE it to "like" it.  Or be sucked in with the one time offer of a discount or savings to which they never really interact with the brand much again but the brand can claim them on their trophy shelf of likes.  A like really isn't very valuable if the consumer ignores your message.   Similar to claiming a sale even if you never get paid.

Of course the brand has to do their part to engage the audience. 

While I'm doing some of this research in my spare time - I do have a day job - I came across this 4-minute interview from the April NextWeb Conference in Amsterdam.  If an oil company can get over a million likes, most of which in about 60 days, what can we learn?




My takeaway:

1. It's hard
2. Driven from the top (CEO gets it - made it happen)
3. Appropriate resources invested
4. Experienced partners 
5. Worldwide Brand - is a million really a small number?

Two great quotes from the interview:

1. "You have no choice in this area" - meaning getting involved in social media
2. "Not engaging is the riskiest thing you can do"

What do you think?

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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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