Crisis Communications with Social Media twist

 

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How “The Body shop USA” can enhance their customer engagement?

Two weeks ago, I posted my first report monitoring “The Body Shop USA” conversations. A lot of things have changed for “The Body Shop USA” since then. In this post, I will showcase my findings from (Mar 14, 2012 to Mar 27, 2012) and also outline few steps that "The Body Shop USA" can take to enhance customer engagement.

The global company “The Body Shop” introduced their first-ever brand advocate, model turned actress, Lily Cole, who mentions herself as a developing activist and firmly believes in the company’s fair trade policy. The company has just last week (Mar 22, 2012) launched its new blog (for more visit: http://blog.thebodyshop.com/). Well the blog was definitely a part of my suggestions for “The Body Shop” but I guess they read my mind :) The Fortune Magazine featured "The Body Shop’s” founder Dame Anita Roddick, and gave her an honorable mention on their list of the Greatest Entrepreneurs for creating a socially and environmentally responsible business.

In hope that all these would have changed the different social media metrics and statistics for “The Body Shop USA,” I examined a few free social media analytics tools.

• Consistent increase of fans and followers

The increase in fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter continued in the last two weeks (data gathered using Famecount & Tweetstats). During my period of study (Feb 20 to Mar 27, 2012) the fan count has increased by 4500 on facebook alone.

• Rise in blog citation and interest levels due to the new developments

The Ice Rocket trend tool highlights an upsurge in the blogs citation of “The Body Shop USA” on Thursday, March 22, 2012. There is also rise in the interest level cited by Google Insights. All of the above mentioned developments have together contributed to this increase. The customers/fans welcomed the new brand advocate both on Twitter as well as Facebook. The fans applauded the efforts of “The Body Shop’s” founder, Anita Roddick for all the ethical business practices she adopted to run her business.

• Qualitatively, some things have changed since my last report. Customer complaints at least in the last week were better handled. I guess they read my report ;) And many… many… many… received a prompt response. Kudos to “The Body Shop USA” 

 

• However, there was a clear irregularity in responding to customer queries on Facebook. On some days, customers received a quick response while others it took as long as 2-3 days

 

• Unlike my last report, in the last two weeks I found very few negative posts that did not receive a response 

 

• In the past few weeks, branding and marketing efforts included communicating about the company’s ethical practices of conducting business

 

• And… the fans supported company’s ethical practices posts
  

• One generic message received huge response. None of the branding messages could get such traction. Of course the natural ingredients angle did help!!
  

Steps for "The Body Shop USA" to enhance customer engagement:

Given my observations in the last two social media monitoring reports, a different online approach can have a dramatic difference in terms of impact and customer/fan engagement for “The Body Shop USA”. Engagement is really important, having hundreds and thousands of fans with only about 2.5% engaged can take one only so far.

• Listening: The company adopts a more ‘corporate’ tone of engagement. It would be nice if the company adopted a more active, personal and conversation building tone of engagement to build greater trust and deepen relationships with their fans/customers. Additionally, there is no uniformity in the look and feel across the various social media platforms. They should take concrete efforts on building a uniform presence across their website, Facebook page, Twitter page, Flick account and YouTube page.
• Talking: By simply being regular and consistent in responding the customer queries, I am sure the company can build on their goodwill and add many more fans to their existing base.  Responding in a timely manner in the groundswell is a necessity and not a luxury.
• Energizing:  The company did not have an official blog until last week. Now that “The Body Shop” (corporate, based out of UK) has a blog, they should build country specific pages (for USA and others) and encourage the brand evangelists in that country to blog about the products, write reviews and do the marketing for the company. Instead of running many discounts/sales promotions they can reward customer sponsored stories/guest blogs and thereby build credibility. The company can focus on driving branding/marketing efforts through their fair/just business model and communicating about their values and the actions they take to live up to those values (human trafficking, fair trade and so on). The company can cultivate online relationships with their partners and various online animal rights organizations across the globe (Thank You Jesse for the suggestion). Additionally, I found a wonderful booklet cum brochure (Values Report 2011) on their website, that talks about many such cases; engaging blog posts accompanied by rich media (photos and videos) will definitely inspire, connect, engage and drive action within the community. 
• Supporting: Yet another suggestion is that “The Body Shop USA” should put up product reviews, application/usage tutorials on one single site (ideally their website) as many customer posts were related to them and most reviews for Body Shop products were scattered all over the place. Organizing reviews will help the company reduce significant customer support costs. Another suggestion could be linking popular health and beauty blogs/product reviews to "The Body Shop" blog. 
• Embracing:  “The Body Shop USA” should create an integrated platform that includes elements such as a blog with content that inspires, connects and drives action. It may also include their existing customer loyalty program and other social networks such as LinkedIn, Pinterest or YouTube.  It should most times also include an integrated email communication option for nurturing.

With tracking and monitoring “The Body Shop USA” should have a better understanding of the elements of social media that are benefiting its business. What they need to do is feed this into their ongoing customer engagement (marketing) strategy. They must focus on relationships and connecting with their audiences and it doesn’t matter where the return policy is located, people will find them and use them because they want to engage with the brand!

It should be “The Body Shop USA’s” mission to see that all the good causes they support take up a larger share of the popular-culture pie (space). They should help more than just selling a product; they should engage with the community in the worthwhile. They have been and are pioneers at this – partnering with people, organizations, and missions that are socially and ethically defensible. It’s just that their customer engagement efforts should be tailored and shout-aloud the same message. 

Monitoring "The Body Shop USA" Conversations

Photo Credit: http://www.gback.co.uk

I am an ardent fan of Body Shop products for two reasons – one the products are made of 100% vegetarian formulas and two because they do not test on animals. Founded in 1976, The Body Shop is no stranger to the beauty world. They produce totally awesome and high quality products; while sticking to the philosophy of ethical sourcing, with no testing on animals and environmentally-friendly production techniques. The Body Shop strives to deliver quality formulas using unique ingredients from around the globe, and they make a point to work directly with fair trade suppliers to help everyone they work with earn a sustainable income. A video showing the world renowned cosmetic brand's stance against animal testing is embedded below.

I have been monitoring the Social Media activities of “The Body Shop USA” for the past few weeks. I must say some results were expected, but others surprised me! The time period considered for my study is from Feb 20, 2012 to Mar 13, 2012.

Through the past few weeks I have used Social Mention, Ice Rocket, Facebook insights, Google Insights, Twitalyzer, Tweetstats to track The Body Shop USA in the groundswell. I have also been looking at “The Body Shop USA’s” Official Website, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr Gallery and YouTube. Like I mentioned before, I am a fan of the Body Shop products, and out of sheer curiosity for the brand - what others feel and talk about the products/company and how is the company faring in the groundswell – I decided to monitor it.

• Presence across various social media platforms, however, visually different

My first observation was that the company has presence across all the popular and relevant platforms for their target audience. However, the look and feel across platforms is pretty different from one another. They are using a green backdrop, the Twitter page uses beautiful imagery and the A to Z campaign, whereas the Facebook,cover image simply has greenery, I couldn't really find a story, expect that its their brand color, the YouTube cover video talks about the company philosophy and promotes their latest product introduction, and the Flickr gallery talks about yet another community campaign (“Stop Sex-Trafficking”) the company is active in. 

• Target Audience

The Body Shop produces beauty products and hence their target audience should be mainly female and the age group of 18-40 yrs. Facebook page insights and Twitalyzer social relationships validate my assumption and analogy. 

• The landing page of “The Body Shop USA” official website

 The Body Shop USA Website’s landing page hosts the current promotion or offer run by the company. The page is definitely eye-catching but very noisy. In the last three weeks, the company offered three different promotions to its customers. 

• Social Mention Analysis

The information I gathered from Social Mention showed an increase in the strength of discussion surrounding The Body Shop USA to 12%. The reach has also increased week on week from 28% to 32%. The passion of discussion increased, dipped and then increased again over the weeks. However, there was reduction in the sentiment around conversations from week one to last. Most of the mentions are either positive or neutral and there isn’t a noticeable negativity around conversations. Another important thing to note is that there is an increase in the average per mention, and the number of unique authors reduced over the weeks. I was surprised by the results, for such a renowned brand, the numbers seemed low compared to what I expected. 

• Increase in Fans and Followers

The number of fans on Facebook has significantly increased over the weeks. In my first observation sometime in the last week of February they had close to 121,000 fans, but the change was even more noticeable in the last two weeks, where there was an increase of almost 1400 fans. However, the number of people talking about The Body Shop USA has reduced from first week to last. A similar trend of increase in the number of followers was observed on Twitter using Tweetstats and The Body Shop USA added about 308 followers.  

While I used Ice Rocket and Google Insights to analyze their blog citations and interest levels, the most interesting things I found was that they were more or less the same, with splurges in blog citations and interest levels. The days when there was an increase, the company had launched their new promotion and hence the heightened level of activity. The reviews for their products were not available at one central place/blog and were pretty scattered.

• The rise in blogs citation and interest levels can be attributed to the introduction of sales promotion/offer that day 

 

On monitoring the facebook and twitter accounts, I realized that company adopts a more ‘corporate’ tone of engagement, with announcements of special offers and posts by consultants organizing or promoting Body Shop events.  Most conversations in twitter centered around the promotions, a simple observation and analysis of conversations on Facebook surprised me. My results and observations are visually represented below: 

• Many negative updates did not receive any response from the company. But, Groundswell never fails to help!     
  

• Positive updates were promptly responded

• Some negative updates did receive a response but after 17 hours and some after more than 27 hours

• All positive updates with immediate business implications received a response 

• Campaigns for the community were embraced by customers

• Many customer engagement posts were related to business

•  Very few customer engagement posts really spoke with the customers

While there is an active engagement from the community on The Body Shop USA’s Facebook Page, the ethical image of the company is not transferred to all the posts of The Body Shop. The main conversation revolves around branding and not customer engagement. I understand that the level of engagement varies from product to product and audience to audience, however, I feel that they can adopt a more personal and conversational approach to increase customer engagement and build/nurture the relationships with their fans.

Over the next few weeks, I will continue to monitor and observe what interests people the most about the Body Shop. I also plan to look at conversations and analyze their tone, topics discussed and so on. Regardless of my observations, I will continue to use Body Shop products, because I am in awe of them, but the real deal is to see if they can increase and sustain with the current level of engagement in the long run.

Neither Network...nor Wiki...but Shared Experience is all that matters!!

While many companies craft creative employee engagement and communication strategies to retain and nurture their top talent, EMC, the world's largest computer storage provider, received a gift (“The Working Mother Experience”) from their own actively engaged and committed employees. 

It started as an idea from one single person, Natalie Corridan Gregg, to make women feel more appreciated at EMC and was built into this wonderful traditional-media (printed book) based 250 page culture document (built through shared experiences); showcasing about 100 personal and professional stories of working mothers in EMC.
 

The document stands as a testimony to EMC’s commitment to its employees, speaks volumes about the quality of workforce, and serves as a vehicle to connect employees spread in 400 offices across the globe. All of this built by active participation of employees. It wasn’t a corporate marketing or HR initiative, but that of the employees, who collaborated to share the stories of their lives, the challenges they faced in making everything happen and above all share the fruit of success.  

Natalie Corridan Gregg, the founder of the book, did not goose participation with coercion or use a top-down approach (Groundswell, pp228), instead she encouraged evangelists to recommend and induce participation. One by one, stories began to pour in the pool, the word began to spread, and Gregg compiled the most magnificent gift for EMC.

Li & Bernoff in their book, Groundswell, repeatedly remind us that groundswell is all about relationships and not about technologies. EMC’s Working Mother’s Experience Book did not use a social network, or intranet or wiki to collaborate but they focused on listening, talking, and energizing participants to collaborate genuine and true stories that affected their lives. The stories uncover the underlying traits of a successful EMC’er demonstrating a sense of urgency, results-driven performance, integrity, innovative problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability both at home and work.

The book was distributed to both internal and external audiences. The conversational nature of stories has resonated with working mothers across the board. It makes them feel empowered and connected with peers/colleagues across the globe. Customers, partners, professionals from other companies have bonded with the book as well, more so because it is a topic that affects an outfit of any size or shape.
 

Authors’ Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind in their blog post and latest book Talk Inc., describe how leaders at EMC “enhanced organizational inclusion by promoting conversational inclusion.”

What is your opinion about empowering employees to narrate their experiences? Please do share examples of any other organizations that you may have found.

Fun… Games… Technology… and Languages!!

In an increasingly dynamic, rapidly changing and interconnected world we dwell in, learning a foreign/second language is critical for survival. Even world-class companies like Twitter are launching in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu!! Language learning practices are being modified by technology and more with social media (Groundswell). The web today offers plenty of opportunities to learn languages. It is a matter of focusing on what you are looking for. As Li & Bernoff say, of course all the interactions are supported by technology but none could’ve happened if it wasn’t for us (i.e. the people participating in them).

Photo Credit: www.img.xiami.com

I would like to share my story with you. I learned German as a language way back in 2001. I did stay in touch with the language for few years, by watching movies, listening to music, radio, all in German.  I was fortunate to work for one of the largest German Manufacturing Company that helped trigger my memory and keep German top of mind. 

However, after moving jobs, I really lost touch with the language. My husband was sailing in a similar boat (he had learned German few years ago).  We wanted to be in touch with the language. We did attempt interacting in German language every now and then, but with limited vocabulary from our memory, it was tough to sustain. So we devised a way to rekindle our connection with the language. We switched the GPS instructions in our car to German language to navigate our way through any destination. At first, it was funny but later, we started translating and repeating the set of directions. We discovered a fun and interesting way to be in touch with our second language. 

As you are meeting new people online, having conversations, posting, building exposure and handling new opportunities daily via social media (Groundswell), it is essential to know a language or two other than English. Today, there are several new ways to learn a new language. I am listing three popular and interesting social networks for you to use if you’re trying to learn a new language. 

MindSnacks.com

 

MindSnacks.com offers six exciting and interactive games to build up one’s vocabulary in 13 different languages. The founders are definitely approaching language learning in a rather unconventional way,  by using addictive games to engage their customers. They believe that education is unnecessarily associated with blandness and they want to change it with their products. Not only are they educating their customers but also, asking them to help them to vote for their favorite languages to be added to the existing set.

Photo Credit: www.mindsnacks.com

In an interview with Mashable, MindSnacks.com founder Jesse Pickard said, “The idea behind MindSnacks is to make learning as much fun as possible. Over 26 million words have been mastered because the games are fun and addictive and users want to go back to beat challenges, unlock new games and watch their scores improve.”

italki.com 

italki.com, pronounced as i-talk-i, is free language learning website where you can find everything you need to learn a language online. It boasts of having a global community of language learners and teachers with 100+ languages in 200+ countries. Using Web 2.0 concepts such as social networking, user-generated content, and crowd-sourcing, italki.com facilitates language learning. This website focuses on learning foreign languages and uses features like multimedia chat, socially-driven questions and answers, open-source file sharing, and collaborative knowledge-based wikis.

Photo Credit: www.italki.com

LiveMocha.com

Photo Credit: www.livemocha.com

LiveMocha.com is a social network at its core, located in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Washington, it is the largest online-based language learning service. With 9 million members in nearly 200 countries, Live Mocha.com was named as one of Time magazine’s top 50 websites of 2010. All participants maintain and actively manage a personal profile on the site (profile photo, friends list). Right when you sign up, a simple questionnaire helps you build your profile. In your profile, you can indicate the languages you wish to learn and the languages you already know. Live chat is available with anyone that is online and you can use it to practice the language of your choice.

Earning points gives a huge incentive for learning as well. You can earn Mocha points by being engaged in the site, completing coursework and helping other members with submission reviews, flashcards, and translations. If you earn enough points, you can also earn free course as well. 

I have enjoyed myself learning new languages. Have you ever tried learning foreign languages? What apps or websites or social networks have you used to learn languages?

Collaboration changes Everything!!

Photo Credit: http://www.allfacebook.com

You might have seen many of these (CAPTCHA), and found them extremely annoying and a complete waste of time, well they are not.

Luis von Ahn has found an intelligent way to digitize 2.5 million books a year using “CAPTCHA,” a program that can generate and grade tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. He proves that social media is not only about conversations, it’s about collaboration, it’s about the community at work, and it's about how mass collaboration can change everything.

The video effectively narrates the power of human collaboration using the internet, in an interesting and humorous manner. Ahn is using the precious human time - while registering, downloading a software or making a payment on a website (using CAPTCHA) - to digitize books. His new project, DuoLingo, is even more fascinating. He is using avid foreign language learners to translate webpages while learning the new language for free; using the “learning by doing” method. A beginner gets very simple sentences along with what each word means. As learners translate them they get to see how other people translate it, so they start learning the language, and as they get more and more advanced they get more complex sentences. Using this method, people do learn a language, as they are learning with real content. With DuoLingo, Ahn and his team propose a “Fair Business Model for Language Education” that doesn’t discriminate with the poor. Ahn’s examples of digitizing books and translating web content links to what Li & Bernoff may have called “Groundswell at work.”

That’s not all, people are energizing and helping the groundswell by using and entering these CAPTCHAs, and they’re taking it a step further, they’re embracing the power of  CAPTCHA by creating powerful and creative CAPTCHArt (Internet memes). 

Photo Credit: www.tumblr.com

Photo Credit: www.img.memecenter.com

Photo Credit: www.captchart.com

Li & Bernoff in their book, "Groundswell" say that, “Embracing the groundswell is making customers an integral part of the way you innovate with both products and process improvements.” They narrate the example of how Rob, U.S. Marketing Director for the brand Colossus Unilever and and his partner Babs, Unilever's U.S. Media Director, "helped Unilever not only accept the internet as a marketing vehicle but to gradually give up some control of the brand, embracing the power of groundswell and energizing customers to make their contributions;" by welcoming a cultural change within the organization and providing the Dove's Evolution campaign the right platform. This is exactly what Ahn and his team puts into practice but with masses (not specifically a brand/company); by tapping a fraction of unproductive human time of masses on the web and using it for the benefit of the community at large. 

According to marketing expert Edward Boches, "No social project will be really successful over the long term unless there's some sort of social improvement motive built in, because of the intrinsic nature of social media."

Well, I didn’t know that an annoying activity like CAPTCHA can be so valuable. Please share examples of innovation, creativity and collaboration that you may have seen with the rise of social media.  

The Creative Café

Creativity is the ability to make people think and feel new things. That's what great art, movies and literature do! The embedded video shows a man using internet memes to propose his girlfriend. This is the kind of creativity I am talking about. (You can read the entire story in a post by mashable.com)

I know the phrase “art is everywhere” can be cliché, but it can hold true if you let it. Social Media or as Li & Bernoff call it “Groundswell,” gets the creative juices of many flowing.  According to a recent study conducted by Chicago University’s Booth School of Business, “Social Media more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol,” but it’s hard to deny that it breeds creativity as well. 

                                                                                  

 What's another word for Doomed??

Photo Credit: www.neatshop.com

Social networking sites like Facebook give users the power to showcase their creative expression. Creativity has always been about making conversations and making those conversations go viral, but it’s no longer guarded by an elite group. With social media, creativity can be developed, nurtured, mashed up or remixed; the process is ever-evolving and eternal.

Although there aren’t as many creators as spectators, collectors and critics (Groundswell, pp. 44) but  social media presents a host of tools with which we can get creative, be it, status updates, blogs, images, or videos.

                           We are on FB!!

Photo Credit: http://imgur.com/

ProCon.org cites the cornerstone of creativity on social media, “Social networking sites bring people with common interests together, offer exposure to new ideas from around the world, and lower inhibitions to overcome social anxiety. People who have a difficulty communicating in person are more comfortable interacting via the Internet.”

The idea to cover the creativity aspect of social media came out of a team meeting this week, when someone asked, what really is an Internet Meme? “Internet Memes,” pronounced as “meem” just like “seem” or “dream,” and “Trolls” are the applications of creativity with the emergence of social media. They have been there for a while now, but have become extremely popular since 2008.

What they did with my bicycle?

Photo Credit: http://imgur.com/

An internet meme is a phrase, image, video or just an idea that goes viral on the internet (spreads easily from one person to another) for no logical reason. These memes are usually silly but amusing. Hence, many share it on their walls or timelines or streams or tweets.  

Photo Credit: www.poofytoo.tumblr.com

Chuck Norris jokes or lolcats are the most popular ones. Some of these might seem like nonsense or created by people who have nothing else to do, however that isn’t true. Lolcats today is worth USD 2 million. The 1stwebdesigner covers the power of internet meme in an extremely informative post! According to Racheal from 1stwebdesigner , “Internet Memes shape popular culture, change the way we live our lives, and continually evolve with modern society today.”

In a post describing the rise and growth of the new social networking site “Pinterest” blogger Jason Falls said, “One thing is clear whether you're on Pinterest for personal or business reasons: the best images -- be they funny, beautiful or thought provoking -- attract the most attention and followers.”

Watch 50 Internet Memes in under 100 seconds!!

So what’s your take?  Do share your definition of creativity in an age of collaborative thinking, participation, crowdsourcing, and social media. Please leave a comment!