pithy lessons about social media

Last weekend the Bronx Zoo announced it had lost one of its Egyptian cobras.  On Monday, it showed up on Twitter!

As of this morning the fake AWOL snake, @BronxZoosCobra, has 187,160 followers.  Using playful, pithy tweets (and the hashtag #snakeonthetown), this as yet unverified Twitter account is sharing its entertaining adventures around the Big Apple:

Of course, the real missing cobra is believed to be hiding out in the Bronx Zoo’s Reptile House (currently closed to the public).  Until it is found, its alter ego is certainly creating buzz for the Bronx Zoo – which, by the way, is the only Twitter account that the cobra is following…hmmm.

And talk about word of mouth!  The initial buzz was so successful, another zoo animal doppelganger appeared on Twitter this week.  “Butti”, the Indian Star tortoise who disappeared from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, has shown up on the social media site on Wednesday.  One of Butti’s first tweets: “@bronxzoocobra broke out a few days ago, it took time to get my shell phone to work”.

So what can we learn from the instant success of a snake on the town:

• If you’re not currently on Twitter…get there!  Join the conversation.
• Tell a story - but  keep it short and sweet.  Twitter’s limited character length and hashtags cultivate the kind of specificity that appeals to our shrinking attention span.  We don’t all have 10 minutes to read a blog, but we do have a few seconds for 140 characters – we’ll get to the blog later (if it’s relevant and interesting).
• Know why you’re doing it!  – Social media can easily be a distraction if we don’t remember to keep it tied to your core strategy.

Who knows if @bronxzoocobra is cleverly executed marketing scheme or a creative Twitterer with time on his/her hands.  Either way, don’t doubt its value.  Think of the ad impressions alone generated for the Bronx Zoo this week.

Happy tweeting.  (follow me on @jasperrycom)

a new inequality

A few weeks back, AdAge Stat featured a great article entitled “The Redistribution of Wealth? It Already Happened.”  The authors, Matt Carmichael and Peter Francese talk about the “profound implications for those of us who want to sell products to the diminishing group who have a pile of disposable income”.  It is worth a read.

Now Dante Chinni, director of Patchwork Nation, has written a great opinion piece in the New York Times that asks the question “Why do Americans seem unperturbed about the growing gap between the rich and the poor?”  You can read it here and share your own comments.

Then take a look at the map that appeared in The Atlantic a few weeks ago entitled “The Twelve States”.  It shows pretty clearly how median family incomes have shifted in the past 30 years.

The topic is certainly gaining attention politically…but how about in marketing circles?  Are we paying attention to the trendline?  What do you think?

when buzz fizzles

In recent weeks, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI launched a social media campaign to build buzz around this morning’s announcement of an anonymous $100 million gift to the university’s new medical school.

Under the theme “Operation Historic Moment”, the university promised ‘news of historic proportions that would even have national implications’ – and they used several social media tools to create buzz:

• a Twitter account was established (@OperationHM)
• a countdown clock was created online (www.operationhistoricmoment.com)
• a large display was set up on March 4 draped in a black cloth in the lobby of the university’s Bern­hard Center
• an advertisement was placed on the electronic billboard off U.S. 131 on WMU’s Business, Technology and Research Park

I’m not certain what the university hoped to generate with the campaign, but by many measures it was only marginally effective.  It did appear to generate a few local news stories.  The campaign appears to have helped WMU capture a few thousand email addresses.  And it certainly had several local civic leaders paying attention.

I also noticed that the campaign’s Twitter account had only 130 followers at the time of this morning’s announcement, many of whom were WMU marketing students or local media.  The campaign website, which was supposed to convert to a live feed of the announcement, seemed to have failed.  In fact, the campaign website redirected people to a page that looked like an announcement from the Catholic Archbishop of Detroit (not a great endorsement for www.michiganliveevents.com).  WOOD-TV8 fortunately offered a live news feed of the announcement.

There are plenty of examples of bungled campaigns or lackluster social media efforts; mistakes happen – and companies and organizations that do make them often get better.  They learn from their early missteps – to go on to social media successes.

I’m not certain of WMU’s strategy for this campaign, so I can only guess at what lessons they will learn from this effort.  If I were a major donor to the school I would certainly be excited by this morning’s announcement, but fairly disappointed with this campaign.  I’ll be interested to see if and how WMU talks about the glitches in this morning’s announcement.  Nevertheless, one thing is for certain: they should review their results carefully and make the indicated adjustments before their next ‘big’ announcement!

braincalming?

As the work week starts, I hope you can find a few moments to read this brilliant blog post by Mitch Ditkoff which appeared in Blogging Innovation this morning:

Read Brainstorming versus Braincalming

Have a great week!

crisis of confidence

Today the Wall Street Journal ran an article featuring the work of economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School on how the economic downturn has shaken consumers faith in financial institutions and the government.  Surprised?

Citing global polling data from the Gallup Organization, the percentage of Americans who say they have confidence in financial institutions fell to an average 44% in 2009 and 2010, down 31 percentage points from 2006 and 2007.  Only 23% said they had a great deal or a lot of confidence in banks in 2010.  Statistics worth noting, wouldn’t you agree?

starbucks 40th

In January I posted information about Starbucks rebranding effort, set to launch with the celebration of their 40th anniversary.  The campaign is now in full swing…the in-store effort began this week.  This is why I love Starbucks:

shop and switch

J.D. Power & Associates 2011 US Retail Bank New Account Study reveals that retail banking consumers are shopping for- and switching banks at an increasing rate.

The study, which examines the bank shopping and selection process, as well as customer satisfaction with the account initiation and on-boarding processes, finds that 8.7% of customers in 2011 indicate they switched their primary banking institution during the past year to a new provider, whereas just 7.7% said the same in 2010. On average, customers in 2011 say they considered 1.9 banks while shopping — up from an average of 1.6 banks in 2010.

Apparently banks that perform well in acquiring new customers — Chase, PNC and SunTrust, for example — tend to be aggressive in their advertising and promotions.

One Big Take Away

The study offers several important insights.  One such take away was that customers who choose to stay with their current primary bank for additional products are most driven by positive past experience and perceptions that their bank is more focused on customers than on profits,” said Rockwell Clancy, VP/financial services at J.D. Power & Associates. “Clearly, banks that are not providing a noticeably better experience are more likely to lose the business of indifferent customers who are more easily lured by the next attractive promotional offer to come along.”

Read more about the 2011 US Retail Bank New Account Study.