Every company wishes for brand loyalists like Apple attracts. Airlines use frequent flier programs to try to increase loyalty. Local restaurants and coffee shops use stamp cards (buy 10 and get one free). Social media can also be used to increase brand loyalty if we first identify what makes someone loyal to a brand.
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Dec
07
2010
The Importance of Consistent Brand Identity
Logos and brand names can be fun to create, but having too many may be confusing to your customers. Logos and brands help create associations with certain attributes or features within customers’ minds. Using different names or images for the same brand can make it difficult for customers to know what associations they should have. The same may be true if you’re using different profile names and identities with social media.
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Nov
11
2010
Storytelling for Brand Loyalty
Think about the really successful brands. Apple. Coca-Cola. Harley Davidson. Nike. These brands are more than a set of products or a marketing campaign. They connect with customers on an emotional level because they’ve been weaving a compelling story. People want to be apart of those stories. They want to incorporate the brand story into their own personal story (and vice versa). Irresistible storytelling by these companies has lead to amazing brand loyalty.
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Nov
10
2010
Stop Negative Public Relations Before It Happens
Heard the latest example of a company receiving negative public relations via the web and social media? Alaska Airlines apparently gave a paying customer’s ticket away to someone on standby because that customer had to run to the bathroom to change her baby’s diaper. That customer service error led fully fledged public relations debacle: Alaska Airlines Hates Families After reaching a dead-end with the company, the couple turned to the Internet to air their complaints (which seem reasonable). All this negative PR could have been easily stopped before it happened, without any fancy technology or marketing — provide good customer service.
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Oct
14
2010
Choosing a Personal Brand vs. a Business Brand
How to brand yourself is a question vital to any business. Branding drives marketing, product development and everything customer-facing. As a small business, branding takes on more personal meaning — should you brand your business as your name (personal brand) or as a business name? It’s a big decision since it really can affect the future growth of your company. But it’s also not a clear cut decision since there are advantages and disadvantages either way.
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Sep
27
2010
Review: Postling for Social Media Management
Postling is a web-based application for monitoring and managing brands on social media. It connects up to a variety of social networks, as well as provides tracking of keywords on the web, and tracking of RSS feeds (which can be hooked up to Google Alerts or searches). Postling is specifically targeted to local businesses who need to keep track of what people are saying about their business. Here’s my thoughts…
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Jun
15
2010
Making Your Brand Stand for More than Just Your Company
One of the nice things about social media is that it provides the opportunity to make your brand more than a logo. As you communicate, listen and converse with people you humanize your brand and add some personality and reputation too. Your brand starts to actually take on all those attributes in your mission statement in the minds of your customers. But what if your brand is more than just your company? What if your brand stands for a whole new revolution? What then? Cree is doing just that with their LED revolution.
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Apr
22
2010
Using Twitter to Save Your Customer Service
Monitoring Twitter can save an otherwise negative customer service experience.
Recently I tried a 30 day trial of DimDim (webinar & conferencing software). During the 30 days, I was able to run through a webinar and was reasonably happy with the results, but a few people had technical problems that I had questions about. As the trial expired, I received several emails from a couple of people from the company reminding me to upgrade and asking if I had any questions. Sounds just fine right? Except I emailed a couple of them my questions and they never answered.
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Apr
06
2010
Using Negative Feedback to Improve Your Business
Yelp has been in a world of trouble lately. Several small businesses have filed lawsuits against them claiming that Yelp has unfair business practices – namely, soliciting paid accounts for favorable reviews and removing favorable reviews when a business declines. True or not, these allegations have tarnished the reputation of Yelp, whose entire business is built on the trustworthiness of its review system. They could have continued to play the PR war, but instead they decided to use the negative feedback to improve their business.
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