Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors - Part 3

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA-BASED BRAND AMBASSADOR PROGRAMS

[This post is part 3 in a series of posts related to Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors.  This post focuses on the benefits associated with a brand ambassador program.]


According to Tom Blackett in Brands and Branding (Bloomberg Press, 2009), “When employees are excited by the proposition they will help to sustain it and communicate it to customers, suppliers and others through their enthusiasm and commitment.” 

Forrester Research, Inc.’s Cindy Commander states in the 2007 Report Brief: Transforming Employees Into Brand Advocates that “Employees who actively ‘live the brand’ create significant benefits for both the customer and the organization.  Customers of organizations with employee brand advocates enjoy better customer service, greater anticipation of and ability to have their needs met, and more attentiveness to their voice and feedback.  The organization enjoys the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing, greater profitability and financial results, and a more differentiated brand.”  Social media-enabled brand ambassadors provide benefits to the organization as a result of their efforts to humanize the organization.

Ability to Humanize the Organization:  AdWeek Magazine blogger Noreen O’Leary emphasizes (“Employee Benefits: Workers as BrandAmbassadors”) that “The use of workers to humanize corporate entities has been a time-honored marketing tradition, of course.  But in an era of Web 2.0 transparency, their visibility takes on greater meaning, signaling the higher importance of customer service in the marketing mix.  More subliminally, as America’s battered consumers have lost faith in the institutions they hold responsible for the current economic mess – and are angry with corporations behind massive layoffs – staffers offer a kind of peer credibility as corporate advocates.”

Social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors can play a major role in changing the public’s perception of the organization.  Brand ambassadors have the ability to transform cold and impersonal organizations into warm and friendly customer-friendly companies.  Instead of dealing with an abstract concept, logo, or the image of an ivory tower, social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors are able to transform transactions into human relations.  Social media platforms provide the “social” vehicle to connect with customers at a personal level – something that is not possible through static Web pages and advertising.

Organizations transform themselves by responding to social media inquiries as well as seeking out and creating “conversations” on social media platforms.  These interactions are perceived positively if the communication is determined to be honest, genuine, and transparent.  Through these activities brand ambassadors have the ability to transform customer interactions into rewarding personal experiences.

Brand Awareness:  Social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors can be very effective at creating brand awareness.  While the reach of a brand ambassador is generally not the same as a mass market advertisement, the quality of the social media interaction can produce a valuable word-of-mouth affect – the “viral” affect – that can create significant awareness and interest in the brand.

A sound Social Media-Based Employee Brand Ambassador Program turns employees into influencers.  As long as the brand ambassadors act in an honest and transparent manner and consistent with expectations, they can create a favorable impression of the brand.

Meet Customer Expectations:  Social media platforms act as convenient and easily accessible forums where customers and potential customers can reach out to organizations through their brand ambassadors.  Customers are able to use social media platforms to pose questions, make statements or generally express their feelings about the brand on their time and on their platform of choice (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc.).

The use of social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors allows organizations to meet these customer expectations.  According to Top DogSocial Media blogger Melonie Dodaro, “More than one quarter of all the time people spend online is spent on social networks.  Regardless of what their needs happen to be, they are turning to sites like Twitter and Facebook in order to find what they are looking for.”

The result of widespread use of social media is the recently developed customer expectation that organizations should also reside on the social networks used by customers.  Social media-enabled brand ambassadors that monitor social media platforms allow organizations to not only react to demand but to also proactively create a social media presence.

Techncom.com blogger Rajib Kumar states that “Customers want immediate acknowledgement and resolution and are not willing to wait endlessly listening to call Centre hold tunes.  Consumers want instant gratification even in customer service.  Smart and savvy businesses have started using the social media space to get closer to their customers and increase their service levels up a notch vis-à-vis the competition.”

Brand Differentiation:  In today’s globally competitive marketplace it is not enough to be just as good as the next guy.  In today’s business environment it is important to be different.  Anyone can make a plain vanilla product.  And vanilla generally tastes the same regardless of the maker.  As such, unless the organization seeks to enter a price war over vanilla, the organization is better suited finding a way to differentiate its products or services.

Brand ambassadors provide the organization with a method of setting itself apart from the competition.  Relative to competitors that do not employ brand ambassadors the organization is able to set itself apart.  This differentiation not only assists the organization in avoiding vanilla product pricing but may also provide for the opportunity to create loyalty and charge premium prices.

Early Warning System:  Social media monitoring involves the use of applications such as Google Alerts, SocialMention.com and radian6 to locate comments that reside on social media platforms.  Identification of comments enables the organization to provide a timely response that is likely to be appreciated by the commenter.

According to Techncom’s Kumar, social media monitoring provides organizations with an early warning system.  Customers will generally give organizations an opportunity to “right the wrong” before unleashing their fury on social media platforms.  As such, organizations that utilize social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors to “listen” to social media conversations are able to proactively identify and address problems before they manifest into major public relations disasters. 

Top Dog SocialMedia blogger Dodaro says that “Using social media the right way means you’ll also have the ability to listen to your audience, find out what their needs are and offer them a solution.”  An additional benefit is derived from customers that share the positive experience via social media, turning themselves into a customer brand ambassadors.

Development of a Knowledgebase:  The use of social media to locate and answer organization-specific questions benefits not only the party asking the question but also others that may have similar questions.  It is not uncommon for customers and prospective customers to search the Internet for answers to product and/or service-related questions.  To the extent that the response to a question is addressed on a social media platform it is subject to search engine indexing that makes the response retrievable by others.  The availability of this information is likely to be viewed favorably by customers and prospective customers.

Techncom’s Kumar says about creating a public knowledgebase, “It can become a great resource for future reference and a guide point for other customers who will refer to the link or post.”  But the knowledgebase need not only include responses to questions.  It can also include proactive information provided through blog posts, tweets and other information.

Improved Financial Results:  It is no surprise that an increase in brand awareness results in improved financial results.  However, a Social Media-Based Employee Brand Ambassador Program will not in of itself create blockbuster financial success.  It will contribute to the bottom line along with the organization’s other revenue generating activities.  Regardless, its effect should not be minimized as it has the potential to become a significant contributor to the organization.

Dow Jones Media Lab blogger Diane Thieke (“Employeesas Brand Ambassadors: Enthusiasm is Infectious”) states, “Today, I don’t think there’s much question about whether there’s a benefit to having employees engaged as brand ambassadors in social media.”  Instead, Thieke believes that that key question is how to effectively manage a Brand Ambassador Program.

To the extent that an organization can establish a sound Social Media-Enabled Brand Ambassador Program and use it to motivate its employees, the organization can become incredibly effective at influencing stakeholders.  The consensus among the experts suggests that the maintenance of a cadre of brand ambassadors results in stronger branding, improved customer satisfaction, increased revenue and stronger overall financial results.

Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors - Part 2

EMPLOYEES AS BRAND AMBASSADORS

[This post is part 2 in a series of posts related to Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors.  This post focuses on the concept of using employees as social media-enabled brand ambassadors.]

Brand ambassadors are what current and potential customers see when they interact with an organization.  Brand ambassadors provide customers and others with a real person with whom to interact when dealing with an organization.  Instead of visualizing an organization as an abstract concept, a logo, or the image of an ivory tower, the brand ambassador humanizes the exchange or transaction.  A social media-based employee brand ambassador program allows organizations to personalize the growing number of Web-based transactions into brand-enhancing experiences, resulting in improved reputation, increased sales, and other positive effects that strengthen the organization’s brand and provide benefits to customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Ronald J. Alsop notes in The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation that “Employees’ behavior and comments outside business hours can carry significant weight.  In many cases, people’s only experience with a company is through its workers.  Word-of-mouth impressions gleaned from employees can be quite positive if they’re fiercely loyal to their companies – or deadly if they’re miserable in their jobs.” 

Prior to the social media explosion brand ambassadors conducted their influencing activities during face-to-face social and business functions such as community fairs, chamber of commerce gatherings, Rotary meetings and other activities.  An example of a successful “old school” brand ambassador program is the Oscar Mayer “Hotdogger” brand ambassador that has since 1936 travelled around the country in hot dog-shaped Wienermobiles.

While the Hotdogger brand ambassador served a purpose yesterday, and still today, social media has enabled brand ambassadors to use tools such as social networks, blogs, and other forms of social media to supplement traditional influencing activities.  It is important to clarify, however, that a social media-based employee brand ambassador program does not replace but only enhances traditional brand ambassador activities.  Social media merely provides brand ambassadors with an additional venue on which to conduct influencing activities.  Today’s Web 2.0 environment requires that brand ambassador programs include both traditional and social media components. 

Referring to today’s brand ambassadors, Inc. Magazine’s Markowitz says “They can be tweeters, bloggers, Facebookers – or they could just be the people you send to corporate events.  More than your firm’s logo or an actor in your company’s commercial, your customers will come to know your ambassadors as true representatives for your business’s mission.”

According to Smarp blogger Roope Heinila (“Employees As Brand Ambassadors In Social Media”) “Social media has changed the impact that company employees can have on their employers brand image.  While in the past only marketers, sales people and customer service have had controls over the brand image it has now become the responsibility of every employee with a presence in social media (at least to some extent).”  Heinila further cites a study that claims that “61% of employees are proud of their employer and would be willing to share this information with others over social media.” 

Evan Maier concurs on the Marketing Blog: FootPrints blog: “The key to successfully leveraging social media to boost a brand isn’t about targeted planning, million-dollar strategies, or figuring out some secret insiders’ trick; it’s about whoever has the loudest voice.  In traditional media, that means ad buys.  In social media, that means brand ambassadors regularly engaging your audience.”

So, do social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors differ from traditional brand ambassadors?  The answer is “yes” and “no.”  As noted above, social media is merely another venue for brand ambassadors to conduct their influencing activities.  What this means is that brand ambassadors now use social media as an additional venue to conduct their influencing activities which includes strategy implementation, community development, and reputation monitoring.

·       Strategy Implementation:  Every organization should maintain a plan, whether formal or informal, that identifies management’s strategy for introducing and/or broadening the organization’s brand within its target market.  In other words, brand awareness.  In the big picture this may include activities such as advertising, event sponsorships, in-store announcements, etc.  Social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors are responsible for converting the overall strategy into action through the use of social media platforms.  Such implementation may include the creation of a blog.  Other examples include the establishment of accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  It is the social media-enabled employee brand ambassador’s responsibility to implement actions that are consistent with the organization’s overall brand strategy.

·       Community Development:  Organizations that understand how to use social media in a business setting know that its best use is in the development of “communities.”  Wikipedia defines “community” as “A group of interacting people, living in some proximity (i.e., in space, time, or relationship).  Community usually refers to a social unit larger than a household that shares common values and has social cohesion.”

In the case of social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors, creating a community means creating a group of formally or informally connected individuals that have an interest in an organization’s products or services.  Such a community includes the collection of people that “friend” the organization’s Facebook page or that “follow” it on Twitter.  It can also include those that register to receive news feeds from its blog or any other activity that keeps people “in the know” relative to the organization.  It is the social media-enabled brand ambassador’s responsibility to engage these communities in activities that put a human face on the organization, thereby enhancing its brand value.

·         Social Media Monitoring/Listening:  One of the most important lessons of social media that every business must heed is to develop a social media monitoring or listening program.  Due to the ubiquity of social media use, customers and non-customers may be making reference to the organization in one form or another.  Without a social media monitoring program the organization is unaware of such activity.

Establishing a monitoring program can be as easy and inexpensive as utilizing Google Alerts or SocialMention.com.  Both of these applications provide the ability to establish reports based upon key terms, such as the organization’s name, found on Web pages, blogs, social networks and other social media platforms.  Larger and more complex organizations may opt for more robust and pricey options such as radian6 (www.radian6.com).

If good things are being said, it is always a good idea to have the brand ambassador recognize the compliment to demonstrate that the organization is listening and cares.  If the information posted is less than stellar, the brand ambassador must inquire about the negative experience in an effort to correct the problem.  At a minimum, even if there is no ability to repair the situation, the brand ambassador can offer an apology or at a minimum, acknowledge the situation.

In all instances, social media monitoring provides brand ambassadors with the ability to report the details to the appropriate individual or department within the organization in order for the organization to become aware of what works and what doesn’t work.  The organization should consider all such instances as learning opportunities and a way to improve customer relations.

In the post-Occupy Wall Street era, consumers are skeptical of everyone.  This is especially true of large organizations and financial services providers.  Through honest, transparent, and consistent attention to the communities and their needs, social media-enabled employee brand ambassadors provide organizations with an effective tool to enhance value and/or repair reputational damage.  They also act as proof positive for customers and potential customers seeking evidence of the organization’s brand promise.

Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors - Part 1

INTRODUCTION

[This post is part 1 in a series of posts related to Social Media-Based Brand Ambassadors.  This post introduces the concept of social media-enabled brand ambassadors and sets the tone for the series of posts that will follow.]

We’ve heard it hundreds, maybe thousands of times – “Our employees are our greatest asset.”  When it comes to business-speak, this phrase has become one of the most overused expressions in the trade.  From annual reports to media interviews to company rah-rah events, these words always find a way to make themselves at home.  Yet no matter how trite we believe the phrase to be, it is true.  There is no denying that in business there is little that can be done without human capital.  That’s because regardless of technological advancements or an organization’s name, size, products, or services, people buy from people!  This point is especially critical in the post-Occupy Wall Street era where humanity, honesty, and transparency have become the new expectation for business.

Many organizations have known for a long time of the value that is created by employees that evangelize on behalf of the organization.  These employees are commonly referred to as brand ambassadors.  Research and surveys have repeatedly found that brand ambassadors boost an organization’s reputation resulting in improved profitability.  As a result of their excitement, knowledge, loyalty, and commitment to the organization and its products and services, brand ambassadors create excitement and loyalty among customers.  As such, brand ambassadors act as incredibly effective influencers.  More effective than the best advertising. 

An excellent representation of the ideal brand ambassador is “Flo,” the customer service representative in Progressive Insurance commercials.  Flo is so effective that current commercials portray her luring to Progressive Insurance executives from a competing insurance company.  This is the employee brand ambassador concept at its best.  According to a Business Courier article by Ric Sweeney (“Brand Ambassadors’ Give Your Business A Boost”) “All employees, regardless of function or title, are key ambassadors for your company’s products and services.  Once motivated by senior management to believe in the company and its products/services, employees can utilize their network of friends and colleagues to grow the company’s circle of influence.”

Author Ronald J. Alsop tells a story in his book, “The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation,” (Free Press, 2004) about Larry Fish, former Chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group.  Alsop says “Larry Fish is rare among CEOs in that he recognizes the value of employees to corporate reputation and makes them his goodwill ambassadors.  It’s the employees who are on the front lines working with customers, suppliers, shareholders, government officials, and other audiences.  They must be your loyal allies because their effect on your reputation is immense.  They can be your biggest fans or your worst enemies.”

While the characteristics (excited, loyal, and knowledgeable) of the brand ambassadors noted in Alsop’s 2004 book are the very same characteristics that embody today’s brand ambassadors, the manner in which they influence has evolved.  Historically, brand ambassadors conducted their influencing activities primarily through face-to-face interactions.  These interactions took place at their offices, civic meetings, places of worship, and anywhere else someone was willing to listen to them.  Brand ambassadors are successful influencers not because they are great salespeople but because they love what they do and who they do it for.  Their ability to influence is the result of their passion – as well as the positive reputation of the organization, product, or service.

While today’s brand ambassadors still possess excitement, loyalty, and knowledge, they are no longer confined to face-to-face activities.  Through social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, today’s brand ambassadors can influence a much broader audience.  Social media enables brand ambassadors to influence not only their neighbors across the street but also those living across the country and across the world.

Facebook, the 800-pound social media gorilla, boasts over 800 million active users.  Active users maintain an average of 130 “friends” on their Facebook social network.  Twitter, another dominant social network, maintains over 100 million active users.  LinkedIn, the social network of choice for business professionals, maintains over 135 million active users.  And these numbers do not reflect the millions of users that belong to other social networks such as YouTube, Google+, Foursquare, MySpace, and hundreds of others.  A cadre of social media-enabled brand ambassadors can produce results significantly better than was possible just a few years ago.

According Inc. Magazine blogger Eric Markowitz  (“How To Find The Right Employees To Be Your Brand Ambassadors”), “In order to fully realize – and leverage – an employee’s full value, a successful company needs to find creative ways to tap into its employees’ networks (both online and offline).  Brand ambassadors, or employee evangelists, are becoming an increasingly common way for brands to leverage their biggest asset – their workforce, of course – to reach new markets, generate buzz, and put a real face on the company.”  Schwartz Communications blogger Allison VanNest states on the Schwartz Crossroads blog (“Must Love Snacking: Empowering BrandAmbassadors Through Social Media”) that “Employees are becoming more engaged as company influencers.”

Regardless of the demonstrated value that comes from an excited, loyal, and knowledgeable cadre of employees, there is often a discrepancy between the message delivered by the organization through its marketing efforts and the message delivered by its employees.  This discrepancy is the result of the organization’s failure to formally train and deploy its employees as part of the organization’s overall branding strategy.  This failure on the part of the organization denies the customer, employee, and organization an opportunity to maximize the benefit received.  The customer misses an opportunity to receive the best possible attention.  The employee misses the opportunity to play a larger role in the success of the organization.  And the organization misses an opportunity to develop a deeper and more valuable relationship with the customer.  The organization’s failure also ensures that employees lack the excitement, loyalty, and knowledge necessary to become effective influencers.  The negative impact of this failure is compounded when the organization does not make use of the leverage provided by social media platforms.

Logical String blogger Mayank Krishna concludes (“Employees As Brand Ambassadors”) that this failure causes customers and potential customers to question whether “The brand is true to what it is projecting or are there things deeper than what meets the eye?”  Krishna attributes the lack of employee influence-ability to the fact that “In a majority of organizations, brand and branding is a domain that is considered the exclusivity of brand managers and marketing managers.  For an average employee, brand management doesn’t seem relevant and he/she is hardly aware of the nitty-gritty of the brands and brand management philosophies of his/her organization.”

As such, unless organizations create a formal Social Media-Based Employee Brand Ambassador Program to ensure that employees are well-trained brand evangelists, organizations will lose out on the potential benefit that comes from employees that decide to make it their mission to act as influencers for the organization.  A further risk is the competition.  To the extent that competitors develop their employees first, the organization puts its business at risk.

Managing Multiple Social Network Accounts

Banks that are new to social media or are determining how best to jump into social media eventually ask the following question: “Should we start with one social network or several?”  The answer?  It depends.

All things being equal, being active on multiple social networks is better than one.  Unfortunately, all things are not equal and resources, both human and financial, play a role in the ultimate look and feel of any social media strategy – including the number of social networks on which a bank participates.

According to the ReadyBuzz blog, “the biggest mistake most businesses make is to only use one social media platform.  In most cases, they either choose Twitter or Facebook. The truth is, one just isn’t enough.”  Many social media users maintain two or more social media accounts.  In many cases these accounts are established when the user first visits the social network as part of a curiosity or through the referral by an acquaintance.  However, regardless of many users’ maintenance of multiple social media accounts, users are not equally active on each social network.  As such, users may only access one account on a regular basis and largely ignore the others.  This means that a bank that focuses its social media efforts on a single social network risks missing out on a large portion of social media users that use other platforms.

Zmags blogger Christina Pappas recommends how to best utilize multiple social networks.  According to Pappas, “there are many social media channels and most of us use each channel with a slightly different spin.  The type of content we would Tweet is different than the content we may post to a Facebook Business Page.  Both of those formats may require a different twist than we’d offer on LinkedIn.”  Pappas makes the case for a strategy that differentiates the manner in which information is shared on each social network.

However, Inc. blogger J.J. McCorvey warns against biting off more than can be chewed.  According to McCorvey, “If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great.  If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the ‘gaping void’ perception, where you end up going days without activity.  Your followers will notice.”

Social Media Today blogger Mark Evans echoes McCorvey’s advice.  In one of his posts Evans recounts his advice to a small business.  According to Evans, “my reluctance to suggest a multi-pronged approach was mostly due to the lack of available resources.  The last thing I wanted to see was the company blast out with several Twitter accounts, only to see its efforts fail due to poor content or a lack of activity and engagement.

An example of the success that can be achieved through the use of multiple social networks is Starbucks.  Blonde 2.0 blogger Ayelet Noff credits Starbucks’ multipronged social media strategy as one of the reasons why Starbucks has been successful at creating millions of fans for the brand and keep them involved in the brand’s doings.  According to Noff, “The brand has created a digital dialogue with its customers, enabling people to give their feedback and receive a response back from Starbucks addressing their concerns/comments.  Starbucks is showing its customers and potential customers – ‘hey, we care about what YOU have to say.’  I am certain that if each one of these elements was done alone then the strategy would not have been as successful and complete as it is when done like this in integration with the rest of the elements on board.”

Amanda Brooke, Drop Ship News blogger, speaks to the advantages of multiple social networks by stating that “by working on your brand on the most popular social media sites such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, you can reach a much, much broader audience than traditional marketing methods.”  Social Media Today blogger Daulton West, Jr. goes on to say that “’listening’ to their customers, and creating conversations that span several social media sites, allows for communication that strengthens relationships for existing and potential customers.”

In the final analysis, while it appears desirable to maintain several social network accounts simultaneously, it is critical that the bank maintain a budget that provides for adequate staffing to ensure that the bank’s social media efforts add value.

Look Who's Talking: Facebook Engagement

Facebook recently began disclosing several key metrics on Facebook Pages to assist Page owners at-a-glance in assessing the success of their Facebook efforts and to assist visitors to the Page in determining how useful others have found the site in the past week.  These metrics are disclosed along the left side of the Page (they, along with other metrics, are also found on the Insights page).

The first metric indicates how many users Like the page.  Traditional Facebook marketing theory states that the bigger this number, the better.  That is why so many social media consultants go on about tactics to increase "Likes" as if he with the most Likes wins.  While I agree that all things being equal, more Likes is better than less Likes, I also believe that it's not the quantity of the Likes but rather the quality of the likes that will make a Facebook effort successful.

Social media is about social engagement.  Social engagement does not occur unless the Facebook effort provides value.  As such, it does not matter how many Likes a page has if the content is not engaging.  Without valuable content the community will ignore the page resulting in a wasted effort to attract the community.  In other words, a Page with 100,000 Likes that was created through some effective marketing effort will not help the bank if none of the 100,000 users visit the Page on a regular basis.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a Page's community, Facebook provides the number of users that have "talked about" the Page in the past seven days.  This "talking about" statistic is fairly meaningful as it states the number of users that have engaged with the Page (e.g., brand) in some form.  Activity that is included in the Talking About statistic includes users that:

• "Liked" the page
• "Liked," commented on, or shared a Page post
• Answered a Question on the Page
• Responded to an Event 
• Mentioned the Page
• Tagged the Page in a photo
• Checked in or recommended the Page location

In the examples below you see two sets of data taken from two banks - one small bank and one mid-size bank.

The bank on the left has only 409 Likes and the bank on the right has over 2,500% more at 10,850 Likes.  A natural conclusion based on the Like data may be that the mid-size bank has created a more valuable Facebook asset.  However, a review of the "talking about this" number suggests that while the mid-size bank has more likes, the absolute number of users that have engaged with the bank is identical.  As such, either the mid-size bank has a bunch of uninterested followers or the small bank has an active bunch of followers.

So why is having as many users talking about the bank so critical? Well, it is the active and engaged users that are most likely to support and evangelize for the bank.  These active users will tap into their social networks and inform their friends and acquaintances of the reasons why they should support the bank.  In addition,  new visitors to a Facebook page can look at these two metrics to understand how popular, active and engaging the Page is and as a result, whether it is one that they wish to follow.  Losing out on an opportunity to engage new users results in a loss of not only that user but of that user's social network.

While banks should seek as many Likes as possible, they should also examine the number and percentage of followers that are engaging with the bank.  If too few are engaging then the bank is not providing adequate content.  This may result from too infrequent posts, too many "salesy" posts, too frequent posts, uninteresting posts, etc.  It should be the job of the Facebook admin(s) to analyze the data to figure out how to best convert the nonengaged users into engaged users.  Once users become engaged then their networks may also become engaged, and at that point the Facebook page may provide significant value.  However, until engagement occurs, the Facebook page becomes that question about whether a tree falling in the woods makes any noise:  if a Facebook page with tons of users creates no engagement does it provide value?  Very little.

What To Do With Those Repos? Facebook Them!

During these tough economic times it is not uncommon for consumer banks that originate auto loans - particularly used auto loans - to have to pick up a repossession or two. In many cases banks will dispose of the autos through wholesale auctions or wholesale transactions with used auto dealers. Depending on the car and the outstanding balance, sales through auctions or directly to dealers will result in marginal to significant write offs, as the banks are forced to accept deep discounts.

Fortunately, with the purchase of a fairly low cost video camera and video editing software, banks can now create and distribute videos through social networks in an effort to connect directly with consumers and obtain retail sales prices on their repossessed autos - and possibly provide the financing to qualified borrowers.

After exploring its options, Pan American Bank (my employer) in Los Angeles initiated a social media-based program that distributes videos on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms to publicize its repossessed used autos.  Through the use of in-house videos, Pan American Bank is able to achieve several goals:

1. Publicize the sale of its repossessed autos directly to retail buyers, reducing/eliminating the losses  experienced from wholesale transactions.
2. Create a following among consumers seeking quality used autos.
3. Increase the Bank's visibility. 

As the cost of  video equipment and video editing software has fallen sharply (most cell phones provide video capability), many individuals have become pro-am videographers.  If your organization has little to no budget, a great place to begin a search for a video expert is within your organization.  A simple e-mail blast to employees asking for experienced videographers may result in one or more in-house resources.  This will reduce costs and increase flexibility.  If an in-house resource is not available, inquire with students at local high schools and colleges. Finally, call on video services.  If budget is not a problem you may want to seek a professional right away.  However, you may be pleasantly surprised at the quality of employees.

Social Media's Tortoise and the Hare

We've all heard the Aesop fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.  In the story, the hare, speedy and full of bravado, fails to win the race against the slower tortoise.

The financial services industry is undergoing its own version of the fable with respect to social media.  On the one hand you have firms such as Chase, giving away $1 million dollars through Facebook.  On the other hand you have firms such as Morgan Stanley, reluctantly entering the world of social media by getting every tweet, LinkedIn post and other social media comments pre-approved by "corporate" before making the messages public.

While it is important for every firm to understand the influence of social media, it is just as important for every firm to do it in a manner that is consistent with the culture and governance style of the firm.  Some firms, such as Chase, are very comfortable jumping into social media with both feet.  We'll call them the hare.   This is a function of the culture at Chase.  Some firms, such as Morgan Stanley, are more comfortable taking calculated steps.  This too is a result of the corporate culture.  We'll call them the tortoise.

Unlike the fable, this is a race where there is likely no loser.  What is important here is that organizations move into social media at a pace at which they are comfortable.  As stated on this blog many times; most important is for firms to actively "listen" to social media to determine what is being said so that appropriate responses can be provided.  Beyond listening (which IS mandatory for all), every firm should move at a speed at which they are comfortable.

Some firms will train and trust their employees as brand ambassadors and unleash them to do their thing on social media.  These firms will have no problem sleeping at night.  Other firms will limit employee access to social media and will screen and pre-approve all messaging.  For these firms, this is the only way they can sleep at night.  While social media proponents will push for the former, the reality is that either approach will work.  What is important is that the firms implement something in order to remain visible and competitive.