What I learned on my social media vacation

My wife, Sally, and I recently went on a road trip throughout California to pursue several of our passions: wine, Scotch, and California’s natural beauty. I wanted to make sure I really relaxed, so I decided to take a social media vacation too.

My self-imposed social media hiatus caused me to more fully engage with the people and the world around me rather than habitually pull out my smart phone to Tweet, Like, or Share. This ultimately led to better service, a better experience, and much high levels of satisfaction. 

The bar at the Albion River Inn

Social media allows you to connect with people who share similar interests, but real connections are often more rich and interesting.

We met Megan, a bartender at the Albion River Inn near Mendocino, who shares our passion for Scotch and knows much more about it than we do. The Inn has approximately 150 varieties in their restaurant and Megan helped us expand our knowledge. She even let us taste a few old and rare Scotches we’d never before seen.

A few days later we shared a communal table with some locals at the Bounty Hunter in Napa. One of our companions was Justin, who turned out to be the Bounty Hunter’s spirits manager. Not surprisingly, Justin is a huge fan of Scotch too, which made for a fun dinner conversation. Justin even told us he might be able to help us find some of those rare Scotches that Megan had introduced us to.

A secluded beach in Northern California, near MendocinoSocial media can help you make new discoveries, but the real-world is full of discoveries if you keep your eyes open.

We found a hidden trail that led to a secluded beach without reading any reviews on Trip Advisor or downloading a trail finder app. The only clues we had were a car parked on the side of the road and a small sign reminding people to keep their dogs on a leash. 

Sally spotted the trailhead while we were taking a leisurely drive along the coast near Mendocino in Northern California. I doubt she would have seen it if she was engrossed in Facebook updates.

We felt a sense of adventure as we pulled over near the other car and got out. The trail wound through a sparse grove of trees before meandering through a rolling pasture. After less than a mile we came to a small, secluded beach that offered gorgeous views of the California coast.

The view from my new favorite chair

Social media is an escape for many people, but really escaping can be so much more rewarding.

I spent nearly a full day sitting in an adirondack chair overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I read, solved sudoku puzzles, and took in the view. It also turned out to be the perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine while watching the late afternoon sun slowly start its descent.

I’ll admit there were times throughout the trip when I had to fight the urge to check online. For example, one day Sally posted a funny picture on Facebook that I wanted to see. Then I remembered that I had taken the picture and had seen the real thing.

I really hope I can remember these lessons now that I'm back to work.

My personal policy for identifying companies via social media

I gave a lot of thought to how I would identify companies and individual employees by name while writing my book, Service Failure. Through the help of my editors and a little trial and error, I came up with what I think is a fair and reasonable way to approach this issue.

As my audience for this blog continues to grow, I think it's time to apply this personal policy here as well. My goal is to use examples of good and bad customer service to inform and perhaps entertain, while recognizing that customer service is difficult, mistakes can and will happen, and sometimes even the best companies and employees fall a little short.

Here's my policy:

• When I receive poor customer service, I won't mention the company by name unless I've first attempted to address my grievance with a company representative.
• I will mention companies by name if I am commenting on a news story (rather than my own experience as a customer).
• I won't hesitate to identify companies by name when I receive exceptional service.
• When discussing individual customer service employees, I will only use their first names unless I've been given permission to quote them by name. 

Like all policies, it may get broken or stretched from time to time, but I'll do my best to be faithful to it.

New social media stats: helping is better than entertaining

An article in the latest issue of Fast Company magazine provides some great lessons on effectively engaging customers through social media. It uses real data and real companies to highlight each of the key points. The first comparision was Dunkin' Donuts vs. Starbucks.  Dunkin' Donuts has approximately 80% fewer Facebook and Twitter followers, but those people are 35% more likely to recommend the brand. Quality clearly seems to work better than quantity in this case.

Read the article from Fast Company

The common themes from this study support the findings from my social media experiment. Here are a few of my take-aways from the article:

• Engaging your customers leads to better results than just generating buzz
• Not every company needs to use social media
• The key is communicating with your customers and not just at them

Success stories wanted... It is sometimes easier to identify what isn't working than to see what does work well. If you know of a social media success story, please share it by commenting below.

Social media experiment: who has a clear purpose?

The social media experiment is getting interesting. I've gotten a few more responses, discovered something surprising about most of the 'participants', and added another company to the mix. Here are the updates. (Read a description of the experiment here.)

More Responses

I'm feeling a bit more encouraged today than I did on Friday. Last week, I posted a question to the Facebook pages of five of the companies in the study and only received one response. I posted a question to a sixth company over the weekend and have now received a response from three out of six companies. Even better, the answers I received were very helpful. There are still some companies that I haven't interacted with on Facebook, but I'll try to get them involved this week.

Surprising Twist

John Curran asked if any of the companies in this study had Service Level Agreements for their Facebook or Twitter pages (find John on Twitter @TrainingTsar). In other words, did they have a clear policy that described what type of service customers could expect through these outlets, such as how quickly they'd respond to inquiries. I couldn't find published service standards for any of the companies in the study, but John's question helped me realize I had overlooked something obvious:

Do these companies clearly identify their reason for being on Facebook and Twitter?  It is a best practice to set clear expectations when you interact with your customers. Companies should state on their Facebook page "Here's why we have a Facebook page". Their Twitter page should contain some statement that says "Here's why you should follow us on Twitter." I checked each of the companies in the study and found a big gap:

 One company's Twitter page described why you should be a fan on Facebook, but not why you should care about their Tweets (odd). Only one company had a statement of purpose on both Facebook and Twitter. 

New Company 

I added a 12th company to the study over the weekend. One of the unresponsive companies in the original group has a direct competitor that I also frequent. Their competitor didn't show up in my initial search on Facebook and Twitter, but I discovered over the weekend that they are in both places. Now things will get even more interesting with some head to head competition for my discretionary income!

What's ahead...

This week should prove interesting as I attempt to interact with the remaining companies in the mix. I've also decided to start revealing the companies as I reach some conclusions about their social media approach. Finally, your comments and suggestions are much appreciated!

Social media experiment starts with a fizzle

My social media experiment is off and walking. Not for any lack of trying on my part. Just a lack of social on the part of the companies I'm trying to interact with. (Read more about the experiment here.)

What happened in round 1?

I kicked things off by posting a question on the Facebook fan page of 5 of the 11 participants. I'll get to the other 6 later, but I want to keep it natural and I only had a legitimate reason to contact 5 of these companies so far.

One day later, I've received a response from only one company. A fellow 'fan' answered the question I posted to another company's page, so I suppose that's fair too. The other three companies are radio silent so far.

Demographics

My colleague, Grace Judson, offered a theory on how this will play out:

I suspect the level of engagement will depend heavily on the size of the company - which isn't something you've listed in the demographics. My guess is that the smaller the company, the more interactive they'll be.

I think Grace's theory is a good one, but the one company that's responded to me so far had over a million Facebook fans. Here's a snapshot of the fans and followers for my test subjects:

More predictions...

Angela Hill is one of my social media gurus. She offered an interesting perspective on what will determine whether a company succeeds or not in this arena:

The gaping chasm between followers and true engagement will grow deeper as we move towards a fully integrated online branding experience. Companies who do not quickly evolve and adapt will struggle with measuring and controlling the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Whereas companies who do embrace this new Marketing 3.0 methodology will develop stronger, more transparent, interactive relationships with their client base, which will in turn generate revenue, allow for predictable metrics and build brand loyalty.

Yeah - Angela can get a little deep, but I think her theory is essentially that companies interested in engagement (the 'social' aspect) will do well while companies following a more 'media' strategy may get left behind. You can hear more of what Angela has to say about branding and social media by following her on Twitter: @incitrio.