On Mashable.com there is a wonderful article written by Maria Ogneva that focuses on your business – building relationships to help solve problems for your customers. Understanding what products you have – that will solve those customer problems today, tomorrow and next year. It goes back to a want need and a benefit. When we can fulfill those 3 human touch points – you begin to find that your brand not only becomes just a product – but rather integrated into ones day to day life.

What we loved about this particular article is that it focuses on the various business departments that make up a company, marketing, sales, customer service traditional advertising and product design. Outlining what their role is in relation to social media and how each can better serve the customer using social media tools.

Quoted from the article I think the author Maria Ogneva says it best “our brand is no longer what you say it is, but rather what the patchwork of customer and employee voices says it is. That being said, you still have a tremendous opportunity to help steer these conversations and educate the public in a conversational, open and honest manner so they feel well equipped to talk about your brand when they choose to do so.”

How are the various departments in your business serving your customers using social media?

Best Nicole

When it comes to social media for business, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. But to ensure results, you must align it with your overall business objectives and avoid falling for “shiny new objects” simply because they are trendy or hyped.

For example, a new business or “first mover” may want to focus on establishing thought leadership, while a more mature business should aim for customer support. In all cases, creating a product that actually solves problems for customers, present and future, should be every business’s top priority — and you should be using social media to help you figure out what that product is.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at how each department can blend traditional and social media to drive business goals and collaborate on a seamless customer experience.

Marketing Touchpoints

Remember that your business needs to have as many touchpoints with your customers as possible, of which social media is just one:

• A clear website that establishes value and helps customers weave your brand into their own story.
• Thought leadership and content creation, in the form of blogging, guest-blogging, webinars, whitepapers, e-books, presentations, and videos help educate the market. Use social media to help create and share content, as well as create discussions around this content.
• Relationships and outreach: As a result of your social media listening, discovery and engagement, you will undoubtedly form relationships with other thought leaders with whom you can collaborate on content, form guest-blogging relationships, create podcasts, etc. I have started many of my professional relationships on Twitter, which have later led to in-person meetings, client relationships, co-creating content, consulting engagements, jobs, etc.
• Events, online as well as offline, are also great awareness vehicles and can take the form of attending and speaking at conferences, sponsorships, and producing your own. Social media can and should be used to drive awareness, collect content input from the public, and provide ways for people in your network to meet in person. Take the time to produce content around the event. Interview people you respect and with whom you have built online and offline relationships, and share that content via social media.
• Then of course, there is social media itself, which is a must for any brand building effort. Your social media strategy should include actively monitoring Twitter (), Facebook (), blogs, discussion forums and other outpost communities, with the purpose of learning, engaging and forming relationships.
• Third-party support, in the form of partners, resellers, and blogger outreach, is also tremendously important. Forming and nurturing these relationships is crucial to your success as a brand, and can have a multiplicative effect on your social media and offline buzz.

Sales

You should also be using social media listening techniques to gather intelligence around your customers and prospects’ businesses to help drive better and richer conversations. Listen for purchase intent and identify clues about when people may be looking for your product.

Customer Service

This streamlines the customer experience. Imagine when a customer tweets an airline that she needs help; if the airline can tie her social data to its internal information associated with the reservation, it can help her that much better. Additionally, anyone in the company can help this customer, because there is a unified customer record available to all relevant parties inside the company.

The Intersection of Traditional and Social Media

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How will you receive traditional and social media requests for help? Perform a social media audit to understand where your customers are talking about products like yours, and set up a monitoring system attuned to those platforms.
• How will you triage your social media messages?
• How will you route and escalate your social media messages?
• How is that different (or not) from how you treat traditional e-mail and phone support?
• How much automation do you want?
• Do you use a hub-and-spoke system? If so, who is the hub — your social media manager or community manager?
• Are you giving Twitter responsibilities to existing phone and e-mail support reps, or are you hiring specific Twitter response teams? (This will largely depend on the volume of mentions you have and the size of your business.)
• How do they work with the rest of the customer service organization?

You also need to track workflow statistics on messages — social as well as traditional — and relate them to your success metrics. You need to have a unified reporting dashboard that integrates statistics for both kinds of support.

Product Intelligence and Design

• There’s a lot of information out there, and you can easily figure out what people are saying in aggregate by using the right monitoring and analysis platform. Because there is so much social data, you need smart text analytics to help you make sense of it all. When collecting customer intelligence, you should be blending traditional market research (surveys, focus groups, secondary research) with this type of social media research.
• On a more intimate level, you need to invite your customers behind the scenes and give them a stake in the future of the product. If your customers help you create the product, you can possibly reduce customer support queries and complaints in the future. One easy way that you can implement this today is by adding an idea generation and feedback community like UserVoice to your site.

The key is to establish a flow for easy and consistent information dissemination. Again, if you put your community manager at the helm, she can act as the liaison between the product team and the community providing ideas. Make strong multi-directional communication (between the community manager, product team, and the customer) a key priority.

I found the most brilliant and clear article today that speaks to just this point. The blog is Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. He refers to the circle as the “ring of influence” both are the same thing. In his article he focuses on the ring as it relates to business. I have written about the circle of influence often in our SHARE blog and believe understanding your circle and being able to reach and build trust with both your current customers and your prospective customers – should be one of the key aspects – of your strategic social media plan. Jeremiah opens his article with a statement that he used in one of his lectures in which he says:

“What’s an indicator a company is advanced in the social space?”.  I gave three answers, and one of them was “Developing a thriving advocacy program to fight your battles”.  The executives, which were used to traditional advertising and direct marketing had a light bulb go off as I showed them this framework.”

His angle in this article focuses on issues management and the ability for companies to be able to address via social channels customer complaints, concerns and criticisms. The idea behind this is that – if you are addressing those concerns on a regular and immediate basis – one to one – you show the customer that you care, you build trust and certainly create the opportunity to be better – as a company while providing the value and fulfilling the needs of the customers – who want your products and services.

In a previous post I wrote about Dominos Pizza and how the president used online video – to address some of the problems that they made – via a delivery to a customer. By using the integration of some of their traditional advertising channels such as television – to talk about the complaints – as well as leveraging social media – they shared their story of  how they had addressed the complaints they received and used them to make changes.

A great way to show that customer that you listened – made changes and took their advice under consideration – to make the products that they love better. No better way to get they to spread the word and keep them coming back for more!

Best Nicole

Recently, I spoke to a crowded room of senior marketers at a CPG retailer, one of the executives asked “What’s an indicator a company is advanced in the social space?”.  I gave three answers, and one of them was “Developing a thriving advocacy program to fight your battles”.  The executives, which were used to traditional advertising and direct marketing had a lightbulb go off as I showed them this framework.

Companies unable to scale into social channels –hindered by traditional thinking
Companies are unable to respond quick enough to the masses of customers complaining on social channels, they simple can not hire enough community managers and Social CRM systems are still being developed.  The old school thinking of traditional marketing putting the sole focus on voice of corporate communications, and sanctioned executives only.  Yet now, as social tools are pervasive (take a look at all the people accessing Facebook from their mobile phones) the gateways of public communication have been opened.

Brands must extend their strategy to the outside rings.
In order to scale in both time and mass, corporations must now extend their communication strategy beyond just corporate communications and sanctioned ‘company representatives’ to include others in the mix.  In the following graphic of the “Rings of Influence” I’ve mapped out how other individuals can and should be used in the communications strategy.   I’ve worked on trust research at my former employer, and found that in most cases the closer in the rings (corporate) there’s less trust.  Independent studies, like Edelman’s 2010 trust barometer indicate similar findings, figures 7 & 8 are telling in this PDF. Inversely, the further out in the rings (prospects and customers) the greater the levels of trust.

Framework: Rings Of Influence
As brand embrace the larger circles, the greater opportunity for reach, trust  –and risk.  I hope you use this graphic in your planning docs and presentations, it’s licensed under creative commons as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Common.  Graphic assistance by Christine Tran, @christineptran

Harness All The Voices In Your Ecosystem –Not Just Corporate Communications
Brands should stop focusing on the corporate ring alone –and benefit by using all the rings in a coordinated fashion.  I’ve broken down the roles into subsets in the above matrix, yet there are some key baseline considerations as your deploy, remember to:

• Recognize that greater opportunity is abound at outer rings –but comes with increased risk. Brands are most comfortable operation in the inside rings, like ‘Corporate’, yet the greatest opportunity to leverage trust and reach happens at the outer rings of influence with ‘Customers’ and ‘Prospects.
• Map the  rings to your existing customer experience timeline. These rings aren’t unlike traditional marketing funnels, except that there’s a focus on role and trust, over cycle. In most cases, prospects are in the outer mouth of a funnel, but customers, employees, and corporate can also participate in every step of the marketing funnel. Analyze which roles are needed in what aspects of the customer timeline –and map your strategy accordingly
• Be pragmatic, and develop a roadmap: start with smallest ring and move out. Don’t jump on the largest ring of prospects without first getting grounded. Start at the inner circle and work you way out, building a foundation at the core and building on success and safety in experience. Companies that try to address prospects but lack the internal resources and ethos to deliver may find themselves offering false promises.

This single graphic represents an entire presentation I’m developing for internal client workshops or keynote presentations at marketing and business conferences.  I love to share, and want to get your feedback in the comments below.   Update: Mitch has also extended the conversation in the Social CRM pioneers Google Group, watch it unfold and participate in the group.

Everything you do to market your product and or services - is ultimately to drive people to your website and have them convert to a buying customer that comes back many times. This can also be said of the visitor who comes to your bricks and mortar business. Leveraging your website or social networking community to drive sales - not only via your website but also to your retail store is the goal for most.

One of the long standing difficulties and reasons for skeptics in the digital world - is the lack of success with attaining those sales conversions. Finding the right ways to connect with your target market as well as understanding the strategy - behind search words and phrases -will you get that customer to your site - so you can show them you have what they need.  When that visitor gets to your site - via the high ranking - that you have attained through strategic and well planned search word and phrases via Google – you need to keep them on your site. You want to excite them so that they want to stay – and be able to easily and quickly, show them that you have what they need or are looking for. 

I came across this excellent article that speaks to 2 ways to do that. DMN News posted an article that provides 2 ways, that you can ensure you make those conversions of visitors to your site - into customers that purchase and return to purchase regularly. Author Pam Foster explains what conversion means and lets you know in a quick and simple read - that you can have the highest ranking in the world and send visitors to your site – BUT- if you are not converting them into a buying customer then all your search efforts are for not.

STRATEGY is always the name of the game in all of the digital marketing and advertsing planning. The end result is always the sale – getting that person to convert from a visitor to a paying customer. So what is your strategy going to be in 2010 – 2011?

Best Nicole

What exactly is a Web site conversion, and why does clear, customer-focused Web content make such a difference?

First, a definition of web conversions:

Let’s say target prospects arrive at your Web site via a Google search result, an email or other means of driving traffic. If they’re delighted with your site and they find exactly what they’re looking for, they’ll take the next step to make a purchase, subscribe to your service, download a free trial, become a qualified sales lead, etc.

Through these actions, they are converting from a prospect to an active customer in some way.

The goal of most business Web sites is to convert as many site visitors as possible into paying customers and ideally improve conversion rates over time.

Now for the second part of the question: Why does clear, customer-focused web content make such a difference regarding conversions?

Many companies know it’s critical to use keywords in their content to drive great results in search engines. Sadly, many of these companies achieve top Google rankings without considering what happens next.

Top search rankings do not equal conversion success.

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say you search for “narrow tap shoes” in Google. The top result includes “narrow tap shoes” in its page title and description.

Then you click on the Google display, land on the company’s Web site, and find “narrow tap shoes,” simply repeated several times throughout the banner, headline, main text, footer, etc. The copy itself is practically unreadable.

Unfortunately, this keyword-stuffing strategy is focused on traffic, but it doesn’t help you find what you need; narrow tap shoes.

In addition, the company’s messages are all about how great they are. “We’re the world’s leading tap shoe company … we’re number one, we we we” (you get the picture). There’s very little content about solving the visitors’ need.

You can bet that prospects find no value in this kind of web content and they abandon the site as quickly as possible, looking for someone who can truly help them. It might be the company that shows up #3 or even #7 in Google results.

Therefore, it’s important to keep this approach in mind if you’re focused on developing web content that converts:

1.     Make sure your web content weaves in the 1-3 most relevant key phrases on any given page in an ethical, helpful manner, and

2.     Make sure your web content includes information that’s 100% focused on solving your visitors’ needs. Make it easy for them to convert into customers!

Yes, Google and other search engine results are very important. But they really only matter if your web content converts visitors into customers.

Today’s post is going to do just that. In 2008, Starbucks (YES, I am one of their devotees ) found themselves in some serious hot water. Sales were down, there were major corporate management changes (which included Starbucks former CEO Howard Shultz returning and some management being let go), store closings, and some of the rapid rate expansion was slowed so that the company could go back to basics. The challenge? “How do they get back their relationship with their customer — the one they had when they first began?” Shultz claimed that, “Starbucks had lost its soul.”

They began with MyStarbucksidea.com, where customers could submit their ideas, frustrations, ask questions and share opinions. They have received 80,000 ideas thus far and implemented 50 of them—which shows they are listening. It has paid off.  What did the do right? They approached their social media campaign as a “customer relationship building movement”. Brilliant! They used their own blog, MyStarbucksidea.com, along with Facebook and Twitter. And in turn, they used those networks to feature promotions for “free” products that could be redeemed in-store. By melding both the online participation and offline engagement, they brought customers back into the stores. This relationship also allowed them to manage what is sometimes referred to as “issues management” rumors or negative press. Social media allowed them to clearly articulate the truth, answer questions and not let that negativity go unanswered.

The outcome? Starbucks is now beginning to see sales rise following its social media promotions and they posted in the U.S. their first same store sales gain in 2 years for the last quarter.

Can’t find a better example than this detailed blog article posted today by Ad Age Digital, written by Emily Bryson York. It shows what you can look forward to if you make the type of social media commitment that Starbucks has made and is making.  Sales gain is a pretty great reason to me! What are you waiting for?

Best Nicole

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Let’s get this straight right away: Return on investment in social media is not measured in how many friends you have on Facebook or how many followers you have on Twitter. It’s not calculated in trending topics or YouTube comments. It should, in fact, be held to the same criteria other marketing channels are: Did it move your business?

It’s done just that at Starbucks, which is a digital marketer worth watching.

No one would have guessed at that turn of events during the chain’s dark days of early 2008. Sales and traffic had begun to slip for the first time in its history as a public company. Founder Howard Schultz, returning to handle day-to-day management, even admitted that Starbucks had lost its soul. As part of Mr. Schultz’s multifaceted turnaround plan, the chain launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in July 2008 as a forum for consumers to make suggestions, ask questions and, in some cases, vent their frustrations. The website now has 180,000 registered users. Some 80,000 ideas have been submitted, 50 of which have been implemented in-store.

Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks’ VP-brand content and online, said amassing Starbucks’ 5.7 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers could be tougher for a dental-floss brand. “Maybe we have an unfair advantage because in so many ways Starbucks and the store experience is like the original social network,” he said. Consumers “come in, hang out and talk to our store partners. They sort of got to know us as a brand in a very social way.”

But he’s quick to point out that Starbucks’ advantage could easily have been squandered. “If we had approached it not from ‘what you know and love about Starbucks’ but as a marketing channel, we would have taken this down a path that would have been very different,” he said. “This was not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment.”

More important than the number of fans, however, is that the coffee chain is beginning to see sales lifts following social-media promotions.

Results
Starbucks posted its first U.S. same-store sales gain in two years for the last quarter during a time when the company relied on digital and social-media promotions instead of what had become an annual TV blitz. The chain partnered with Pandora to sponsor holiday playlists, staged a Facebook sing-a-long and leveraged its partnership with Project RED to drive traffic to a dedicated microsite — and its stores, offering a free CD with a $15 purchase.

Mr. Bruzzo said that the company is benefitting from a trend “toward this intersection between digital and physical.”

“We’re seeing the beginning of that,” he said. “The experiences you have online can translate to rich offline experiences.”

The first time Mr. Bruzzo noticed this intersection was on Starbucks’ “Free Pastry Day” last summer, when consumers could visit the company website or its Facebook page and download a voucher for a free pastry. Mr. Bruzzo, who visited multiple stores that day, said he was amazed at the number of people standing in line holding coupons they’d printed out. He said the impetus for free pastries was the volume of faithful online followers asking to be included on new products or other company news.

The secret to Starbucks’ social-media success is, at least in part, the fact that it plays it cool. “It’s not like we started our Facebook community, got to a million people and started pushing offers at them,” he said. “We built up a community of people who enjoy engaging with our photo albums from our trip to Rwanda, who loved to have these shared moments around their favorite drinks.” Then, fans started asking the company what was going on, and how they could be included.

‘Straight scoop’
An added benefit of Starbucks’ social-media progress has been the ability to quickly manage rumors that could have dogged the company for days. Last January, a story spread that Starbucks was donating its profits in Israel to fund the country’s army — even though Starbucks doesn’t have any cafés in Israel. These days, Mr. Bruzzo said, when misinformation gets out, it’s easier to nip it in the bud.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand content and online, Starbucks

Internally, it’s called the “embassy strategy.” Starbucks strives to make MyStarbucksIdea and its Facebook and Twitter pages places that “when you go there you know you’re going to get the straight scoop,” he said.

After ceding its usual first-to-market status to competitors, Starbucks launched two iPhone apps in September, one for general café purposes, with store locators, details about specific blends and nutrition information, and the other to support its loyalty card. Moving forward, Mr. Bruzzo said the company will be looking for ways that consumers can connect with each other from inside the apps.

In the meantime, Starbucks is testing functionality that allows loyalty-card holders to pay with their phones.

Starbucks’ agencies are BBDO, PHD and Blast Radius.

Starbucks tweeter in chief

Unlike many marketers, Starbucks doesn’t run its Twitter feed out of its PR department. The chain’s voice on Twitter is Brad Nelson, 28, a former barista who rose through its IT ranks.

When the company was looking for ideas to re-engage with its core customer in 2008, Mr. Nelson suggested that he begin a Twitter handle for the brand, and it now has 775,000 followers. The brand relies on the 28-year old to translate the Starbucks experience for the online community, search out confused or disgruntled consumers, chat about store offerings and even crack jokes.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online, said that Starbucks was beginning to institute its turnaround plan in early 2008 when Mr. Nelson announced he was ready for something new and wanted to get involved in the chain’s online efforts.

“I sent him away and said ‘Fine, sure,’” Mr. Bruzzo said. But about two weeks later, Mr. Nelson gave him a presentation about Twitter and the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers as questions arise. Mr. Nelson sweetened his pitch by adding, “It’s a lot like being a barista on the internet.” Mr. Bruzzo recalls greenlighting the project, and after a period of working with Mr. Nelson, let him loose on Twitter.

Mr. Bruzzo gives credit to Mr. Nelson and his “willingness to take smart risks,” but shares some of the kudos for Starbucks. “I guess you have to have a brand like this and an environment that’s open to innovation and someone like Brad with the passion and personality.”

Now Starbucks is finding more ways to use Mr. Nelson. He took a week-long cross-country drive last fall with comedienne Erin Foley and an Edelman entourage to help launch Via. The group made stops for a web series along the way, passing out product samples.

“To further wow her, DeLeon provided pizza for 350 people at the Chicago Social Media Club, an organization DeLeon was initially unaware that Korin was involved in.

“Ramon successfully kept my business, and his professionalism, timeliness and attention to every customer is what keeps me coming back for more,” says Korin, founder of interactiveAmy.com Social Media Consultancy.

To date, the video apology has been embedded more than 87,000 times (the number of times the video’s HTML code has been pasted in online). A Google blog search brings it up on countless blogs in dozens of languages.

AMAZING! For all of those that are still questioning how social media can provide ROI, “this is how we do it” as the song says. Better yet, this is an example of how a small business is leveraging social media to build its brand—via sales, brand evangelism and marketing for new customers. I know that if I were in Chicago, I would be searching out Ramon Deleon’s pizza chain. Customers want to know that you care, that you are listening to their challenges and finding ways to not only solve them—but to recognize an error has been made and make it right. This tells them that businesses DO care—they are human and they want to make sure your next experience superceeds your expectations.

How easy can it be? SHARE with us your experiences and how you’ve leveraged social media to express your challenges and how the business in question did or did not react in kind.

Enjoy this great post!

Best Nicole

When it comes to social media, it takes a lot to impress Amy Korin.

Her resume includes digital strategy for global companies like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Sun Microsystems and Zappos.

But her local Domino’s Pizza joint left her “completely shocked.”

On a rainy Sunday night, her Domino’s Pizza order took an hour to arrive and then was the wrong pizza. She turned to Twitter to vent: “hardly any room for human error, but still a mistake.”

What followed went way beyond the mea culpa tweet increasingly more common in business today.

Ramon DeLeon, managing partner of seven Chicago-area Domino’s stores, saw the tweet and contacted her immediately.

The correct pizza was already on its way. But “he insisted that he would make it up to me, and WOW me.  He certainly did just that!” Korin says.

Organization:

Domino’s Pizza (7 Chicago-area franchise stores)

Social Media Tools Used:

• Twitter—2,500 followers, @ Ramon_DeLeon
• Twitter search
• Tweetlater alerts (now SocialOomph.com)
• TweetPhoto
• TweetDeck
• Viddler
• Flickr
• Monitter

Results:

• 7 successful Domino’s franchises
• Doors opened to provide pizza for large groups
• Hundreds of thousands of impressions of one video alone
• Dozens of blog mentions

“The only way to put out a social media fire is with social media water,” says DeLeon.

The next morning, Korin found a new tweet from @Ramon_DeLeon: “@interactiveAmy we will make it up to you” with a link to a video apology from DeLeon and his store manager.

Korin in turn shared it with friends, family and contacts across her social networks. “Pandora’s pizza box had been opened,” she said.

To further wow her, DeLeon provided pizza for 350 people at the Chicago Social Media Club, an organization DeLeon was initially unaware that Korin was involved in.

“Ramon successfully kept my business, and his professionalism, timeliness and attention to every customer is what keeps me coming back for more,” says Korin, founder of interactiveAmy.com Social Media Consultancy.

To date, the video apology has been embedded more than 87,000 times (the number of times the video’s HTML code has been pasted in online). A Google blog search brings it up on countless blogs in dozens of languages.

It’s just one example of how self-proclaimed “pizza guy” DeLeon has built his business in a competitive pizza city like Chicago.

“Using the tools of social media, I’ve been able to put Domino’s pizza on the social media radar map in Chicago,” says DeLeon.

Take-Out from Domino’s Pizza’s Ramon DeLeon

1. Be ready at all times.
An opportunity to “wow” can arise anytime. Carry the tools you need—and spare batteries.

2. Do the unexpected.
Going beyond inspires people to share.

3. “Put social media fires out with social media water.”
Counter negative online comments online, with something unexpected.

4. Thank customers creatively.
A creative thank-you goes a long way, especially if it’s sharable like video.

It’s 1 am Monday, Get Selling

When the Domino’s sales week ends each Sunday night, no matter how good the week before was, DeLeon can’t stand a register that reads $0.

“There are people awake at 1 or 2 am and they’re not eating my pizza!” says DeLeon. “I start thinking of hospitals, police departments, fire departments, gas stations, maintenance people in high-rises—all these people who are in the middle of their day right now.”

That’s the mindset that took DeLeon from a pizza delivery guy at age 19 to a seven-franchise managing partner today. From the start, he’s exceeded not only Domino’s expectations but customers’ expectations as well.

In 1998, DeLeon offered customers online ordering seven years before Domino’s corporate. To maintain a personal connection, he began communicating with customers via pager and AOL Instant Messenger in 1994.

Today, his arsenal of electronics on hand has grown to two web-enabled cell phones, a digital camera, a Flip video camera and spare batteries. Back at the office, DeLeon sits in front of four giant computer screens monitoring social media activity—perhaps a micro version of NASA central command.

With tools like Monitter, TweetLater (now SocialOomph), TweetDeck and instant messaging, he waits, watches and responds as fast as possible to keep customers happy, proving “You’re never alone with Ramon DeLeon!”

He Creates It

DeLeon has proven to be incredibly adept at creating content that people want to share. How? By instigating memorable customer experiences.

“With every single delivery or order, we are part of someone’s life. No matter how redundant the process is, the end result is not the same,” he says.

When Chicago resident Theresa Carter tweeted happily about her Domino’s order, DeLeon sent her a video thanks straight from London, where he was speaking to a group of Domino’s franchise partners.

“When I saw that thank-you video from Ramon—from London—I was blown away!” says Carter, president of The Local Tourist. “Now when I want pizza, I automatically think of calling one of his stores and feel guilty if I go somewhere else!”

Carter then made her own video thanking DeLeon for the pizza, proving that he gets big reactions by going beyond.

His contagious enthusiasm comes through in 64 creative videos on Viddler.com (under DPZRAMON):

• Telling customers about Cyber Monday deals, offering coupon codes
• Getting MC Hammer’s autograph as a thank-you for a blogger
• Documenting his trips around the world to speak about social media
• Presenting a giant dummy check to a guest pizza maker, and trying to deposit it in an ATM

He posts photos of special offers on TweetPhoto and Flickr, which encourages even more sales.

They Share It

If DeLeon can get customers to share their positive experiences with others, “even if it’s just with your cat,” then he’s succeeded.

To that end, he makes it easy to share experiences online. After ordering using the online pizza builder, customers can click on a Facebook link, which populates their own Facebook status with details of their pizza order.

Or customers waiting for orders at DeLeon’s stores can take a snapshot in front of a “Photo Op” poster featuring breadsticks and all of DeLeon’s social media handles. He finds customers post those pics on Facebook and Twitter right then, creating even more impressions of Domino’s.

11″ x 17″ pizza box fliers highlight DeLeon’s Twitter wall

The pizzas on his menu even have Twitter hash tags to encourage customers to share what they order.

He uses prime ad space—the top of pizza boxes—to showcase what he calls his “Twitter Wall.” An 11″ x 17″ flier lists the top customer tweets mentioning his stores.

“I try to promote customers as much as I can,” DeLeon says. “If I keep my customers in business, then my customers keep me in business.”

A customer poses in front of Ramon’s “Photo Op” poster

Customers Do Facebook for Him

One of DeLeon’s stores serves Northwestern University and its 15,000-plus students. Yet surprisingly, DeLeon does not have a Facebook fan page. In the days when only .edu emails could get accounts, he was desperate for one.

“I even thought about enrolling to get a Facebook acount,” he admits.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to. He learned a Northwestern student had started her own Domino’s group, “Dominos Is Better than Papa Johns.”

“I try not to come across as advertising, but as word of mouth,” he says.

To give students something to talk about, he started taking photos of every campus event where Domino’s was involved, including images of students holding coupon signs.

He posted them, with a Domino’s logo on each bottom corner, on his www.nudominos.com website. Students would download the unprotected photos of themselves and then share them on Facebook.

Today, students take their own shots and post them, and often tag the pizza box with DeLeon’s individual Facebook ID.

By connecting with students, DeLeon invests in relationships that he hopes will continue as students move into the workforce.

He also reaches out to the administrators of Facebook groups to offer special discounts. In response, all those group members experience Domino’s and post their own comments.

Create Addicts and Advocates

With sales and social media success, DeLeon now speaks to Domino’s franchise owners all over the world—drawing the first-ever standing ovation from a British Domino’s group. Dozens of blogs have featured him and he’s a top draw at social media conferences, where he rubs elbows with Starbucks corporate and social media celebs like Gary Vaynerchuk.

But he insists he isn’t doing anything truly different than 20 years ago as a pizza delivery driver. It’s still about creating unexpected customer experiences.

“Social media is just modern tools to do something very basic in business,” he says.

“I want people to get addicted to the experience of Domino’s. If they go somewhere else, I want them to feel a void in their body. ‘It’s good but it’s not the same.’”

Mashable.com posted an article a couple of days ago by Josh Catone, that was originally featured on the American Express Open Forum. This article backs up the thoughts I open with today. It addresses the conversation I have with anyone who asks me about what we do and how we approach building a digital strategy with our clients. In our case, our ace in the hole is that we began (long before social media was on the radar) in the world of branding and marketing offline by engaging with our customers. We are now able to use that knowledge to integrate an online profile that becomes a seamless extension of what a client may be doing in a traditional space and knit the two mediums together. Building cultures and defining brands through those cultures, is how you will be able to gain success over time. This post shows some ways that you can do some preliminary searches and talk to people offline to find out how they best will connect with you via social media—so that when you finally dive in, they are ready to swim with you and invite others into your pool!

Best Nicole

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Twitter, Facebook. LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare, Brightkite, Posterous, Tumblr. The list of social networks and social media tools goes on and on, and as a small business owner, the biggest limitation you’ll run up against when planning to use social media is not likely going to be cost, but time. Utilizing social networks and web tools properly requires a significant time investment, both for learning how to use the networks and setting them up, as well as maintaining an active presence and building a community. Unlike corporations, most small business owners do not have the ability to hire a dedicated social media or online community manager.

How does a small business owner know where to invest their time and resources?

Talk to People

Asking these sorts of questions of your customers can be invaluable. You’ll learn which sites the people who buy from you use, and what uses of those social media products and services would be most useful to them. By spending a couple of weeks talking to your customers and getting their feedback, you’ll be able to hit the ground running and dive into social media already knowing that your time and resources will be well spent.

Do Some Preliminary Searches

Even after talking to customers, before you commit to putting a lot of time and effort into building your presence on a specific social media network, you should do some searches to see what’s out there. It’s possible that your customers are already on the network and talking about your business. And it’s probable that your competitors already have a presence there. Spend some time searching around the network or tool to see what’s there.

Start by searching for your company name. Are your customers already talking about you? What are they saying? The types of things they’re talking about might inform how you should utilize that platform. Next search for your competitors and evaluate how they’re using the platform. What seems to be effective for them? Is it something you can emulate? Finally, do some more general searches for keywords related to the product, service, or industry you’re in. You might be able to attract new customers through social media, but only if the people in your key demographic are using that social network.

Keep Communications Channels Open

Now there are no excuses. What are you waiting for? Get social!

Best Nicole

I just finished recognizing 13 highly effective social applications in the Forrester Groundswell Awards.

What hit me about this year’s winners were that they prove that excellence in social media can come from anywhere.

The consumer and employee winners sell car races, yarn, security software, credit scores, books, and shipping. The B2B winners sell computer products, marketing services, online services, regulatory compliance services, environmental services and enterprise risk services.

The finalists came from a diverse set of industries including travel, education, retail, financial services, auto, media, wine, weight-loss help, insurance and steel manufacturing. Not to mention a product that lets women go the bathroom standing up.

The methods are diverse, too. The winners included online market-research communities, blogs, podcasts, a word-of-mouth campaign and online communities. Finalists used YouTube, widgets, avatars, idea communities, Facebook and online events. And a number of successful entrants created campaigns that spanned multiple social channels.

The geographic diversity wasn’t as great, but one winner was from Australia and one finalist came from Brazil. In the past we’ve gotten some fantastic European entries.

Look, people, the message is this: Do not tell me you cannot do this. People in every country and in every industry, with all sorts of customers and all sorts of management and all sorts of objectives are creating not only innovative but incredibly effective social applications. I’ve worked with six insurance companies in the last two years. I just talked to a bunch of milk-processing executives (”got social?”). I have yet to find a company, an industry or a geography that can’t benefit from connecting its customers with each other through social.

There are no excuses left. Just do it.

The take away from this story is that digital marketing and social media are about meeting the core needs of YOUR business. Not following the trends. Are you reaching the audiences you are trying to connect to?

Best Nicole

It seems every day a new Web 2.0 service pops up and renders another pre-Internet technology obsolete – from old-fashioned stock listings to the lowly phone book.

But no matter how quickly the Web churns out better, faster and cheaper versions of these services, millions of people still rely on the old, real-life versions. Now several Canadian startups are trying to fuse the old and the new – using the Web to make pre-Web services easier and cheaper. In the process, these startups are also creating a host of innovative new business plans that may change the way small firms make money on the Internet.

Few firms embody the fusion of new and old technology better than Hippopost, a Kitchener-Waterloo startup run by a half-dozen former Research In Motion employees. Hippopost’s service is somewhat similar to Skype – except instead of letting users make free phone calls, Hippopost allows them to send free postcards.

Who sends postcards any more? Americans sent two billion of them last year alone, Hippopost head Donal Byrne says. Indeed, the traditional postcard format has been relatively unchanged for 100 years.

Jennifer Roberts / For The Globe and Mail

Donal Byrne, Bob Millar and Rob Shields of Hippopost, the company that allows you to send free postcards through the mail by tagging each card with an advertisement, pose for photo in Toronto on October 6, 2009.Hippopost works by tagging every postcard with an ad. Users pick a photo from a list, or upload their own, write a message, type in the address of the recipient and Hippopost sends the postcard for free. It arrives about five business days later – Hippopost works with several regional distributors across North America – with an advertiser-branded frame around the front side and a small ad on the back.

“From an advertiser perspective, when was the last time your brand ended up on somebody’s fridge?” Mr. Byrne asks. “It’s almost like smart direct mail.”

One of the most interesting aspects of Hippopost’s business model is the user-selection system of advertising. Once a user enters the address of the recipient, the website offers them a selection of advertisers who sell their product in that area. The idea is that users are more likely to select an ad that’s more relevant to the person they’re sending the postcard to, and advertisers are more likely to want to pay for that added relevancy.

“It’s user-created content meets user-selected advertising,” Mr. Byrne says.

Several big-name advertisers have already signed up, including Expedia and Coca-Cola.

Not surprisingly for a company founded by former RIM employees, Hippopost has already created a BlackBerry application that lets users design and send postcards on the go. The company is working on apps for the iPhone and other platforms too.

“You can be on a ski hill or at a beach, and you can take a picture, write a message and hit send,” Mr. Byrne says. “That’s it.”

And while a five-day wait may seem like an eternity in an instant-messaging age, Mr. Byrne says it does have some advantages for advertisers, allowing them, for example, to extend the marketing lifespan of an event or campaign that would otherwise end much sooner.

While it’s still unclear whether Hippopost will be able to drag the 100-year-old medium into the digital age, early customer reviews are positive, driven in large part by a wired generation’s fascination with the concept of sending a real-life message, for a change.

Press ‘1′ if you’re frustrated

But real life can often be a frustrating place. In Toronto, a small startup is generating big buzz for its work on relieving one of life’s biggest headaches – the much-dreaded customer service phone line.

Just about everybody has experienced the futility of navigating a big company’s telephone system. More often than not, the sound on the other end of the line isn’t the voice of a human being, but a robot or hours of Muzak.

Fonolo, a six-person Toronto startup, wants to change all that. The concept is simple – company CEO Shai Berger calls it “deep dialling.” Users go to the Fonolo website and search for the company they’re trying to call (the Fonolo database has about 500). Once they’ve selected the company, Fonolo presents a list of the most popular destinations for users calling that company.

For example, the listing for Dell includes dozens of entries for customer support and technical assistance. Users choose the department or number they’re trying to reach, enter their own phone number, and Fonolo does the rest. The website dials the number, and when it gets through to the right department, it calls the user, saving them the hassle of going through the phone menu system manually.

“We wanted to tackle a frustration that somebody understood, something really universal,” says Mr. Berger, whose company started with backing from angel investors and is now looking for more. “When we started talking about things that bother us when it comes to using the phone, the concept of phone menus quickly rose to the top.”

Fonolo’s consumer service is entirely free. This summer, the company rolled out a corporate product that uses the same technology, but provides a revenue source. In effect, it allows companies to embed Fonolo’s technology into their websites or mobile applications, thereby improving their own customer experience without doing the expensive and time-consuming work of changing their phone systems.

Much like Hippopost, Fonolo uses a free customer service as a way to attract paying corporate clients.

“The consumer service doesn’t generate revenue, but it serves as an excellent demonstration of the technology,” Mr. Berger says. “It’s a fantastic way to generate awareness and drive potential customers our way, much more effective than me trying to cold call or buy banner ads.”

I read today that the fashion retailer Zara is going to be selling their products online, starting in Europe. This is now an important way to not only service your current customers, but to offer convenience and gain the ability to reach a vast amount of potential consumers who can benefit from your products. Make sure that they can shop at your store and convert their cart to sales!

Best Nicole

Online retail sales are projected to increase by 11 percent this year to US$156 billion, according to Forrester Research. Although that’s good news, it’s a small decline from last year’s growth of 13 percent.

It’s clear the down economy, with the lack of credit access and low consumer confidence, has dampened consumer spending. The e-commerce sector has been able to weather the economic storm better than some, but is far from immune to the effects of the recession.

A key outgrowth of declining consumer confidence and increased hesitation is shopping cart abandonment. Abandonment rates range from 41 percent to 50 percent, according to The E-tailing Group. Marketing Sherpa reports average rates at 60 percent.

There is an enormous opportunity for retailers to improve their checkout process and recapture these lost sales. Although Q3 is upon us, there’s still time to implement new tactics to decrease shopping cart abandonment.

Top Reasons Shoppers Part With the Cart

Security and privacy fears. Data breaches are hitting more retailers, with such high-profile attacks as the TJX breach in 2007, and the Hannaford Brothers and 7-Eleven (NYSE: SE) hacks in 2008. These breaches are driving identity theft to all-time highs, and many shoppers do not trust retailers’ ability to safeguard their personal information.

• Comparison shopping. Many shoppers go through the buying process and get to the checkout page to find out their total amount due, including tax and shipping. Additional costs at the checkout stage can lead to abandonment. Shoppers might repeat this process on many sites until they find the best deal. However, once they find the lowest cost, they still might not make a purchase if they consider shipping costs are too high or other added fees to be unreasonable.
• Hidden return policies. Shoppers want to know they are protected and what recourse is available if they are not satisfied with a purchase. Restocking fees or return restrictions can deter a consumer from moving forward with an order.
• Confusion and impatience. A confusing checkout experience does not sit well with shoppers. Often when shoppers don’t know what to do next, they give up. Other things that can cause frustration: too many checkout pages, pages that load slowly, sites that require shoppers to register or create a profile before purchase, and no phone number provided on the site.

Shopping Cart Abandonment Solutions

Some etailers might think shopping cart abandonment is out of their control. How can you persuade shoppers after they’ve changed their mind about an item? Although some reasons might be uncontrollable, the majority are manageable and can be reduced by incorporating simple tactics on your Web site and into your checkout process.

• Put security front and center. Prominently display online safety logos, such as Hackersafe, Verisign Secured, TrustE Certified Privacy, and Better Business Bureau on your homepage and each page of the checkout process. Also have a link to your privacy and security policy on your homepage and at appropriate points during checkout. Invest in secure payment options. This helps establish shoppers’ peace of mind and builds confidence that your site is safe. Get to know your customers. Shopper surveys are a great way to learn the likes and dislikes of consumers. Monitor your Web site — specifically the shopper’s experience as customers go through the checkout process. Look for indications of when and where abandonment takes place to look for trends and common factors among your abandoned transactions.
• Address identity theft head-on. Play a proactive role in customer identity theft education by providing basic guidelines on how shoppers can safeguard their identity while shopping online. Also, include measures to take if their identity is stolen, such as information on who to contact, resolution steps, etc. This shows shoppers you care about their safety and builds their trust in your brand.
• Be upfront about fees. Show shoppers all costs associated with their purchase before they get to the checkout. This saves them from going through the checkout process only to learn the cost is too high, and leave to comparison shop. Have a prominent link on your homepage that displays shipping and any additional purchase costs.
• Offer alternatives. With the lack of credit access, shoppers are increasingly turning to cash to better manage their finances and limit debt. Consider expanding checkout options with cash-based alternatives. Options that leverage online banking offer a way for consumers to pay with available money while keeping their financial information secure.
• Protect and serve. Buyer protection is an effective technique that can strengthen customer relationships and incentivize sales. You can develop a plan in-house, or look for payment providers that offer built-in protection. A good buyer protection plan should include features like zero liability for unauthorized transactions; price protection that ensures the best possible price; 100 percent return guarantee; and protection from shipping loss or damages. Prominently display your plan on your homepage.
• Be transparent about “gotchas.” Provide easy access to your return policy. Clearly state all rules, restrictions, restocking fees, etc. Post these policies or a link to them in each product description so shoppers are aware of what they are committing themselves to before they reach checkout. There shouldn’t be any surprises during the checkout process.
• Be fast and friendly. Shoppers crave convenience. A two- or three-step checkout process is ideal. Provide shoppers the opportunity to review what they did in previous steps without erasing the information they’ve already entered. The cart should have a clean design that includes only the necessary information: items, prices, availability, shipping options and costs, and payment options. Post your 800 number and/or online chat support link on each checkout page.

It’s important to note that not all tactics are right for all e-commerce retailers. However, by testing a variety of methods, you will be one step closer to boosting your sales conversion rate and retaining customers.

The detailed post comes from one of my favorite social media blogs Mashable, written by Soren Gordhammer.

Whole Foods is using social media with the utmost success. In the midst of some controversy mixed in over the past few months, it is clear the momentum continues in their favor. I hope this contributes to the mounting evidence that helps convince you and your company to get started!

Best Nicole

As a company, Whole Foods has impressively embraced social media more than most, gathering over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and 123,000 fans on Facebook() in the process. While it is easy to understand why a relatively young company or one started by a tech-savvy founder would so completely embrace social media communication tools, it is quite a bit more remarkable for an almost 30 year old established brick and mortar company with roughly 50,000 employees and over 270 stores worldwide to have done so.

I recently visited the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas to meet with members of their new media team, including Bill Tolany, the company’s Senior Coordinator of Integrated Media, and Winnie Hsia, who oversees the @wholefoods account. I wanted to know how Whole Foods integrated social media tools into their communications strategy, and what lessons had they learned from doing so. Below are five of the lessons that Whole Foods shared with me during our chat.

 

---

 

1. Make Content Increasingly Relevant

 

---

Whole Foods started initially with just the @wholefoods account but as it gathered followers, they realized it had limitations: while it was useful for news with national appeal, it was less so for sharing local information or addressing specific interests of customers. A percentage of their followers, for example, might be interested in an event happening at their New York City store or reviews of certain food items, but many others would not be interested.

 

To address this, they encouraged all their stores to start their own accounts and tweet about events at their store and news related to that local area. They also created separate accounts for specific issues, such as one for wine and one for cheese, where the head of those departments post and interact with customers. In fact, with over 150 company Twitter accounts and new ones added regularly, they likely have one of the largest corporate presences on Twitter. The goal with so many different accounts is to create increasingly relevant, and often local content.

 

 

 

 

---

 

2. Go Where Your Customers Are

 

---

When asked how they initially decided to use Twitter as a platform, which was pre-Oprah and before most other companies their size had done so, they emphasized that their goal has always been to interact with their customers no matter where those customers are. As Twitter gained momentum, they realized that a presence on it made sense, though they never foresaw that they would get over a million followers and how much staff time it would take to manage.

 

The conversation with customers, however, is essential to the company, whether it happens in person at a store or on a social network. Whole Foods, in fact, is active on numerous social media communication channels, not just Facebook and Twitter: they also have a Flickr page, an actively updated blog with videos on cooking healthy meals, and have employees responding on the customer feedback site Get Satisfaction(). The goal is not just to pick one place and force customers to come to them, but to meet customers “on their home court,” wherever that may be.

 

 

 

 

---

 

3. Loosen Control from the Top

 

---

Likely the most difficult task for any large company when embracing social media is learning to let go of control. On one hand, most companies will want millions of followers on sites like Twitter, yet on the other hand, large corporations also tend to be cautious when taking risks. They’re unsure how much control they are willing to relinquish when it comes to governing how social media is used.

 

Whole Foods seems to really understand that such a top-down approach does not work in the age of social media. In fact, I was initially surprised that several people I interviewed while at the company headquarters that managed different corporate Whole Foods Twitter accounts used them quite differently from each other. Some, for example, shared personal information while others kept posts strictly to business. When I asked Tolany, who oversees the department, about it, he said that it did not surprise him at all. While they encourage some basic guidelines, Whole Foods has learned that for social media to work well, whoever is managing an account needs to be authentic, allow his or her personality to come through, and have fun in the process. If management tries to exercise too much control, the account will be less likely to succeed at engaging people.

 

---

 

4. Decide What Channel to Use for What Purpose

 

---

With a presence on so many social networks, Whole Foods tries to figure out how best to use each service. For example, they have found that for customer service, Twitter is much more effective than Facebook. On Twitter people can easily @reply a question and they can quickly respond. On the other hand, for “rich media,” including embedding videos or longer posts or responses, Facebook tends to be better. Likewise, for posting original content, their blog serves as the hub, allowing staff from various departments to share material. The company also created a nifty iPhone application with 2,000 searchable recipes and a store locator, which is a great platform for disseminating static information.

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

5. Let the Conversation Happen

 

---

My visit to the Whole Foods headquarter came at an interesting time. The previous week, Facebook, Twitter, and various blogs were ablaze with (mostly negative) comments in response to Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey’s, Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.” We did not dive too much into the Mackey Op-Ed issue, but we did talk about whether having such a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter has allowed people to more easily express anger at them. During our conversation it became clear that Whole Foods realizes that people are going to talk about the company, both positively and negatively, whether they are have a presence on social networks or not. It is helpful, though, to know what people are saying and to be able to respond if necessary.

 

In fact, when Mackey responded to some of the criticism on his company blog, rather than turn off comments to the post, they encouraged people to express their feedback, and greater than 3,000 people did.

 

---

 

Conclusion

 

---

The central take away I got from my visit was the importance of engaging with one’s customers no matter where they spend time. When I asked Tolany and Hsia what advice they would give to companies thinking of using social media channels like Twitter, they seemed to both agree that the first task is to know if your customers (or the potential customers you want to engage) are present there. Then and only then does it make sense to invest time on a site.

 

I also got that part of what has motivated Whole Foods’ efforts in social media — and what can account for much of their success — is a willingness to be bold and take risks. Such boldness can of course have its dangers (such as when writing Op-Ed articles about delicate social issues) yet this has also helped them plow ahead in social media while other businesses their size waited cautiously in the background to see if it was “safe” or if these sites would gain in popularity.

Of course, any time a company opens up and has a presence on a communication channel like Facebook or Twitter, users can use those sites to criticize as much as to praise. Dealing with negative feedback, however, is better than not having a presence at all. I think Whole Foods is showing that the companies who keep such channels open, and listen to the unpleasant along with the pleasant feedback, will better know what matters to their customers and what company policies may need to change, which is likely to win them support in the end.

Whole Foods, like many other companies, is still finding its way in this age of social media, but they are showing that a non-technology company of their size can engage and innovate in this area.