Social Next Presentation at the Alternative Marketing Conference by Infopresse, Montreal June 2, 2010

I had a great opportunity to present a segment on Social Next at Infopresse in Montreal yesterday. This provides businesses with a look at events that have catapulted the need for social, as well as brand examples who are doing great things in this medium. Basic strategies and principles are incorporated to help businesses get started. Enjoy!
>Social Next for Infopresse Conference, Alternative Marketing June 2nd, 2010

The ‘Dominos’ Effect: Pay Attention to your Customers, A View from the Brand Perspective

This is a story about a brand journey in social media. It is about a highly visible brand whose experience within the social media space had a tremendous impact to consumer perception about their brand, their operations, and ultimately revenue.

Dominos Pizza. This is an interesting social media example because of the strong media coverage that resulted from the events that have preceded Dominos in the last year. Chris Brandon of Dominos Pizza is here today to give us his company’s view and how it has changed the way they do business.

Q: Welcome Chris! Could you please tell us about your role within Dominos?

CB: Hi…appreciate the opportunity to talk with you guys.  My role within Domino’s, among some other event-related responsibilities, is management of our entire PR effort – including consumer PR, media relations, social media, local outreach, etc.  The only facets of PR that I am less involved with are investor relations, and for the most part crisis communications.  We have people on separate teams that are full-time dedicated to that.

Q: Now let’s take you back a few years to 2008! Prior to the boom in social media
What did Dominos do to initiate engagement with its consumers?  Either online or offline?

CB: We have been engaged with customers through social media for about a year and a half now…certainly our new pizza launch has taken things up a notch – as we are using social media more so than ever before – but we have been active in the spectrum for about a year.  We were on Twitter, on Facebook, monitoring blogs, etc.  Much of that led to hearing what customers were saying about our pizza, and realizing there was room for improvements – which is exactly what we eventually did!

Q: In 2008, how would you have rated yourself as a Marketing Company in terms of audience engagement? 1 being poor vs. 5 being strong

CB: A rating like that is difficult to say…but we have always been in tune with what our consumers have had to say – as recently demonstrated by our “thanking” them for inspiring us to continue to improve, and by how we communicated our new pizza launch.  We have only gotten better.  Social media has helped that, as we can communicate with them directly in ways that were not available before.

Q: Let’s take you back to spring 2009 when a video appeared in Youtube: revealing a Domino’s employee in a NC franchise assembling sandwiches and inappropriately handling ingredients before putting these same ingredients on the bread. It didn’t take long for that video to go VIRAL and soon that video was encroaching on one million plus views.

Tell me about what was happening within Dominos at that time? What was the immediate reaction?

Social Economics: For All Brands, You Have No CHOICE But To Do This!

I saw a video the other day on Twitter from Crumple it Up. The original post came from Socialnomics. It finally brought to light all the reasons why brands, who still hesitate to engage in social media, should do it now. This is not a fad or a testing arena. Social media is a place that’s existed for a long time and has gone undetected by the big brands. This is a place that’s held powerful discussions that have affected the very brands that have ignored or dismissed it. This is a place that can impact every part of your organization as a whole. This is a place that will change the way you think and approach your business.

I understand why it’s difficult to enter into this space: some brands aren’t ready to face the consumer head on… one to one…in conversation.  This is not a medium that befits a corporate PR guy, willing and ready to pull together approved responses espousing the view of the corporation to the masses. No one in the social arena pays heed to any of the corporate speak. They just want to talk and they want to be heard.

For those brands who hesitate and fear the medium, here’s what I have to say:

• Start-ups have been engaging in social media for years and have benefited greatly. They were not endowed with huge marketing budgets so they’ve had to resort to more efficient roll-up-your-sleeves-type approaches to succeed. The key to building strong and enduring brand: do it one satisfied customer at a time!
• People want to talk to you and they want you to listen to them. Be warned that you will hear the good and the bad. The key is learning from it and understanding its implications.
• Confront your detractors. They are the key to making you greater. One of my clients continues to engage with the complainers, as well as the rally-the-troops-and-boycott-the-company type misfits. And they’re tackling it one issue at a time. The company has a long way to go to earn respect and confidence from its customers but the very act of engaging has mitigated customer churn. It has also provided a NEW avenue for customers to provide their views and suggestions and to feel like they’re being listened to. Once you satisfy a detractor, he will be your most avid supporter. And be ready to open the doors to a flood of new business.
• Engage as a person. You don’t need the veil of an organized, PR-approved response — that goes nowhere in this space. It’s akin to meeting new people at a Christmas party: Introduce yourself. Tell the other person about you. Then ask about the other person. Stop and listen and understand. Remember, the corporate voice needs a human voice to be accessible and to engage in meaningful dialogue.
• It’s not easy. It takes a lot of work. But the effort produces strong relationships that are lasting. And the money….it’ll be there as well…guaranteed!

Good luck!