Mr. Tire, Part Two: Marketing to a Very Dissatisfied Customer

I wrote in a previous post (How Social Media can Succeed and Fail at the Same Time) about my recent experience (on Super Bowl Sunday) with @MrTireAuto when I purchased two new tires.After communicating with a Corporate Marketing person on Twitter and via email, I've still never heard from the store manager.

So, this week, a direct mail postcard arrives in my mailbox. It's from, you guessed it, Mr. Tire reminding me that my 60,000 mile scheduled maintenance service is due and, of course, they can perform it. So what do you think my first reaction was? "You've got to be kidding me, right?" There is no way I'm going to go there for this service (or any other, for that matter) and this marketing effort just reminds me how they never followed through. And, of course, provided me with another blog post.

So thanks, @MrTireAuto, for the reminder. Unfortunately, probably not the "reminder" you wanted it to be.

Banning Social Media in the Workplace

I recently came across an interesting and disturbing statistic the other day. According to a Robert Half Technology CIO survey released earlier this year, over 55% of the 1,400 CIO's surveyed ban the use of social networking sites in the workplace. I really found that quite disturbing.

If the concern is productivity, individual employees in their 20's are as likely to be engaged via their smart phone as they are through their work pc. So they will find a way to engage their friends through these social outlets even when they are banned. It seems a strong stance to take in this day and age.

For corporate marketing, this may be the biggest constraint that individual marketers will face in using these tools. How can you build any type of meaningful social media engagement if your company bans it in the workplace? The better answer, in my opinion, is to build a social media policy that addresses these issues and draws the line between personal and corporate involvement. I addressed this in an earlier post this year. There is also an online database of other social media policies you may want to explore as well.

It isn't Rocket Science

A tweet came across yesterday from @r2integrated, a digital marketing firm we've worked with for years. The post, entitled "Social Media is Measured by the Sum of its Parts" was from @briansolis, a "prominent thought leader in new media". OK, got it.

He was writing about a recent study by Digital Brand Expressions that found that "52% of social marketers are running social media programs without a defined "game plan". Not surprising, given that many people are trying to figure out if there is any value to it for their organization. Kind of a "try it before you buy it" approach. That's pretty much how we got into it.

He goes on to say, in the next paragraph, to say that "The study found that logistics contributed to visibility, but insight was absent from investing in presence." Huh? I have to admit, I don't have a clue what that means. The rest of the post supports (?) this premise.

This post was re-tweeted 568 times (and counting) since it was published last week. I wonder how many of those people actually read it. If they did, and they see this post, perhaps they can explain it to me. Because all I see is someone making social media seem way more complex that it really is. I mean, c'mon, it isn't rocket science!

Social Media Marketing Tactics Going Mainstream?

According to recent research from Unica, via the eMarketer website, social marketing has become a "must have" in organizations. That said, the integration of these sites varies significantly by tactic. Many of the tools continue to be used for discrete events not directly connected to the overall marketing campaigns.
We've seen the same challenge in our institution. How do these statistics compare to your experience with social media marketing in your organization? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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