Eric Leist – Blog and e-portfolio

Believe it or not, I first discovered theKbuzz through a Facebook advertisement that popped up on my home page. It’s a really cool company with offices in New York and Boston that seems to have cracked the Facebook marketing code. They are doing some really cool things in the social media space.

In order to apply to work at theKbuzz, applicants have to fill out a social media quiz. I took a while crafting my answers, so I figured I’d post them here too.

If you were the Social Media Director at T-mobile, how would you handle the #fail of their Sidekick/Danger line?

This social media crisis is a little bit dated, so instead, I’m going to address the recent attacks on Nestle’s Facebook Fan Page.

Greenpeace recently released a report revealing that Nestle purchases palm oil from Sinar Mas, an oil producer notorious for immoral practices that are depleting rain forests in Southeast Asia. The first mistake Nestle made was distancing alert communications practices from business strategy. There must not be a PR specialist in the board room helping to aid decisions. Nestle claims it previously bought the palm oil Sinar Mas produced in Indonesia, but no longer does so. Why did Nestle stop business with Sinar Mas? A 2009 Greenpeace report accused Sinar Mas of unethical practices! But if Nestle wants to be a socially responsible company, it needs to take initiative to investigate the ethics of its suppliers before agreeing to do business with them. It can’t wait for a report from Greenpeace. Someone at Nestle dropped the responsibility ball and took the easy way out.

Okay, so the decision makers at Nestle made a business ethics mistake. It happens. But Nestle handled the issue all wrong in the social media space. First the company’s Facebook moderator took a heated tone while threatening to delete comments from users who altered the Nestle logo for their profile pictures. When a company undergoes a reputation crisis, it is not in a position of power. It has no leverage to threaten anything. It needs to embrace its critics and its fans, not attempt to bear hug them until they pass out.

But Nestle fueled the fire in more ways than one. When Greenpeace posted a video parody depicting the company in a negative light for “killing orangutans,” Nestle requested that YouTube remove the video. Naturally, people heard about Nestle’s request, and the video went viral. The PR people at Nestle need to take a technology 101 class. Clearly they don’t understand how Internet video works and how sensitive a fuse they were lighting.

What Nestle should have done was put in the hours to respond to every comment on the Facebook page to clearly, concisely communicate steps they were taking to solve the problem. Instead, Nestle posted a dense Q&A corporate-looking press release. Nestle needed a human face and a human voice badly, but it spoke with a corporate one instead. Mistake number four.

Nestle should have worked with Greenpeace by starting an initiative to solve the very problem Sinar Mas caused. It doesn’t matter if Nestle isn’t to blame. The company needs to shake off a bad reputation and should take whatever measures necessary to do so.

Sometimes social media directors are left to squelch the fires high-up decision makers set. That’s why social media presence is such an important aspect of a company. Word of mouth is on steroids, and companies need highly skilled professionals to manage it.

For a small business (think restaurant or hair salon), what social site would you recommend and why? Let’s say for budget purposes, you could only choose one.

There’s a fundamental idea many social media marketers miss, and that’s that tools come and go. The best way to conduct a campaign is to devise a content strategy and apply it to whatever tools hot during the course of the campaign. A focus solely on the tools is inefficient because a hammer doesn’t do you any good without a building plan.

While Foursquare has some intriguing applications to small businesses like restaurants, I don’t think it would be the one tool I’d use…not until it’s more widely accepted. If I were using one tool I’d use Twitter. I think the real-time conversations that happen on there have an incredible ability to bring people together. Restaurants cannot survive without repeat traffic–neither can hair salons. So each restaurant that’s in business has a core of returning customers. If they’re returning, they must be happy with the product or service! My strategy would be to bring the restaurant fans together on Twitter.

I’d post a screen at the entrance or serving counter that showed the Twitter feed for our hashtag or restaurant name. That way, customers can have a little fun watching their name scroll down the board while they’re eating or waiting. Maintenance could be low: Tweet whenever a fresh dessert leaves the kitchen, or tweet the current wait time for a table. Retweet and respond to what the customers say. Every week or so I’d run some kind of contest: Twitpic yourself with your favorite dish or reward the customers who tweet the most about the restaurant. How remarkable would it be to order over Twitter! That would definitely get some attention.

There’s a lot of milage to gain if you’re creative with Twitter, but it all goes back to the strategy of leveraging your fans and opening up the conversation.

What large company has the best social media strategy, in your opinion?

JetBlue comes to mind as the most strategic. They answer questions, respond to compliments, and take care of customer service all from their Twitter account. A great product helps, but the marketing of it is just as important. They’re doing wonders for their brand.

How should a client handle negative feedback? (On their Facebook wall, for instance)

I think it helps to have active engagement on the Facebook wall to begin with. A brand that actively asks for feedback doesn’t look so unhealthy when a negative comment appears. Address the feedback directly and publicly if possible. If a private message is best, publicly respond letting the person know you’ll send a private message. This way, the complaint doesn’t snowball into a viral image of ignorance.

What do you see an outside agency’s role being with a client’s social media? Can they/should they post content on behalf of a client?

I don’t like ghost writing or ghost tweeting. I think it depletes a brand’s authenticity. On social media, people can smell a phony a mile away. I think agencies should be in the business of establishing clients’ online presence and training clients how to best benefit from that presence. Most client’s don’t have the CSS or HTML skills to design a fancy blog, but they can be trained to operate the WordPress Dashboard once it’s set up.

Monitoring is a key task as well. If an agency agrees to monitor social media for a client and steer that client toward the most important tasks or relationships, both parties benefit. Many times clients are short on time and need to pick and choose who to engage. Agencies can help clients get the most out of limited time and energy.

Take a look at some of our case studies or current clients…which is your favorite?

My favorite case study is the Heineken Facebook group. I think so much time is devote to companies’ social media to communicate with external audiences, but there are incredibly important uses for internal publics! I also like that theKBuzz trained a client to accomplish a social media task instead of doing the work for the client. I think a healthy client-agency relationship is one where clients can learn. You know what they say, “Give a man a tweet, he tweets for a day. Teach a man to tweet, he tweets for a lifetime.”

Which do you think could use a little love- and what would you do with that account?

I understand hourly budgets limit effort, and I know social media upkeep tents to die after a client decides to break off paying for an agency’s services.
Having said that, I’m not sure what happened with Aboveground Realty. The Facebook page hasn’t been updated since February…which leads people to believe the featured listings are probably not available anymore. They could definitely use a little love.

Rather than reinstating that standard listing posting Aboveground has been doing on Facebook, I would implement video on multiple facets. I’d have Aboveground check in on former customers who are now happily living in their luxury apartments. Maybe they’d like to do a mock Cribs-style tour. I’d also like to see video tours of apartments that are currently listed.

Moving requires more than just finding an apartment. I’d like to see Aboveground have a few tie-ins to Facebook marketplace. What furniture are people selling that apartment-hunters could use? How can Aboveground use social media to make the moving process as a whole easier for customers? The company needs to do something innovative in social media or else it will continue as a stagnant page with lots of dead air.

What is your personal favorite social network of choice, and why?

If you can’t tell by now, I’m a huge Twitterholic. I like the real-time interaction. I love doing chats and meeting new people who share my interests. As a college senior, I see networking as one of the keys to my early career. I’ve definitely found value through Twitter.

Do you think clients should bother with smaller niche networks? Or should they really just go for the biggies?

It always depends on the client. I see niche networks as a place for B2B clients. Many times, they’re able to target their customers narrowly and find those customers on niche networks. Many niche networks are paid memberships, which businesses can afford, but consumers can’t.
For consumer clients, I think the (free) mainstream major networks are the way to go.

Feelings on Myspace? Dead? Coming back? What will its role be?

Myspace was an early social media pioneer, but I think its services have been outmatched by more inventive and highly-specialized sites. I know there are some demographics that are still big on Myspace. For businesses looking to target those demographics, Myspace might be worth looking into.

What’s your take on the new FTC guidelines for bloggers?

I think bloggers who want to uphold journalistic integrity will follow the rules. I think those rule-conscious bloggers are few and far between. The FTC is trying to regulate something that cannot be controlled. Bloggers are a passionate group. They’re wild about their blogging topics. They’ll write whatever they want to write, and they’re not about to let the FTC impost rules on them. I think companies (and agencies) need to make more of an effort to ask the bloggers they pitch to disclose any giveaways. That’s the most the FTC can ask for.