Twitter101| case studies

Still not convinced that Twitter has some value for your brand?

Now Twitter has released their very own case studies showing how brands like Dell, Pepsi, JetBlue and others have incorporated the tool of wonder into their marketing plans.

Facebook + cute dogs + coffee = BIG Change

Here's a cute story about how Facebook (and more importantly, a retailer's fans) made a difference for a small business. Coffee Labs, a dog friendly emporium in Tarrytown, NY got into trouble with their local health department for being dog friendly.

The business created a fan page for local dog owners to declare their love for the shop. Facebook + cute dogs + coffee = local tv magic. Naturally, this gets picked up by the local news, and before you know it, a local attorney gets involved and writes a waiver for the coffee shop.

You’ve heard it before: Individuals using social media to hold people and organizations to a higher level of accountability and transparency for perceived injustices—leveraging their network and the power of an engaged community to bring about change.

An airline passenger with a smart phone Tweets about the fact that he’s been stuck on a tarmac for four hours with little access to food, water and bathrooms.  We’ve heard about companies monitoring Tweets 24/7, and seen how a Tweet in some cases will get you a faster customer service response than calling or even e-mailing—a real-time response for a real-time communication channel. A well-known restaurant chain is shamed by an employee who posts an inappropriate video to You Tube from one of its franchise locations, and a cable company is held accountable when its cable-repair guy falls asleep on a couch in the middle of a customer’s living room and the video goes viral on You Tube.

So it wasn’t much of a stretch to learn that my local coffee shop turned to social media—and the power of an engaged community—when the local Board of Health enforced a customer complaint about the establishment’s policy of allowing leashed dogs inside the shop with their owners. Coffee Labs—a play on coffee-colored labrador retrievers and the kind of laboratory it is for roasting coffee—has always been a dog-friendly place. Customers like me enjoy the friendly atmosphere and wonderful full-bodied coffee. The presence of an occasional dog is a pleasant diversion, and responsible people acting responsibly with their leashed dogs has always been the norm. A sign on the front window clearly indicates that “dogs are allowed” (Snoopy would be proud), and potential patrons bothered by this policy are always welcome to  take their business elsewhere.

Here’s what happened:

1. Someone complains to the local Board of Health about bringing dogs into Coffee Labs.
2. The shop owners build a fan page on Facebook called  I want to go back to Coffee Labs Roasters, WOOF!!!!! and let their network know about it.
3. The network of loyal customers (455 people as of this writing) is understandably outraged and shows their support.
4. The local television news—as is the custom with media these days—discovers a story breaking on social media (Facebook) and picks it up for coverage on the evening news.
5. A local attorney learns of the shop’s plight and volunteers to write a possible waiver to allow dogs back in the shop.

Bravo—the power of an engaged community using social media to fight injustice at the grass-roots level. Just a local coffee shop in the suburbs of New York City who wants to run their business as they see fit, not injustice on some grand scale.

But still…think of the possibilities.

The response came in a matter of days; the network came together voluntarily and participated enthusiastically and vigorously—no one is paying them and no one is paying the local attorney. It’s the power of an engaged community using social media to lock arms.

CyberMentors |Words Can Kill

BeatBullying marked the launch of CyberMentors in March 2009 with a UK-wide print advertising campaign warning about the link between text bullying and teen suicide. Three images show young people affected by hanging, a slit wrist and drug overdose, in each case portrayed with denigrating words. The campaign aims to promote a new social networking site CyberMentors, as the next step to educate victims that there is help available and for the bullies to understand that they can change.



The concept began with a series of detailed focus groups with 11-18-year-old males and females from a representative cross-sample of backgrounds to ask what bullying really is like today both from the victim and bully’s perspective. The campaign, which features silhouetted imagery of a young person that appears to have committed suicide from the sustained barrage of bullying taunts in youth language, aims to educate victims that there is help available at www.cybermentors.org.uk, and bullies on what the impact of their actions could ultimately be.
Research done by BeatBullying in the UK showed that 56% of young people (in a sample of 2000 young people between the ages of 11 and 18) admit to having, at some point, been involved in bullying. The most common bullying methods were a hurtful message to a victim (26 per cent), spreading rumours (16 per cent), and editing a picture (15 per cent). Eight percent of this group had either filmed bullying or sent an offensive video clip about someone to their friends.”
CyberMentors, cybermentors.org.uk, is the first nationwide online peer-mentoring social networking site for young people, and is manned by over 700 fully trained CyberMentors and Beatbullying cyber councillors.

Credits

The Words Can Kill campaign was developed at M&C Saatchi, London, by creative director Graham Fink, art director Alex Taylor, copywriter Orlando Warner, planner Howard Miller, account director Sadie Clark, and designer/typographer Jonathan Muddell, with Beatbullying head of communications Sherry Adhami. Media was handled by Walker Media.

Open Letter to ad agency executives

Dear Mr. XXXXX,
I wanted to say thank you for your pitch. The part in focus that I wanted to discuss was where you said “Google and search is not everything”.
I understand your viewpoint, and I would like to discuss this further. When you have a chance could you call my google voice number. I have that number forwarded to my Google Android powered cell phone … while on the topic, I loved the idea of the app you discussed. Just make sure it runs on my Droid.
When you send over the document, I will make the edits in Google docs and make sure to run the media plan you sent over though Google Ad planner to double check the suggestions.
Regarding the commercial you presented to us, I need to send that to a few people here for discussion. If you could upload that to Google owned Youtube that would be great, just make sure to limit who can see it.
Regarding the billboard placements, that was a wonderful idea. Send me the locations so I can check them on Google Maps via street view to make sure it’s where we want them.
I really liked the beta webdesign you showed us, can you make sure that it renders properly in Google Chrome? When designing the site, don’t do it all in flash and make sure that it has unique titles and metas. I want to make sure we rank organically for our terms in Google. I agree with you that Google Analytics is the right way to measure the traffic and ROI from the campaign.
Also the discussion we had regarding mentions of our company in the press? We do feel that Google Alerts would do the job for us regarding that. As of course the press releases you send out will be in Google News.
You know, the more I think about this, the more I feel that perhaps I don’t want your advertising agency running the campaign. Perhaps we should hire an SEO firm for this.
Best Regards,
XXXXXXX

Coca-Cola|Happiness Machine