Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Customer Retention - Seafood
Two nights ago, a friend brought a couple of us to this little coffeeshop that sold seafood in Serangoon. The food was pretty good and to our surprise, the owner gave us a free dish (fish head curry, to be precise) for us to try. The owner made an intentional effort to come out twice during the night (although he also cooks the food) to make sure everything was fine.
Over dinner, I made the point to my friends (both business graduates) that this really is the way businesses should market themselves.
Why spend all that money on the bus ad or print ad that people see and forget in an instant, with the hope that it will serve as an acquisition strategy and bring in new customers? Instead why not delight your customers who have already voted with their wallets to buy from you and encourage to come back time and time again?
Needless to say, in the two days since then I’ve told four other people about it and will soon be bringing my family to check it out.
So what are you doing to get your customers to come back? Or are you letting your competition put in that little bit of extra effort to enhance the customer experience and win them over?
Ps: The idea of using retention isn’t new (nor mine) and you can read Joseph Jaffe’s new book Flip The Funnel to find out more, but I thought this was a great case study to practically illustrate how it can be done.
Pps: The address of said coffeeshop is Blk 153 Serangoon North Ave 1 #01-512 (and no, I was absolutely not incentivised by the store to share this with you.)
[image credit: jensen_chua on Flickr]
Tags: acquisition strategy, bus ad, business graduates, coffeeshop, fish head curry, flip the funnel, joseph jaffe, print ad, serangoon
Posted in Marketing, Singapore, case studies | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Last week I blogged about what not getting involved in social media may cost you, and I have a personal example on it this week.
I’m leaving beautiful Canada in just about a week and I have to go through New York to go home. Because I don’t feel like sitting in a train for 14 hours and don’t dare to drive in potentially snowy conditions on unfamiliar roads, I’m going to fly.
While booking tickets, I made sure to avoid Delta Airlines for one reason and one reason alone: Joseph Jaffe’s Delta Skelter experience and absolute failure to act satisfactorily on the part of Delta Airlines.
Do I know that American Airlines is any better? No, not at all. No one in the North American airline industry is particularly known for being excellent. That also means I’ll take my chances with a “neutral” party than a party that is known to have issues for sure.
So Delta, if you had just made things right at the time, you may just have had my $200 because Joseph would have blogged about how happy he was that you made things right, and I would have based my decision on that positive word of mouth instead of the negative.
And by the way, this is only one $200 ticket that Delta may know about. How many do they not know about?
Tags: american airlines, canada, delta airlines, delta skelter, flying to new york, joseph jaffe, negative roi, new york
Posted in Poor Practices, case studies, social media | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
A weekend of travel means less blogging this week, but definitely not less reading!
Blogging
You want to show you know what you’re doing, even if the company you’re in follows prehistoric methods, so that the next person who hires you has a reference point. Joseph Jaffe tells you how in AdWeek – Save Your Career, Start A Blog
RSS
Daily Blog Tips has 50 Simple Ways To Gain RSS Subscribers – some might just come in useful!
Word Of Mouth
Andy Sernovitz gets another link this week for telling us why Your Word Of Mouth Markting Doesn’t Have To Be About Your Product. I’ll admit I liked this post partially because Molson Canadian is my new favourite beer while I’m here in Canada. (Oh and they have a blog, and recently an event right here at Queen’s!)
John Johansen had a great experience at Best Buy, which is the polar opposite of what some companies are doing in this recessionary period. (Examples to be posted, soon). He also mentions that because it was a special event there was extra help, free drinks etc, but many people also bought something. Do you think they included his blog post (or any other positive ones) while measuring the ROI of that event?
Social Media ROI
While we’re on that topic, David Meerman Scott tells us how to Answer The Ultimate Question: “How do I convince my boss of the ROI of new marketing?” – It’s not a long video, definitely worth a look.
Gen Y, Millennials and Digital Natives
Quickly becoming an interest point for me these days. Prof Netzley has a deck on Educating Gen Y and how collaborative technologies foster participant-centered learning. . I’d say it’s definitely worth flipping through, especially if you’re trying to figure out what the heck Gen Y is about and how we learn.
Tags: adweek, andy sernovitz, best buy, blogging, collaboration, collaborative technologies, communicate asia, daily blog tips, david meerman scott, digital natives, educating gen y, Gen Y, generation y, john johansen, joseph jaffe, michael netzley, millennials, molson canadian, new marketing, participant centered learning, queen's university, recessionary times, ROI, rss, save your career, social media roi, start a blog, ways to gain rss subscribers, word of mouth marketing
Posted in Links | No Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
If needing to take notes is my personal benchmark for how good a book is (like Joseph Jaffe’s Join The Conversation), then Andrew Keen’s Cult Of The Amateur falls firmly in the opposite category. To be honest, for the first half of the book I was waiting for the “haha gotcha!” moment, because no one could be this blind towards the benefits of Web2.0 and community and collaboration.
But I soon discovered it would never come.
Keen fancies his book a polemic, but what it really is, is a rant. After reading the first chapter, every subsequent chapter was merely a repetition of what was said before, albeit with different examples and/or research.
Speaking of research, that is the one thing that Keen does well. I enjoyed reading the statistics, but not the conclusions drawn. for example he gives a timeline for the decline in music sales and says something to the effect that is no coincidence that this happened at around the time of the internet’s birth.
Keen loves the old world. He loves the “cultural gatekeepers” like reporters, news anchors, editors, movie reviewers and the like. Maybe crowdsourcing doesn’t always work, but I would almost always rather determine whether I want to watch a movie based on what people say online, than that one singular review in the newspapers by a “cultural gatekeeper”. In fact I’m working on a deck talking about “The New Gatekeepers”, so obviously I am in direct opposition with Keen here.
One thing Keen does do well, is highlight the problems the internet has brought. Online gambling addiction, pornography, plagarism, not watching one’s online identity. I’m in agreement with these social ills, but the way he writes the book, it sounds like these eclipse everything good about Web2.0 (democratisation of media, more choice than ever via the long tail, experiences that we’d otherwise never have, collaboration, discussion, community, the list goes on). And he makes it sound that these are so terrible that we should just get rid of the internet entirely, although he stops just short of saying that.
Keen also points to Viacom suing YouTube as a “powerful message”, but my bet is that Viacom (who owns MTV, VH1 and Nickleodeon) is wishing they had bought YouTube instead of Google. Just think of the possibilities if Viacom owned that media channel.
All in all, I did not enjoy reading this book at all. Not just because it goes against everything I believe in about social media and community, but because the arguments are one sided. He talks about the money lost by Frito-Lay choosing to go with an amateur advertising campaign, and makes it the fault of social media. But is it anyone’s fault that “professionals” failed to deliver better content and creativity than the “amateurs”? He simply takes one side of the coin and runs with it.
For people already in this space, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book because it isn’t going to change your mind. The arguments are just not strong and/or compelling enough, and your money will be much better spent going towards a book that will help improve your social media life.
But hey don’t take my word for it, check out visual bookshelf on Facebook for many similar reviews, or just check out at this user-generated content by another reviewer (which I found while looking for the cover image). I bet Mr. Keen hates all these “amateur” review and wishes it were all done by a “cultural gatekeeper” instead.
Tags: andrew keen, cult of the amateur, cultutal gatekeepers, facebook, frito-lay, join the conversation, joseph jaffe, polemic, rant, Research, the new gatekeepers, viacom, visual bookshelf, web2.0, youtube
Posted in Books, Singapore | 3 Comments »
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
The continual frustrations over Social Media Breakfast | Singapore are really getting on my nerves, moreso because I’m here in Canada and can’t be on the ground dealing with things.
Here’s the thing for everyone who wants to partner with us for any Social Media Breakfast | Singapore: Go pick up Join The Conversation by Joseph Jaffe (my review here), and understand the idea of community, dialogue and partnership, and then we’ll talk.
We are not a business. Your venue is not the be all and end all. We don’t need to impress anyone with our venue. When you bring up money or revenue, you demonstrate that you don’t understand partnership.
You demonstrate that you are no different from any other business that wants to broadcast your message in a one way communication method.
You demonstrate an extremely myopic view on the short term, instead of an investment in the future.
You demonstrate that you don’t understand the importance of relationships in the new world.
You demonstrate that you want to be involved in this new space, but you bring the old mentality with it. And the Web 2.0 crowd sees through that.
Maybe this post will dissuade people from offering to “sponsor” future breakfasts, in all honesty, I hope it does. Companies who read this and still feel there is value to be reaped by partnership and don’t dictate terms, will be exactly the type of companies we want to partner with.
At this rate, the next Social Media Breakfast | Singapore will be a picnic with sandwiches. And you know what? I have a feeling that may benefit the community even more.
Tags: community dialogue partnership, corporate sponsorship, join the conversation, joseph jaffe, social media breakfast singapore
Posted in Singapore, Uncategorized, community, social media, social media breakfast | 8 Comments »
Monday, June 16th, 2008
I had a very belated listen to Joseph Jaffe’s Jaffe Juice #109 last night while crowding around with a million other people at the PC Show in Singapore, and was moved by the social media miracle experienced by Keith Burtis, who was auctioning his wood turning artwork to the online community to get an engagement ring for his girlfriend.
It really got me thinking about the generosity of people I’ve met thus far in my social media journey. Within the first couple of months of jumping into social media, Sheylara drops an email volunteering her help for SMB, Caleb volunteers to sponsor SMB while absolutely getting nothing out of it, Tania of The Open Room helps me score an additional two tix to Marie Digby even though the initial tickets she had were gone, Sherms designs a SMB logo which took time and effort which frankly, she could’ve put into something that would actually make her some money.
And those are just the tangible ones, not including the help I’ve gotten when trying to find a place to stay in Canada or looking for specific case studies or news, and I am sure that I am forgetting a few more instances and I apologise for that!
There is something about people engaged in this space. A natural desire for community and exchange and sharing, even if the person giving doesn’t get anything out of it. Sure, there are people who I would call shit-stirrers within any community, but so far, it seems like they’re the minority.
What are your experiences with giving/sharing in the social media space? Is there anything I could help you with? Just ask and if possible, I’ll definitely help!
Tags: community giving, community sharing, jaffe juice, joseph jaffe, keith burtis, pc show singapore suntec city, sheylara, social media miracle, the open room
Posted in Blogs, Singapore, collaboration, community, social media | 8 Comments »
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
The biggest compliment I can give to Joseph Jaffe’s new book, Join The Conversation (currently #37 on Amazon’s business books list), is that I took so long to finish it despite receiving it in late February as part of the UNM2PNM initiative. I whiz through fiction fairly quickly, but when it comes to non-fiction, specifically marketing, communication or social media specific, I need to read the book with an open notebook and pen next to me so I can take notes and review them later. Obviously, this means more time because doing that on a bus can be a hassle, so many hours of camping at Starbucks and Borders later, I’ve finally finished the book and what can I say, it it any surprise I love it?
The first thing I need to tell you, is that if you’re already well immersed in this social media fishbowl, then as Joseph has said many times on the Jaffe Juice podcast, this book isn’t really meant for you. It’s less of a “how to” book and more of a “why you should” book, which you should probably pass on to your manager or CEO to read, and get more buy in for your social media experiments.
What I really enjoyed were all the case studies. I’m almost embarrassed to mention that I didn’t recognise most of them. I’ve realised more and more that case studies are important when trying to sell your social media idea. Showing the best examples of initiatives that worked, and the worst examples of ignoring the consumer (the latest comes from Joseph Jaffe himself with Delta Airlines), can work wonders in getting execs stuck in their prehistoric ways to wake up.
If you’re currently struggling with implementing a social media experiment, or even thinking about it, give the book a read. Learn from some successes and failures and do better! If you don’t have the time to read it, try tuning in to Jaffe Juice (the podcast). I’d recommend starting with #105 which is a nice roundtable discussion with executives from different companies talking about their initiatives and the results, or check out the Join The Conversation blog
Tags: book review, case studies, jaffe juice, jaffe juice podcast, join the conversation, joseph jaffe, social media experiment, unm2pnm
Posted in Books | 7 Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2008
This is late so I’m going to jump straight into it. My choice for the March podcast of the month goes to Six Pixels of Separation for the interview with Seth Godin in #93. I also listened to #94 – #97, and #97 is the episode where Mitch talks about Social Media Breakfast: Singapore, so you might want to check that out as well.
Other podcasts that I really think you should check out:
I really enjoyed listening to CC Chapman on Managing The Gray where he responded to Intellagirl’s challenge on how to get non-social media people into social media, as well as his coverage of SXSW.
With that said I also enjoyed Shill’s thoughts on SXSW coverage happening literally everywhere else, and how that feels from people not at the event. I really felt their point of view because I was one of those people getting bombarded non-stop on Twitter about SXSW. Probably something everyone will have to figure out for the next event.
Joseph Jaffe also weighed in on the SXSW coverage and Intellagirl’s challenge in Jaffe Juice #107 as well as facing outward from the fishbowl. An observation which I think is spot on.
Marketing Over Coffee was also good this month with an episode on what to do with your house list, two parts on the state of search and talking about the power of free.
Two new podcasts I picked up are For Immediate Release which comes out so frequently I can barely keep up but some good, thought provoking content in there, as well as Inside PR, whose discussion on ethics in PR to be very enlightening in #103 and #104
As always I am open to any and all suggestions for new podcasts to listen do. Just drop me a comment! While you’re at it, why not check out the podcast of the month for February and January as well?
Tags: cc chapman, facing inward fishbowl, facing outward fishbowl, fishbowl, for immediate release, great podcasts, house list, inside pr, intellagirl challenge, jaffe juice, joseph jaffe, managing the gray, march podcast of the month, marketing over coffee, marketing podcasts, mitch joel, podcasts worth listening to, power of free, pr ethics, pr podcasts, seth godin, shill, six pixels of separation, social media, social media breakfast singapore, social media podcasts, state of search, sxsw, sxsw coverage, twitter
Posted in Podcasts | 4 Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
February was when I really expanded my podcast horizons and picked up stuff other than Six Pixels Of Separation and Jaffe Juice and my winner for this month goes to:
Marketing Over Coffee: Picking On Grandma, for three reasons:
- Great discussion on connectors and networks.
- Picking on grandma isn’t as negative as it sounds, but rather serves as a reminder that companies need to develop user-friendly products. (Grandma can use an ipod much easier than some other MP3 player because itunes syncs everything)
- Introduction of two useful Facebook apps (I’ll be showing one tomorrow).
My other nominees:
The Lost Initiative – I almost picked this as the winner because the discussion is so quick flowing. I think the British might just be less rambly. Ultimately, I decided the winner should be social media centric, so it’s a very close #2.
Six Pixels Of Separation #91 – for the 12 minute audio interview with Rick Murray. So good.
Jaffe Juice #104 – for the weigh-ins on 10 relationships vs 5 million impressions and also for mentioning that advertising is actually anti-cyclical to economic conditions, something that I don’t think companies grasp very well.
Special mention goes to the Hack College videocast #16, where they actually explored the idea of Twitter being used as a warning system in a school shooting. I draw parallel to wondering what would have happened if Twitter was used during 9/11.
Tags: christopher penn, connectors networks, facebook, hack college, john wall, joseph jaffe, lost initiative, marketing over coffee, mitch joel, picking on grandma, Podcasts, relationships impressions, rick murray, six pixels of separation, twitter, videocast
Posted in Podcasts, social media | 6 Comments »
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile, but was motivated into action by Mitch Joel over at Six Pixels Of Separation on his post regarding Technorati Authority.
Background: Technorati authority is simply a measure of how many other people are linking to you from their blogs. ie If 10 people link Unique-Frequency, my Technorati ranking is higher than if 2 people linked me. (This isn’t a new metric of “importance”, Google’s PageRank uses a similar system)
Thinking about this over the last week or so, I have to respectfully disagree with Mitch on the issue because I don’t think it’s a good indicator of whether a blog is “successful” or not.
The reason? Technorati doesn’t discriminate between links. I could have been scraped by a spam blog, just added by someone’s blogroll or mentioned in Joseph Jaffe’s UNM2PNM new marketing and they all will get picked up equally and add to my authority.
That said, of course it’s nice to have a higher authority, but does that really, tangibly mean anything? For example, Mitch has an authority of 550 on Technorati, but Jaffe has about 685. Should that mean I automatically take Jaffe to be more credible? Certainly I have learned a lot from both bloggers and would not say they should be almost 150 points apart.
Conversely, the JaffeJuice group on Facebook has 626 members while the Six Pixels Society more than doubles it at 1325 members. Does that mean anything?
Both are instances where bloggers or Facebook users have a choice whether to link or to join the groups. Some choose to, some don’t.
Here’s what I feel is the inherent flaw: You have to own a blog or be on Facebook to add to the Technorati authority or to the Facebook group’s numbers. But the number of people who are actual content creators (ie bloggers) is somewhere in the region of 13% according to a study shown in social media class. In other words, the other 87% are by default, excluded.
Now I’m not saying this is a bad metric. Obviously I love it when my authority goes up (I’m at 13). But I also know that while I have certain nice mentions by people like Louis Gray in an actual conversation, it also contains spam blog links and links on people’s blogroll, whether or not they read my blog. This difference makes me take the Technorati authority with a pinch of salt.
The system isn’t perfect, but then perhaps no system is. But personally, until this tension between discriminatory and non-discriminatory links are reconciled, I’m hesitant to place a strong emphasis on Technorati authority.
Tags: blog rankings, facebook, google pagerank, jaffe juice, joseph jaffe, louis gray, mitch joel, six pixels of separation, technorati authority
Posted in Blogs, social media | 2 Comments »
