Lindsay Casey

Make Social Selling Easy With Chirpify

Social media is everywhere and that isn’t going to change. Our digital lives are becoming more integrated with our offline lives and I believe the next phase of this combination is e-commerce.

Some people have been slow to accept internet banking and other forms of online financial transactions. However, with companies like Square processing payments on smartphones combined with a generation of people who’ve grown up with online banking, it’s clear that the next step is seamless integration between shopping and social media.

Chirpify, the only in-stream social commerce platform, is a forward thinking company making e-commerce simpler than ever.

The Social Commerce and Payments Platform from Chirpify on Vimeo.

See something you like on a Facebook page? How about Instagram? With Chirpify, you can buy, sell or pay for items with a single comment on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

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Lindsay Casey

How Ford is Leading the Race in Social Media

It’s hard to ignore how well a massive company like Ford has tackled social media. The automotive giant is arguably one of the best brands on social media right now and what I like about them is that they aren’t shy about sharing their strategies. Ford’s head of social media, Scott Monty, has been really open about their strategy of humanizing the brand and adding value in a “140 character society.”

So, what makes Ford so great at social media?

fordNostalgia – Did your dad drive a Mustang? If he didn’t, I bet he wanted one. Just try saying the words “Shelby Cobra” and see how long he goes on for. Few brands are as iconic as Ford and their social media team is using nostalgia to keep their audience talking. Through posting vintage photos of cars and trucks and quotes, like the one pictured to the left on Facebook, they’ve got the audience telling their own stories about the brand.

Conversation – I mentioned about Ford’s genius move of getting their audience to tell the brand stories for them. Well, this creates a prime environment for Ford to engage in meaningful dialogue with their audience. Whether it’s a story about Grandpa’s first truck or the car a father and son team lovingly restored, Ford’s social pages are full of stories and Ford does an excellent job at celebrating them.

Contests – Whether it’s sneaking a peek into the design of the upcoming Mustang or . Ford has also been smart about using social media contests to drive buzz. Their brilliant #Fiestagram campaign generated thousands of photographs on Instagram and the Fiesta Movement Campaign saw Ford handing the keys over to 100 bloggers for a six month long, all expenses paid, test drive.

Plus, they’re funny. Take this, Jeremy Irons.

Final verdict: Trailblazer. In every way. Catch up with Ford on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Ford Social.

 

Lindsay Casey

Xplornet Gets a D- in Engagement

Xplornet

Rural Canadians depend on Xplornet for high speed internet access. Unfortunately, as is the case with many companies who service rural markets, they have been left in the social media dust of larger, rival companies like Bell and Rogers. At this time last year, Xplornet’s Facebook page was a ghost town and their Twitter stream was barely updated.

To their credit, Xplornet does seem to be stepping up its efforts and I can personally say that I have received great customer service resulting from a tweet. However, the overall effort still comes across as weak.

xplornet

Blog – Xplornet has launched a company blog. It’s poorly laid out, which means it doesn’t actually look like a blog at all, and it’s difficult to find. Some of the content is outdated – even though the audience is a rural one, I’m pretty sure most people know that Google is a verb by now.

My Recommendations:

  • Write shorter, more engaging posts and make it easier to find and share them.
  • Get  rid of the Captcha system and use a back end spam blocker.
  • Ditch the corporate responses. Not every comment needs to end with regards, the customer service rep’s name and their job title.
  • Change how posts are tagged. I find it icky that blog posts which have nothing to do with Xplornet’s services are tagged with the names of all of their internet packages.

Twitter – Over the last few months, Xplornet has been providing quite good customer service on Twitter. However, it’s all reactive. I don’t see anything proactive there. While responses to customer complaints are good, it would be better to have some positive tweets displayed when you land on their page.

My Recommendations:

  • Start engaging. Retweet and thank people for positive tweets when they show up.
  • Be human. Can the corporate speak and let the reps talk like humans.
  • Share. Find relevant content and share it. Show some behind the scenes action. Humanize the brand.

It’s difficult for a communications company, especially one that works in rural locations. Services go down due to remote locations and weather and when people get frustrated, social media is rapidly becoming the first place to air frustrations. However, by being proactive, heated situations can be diffused and by humanizing the brand, a company can begin to build customer loyalty.

It currently seems that people are with Xplornet because they have to be, not because they chose them. If I were in charge at Xplorenet, my goal would be to be the company people would choose even if another company entered the market.

Final verdict: D-. Not a complete fail, as progress is apparent and it’s nice to see them making an effort, but  they still have a long way to go.

Lindsay Casey

General Electric: Social Imagination at Work

Social media can be a minefield if you don’t know how to navigate it. Over the next few days I’ll be posting mini case studies showcasing brands who’ve nailed it and ones who need work. Let’s start on a positive note, with the innovative General Electric.

GE

When I used to think of the GE brand, my grandmother’s kitchen mixer would come to mind. Well folks, times have changed and GE is now one of the most creative brands out there. The new slogan is Imagination at Work and, when I think of GE now, I think of social media innovation. Big time. Any company wanting to step up their social media game could learn a few lessons from GE.

So, what is GE doing so well?

  • Content – General Electric consistently posts interesting, thought provoking content on all of their social networks. Most notable is Pinterest, where their beautifully curated boards are a joy to follow. In their own words, they’re “Pinning things that inspire us to build, power, move and cure the world.” The brand is very active on Instagram as well, and has also become a prolific Vine user.
  • Engagement – There are no robots at the wheel of GE’s social media ship. What has got to be a social media dream team proactively starts conversations, gets people talking and consistently follows up with unforgettable interactions. Not convinced? Read this.
  • Risk taking – General Electric recently announced details of a partnership with Quirky, a crowdsourcing site for inventors. Smart move on GE’s part if you ask me; not only do they do a wonderful social service by fostering innovation and creativity, but think of the hundreds of thousands of patents they could add to their collection.

Brand highlight: COME ON (<— read that in the voice of Gob Bluth), look at this Vine they made for Pi day!

Final verdict: Killing it. In all the right ways. See General Electric in action on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

Lindsay Casey

Why You Shouldn’t Link Facebook & Twitter Posts

In a world of artificial communications, people are searching for an authentic conversation. Brands who don’t invest the time to provide this to their audience are missing out. I have a few social media pet peeves, but my biggest by far is automation between Facebook and Twitter.

Today I saw a tweet advertising the fact that that the poster was on Twitter. I won’t name and shame the culprit, but take a look at this.

lametweet

If you want to maintain any sort of credibility on Facebook and Twitter, do NOT link the two. Just because Twitter makes it easy to do, doesn’t mean you should.

1. It’s Irrelevant. Often if someone likes you on Facebook, they will also follow you Twitter and they expect a different experience on each platform. Constant regurgitation of the same content will make them jump ship. Think about it. Do you want to see the same thing everywhere you go online?

2. Choice. When you link your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you have no choice in which posts are duplicated, so when you @ reply to someone on Twitter, that comment is also posted as an update on Facebook. where it makes no sense to your audience. Another huge downside to this is the use of hashtags, which currently have no place on Facebook.

3. Character Limitations. Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters. Facebook posts are not. I see so many brands posting updates to Twitter that make no sense because they are cut off halfway through.

4. Traffic. If you’re a brand who is linking all your Facebook and Twitter posts, you could be missing out on traffic. Wouldn’t you rather send people to your own website instead?

5. It’s just lazy. If you want people to engage and interact with you, don’t be so lazy as to assume that they don’t know what you’re doing. Have some respect for your audience.

Hopefully this post has convinced you to disconnect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can do that here. Trust me, your fans will appreciate it.