All the Rage this Christmas

The real winner of this year’s fight for the number-one Christmas single is neither Rage Against the Machine nor Joe McElderry; it’s social media. And any businesses that still fail to see the commercial importance of networking websites such as Facebook are doomed to be mired in the 20th century.

The backstory in brief: Essex music fans John and Tracy Morter were tired of the annual winner of The X Factor--or as they put up, “Simon Cowell’s latest karoake act”--landing the top spot on the Christmas charts, as has been the case since 2004. So they set up a Facebook page encouraging people to buy Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 “Killing in the Name” the week of 13th December so that it could pip this year’s X Factor winner to number one. The campaign worked, with Rage’s not-at-all-festive ditty outselling Joe McElderry’s cover of “The Climb” by about 50,000 copies—or rather downloads, as “Killing in the Name” was available online only.

The obvious moral to this story is that one should never underestimate the breadth of a social network or the enthusiasm with which consumers participate in an online campaign. A sociologist might go so far as to argue that in our far-flung, techno-oriented world, people are so hungry to connect with other humans that they are especially inclined to get involved in virtual campaigns, as a way of sating their need to belong to a group. If this is indeed true, then online grass-roots campaigns will become more, not less, powerful as the internet becomes more a part of our everyday existence.

Leaving that aside, though, there are several other lessons to be learned:

1) Be careful how you respond to social media. After getting wind of the Rage campaign, Cowell told the mainstream media at a press conference that the Facebook campaign was “stupid” and “cynical”. In many cases, you do need to respond to web chatter concerning your brand. By doing so at a press conference, though, Cowell gave the campaign greater play than it might otherwise have received. He also demonstrated that he perceived the campaign as a threat, which of course established its credibility as one. He might have been better off by having the X Factor finalists respond in the weeks leading up to the final and then having winner McElderry launch a campaign of his own.

2) Never assume. “I now realise I’ve taken too much for granted,” Cowell said after the chart results were announced. “I have got to hold my hands up. I accept that there are people that don’t like The X Factor.” If he’d been more diligent in monitoring his brand (the subject of an article in our upcoming January issue, by the way), he would not have been so surprised. Hell, he could have just rung me (and if you’d like to call upon me in the future, Simon, feel free. I don’t like The X Factor, but I’m definitely a fan of Simon Cowell.)

3) People—and especially British people—like to support the underdog. So if you’re being perceived as Goliath, you may want to consider highlighting a few of your similarities to David.

4) Not everyone buys into the force-fed image of Christmas as a time of cheer and group hugs. The fact that the Morters selected “Killing in the Name” (sample lyric: “And now you do what they told you/Now you’re under control”) for their protest, as opposed to a more seasonal or cheery ditty, underscores this. You can’t get much less warm and fuzzy than Rage Against the Machine. Prior to the next Christmas selling season, you might want to conduct some research amongst your own audience to see whether they’ve overdosed on messages of yuletide cheer and, if so, whether you should take a different approach to your holiday marketing.

5) If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em—or try to hire ‘em. Cowell reportedly phoned the Morters to congratulate them and offer them jobs at his record company. So far, they’ve declined.--SC

Blogs, break-ups, and dead sharks

It’s over. I have broken up with one of my favourite blogs.

The reasons, for this post, aren’t important. One element, though, had to do with what I (and apparently many other of the blog readers) perceived as a scolding by the blog editors regarding what they felt were off-topic responses to their posts. It could probably be boiled down to a classic case of both sides talking but neither side listening—and who hasn’t had a relationship that suffered to some degree from that?

The upshot is, whereas I used to be a big fan of the women’s-oriented blog Jezebel—visiting it several times a day, posting periodically, recommending it in articles, linking to it via this blog—a few days ago I decided to end our relationship. Okay, I did visit it once or twice during the weekend, but I didn’t click through any of the posts; it was more in the way of phoning an ex-boyfriend just to hear him pick up the phone, then hanging up when he says hello. (Come on, I’m not the only one who’s done that... am I?)

If I’m discussing my relationship with Jezebel in the same terms as one might a personal relationship, that’s because in some ways it felt like a personal relationship to me. Indeed, that’s one of the virtues of blogs and other forms of social media—and one of the dangers.

When venturing into social networking, it’s easy to focus on the upsides: creating and reaffirming customer loyalty, strengthening the bonds between consumers and brand, the potential for word-of-mouth marketing. But bear the potential pitfalls in mind as well. I emailed Jezebel with my concerns prior to breaking up with the blog, and in its defence one of the editors promptly emailed me back. But for every consumer you disappoint who makes you aware of his chagrin, there are sure to be others who simply drop you—or worse, drop you and then proceed to complain about you in his own blog posts or other conversations.

So remember that the opportunity for greater rewards usually comes with greater risks, that you need to listen as well as speak, and that you should never become complacent with your relationships with customers, any more than you should with your significant other. Which brings to mind a quote from Annie Hall: “A relationship, I think, is like a shark… It has to constantly move forward, or it dies. And I think what we got here on our hands is a dead shark.”--SC

"It's a magical world, Hobbes..."

For every avid fan of Twitter and Facebook, there seems to be an equally vociferous social-media sceptic. This little case study should give the doubters reason to reconsider.

A few months back one of my favourite blogs, the Comics Curmudgeon, briefly mentioned an upcoming book about one of the best comic strips in the history of the medium, "Calvin and Hobbes". Author Nevin Martell was offering everyone who emailed him a free copy of the first chapter of his book, Looking for Calvin and Hobbes. I emailed, and several weeks later received my free chapter.

I wasn’t the only one. In an interview with the Robot 6 blog on the Comic Book Resources website, Martell said that more than 4,000 people requested the chapter. “My publishers told me that super successful versions of this kind of promotion in the past had garnered a couple of hundred requests. But then the offer got written up by BoingBoing and NPR, not to mention a slew of comic-related blogs and the Twittersphere, so suddenly I had hundreds of requests pouring in.” The success of the promotion spawned additional blog posts and articles, which in turn generated more publicity for the book.

Martell doesn’t have a deep-pocketed publishing house behind him (if such a thing as a deep-pocketed publishing house even exists anymore). And because his book appeals to a niche market, he wisely targeted niche websites with his offer. In fact, for all that pundits have said that ecommerce levels the playing field for smaller merchants, because of the lower cost of entry and whatnot, I think that social media have levelled the field even more (except, of course, that a field cannot be levelled “more”—it’s either level or it’s not. But I digress…).

Let’s say you sell something niche like pig collectibles (don’t laugh—I used to have an extensive collection of porcine novelties… okay, laugh if you must). Ten years ago you would have had to target general collectibles magazines and forums to promote your products. Now after just a few minutes online you can find websites, Facebook groups, newsletters, and the like for pig owners, pig fanciers, and yes, collectors of pig memorabilia. By setting up a blog on your ecommerce site, linking to other relevant sites, and striking up relationships with other bloggers, you could home in on pig fans without wasting resources reaching out to, say, guinea pig collectors or casting a wider, costlier, and perhaps unprofitable net to include collectibles buyers in general.

And people who participate in niche hobbies are, judging from anecdotal evidence, more engaged with social media than those favouring more-mainstream pursuits. Those of us who are really interested in something as fairly specialised as comic strips or pig figurines or Bronteana (hey, I have very catholic tastes) are usually so excited to come upon others sharing our same arcane hobby that we email and post and forward relevant links with virtually no encouragement.

Which is one reason I've included links to both Martell's book and the Comics Curmudgeon site in this post.--SC

Of fan mail and thank yous

Despite all the chatter about social media, it’s still very easy to underestimate its effects. And it’s still very easy to get it wrong.

The other day a friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to some items on the Boden website, declaring how much she wished she could order one of everything. Until I saw that posting, I never quite understood why merchants should make it easy for visitors to their website to post product shots to their Facebook pages. Who’s really going to use that function? I wondered. I’ll tell you who: People who are debating whether to go ahead and splurge, and for whom a few responses from friends along the lines of “Love it!” and “That would be perfect for that wedding you’re complaining about having to attend” will make the difference between pass and purchase. And we’re not just talking kids; my friend is a hard-working mom in her forties.

I responded to my friend’s post by telling her I’d actually met and interviewed Johnnie Boden himself (when I’d started here at Catalogue e-business two years ago; you can access the article here), adding facetiously, “Are you impressed?” Ends up she really was. Things that you and I may take for granted because they’re part of our job--interviewing the heads of companies, attending fashion shows, going to trade exhibitions--are not taken for granted by most of our customers. By offering customers a peek behind the scenes--blogging about a runway show, posting snaps of a catalogue photo shoot on your Facebook page--you’re inviting them into the family. Which in turns transforms admirers into advocates.

But with the great power of social media comes great responsibility--the responsibility of not inadvertently snubbing even one customer or prospect. Unfortunately snubbing is all too easy. A somewhat off-the-track example: I’ve written before about the Comics Curmudgeon, a blog that pokes affectionate but snarky fun at US comic strips. When the writer of the blog launched a Twitter feed (@JFruh) I signed on to follow. Imagine my disappointment when the next day I saw that he had blocked me. And here I had just posted a tweet bigging him up. I was as hurt as if a friend of mine had told me that all those anecdotes I’d regaled him with for years really weren’t very entertaining and that, in fact, I was a big bore he only put up with because I paid for rounds at the pub.

So I wrote a post on the Comics Curmudgeon blog about how I’d been blocked and wasn’t feeling the love. Within a day @JFruh got back to me, telling me he’d thought our Twitter handle (@catalogbiz) sounded “spammy” and that he was sorry, honest. Ah, the love was back!

Now imagine that I had been communicating not with a blog but a multichannel marketer, and that my blog post had been ignored. I could easily have written about this on my Facebook page, my Twitter feed, this blog, my next editor’s letter...

One last anecdote and lesson: Never underestimate the importance of “thank you”. During the weekend I found that my new favourite writer (yes, Miri, I’m still on about John Wray and Lowboy) is on Facebook, so I sent him an email, briefly telling him how much I appreciated his latest book and how it has galvanised my own writing. On Monday he replied. It was a brief reply (“Thank you Sherry. Much appreciated”), but it was a reply, an acknowledgement nonetheless that had me squealing and blushing. (Really--I hadn’t gotten that hot in the face since my 50-second chat with James McAvoy in February.)

If someone has taken the time to contact your company, whether it’s just to post a “love the widget” on your website forum or to email with what may seem like a silly question, make a point of responding. For at least a few seconds, let him feel that he means as much to you as your brand means to him.--SC

Very ambivalent

Littlewoods Direct became Very on Sunday. No, a noun isn’t missing from that sentence. Shop Direct Group rebranded its Littlewoods Direct fascia, renaming it Very and radically overhauling its website. The goal is to attract and retain a young, upwardly mobile audience by offering loads of social-networking features as well as some hip new brands.

So, is the new website Very fabulous? Or is it Very much of a misfire? Or is it Very much a matter of much ado over nothing, or perhaps a work still Very much in progress? (Okay, I’ll stop now with the Very bad play on words—but really, with a name like Very, the brand is asking for it.)

Let’s start with the home page. The product categories are clearly delineated near the top, and in the centre of the page the links to “Hot holiday fashion”, “View our new and exclusive brands”, and “Top offers” are more prominent than that for “Introducing our network”. So far, so good. But could there be a stronger call to action to encourage sales? Absolutely. That the product shots on the home page are minimal, in both size and number, and there’s nothing that says, “Shop now” or “Like this skirt? Click here” hints at the drawbacks of having one website serve two apparent purposes: to engage via social networking and to sell product.

The social aspects of the site, in and of themselves, are fine. Product reviews, of course, have gone from being a nice-to-have to a must-have for consumer ecommerce sites, but Very uses a pleasingly thorough template for its reviews that sets them apart from most others. The product pages also include widgets that make it easy to post the items onto Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The live chats with its celebrity designers such as Fearne Cotton, who created an exclusive range for Very, are a fun way to create buzz.

There’s also a forum, and a People networking section: You can sign up, fill out a questionnaire, follow other participants a la Twitter, post comments, and put together product “bundles”, such as outfits or room furnishings. It’s all very kicky, but I wonder if all these networking features will distract site visitors from shopping rather than encourage them to do so.

In the July issue of Catalogue e-business, PR and social-media expert Katy Howell, of Immediate Future, advises keeping community sites separate from transactional sites: “People go to online retailers to shop. For advice they will go elsewhere.”

And while there’s much to be said for making the online shopping experience more social, just as offline shopping is, making it too social could suppress sales. Think about the gaggles of teens you see at shopping centres, trying on sunglasses and hats, leafing through magazines, sampling CDs. How many of them buy much of anything other than sodas and sweets?--SC

The customer's voice

Here's a great example of a business that really appears to value its customers and their opinions. Yesterday, toys and novelties cataloguer/retailer Hawkin's Bazaar posted on Twitter that it was seeking contributions to update the introductory text on its website home page.

By asking customers to describe Hawkin's Bazaar in their own words, it will see exactly how the business is viewed through consumers' eyes--the adjectives they use, any recurring themes in their descriptions, how they would sum up the business in a paragraph, and so on. The insight garnered from this could be just as valuable as information obtained during a monitored focus group.

What I particularly admire about this tactic is that even if Hawkin's Bazaar doesn't end up using customer-generated copy, it was brave enough to ask for it--and via an unmoderated medium!
Let's hope it doesn't go the same way as a recent Neal's Yard Remedies Q&A in the Guardian.--MT

Linking in to web 2.0

Web 2.0 can be exhausting, no? So many channels to maintain, and so many to follow. In the spare seconds between editing our print magazine, Catalogue e-business, and putting together our enewsletters, and updating our website (http://www.catalog-biz.com/), and of course writing for this blog, and posting to our Twitter feed (twitter.com/catalogbiz), I sometimes wonder if all the effort is worthwhile.

So what did I do last Friday afternoon? Implement another web 2.0 effort: the Catalogue e-business LinkedIn group. I emailed invitations to some of my LinkedIn contacts on this side of the Atlantic, my colleague Miri did the same, and we referred to it on our Twitter feed. I figured maybe half of those we’d invited would sign up, and that would be that.

So I was thrilled to see that before the weekend was out we already had more than 60 members. And a significant portion of them weren’t people we’d invited, but instead were LinkedIn contacts of our contacts, along with several who’d come via Twitter. A number of these people were new to both Miri and me, and so were perhaps new to Catalogue e-business as well.

My point? One, that social networking does indeed help you reach people you might not have been in touch with via your traditional channels as well as enable you to strengthen your relationship with your existing audience.

And two, that Catalogue e-business has a LinkedIn group, and I hope to see you on the membership list soon.--SC

The subtle sell

I like to think of myself as a bit of a film buff. So of course I was delighted when music and DVD etailer The Hut, which I am following on Twitter, started “tweeting” famous lines from films. There are no prizes for getting the right answer though—“the feeling of being right is all you need”—it told the first person to guess correctly. It promised a second helping at 12 noon, but it’s 2pm and I’m still waiting.
More consistent with its postings is PenguinBooks. All day it’s been asking its Twitter followers to guess literary quotes or famous first lines from books. Again, no prizes for being first, but a fun way to engage with potential customers nonetheless. And merchants can monetise this by linking to the film, or book, available to purchase on their sites. I’m waiting for The_Hut to play “name that tune”, but when will I get my work done?--MT

Be my friend--I'll pay you

Entertainment etailer TheHut.com apparently believes in the power of social networking and is putting its money where its mouth is. On its Twitter feed it posted: "Join us on facebook, tell you're [sic] friends. Once we reach 500 fans we'll give you all a discount voucher." 

As a kid we were told you can't buy popularity and shouldn't bribe people to be your friends. TheHut doesn't appear to abide by that old-school thinking. Then again, bribing people to join your Facebook page isn't much different to offering people a prize to sign up for your enewsletters. I wonder what the ROI on this promotion will be and if other marketers will follow suit.

By the way, as of Monday morning TheHut had only 80 Facebook friends, so if you want that voucher, there's still time!--SC

 

It's Asos's world

In its continuing quest for world--or at least World Wide Web--domination, apparel etailer Asos is beta-testing its Asos Life online community. It promoted the soft launch exclusively on Twitter: "We know you love Asos, and it’s because of that that we wanted to let you guys see our community first … to get your opinions on what we’ve done so far, and to help us shape future versions." Even in beta, it's an exhaustive effort, with blogs, forums, groups, and all the other trappings of a first-rate social network. I do question the ROI on the project, though. Then again, only a fool would bet against Asos at this point.--SC

Twittering on

Now that Catalogue e-business has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon (twitter.com/catalogbiz), I've been checking out how some multichannel marketers are using the channel.

A number of retailers simply use their Twitter feeds to advertise their promotions and offerings. Lingerie etailer Figleaves, for instance, touts the addition of womenswear, menswear, and children's apparel to its product line and asks readers to vote for it in the Prima Fashion Awards. It also contributed this intriguing post: "Getting in some training for our attempt at breaking the world record for most bras unclasped in one minute!"

Upscale fashion etailer Net-a-Porter.com dresses up its promos with fashion advice ("For office cool, we're giving our peg leg pants an urban edge with a tucked in tank!"). Jackson's Art goes one better and links to artists it (or at least Julie Caves, who runs the feed) likes and quirky articles.

The best feeds make the most of Twitter by encouraging a dialogue with readers. For years lots of lip service has been paid to communicating directly and personally with customers and prospects; Twitter enables it, easily and quickly, and that may be its greatest value to merchants.

Gadgets marketer Firebox, for one, understands this: Its posts in response to reader queries and comments far outweigh its self-promotional posts. (Firebox also won me over by posting a link to Cake Wrecks, a blog that posts photos of... well, see for yourself.)

In short, companies that view Twitter only as a means of pushing out their message are missing out. Doing so is like going to a Michelin-starred restaurant and ordering only a cheese toastie.--SC

Face to Facebook

In my March editor's letter, I referred to a few catalogue-related Facebook groups I stumbled across. In an effort to find something, anything, to distract me from writing an article on warehouse picking methods for the April issue, I went back to Facebook for a second stumble.

Among my finds:

* Argos Catalogue Throwers ("Men only, it's a guy thing. We like dangerous sports...")
* The Argos Catalogue Appreciation Society
* I Hate Argos Catalogue Launch
* 101 Uses for an Argos Catalogue
* The International Association for Argos Catalogue Game Players
* I'd Rather Read the Argos Catalogue Than a Harry Potter Book (an impressive 169 members)
* When I Was Your Age, the Argos Catalogue Was Only an Inch Thick!
* The Catalogue Appreciation Society ("The society for people who love nothing more than spending some quality time with a good catalogue. Whether Argos, Innovations or Snow & Rock; surely this is one of Britain's most popular pastimes?")
* Dont [sic] Order from Littlewoods Catalogue
* My First Wank Was to a Littlewoods Catalogue
* Bring Back the Innovations Catalogue ("This informative, idea-packed gadget-fest could always be counted on to brighten up the wettest Sunday afternoon. Countless hours could be spent dreaming of a world where Wasps are rendered harmless, and seized Jar Lids no longer make Peanut Butter inaccessible to elderly relatives.")
* The Jack Wills Catalogue IS My Bible (43 adherents)
* The Ikea Catalogue Is Like Furniture Pornography
* I Love Lush (a group led by the toiletries cataloguer/retailer itself, with 1,397 members)
* The Handpicked Collection (another "official" group, with 642 members)
* Howies Appreciation Society (courtesy of the fashion cataloguer itself, with 525 members, 14 of whom participated in the discussion "What is your favourite Howies T-shirt (and why)?")

What can we learn from this? One, that your best customers will affiliate themselves with your brand, which helps spread the word. And two, that the Argos catalogue makes a fabulous wheel block and door holder, among other uses.--SC