A few months ago I had the opportunity to interview Doug Karr, Owner of DK New Media and also one of the founders of Smaller Indiana.
Doug has a ton of good ideas and loads of experience in the internet world. I thought I would repost the video here on my blog since the interview was mostly talking about blogging. I hope you enjoy it.
Last week, I wrote a post about the great customer service I received from General Motors. I was so impressed with the service that I forwarded the blog post on to my new friend at GM who had helped me with everything, and I thought that was the end of the experience. Little did I know, that was just the beginning.
Over the course of the next 24 hours, over 80 GM employees viewed my blog post (gotta love Google analytics), I gained 20 new followers on Twitter and had an interaction with GM’s Director of Social Media and Digital Communications. I suddenly felt like I had a whole company that valued my business all from a simple Twitter post.
The next morning, I took my vehicle in for my appointment at the Chevy dealership. After a somewhat long wait, the service tech informed me that all my troubles were a result of severely worn tires. Could have been worse, I guess, but still a costly repair. After thinking about my options for a few minutes, I decided I would get a second quote before shelling out the money.
I went to my local tire store. I knew they wouldn’t put the same quality of tires on my vehicle that the dealership was offering, but quite frankly, I was just trying to save some money. The quote was a couple hundred dollars cheaper, so I went ahead and had them make the tire change. I was off and running with a smooth driving car, and once again, I believed GM had done their job, and I probably wouldn’t hear any more from them.
But, I was wrong again! That evening, I got a call from Thomas from the Executive Customer Service Staff at GM. To be honest, I didn’t return his call right way. I just assumed it was a follow up to my appointment that morning. Little did I know GM was trying to go above and beyond yet again.
Early today, I finally had time to call Thomas back. He had been trying to get in touch with me before I bought new tires. Not because he wanted to tell me how great GM tires were, but because GM wanted to pay for two of them. He said even though tires really fell outside the warranty because of my miles (65k), I had been a loyal GM customer, and they wanted to help me out with some of the cost of the repair.
I started to kick myself at this point for not waiting. I thanked Thomas for the generous offer, but informed him I already purchased some tires that were cheaper at another store. Again, I figured that was it, after all, at this point, the customer service experience had far exceeded my expectations.
Without missing a beat, Thomas said he still wanted to help me out. He then proceed to offer me a GM Maintenance plan for free. Right now, I can’t remember the name of this, but essentially they will cover all my maintenance costs (oil changes, tire rotations, etc.) for the next 30,000 miles. I quickly accepted this offer and thanked Thomas once again.
From the moment I sent that tweet, GM has been looking out for me as a customer. This group of social media specialists has been empowered to make this kind of effort to make sure customers have great experiences.With all the talk about social media and the pros and the cons, this is a wonderful example of a huge, enormous company, interacting with one individual and making a difference to their business.
Did their effort work? Well, you are reading a blog post about it now, aren’t you? I also will forward this link to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends. Plus, I told ten people personally since this all happened this morning. Now, this story is reaching over 1,000 people or more. This is why I believe social media works.
I know this probably isn’t your typical story, and I definitely don’t think everyone should post things on Twitter hoping to get something for free. But in this case, GM went above and beyond–all from a simple Twitter post. Now they have a customer for life.
I had the good fortune this week to attend the 2009 Masters of Business Online conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. This event is hosted by one of our peers in the industry, Evereffect. The President of Evereffect, Jim Brown, did a tremendous job of scheduling outstanding speakers and visionaries from the Indianapolis area to speak. If you haven’t attended MBO in the past, make sure to do so next year.
Over the course of the day, I watched a great presentation from the CEO of Brandswag, Kyle Lacy, on the importance of social media. I had the opportunity to hear Jon DiGregory, Founding Partner of Cantaloupe, talk about video production and how it is evolving for the web. Another particularly interesting presentation was from the Founder of Slingshot SEO, Jeremy Dearringer, on how creating inbound links to your site is so important to your search ranking.
While each presentation during the day was about a different area, all of them had one particular theme that stood out time and time again…COMMITMENT.
You see, when you talk about organic search engine optimization, social media marketing or your overall Internet marketing strategy, one thing is always consistent; you need commitment.
I have blogged about this in the past. We have witnessed this over and over again with our clients. The more they commit, the better success they have. We can create the best Internet marketing plan for you, but if you don’t commit to it, you will ultimately limit your own success.
If you think about this scenario, it is the same with so many things in life. Take for instance, weight loss. You can hire the best trainer to create a fantastic workout plan for you, however if you don’t commit to the program, you will have little chance for success.
Even though each of my fellow Internet marketers had their own stories and products, each of them continually preached about one ever important thing…commitment.
Before you are ready to dive into your next web project make sure you ask yourself one important question.
Are you ready to commit?
When I started in this business over 12 years ago, I learned one thing very quickly. The cool new thing today will be a thing of the past tomorrow.
Think about it. Back in the day, Netscape was the web’s only real browser, and it was a few years before a search engine named Yahoo dominated the web. Most people connected to the World Wide Web through a little company called AOL. Remember all those free disks?
I recall actually having heated debates with my tech friends about how AOL would become the most powerful company in the world. (I know, sounds like a nerdy conversation, right?) However, look how things changed.
Over the years, technology has evolved and become better and more complex, but the one thing that has remained constant is that things continue to change faster and faster when it pertains to the Internet. This includes the world of web marketing.
As you plan a web based strategy for your company, keep this in mind. Right now, there are boutique businesses popping up everywhere telling you to tweet, tweet, tweet. There are frequent seminars on how to run your business by just being “social.”
Be very careful when you partner with a company who has one particular area they specialize in, because they will have a very short life span.
A great example are the new crop of Social Media Advertising companies that are coming on the scene. Do I believe social media works? Yes, but I also know this area will change faster than the speed of sound. We have already seen it. Myspace has given way to Facebook; Jaiku has given way to Twitter. These two will give way to the next big things, and so on and so on.
Mark my words, when I write a blog post two years from today, Facebook and Twitter will be on their way down the technology cycle. How do I know this? That is the way technology works, especially on the Internet.
Do you need a web based strategy? Of course you do. Do you need to be involved with social media? Absolutely. However, I would encourage you to look for an Internet partner who understands marketing in general and doesn’t just specialize in one particular “hot trend.”
The Internet is here to stay and your Internet strategy needs to be the biggest part of your marketing budget. However, it will continue to evolve and change and do it faster and faster. Make sure to spread out your efforts and your web based strategy. Make sure you don’t only get caught up in just one social media outlet right now, because one thing is for sure….
The next big marketing trend on the Internet hasn’t even been thought of yet.
Tomorrow Apple will hold its annual Fall music commercial. That’s right a commercial. You see there are few companies in the world who can hold an event where media all over the world are begging for the opportunity to cover it.
This commercial will last over an hour, it will be covered by every media outlet in the world, and it is already the topic of countless blogs and internet speculation. If you do a search right now for “Apple music event September 9″ you will return over 35 million results. What’s all the hype about? The leader in the music world is about to unveil its fall upgrades to it’s iPod line and maybe a few other surprises.
During the music commercial you will hear nothing but positives. You will hear how fantastic each product is and how you are crazy if you don’t have one. You will also hear no negative stories about how Apple has locked down their famous applications store to the point even Google can’t get their apps approved. After all how can we allow someone to sell an app that competes with Apple.
Tomorrow you will hear all that is great about Apple and mostly likely it will be delivered by the now healthy Steve Jobs. He will be greeted like a rock star with a standing ovation, if he does show up. This from a man who failed to disclose the fact that he had to have a liver transplant until months after it was already completed. Never mind letting his share holders know or the millions of customers who buy Apple products, after all what business is it of theirs.
I advise companies everyday about internet marketing and how to devote their time to execute their plans. Apple has redefined the market when it comes to this. They simply send out an invitation to an event and immediately the blogosphere explodes with predictions and what we should expect and in the process it generates phenomenal buzz about the company. They don’t need to spend a cent to make this happen.
This is a lesson to us all. Stand out as a company. Create something that causes a buzz in the industry you are in then the masses can help you do your marketing with blogs, Facebook posts, and tweets. We have never been in a place in history where we can allow the masses to market for us worldwide. Take advantage of it. Learn from Apple. After all they are the iMaster of it.
