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Don’t forget…passion drives sales
By Justin Goldsborough | October 3rd, 2009
“How can social media drive sales?” Have you been asked that question lately? I know I have. How do you respond?
It’s easy to get caught up in what I call the social media numbers game. What’s the ROI of social media? Show me the numbers. How many hours/resources do I need to devote to our social media efforts? Show me the numbers. How can social media contribute to the bottom line? Show me the numbers.
Those questions are valid. We’re in a down economy and companies need to see how an initiative makes money in order to rationalize investing in it. But don’t forget about the role passion can play when it comes to your brand’s reputation. It’s harder to measure but it’s the essence of social media and what got us excited about two-way conversation in the first place. What was that our parents always told us? Don’t forget where you came from.
For example, meet Ramon DeLeon, a Dominoes franchisee in Chicago. Ramon is extremely passionate about pizza, social media and the North Chicago community his restaurants serve. Check out his tweet stream and you’ll see he talks about a lot more than just his restaurants. Ramon does a great job of engaging with brands fans, promoting others he knows (including other Dominoes franchisees) and filming videos to thank customers. His passion has built him a strong reputation, so strong in fact that he was recently invited to speak at Gravity Summit (an educational social media seminar founded by Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford) at Harvard a couple of months ago, which was streamed live on CNN.com — the keynote speaker was M.C. Hammer.
Does Ramon tweet about discounts and promotions his Dominoes stores are running? Sure he does. He’ll often tweet about a special offer. But even his giveaways via Twitter are unique…he often searches for customers commenting about how they love Dominoes or that they can’t wait to try a new Dominoes pizza and he will tweet back a discount for their order or even occasionally that this one is on him.
Check out Ramon’s video apology to @InteractiveAmy after she tweeted a pizza ordered from his Dominoes was an hour late and made incorrectly.
Recent research shows that customers rely heavily on the opinions of employees and other customers when deciding which brands to choose. Why is this? Well for starters, we see these third-party opinions as more authentic than the key messages of push marketing that traditionally come from companies and organizations. For the same reason, customers trust people like Ramon because it is so much easier for us to identify with a person who genuinely loves his job and customers and shows that every day than someone who’s trying to sell us something, even if they’re selling it to us via a discount tweet.
Am I suggesting entrepreneurs, small companies and big corporations shouldn’t use social media to offer promotions, discounts and giveaways to customers? Not at all. In fact, all brands should consider using Twitter for those tactics. But just make sure promotions and push marketing aren’t the only things you do. Listen to your customers, engage, talk about your business and why you love what you do and the community you work in.
Passion creates a story. And good stories create an affinity with a brand. Plus people are always looking to share a good story. Didn’t I just tell you one about Ramon?
Ramon takes the stage at Gravity Summit to show off his passion for pizza, people and social media.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
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