Interview 1 With Derek Haswell (Zeo)

In preparation for my final research paper for my COSK 1221 (Argument and Research) class, I conducted a phone interview today with Derek Haswell who is the Associate Manager of Social Media and Online Marketing for Zeo.  This interview is just one of many to come.  Tomorrow, I have a conference call scheduled with some people from Verizon’s social media team.  I’ve also gotten YESs to my requests for interviews from American Express, Discover Card, Comcast, Surpass Hosting, Robert Morris University, and PNC.

Check out his responses below!  Note that his responses were transcribed by me, but reviewed by him for accuracy.

What is your name and official title at your company?

Derek Haswell – Associate Manager of Social Media and Online Marketing

What is the name of the company you work for, and what does it specialize in?

Zeo – Goal is to empower people with knowledge so they can learn more about their sleep so they can improve their lives through the power of sleep.

When did your company decide to create its online, social media presence?

We launched in late may, and our first article hit in early june (WSJ).  Started doing research on social media in August 08′.  We did the legwork long before we launched.  As a grassroots startup, part of our strategy would be to incorporate social media in some sort.  We looked at best practices – what do people do right?  What’s the best way to setup a twitter account/facebook fan page?  We decided early on that we were going to establish a social media presence – we just weren’t sure to what extent.  As a startup, one of the things that we always have to be on the lookout for is a sense of priority. We have a limited amount of resources to get from the ground up to a fast growing, profitable venture.  We need to constantly be evaluating opportunities – where’s the best place to allocate our resources?

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We were planning on it before launch, but we didn’t have a presence as we launched.  When the WSJ article hit, people started talking about us.  There was a lot of questions and misinformation being presented along with all the cool stuff.  ”I don’t buy it.” – e.g. of what some skeptics were saying.  As soon as the launch happened and we were picked up by the WSJ, there was so much online traffic we knew we needed get engaged into the conversations about our brand.  Another part of that, as a brand, what you don’t want to do is eavesdrop and then simply do fly-bys.   Part of social media is that it opens up the discussions with your customers.  You’re always there.  We didn’t want to be a brand that only appeared in negative times.  We wanted to always be there.

Which social media tool or service (twitter, Facebook, youtube, etc.) has proved most beneficial to your company and why?

The sort answer is there is a different reason for each tool that has been beneficial to us.  We’re at a phase where we’re still in listening mode.  We’re trying to establish a presence in a few places.  What we’re doing is acting as a listening board and presenting information.  To that end, Twitter has been a great tool to engage with customers talking about our brand.  The 140 character constraint helps, as a matter of fact.  Then there’s facebook – that was a slow one to start.  It now has the highest volume of Zeo users that interact with each the, though.  A lot of users spend a lot of time on Facebook.  Zeo presents a lot to talk about – including all the data right out of the bedside display.  Facebook is a low friction place for people to interact with one another.  Us being present there makes it easy for them to communicate with us.  We have a blog, but it’s the most labor intensive social media project to keep up.  Our blog is currently being used as a brand awareness tool.  We have a youtube channel – it’s a practical place for a video library.

We have a forum and user reviews in the works.  We had a pilot forum with our trial users.  Forum was good for 1.) customer support 2.) product feedback 3.) community.  Only a small percentage will interact, but it will be a great tool.  The biggest barrier to a forum though is that you’re making a commitment to all of your customers.  You can’t put it up and then take it away – that will upset people, including some brand evangelists.  We’re limited in terms of resources, so we need to make sure we have the time to moderate the forum and keep in touch with our users.  As such, it’s a lot of effort, but we will get a lot out of it.

Driving awareness – We’re a startup.  There’s a potential for opportunity to drive brand awareness through social media.  The first step is engaging, but the step after that is coming up with creative and clever ways to reach out to people in order to drive brand awareness.  There’s a lot of potential in that area.  The blog wasn’t so great in engaging, but it will be good for brand awareness.  It allows us to tell people what Zeo is and what we’re about.

uRefer – social networking in a sense and energizes brand advocates – We’re stacking the deck in YOUR favor so when you tell people that you think Zeo is cool and they purchase one, you’re rewarded. “…by the way, I can get you free shipping, etc.”  Worth of mouth epidemic. We really want to stack the deck in your favor.  The more we put behind it, and the more we reward our brand evangelists, the more people will use it to tell people about Zeo.

Net promoter score: How likely would you be to refer this product…?  If you answer a 9 or a 10, you’re very likely to favorably recommend the brand (promoter). If you’re below a 6, you’re most likely to be a detractor.  ”I tried that thing out but I didn’t like it.”  We have pretty positive net promoter scores.  The goal is to get uRefer into the hands of those people.

Is your company using these services mainly as a marketing tool, customer service outlet, or just as a way to connect to its customers in general?

It’s a listening tool now, but it will be used as an awareness endeavor.  It’s a way to connect right now, but it will have potential for customer service and marketing.

Do you have someone on your staff entirely dedicated to managing your online presence?  If so, what do you feel are the benefits of having a dedicated social media staff member?

Short answer: no.  However, I spend about a third of my time managing our social media – again, we need to allocate our resources.  We need to find the ways to get the best ROI.  That’s not to say that social media couldn’t do that for us, but we’re weighing the opportunities against other opportunities.  The opportunity we have to blog is a great awareness opportunity but we have to way that against other opportunities such as our special “PR opportunity” we’re doing right now.  We need to listen to the things that are screaming the loudest.

20 full time employees work for Zeo

What sort of clients or customers do you see embracing these social media tools?  Is it just the geeky type, the brand evangelists, or are you starting to see average everyday people using them to connect to your company?

It depends on the network.  Twitter skews tech savvy. Facebook is much more everyday folks.  Blogging is the best way to reach those who just want to listen.  We don’t stereotype demographics based on networks, though.  At the end of the day, the reason we engage in many different online properties is to get that cross section of users.  There’s an opportunity in each.

How does the volume of communication from social media outlets compare to that of traditional communication sources for your company such as e-mails and telephone communication?  In other words, are more customers calling you, or are they communicating with you through social media?

Mostly, people when they want to reach out to us, they call us or e-mail us.  That’s party because we don’t have a forum up yet.  We see higher volume through traditional forms.  Our customer support team, who is awesome and does a great job, is entirely in-house (Jason, one of the cofounders, sometimes even answers the phone), but to call up and buy a Zeo – that’s the only part of our business that’s outsourced.

Do you give the customers that contact you through social media means any sort of special treatment such as priority customer service or special incentives? If so, why?

No – it’s not a special treatment thing.  We’re just engaged.  We’re going to be there for our customers.  We also want to treat our brand evangelists well.  ”This company gets it” is how we want them to feel.  Our users are a huge part of what we’re doing – they help us build the company.  Our early brand advocates are part of our company.

Please feel free to add anything else you feel is important, along with any special instructions for me as far as quoting you if you have any.

Power of the people – everyone can go out and interact.  It’s not run by the businesses, it’s run by the people (describing social media)

Negative: Certain companies that don’t do it right or effectively.  They waste a lot of time and don’t generate a good ROI.  Our goal was wherever we were present, we wanted to be engaged.  What will result is a positive enforcement of the brand. Some brands commit to a form before they’re ready, so what results is a fault.  The same way an interesting individual uses social media to extend his/her reach & engagement, so should companies. I.e. Social Media isn’t going to make your brand; but if your brand (and company voice) is clever/innovative/engaging to an audience that lives somewhere online, Social Media can do wonderful things (listening, talking, supporting, energizing, or embracing – a la Groundswell).