MikeBoylan.com » Interview Series

Interview 8 With Webnotes

Mike — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:10:26 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, Webnotes is a fantastic tool for taking notes on the web. It lets you highlight and annotate any webpage and/or PDF. I’ve had professional relations with them in the past. I made both the PR screencast and the regular Webnotes screencast. They’re a fantastic company, super nice guys, and Alex King, their director of marketing agreed to answer my questions.

What is your name and official title at your company?

Alex King- Director of Marketing

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

WebNotes – We provide research tools to academics and public relations professionals.

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

About a year ago, when I came on board.

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

Honestly, because everyone else was doing it. We didn’t have much experience with anything other than Facebook, so starting a blog, twitter, etc were all experiments for us.

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

LinkedIn has been the best because it has allowed us to find and talk to market professionals who have been able to give us guidance. All of our market research has been spread between immediate contacts and networking on LinkedIn, so it’s been phenomenal.

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

Yup! Twitter, LinkedIn, and our corporate blog are the primary ones. We do have Facebook and Youtube pages, but those are less helpful for us right now.

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

There’s the phrase “fish where the fish are” that comes to mind. You have to be where your target consumers are, and engage in the mediums that they are engaging. Our target customers happen to be all over twitter and LinkedIn.

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? In other words, what’s your overall objective for social media strategy?

Twitter is one of our customer service outlets for interacting with people, but it also helps in our goals to find end users and pick their brain. LinkedIn is purely a market research tool and our blog is purely a marketing tool.

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?

Nope. Just me, wearing all sales/marketing hats :-)

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?

Public Relations professionals and students just happen to be fairly tech savvy, so we are lucky that they happen to use these tools fluently. That said, I think everyday people are picking them up and seeing the value that can be created.

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?

Most customers find out about us through our website, via word of mouth, twitter, our blog, google searches or other tech blogs. From there, nearly everyone converts into a more “traditional” correspondence. For this reason it’s hard to say which is a better form.

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?

Nope. We treat every customer exactly the same, which we hope is the most authentic thing we can do… after all, social media is all about authenticity

Thanks so much, Alex!

Interview 7 With The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Mike — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:30:55 +0000

What is your name and official title at your company?

Michael Ley; vice president, e-business & payments

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

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

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

2009

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We developed Virtual Wallet in 2008 to create a product specifically designed to meet the wants and needs of young, tech-savvy consumers. For this specific segment of customers, who spend the majority of their time online, it just made sense to create a social media presence so we could interact with our Virtual Wallet customers in a more personalized way.

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

We currently have a Twitter account and a YouTube channel for PNC Virtual Wallet. We find YouTube valuable to share demos with our customers and to house all of our Virtual Wallet videos. We have also found our presence on Twitter to be a useful way to alert customers of new features, product updates and useful tips, to hear directly from our customers what they want, and to also help answer customer questions and issues.

We are using social media to connect with our customers and to provide them another channel to get information and useful tips about Virtual Wallet. It also provides a great forum to engage in customer conversations and to help customers with questions they may have.

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?

We have a team of employees who are responsible for our Twitter and YouTube channels.

We are finding that customers appreciate the direct contact that we can provide using social networks, but there is no specific trend in the type of user we are seeing. Although Virtual Wallet was built specifically based on the wants and needs of Generation Y, we are seeing other tech-savvy customers embrace Virtual Wallet and, in turn, our presence on social networks.

Please feel free to add anything else you feel is important.

PNC is committed to meeting the needs of our young, tech-savvy Virtual Wallet customers. We use social media as another avenue to connect with our customers and provide them value-added service.

Thanks so much, Mr. Ley! Also, thank you so much to Gina Madison for putting me in touch with him!

Interview 6 With Surpass Hosting

Mike — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:05:48 +0000

SurpassHosting is the company that hosts all of the websites I’m a part of, including this one. I would not host with anyone else – they’re fantastic. Kayla is their marketing director and she was willing to answer my questions. Check out her responses below!

What is your name and official title at your company?

Kayla Selans, Marketing Director

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

SurpassHosting.com, a web hosting company based in Orlando Florida

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

We first put a forum (which was Invision Power Board) on our site in 2003.

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We first put a forum (which was Invision Power Board) on our site in 2003. It was an experimental move that proved to define Surpass as a community focused host. Now our forum, blog and social media accounts interlink, giving our customers a well connected service.

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

When we first got our Twitter account in 2007, not many of our customers were using Twitter yet so it was very slow going. It’s definitely a lot busier now and gets more attention than our Facebook account. I’d say Twitter is the best for reaching out to our customers and letting them know special updates.

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

Our main services are Twitter and Facebook. We also have UserVoice to gather insightful suggestions from our customers and use Vimeo to post testimonial videos.

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

You should reach out on as many outlets as possible, everyone likes different things and it’s nice to cater to them.

For us, anything we have done starts out with customer service. Our goal is to make everyone happy and feel welcome.

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?

I am responsible for creating ideas and content for new ‘social promos’ and I decide on new outlets. The responsibility of tweeting is between a few team members at our company, since we need to check everything 24/7. It is definitely beneficial to consistently stir up new social ideas and keep everyone on their toes.

It started out with the most geeky type but now it’s a really good mix. It’s an exciting time for sure.

More customers still use our helpdesk and forum, but we see more requests on Twitter than ever before.

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?

Truthfully, we do. We enjoy the fact that they are embracing social media and helping us react in a different way through these outlets. And sometimes it’s simply just faster to do so. Although we treat all customers equally no matter how they contact us, sometimes coupons issued on our forum, blog, Twitter or Facebook are a little bigger. We want to make them especially happy so they’ll continue to communicate with us in new ways that are more convenient for them.

Thanks so much, Kayla!

(Welcome readers of Kayla’s blog! Be sure to check out the final paper here in which I included content from this interview. Thanks for visiting my site!)

Interview 5 With Discover Financial Services

Mike — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:00:52 +0000

If you happened to read my post entitled A College Student’s Credit Nightmare, then you might remember that Discover was the only company willing to give me my own credit card at the time. I was incredibly thankful then for that, and I’m incredibly thankful that Discover was willing to answer my questions.

What is your name and official title at your company?

Suzanne S.

Social Media and Brand Manager

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

Discover Financial Services

Consumer lending, Online Savings Credit Issuing and Processing.

You can learn more about all the areas of our business at Discoverfinancial.com including:
Discover Card
Discover Network
Discover Bank
PULSE
Diners Club

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

Spring of 2008

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We chose to move into social media for several reasons:

- Growing participation of consumers in this space

- Ability to gain customer and competitive insights

- Potential marketing value

We also believe there’s value in continuing to provide our customers with a high level of customer service through social media.

Ultimately we want to continue to grow a strong, positive brand presence online and social media is a cost-effective way to do that.

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

Each space provides a unique format to interact with consumers and has different value, such as, service versus sales.

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

We’re engaged in Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. Check out Discover.com/community for a closer look.

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

Each venue is unique and serves various audiences. It all works together.

It’s all of the above.

[I e-mailed back for an elaboration on this. Will post as soon as I hear back.]

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?

[My] role is dedicated to both social media and online brand management. Dedication is required to stay on top of the changing technology of social media and uncover best practices while maintaining a consistent voice from the company.

The statistics will tell you it’s virtually everyone now.

Not surprisingly, the volume in social media is lower than traditional channels like phone and mail but we anticipate growth in social as well as mobile technologies.

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?

We remain consistent to our customer service standards across all channels.

Thanks so much, Suzanne!

Interview 4 With Verizon (Part 1)

Mike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:06:06 +0000

This one was a real success. I got to speak with the Director of Social Media Strategy for Verizon Telecom. Yes, that Verizon Telecom. Verizon Telecom encompasses basically everything but Verizon Wireless. This was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. All responses transcribed below are from Beth unless otherwise noted. Thank you so much to Verizon for allowing me to publish this interview! This is the first part of my interview with Verizon – part two is where we’ll hear from John ‘CZ’ Czwartacki, Executive Director – External Communications. Stay tuned for that!

What is your name and official title at your company?

Beth Mulhern - Director of Social Media Strategy – Verizon Telecom

Cheryl Harris – Senior Staff Consultant – (manages @vzpittsburgh)

Tabitha Geary - Consultant

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

Verizon – A communications and entertainment company

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

2008 (There were some individual efforts before that.) In 2009, we have a much more cohesive effort across the corporation. We’re trying to get more cooperation between the sectors and get some brand standards set.

We did an inventory – who’s all out there? A hundred different Twitter reps from Verizon. We have a dozen or 15 or so FB pages – not all owned by Verizon.

About a year ago – working with [ad agency] we did a marketing campaign called MyHome 2.0 (tv show) which did tech upgrades for families, including our FiOS TV and FiOS Internet Services. We would come in and do a technology makeover for them. We had a website for it promoting casting, how to apply, etc. We had the families who were winners writing blogs. We ran the show on Fox TV in Pittsburgh, as well as in the Philadelphia market.

After hearing from a colleague who attended SXSW about Twitter, I tried to start a customer care program within my marketing team, but it didn’t go through. However, fast forward a year later, and today we’re launching @verizonsupport on Twitter. That team is looking at places such as BBR in addition to our Verizon forums for users with issues and complaints. We have a tool that scrapes the content for users who look like they’re having issues so we can communicate with them quickly and effectively. However, the @vzpittsburgh account on Twitter is all a manual process done by Cheryl – she goes out and uses Twitter search to locate users in Pittsburgh, and responds to anyone who posts directly to @vzpittsburgh.

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

We want to have a conversation with our customers. They require that and want that. And there’s a huge benefit for us to do that. We can get ideas from them. If we’re not providing acceptable service, not being fair, billing issues, etc., we want to know about it. And if there are things they like about our products, or ideas on how to make them better, we want to know that, too.

Negative Facebook pages and such create an opportunity for us to make customers happy. Are they pointing out an issue that we should look at closer?

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube. We recognize that different platforms provide different opportunities. You get this opinion and fact based opportunity on Twitter. Request for service, feedback, screaming for help, kudos, is very appealing on Twitter. Facebook is more social – hanging out with your friends. We’re doing some testing there to see the business opportunities and how we can interact correctly there.

We have some videos on YouTube, including some viral marketing. This is the least of our focus so far, though. We want to make sure we focus on the services that provide us the best place to interact with our customers.

We’ve created company forums for various products and services as well. They give our customers the chance to talk online and help each other with technical and service issues. They also give us ideas for new services that they’d like to see.

D.) All of above. The marketing tool is a great opportunity – that’s part of my charge – to develop marketing tools/strategy involving social media.

Customer care is a requirement – we need to support our users.

The fact that I report to a chief marketing officer… the purpose was to make sure we got visibility for social media within the company. We need to make it a key strategic priority as to how we move forward into 2010. ”Is there something related to social media in this discussion?”

Tabitha adds: One of the benefits of having a small business is having the ability to talk to your customers. For a large business like Verizon, social media is a dream come true. It gets them back in touch with their customers. To be able to hear one on one what their customers are saying is fantastic – they really take it to heart. The customers are driving their direction.

Beth – Getting customer feedback from millions is hard. We’re trying to make sense of all of it and get an individual person’s perspective. That’s different than marketing research where everything is related to a norm (trends, perspective), and where you lose the commentary from the individual level. That’s what’s so compelling about social media – we hear both the good and the bad from our customers on an individual level.

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?

With a company the size of Verizon, there are many people involved with managing our social media […] it goes into the hundreds including people from IT.

Do we have dedicated resources? Yes!

Models from Groundswell – one being key success factors – one is have someone important in charge of social media to really drive it into the organization. You have to have a thick skin when looking at this stuff – people are brutally honest with us. You have to have a leader who says “This is important to us. We want to hear it. You can’t cure what you don’t diagnose. We need to acknowledge our faults – you can’t be better unless you fix the things that are broken.”

It differs by platform. Facebook, the group with the most tenure, is younger, but currently it’s more older people (40s and up) who are fueling the growth of new users. On Twitter it’s more the middle aged and up.

I like to think of myself as average, and I’m doing it, my friends are doing it. My kids make fun of me. What was I thinking for making a Facebook page? It’s become mainstream. Everyone is doing it.

Companies need to understand customers’ behaviors in social media, in order to craft the best way to reach them. Forrester has a good model for describing those social media behaviors – Creators (content creators), critics (ratings & reeks), collectors (tagging/organizers), joiners (join in on the discussion), inactive (not participating), spectators (like to look at creator’s content).

I’m more of a spectator – I like to look at people’s content. I love to see what other people put up there.

As a business, if you know who you’re going after… (creators – create digital experience that plays to their desires to create content – showcase) (spectators – as a company YOU would create the content and put it on a site like YouTube) then you can create experiences that are fit for that target.

Tabitha: Twitter & Verizon – All over the board. Nature would say more tech oriented, but they’re actually just great communicators. It’s become a universal tool for people who are good communicators.

The bulk is still from our call centers, and that has not changed. But, there is a growing amount of information and feedback coming from Social Media and we’re choosing to listen and jump in and be a part of the conversation.

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?

We are coming out with special offers for our social media customers. That’s a test for us. We’re looking at special offers, but we’re not sure if they’ll be exclusive to social media or not. In terms of customer service, all of our customers are important. We’re trying to figure out what’s the right mix of service. There is recognition that this is the age of the empowered consumer, though. Before, if there was an unhappy customer, he might tell 5 friends, but now, with a couple of clicks, he can tell x number of people. We don’t want to put anyone at a disadvantage – they’re all important. It might look different from the outside looking in, though, because as we said earlier, social media is more personalized. We do recognize the risk of not providing good service, but that service isn’t prioritized to social media.

Tabitha: By the nature of things, social media channels are so much smaller than traditional channels. It’s much more personal. It doesn’t make others less important, but it does make the experience more personal. Verizon is working very hard at getting people on their team who can understand all profiles and all sorts of people.

[End of Interview]

Check out http://www22.verizon.com/socialmedia for a link to many different Verizon Social Media presences!

——————————————

Thank you so much, Beth, Tabitha, and Cheryl! I really appreciate the insight into how a large corporation like Verizon is using social media.

(Note to my readers: This transcription was read over by Verizon’s PR department and very minor changes were made, however, no major changes were made that in any way affect the validity or quality of this interview.)

Interview 3 With Robert Morris University

Mike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:41:07 +0000

This is an interesting one because I interviewed the university that I’m writing the paper for! This is the third interview for my paper for COSK1221.

What is your name and official title at your company?

Jonathan Potts, director of public relations

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

Robert Morris University — a nonprofit, private comprehensive university

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

Mid- to late 2008

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

It was a matter of necessity. A university’s pr and marketing efforts are focused on developing relationships — with prospective and current students, alumni, donors and other supporters. These are excellent tools for doing that, and social media is increasingly how people are experiencing the Internet and interacting online. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have become web portals for a lot of people.

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

YouTube has been extremely useful in helping us maintain an inventory of video and let people get a true taste for campus life. Facebook has also been a great way to enhance a sense of community on campus, and to help us reach out to incoming students as well as re-connect with alumni.

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, FlickR

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

Yes, because each one has strengths and weaknesses, and our audiences use each for different purposes. Twitter is very good for sharing information and links. Facebook is great for promoting events and developing relationships. And of course YouTube and FlickR provide a warehouse of sorts for videos and photos.

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?

Largely as a way to share news and enhance relationships, so yes, I would say it is a marketing tool. But we really want to engage our audiences in the life of the university.

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?

We have a new web designer who’s other major duty is to manage our social media presence. I think this will help us be more strategic in how we use social media, and ensure that we are reaping the maximum benefit from social media tools — and to make sure we are using them appropriately.

Since we are a university, we are seeing students, alumni and prospective students engage with us online. We are also seeing other local organizations connect with us.

I think an increasing number of our primary market — prospective students — are now using online channels to reach us, but I can’t say they are necessarily favoring social media channels. It’s too soon to say.

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?

This is probably a question best directed at our admissions staff, but I believe we try to treat everyone equally no matter how they reach us.

Interview 2 With Comcast

Mike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:35:22 +0000

What is your name and official title at your company?

Frank Eliason – Senior Director, National Customer Operation

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

Comcast. Today, we’re the country’s largest provider of cable services – and one of the world’s leading communications companies. We’re focused on broadband cable, commerce, and content. We deliver digital services, provide faster Internet and clearer broadband phone service, and develop and deliver innovative programming.

Why did your company choose to establish that presence?

As a way to listen to our Customers and meet them where they already are

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

I think every social media tool offers unique benefits. Forums are great for highly technical information and finding ways to supplement support for devices beyond those provided by our company. Your internet experience may be impacted by your computer, your router, our modem, our network, or things beyond our network. Forums, and the peer helping peer aspect, are a great way to offer support in all areas of the experience. Blogs and You Tube are the Customer story in their own words. I have always found stories to be so useful in learning from our Customers. Twitter adds value due to the immediacy and searchable content.

Is your company using multiple services? If so, which ones?

Yes. Facebook, forums, blogs, You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and many smaller websites.

If the answer to the above question is yes, do you feel there is a benefit to having a presence on multiple social media outlets? If so, why?

It is meeting the Customer where they are, not having them meet us where we are

Meet Customers where they already are, learn from them and assist when we can

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?

We have a staff of people dedicated to our Customers in this space

All of the above. Based on sheer numbers there are a lot of people in social media

We have a million interactions each day with our Customers. Social media is a smaller amount then phone, email or chat, but it does provide us the opportunity to assist where Customers are. When necessary we can also easily broadcast a message.

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, we strive to treat everyone in the same manner.

Thanks, Frank! Check out Frank’s Twitter page at @comcastcares

Interview 1 With Derek Haswell (Zeo)

Mike — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:59:29 +0000

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

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.

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).

MikeBoylan.com » Interview Series

Interview 8 With Webnotes

Interview 7 With The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Interview 6 With Surpass Hosting

Interview 5 With Discover Financial Services

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Interview 4 With Verizon (Part 1)

Interview 3 With Robert Morris University

Interview 2 With Comcast

Interview 1 With Derek Haswell (Zeo)

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