Category Archives: Linkedin

What is Social Currency and Which Five Majors Brands are Rich With It?

Posted on March 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

There is a thought provoking article in today’s Forbes about a term not often used when talking about digital media: social currency.  The piece defines social currency as “the degree to which customers share a brand or information about a brand with others” and cites global consulting firm Vivaldi Partners’ recent study measuring which large brands have such currency and if they are using social media effectively to pinpoint potential consumers.

Vivaldi’s study looked at the big brands that do the best engaging consumers on “three levels of conversion through social media”: “awareness to consideration,” “consideration to purchase/use” and “purchase/use to loyalty,” according to the Forbes piece.  To that end, Subway with 38,000 stores in 100 countries worldwide ranked first when it came to engagement.  In addition, the sandwich shop has one million Twitter and 21 million Facebook fans.

Google, Target, Heineken were ranked two through four respectively.  Dunkin’ Donuts and Verizon were tied for fifth place.

For purposes of the study, Vivaldi analyzed 5,000 consumers across the U.S., U.K. and Germany regarding 60 brands over 19 industries. Researchers looked at six different components of social behavior: utility, information, conversation, advocacy, affiliation and identity.  All six components were equally weighted to come up with a final social currency impact score.

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Posted in Facebook, Linkedin, Restaurants, Twitter, Uncategorized

Social Media Trend Making for Friendlier Skies

Posted on February 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

Dutch airline carrier KLM this month unveiled a new service that allows ticket-holders to upload details from their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and use the data to select neighboring seat mates, according to the New York Times.

The program called Meet and Seat is only available to travelers who are willing to connect their social media profiles to their booking. After sharing the amount of information the traveler feels comfortable divulging, passengers are shown seat maps indicating where other travelers have given personal information.  You can then reserve a seat next to anyone whose profile piques your interest and if that seat is indeed vacant, the other person will receive a message indicating your profile details.

This KLM service is thus far only available for bookings with one passenger and on flights between Amsterdam and New York, San Francisco and Sao Paulo.  It is also available from 90 days until 48 hours until departure.

If you are interested in this sort of service and are a frequent flier, it seems like “Meet and Seat” can truly make for “friendlier skies.”

http://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/prepare_for_travel/on_board/Your_seat_on_board/meet_and_seat.htm

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Posted in Facebook, Linkedin, Uncategorized

KLM’s “Seat and Meet” May Be Too Close for Comfort

Posted on December 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

The friendly skies might be getting a little bit too friendly!

KLM has long been known as a pioneer in social media, and its quirky branding campaigns have garnered lots of earned media. Now, there’s a campaign that might not go over quite as well.  Early next year, KLM will be launching a “seat and meet” program that will allow flyers to check the Facebook and Linkedin profiles of others on the same flight and to choose a seat next to them. There is definitely a best case scenario, but the worst case scenario is listening to a sales pitch all the way to Amsterdam.

Read more in USA Today.

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Posted in Facebook, Linkedin

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Social Media: Blight or Blessing?

Posted on December 7, 2011 | 1 Comment

Social Media is here to stay.

We begin this blog by asking a single basic question: Can brands afford to ignore social media? To some, brands seem more of a blight than a blessing.  Negative criticism once traveled slowly by letter, telephone or even email and could be easily buried deep in customer service departments. Today, we live in an entirely different world. Social media – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin – travels at the speed of light and grows with the speed of a virus. Negative customer experiences can be expressed in real time and often make it difficult for brands to promote and maintain finely honed branding messages.

“Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away.” That has been the thinking on the part of some marketing departments, and it was the case as little as three  years ago. But the geni is now out of the bottle, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Choose your metaphor. Social media is now firmly integrated into branding,  and marketers have to deal with it in one form or another.

There is an upside to all of this. In a column in Forbes Online, Dave Gardner cites some interesting stats:

  • 85% of companies use social media to engage customers
  • 64% of users are more likely to purchase from a company that helps them via social media
  • 27% of companies active in social media report higher profit margins

Gardner goes on to quote Michael Dell who stresses the importance of a company having “big ears” (i.e. the ability and the desire to hear everything going around it). Dell now has a Social Listening Command Center where it monitors millions of social media interactions in five languages. This type of interaction allows Dell to be responsive to what its customers and, perhaps more importantly, potential customers are saying – what they don’t like and do like about its products.

For brands, social media is a two edged sword. Negative criticism can spread like wildfire on a dry prairie, but a company can respond, correct and spread its message just as quickly. Social media is here. Brands can choose to embrace and use this powerful tool to their benefit, or continue to ignore it at their own risk.

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Posted in Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Uncategorized

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