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“I’m Lovin’ It”

March 16, 2011 By Rebecca Buscemi 1 Comment

And boy do I ever! I love seeing social media at its finest and @McDonalds is one company that not only is managing it’s brand and name online, but has fantastic offline follow up also. Exactly a week ago I posted about a negative experience that I had at McDonalds. After phone calls to both the local and national level, I was left very unsatisfied. I decided to take my unhappy parent voice over to Twitter and finally was heard.

My listening sympathetic ears was @kim_mcd and she is a part of McD’s Twitter Customer Satisfaction Team. She listened and took action. Not only did she follow up with my local McDonalds, but today when I went out to get my mail, there were coupons for two 6-piece nuggets for my kids and a coupon for a free caramel mocha just for me! She wrote a personal note to me on this awesome postcard that McDonald’s has developed specifically to use as a follow up to Twitter comments and requests. On the front of the postcard it states, “You Tweeted. We Listened.” Smart, Smart, Smart!

I challenge all of you to decide on a Social Media Reputation Management plan of action for you, your business and your brand. McDonalds has a very specific strategy in place:

People are designated to listen on social media channels. These people have a specific name so they are easy to identify: McD’s Twitter Satisfaction Team.
There is most likely a reputation management program or software in place to help McD’s Twitter Customer Satisfaction Team.
They act as soon as they detect a negative (or positive) tweet goes out.
They respond publicly and ask the Tweeter to Direct Message them the ‘dirty details’
Once they have the information in hand, they are able to develop a plan of action and tell the Tweeter exactly how they plan to rectify the problem.
Plan is set into action, both on and offline. Offline they send out a branded postcard which is personal and presents the recipient with a simple call to action. Here is what the back of the postcard had printed on it: “This food is our gift to you – we expect nothing in return. But if you post something online about us, please make it clear to your fans and followers that this treat was provided by McDonalds.”

Of course, I’ve already sent out a thank you tweet to both @Mcdonalds and @Kim_McD and I’ll send another one out as soon as me and my kiddos get to McDonalds to enjoy our coupons.

How are you monitoring your brand?

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: Mcdonalds, online reputation management, social media, social media marketing, Twitter

Can You Get Better Customer Service via Social Media?

March 9, 2011 By Rebecca Buscemi 2 Comments

Tonight two children were left devastated when they didn’t get chicken nuggets in their McDonalds Happy Meal. (Yes, I am exaggerating a bit. No one starved…but they were not happy and I was highly annoyed.) I learned a long time ago to check the bag when you pull away from the drive-thru, but tonight I learned that you also have to shake your nugget box to make sure they actually put the chicken in the box.

So what’s a mom to do?

First, I started by calling the local McDonalds that left my children’s nuggets in the fryer or back at the farm and the phone rang and rang and rang. This started at 5:15 p.m. This went on for 15 – 20 minutes before I gave up and called the corporate office. At the corporate level, I got hung up on once and then, once I called back, I spoke to a very nice lady. She listened to my story, took down all of my information, apologized profusely and we were done our call. I appreciated the empathy for the inconvience, but nothing was offered. No coupon, no gift certificate, nada. I’m a mom. Give me a coupon and call it a day!

So then I moved onto Twitter. I sent one Tweet out:

Within 20 minutes I get an tweet back from @kim_mcd. Kim’s bio says, “Listening and helping our customers as part of the McD’s Twitter Customer Satisfaction Team ” and tonight she was definitely listening. She sent me this tweet back:

I thanked Kim, followed her and sent her over the details. And here is what she sent me in response:

Darn straight I’ll take a coupon so my next visit is on McDonalds! I thanked her via Direct Message and sent some gratitude out among the Twitterverse. It’s now a little after 8 p.m. I try one last time to call the local McDonalds that forgot the nuggets (I had been trying to call them off and on since the incident happened). Someone finally answered the phone. I explained what happen and once again got an apology. I paused and said, “You do understand that I’ve been calling your location for almost three hours?” She responded with, “We aren’t supposed to answer the phone if we have customers.” I let out a little bit of an ‘Are-You-Kidding-Me’ laugh and I said, “Did it ever occur to you that it may be a customer calling?” I got nothing but silence back. I then went on to explain the additional steps that were taken because they didn’t answer the phone. I said, “If you would have answered the phone, I never would have called corporate or voiced my frustration on Twitter. Now at least two people in corporate are aware of what happened, all because no one at your location answered the phone.” Once again, I got another apology and no offer to make up for the MIA nuggets. At this point I finished up with the call.

I know that I had already gotten my problem solved by my new Twitter friend @kim_mcd, but I wanted to see if the local McDonalds would do anything to redeem themselves. Isn’t it amazing that I received the best customer service by someone that was monitoring McDonalds brand on Twiter? I thought it’s really sad that I had two phone calls and spoke to two people and the one person that was on Twitter redeemed McDonalds in my eyes. It got me thinking, thank goodness that major stores, food chains, restaurants have people monitoring what’s being said about them across social media sites, because I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to get really good results from customer service issues via phone calls or even in person these days.

So, what do you think? Have you gotten better results from companies by tweeting or posting an issue on Yelp or other social networks? Do you think customer service phone calls are going to be replaced with issues solely being taken care of on social networks? I’d love to know your opinion! Leave a comment or post on my Facebook biz page or on Twitter. And while you are on Twitter, give a little shout-out to my new bud @kim_mcd!

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: social media, social media marketing, Twitter

What’s your ‘Social Media Recipe’?

January 31, 2011 By Rebecca Buscemi 1 Comment

Has this ever happened to you? You are getting ready to make dinner and you read the first direction. It says, “Boil water, add noodles, bring to a boil….ya da ya da…then drain.” So you cook your noodles, drain them and then look at the box for the remainder of the directions. That’s when you realize that while the noodles were cooking, you were supposed to be preparing the sauce that accompanies the noodles. Now you have to backtrack and make the sauce for your now sticky, cold noodles. Your dinner tastes like poo, your kids refuse to eat it and your husband thinks you are trying to poison him, all because you didn’t read the recipe all the way and prepare the meal accordingly.

This scenario can also be applied to Social Media. Jumping head first into social media without a plan of action or strategy is a recipe for disaster! Without proper planning and preparation, you can end up confusing and frustrating your clients and potential clients with disjointed messages about your brand, your company, even you!

So here is my basic ‘Social Media Recipe’ that you can apply to any business or profession. Just remember, just like any recipe, you can add additional ingredients to make it your perfect blend. Stay tuned through the rest of the year as we explore each ingredient in depth!

One cup of ‘Knowing Who You Are’

One cup of Social Media Goal Creation

Once Cup of Securing your Brand

Mix all of these together and take a moment and ‘Listen’ to what is happening in and around your Social Media recipe.

6 tablespoons of Engaging, Networking and Interacting.

Now its time to Mix it all together in the Social Media Bowl and start to Integrate and Promote.

Take the time to Measure your efforts so far…at this point we may need to Re-Evaluate our recipe to see what additional ingredients need to be added or deleted.

What are your thoughts on this? I would love to know! Share them!

Filed Under: Featured Post

Can I Get a Facebook Page Do-Over?

January 28, 2011 By Rebecca Buscemi 1 Comment

Your sure can if you have less than 100 people that ‘like’ your page! Maybe you created a business page on Facebook for your company or product and you realized down the road that you aren’t a fan of the name that you originally chose to grace the pages of Facebook for all the world to see. Well (if you have less than 100 ‘like’s) here are the simple steps to change your Facebook business page name:

Go to your Facebook Business Page and under your profile picture click ‘Edit Page’ and then ‘Basic Information’ and then edit the first option which is ‘Name.’
Like previously mentioned, you will only see this if you have less than 100 people on your business page.
Go ahead and make the edits in the name field.

So you may ask, “Why would I want to change the name of my Facebook Business Page name?” Here are few common ‘Name’ mistakes that I see made all the time that may beg a Do-over:

A misspelling in your Facebook Business Page,
Not capitalizing the name of your Business Page,
Maybe you want to add a location to your Business Page to add another way for people to find you,
Adding additional keywords to help identify who you are and what your business does, and possibly the biggest to me
Totally r-branding and you don’t want to lose your current following!

These are just a few ideas! It’s nice to have the ability to make adjustments. Here’s to a fabulous week!

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: Facebook, Facebook Business Pages, Facebook for Business

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Email Marketing

December 30, 2010 By Rebecca Buscemi Leave a Comment

Email marketing (also referred to as e-newsletter marketing) is a great way to keep your current customers and clients informed with business news, product or service updates and also, the most up-to-date industry news. One of the sole purposes of email marketing is to enhance the existing relationships that you already have established between you and your customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business. Your customers already trust the information that you give them while they are in your company or over the phone, that’s why they are your customers! Why wait to have an appointment or conference scheduled with them, when you can email them at your (and their) convenience.

Email marketing is also a great way to attract new customers. Many e-newsletter companies (MailChimp, Constant Contact, iContact, et.) give you the option to share your e-newsletter on your social media sites. So, you are ultimately sharing your e-mail to potential clients along with your current ones. You current customers that opt-in to be emailed by you and your business also have the ability to forward your email on to others. From there, that new prospective customer is able to subscribe to get your next emails.

There are a lot of perks to this powerful marketing tool and they are:

Inexpensive - There are some e-newsletter companies that are free to use up to so many emails that are sent out and there are others that you pay a monthly fee.
Measurable – Once your email is sent out, you are able to see information that is gathered on your sent email. Most companies provide you with very in-depth information, such as who opened your email, what links they clicked on, where the people that opened your email live, who forwarded your email on and much more.
Flexible – These email blasts go out when and how you want them to go out. You can also create ‘auto-responders’ to go out anytime you have a new subscriber or patient join your list.
Universal - You can provide your customers the ability to sign up for your list at your business, on your website, even on Facebook! Most email marketing companies have easy forms that you or your web designer can install on your various sites.
Effective & Immediate – Your customers aren’t just getting emails while they are sitting in front of a computer anymore. They get emails on their iPads and their smart phones. You essentially can reach them whenever, doing whatever though email!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about DemandForce and how their clients are using Mobile Marketing to stay in contact with their current and prospective customers. DemandForce also uses newsletters along with Mobile Marketing to create powerful campaigns and promotions with a wide reach. Here is more from their site: “Keep in touch and build relationships. Demandforce makes it easy to connect with your existing customers and attract new ones. By syncing with your current work flow software, we can automatically target clients who need a little extra attention. It is effortless to send appointment reminders, create campaigns, reactivate lost customers and prompt your biggest fans to refer new clients.”

Have you created a powerful email marketing campaign? I would love to hear your story! Feel free to leave me a comment and share!

Filed Under: Social Media Solutions & Thoughts

Has your Business ‘Groupon-ed’ Today?

December 15, 2010 By Rebecca Buscemi Leave a Comment

The popularity of Groupon is growing everyday and you and your business (big OR small) can benefit too. Not sure what Groupon is? Groupon is an online coupon marketplace that has a huge reach across the Internet and social media sites. By partnering up with Groupon, you offer your customers a one day only special offer via Groupon if they are subscribers. (These offers are a significant discount to what you normally would offer and there is only one deal per day per city.)

There are many reasons to decide to run a one day promotion with Groupon. One reason is to generate a buzz about your business. Groupon’s reach across the Internet is huge! Not only have they partnered up with powerful brands such as Gap and RedEnvelope, but they make it super easy to share your offer to others through Facebook, Twitter, email and more. Google was rumored to offer Groupon $6 Billion dollars to purchase the company merely two weeks ago! This two year old company has grabbed Google’s attention and many others also! If you are a new, relocated or even a virtual business then this is a great way to get the word about who you are and what you offer across the web.

Groupon also has a huge appeal to a younger demographic. Take a look at the demographic breakdown that Groupon provides to see if your ‘target’ market are also using Groupon. These demographics show that 68% of Groupon’s subscribers are 18-34 years old, 49% of them are single and 77% of them are women. Marketing a special offer specifically to this demographic could be a great way to expose your biz to a specific demographic.

Groupon is also great tool if you think discounting your services will result in acquiring and retaining customers. Especially for new products and services, this can be a way to give potential clients a taste of what you offer in hopes they come back for more.

Groupon has been criticized because of it’s strict one deal per city per day policy. So to help offer more deals a day, Groupon is rolling out Groupon Stores soon. Groupon Stores, is a way for store owners to set up and run a virtual space that partners with Groupon to offer as many deals as they want, in the near future.

Caution: Groupon isn’t something that a business should just jump into without thought and consideration. It takes some preparation to decide what the offer is and how your business is going to handle the influx of new customers that it may require or the demand of the product that you are promoting. Because of this, Groupon also offers webinars and support for businesses that choose to partner up with them. I’m also more then happy to help you brainstorm and develop a Groupon promotion that will ‘wow’ your customers. Feel free to contact me for a free consultation!

Filed Under: Integrating New & Social Media Tagged With: Groupon, social media, social media coaching, social media marketing

Mobile Marketing? Small Businesses Can Text too!

December 10, 2010 By Rebecca Buscemi Leave a Comment

All around us small business owners and professionals are trading their beepers and normal cellular phones in for Blackberrys, Androids and iPhones. Have you done the same? These nifty mobile devices can help you stay up to date on current events, what the weather is like when you don’t have a minute to look outside, your emails and your daily appointments and they are doing the same for your customers.

Just recently the CTIA Wireless Association shared that over 250 million Americans are carrying cell phones. Sending and receiving messages on these phones are becoming an every day occurrence. And more and more savvy businesses are learning that mobile marketing can be apart of their marketing plan also. You can do the same at your place of business. Are you offering a holiday discount? Or do you have a special promotion, need an additional way to remind clients, patients or customers about their appointments, or have free samples to give away? When patients or customers fill out their new patient intake form or new customer form, add a box to check to sign-up for texts by providing their cell number.

Mobile marketing can be used to help remind them when their next appointment is, and also increase their loyalty to you and your business. Think about offering a promotion to patients and customers that forward a text to someone and you gain a new patient or customer. These quick and seamless text updates could easily lead to less cancellations and missed appointments.

Interested in learning more about Mobile marketing? Then check out these two companies! Demandforce is a company that offers this service among others. Demandforce offers appointment confirmations and same-day text message reminders for small businesses to communicate with their customers. The text messaging service is included in the Demandforce service – and the customers have to opt-in to allow the practice to communicate with them.

The other day I discovered JitterJam and am equally impressed with their ‘text to broadcast’ feature. Here is snippet from their website “On the road and want to quickly update your Twitter, Facebook and/or Friendfeed status(es)? Find something interesting that you have to share? JitterJam now has a quick and easy way for you to update your social accounts from any text-enabled mobile phone! If you include a link, the JitterJam system will convert the link using our jit.ly link shortener. You will be able to track clicks and reach and keep a history of your outbound communications—just like you do on the JitterJam site! You can authorize specific phones to send these updates to ensure that only your designated users can access this feature!” Love both of these companies so feel free to take a look at them:)

Have you had any experience with Mobile Marketing? If so, please leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: demandforce, jitterjam, mobile marketing, sms mobile marketing, socia media, social media for dentists, social media marketing

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