Sales, Social and Tech

List out your end-game goal before you start your social media campaign. Image Source:  http://ideaswar.com .  It is very easy to start your social media campaign on any social networks, but the problem often lies is most starters do not start with an end goal in mind. Starting a social media campaign should be like starting any marketing campaign and most marketers start them by asking themselves - "What do we want to achieve from the campaign?" If the goal of the social media campaign is to get more customers in-store or to your online store, what are you, as a brand, committed to doing to get them in-store or online.  Once you get them in-store or online, how are you going to track if the customer came from your social media campaign. If customers do not originate from your social media marketing campaign, should you consider improving it or drop the campaign and look at alternatives. If the goal is to share updates and content with your captured audience on...

In my last post, I wrote about how a user sent her her laptop to Lenovo service center for faulty speakers but instead got a $1000 bill for faulty motherboard . However, before it was admitted to the service center, the laptop was found to be in working order in front of the customer service. The good news is that the head of communications of Lenovo has picked up the blog post and is now in direct contact with the user to get the issue settled. Kudos to him. The bad news is that an exchange of emails between this Lenovo service center and the user's techie husband has uncovered a deceitful sales tactics to upsell services that may not be needed by the users. Wrote the user's husband, "Let's just say that Lenovo seems to have an upsell policy. Apparently after my emails got angrier, they clarified that the mobo "likely to die" vs "died". So I said please send me email to detail which part likely to die, and how soon, so that maybe I can jus...

In every pageant, the appointed judges will choose the winner. The winner takes all, even the media coverage. For Miss Singapore Global 2013, the public who will have a large say in selecting the winner. To get the public vote, the contestants will have to reach out to the public on social media. The brain child of the pageant is Ms Vanessa Tan, Mrs Singapore 2011, a franchise of Miss Global International which originated from Jamaica. Singapore is the third Asian country other than Philippines and Malaysia to send delegates to compete internationally. Said Ms Vanessa Tan, "Miss Singapore Global is a platform to empower young women and build future women leaders. The mission of Miss Singapore Global is to transform an ordinary girl with big dreams to a beauty queen whose main responsibility is to give back to society. "The ideals behind this pageant are Purpose, Inner Beauty and Transformation, in that order. This pageant is different from traditional pageants in ...

Many F&B outlets I worked with have a Facebook Page first and website second. Go to any F&B outlet and you will see a poster that says Find Us On Facebook. However, finding us on Facebook is not as easy as it seems. The biggest problem is Facebook Search as it isn't as good as Google. Facebook Search, it seems, is based on the Page Name, not Vanity URL, and it matches the text accordingly. For example, if your Page Name is ABC Cafe and your customers search for ABCCafe, Facebook search will bring the customer to ABCCafe Facebook Page instead of ABC Cafe Facebook Page. I worked with a merchant who faced the same problem as above.  The merchant brand name as ABCShoes Pte Ltd but its Page Name was ABC Shoes. A customer actually found a ABCShoes Page and liked that page thinking it was from ABCShoes Pte Ltd. The customer was finding it weird that the content was different and highlighted it to the shop when she was there. Even the staff was confused with ABCShoes and ...

"Patience and understanding" - These are just two words that describe how the staff at a Chili's Grill and Bar treated a autistic girl in her demand for her "perfect" burger. Such act of kindness has gone viral with 800K+ likes on Facebook. Anna Kaye MacLean, from experience, always expected her outings with her autistic sister to be difficult. But the staff at Chili's Grill and Bar proved Anna otherwise. Anna's sister refused to eat her favourite cut cheeseburger because to her the burger was "broken". Wrote Anna , So I asked her, “Why don’t you want it?”. She replied, “It’s broken. I need another one thats fixed.” Then it dawned on me why she wasn’t eating it. It’s because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly. When Lauren came back to check on us, I asked if we could order another che...

If you thought Parisians are rude, wait you read about the administrator of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia Facebook Page. A customer visited the Les Deux Garcons Malaysia shop but was disappointed in the services. So naturally, she turned to the shops' Facebook Page. This customer even made a suggestion to the shop to label their macarons for their service staff felt they did not have to answer queries from in shop customers. How did the Facebook administrator respond? Well.. this Facebook administrator to go to Paris and face the wrath of real Parisian as this customer has too much to complaint. The next step that came naturally for the administrator was to delete the pst. When this customer put in another post, the Facebook administrator replied "We have no time for bitches". You can catch the drama unfolding between the administrator and Fans here .  The management of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia has since apologi...

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. It is no different in social media. If you are being attacked online, you respond online. Jollibee Singapore was recently flamed for opening its first shop in Singapore and only looking to hire foreigners in the store. This accusation came about of a wall post on its Facebook Page looking to hire staff for its store. Photo: EDMW loves Singapore Facebook page In a respond to inSing, Jollibee Singapore shared that they have removed the post because it was not longer necessary. Wrote InSing , Jollibee explained that the post had “served its purpose already as it was during the time when we were recruiting qualified Singaporeans/permanent residents to form part of our store team”. “We regularly update posts contained in our official Facebook page (and that includes removing posts which are no longer necessary) as part of our content management plan,” the spokesperson added. Removing the post only adds fuel to fire that the company...

A SUV in China was stolen and the baby in the car was also abducted. The sad part of the story was that the man responsible for it confessed to "strangling the baby and burying him in the snow". A depressing story to start the day, but brandchannel reported that a dealer at China Buick Cars decided to take advantage of this tragedy as a marketing tool. Wrote brandchannel, "As events were unfolding, one of Buick's dealers in China decided the Changchun tragedy would be the perfect subject to tout features on its new model cars. Liaoning Tianhe Buick, a dealership in Jilin's neighbor province, posted the following (now deleted) on its Weibo page (as a reader points out, before anyone knew the baby had been murdered): "A few thoughts following the Changchun stolen car incident: When buying a car it's completely okay to choose higher technology. Tianhe Buicks carry the OnStar GPS system, allowing the lockdown of a stolen vehicle at any time and place...

(Thanks to Daphne Maia for posting this on her Instagram which inspired this post.) So you are tasked to do a Facebook campaign with lots of advertising budget to buy media space. What do you do? Definitely not how Woh Hup Food does it. Source: From Daphne Maia Instagram. Woh Hup Food had the budget to print rail hangers and to hang it on MRT trains. This would cost such a substantial sum of money. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the campaign wasn't well thought through that it has lead to problems for both customers and, I believe, for Woh Hup Food marketing team too.  First of all, this Facebook campaign highlights the lack of understanding of Facebook and how Facebook works on mobile devices.  Running such a campaign runs a foul of Facebook guidelines on promotions. From Facebook . iii.    You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, ...

As I was reading the The AIMS-Town Council issues via the blogs, it hit upon me that the way we search and consumed our news has totally change. Thanks to both technology and non-technological reasons. Dr Teo Ho Pin released his 26 paragraph rebuttal as a press release and Facebook Post Before Facebook, before Internet, one had to wait for the print media to report on releases. Radio and TV had the upper hand as they could release it earlier on air. But now, the release is made via a Facebook Post  where everyone can like, share and comment. In doing any of this three, the news would be easily spread from friend to friend. Back then, without the Internet, the only way to share the news was to pass the newspaper to a friend. There would be coffee shop talk but comments usually disperse at the speed of sound. Newspaper report, bloggers analyse  This is where the local newspaper struggle. I believe there are some journalists who would like to go deeper into the story ...

QR codes have been appearing islandwide in 2012 and it will continue to appear 2013. Our Fan Club posters also incorporate QR codes and this has taught me a few things about QR codes. QR Codes are personal We have seen QR codes on big window posters, big posters hanging out the walls, etc. However, what I found is that consumers will scan QR codes when it is more personal.  Consumers find it quite weird to be pointing their mobile phone in public places as they are concerned it would invite stares.  On the contrary, when you have a smaller poster at tables top, they are more than willing to scan as it is done in their own personal space. Looking at the phone while sitting down seems acceptable to the consumers. Putting links or description next to the QR Codes increase scan rates When consumers see a standalone QR code, they tend to be suspicious where the QR codes leads to upon scanning. Some digital marketers will respond to say that these ...

Scotch-Brite Singapore has launched the Angry Wives Club app which hopes to advise wives on how to get husbands to do their houseworks without getting angry. The app is differentiated into three sections. The first section helps wife to identify what type of husbands they have and how to treat their husbands accordingly to get them to do house chores. The next section provides wives with tips on how to treat their husbands so that they get the household chores done. Keep nagging to the minimum is my favourite. Finally, what's an app without a contest.. The Scotch-Brite Singapore Angry Wives Facebook app can be found at  https://www.facebook.com/ScotchBriteSG/app_116837335150050 .

Harvard Business Review has a good write-up on measuring the real ROI (Return on Investment) on social media. HBR describes metrics like "Twitter followers, or Facebook likes are important by themselves" as nothing but vanity metrics. Wrote HBR , Here are four of the most important metrics you can follow — notice how little they have to do with popular social-media metrics: Relevant revenue . Note the word "relevant," which refers to recurring sales in your core business. Don't count revenue from one-time or stagnant sources. Sales volume . This can be a number like units sold or active subscriptions, something that shows whether or not enough people want to buy what you're selling. Customer retention. Metrics like "new customers" can hide the fact that although you may attract 1,000 new users a month, you're losing 900, which means you're not going to scale. Relevant growth. Too often, companies compound the stupidity of thei...

Vahaad Ali paid Chan Brothers $11K for a family trip to Australia at a NATAS Fair in August and all he got was a budget airline booked for his entire family. The wall post below originally appeared on Chan Brothers Travel Facebook Page . EDMW Loves Singapore Page has shared the reply email from Chan Brothers. Source: EDMW loves Singapore Facebook Page. A return trip to Gold Coast from Singapore on Scoot would have cost Chan Brothers $5000. I can imagine the disappointment for the family, all excited and all, only for Chan Brothers to use a fine print to put a damper to their holiday spirit. Seriously, why hide behind the fine print, Chan Brothers? Why not do a BIG PRINT that the proposed trip is an unconfirmed trip so the customers are fully aware of the purchase they made? While Chan Brother may be right, they became less likable as a result of this post. A Facebook user commented, "hey took down Vaahid's post bcos of overwhelming responses about this tr...

A photo of a Samsung Galaxy SIII appeared on the Samsung Pakistan Facebook Page which resulted in comments that the photo didn't look like a Samsung Galaxy SII. Samsung Pakistan was indeed honest about making the mistake but the reason given shown why administrating a Facebook Page is not as simple as it seems.  Wrote Pro Pakistani ,  History repeated itself yesterday, when Samsung Pakistan uploaded an image on its official Facebook page with caption: “Picture perfect view made even more perfect with Samsung Galaxy S3”. Soon after the upload, comments started to come-in, with shouts that its not Galaxy S3, rather it appears more like a cousin of Galaxy Note. Complying with the commentators (apparently without researching), the page admin edited the caption and changed Title to “Galaxy Note”. So Samsung Pakistan accidentally released a photo of the new Galaxy Note 2? Not exactly. Image from  http://propakistani.pk/2012/08/10/samsung-pakistan-...

After feedback from social media and comments on their Facebook Page, Samsung Singapore has changed its criteria for its e-warranty cashback lucky draw to include the early super adopters of the Samsung SIII. Wrote Samsung Mobile Singapore Facebook  Page ,  Calling all new and to-be GALAXY S III owners with purchases since the launch till Dec 31, 2012! Register your GALAXY S III e-warranty (www.samsung.com/sg/cyberservice) & stand to win a 100% cashback on your purchase! Hurry, share this piece of exciting news with your friends. Comments about the change in contest criteria have been positive to Samsung Singapore. Wrote a fan,  " Indeed a great news for all Samsung S3 user purchase before July. But it still depend on our luck to win the 100% cash back. As long as I win anot I believe Samsung really lend a ear to listen what consumer wanted. Example like these event they change the date for those purchase earlier July. Thumb ups for you." Again, k...

The Samsung Mobile Singapore Facebook announced on Sunday that Samsung S3 users who register their warranty online will get a chance to win 100% cashback. The only problem is that is only eligible for those who bought it from 01 July 2012. This means that the super early adopters who bought it on 29 May 2012 to 30 June 2012 do not qualify for this.  I raised this as a comment once I saw the post, but still did not receive any replies from Samsung Mobile Singapore. Yes, I was one of those super early adopters who bought it in early June. Really Samung Mobile Singapore, do you want to punish your super early adopters? The last comment, since this post was published, says it all, "really disappointing not able to join as i got mine before 1st July 2012... kind of penalizing those who got theirs early :-(".

Rocky’s Pizza https://www.facebook.com/rockypizza.sg 70% of Rocky’s Pizza customers are now fans of its freshly minted Facebook Page  Singapore June 3rd, 2012 Rocky’s Pizza launched their Facebook Page in March 2012, with a Fan Club offering a 20% discount to registered fans. 500 customers became fans in less than 3 months. “70% of our customers now check-in as fans when they dine at our restaurant,” commented Marcus Liew of Rocky’s Pizza. How does it work? Customers visit Rocky’s Pizza and see posters enticing them with the benefit to join the Fan Club. Customers scan a QR code or enter the given URL to like the page and register their mobile phone number. Customers then tell the cashier their mobile number and the cashier enters it into the Taggo POS application. Once identified as a fan, the cashier gives the customer their Fan Club 20% discount. What were the results? In 3 months, Rocky’s Pizza gathered 504 fans for its Facebook Page. 95% of these fans ha...

Fan Clubs on Facebook. Like loyalty programs, but better. Fan Clubs are free for businesses, as the service is bundled into the fees that they normally pay for credit card processing. Places that have Fan Clubs with PayPal have posters below to how how customers can sign up for the fan clubs.     Want to learn more on how to implement FanClubs with PayPal at your store? Email info(at)taggo.me.

Almost all social media team will tell you that your customers wants to have a relationship with your brand. But are customers really looking for that brand relationship? In the " From social media to Social CRM ",  a IBM Institute for Business Value sponsored white paper showed some surprising results.  This results of the white paper was summarised by David Sims of CRMsearch.com.  Wrote David ,  Here are the top three reasons customers give for interacting with businesses via social media, with the percentage of respondents giving the answer: Get a discount - 61 percent. Make a purchase - 55 percent. Read reviews and product rankings - 53 percent. Now here are the top three reasons businesses think customers interact with them via social media: Learn about new products - 73 percent. General information - 71 percent. Submit opinion on products or service - 69 percent. Surprised by the results? David was. "Huh?" businesses ask. "But I th...