Kansas City is consistently showing itself to be a part of the conversation in understanding the current state of the social media space and shaping its future.
Execution and Results
The Embarq team including SMCKC regulars Zena and Kevin offer a fantastic roadmap for integrating social media into a Fortune 500 company which you can see presented below.
Radian 6 also featured them in an extensive case study showing the impact their tools and the work being done with those tools have. Check out the full PDF.
Thought Leadership
When BtoB magazine needed a perspective on the Interactive Advertising Bureau setting social media guide lines they went to NK. (Via BtoB)
“There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace right now because people aren’t speaking the same language,” said Chris Kovac, social media supervisor at Nicholson Kovac, a b-to-b marketing communications agency based in Kansas City, Mo. “Establishing a common language has to be the first step,” he said.
“Once we’re on the same page, then we can define subgroups of advertising. Is it an interactive banner ad, is it an engagement ad, etc.”
Traditional Media Exposure
KCTV5 tapped the CEO of LightThread for a segment about the potential social media has for businesses.
Nice to see exposure of the hard work friends of i+a like Zena, Derek, and Justin. On a related note we had 50 or so people at this mornings SMCKC event. Wow, love seeing all the new faces.
“Businesses learn lessons in Twitter technology” (via KCStar.com)
By DIANE STAFFORD
When the Enterprise Center of Johnson County announced a “Twitter Bootcamp,” the seminar room capacity of two dozen was reached immediately.
The waiting list filled a second seminar set for later this month. And that waiting list precipitated a third seminar for May.
Representatives from large and small area businesses, eager to figure out how the social networking phenomenon can help their businesses, got an intro-to-tweeting lesson Thursday in the first of the three bootcamps.
Derek Gathright, Steven Chau and Darby Frey, three Web developers and software engineers, explained the Twittersphere, in which users are sending concise messages to each other’s cell phones, PDAs and desktops.
Twitter.com started out three years ago with some techies and other “early adopters” sending quick updates to one another — in answer to the signature question “What are you doing?”
Now, it has morphed into an advertising, marketing and public relations tool with perhaps 8 million users (though precise numbers aren’t known).
Southwest Airlines and JetBlue use Twitter. “It’s especially good at quieting angry customers,” Frey said. And Gathright described how Twitter helped him connect with lost luggage in Las Vegas.
Zicam, maker of a cold remedy, uses Twitter. Let someone send a message to a friend that says, “I’m sick,” and she may get a tweet in response that says, “Have you heard of Zicam?” along with an offer to download a coupon.
The seminar presenters said a couple of Kansas City companies have skilled Twitter users. They singled out Justin Gardner at AMC Theatres and Zena Weist at Embarq. They are among a relatively new class of worker known as the social media manager or interactive brand strategy manager.
Sprint Nextel also uses Twitter to scout out and help squash consumer complaints, the presenters said.
As a still-young medium for business, Twitter is being shaped by the preferences of its early adopters. For example, Chau said, the chief executive of Zappos, an online shoe vendor, tweets to share his views of the world, a technique that humanizes the company and builds a fan base.
Dell, the computer company, has a variety of Twitter accounts to reach users and prospective buyers. Gathright said the company had sales of more than $1 million in 2007-2008 generated through sale alerts sent on Twitter.
The three presenters said one of the clearest values of Twitter — as opposed to Facebook.com — is that a sender doesn’t have to be invited in or approved as a “friend” to receive a message.
That broader access has allowed CNN, for example, to account for comparatively high-volume Twitter traffic in news bulletin tweets.
But using Twitter isn’t a no-brainer, they said. They cited an effort by Skittles, the candy, to do a Twitter marketing push. Tweet traffic, presumably among young users, quickly became dotted with profanity and other less desirable stuff.
“With Twitter, you get instant feedback from users,” Gathright said, noting that can be good or bad. “You reach a much broader, random audience than using the more private e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms or blogging.”
This is the third post in our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.
Description – The Wizards are Kansas City’s professional MLS soccer team and started in 1995 as one of the league’s 10 charter teams. They have been winners of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Supporters Shield, and most importantly in 2000 were crowned MLS Cup Champions.
Social Media Usage - Blogging, Twitter, You Tube, MySpace, and message board community engagement.
How They Stand Out – The Wizards excel at the most important aspect of any social media strategy. Content creation. Their official blog Hillcrest Road does a great job connecting with, and informing fans. News items and blog posts that are KCW related are pulled from all over and relayed to the Hillcrest Road readers. Every aspect of the organization is covered in the original content they create. Interviews with the players, behind the scenes access on road games, updates on players’ involvement in the community, as well as more game related information. The blog also does a great job of getting the fans involved. Last season they got input from HR readers to give a name to a common goal celebration that takes place (think of a soccer version of the Lambeau Leap) at the games. Twitter and MySpace is used as an outpost and You Tube is used as an outpost and a content source.
One of the interesting things that came from putting KCW under the social media microscope was seeing the CEO of OnGoal Robb Heineman jumping into fan message boards. Message boards are interesting places, they are filled with informed passionate people however the relative anonynimity can give communities a “Lord of the Flies” type feel where people with good intentions can have really bad experiences. Robb has gained a lot of integrity with fans by giving them info directly and showing he has a passion and excitement for the team that you don’t see often from a person in his position. We stress treading lightly in message board communities.
It is great to see Kansas City based companies understand the value of social media and connecting with customers in new ways. Best of luck to the Wizards in 2009.
I was really happy to get a notice in my inbox today of a new user following my twitter account. The Kansas City Public Library.
We are lucky to have a library system in our community that is so proactive in so many ways. Last month they recieved a 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries, at a White House ceremony.
Using Twitter to try and get out the information about the wide selection of events going on at the library is a fantastic move. They have also benefitted from a recent website design featuring a blog on the front page, open for comments and user interactions.
People in this city are starting to “get it” in regards to social media and the results are going to be very exciting to see.
This is the second post in our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.
Description – Whole Foods Market is a natural and organic grocer. “We search for the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because we believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is.”
Social Media Usage - Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, Podcasts, Forums, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter.
How They Stand Out – Whole Foods uses social media to portray their unique company culture and values to the general public, all while providing quality content that creates value adds for their customers. They hold themselves to a different standard than most publicly owned companies and are almost always rated amongst the top socially responsible companies.
Their unique company culture really makes for an interesting use of social media. It really allows them to engage their customers to a much higher degree. A majority of Whole Foods customers are definitely a select demographic which allows them to really start conversations that allow lots of feedback and customers helping customers. One of my favorite things they do is The Whole Deal in which they allow customers to share how they shop at Whole Foods and do not pay more than other grocery stores. They do not come up with all the answers or throw stuff at you that may raise skepticism. They allow real people to help real people with a “perceived” problem. Addressing many peoples main objection in a public format is a great way to get potential customers to at the very least, come see for themselves.
Whole Foods uses social media in many ways and they all revolve around the company culture which allows the customer to feel like they are part of the company family. Be sure to check out their videos and podcasts to learn new recipes using, what else, products you can find at Whole Foods.
Do you follow Whole Foods through any of their social media efforts? Which ones? What do you think? What could they do better? Do you know any companies that ‘Get It’? Share them with us in the comments.
This is the first post of our “Companies that get it” series that works to highlight businesses that are on forefront of social media using creative and effective uses of emerging technologies to run and improve their business.
Description – Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on the individual song choices — approval or disapproval — which Pandora takes into account for future selections.
Social Media Usage – Blogging, Event Planning, Conversation Monitoring, Video, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
How They Stand Out – Pandora understands the opportunities that a passionate user base can create. If you have a comment about the service (good or bad) and Twitter about it odds are you will get a response quickly with a note of appreciation for feedback or an attempt to correct a problem. All of their mediums for communication remind the user of the value they put in the feedback that is provided.
I+A stresses the importance of being genuine in your social media efforts and this is reflected in the honest and transparent ways in which Pandora communicates with its users. You get the feeling that the employees love what they do and believe in the company which really draws people in. Everyone is very accessible.
Pandora has also leveraged the interest of its users to host events hosted all over the country from listening parties to meetups. To add another element of connectivity there is a good deal of video giving you inside glimpses into some of the processes and happenings of the company.
Pandora’s communications team has built up the trust of its user base with honest and effective connections. Practices like this have undoubtedly gone a long way to make Pandora the popular service it is today.
Know of a company that you think “gets” it? Drop us a line at ideasandangles [at] gmail [dot] com.
