April 26, 2012
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How to Handle a Bad Online Review

A funny thing happened on the way to the Interwebs . . .

I recently left a Google review for a moving company that totally disappointed on a recent interstate move. I thought the review was absolutely fair – and I also thought it was anonymous. I suppose that from some of the information I gave in the review (the state we moved from and relocated to, for example) led the company to figure out who wrote it. So they contacted me.

At first, the whole interaction with the company was positive. We’re so sorry you weren’t happy. What went wrong. How can we make it better? That’s the kind of conversation that should happen within a company anytime they get a less-than-stellar review. With the understanding that the company was going to try to make things better, I put an “update” in the review and made it three stars instead of two.

But, when it came time for the company to “make it right” they hemmed and hawed. They didn’t want to change any of the claim money they paid us. They didn’t want to give us any of our deductible back. Etc.

However, they did ask this question: What dollar amount would it take to “make it right” in my mind – AND TO TAKE THE REVIEW DOWN.

That opened up a whole new can of worms. They would give me some of my money back, but only if I took the review down. I’m not crazy about my choices here. I think reviews are meant to be honest opinions so people can help other people avoid bad companies/experiences.

This goes to show the power of social. (Yes, I think online reviews, and reviews on Yelp, FourSquare, etc. are social media.) This review I left is hurting his business.

So I started to think about how I would advise a client to respond to something like this.

Look, companies are run by humans. Humans make mistakes. It happens. I really think it’s how you respond in the face of that mistake that makes the difference.

I would advise this company to post a response to my review. Since a lot of reviews ARE anonymous, and you wouldn’t have the chance to go back and change anything, a response goes a long way. I wouldn’t argue the review – this is someone’s experience. It affected them enough to make them write a review. Here are some key points.

Apologize: Look, you can make a case, but you just come off looking like an ass. They weren’t happy, so say you’re sorry. “I’m so sorry your move wasn’t as expected.”
State you’re intended goal: “It’s our goal to make everyone’s move as easy as possible.”
Make a case – BUT DON’T BELITTLE THE REVIEWER: “While farming a move out to another company is standard industry practice, perhaps this wasn’t effectively communicated. I also wish that we had implicitly told you that if you had any problems on move day, to please call us. I would’ve liked to have fixed the issue then and there. That’s something that everyone should know – CALL US IMMEDIATELY if there’s a problem.”
Explain how you’ve made a change: “Because of this problem, we’ve changed the way we communicate these things to perspective clients. Most of our customers come away happy, but we are only human, and we can always improve, and this is what we’ll do in the future. (List out the items.)
Thank them for the review: “Thank you for helping us become a better moving company.”
Outside of the response, really, really do something to make them feel like you’ve tried. Maybe a bit of money back would prompt a change in the review. As a matter of fact, you could suggest that they update the review.

Whatever you do, please, please don’t get into an argument with the customer. Remember, the customer is always right. Always. Even when they’re technically not. The power of a review, or word of mouth, is awesome.

And reviewers – know that you have the power to make a change. Leave honest and fair reviews – for both good and bad experiences. Clearly it makes a difference.

April 3, 2012
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Facebook Timeline Cover Image Rules

I’ve seen a lot of this lately, which means a blog post about it might help some of you with your Facebook Timeline cover image.

Yes, this image takes up a lot of real estate on your Timeline. Yes, it’s front and center when people come to your page. And yes, it’d be a great spot for some advertising. Yay!

Um, no. Facebook set up some rules to keep you from doing just that. You see, social media is about relationships. It’s not really about advertising in the traditional sense. That cover image is there for you to use to tell folks, visually, how you’re going to relate to them on Facebook.

I’m copying this straight from the Facebook information page (found here.)

Cover images … may NOT contain:

Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

So what Facebook is trying to tell you is that the cover image is not a banner ad. (See? They knew you’d want it to be. Of course you do. That’s what traditional media would tell you to do.) This is a visual representation of your brand. Is your brand only about your Website? Your phone number? If it is, you have bigger issues!

Try to tell you story in a photo, or a set of photos, or a graphic, or whatever. But leave the advertising out. I have no idea how Facebook will monitor whether people work within the guidelines, but I do know that a lot of folks who have seen their page disappear suddenly. So big brother Facebook is probably watching. And wouldn’t you want to show the world that you “get” social media anyway?

Share you cover images for us, if you’d like feedback!

March 8, 2012
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How to Enter Milestones On Your Facebook Timeline

In my last post, I spoke about probably the most visual part of the new Facebook Timeline, the cover image, and what it should look like.

The next big step to getting your Facebook Timeline in order before launch on March 30 (or publishing it sooneer) is to add your company’s history – which Facebook calls “milestones.” This is the fun part!

Spend some time and make an outline of your company’s history. When was the company founded? When was your first sale? Has your company won any awards? Participated in any big events? Released any cool new gadgets? Write them all down. Then dig through your photos and find those all-important images to go with these events.

The first thing Facebook makes you do is enter the date the company was “born.” You have to enter that information before you can enter any of the milestones. You can chose to have the wording say when the company was born, founded, started or opened – whichever fits your brand message – or your sense of whimsy – best.

Now that this first piece of information is on your page, you can add the rest of your milestones.

You’ll notice in the status bar area there is now an option for Milestone. Click that, and a new window will open. On personal pages with the Facebook Timeline, there are different milestone options, like “Got Married” or “Got a cat.” However, with company pages – at least for now – there’s just one kind of milestone. There’s a text box to enter what the milestone is – like “Launched the iWidget 5000.” Then you select the date that milestone happened – you can select just the year, but it’s better if you can select the month and day as well. Then, there’s a text box that allows you to write more detail about that event.

You’ll also want to add a photo if you can – photos have much more prominence in the new Facebook Timeline layout, and for people scrolling through to look at your history, it makes those milestones POP! You can either choose a photo that you have already uploaded to your Facebook page, or you can upload a new one.

You’ll also notice a little check box at the bottom that says “Hide from News Feed.” It’s important to note that each time you add a milestone to your page, if you don’t check this box, it has the potential to show up in your fans’ news feeds. There are pluses and minuses to this. If you’re planning on adding 20 milestones to your page, you might want to check this box on all but the most important 2-3 milestones. Otherwise, you’re going to annoy your fan base. Though I will say that the President of the United States did not check this box (or his social media team didn’t) and many new milestones showed up in my news feed. If it’s good for the Prez . . . Just think it through first.

I just read an article today that indicated that companies with a history that begin prior to 1800 couldn’t add milestones before then. Facebook is now going to allow you to have a history back to the year 1000. If your company brand image allows for a little fun, I’d enter something for the year 1000 – something like “my founder’s 20 times great grandfather built a fire in a cave, thus instilling an entrepreneurial drive in our lineage.”

More Timeline tips to come!

March 7, 2012
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What Should Your Facebook Timeline Cover Image Look Like?

Quick interactive activity. Raise your hand if you read that you’d have to change your Facebook page to the new Timeline layout and you secretly wanted to smack Mark Zuckerberg. *Raises hand*

When Timeline rolled out for user accounts, I actually rushed to get a sneak peek. But when it came to Timeline for business pages, there’s a lot more at stake. But once I rolled it out on a live Facebook page, I realized something. Finally, I can establish a real Facebook BRAND.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pain in the patootie, but it allows for a whole new set of opportunities for brands to get creative about how they talk to their fans. I also think that it makes brands really think about how to be “human” with their fans, which is what we social media freaks preach about all the time. In this new format, a brand has to take on humanoid qualities to succeed.

The most important branding activity with the new Timeline feature is the cover image. For the bigger brands, that had advanced notice and time to get ready for the Timeline switch, I’ve seen cover images that run the gamut. Some are illustrations, some are photos, some are really a big billboard ad.

I would argue, for smaller brands coming on board, that you use this opportunity to connect with your fans. Thus, I suggest you use a photo for your cover image.

First, it humanizes your brand a bit more. Everyone has snapshots on Facebook, right? Second, it doesn’t require a graphic design genius (though I do appreciate a good graphic design genius.) It just requires a bit of thinking. “What photo could I post that would best portray what this business stands for in 2 seconds?” Think of it as a photographic elevator pitch.

If you don’t have a photo, go out with your camera and shoot one. If you have the budget, hire a photographer. Better yet, make a collage of photos for your cover image. However, as you’re choosing a photo, remember the (fairly cumbersome) dimensions of the cover image on Facebook – 851×315 – so a vertical-oriented image isn’t going to work in that space.

Also remember that Facebook has set parameters around what you can’t do in the cover image. You can’t ask for “likes” or “shares,” you can’t have pricing information, no company info like Web site address or street address (there are other places for that info.) With these restrictions, Facebook is saying to you – this is not a billboard. This is a way to relate to your fans.

I, personally, haven’t managed to capture the right photo image for The Social Media Butterfly’s page, but I’m certainly going to have to do it before the March 30th deadline – that’s when you get Timeline, whether you’re ready or not.

TIP: When you upload a cover image, it shows up on your Timeline. If you don’t want an historical record of very cover image photo you tried before you decided on the right one, you’ll need to delete those Timeline posts. Just scroll down to find them in your Timeline, hover over the post, and a little pencil button will show up. Click on that to edit – and select “delete.”

I love this cover image below – for exactly the reasons I spoke of above. Don’t you relate more to Matt, Anne and Al than you do the rainbow logo? Do you have an innovative cover image? Share it in comments!

May 16, 2011
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Politics Not PR for Social Media

An interesting thing happened on the way to the Presidential campaign in 2012. For the first time, a presidential candidate announced their candidacy on Twitter.

Here’s the problem that I see with Newt Gingrich announcing his candidacy this way. It wasn’t very authentic. It was a PR stunt, and almost everyone who is socially savvy can see through it.

Despite your political views, it’s an important lesson to learn. I understand Mr. Gingrich wanting to latch on to the coolest, hippest medium of the day to announce his big run. Heck, President Obama dominated social media platforms when he won the office, so it’s no surprise that his opponents would want to out-social-media him.

Here’s the difference. Mr. Gingrich clearly doesn’t understand how social media works. His announcement was a very blah ~ “Today I am announcing my candidacy for President of the United States. You can watch my announcement here (short url)”

Bor-ring! First, why provide a link to a video? And if you’ve watched the video, it, too is a snore-fest. As Jon Stewart joked, it looks like it was filmed in a Sears portrait studio, and does nothing more than echo the announcement for office. There’s certainly nothing there that would make the socially savvy generation to run out and start volunteering for the next big social media presidential candidate – it barely even gets them out of their recliners to get up and get potato chips.

And it’s not about being a Republican or a Democrat. Sarah Palin (a Republican, in case you’ve been under a rock), understands the power of the medium. Her Tweets often drive news cycles. Gingrich’s Tweets drive sleep cycles.

Let’s look at a different announcement on Twitter this week, which had much more “viral buzz” around it. Ashton Kutcher announced he was going to be joining the cast of “Two and a Half Men.” How’d he do it? “”What’s the square root of 6.25?” His Twitter followers immediately went to work to guess that he’d be on the show – and his Twitter followers may even keep the show alive while he’s on it. That’s the power of social media.

So what can we learn from this? Businesses, let me say, once again, that Twitter isn’t about your boring PR messages. Mr. Gingrich should take note. He could’ve said something like “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is my dream address, vote for me in 2012” – ANYTHING other than the rote “Blah blah blah, President, blah blah blah.” Post things that are engaging to your followers, things that make them WANT to know what you’re saying. You want to elicit an “oooooh!” not an “eh.”