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Newton’s 3rd Law – To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
Case in point: Domino’s
Action:
I am sure that most of you remember a few months ago when employees at a Domino’s Pizza in North Carolina posted a video on YouTube “messing” with the food they were preparing. This video took You Tube, Domino’s and the internet by storm, quickly being viewed by an audience of hundreds of thousands. The internet was not the only place where people heard about the incident, as millions of people were also informed via local and national TV coverage. As you can imagine, this put a serious dent into the trust that I (and millions of others) had in Domino’s, a provider of a product that I had purchased before.
Reaction:
A few days passed before Domino’s posted their reply via a YouTube video. Domino’s addressed the measures that were being taken to ensure that this did not happen again and thanked the members of the YouTube community for reporting the original video that made Domino’s aware of the situation. This was very important as the situation was still fresh in everyone’s mind. I appreciated the video and liked the way that Domino’s handled the situation. Now while I am not too sure if I will give them the benefit of the doubt in the near future, I will take the video into account.
Domino’s could have stopped there, but rather they took this one step further, which was entirely necessary (IMO) to gain their customer trust back.
More recently, Domino’s has posted a new video (on their new site – Pizza Turnaround – basically a website/blog) thanking people for their feedback online throughout many different Social Media channels. Patrick Doyle and other “real” employees speak from their corporate headquarters in Michigan about their “passion around the pizza.” They are also highlighting how they are listening to negative feedback on the and turning it into a positive for the brand and their product.
Talk about turning a negative situation into a positive! Now it is unfortunate that it took the video from employees “doing what they did” to turn Domino’s around, but as they say, it is better late than never. Now the question is, are you going to wait until this type of situation hits you and your business, or are you going to start to listen now?
*crossposted on http://www.ektron.com/mikepascucciblog
As some of you may know, I started at Ektron just over a month ago as their Social Media Strategist. One of the tasks that was bestowed upon me was to get the Ektron Twitter account. There were many other things that took precedence over securing this account, like creating documentation, building case studies, learning the platform, and all the other standard “starting a new job” things. Which leads me to December 11th.
I submitted a request via the Twitter Support area and asked if there was anything that I could do to secure the Ektron Twitter account.
I outlined to Twitter that the account:
1. Had protected their tweets
2. Had no friends
3. Has no followers
4. Had no Tweets
I also mentioned that I had thought that someone was squatting on the account to either force us to create a new account or to block us from leveraging it to communicate. I received an immediate email informing me that their Support team was processing the request and to allow for several days to review the case and to receive a follow-up.
I then went to twitter Twitter and asked if anyone had dealt with this in the past, as I was sure that I was not the only one. My friend jimstorer RT’d (re-tweeted for those of you that are not on Ttwitter – posted it again) my question. He was then contacted by another individual, nickhuhn who in-turn contacted me and let me know that I was following the right process, and that in his experience, it took about a month. You really can’t beat the power of Social Media and Networking, validating the process.
After 5 five days I received a communication from Twitter with a step by step process as to how I could go about securing up the account, including the specific information that was needed (Patent # specifically). I submitted the information via their online support channel and 2 two days later I received word from Twitter that the account was now Ektron’s.
The entire process was extremely painless. Twitter was transparent with me during the entire process, setting expectations and communicating with me during the entire time. I was able to leverage a “2nd degree friend” in order to validate the process, and within just over a week’s time, I had the account secured. Thank you to Twitter and thank you for the avenue to both submit my request and locate others that have gone through the same process.
* cross-posted at http://www.ektron.com/mikepascucciblog
Where is the separation?
The other day I was asked to begin blogging for another website, eBizq. They focus on professionals, vendors and industry analysts exchanging information on enterprise technologies, problems and solutions. During the meeting with the Managing Editor, I referenced my personal blog and my work blog as a reference guide to my style and the topics that I write. While I was describing the differences between the blogs, I got to thinking, they are fairly the same blog. Granted the tone and style may be slightly different, but in general, they are the same blog. I have also cross-posted a few posts between the 2 already.
After I thought about it a little more, can I write for 2 or 3 blogs, focused around the same topic? Can I/Should I try to consolidate the blogs somehow? I do not want to “lose” the current readership (no matter how small that it is) on my personal blog. People have obviously subscribed to it for some reason, and if I change the topic or content on the blog now, then I will lose them. I would not mind forwarding those individuals over to my work blog, but then again, people do not want to read what a “company” is saying, they would rather read an opinion from an independent source, that has no bias or agenda – which I can totally understand.
I guess that my question is, Can a line be drawn? Once you choose a path, is there a way that you can change direction? While I do not mind writing on 3 different blogs, I do not want to duplicate the content and readership, or spread it too thin. Has anyone had this issue and the past and what decisions did you make that seemed the most appropriate? Personal Branding vs. Professional Career vs. Industry thought leadership?
I am sure that you all remember the good old cartoon from Bugs Bunny, the Tortoise vs. the Hare:
During the entire race, Bugs Bunny is trying to cheat, cut corners and sabotage the Tortoise in order to win the race. The Tortoise on the other hand just runs the race and stays the course. When all is said and done, the Tortoise wins and proves the point, Slow and Steady wins the race.
Social Media implementations are very similar in this approach, or at least successful ones are.
In the more recent past, companies were getting involved in Social Media and launching online communities because their competition was, or because it was the ‘Thing to do, and they followed the concept of “if-you-build-it-they-will-come”. While that approach may have worked in the past, it most certainly does not work now.
People have so many place that they can go to converse and interact with others, that they have their pick-of-the-litter when it comes to Social Media. Have you done your research ahead of time, or have you rushed into the space, hoping that by cutting corners you will beat your competition?
Which do you think that you are at the moment? Have you built your application or Strategy? Are you reviewing other applications (Twitter, Facebook) and doing your research up front before you jump into the game, analyzing your audience ahead of time? Are you setting yourself up for failure before you even begin?
Social Media Strategy, Moderation & Management Musings 
