The social media 'full' loop

I always like chatting business with my pal Bryn Griffiths (Fan 960 in Calgary) as we have such ying-yang conversations.

Often he's on one side of an issue and I'm on the opposite side, which really helps bring 'me' back into perspective on occasion.

In discussing the differences in Social Media in both Canada and the United States our debate the other day was very interesting as I tried to explain the difference (in my opinion) of companies that 'get it' versus companies 'that don't.'

Bryn's point was that the current business climate (coming out of a recession) has limited companies from truly engaging in adding a social media element to their businesses. Many are still 'recovering' and don't have a bunch of extra cash to throw at an evolving media.

My point is that 'those that don't may find themselves in trouble sooner rather than later.'

It's very clear that the business template is changing, and alot of it is tied to demographic expectations.

My daughter Rayanne, for example, chimed in and carefully pointed out that she only cares about "coupons" and "exclusive opportunities" with offerings she can access on her smart phone or newly aquired iPad.

"Why would businesses simply direct you to their website with a QR code Dad? I could easily just dial it in on my computer. I want something different and special."


Great point!

Next, one of the big differences I see from businesses that get Social Media is the 'full use of technology' - or in other words 'looping' all their social media tools in a very positive manner.

One such group that I'm totally impressed with is the PF Changs/Pei Wei restaurant group.

Pei Wei is the offshoot of the highly successful PF Changs restaurant. PF's specializes in family style dining...you know...order several dishes to split amongst the group....whereas Pei Wei has select dishes designed for one and has a tremendous 'take away' business.

Both are highly enjoyable and have absolutely tremendous positive images within the restaurant business in the United States. (Montreal and Toronto are in store for PF Changs this spring by the way)

The Pei Wei Social Media plan is superb. First off, when you go to their site and register you are offered an opportunity to 'join the club for benefits' down the road. Then you start to receive what I call "premium email offers."

These are works of art....very well written....tempting...colorful....and quite often will unveil a new product.

But they don't stop there.

There's a link on the 'premium' email where you go to a second site featuring a map of the world. On that map you are invited to check out the new product and click on the area of the globe where that dish has been featured.

Up will come a very well done video featuring a Pei Wei Chef who describes in details why they choose this dish; what ingrediants they are using; nutrition information; details on how they put it together and why they brought it to North America; and other highly enjoyable visuals from the area where the 'info-mercial' was video taped.

This message is short - to the point - and very well presented.

After the video is viewed you are automatically connected to a direct email, that arrives very quickly to your computer with a FREE coupon for that dish. As you travel around the world more and more of these offerings are yours and you begin to earn an Expert stamp.

Time to complete?

Less than 3 minutes. You're given a date range to enjoy the dish and the coupon provided to you has a bar code for them to measure in store response.

And most importantly 'measuring response and interacting with your customer is everything in a social media world' as my radio consulting pal Dave Lange adds:

"The key to building a social media plan is to engage an audience. To engage them you can’t just SELL the unique qualities of the brand – that’s what we did in the old days of marketing.

Social Media is not ‘broadcasting’ it is interacting with the fans of the brand and the goal is to spread the brand’s fans to bigger and bigger numbers.

To do that you have to enlist the heavy users and get them buzzing. The first step is building a creative interaction and then scheduling it so that as many of your fans as possible catch the news.

The 2nd step is to make sure you know when they have seen the message with your metrics and analytics. 3rd you have to monitor and follow up on your engagements – the news that over 79% of comments from fans on brand pages go unanswered is not a healthy stat on the brands efforts in Social Media.

You have to lead and engage the conversation to really be effective here. Just pumping out 1 sentence sales pitches will not build your fan base to any actions for your brand.

Random acts of Social Media won’t catch any fish. You need to research the lake, pull out the sonar, light up the fish finders and get a good lure in the water – you also better have a really cool fast bass boat."

From start to finish the PEI WEI program is as slick a presentation as you'll ever see. No television commercial could compete with the 'length' factor - nor the 'on demand' factor - nor the 'instant response' factor.

The 'loop' as I call it is thus complete. Customer loyalty means I receive those offers first - they reward me instantly - and the opportunity to dine for free is something 'everybody' can surely enjoy.

I have not found any other company anywhere in either Canada or the United States with that full loop and I'd be interested in hearing from anybody else who can. In the changing world of new media new and innovative ways to engage with your customer can make a really big difference on a go forward basis.

In fact I've found the opposite recently by using the COMMENT or EMAIL connection on several websites where I tried to connect to the client and had 'no response.' Some of these are rather large or highly important businesses and it seems that 'nobody' is checking their email and they don't even have an 'auto response' sent back with other important information - like a name or telephone number to contact the business.

Giant Fail!

So Bryn, I enjoyed our discussion as always and invite you to come along for dinner to Pei Wei...it's on me!


**If you want to check out Dave Langes great social media work please feel free to reach out dlange210@att.net – Engaging Social – Social Media Platforms.**