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Social Media Consulting, Architecture & Delivery
Cases: How companies have used Social Media Marketing effectively (USA)
(Sources: Forrester Inc. and Peppers & Rogers)
The most well known cases of social media are all on-line, i.e. social networking sites
like facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Orkut, Linked In, the collaborative encyclopedia
Wikipedia and blogging portals like Blogspot and WordPress. However, while they
constitute outstanding proof of the power of social media, and increasingly popular
with a large number of companies, few have gone beyond the conventional advertising
approach of traditional media. The cases featured below are some of those rare ones
who have truly harnessed the power of social media, combining both on-line and off-
line dynamics to actually deliver tangible business results.
1. Nintendo used consumer networks to launch the Wii, involving consumer
networks to acquire new customers.
Nintendo worked on a group of moms called the Alpha-Moms, i.e. connected
moms to open up and promote the gaming market. Moms control the purse
strings of the family. Nintendo wanted to convince the moms to spend more on
gaming. They organized fabulous Wii parties and invited specially selected
moms who connect with other moms a lot. The guests were free to bring
friends, families, daughters, friends of daughters, etc. The idea was to give the
moms reasons to buy computer games and to play. They were invited to spend a
few hours at the party, a part of it at the console to play the games. The only
thing the moms had to do was to invite their friends and participate.
The moms spoke about these fabulous parties to each other and through their
blogs on-line.
Nintendo got the benefit from the double network effect:
a. People came to the party and played the games at the console and created
buzz for the products
b. The moms spoke about these fabulous parties to each other and spread the
word further through their blogs. One blogging mom was a queen-bee. She
sold over 200 Wiis through her email network. Moms in her network bought
this product because they were very interested in what this mom had to say.
c. The Wii project generated blog envy. Overheard from a lady in a Wii party:
Wow! I’m going to start writing a blog. You’ve been to a Wii party?!
Wii is no.1 in sales today.
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Social Media Consulting, Architecture & Delivery
2. Dell involved customers in their support through forums, leveraging the wisdom
of customers to help and inform other customers.
Dell has a thriving customer community engaged in sharing information and
experiences about Dell products through on-line forums. There are some
influential customers who have made up to 22,000 and 19000 posts in the
forums. These are customers, not employed by Dell, but giving information,
providing tips and support to other Dell customers. Dell supports these people
publicly and privately, demonstrating that they really value them.
Called the “Diamond” contributors – they are the star contributors who are
shown to all newcomers to interact with and projected as people who have done
a great job helping other customers. This public engagement is on-line.
At an intimate level Dell organizes exclusive chats with Dell top management
like Michael Dell, thus inviting customers to engage further with the brand. This
deeper, private engagement is off-line.
There are others too who are very helpful in dialogues with specific groups,
even if they don’t post large volumes of posts, e.g. women to other women. Dell
supports them the same way from behind the scenes.
According to a study by Bain & Co 60% of Dell’s customers contributed 90%
positive comments which led to 25% of Dell’s new customers, creating value at
the rate of $ 5.25 per comment.
3. Nestle deployed CRM for a number of years & recently added a community
twist on top of it. The company identified its “bake-in buddies” – those high
value customers for its bakery products and those who are most active
participants in cooking related activities. The target customers were encouraged
to chalk up “brownie points” through activities on the best baking websites.
Nestle offered sponsored “bake-in” parties for these super customers in their
own backyard, and encouraged them to bring their daughters, mothers, friends
and neighbours. The “bake-in” buddies loved it.
Network effect pushed sales up.
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