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A Social Media Marketing Example: Business Goes From Zero to Hero in 24 Hours

I’ll share with you a great example of one customer’s huge problem with a company, which transformed into an amazing “save” for the business because that company utilized social media channels and actively participated in those channels. This is a true story, shared at a marketing conference I attended: a bride-to-be orders her wedding dress online from a business in New York. Her wedding dress arrives but there is a problem with the dress—it is not the exact dress she ordered.

Our bride-to-be is distraught. The time difference prevents her from being able to call the business directly when she discovers the problem. Even if she does talk to them, returning the dress for a replacement won’t help her. She lives in South Africa. Shipping the dress already took two weeks, and she doesn’t have two more weeks to wait. Her wedding is sooner than that. Our bride shares her angst on the business’ Facebook Fan Page, saying she ordered “x” dress for her wedding. She explains that she can’t wear the dress that arrived, and it took two weeks just to get the dress to her in South Africa. Worse, she continues, her wedding takes place before she could possibly get a replacement.

The next morning in New York, an employee at the wedding dress shop who shares the responsibility of keeping tabs on their social media, sees our bride’s distressed Facebook posting. The employee notifies the manager of the problem. The business is already checking their sales records to see if they can identify the customer by what was posted on their Facebook Page and work out a solution.

When the distraught bride-to-be does call, she is surprised by the business saying they were glad she contacted them. They had been working to identify her order, based on her posting to their Facebook Page. They explained that the Manager was waiting to speak with her personally. A few details were clarified and then they had the exact dress she had ordered. The Manager double checked the details of the dress and told our bride-to-be that the store would pay for immediate overnight delivery of this replacement dress to her.

This business having social media channels and being active in those channels, allowed the dress shop to turn one bride-to-be’s nightmare into an unusually positive experience. There would have undoubtedly been more negative posts from this distraught customer, and other prospective customers would have been affected by her upset, as well as several ‘sympathy posts’ from other brides-to-be.

Our once distraught bride-to-be did end up writing several other postings. However, in this positive outcome, those posts were all very positive: how the business was expecting her call, was already working to solve her problem before she even spoke to them on the phone, and paid to have the replacement overnighted to her in South Africa. A woman scorned by a business was transformed into a woman understood and taken care of at a time when it mattered most. The business went from “Zero,” potential “social media leper,” to Hero inside of 24 hours!

Could the wedding dress crisis have had a positive outcome without the business being involved in social media? For the bride-to-be . . . absolutely! But it wouldn’t have had the over-the-top element of unexpected recognition from the dress shop, already working to solve her crisis before she could even call the business directly. And what would the outcome of this crisis have looked like for the business, were they not utilizing social media channels?

Well, if the bride-to-be was unable to share her upset on the dress shop’s Facebook Page—her only after-hours access to that business—our distraught bride-to-be would have definitely released her angst somewhere else. As a matter of fact, she probably did post on her own Facebook profile and/or Twitter in addition to posting on the business’ Facebook Page. From her perspective, she was in an emotional crisis and needed to ‘vent’. If the dress shop didn’t have a Facebook Page, the business would simply never have known about this bride-to-be’s social media “venting.”

Her very distraught call, several hours later when the shop was open, would have been the first they were made aware of her problem. The dress shop still would have taken impressive action to solve her crisis by shipping the replacement dress overnight, certainly a great relief for our bride-to-be. But if she was only relieved by the actions the dress shop took after her frantic call, she may not have been moved to go back to all of the social media channels she had “vented to,” to update her social media followers on how the dress shop solved her crisis.

Because the business did have at least one social media channel, their Facebook Page, and because they pay attention to their Facebook Page, this customer reached a company expecting her to call, hoping she would contact them so they could verify who had placed the order and quickly get the correctly appointed dress to her in time for her wedding. This customer was made to feel valued, understood and cared for, as though her problem was indeed something the dress shop wished to solve quickly and accurately solely to relieve her anxiety.

This considerate response and acknowledgement from the business moved her to sing their praises when updating all of the social media channels she had “vented to.” Telling everyone about the amazing way her crisis was solved by the dress shop, this bride-to-be’s desire to share her amazing and positive story turned what started as impassioned negative “word of MOUSE” marketing into a blissfully satisfied customer praising that same business—shortly after her initial negative postings.

This is one example of how social media has a powerful impact on your business, whether or not your business utilizes it. Wouldn’t you rather know what is being said about your business, so that you can respond to it? Having the opportunity to acknowledge customers who share how much they appreciate you, as well as establishing a dialogue, working toward solutions for those who are not satisfied!

The customer complaint mechanism has gone from postal mail to telephone, then to e-mail, and finally to social media. Depending on which business we’re talking about, consumers may never be sure who actually reads their ‘complaint’ email, but now, we have arrived to . . . “I have a problem. I post it on social media and half the planet knows about it in 15 seconds.” There is a whole different level of business going on out there.

You can stick your head in the sand and try to ignore these facts. Or you can acknowledge the brave new world that today’s marketplace is, venture out into social media and take your business to a different level, actually benefiting your business and those who need your products/services by actively using “word of MOUSE.”

Social media is not a fad; it is not going away. It’s only going to get bigger, stronger, and more pervasive as time goes on. It’s important for businesses to get out there and work effectively in this space—the space of greatest activity in today’s marketplace.

How we should handle business, including marketing, can change. There are points in time that are tipping points. 2013 has been identified by a number of informed sources, including Forbes and Neilsen, as a tipping point for establishing a social media foundation. Social media is no longer a marketing luxury, it has become a necessity. 2014 is almost upon us. Now is the time to seriously examine social media and mobile marketing for your business and make an informed decision. Then act on your decision.

Businesses that actually get active in their own social media channels during year of 2013 will have a more powerful marketing foundation than businesses which continue to play the ostrich, with their heads in the sand for another year or two, hoping social media will go away. Forbes and Neilsen did not use the illustration of an ostrich with its head in the sand; that was my description. But you need to get your business out there into the social media space now, while you can still be considered an early adopter in today’s marketplace.

A Mobile Marketing Example: Making a Difference for Business in Record Time

Now let me share an example of mobile marketing making a difference for a small business. There was a small restaurant near my home that had great food. They had been in business for a number of years; owned by relatively young people excited that they were doing all this “social stuff” to promote their business. They had a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a Website, and even an e-mail newsletter.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much happening on their Facebook page to engage any of their, also young, clientele. This restaurant was primed to have a lot of activity from their young clientele on Facebook but it just wasn’t there. Looking at their Facebook Fan Page posts revealed several employee postings: “We’re going to be open tonight,” or “DJ so-and-so is here tonight,” or “Don’t forget! Tonight’s karaoke night.” Comments from anyone who was not an employee were rare. Facebook check-ins were rarer.

They had an impressive, though mostly business-centered, Website. An email newsletter subscription, in place for several years, was mostly limited to family, friends, and employees. Their Twitter feed, at least, was pretty active on various event nights.

One day, I posed a mobile marketing idea to one of the owners. My ideas was for a V.I.P. program that was perfect for