Savoir faire:
A polished sureness in social settings

Indelible or invisible?

You know the adage about first impressions. People are always making quick assessments of you or your brand based on how you look, what you say, and what you do. Eyebrows may raise, ears may perk up, or you may be completely ignored. Even a non-reaction is a reaction. Unless you’re surveying your audience on a regular basis, you may not even realize the impressions you’re making, or consider their impact, good or bad.

An impressive following

Think about how this applies on Twitter—how you form impressions and make snap judgments about who you do or don’t follow. It usually starts with them following you, or recommendations from those you trust. How often do you check out the Tweeter before you follow them—their content, name, URL, bio, and, yes, their background image?

Care enough to do a background check

A small online poll provided these nuggets of information about who checks out backgrounds:

• 50% of respondents said they view background pages often, 28% said sometimes, for a total of 78% who view background pages.

• 73% of respondents use a Twitter app such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, or HooteSuite that normally precludes them from viewing an individual’s Twitter background image.

• Based on the total number of respondents who said they view background pages often or sometimes, 75% leave an app to do so.

• The remainder, slightly more than 24%, view Tweets—and backgrounds—in web view mode.

One respondent’s comment underscores the numbers:

“I use Seesmic Desktop and occasionally Seesmic Web. Still prefer to look at Twitter Web when evaluating followers and potential follows.”

Although the sample size was small and the poll was simple, it underscores the importance of a web background as the first step to a strong online brand in Twitter. That brand is the first and sometimes only impression potential followers get. That split second impression could impact the next rung of your success, no matter how you personally define it.

Image: alainelorza

“Ah, a sea bass repast.”

A Tasty Tweet

This spring I broadcast a Tweet expressing my unmitigated joy over a delectable dish of fish - sea bass to be exact. Moved to the point of illustration, I added a hieroglyph depicting my meal - a fish graphic fashioned from alphanumeric characters:

Turns out Paul Ocepek (@paulocepek), founder of ShirtPizza.com (@shirtpizza), was fishing in my Twitter stream just then.

An Unexpected Treat

Paul Tweeted a hint that he might add the typographic fish to the ShirtPizza product line. When he did so, he sent me a sample tee. The above video clip captures the Brainstorm “unboxing” of the unexpected gift.

A Takeaway

One-to-one relational marketing concepts are still a wise play for today’s brand marketers, but fortify them with WOM (word of mouth), Search, feeds, and a voice in the online community to bring one-to-many reach to what was once a private exchange.

In developing and launching a community-inspired product, ShirtPizza broadened not only their product line and their reach, but their customer base as well. We’ve been fishing around the ShirtPizza site, now maybe you will, too.

Scott Monty is a complete pro.
Huge respect for others, thoughtful words, solid information, and the wardrobe
you need to do battle.

Meg Fowler
Award-winning writer and social media/marketing maven

Adroit in Detroit

Comic Steven Wright once told the story of two kittens looking on as a cat leapt from atop a multi-story building. The cat back-flipped and turned, somersaulting over and over before landing perfectly on all fours. One kitten turned to the other and said, “See, that’s how you do it.”

When corporate communicators and would-be social media experts watch Scott Monty’s agile representation of Ford Motor Company it’s not difficult to imagine them remarking, “See, that’s how you do it.”

Ready for Action

As the social ‘face’ of a major brand, Scott Monty is doing what many social media practitioners can only aspire to. And he’s teaching everyone how it’s done. He’s the corporate online (and, often offline) face of Ford Motor Company, their social network hub, legal liaison and lay interpreter, public relations mouthpiece, arbiter, friend, dad—in short, the Fortune 500 social media field agent archetype.

“For anyone asking about the Ford fan sites and legal action: I’m in active discussions with our legal dept. about resolving it.
Please re-tweet.”

Scott Monty
Twitter, 10 Dec 2008

A Man on a Mission

Several degrees from Boston University and a pharmaceutical and biotech background serve Monty well in the critical thinking department. And he’s had ample opportunity to think on his feet during critical moments over the past several months.

Monty’s offset a mainstream media harangue-fest of Ford’s CEO in front of Congress while quashing an internal firestorm over legal action against a Ford fan site. He captains executive-level initiatives, meting out messaging and sustaining, repairing and enhancing Ford’s brand on a daily basis.

Well-versed, well-equipped

And the man is everywhere, talking about everything to everyone and changing the way Ford is viewed in the public arena. Scott Monty knows the value of scaling numbers—leveraging every major social network tool, gadget and most importantly, relationship it takes to forge and sustain an organic social connection with Ford’s brand online.

Several select episodes from Monty’s tool of choice, Twitter:

Unafraid of refuting fellow Social Media elites

“‘Luddite-filled?’ That’s pretty strong language. What ’s your evidence?” -Scott Monty | 30 Nov 08

A self-effacing humorist

“Jesse Stay did you buy one of our corporate jets? ;-)” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Rallying community support

“For anyone asking about the Ford fan sites and legal action: I’m in active discussions with our legal dept. about resolving it. Please re-tweet.” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Swinging back

“Just wondering: with an approval rating of about 10%, why hasn’t Congress called itself for questioning?” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Instigating community connection

“At AquaVox in the Venetian with Ford CEO Alan Mulally. Stop by!” [from CES] -Scott Monty | 7 Jan 09

Promoting new ideas

“How about crowdsourced suggestions for the next iteration of Ford’s in-car SYNC system?” -Scott Monty | 19 Jan 09

Key Skill Set; Social, Very Social

Acting as both a representative and ambassador of Ford, Monty employs his easy humor, genuineness and intelligence to the greatest good, treating dissenters and supporters alike with respect and self-effacing self-control. In lending his formidable personal equity to Ford’s cause, Scott Monty has indeed become the social face of Ford.

Related links

Ron Ploof’s Ford fan site public relations case study:
The Ranger Station Fire | 488 KB .pdf

Street Advertising Services: A greener, cleaner approach to guerrilla branding

“We wanted to apply a technique that was not just eye-catching and effective but also friendly to the environment. What could be more natural than water?”

—Kristian Jeffrey, SAS Founder

Profit from Filth

Street Advertising Services (SAS) of Britain offers a greener, cleaner approach to guerrilla branding. Using water, stencils and pressure washers, SAS cleans pavement in the dead of night, creating street art advertisements for companies like British Petroleum and K2r (see above).

Simple, direct and probably a great deal of fun on the installation side, it’s word-of-mouth (WOM) via foot. Remarkable.

[ via: dgirlp | Organic ]

Be Heard Among the Herd

Digitally propagated word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing initiatives can reach your target audience in ways traditional means can’t. WOM can also be a far more trusted means of amplifying your messages and driving results in vertical lifestyle markets and niche communities.

Viral seeds, chat room seeding, key blog commentary, message boards, forum contributions, and even SMS (Short Message Service) are just a few of the ways products and services are promoted or demoted on an ongoing basis.

Be Results Oriented

Enter online social spaces liberally and vocally but with a plan of action and an eye to nascent communication protocols—think long-term behavioral loyalty over short-term sale.

WOM works best with easily explained products and value propositions founded upon messaging that establishes future loyalty with new customers and encourages natural WOM among current customers.

A WOM campaign can:

1. Generate Buzz: Advance your brand and accelerate distribution of your message via properly tagged media assets forwarded virally.
2. Enable Proaction: Promote, mitigate, or preempt the effect of breaking news, and/or seed news of your own by engaging in online social dialogs.
3. Enhance Augmentation: Support your existing promotions, draw web traffic and gather consumer input.

Not for Everyone

Interactive engagements with your online target audience within their social networks is smart business. But WOM marketing strategies can negate value if improperly deployed. Push an agenda and social networks tend to roar right back (or bite) if they sense they’re being sold.

Finally, it’s always important to consider the current quality of your brand’s deliverable when developing a WOM strategy. Ultimately, as a marketer, you can’t control what customers say about you online.

Image: bullish1974