CHAPTER 17

Consistently Deliver Excitement, Surprise, and Delight

I was at a business conference a couple of years ago, tweeting some of the things I was learning throughout, as I always do. One of the speakers recommended the book Built to Last, by Jim Collins, as a must-read. I had heard of it before, and I wanted to remember to buy it while also sharing some of the speaker’s wisdom, so I tweeted, “Recommended Biz Book: Built to Last. Anyone read it?”

I got a few responses, but my favorite was from Jesse Landry, someone who was following me on Twitter and whom I’d never met, who responded, “I’d be happy to overnight my copy to you if you do not have a copy already.”

Not “Great book, Dave, you should check it out,” or even “I’d be happy to loan that to you.” He offered to overnight it to me. I was immediately wowed. I responded that I certainly didn’t need it sent overnight, but that sure, thanks, I would take it, and I gave him my address. Of course, he still overnighted it to me. Double wow.

I looked at Jesse’s profile and found out he was a consultant for Administaff (now known as Insperity), a company that provides human resources support for small- to medium-size businesses. Jesse didn’t pitch me on ever working with him. If he had, I probably would have said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” and I would have assumed that he had overnighted the book in order to win my business. Instead, I got excited to see what he did for a living, investigated his company, and determined if he could provide services that I might need someday.

Jesse sent me the book “just because” and received nothing directly in return. As it turns out, of course, months later, I explored the potential of outsourcing Likeable Media’s human resources work. Naturally, I turned to Jesse and Administaff to perhaps help solve my problem. But Jesse had no way of knowing I would consider using his services when he sent me the book. He just sent it.

If you can figure out ways to do little things for your customers and your online communities, to surprise and delight them, to provide unexpected value, or to add a smile to an individual consumer’s face, you will always stand out, be remembered, and win the community’s business. If it was important to be remarkable before the age of online social media, it’s essential to stand out today, when word can spread lightning fast. How can you be remarkable on social networks?

YOU ARE ALREADY AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION

The good news is, simply by doing the basics of likeable social media, such as listening and responding with transparency to everyone’s comments about you on Facebook, you’re way ahead of so many companies that still maintain a broadcast mentality when using social networks. But eventually the world, and your competition, will catch up and understand social media best practices. On social media now, you’re not just competing with your real-life competitors for attention. You’re competing with all of your customers’ friends and the brands that they are already attached and connected to.

So it’s your job to figure out not how you can be better but how you can be different. Everything you’ve read in this book up until now has been about meeting the standards for excellence on social networks. But how do you exceed expectations? How can you do the little things (and the big things) to stand out from your competition? How can you use social networks to be different, to truly create as many “wow” moments as possible? How can you operationalize “surprise and delight”?

The Little Things Matter

Many times it’s the little extra things that matter the most. In this chapter’s opening story, Jesse definitely didn’t need to overnight the book to me—in fact, I hope he got a good deal on it because the shipment may have been more expensive than the book itself. But this action stood out. What little things can you do to separate your company from the pack and have consumers and prospects take notice? The truth is, a lot will depend on the specific nature of your business and your online communities.

One thing you can do is “listen” to conversations that are not necessarily about your company and respond to questions that aren’t directly aimed at you. Become part of these conversations, and get involved in the community related to your company or industry, but don’t try to push your organization or a sales pitch onto consumers. Listening is particularly easy to do on Twitter, where conversation with strangers is the norm. So if you’re a real estate agent, for example, you could listen for people asking questions about getting bank loans for down payments in your town and answer these questions with links to helpful online articles. Or if you’re a local bed and breakfast, you might listen for people asking questions about great vacation spots and recommend a few colleagues in exotic locations whom you met at a trade show.

If you can provide unexpected value to people on Twitter and Facebook and expect nothing in return, you can create “wow” moments that collectively will have an impact on your business. Those vacation spots you recommended to others on Twitter will eventually have an opportunity to recommend you to their followers, for instance. Or if the articles you’ve supplied about loans are extremely helpful, these potential buyers may seek your assistance when purchasing a home.

Best Buy was the first large company to begin delivering unexpected value on Twitter in the form of answering people’s questions. It developed the Twelpforce, a group of nearly a thousand employees who have been trained to respond to people’s questions on Twitter about electronics products. When one of these hundreds of staff people aren’t on the store floor helping an in-person customer, he or she is helping online customers or prospects—and answering any questions about electronics products, including products not sold at Best Buy.

The Big Things Matter Too

Especially for larger organizations, big things such as contests and sweepstakes can create “wow” moments as well, if only for participants and winners. If you can create contests that bring people closer to your brand or strengthen that emotional connection, then those contests are more likely to have long-lasting impact.

Franklin Sports, a leading sporting equipment company, is best known as the official batting-glove provider for Major League Baseball (MLB). While its batting gloves and other baseball gear are used by millions of Americans, its fan page was off to a poor start, with only 1,900 fans through its first five months on Facebook.

In September 2010, Franklin leveraged its relationship with MLB and stepped up its efforts with a fan challenge: if it could get to 10,000 fans in the next two weeks, Franklin would give away two playoff tickets to one lucky fan. While this wasn’t a prize that everyone would be able to enjoy, it was a prize worth working for, especially for the baseball-crazed fans in the community. Hundreds of fans began suggesting the page to their friends, and within two weeks, Franklin had increased its likes more than fivefold, to top 10,000. It gave away the playoff tickets to one excited fan, and it built an energized community in the process.

Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking, is a huge technology company, but it realizes the importance of delighting customers through social media. It’s managing to find ways to integrate social media into all of its business practices. In 2013, I talked with Petra Neiger, then social media marketing manager at Cisco, and she told me this:

       We believe engagement needs to happen on multiple levels—from sharing information to conversing, and finding ways to excite, inspire, and nurture our customers and partners. Each approach has its purpose. For example, excitement through special offers and sweepstakes can increase virality, lead to more sales, or increase engagement with your brand. Our Facebook sweepstakes are great examples. Nurturing, if done right, can help take customer and influencer relationships to the next level where they become your ambassadors or ideation team. Our ambassadors are our loyal advocates who, amongst other things, help spread the word, initiate and participate in conversations pertaining to Cisco, correct incorrect information, or even bring important information to our attention. Our engagement efforts so far have also enabled us to tap into the collective wisdom of our target audience and create new opportunities for Cisco.

Cisco understands the need to incorporate both large and small tactics in its social media platform, always focusing on cultivating relationships with customers and partners by standing out and providing something extra. It also does one thing differently from any company I’ve seen on social networks: for its Cisco Networking Academy fan page on Facebook (https://Facebook.com/CiscoNetworkingAcademy), it actually lets select customers become the administrators of the page, essentially giving them control of the content that goes out to over 800,000 fans along with Cisco’s brand reputation. While this move was an extremely risky one, especially for a company of Cisco’s size, it has paid off so far. The company has delighted the group of customers it has trusted with its brand’s reputation, and it has also found resources from an unlikely source (customers!) to scale the work of community management.

WHEN EVERYONE WINS SOMETHING, YOU WIN EVERYTHING: SHARED PRIZES FOR COMMUNITY GROWTH

Contests and sweepstakes definitely create excitement, but nothing generates more excitement than opportunities for everyone in an audience to win something. Shared opportunity can drive an entire fan page to work together in promoting the growth of its community. The first time we at Likeable Media saw this was with the Cumberland Farms Chill Zone page (https://Facebook.com/ChillZone). Cumberland Farms wanted to capture some of the passion it knew teenagers throughout New England had for its Chill Zone product. Using Facebook social ads, group outreach, and weekly Chill Zone giveaways, the Chill Zone page on Facebook soared to more than 10,000 fans in its first month. To incentivize fans to spread the word and share the fan page with others, it presented a challenge: help us reach 50,000 fans by August 21, 2009, and we’ll hold a Free Chill Zone Day (see Figure 17.1).

FIGURE 17.1 Free Chill Zone Promotion

Less than three months after the launch, the fan base surpassed this goal by more than 20,000 additional fans.

The results were incredible in terms of the numbers of fans joining the community, but the sentiment of people in the community was even more incredible. People posted things like, “I’ve invited my whole school to become fans,” and “I won’t rest until we have 50,000 fans. Chill Zone rules!”

The sales results were excellent as well. The first Free Chill Zone Day on June 5, 2009, led to redemptions of 27,000 more units over previous years. The second Free Chill Zone Day as a result of the Free Chill Zone Day Challenge in August increased sales by 23 percent from the previous Friday, and 50 percent of the total sales were attributed directly to Facebook.

COMBINE AUTOMATION WITH THE HUMAN TOUCH

As valuable as it is to have tools to manage large groups of likers, followers, and conversation, there is no replacement for the human, personalized element of social media. Social network promotions, contests, giveaways, and sweepstakes can entertain and delight thousands or even millions of people at once. But wouldn’t a personal, unique response from a real person at a big company really wow you a lot more than even the coolest contest ever?

Unique Words Have Unique Impact

Sometimes, just recognizing people publicly is enough surprise and delight to make someone’s day. Social Media Examiner, a leading blog about social media for small business, grew its fan base to more than 25,000 likes in less than a year without any paid advertising. Its staff does all of the basics, such as responding to any questions or comments and sharing valuable content. But one way it’s different from other companies is that it publicly recognizes and thanks someone every 1,000 fans. So when Social Media Examiner hit 5,000 fans, it announced its five-thousandth fan to the rest of the community. Then it did it again at 6,000, and it’s still celebrating these milestones as it approaches 100,000 fans. It’s similar to the millionth-customer promotion at a store—except the fan doesn’t get anything except recognition and a personal thank you. Still, it’s nice to be recognized among thousands of your peers, and it always serves as a subtle reminder of the growth of the community to the rest of the fans.

Crowdrise, the online donation community founded by actor and philanthropist Edward Norton, uses Twitter to thank people for their posts, donations, and participation. But it also randomly gives away hats, posters, and T-shirts all day long to donors. It says thanks in pointedly different ways from what most people are used to. Give a donation to a worthy cause, and you’ll get a tweet from Crowdrise such as, “Have an amazing day,” or “Hope you’re having the best day ever.” No matter what kind of day you’re having, you’re sure to smile if you’re on the receiving end of such a tweet. And you’ll probably tell a few friends. Imagine if an accountant always tweeted to new followers, “Hope your day isn’t too taxing,” or an attorney thanked new LinkedIn connections by sharing, “May the law be with you.” What can you say that’s even a little different, and remarkable?

Surprise Conversations with Condoms—for Better or for Worse

The New York City Department of Health wanted to create buzz around its NYC Condom campaign in late 2009. The NYC Condom is the first municipally branded condom in the United States. The government program gives away more than 10 million free condoms per year in efforts to promote safer sex throughout New York.

The department wanted to use Twitter to surprise New Yorkers and make them take pause before acting foolishly. So, it created a Twitter account (https://Twitter.com/NYCcondom) that actually tweeted in the voice of the condom itself. It began conducting nightly searches on Twitter for people who were talking about going out partying and for New Yorkers who, based on their conversations, were likely to need a condom. It searched using keywords such as “getting laid,” “looking to hook up,” and “partying all night.”

Then, it would respond to people each night with funny tweets from the condom, such as these:

“Pick me up. I’ll keep you covered.”

“Don’t leave home without me.”

“If you need me, make sure to wear me tonight.”

“Going out in NYC? Pick me up. I’m easy.”

People weren’t just surprised. They were shocked. Most people responded, surprised but happy to have had an unexpected “direct conversation” with a condom. Some users actually indicated that they would be picking up an NYC Condom, and they thanked the condom for the reminder. Others shared the health department’s wit and wisdom by retweeting @NYCcondom.

A few people also felt surprised in a bad way. Conversation on Twitter is public, but when a government agency operating a Twitter account tweeted back, it reminded them they had been talking online to actual individuals about planning to have sex, and that probably led to a feeling of discomfort. Still, the campaign definitely led to increased buzz, surprised a lot of New Yorkers in the health department’s target audience, and affected some people’s behaviors. The tweeting condom may have even saved some lives.

OPERATIONALIZE SURPRISE, FOR A GOOD RISE

How can you build systems and processes around making people smile, while generating surprise? How can you encourage a culture of conversation that differentiates you from the growing number of competitors on social networks? If you can truly reward all of your fans and followers, you’ll be able to energize a huge group of online advocates. Consistently up the ante for what it means to bring value and delight to your customers and prospects, and not only will they remember you when they need you, but they’ll also recommend you when others need you too.