Yes, I AM Specialized. Do you care?

Dear @iamspecialized, 

I would like you to know about my raging love affair. With my new Specialized Roubaix road bike. 

Like your other 433 Twitter followers, I would actually like to have a relationship with you and your brand. But, since you are only following 20 of us, and using your Twitter feed as a one-way news and content feed, you are missing that opportunity. 

I have tweeted about my Specialized bike. Had you been listening and responding, imagine the impact it would have had on me to have received a simple reply from you, saying "Hey, Spaight, thanks, welcome to the Specialized family." I am what marketers dream of - you give me a little love in return, and I will spread the love like you won't believe. And I'm sure there are others like me, with much more social clout that you are missing, too. 

I really like Masi bikes, too. And @timjackson from masiguy.com talks to me. Funny thing, because I post so much about biking in all of my social haunts, lots of people have been asking me lately about what kind of bike to buy. What should I tell them? Are you interested in a relationship with us "regular folks", or if I am not an elite rider, do you not care? Because that's the impression I am getting from you. Your website is sweet and a joy to navigate. Your rider blogs and videos are entertaining, but from what I have seen, pretty much one way. 

As @getresults tweeted this morning, "Listen, so they don't vote with their feet." 

Are you listening? 

Marquette University: Telling, Not Selling

I've been doing a lot of research on what higher education is doing with social media to engage students, prospects and alumni. And I just have to give some kudos to Milwaukee's Marquette University (MU), because they are at the top of the heap, not just locally but nationally. It's a great example to share with clients and others who are looking for what social media "should" look and feel like. 

Today's butt-cover statement: MU is not my client. Actually, Alverno College is a client of my employer, so I suppose this post could get me in trouble if anyone overreacts. Keep in mind that 1) Alverno College rocks 2) this is my personal blog and has nothing to do with my employer and 3) I'm not commenting on the schools, just social media. (Oh yeah and I have three blog followers, so how much does it really matter?) 

That said...Marquette recently got quite a bit of play for using Twitter as a teaching tool. Social media is clearly not a bolt on to the communications plan - it's become part of the curriculum. 

The biggest strength of Marquette's social presence, though, is it's highly authentic and likeable human personality. The guy behind it is Tim Cigelske, or @Teecycle_Tim, a 2004 graduate of MU's School of Journalism, former Montana bellboy and US Airways baggage handler, AP correspondent and newspaper reporter, turned Communication Specialist. I'm thinking there's something huge owed to the fact that Tim is a content-creator by training and by trade, not a "marketing guy".  

Marketers take note: Tim's not selling. He's telling.  Telling strategic stories.

If you want to show someone how to engage effectively on Twitter, you could show them Marquette's Twitter stream. (If you want to also show them how NOT to engage on Twitter, you could show them the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Twitter stream. Ouch.)  

Marquette's Facebook fan page, likewise, is a great mix of news and events with stories about individual people - what a concept! In January 2009, they launched a Facebook Class of 2013 forum dedicated to fueling conversation between current students and prospective ones. While this might seem like a no brainer, it seems to be out front in the world of higher ed, from what I have seen so far. 

And - proving once again that many of the best social communications happen by sheer serendipity, if you haven't seen the video of graduating Marquette students "Shouting" goodbye, definitely check it out. I found it to be pretty emotional (though a bit too long for my personal taste). This is completely student-generated, with no influence from the communications folks, I'm told. And it shows, in how much it is felt, not acted. But the point is, the communications team "gets it" and helped this video spread to it's over 5,000 views to date. I wonder how much great, "free" content higher education is missing. 

The only thing didn't necessarily get is why the only blog I could find for Marquette was the Law School Faculty Blog. According to the latest report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 50% of private college and universities have blogs (though I speculate that probably 90% of them suck). So, it seems like they might be missing an opportunity to build their personality even more and add some depth to the conversation. And, given their brand strategy of "Be the Difference", there's definitely opportunity to use social communications to build that position while also building community. As "Mr. Cigelske" stated, "We've got some things in the works. You've got to just keep thinking big." 

Way to go Marquette. Even though one of the humans I personally couldn't care less about is Danny Gokey, nice job with the social stuff. 

What do you think of what MU is doing? Have you seen any other great higher ed stuff?  

Harley-Davidson is revving up its social web strategy

Two days ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Randy Sprenger at Harley-Davidson to learn about their social web efforts. As a former agency Account Director on their business, I have a ton of passion for the brand oozing through my veins, and frankly was seeing some things on Twitter that made me wonder if they "get it". So I initiated this conversation to try to see things from their perspective. 

I'm putting myself in a bit of an awkward position here, frankly, which is a great way to learn. If I say anything negative, I risk ticking off people I like at a company that I love. If I don't, I'm not being completely honest. I'm counting on the fact that Randy - who is a seriously smart guy who had responsibility for harley-davidson.com globally for 8 years - said he is open to learning from others who have a strong point of view, as I learned from him. 

Harley-Davidson has embraced digital communication in a way that has well supported the desires of their uber-passionate customer community. And the social web is no exception. Although from the outside it sometimes looks like they are moving "at the speed of corporate," that is by conscious strategic choice. Moving deliberately ensures that they remain true to the ideals of the brand and authentic in spirit. Keep in mind: this is a brand that had a die-hard customer community -- fueled by H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) -- decades before community was cool. 

So job one, socially speaking, must be to support the passions and needs of that community. With 145,000+ fans on Facebook so far, H-D can post a question to start a thread and have 175 fan posts in ONE HOUR. Would you kill for that kind of customer engagement? Yeah, I thought so. Take a look at their very global Facebook fan page here.

Facebook isn't what H-D considers their biggest social web success, though. The company took some heat by a few die-hards for "selling out" when it used Victoria's Secret model Marisa Miller to launch its V-Rod Muscle model. But in conjunction with a 24-hour featured video buy on YouTube, its "Making of Marisa Miller and the Harley-Davidson V-Rod Muscle" video drew 600,000 views. Check out the video here. Although I must admit that, at the time, I was in the "sellout" camp, it's pretty hard to argue with that kind of outreach for a brand that has been working for a decade now to attract younger riders. As Randy said, "It's become a cliche, but content is still king." I couldn't agree more -- content and creativity -- and there are few brands that can boast the trough of rich content that H-D has to feed from. 

So the biggest thing I learned? Remember that things are not always as they seem from the outside. 

If there's anything I could constructively criticize about Harley's social efforts - and there isn't much - it would still be the personality, or relative lack thereof, of their Twitter presence.  In fairness, I should say that H-D started on Twitter in January 2009, so they are justifiably still in the "figuring it out" stage. I understand the logic that they are using it as a communication channel largely for "the brand" to communicate with those already engaged, and to listen to the voice of the customer. There can be no doubt that listening is a great early step on Twitter. But Twitter is also a chance to put a human face (or faces) and an otherwise corporate monolith, among a broader audience of curious passers-by who could very well become Harley riders if they are engaged in the incredible story and experience, by an actual human being. 

The time has come for many brands to stop treating social networking like an extension of advertising, and time to start using it as the personal, individual connection tool that it is. Authentically communicate person-to-person, not business-to-consumer. And I know I'm not alone in this opinion, as I've seen other conversation about it in my networks. Whoever I saw coin the term "P2P" last week, step up and take credit. It's the truth. 

What's next for Harley-Davidson on the social web and what's their biggest question for all the social web gurus out there? They are indeed in the process of shifting from using it as a customer tool to talking with new folks. Part of that challenge is deciding how to best address its many diverse audiences - women, younger riders, Hispanic riders, and more. 

Do you have any ideas? Have you seen a brand do a great job at this?  

If anyone knows anyone at Nike in the web/social web function, please hook me up with them. Off the top of my head that's the brand that's got the most similar challenges. 

Comments are very welcome - thanks.