Not too long ago, the use of social media by corporations was considered a novelty. Visionaries such as Morgan Johnston at JetBlue and Frank Eliason, then of Comcast, were among the few who responded to customers online early on, and customers were pleasantly surprised to get a response. (Disclosure: JetBlue is an MWW Group client.)

Today, any company that doesn’t actively monitor and engage with consumers online is seen as a dinosaur that doesn’t care about its customers. But social media pioneers know that while this basic “blocking and tackling” of customer engagement is now essential, it’s no longer enough.

To build trust in this new world, companies must understand the new challenges they’ll face:

• An empowered public – Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has called writing online reviews a patriotic duty. New technologies and social media are catalyzing a great power shift in society from large institutions to individuals. The same technology that enabled citizens in the Middle East to organize and overthrow their governments are allowing consumers to band together and speak out against corporate practices or products they don’t like. As David Kirkpatrick recently wrote in a great article in Forbes, “We have entered the age of empowered individuals, who use potent new technologies and harness social media to organize themselves.”  Unhappy customers, who once would tell a handful of friends and family members about their bad experiences are now able to broadcast to the world as part of a permanent online record.
• A cynical public – Thanks to the financial crisis, a growing skepticism of the media, corporate and political scandals, trust in large organizations, from governments to corporations, is at an all-time low.
• Less control of brand – Until a few years ago, companies owned their message and their brand. Today, brands still spend billions of dollars pushing out carefully packaged, focus-tested messaging points. But customers no longer believe or put much stock in these messages. A recent Nielsen study found that 76% of consumers believe recommendations from friends are the most trusted form of advertisement, and increasingly, they’re sharing with their friends using social media.

So what can your company do to be successful in the social media space?

Unless you’re about to come out with the next iPhone model, customers on social media likely aren’t interested in your canned marketing messages. If you think of social media as another way to advertise, you’ll only be tuned out.

To be relevant and part of the social conversation, your messaging must reflect and reinforce that social media is all about community – and that you are an essential, beneficial member of that community. Old-style corporate philanthropy – writing six-figure checks without any engagement – is seen as buying good will (or political favors) rather than building it. Tellingly, many leaders of the biggest web and social media sites – Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Chris Hughes of Facebook, Ev Williams and Biz Stone of Twitter, Pierre Omdiyar of eBay – are now focusing on efforts that benefit the community.

Here are a few ways your company can do this and generate social media buzz:

• Show how your daily operations are important to society.  As one example, with the continued employment crisis, any company that is currently expanding its workforce should actively use social media to recruit candidates.  Of course doing so will not only help show the important role you’re playing in the community by creating jobs but will also help find top candidates.
• Adapt your business to benefit society – but be genuine. Though Wal-Mart has received much criticism in recent years, many environmentalists recognize the enormous positive impact of the retailer’s move to stop selling incandescent light bulbs and switch to more environmentally-friendly packaging for their products.
• Use your company’s unique skills and resources to help. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, Google’s scientists worked with the State Department to build a “People Finder” database. The company also released Google Earth satellite images to help rescue workers. Similarly, my former employer AT&T as well as Verizon and other U.S. phone companies made all calls to/from Haiti free in the weeks following the earthquake.  Two other examples just announced at the Clinton Global Initiative that are sparking positive online conversations are Pepsi’s public-private partnership in Ethiopia to increase chickpea production, and Microsoft’s “Shape the Future” 3 year initiative to bring computer hardware, software and internet service to 1 million US students from low-income families.
• Find ways to help your community. While a number of companies encourage employees to volunteer, more companies can do well by developing programs that help their customers volunteer and reward them for doing so.
• Don’t think you’re the exception to the rule. As management guru Gary Hamel said in the Kirkpatrick Forbes article, “I don’t think it’s crazy to ask if your CEO is the next Mubarak…. The elites—or managers in companies—no longer control the conversation.”

Your company can be a part of the social business revolution – or get left behind.

About the Author

Richard Robbins, MWW Group Vice President, Senior Digital Strategist, provides senior-level expertise on using digital and social media as an integral part of any successful communications program. He can be reached at rrobbins@mww.com or @rich1.

admin Social Media Craiglist, Employee Engagement, JetBlue, Pepsi, Social Media, Walmart

In the past few days there have been lots of pundits providing their 2 cents or soliciting opinions about how JetBlue responded to the Flight Attendant who dramatically exited an aircraft at JFK.

And while I’ve been known to opine form time to time on issues (when they aren’t my client)…I’d like to point out that some others would say that sometimes, staying silent (until the time is right) is indeed, a strategy.

And as you would expect, JetBlue responded in its own voice, in its own time, in a manner that is authentic and true…and demonstrated once again, that they can take a joke…even if the joke is on them.

cwinters Crisis Communications Crisis Communications, JetBlue, Steve Slater

This weekend JetBlue successfully migrated over to the SABRE system in what can only be described as a magnificent feat of great planning and operations. For those of you who are industry buffs, you will recall that WestJet recently experienced difficulties in this migration, causing all kinds of airport delays and hassles for customers.

In the interest of full disclosure, MWW Group is JetBlue’s crisis communications agency…and in my opinion, this is an airline that continues to be unfairly burdened with the events of a certain winter snowstorm, despite pulling off major operational feats – like the opening of T5 at JFK and the migration to SABRE – without a hitch.

After some time working with them and observing them, it is clear that JetBlue practices some important things that so many other organizations seem to miss:

They operate under a common sense philosophy that empowers their “crew” (that’s employees to you and me) to use their own judgment to DO WHAT THEY THINK IS RIGHT FOR THE CUSTOMER. Not just in special situations, but every day.

They plan for the worst case scenario, pretty much all the time, and they are willing to sacrifice short term dollars for long term success. For the Sabre switch, that meant sacrificing ticket revenue to ensure a good customer experience – by reducing the schedule and the load factors on all of their flights this weekend.

JetBlue gives their people permission to make mistakes, and learn from them.

At JetBlue, knowledge is power –and not in the “keep it a secret so you have an edge over your colleague” kind of way. They talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. They acknowledge challenges, and provide guidance on how to manage through those challenges.

JetBlue entrusts their people with meaningful substantive information – not just what to expect, but what is expected of them. They don’t expect those solutions to be perfect, so when someone comes up with a better one, they share the knowledge.

So when they got through the airline version of an SAP conversion – something that sends shivers down the spines of corporate types everywhere – they got through it without a hitch.

For anyone that knows JetBlue or flies them regularly, this is no surprise.

Congratulations JetBlue! Looking forward to the next time you don’t need my services!

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

cwinters Employee Engagement employee communication, JetBlue