Article

when your brand needs a little Twinkle

by dj davisson, Senior Content Strategist

recently, social media helped rebuild my faith in a perceived free-falling brand. i love to cook, and i do—a lot. i have a preferred brand of appliances (KitchenAid) that fills my kitchen. over time, i’ve purchased a few products that have, well, not met expectations (i.e., pooped out before their time). but the company replaced them with apologies and provided the kind of brand experience that instills faith and rewards loyalty.

when a pricey, new countertop appliance malfunctioned after only a few uses, i contacted KitchenAid via phone. a customer service rep told me a replacement would arrive in 7 to 10 business days; it didn’t. i called back. an extremely unpleasant, belligerent customer support supervisor told me “if you don’t like the proposed resolution (a refurbished unit to ship as soon as all the parts become available—take it or leave it) you can write a [snail-mail] letter to corporate headquarters.” i immediately searched for the company’s Facebook page, where i discovered a bit of brand Twinkle. (Twinkle: dissolves silver, copper and brass tarnish. as a childhood chore, i used it to polish my parent’s copper-bottomed cookware.)

while serving as a source of product information and a springboard to interesting articles, recipes and community building, the KitchenAid Facebook page also provides a venue for customers to share less-than-stellar experiences. shortly after expressing my concerns, i received a phone call and an e-mail from Cheryl, a KitchenAid social media team member. my issue moved quickly through investigation to resolution, and Cheryl kept me informed and feeling like a valued customer. in the end, she restored my faith in the brand.

social media and customer service

brand loyalty isn’t always rational, making building and sustaining a beloved brand dependent largely upon consumer perception and emotion. do they think your product or service is the most innovative? best tasting? consistently reliable? for those of you whose name is synonymous with the brand, do they recognize you as an authority or talent in your area of expertise? whatever positive attributes consumers associate with—and loyalty they pledge to—your brand, its reputation can be tarnished by negative marketplace feedback or a cooling love affair. that’s when it’s time to pull out the Twinkle.

from Martha Stewart to The Muppets, iconic brands have withstood marketplace judgment, returning to recapture consumer imagination, trust and brand loyalty. true that brand efforts like these can take a significant investment in time and money to rebuild or reinvent. but whether your business is small or a behemoth, social platforms should play an important role in a holistic, multi-channel strategy to brighten and restore brand shine. and social media can be a cost-effective way to do it.

begin with the basics

the relationships between you and your customers are at the very core of your business and your brand. social platforms offer established channels for you to deepen those relationships, build new ones and breathe life into relationships that may need a little TLC. let’s take a look at a few simple ways you can build— or rebuild—your brand through social media:

  • be in the right places. if your customers hang out on Facebook and Twitter, so, go you. monitor what’s being said about your brand across all social platforms.
  • be a good listener. before you enter the conversation, listen and be receptive to what others are saying.
  • be part of the conversation. rather than just pushing information, engage actively in discussions, answer questions, address concerns and help to build a community of brand evangelists. remember that in every customer interaction, you are the brand.
  • be generous. offer relevant, high-value, unique content—including a peek into new products, discounts, coupons, contests and requests to collaborate through advice or opinions—that both informs and rewards your loyal customers.
  • be the Twinkle (authentic, honest, human and passionate). your customers want to know you. by sharing your knowledge, establishing credibility and being yourself, you can grow the enthusiasm for your products and your brand.

brand loyalty and social media reading: insights, successes and missteps

  • a cool blog post by Dr. Steven Novella, clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine that discusses the psychology of brand loyalty.
  • a Fast Company excerpt from Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy offers a perspective on how the Old Spice Man campaign’s approach to social media rebuilt—and let down—a brand.
  • Danny Brown’s thought-provoking post about Ford’s 2011 F-Series recall and social media silence, an interesting conversation among communication professionals (including those at Ford).
  • fact or fiction: FedEx strives to minimize brand breakage and maximize transparency when video goes viral.

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