Matt Haupt

Brand loyalty is the “holy grail” to many companies. What is better than a consumer who likes your product and your service enough to be a repeat buyer, over and over again? And isn’t that really one of the goals of your business’ advertising? To keep your consumers loyal to you?

Each day companies pour more and more money into keeping their customers as happy as possible. Making sure they do not slip up, even slightly, in the process.

But, are those customers who jumped ship so quickly, after a “mistake”, really brand loyal? A recent study suggests not.

New York University psychologists Heather Barry and Tom Tyler (you can read about their study here at We’re Only Human, a blog by Wray Herbert) performed a study with college students and their loyalty to their school based on policies they read that were both fair and unfair to students.

The study concludes that even though the students may have disagreed with the school’s policies, they were still loyal to the school overall, and were even more likely to be cooperative and helpful.

What does this say for your customers? Well, the ones that are truly “brand loyal” will not jump ship as quickly as you may think. Not only will they not jump ship, they will try to communicate to you on why they are upset, and may give you some answers on how you can help fix this consumer-company relationship.

What does this mean for your business? Social Media is more important than ever. (Well really any way that consumers can communicate is more important than ever). Consumers may not give you a call or email you on why they think your company is causing problems, but they might just blog about it. There may be a few tweets. They may even join a group about you on Facebook.

The point is, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. What you should be afraid of, once you make a mistake (which you will, trust me), is not attempting to listen to what your customers think about your mistake.

The Brand Loyalists love who you are and what you do. And when times turn sour they will be one of the groups of people giving you advice on how to improve. Listen to them.

Sometimes I go days without talking to someone (in person) about the cool things that are happening in the social media and digital space.

My roommate, Cameron, is probably one of the main people I talk to about technology in general, but he is also the one that makes fun of my Twitter obsession.

For example an email this morning:

It never gets old sending this crap to you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8089508.stm

Or last week:

Subject line: “I F****** hate Twitter”

http://gawker.com/5274705/jogger-hits-tree-while-tweeting-hurtles-toward-global-infamy

Ah well, some people just have personal issues with awesome things like Twitter. (Even though he HAS a Twitter account)

Back to my point though. The reason I bring this up, is that today, during my Public Relations Strategy class, I had the privilege of hearing two individuals speak about social media and it’s practical uses.

John Hill was the first speaker. Hill is the Director of Alumni Career Service for the MSU Alumni Association. He spoke mostly on the wonderful professional networking site that is LinkedIn.

What I thought was great about his presentation was the fact that he not only showed what you could do on the site, but also how we (as PR and Marketing professionals) can use LinkedIn to connect with other businesses. I feel like a lot of presentations miss out on that connection.

From searching specifically for individuals in certain industries, at a specific company, and who has a specific title, to being involved in multiple groups.

He also talked about the “Questions and Answers” section (my new favorite spot on LinkedIn) and how you can answer questions and become an industry expert in a certain field. This could possibly lead to people contacting you directly for help. Wouldn’t that be nice?

The second speaker was Julielyn Gibbons the President (and I believe founder) of i3Strategies, a social media and internet strategy company in East Lansing.

Julielyn showed the class the wonderful “Social Networking in Plain English” and “Twitter in Plain English” videos. (Check them out if you haven’t seen them already). She went through some great stats on who is on sites like Twitter and Facebook, and mentioned how the sites’ users are beginning to skew older.

She also mentioned her personal uses of Facebook, which included documenting a vacation she had planned with pictures and notes.

The best thing about these two individuals was their excitement for the industry in general. You could see it in the way they spoke and in the way they explained the networks they talked about.

It was exciting, and their passion was contagious.

We need more people like John and Julielyn talking to companies and organizations about social media and its uses. They have a lot to share, not because they have been in the space forever, but because they have the passion and drive to take advantage of this growing and ever-changing space.

Photo by carrotcreative on Flickr

This is going to be quick because I have a few presentations to prepare, a book to read, and a few more blog posts to write for class, but I just HAD to mention this while I was still thinking about it.

A few months ago I was a Michigan State visiting some friends and ran into an organization at one of my favorite bars in the East Lansing area, Lou and Harry’s (or Lou Ha’s for you State people).

Anyways, this organization, LiveToGive, was giving out some free sub sandwiches to people who donated to a family in the local area who was going through some tough times.

Now, usually I donate to causes like this all the time, but this one caught my eye a little more than usual. First off, they were going table to table, talking about their organization, what they wanted to do and answered any questions.

They even offered the subs for free even if you didn’t donate.

They passed out business cards with links to their website that had more information on the family they were trying to help.

What I loved about this organization is that they actually have a unique concept to what they want to do and how they want to help. They want people to be able to see what their donations are doing, and how they are helping. They want people who may not have the time, but do give financially, a way to see the looks and gratitude of the people they are trying to help.

Here is the concept from Ryan Doyle and Kevin Smith themselves:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjro-OMVINs]

Why I bring this up?

Well besides having such a cool concept, they obviously have a great communication plans.

Here is their Twitter profile

Here is them on Facebook

Here is them on Flickr

Here is them on LinkedIn

The list goes on. They obviously know that social media is the way to get noticed, without the heavy costs.

And social media works for them because of the basic principle of their whole organization….having a “personal” experience

I feel like a lot of people and organizations could learn a lot from them. (Great job to the other members as well, Matt Doyle, Ashley Petroskey, Kelly Doyle)

SO! Check out the website, donate if you can and if not, help spread the word!

For you Metro Detroit Twitter users (and others) there is a Tweetup coming up on June 24th. Information Here!