As someone who helps clients with various online and social media initiatives, I’ve done my fair share of research and outreach to bloggers and social media enthusiasts (and let me tell you, when done right, it’s a tedious process!). So when I have the chance to be on the receiving end of fun opportunities, it’s a nice change up.
Thanks to a recommendation from my metro Detroit pal Bryan Willmert, I had the opportunity to test drive a 2012 Acura MDX from Suburban Acura as part of the Social Test Drive series. Bryan had previously participated in the test drive, and he was then able to recommend others who he thought would be interested.
I picked up the car on a Thursday evening and returned it the following Monday during lunch. I will not even try to admit that I’m a car enthusiast (though I developed a love for sports cars thanks to my dad owning a 1979 and 2002 Firebird Trans Am), but I was in love with this car at the end of my test drive experience. Check out the video for more on the cool features.
For companies that want to get social media enthusiasts using and talking about their cool products and services, here are some lessons you can learn from how Zac Holmes, online marketing manager at Suburban Ford of Waterford, is conducting this program to make it a success:
- Don’t create stringent rules. It drives me crazy when I hear from reporters and bloggers that PR people reaching out to them give them rules related to how they should share reviews about products and services. No, that’s not how it works. Every person’s community and social activity is different. Let them do what works for them. Zac was very clear that the point of this program was to have people share their experiences with the vehicles through social media, but he didn’t make me commit to a certain number of tweets, photos, Facebook posts, videos, etc. That was an immediate appeal.
- Zac interacted with me and the people responding to my content throughout the process. It showed he was paying close attention to the reactions I was receiving, and he continued making the brand part of the conversation without overdoing it, or worse, being pushy and “sales-ish.”
- Zac created his own content through the Suburban online channels. He created a short video to encourage people to follow along with my #socialtestdrive tweets throughout the weekend and shared it on different networks. While it’s good to rely on the people you’re reaching out to in these situations to create interesting content, as the marketing person behind the effort, you have to be doing the same to reach the communities you’ve built online.
- He’s letting the drivers recommend who participates next as a “pass on the good fortune” sort of deal. I like this because it shows the brand is open to letting the public shape the path of this program. However, you have to also be careful if you let go of too much control. Where I could see this backfiring is if people recommend friends who want the experience but really aren’t that active in the online space. Zac and I didn’t discuss this, but he should have some participant criteria as a fall back plan just in case the next recommended participants don’t exactly fit the bill.
I asked Zac a few specific questions about the program that may help if you plan to do something similar in the future:
- What’s the story behind the program? There was a customer from our Subaru store who had some mechanical issues with his leased Subaru. Subaru was giving him a hard time, so he took to Twitter (and his 10K followers) about his issues with Subaru, and in effect, Suburban. Our Internet manager for the entire company saw his situation and started fighting for him. Suburban took on Subaru and got his engine replaced by Subaru. The manager realized that if we can harness that same kind of resonance for our brands in a real and positive way, it would be extremely effective. So far [with this program] it has.
- How are you measuring success with this program? Honestly, we don’t really know yet. We are watching how #SocialTestDrive is trending and what kind of feedback we are seeing from the bloggers and the people following them. It’s an evolving process.
- What successes have you had so far? We have seen a few sales, but we have only been running this program for less than two months.
- What recommendations would you give to another company that wants to reach out to bloggers and social media enthusiasts to test out a product? Find someone (or many someones) with reach into different groups and influence and let people be honest. Blocking, deleting and arguing with people’s opinions is fake and will get you nowhere. Instead, these negative remarks give an opportunity for dialogue, something oddly missing from a business to customer relationship. Hand it off and see what people think! (Love this answer – take note, marketers!)
I will not get on my measurement soapbox, and I know many companies starting out for the first time with a program like this often don’t put solid metrics into place. But one piece of advice I’ll give to Zac and anyone else doing anything in the social space is to clearly define how you will measure and prove results. Please. Just do it. You’ll thank me later.
Do you think this is a smart move for the Suburban team? What other advice do you have to make outreach programs to bloggers and social media enthusiasts successful?