More so than with traditional advertising, employee involvement is a key component of a successful word of mouth campaign. Word of mouth is all about conversation and open two-way dialogue between the brand and consumer, which is kind of hard to accomplish if employees aren’t actively engaged.
Smokey Bones, a small 68-unit franchised barbecue restaurant chain, made employees the focal point of their latest social marketing campaign. Each restaurant has hired one employee as its official social marketer, who maintains a web page for his or her location. Through this page, and its mirror sites on Facebook and MySpace, the “web host” communicates with fans and friends. The pages include events listings, specials, and photo albums for each location. So far the effort has garnered a lot of attention – and a large following. Some restaurants have up to 10,000 fans or friends, overall web traffic is up over 50% and the Smokey Bones email list has grown as well.
So what’s in it for the employees involved? Well, the web hosts do get paid more, and they also get to be the “face” of their restaurant location.
The campaign includes limited print and outdoor media, but its obvious that the real driver is employee participation and enthusiasm. I’ve seen similar efforts, especially from credit unions, but they usually aren’t this comprehensive and planned out. Sometimes it’s just a seldom-updated employee blog or a neglected Facebook page, neither of which ever generate much attention. A successful social media marketing effort needs to include careful strategy and consistent involvement from team members, and the Smokey Bones campaign exemplifies both.
/Maija
My comments here are based on my experience in the Restaurant, Hospitality and Service industries. So far, these businesses have been using Email Marketing for customer loyalty and retention and brand development. Mobile marketing has gained lot of traction in the last few years. Social Media Marketing (particularly Twitter and Facebook) has been new to this industry and marketing departments are scrambling to catch up to it.
I founded a company Sterizon that now specializes in bringing Email, Mobile and Social Media Marketing in a single package right to the customer doorstep while the customer is at the place of business. We do it using a wireless, WiFi handheld gadget called Sterizon wiZit.
Social Media is here to stay, so, businesses might as well embrace it and use it to their advantage. Success of any marketing campaign depends on getting proper buy-in from the employees of your business. They are the ones who’ll be creating the buzz for you at your place of business as well as online.