NPR Twitter User Survey 2010
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Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh WOWs By Delivering Happiness
September 24, 2010 By
Last night I was lucky enough to spend nearly 90 minutes listening to Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, discuss how he got his start, his company, and why his number one priority is getting the company culture right. According to Tony, if Zappos gets the company culture right then everything else will turn out right.
Tony is currently on a multi-city bus tour aptly titled the “Delivering Happiness Bus Tour” which meshes with the recent launch of his best-selling book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose”. According to the tour web site, the mission of the tour is to “inspire and be inspired.” He certainly did that last night at the Milken Institute.
Tony started his talk recounting when and why he sold his first company LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million back in 1999 at the age of 24. He had co-founded the company with a friend and they in turn hired more friends. After about 20 hires, according to Hsieh, they ran out of friends and then started hiring people who were going to make the company really grow and be successful. But that’s when it stopped being fun for Tony. The company culture had changed and it was no longer fun to get out of bed.
His next move was joining Zappos originally as an investor and adviser and eventually as CEO. Tony was determined that the most important thing to make the company successful in the long term was to get the company culture right. And equally important to Tony is to make sure the company is making an emotional connection to their customers.
Tony’s mantra at Zappos is “Wow. How do we wow our customers and our vendors?” And to Tony that means taking the money that they would spend on advertising and folding it into customer service, because, “we just want to be about customer service and maximizing the customer experience.”
In order to make sure they are “wowing” their customers, Zappos throws out a lot of the accepted industry practices around call centers. Many call centers’ mission is to get customers on and off the phones as quickly as possible to decrease the average handle time and thereby maintain their profits. Zappos is the opposite. Tony boosted that Zappos Call Center had recently broken a company record by having a 7 ½ hour customer conversation.
Although 95% of all the sales go through the Internet Tony believe that the telephone is one of the company’s best branding devices. Tony reported that since every customer calls at least once it was extremely important that they get this one call right. And this is one of the reasons that the call center is really at the heart of their business.
Everyone that is hired at Zappos—no matter their position—goes through a four week call center training period with two of those weeks being on the phone as call center agents. But getting hired is even trickier. To Tony there is nothing more important than hiring the right people who are going to fit into the culture and not disrupt it. And to get hired you must be a fit with everyone including the driver that brings you to and from the airport for your interview. Every voice matters.
Tony spoke a great deal about the science of happiness and how he has rolled that into his own company’s mission. Back in 1999 Zappos defined their brand and vision as providing “selection”. In 2003 the company defined their brand and vision as “customer service.” Today the company sees their brand and vision as “delivering happiness.”
Tony stressed the importance of “chasing the vision and not the money.” He believes that you can use happiness as a business model and that businesses with a higher purpose make money in the long term.
You can learn more about the “Delivering Happiness Movement” at http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/jointhemovement/.
Can his ideas work in your company?
Retailers Adopting Social Strategy Whether They Want to or Not
September 24, 2010 By
Retailers are being forced to adopt a social strategy according to new research published in August 2010 by the Aberdeen Group and reported by eMarketer today. eMarketer reports that consumers are using “social networks and other tools like Twitter to discuss brands and products and to get advice and feedback from friends and family on potential purchase decisions–and retailers have noticed.”
According to retailers surveyed by Aberdeen the top social media tools used by retailers included social networks (85%), microblogging (51%), and blogging (41%). Furthermore, eMarketer noted:
In Q1 2010, the e-tailing group also found that social networks were the top community or social tool retailers used or planned to use in the next year; Facebook fan pages specifically were cited by 91% of respondents to that survey. Four in five used or planned to use Twitter, 72% blogs and 71% Facebook Connect. The e-tailing survey was conducted before Facebook introduced its “like” feature, which has also been widely adopted by retailers including Levi’s and Sephora.
How about your company? Are you working on your social strategy? Your customers expect it.
More than 5300 Participate in Second Annual UCLA Volunteer Day Transforming Schools and Beaches
September 22, 2010 By
Yesterday I was one of more than 850 volunteer leaders –largely comprised of alumni, UCLA employees and also UCLA educators–that volunteered to work beside more than 4500 UCLA freshman across Los Angeles “for a day of service at 22 destinations, the biggest student volunteer event of its kind in the nation”. It was a glorious day. My destination along with 430 volunteers was James Monroe High School where with paint brushes in hand we transformed the school with semi glossy paint, new shrubs and a great attitude.
During the morning as we worked, the high school students and faculty met us with curiosity and appreciation. I was co-task leader of a group of 20 young, polite and enthusiastic Bruin women. We were also very lucky to have Jeff from Home Depot who volunteered his time to join in. Jeff was instrumental to us in transforming the Engineering Building and making sure we were able to get our work done before the students headed back to Westwood. Jeff did everything we asked of him and more. This was his second year volunteering and based on his attitude and willingness to help, he will be back again next year.
Matthew Fisher, an assistant professor of English who specializes in medieval manuscripts, summed up the day to the UCLA Newsroom, “It’s important for students to see faculty getting their hands dirty. This is the university doing the right thing by the city. It’s an inspired idea to show freshmen that they’ve come to a university that believes in giving back to the community.”
Yesterday was a great example of how a group of people from all different walks of life can come together for just a few hours and transform a community.
You can read more about the day at the UCLA Newsroom.
Are You Afraid of Bloggers and Social Media? Maybe You Should Be.
September 20, 2010 By
Are you or your Brand afraid of bloggers and social media? Well, maybe you should be–especially if your brand is still sitting on the side lines and not listening. Jessica Gottlieb , a powerful voice on the Internet and a mom blogger, recently wrote two excellent posts “Five Simple Steps to Bringing a Brand to their Virtual Knees” and “Six Tips for Brand Managers Who Might Be Afraid of Bloggers” . Gottlieb is that “Jessica Gottlieb” that started the “#MotrinMoms” backlash on Twitter in November 2008.
Gottlieb expressed her displeasure with Motrin’s ad campaign that she and others felt wasn’t supportive of new mothers and in a series of tweets expressed that “picking on new mothers is vile.” Her tweets set off a reaction that reverberated across Twitter and then the Internet and finally the mainstream press and it wasn’t until Monday that Motrin finally responded to the moms they were trying so hard to connect with but by then the damage was done http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/11/17/motrin-mothers-groundswell-by-the-numbers/ .In just a weekend, the mommy bloggers had mobilized and expressed their anger in their own blogs, on Twitter, on FaceBook where they created a “Boycott Motrin” Group, on YouTube where they added their own videos, as well as on Flickr. That same weekend the controversy was picked up by mainstream media including the New York Times http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/moms-and-motrin/?scp=1&sq=Motrin%20Moms%202008&st=cse
The title alone of the first post should get your attention if you still think you can sit social media out. In her first post, Gottlieb clearly lays out the steps of how anyone with a blog and or a Twitter account and a handful of followers can take aim at a corporation. Jessica’s steps consist of:
1) Timing is everything: Large corporations close up in the evenings, and many are completely checked out on weekends. If you post something critical of them on a Friday evening, you have a two to three day head start on your buzz versus theirs.
2) Ask readers to take an action and report back: When you post about the evil corporation be sure to ask your readers to do something other than just read. Ask them to call or email (letter writing campaigns have gone the way of the brontosaurus).
3) Track and share the momentum: Set up a google alert. If you’re asking people to say #xyzstinks then you will want updates as quickly as possible so that you can support people who write #xyzstinks. As people are writing be sure to share it in public forums like Twitter, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg.
4) Go multimedia: Really, multimedia doesn’t mean internet, TV and radio. Multimedia (in our frame of reference) means text, audio and video. Post your message to your blog, to cinch, and to YouTube.
5) Get redundant: Stay on message and repeat it ad nauseum. I recognize that after a day or so it’s unlikely that you will care any longer, but stamina is everything. Constant blog posts in every blog you contribute to are key. Repeat steps one through four tirelessly.
As a PR professional, I recommend that companies pay attention to all of these steps but also take a closer look at step 1 –“Timing is everything.” Companies still naively think that if they have bad news that they are required to release they need to drop it on Fridays after the Stock Market closes. Depending on who you are and what you have to announce that just won’t fly anymore. You may think you are pulling a fast one on the traditional press that follows your company but you won’t be pulling a fast one on the bloggers that work 24/7. In addition, the tradional press may also spend the weekend digging up more to include in their story. And like Motrin, you might end up with quite a mess on your hands before the weekend even wraps up.
Maybe you might be thinking that since your company is B2B you don’t need to worry about a possible “groundswell” catching up to your company. Sure you want to bet on that? Jessica’s steps can be used just as easily to target B2B companies as easily as they can be used to target B2C companies.
If her first post gave you pause, then her second post “Six Tips for Brand Managers Who Might Be Afraid of Bloggers” can serve as a road map to get your company moving. Gottlieb recommends:
1. Build Social Capital early and often: The best way to make sure you never have a big problem with bloggers is by participating in their discussions before the drama.
2. Do not hand social media over to interns: Interns are adorable, and I recognize that businesses need them for things like answering phones and fetching coffee. However, when your intern is in charge of your facebook page you’ve just handed the keys over to someone who was probably delivering pizza last month.
3. Monitor your brand round the clock: Small businesses do it, because they have to. You need to also. It doesn’t have to be one person, but at the barest minimum a google alert with YourBrandHere and boycott, sucks, or criminal as a keyword will keep you informed of a tempest brewing.
4. Respond truthfully: One big criticism of of the Motrin fiasco is that the apology wasn’t sincere (authentic).
5. Don’t participate if you don’t have the resources: Really. I honest to goodness recommend that brands stay out of social media if they aren’t going to make it part of their business. Do not set up a facebook page and then let it sit there. If you want to protect your name online buy your URL’s, take your twitter ID’s and just park them. Don’t invite a conversation you won’t show up for.
6. Just be yourself. Social media isn’t about your brand, it’s about you.
Building social capital is critical and without it you won’t be able to build a good relationship with the community your business needs. It doesn’t mean pushing out non stop information about your company and products. It means “listening” first to the discussions in the communities you are looking for a home in. It then means offering useful information to that community or better sharing the information of the other community members first.
I also “love” that tip # 2 recommends that companies not turn over social media to interns. In the last year I have heard a number of companies –including PR companies– either talk about their plan to turn “social media” over to an intern or who have already done it and it always leaves me aghast. Just because an intern has been on FaceBook longer than anyone over 25—and that is because it was originally a college only community– doesn’t mean they have the expertise of company, customer, products or the industry you are in. Would you really send your intern in to close a deal with a potential customer you have been chasing for years or to represent you to the technology reporter you want so badly to cover your company? Then why would you do it in social media?
One other tip I would offer is “transparency”. Gottlieb mentions in tip #4 being authentic—truthful. It is also important to remember in social media that people don’t want to talk with a logo. They want to talk with a person. If you’re tweeting say who you are right up there in your profile. If you have to talk behind a logo try to persuade management to add your name on the Twitter page so your followers can more easily engage with you.
Read the full posts. They are excellent.
Still afraid?
Parents Countdown to College Coach to Detail What High School Juniors and Sophomores Need to Do Now for College Admission Success
September 19, 2010 By
Suzanne Shaffer, founder of Parents Countdown to College Coach, (http://www.parentscountdowntocollegecoach.com/) a web site dedicated to helping parents navigate the college maze by providing the right tools for organization and success, will provide parents and teens with a list of strategies they need to deploy to help ensure success with college admissions on #CollegeChat on Twitter on September 21, 2010 at 6 pm Pacific/ 9 pm Eastern, Theresa Smith, principal of Pathway Communications (http://pathwaypr.com) and moderator of #CollegeChat announced today.
According to Shaffer, author of “Parents Countdown to College Toolkit”, by planning early college bound teens can get a leg up on the college process. During the upcoming live #TwitterChat, Shaffer ( http://twitter.com/SuzanneShaffer) will address and help prioritize high school junior and sophomore’s action items including:
- Tips for how teens can stay organized with college information
- How to ensure teens are taking the right college preparatory classes
- When should students start building a resume and why is it important
- When should students first take the SAT or ACT
- What tests should sophomores take
- How long should students study for test
- Should students take AP courses
- When should students start visiting colleges
- How early should students be looking into scholarships; what resources are available
For over ten years Shaffer has been coaching parents on the college journey and how to find the funds to finance that education. She has counseled parents in admissions, scholarships, financial aid, and the importance of early college preparation. Having been successful in guiding her children and many others to fulfill their dreams of college educations, she is committed to equipping other parents with the right tools necessary for them to become their own “parent coach”. With these tools they will be confident and prepared to guide their college-bound teen in the pursuit of their college dreams. Shaffer is the founder of the highly regarded site Parents Countdown to College Coach.
New to Twitter?
In order to participate in the chat, attendees will need to have a Twitter account. To sign up for a Twitter account, go to http:// twitter.com. The easiest way to follow the chat is to use TweetChat (http://tweetchat.com). Simply log in to TweetChat with your Twitter information (email or username followed by password) and then enter in CollegeChat without the “#” and you will be placed into the chat room with only those participating in #CollegeChat. More detailed information about signing up for Twitter and using TweetChat can be found at http://pathwaypr.com/how-to-participate-in-a-twitter-chat .
About #CollegeChat
#CollegeChat is a live bi-monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter. Questions for each #CollegeChat edition can be sent to Theresa Smith, the moderator of #CollegeChat via http://Twitter.com/collegechat , by entering questions online on the CollegeChat Facebook page at http://ht.ly/1XIqV , or by email. CollegeChat can also be found on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/collegechat .
College Admissions Expert Provides High School Seniors with 8 Action Items to Help Ease the College Admissions Process
September 13, 2010 By
With Labor Day marking the un-official end to summer, high school seniors are now back in school gearing up for what many students consider the grueling and stressful college admissions process. But according to Mark Montgomery, PhD, a college admissions expert and president of Montgomery Educational Consulting (http://greatcollegeadvice.com/), the college admissions process doesn’t need to be so stressful. On the last #CollegeChat, a live bi- monthly conversation intended for teens, college students, parents, and higher education experts on Twitter, Montgomery shared his tips on what students can do to prepare for college admissions.
“Even if high school seniors are busy, it’s not too late to get started. There is plenty of time to get everything done. Seniors just need to get organized,” said Montgomery.
Montgomery recommends the following tips to ease the college admission process.
Decide if you are going to take any more standardized tests. High school seniors need to quickly determine if they want or need to take the SAT, ACT, or SAT II subject tests. Both the SAT and ACT have only two test dates left to register for in 2010. More information about test dates can be found http://sat.collegeboard.com/register and http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html.
In addition, Montgomery recommends that students not take any of these tests more than three times. “I usually say three times and you’re out. For some students I tell them once is enough.” According to Akil Bello, (http://twitter.com/akilbello) the vice president of Educational Development for Bell Curves, “Kids who do it right take four to eight practice tests and one to two real tests.”
Students also should assess whether the SAT or ACT is best for them. Bello commented that the best way to choose between the SAT and ACT is to take a free practice test of each. For students that don’t test well no need to panic. Sharon McLaughlin (http://twitter.com/shashmc) , founder of McLaughlin Education Consulting, pointed out that an increasing number of colleges are test optional. A list of these schools can be found at http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional.
Don’t drop your challenging course work and keep up your grades. Senior year matters and students need to be careful about both keeping their grades up as well as not pulling any senior pranks that might negate their college acceptance letters. “Seniors need to keep going all the way to the finish line. Don’t let up senior year and beware of senioritis. It can be detrimental to your future,” advised Montgomery.
Many colleges review the first semester of senior year transcripts before making their admission decision. In addition, McLaughlin said, “Colleges will ask for the final high school transcript and have been known to revoke offer if student’s grades slipped.”
Matt Impink (http://twitter.com/goal2025) of the Lumina Foundation for Education, remarked that keeping up challenging course work senior year is very important because “it’s about preparing for the rigor of college.”
Determine your EFC. EFC is expected family contribution. It is what the government says a family and student should pay based on family income and assets. The EFC is determined by the information a family reports on the FAFSA application http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/index.htm. FAFSA stands for free application for federal student aid. In order to be considered for any financial aid—even institution based scholarships—families must fill out this form.
There are two ways of calculating EFC: the government’s way via the FAFSA and the “institutional” way. According to Montgomery, the institutional way is basically how colleges tell students their price. No two institutions are exactly the same. “Colleges use the EFC as a starting point , then they decide how much they want you by lowering the price,” explained Montgomery.
“I think every family, once their child is in high school should obtain their preliminary EFC,” said Lynn O’Shaughnessy (http://twitter.com/collegeblogs), award winning college author and blogger.
CollegeBoard.com offers a free online EFC calculator at http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp?noload=Y and FinAid.com provides both a federal and instiutitonal calculator at http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml.
“It’s important to understand that EFC is only a starting point for schools. They can give money to whom they want,” said Russell Golowin, (http://twitter.com/Russell_Golowin), estate planning lawyer and financial aid adviser.
Go after schools where you are in the top quarter academically. If cost in an important factor “students should choose ones where you are at the top of the academic heap,” said Montgomery. “A reach college is rarely the best financial choice unless it’s one of the most wealthy and selective colleges.” Reach schools are schools that are probably out of reach for a student to be accepted to based on SAT scores and a student’s high school resume including their GPA and course work.
Janson Woodlee,( http://twitter.com/IvyEyesEditing) founder of Ivy Eyes Editing, a writing and admissions consultancy, added that “Collegeresults.org is a great place to start by comparing graduation rates and other good data.” Students can also gather good information about colleges at http://www.collegeboard.com/. At CollegeBoard.com students can search for colleges based on a number of factors including cost, location, and majors.
“I like to tell my students to think like Cinderella, let the suitors bring you gifts to attract you to their kingdoms,” said Montgomery. And the most effective way of attracting colleges, is to be in the top quarter of admitted students reported SAT and ACT scores as well as GPA. This information is readily available on college websites.
In an online post “Ten College Planning Tips for Tough Economic Times” http://greatcollegeadvice.com/ten-college-planning-tips-for-tough-economic-times/ Montgomery wrote, “So if Elmer Fudd College reports the middle 50% ACT range of 22 to 26, this means 25% of students scored lower than 22, and another 25% scored 27 or higher. An applicant to Elmer Fudd College with an ACT of 29 has a much better chance of receiving a solid financial aid package than the applicant with a 22.”
Fine tune your college wish list and don’t eliminate schools with a high sticker price. Don’t eliminate expensive colleges from your list. Montgomery recommended that students keep in mind that the price of college is “like airline fares. Everyone is going the same place, but everyone on the plane is paying a different price.
O’Shaughnessy recommends students use the Federal College Navigator website http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ and research a college’s Common Data Set to research the real price of a school. Recently, O’Shaughnessy wrote about how to research Common Data Set at http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/2010/09/02/common-data-set-101/. She also recommends Collegeboard.com for some quick stats such as average financial aid package and the ratio of loans to grants.
Understand what makes up financial aid. Talk to your family about the college fund. Financial aid includes grants, scholarships, loans and work study. “But I can’t really think of loans as financial aid. Loans are really just you paying the same amount later,” said Montgomery. “Colleges will brag about how much money they offer in “aid” but a big chunk of that “aid” is really loans.” Obviously the most desirable forms of financial aid are grants, scholarships, discounts and work study—aid that does not need to be paid back.
In the event a student is not happy with their financial aid package it is possible to try to have it reviewed. However, Montgomery said, “Renegotiating aid can work, but only in some circumstances. The college has to really want you.” O’Shaughnessy agreed, “Colleges will negotiate for the kids they want bad. Those who barely got in will not get more generous aid. And most elite colleges often don’t negotiate because their financial aid packages are generous to being with.”
However, in the event a family’s situation has changed financially due to a job loss or other reasons, a student should appeal to the financial aid office for a review recommended McLaughlin.
Montgomery also stresses the importance of a family sitting down and talking about how much money is in the family budget for college. “In tough economic times, students and parents need to think about their financial future.”
Make sure you understand the difference between Early Action versus Early Decision. If you apply to a college early decision it means if accepted you are “bound” to attend that college provided that the college provides an “adequate” financial aid package. A student can only apply to one college “early action” but may apply to other colleges through the regular admission process. If the student is accepted “early decision” all other college applications must be withdrawn. This means that a high school may only send the final transcript to the “early decision” school.
Montgomery explained that early decision means, “If you accept me, I promise to attend. The problem with early decision for financial aid is that it’s harder to get the lowest price when you promise to get married if he asks.”
Early action plans, while similar to early decision, are not binding. Students can also apply to more than one school early action. “Consider early decision or early action if you really don’t worry about financial aid and if you are positively in love with that school,” said Montgomery.
Finish by Halloween. Last but not least, Montgomery recommends to the students he advises to finish all their college applications by Halloween. Then, in order to meet this deadline, they just back up the timetable to accommodate this deadline. That means if you haven’t started your college essays and applications you need to get started now. Hopefully, you have already asked for your teacher recommendations. If not, politely request them now. After all, it’s six weeks to Halloween.