Six Things I Learned From Kodak

Reading the recent Q&A with Kodak (see parts one and two), I was struck by a number of simple but compelling takeaways from their success that I think any company can and should pay attention to.

1. Get on Twitter.
Twitter isn't nearly the obscure, niche site it once was. Companies are using it, and it's snowballing when they realize what they can do with it. Kodak has dozens of members from around the globe on Twitter, and they're not alone. Check out this collection of brands using Twitter, and this great take from the inimitable Chris Brogan about how businesses can make the most of it.

2. Understand your goals.
This isn't exclusive to social media. Any solid communication effort requires understanding what you want to get out of it. Who are you talking to, and what are you hoping they'll do or say as a result of that conversation? Then, and only then, can you move on to deciding what tools to use. Which brings me to:

3. Choose the tools that are best for your business.
This isn't the same for everyone. Some businesses can make great use of a blog if they've already got a large contingent of their customers online and and interested in what they have to say. Forums can be great for connecting brand evangelists with one another. A Facebook page can work if you can deliver content and activities that get and keep people engaged. Kodak looked carefully at the tools they knew they could learn, maintain, and get excited about while achieving their goals.

4. Find the right people.
There's been a lot of debate about where the responsibility for social media lies within an organization (just ask Jason Falls). And while I agree that it should be guided and managed by people who have an understanding of good communication practices, the people participating on your blog or on Twitter absolutely, positively have to want to to it. They need to enjoy forging and building relationships with customers, period. And they can be found outside your marketing or PR department, in the form of product managers or customer support people, or even in (gasp) finance or IT. Kodak found the passionate people in their organization, and put them to work.

5. Social media results aren't instant.
Kodak, like many other companies, has realized that social media is a long term investment of time, effort, and dedication. Like the development of any relationships, participating in social media has to be something that a company commits to and works hard at in order to reap all the rewards. It's not a silver bullet. (Check out my post on other things that social media isn't, for more thoughts along these lines).

6. ROI isn't always about direct revenue.
No, I'm not saying social media shouldn't HAVE an ROI. But I took notice that, on Kodak's list of social media ROI, not one of them cited any dollar figures. It's about building relationships, building your brand, and making people want to learn more about you. These are the things that drive revenue for your company over the long term, even if it's a meandering path.

Bonus: Have Fun.
It's so clear to me that the Kodak team enjoys what they do. I mean, really! Jenny Cisney gets to talk about her passion for her company, for photography, and go to the Olympics to showcase it. That can't possibly suck, on any level (ok ok, I know it's still work). Not everything worth doing in business has to be drudgery.

So what did you take away from this? Did you learn anything about your own social media exploits by reading Kodak's point of view? Did they encourage you to try something in social media that you hadn't considered? I'd love to know what you think.

Image credit: foundphotoslj

Kodak's Social Media Success: Part 2

Yesterday, we started talking with Kodak about their social media initiatives. Today, the team talks about their plans for the future, and what they consider ROI for their efforts.

How do you hope to build on the success you’ve had in social media, and involve it in your future communication plans? Do see your social media efforts increasing, decreasing, or staying the same for 2009?

Krista Gleason: Kodak is focused on growth and we are always looking at new and innovative ways to communicate, share information, and build relationships with customers. Our participation in these various forms of social media gives us the opportunity to spread our message further and to a larger audience. Our focus now and going forward is how to best integrate all these tools in our communications. For example, when we do a traditional press release, we also consider a companion blog post, we twitter about the news, we post to Facebook and delicious, we might do a podcast, we join the conversation in blogs and forums.

Was involvement in social media a natural progression for Kodak, or was it a culture shift for you?

Krista Gleason: In many ways, our involvement in social media is a reflection of the new company we have become – what we often refer to as the New Kodak. Film remains an important part of our business but Kodak is also now a foremost leader in digital imaging and printing.

What departments and staff members are involved in social media at Kodak, and how do you determine who is involved in each project?

Krista: In April, we named Jenny Cisney our Chief Blogger and she is responsible for overseeing all our social media activities. As Chief Blogger, Jenny also covers trade shows and events (like the Olympics) and represents Kodak at social media conferences. Tom Hoehn is our Director of Brand Communications and Convergence Media and also plays a lead role. We have an internal Blog Council that meets regularly with representation from our film business, consumer business, graphic communications business, and technology office. Our employee bloggers represent virtually all aspects of the company including technology, R&D, product development, branding, marketing, online, etc.

Jenny Cisney: It’s easy to find people in the company who are passionate about what they do and about Kodak products. There are a lot of photography enthusiasts who are eager to share their pictures and tips.

Kodak does a great deal of sponsorship and events; have you found social media to be a valuable part of these efforts, and why or why not?

Krista: Yes. A great example of this is our announcement of the Kodak Challenge – part of our new partnership with the PGA TOUR. In addition to the traditional press release and press conference, we also had several blogs about the Kodak Challenge, podcasts that were also posted to YouTube, several people twittering including Jenny and our Chief Business Development Officer Jeff Hayzlett who made the announcement, we posted photos to flickr and Facebook, and news on delicious.

How do you define your “ROI” from involvement with social media?

• Feedback from readers and customers via the blogs and email.

• Invitations to speak at top-tier conferences, including BlogWorld Expo and BlogHer.

• Links to our blogs from other blogs and online articles.

• Recognition from social media experts and media such as:

Mario Sundar - #1 Olympic blog, 2008
Debbie Weil - 5 examples of effective corporate blogs, 2007
PR Week - 5 corporate blogs that built buzz, 2007
Business Week
Mentions and compliments in the book “Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online” by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss.

• Awards: Earlier this year Kodak won three awards for our blogs – the PRSA Bronze Anvil, American Business Award (Stevie Award) and an Interactive Media Award.

What advice do you have for other companies contemplating social media tools like blogging and podcasting?

Jenny Cisney: If you start participating in social media, you have to be dedicated to it. You cannot leave your blog untouched for weeks. Make sure you listen to your customers and take their feedback into account. Be sure you get back to them in a timely manner. And remember your blog doesn’t have to be like other company blogs. Tailor your social media to best suit your business.

My special thanks again to Krista Gleason and Jenny Cisney along with the entire team at Kodak for sharing their story with us! I've got some great takeaways from this that I'll share with you tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Kodak's Social Media Success

Today, Part 1 of my two-part interview with the awesome social media team at Kodak. I was impressed with some of their blogging during this year's Olympic Games, which prompted me to want to learn more about what they're up to.

We'll be talking about their blogging efforts, the role social media plays in their business, and how they'll be incorporating social media into their future plans. My special thanks to Krista Gleason, Jenny Cisney, and Tom Hoehn for their friendliness and participation!

When did Kodak make the decision to make social media part of their corporate strategy, and why?

Krista Gleason: We launched our first blog – A Thousand Words – in September 2006 and have engaged in other social media since then including podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, flickr, and delicious. Our social media activities are part of our overall communications and marketing strategy. We use social media to connect with our customers – communicate, listen, interact, engage – and share information about our company and our products and services.

We wanted to have a presence in the blogosphere. It’s important for us to be a part of the conversation.

Tell me a little bit about the three blogs you have, and how and why each one is important to Kodak.

Krista: Kodak has three blogs. A Thousand Words features stories from Kodak employees on a variety of topics but with a focus on photography and imaging. Plugged In features stories about Kodak products and services. Grow Your Biz features stories from Kodak’s Graphic Communications business. Together, they reflect the breadth and expertise of our company - traditional (photography and film), digital, and print.

What kind of impact has blogging and social media had on your company culture? Your customer relationships?

Krista: Internally, blogging has opened up opportunities for employees to share their personal stories thereby helping to boost employee morale. Kodak employees are passionate about their work and their company and the blogs give them a chance to communicate that passion. We currently have over 70 employees who blog (including international bloggers) and new employees continually expressing interest. Externally, our blogs give customers and readers (from over 100 countries) a better understanding of Kodak – from how our products and services can help them do more with their pictures to how the company’s innovations are impacting our world. Our blogs also give Kodak a human face.

People can of course participate in our blog through comments but can also become the subject of our Picture Wednesday blog by submitting a photo to Kodak’s Picture of the Day. During the Olympics, for example, one blogger commented “I want that camera!” to a post about the panoramic feature on our cameras. We get comments like that often.

Jenny Cisney: There have been many online experts who feel that Kodak 'gets it' and customers who appreciate us listening to them. A woman on Twitter was having a problem with her printer and was so grateful when we twittered back with the solution to her problem.

How did blogging enhance the 2008 Olympic experience for Kodak, both as individual staff members, and for your company as a whole?

Jenny: Our blogs demonstrated to readers how Kodak products, services and technology were being used at the Olympics, from services for photojournalists, to printing accreditation badges, postcards and newsletters, to digital photo services for fans. It also showed how the Games and Beijing were captured using Kodak cameras. Photos and video taken on site were shared with tips on taking pictures when traveling. It’s all part of communicating how Kodak can help you “make, manage and move images and information.”

You also have a comprehensive series of podcasts; what drove you to explore this medium? Has it been successful for you, and what have you learned from it?

Krista: Kodak has its own production studio (albeit a small one) so doing podcasts is a great fit. We are pleased with the success of our podcasts (also available through RSS and iTunes). Our Pro Imaging podcasts (new this year) have been especially popular and are also featured on www.imaginginfo.com.

Podcasts are another great tool to communicate with our customers though probably consume the most time given the nature of production. But it’s something we feel adds value to our communications and marketing and we have a lot of fun putting them together.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, where Kodak talks about their definitions of social media ROI, and their words of wisdom for companies contemplating the social media plunge. Thursday I'll recap what I've learned from Kodak, and some ideas for you and your business to explore!

Social Media: What About The Risks?

Someone asked this a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, and I've been chewing on it ever since.

Is social media risky?

Business in general is fraught with risk. The next client or contract or customer isn't assured. Our advertising campaign could offend someone, our direct mail campaign could be beautifully designed and tested but still fail to achieve the results we want.

Accounting errors happen, and even worse, fraud. Customer service reps have a bad day. IT departments have meltdowns and failures. Products fail to meet expectations, budgets get missed. Employees misbehave, embezzle, share trade secrets. And it all happens on channels outside of social media.

As a very public, lasting, and dynamic communication platform, social media has it's share of potential challenges. And for as powerfully as I believe in its potential to elevate brands, it would be irresponsible to assume that venturing into social media territory doesn't carry some level of risk. Here are a few of the risks associated with social media that we've been talking about:

A customer could leave a negative comment on your blog, or on a social network about your brand.

Criticism happens all the time, and companies need to respond appropriately and thoughtfully. Crisis communication strategy exists purely for this reason. I don't think that social media necessarily increases the chances that something negative will be said about you, but it certainly can amplify the message. Companies embarking on social media adventures need to understand how to monitor their brand online - especially on the company-owned channels - and learn how to engage and respond in a way that bolsters the brand.

An employee could say something on behalf of the company that's not authorized, is potentially offensive, or share something confidential.

Kellye Crane today pointed me to a post that Leigh Durst put on her blog about Whole Foods' potential misstep on Twitter. Apparently, their Twitter representative(s) reposted a tweet with questionable language, and some fallout ensued. Can one misstep like this have more staying power than five smart moves? Social media folks always say that Google never forgets, and more and more we find proof that it doesn't.

Beth Harte penned a great post about her recent experiences on Twitter; the height of the political season has folks tossing barbs left and right, and there is certainly potential for brand damage - both personal and corporate.

We've spent years now using the phone and email to communicate, and the potential exists to really screw up there, too. So what makes social media different? Is it the ubiquitous, open and organic nature of conversation on the web? Does the anoynmity of a computer screen encourage poorer judgment?

Participating in social networks or blogging requires dedicated resources or productivity, and can be difficult to sustain at an active level.

For a moment, I'm going to put aside the argument of whether engaging in social media is a waste of time in the first place, and assume that it's not. But engaging in social media the "right" way requires a commitment, and can be hard work. Understaffing, underestimating, and doing it poorly can be worse than doing nothing at all. A blog with one post that hasn't been updated in months can send a lack of commitment message that a mere absence of blogging might not.

As Mack Collier deftly points out, putting the wrong resources to work can misfire, too. Just because only one employee is familiar with blogging doesn't mean that they're the right choice to blog on behalf of a company. Choosing social media stewards for your company needs to be as well thought out as appointing any major project managers. (One could even argue more so, considering the very public nature of this kind of role.)

The corporate message can't be as easily controlled or managed.

Yes, it's true that you as a company don't necessarily control all your messaging anymore, and your customers are having a greater and more lasting impact on your brand.

But Jeff Summers and Jane Chin are both smart to point out that some industries carry more risk and liability than others for that very messaging. Financial institutions or health care organiations very likely have regulations they must adhere to, and legal obligations that control what kind of information they can disclose and how. For companies in these spaces, social media is a very serious business and legal consideration that has to be approached carefully (if its appropriate at all).

It's more than clear that a sound social media strategy involves analysis of potential issues that can arise as well as the potential benefits. And like any other smart business move, stepping into social media should be treated with respectful planning and communication. Just because it's a shiny "new" toy doesn't mean that it ought to be treated lightly.

Are these risks different than those for other areas of business? Are the standards for social media the same or different, and why? Is there equal risk in doing nothing at all and missing the boat on social media altogether?

Let's continue the conversation in the comments. This is an important subject!

Thanks also to Sonny Gill, Tara Whittle, Tim "Masiguy" Jackson, Rhonda LaShae, and Barbara Baker for weighing in on the conversation, and their great contributions as always (which you can read here on Plurk).

Image by hellolapomme

The Brand Damage Snowball Effect

All of us, at one point or another, have had a bad experience with a company. Sometimes, it's mild enough for us to grumble for a few moments and go on our way, and give them another shot another day. Other times, it's bad enough that we'll never do business with that company again, but we don't spread that to other people.

Then, there's the tipping point where we're so ticked off, we not only vow never to do business with them again, but we tell everyone.

And if you're the company that's at the business end of that shotgun, you had better be paying attention.

My friend (and disclosure: client) David Alston is undertaking a move this week, which sucks in and of itself. And he was relying on U-Haul to help him with that move. When his wife dealt with some absolutely abominable customer service regarding their truck reservation, he put his gripe on Twitter for thousands of people to see. He also blogged about it (in a much more objective and level headed way than I might have).

What ensued was an onslaught of responses from David's Twitter community, and a great post from Catch Up Lady detailing some of the responses and the snowball effect of David's tweet reaching his followers and their followers and so on. (Just in case you think Twitter still doesn't matter. But this, for another post.)

One of those followers posted the CEO's phone number, and David sent him a message. He did call back, but as of this post, I don't think they've connected. I'll be curious about what this guy has to say about the behavior of his field locations and representatives (and the subsequent damage they're doing to his brand). I'll also be curious to know whether the phone call is merely a gesture, and if this guy is aware of the negative publicity he's receiving across the web (of which I'm sure David will make him aware).

David also did his part by canceling his reservation with U-Haul and subsequently booking with Penske, and he then tweeted about how great their customer service was.

If anything to me, this is yet another powerful case for why listening to social media is critically important, and you can do that even if you don't have a blog or a Twitter account. Hearing what's being said can uncover a gold mine (or quagmire) of information from your customers - or former customers - just waiting for you. If I were the U-Haul CEO, I would sure as heck want to know that all these people, in the span of a few hours, had just shared how much they think my company sucks.

Dozens and dozens of people responded to David with their horror stories (and I have one of my own). This many horror stories, and they're still out there managing to do business? What if no one had managed to give David the CEO's contact information? Would they have heard a thing? Or cared? Do you think this experience is significant enough to teach an old dog new tricks?

And then the next level: Where is the tipping point, I wonder, to take down a giant like U-Haul or force them to do things differently, and when does our collective patience run out? How do we translate the negativity we feel and express in words, and translate it into action by not supporting the brand enough where they have to change or perish? What separates a stubborn brand from one willing to evolve based on what they learn?

Can social media tip the scales and turn talk into action?