Hootsuite: SMMS for Business

Be A Chunk Spelunker - Ben & Jerry's (Continued)

It's getting a little chilly these days but Ben&Jerry's is still doing fine.

As I continued to monitor their social media analytics data through the past month, I found more interesting stuff in Ben&Jerry's social media performances and was able to gather more data sets for comparison.

In my last post on Ben&Jerry's, it's obvious that they've been talked about online, mostly positively. And their cartoonish, childish key tone is adored by their customers and social media audience. Looking into their social media performances, you could easily see the seasonal variances. But overall, they have fairly good consistency as observed from the analytical results.

In this post, I'll present you my monitoring result from September 15 through November 3. By comparing and analyzing them, I'll point out Ben&Jerry's strengths and weaknesses in handling social media and what they could do to improve their performance to create a better connection with their audience and generate more buzz.  

The Scotchy Scotch Scotch Campaign

On October 22, Ben&Jerry's released a new flavor named Scotchy Scotch Scotch dedicated to Ron Burgundy, the famous San Diego newsman from the 2004 movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The launch of the Scotchy Scotch Scotch came one day prior to the release of the new trailer for the Anchorman sequel - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

Launching new flavors into the market is no news for Ben&Jerry's, especially when they just released the Pumpkin Cheesecake flavor on October 8. But this time it was more than a simple post and announcement online, Ben&Jerry's have actually carried out a campaign promoting this new limited edition flavor. And here's how they do it:

Website:

Ben&Jerry's seldom changes their front page for a new flavor. With the new campaign in full swing, Ben&Jerry's are committed to make a difference.

By recreating the famous newsroom scene and quoting one of the lines in the movie ("I'm kind of a big deal" when Ron was trying to pick up Victoria),  it has established a connection with the Anchorman fans.

And by creating a fan-generated "Find Your Scotchy Scotch Scotch" Flavor Locator, they are empowering the customers to help create a "Scotchy Scotch Scotch" map, which is normally taken care of by the company itself.

They've also added a Twitter tab on each flavor page for people to look into who's been talking about the flavor on Twitter. But unfortunately, the tabs are not working efficiently.

Overall, the changes on the website are surprising. It has generated a better link with the customers than it used to.






Facebook:

Ben&Jerry's have a fairly large Facebook fan base.

They have been talking about the new flavor release ever since October 20 and ask fans to guess what that would be. And it has definitely generated a buzz.

Twitter:

Ben&Jerry's have followed the same steps as Facebook in Scotchy Scotch Scotch's launch. Yet it has more consistency and some differences:

Of course Ben&Jerry's official Instagram and Youtube page have also participate in the campaign. But to my surprise, Instagram, often its best social media tools to communicate with the audience, only has two posts about the launch of the new flavor, and Youtube, which has lack of activity in comparison, has uploaded a new video:

A Buzz From the Scotch

So did the campaign make a difference in Ben&Jerry's social media performance? The answer is YES. 

Figure.1
B&J's social media analytic result between Sep.15-Oct.16

According to Social Mention, Ben&Jerry's held a steady performance on their social media platform (Figure.1) But when I was monitoring their performance throughout the campaign, I noticed something interesting.

Figure.2 shows the monitor results from Oct.13-Nov.3. So the Scotchy Scotch Scotch campaign has without a doubt generated a buzz in social media. Yet the passion dropped, meaning the likelihood of people who participated in the buzz talking about Ben&Jerry's again is less. And thus the result on Nov.3 was back to the normal steadiness.

Figure.2

This indicates that the campaign itself is successful in engaging the audience and in boosting Ben&Jerry's social media marketing result. But it lacks of long term effects. Also, it didn't create and participate in enough conversations to keep the buzz buzzing for long enough.

For individual social media platform performance analysis, I looked into their Facebook and Twitter trends over the campaign.

As shown in the Facebook insight, there's a buzz during the campaign period but then it dropped this week. And although they already have a pretty big fan base, it seemed that they have gained some new likes during the campaign. Socialbakers's data also proves this.

As for Twitter, the number of their followers are increasing steadily. However, you could also notice a little boost since the campaign, and the boost didn't slow down afterwards. That might be related to the fact that their effort on Twitter for Scotchy Scotch Scotch is more consistent - it didn't end after the launch, but rather, they were talking about it every couple days to keep audience's interest high.



How about search engine? Google Trends shows that people's interest in Ben&Jerry's are going down before October, which is normal since ice cream is a seasonal type of sweet/dessert. But as shown, there's a boost during the same time of the Scotchy Scotch Scotch campaign.

As for blog posts, according to Meltwater IceRocket, there's an obvious proportional relation between people's interest in Ben&Jerry's and the launch of Scotchy Scotch Scotch. Yet the boost didn't last long. 

I was also interested in seeing how Ben&Jerry's have been doing compared to two of its competitors: ColdStone Creamery and Hagen-Dazs. So I used Wildfire to compare their Facebook and Twitter performances.

Ben&Jerry's have a definite triumph on Facebook likes and a steady growth. The sudden drop in January might be a technical mistake or lack of data. Overall the popularity of its Facebook page is increasing. 

As for Twitter, I was again surprised by what I got. Ben&Jerry's and ColdStone were almost at the same place in May, 2010, and Hagen-Dazs joined in 2012 with the same base. Yet the ratio of growth of Ben&Jerry's over the past 3 months is astonishing.

Recommendation

Through my monitoring project, I found that Ben&Jerry's social media performances were astonishingly well. Originally a small  New England native ice cream factory, Ben&Jerry's transformed into an international ice cream manufactory brand. While its market is similar to fellow ice cream giants Coldstone Creamery and Hagen-dazs, it doesn't rely on traditional advertising like its competitors might have, rather, it has embraced the groundswell and utilized social media to make a difference. It's really impressive.

However, nobody is perfect, but we can give our best effort everyday. So I have a couple suggestions for Ben&Jerry's based on my observations and analysis.

1. "Who's talking on Twitter"

The idea of the "Who's talking on Twitter" tab is genius. But first it needs to be functional. Once it's working, people will be able to find Tweets about Ben&Jerry's and its flavors through this search engine easily. And then Ben&Jerry's should generate conversations with and between the audience by, for example, creating flavor hashtags, supporting fans to form a community or form one for them, encouraging retweets to create buzzes, etc.

2. Open the Flavor Locator to the Public

The fan-created Flavor Locator for the new flavor Scotchy Scotch Scotch is great. It empowered fans to create the flavor map by themselves. It's like a mapping version of wiki, it's new and it's fun to see a scoop being put up on the map because of the information you provide. So why not allow people to be the Flavor Locator themselves. Hashtags could be created for this, social media share buttons should be linked to encourage people to share their discovery with their friends. Also, what if you could also see who shares the same passion for your favorite Ben&Jerry's flavor geographically and maybe find yourself a new friend? The potential is unlimited.

3. Let the Buzz Continue

Creating a buzz is not a problem for Ben&Jerry's, but keeping it buzzing is. As shown in the data presented earlier, the buzz for Scotchy Scotch Scotch has only lasted for less then a month. But a great opportunity to boost the brand like this shouldn't be wasted. Hence creating conversation around campaigns, events, etc. is more important than simply talking to the audience. For example, for the launch of Scotchy Scotch Scotch, some simple Anchorman related Q&A with Ben&Jerry's new flavor as the reward could not only foster conversation by tapping into the movie, but also strengthen its funny brand image in fans' heart.


4. More Youtube Videos

Youtube is the weakest link of all Ben&Jerry's social media platform. It's rarely updated and has only 627 subscribers. Additionally, it's not easy to find the ONE official Youtube page because there are so many of them. So Ben&Jerry's should definitely get its Youtube page organized. Once it's done, create more videos monthly, or better, weekly, to engage the audience. For instance, film the processes of the Ben&Jerry's ice cream recipes that are posted on Instagram, Facebook, etc, or film the recipes provided by fans; encourage fans to send you original videos telling their stories with their favorite Ben&Jerry's ice cream. It's not that difficult but the influence would be worthy of the investment for sure.


5. More Events and Marketing Campaigns

Even though Ben&Jerry's marketing focus shifted to Europe and Asia a few years ago, I still think they should create more events and campaigns around their products, the brand, and their educational and environmental missions. Especially for new products, more should be done in the States for branding purposes. The Scotchy Scotch Scotch campaign has shown the potential for successful marketing and more campaigns like this should be conducted in the future. Ben&Jerry's have such a strong company culture; it should be promoting a life style instead of only ice cream.




It's interesting and impressive to see how an international brand rely more on social media marketing than traditional ones to promote itself in the States. I think it would be intriguing to see Ben&Jerry's social media performance when the movie Anchorman 2 comes out this December. Hopefully they will do even better than the launch of Scotchy Scotch Scotch.

Empower The Voice Within -- The Groundswell Inside Your Company

Everyday we are working with people (unless you work completely solo...Do you really?), co-workers, partner companies, even some manufactory workers all across the Pacific ocean that you have never met with. And when discussions among people or groups are necessary, we host meetings. But most of the time, Meetings Suck! Most of the time they are boring, time-wasting, chaotic gathering that end up with no result. Plus, if you've ever worked with people oversea and had video meeting with them online, you would know what I am talking about. The bigger the company or organization it is, the more difficult communication flows within.

But social media is here to solve the problem for you.

This is Yammer, the first and by far the most well-known ISM (Internal Social Media) in the States. And this is Salesforce Chatter, the ISM used by social media giant -Facebook:

Yes, they are similar. They are all ISM that are being used by enterprises like DHL, 7-Eleven, Delta Airline, Yamaha, GE, and so on. ISM platforms usually look similar to those social media that we are familiar with, especially Facebook. Yet instead of forming groups with your friends who shared a common interest, you form work groups or project groups on ISM; instead of sharing funny videos of kids and animals, you share work documents, ideas, and thoughts on ISM. As it's mentioned in the video, ISM is driving a culture of innovation and forming a better work relations in your company.

Li and Bernoff mentioned in their book Groundswell: Winning in A World Transformed by Social Technologies, that Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation, which is created to listen to employees, has helped better connect its employees, accelerated problem solving, and formed an empowering company culture. Now ISM has provided you with a internal groundswell platform that you don't need to design for yourself. And here's what you can do to empower the voice within:


1. Listen. ISM like Yammer and Salesforce Chatter allows you to listen to what your employees have to say: new ideas, problems at work, suggestions, etc. And sometimes these thoughts could be problem solving or something bigger. By abandoning the traditional internal conversation pattern (from upper level down), and accepting what ISM brings into play (Let conversation flow!), you could be generating a new, cooperative, creative company culture.

2.Energizing. ISM like salesforce is user-friendly. You could create project timeline and group, you could monitor projects and tasks that you take interest in, you could share ideas with coworkers, and you could also motivate others by sharing your success, complimenting others for their accomplishments, and groundswell positive thinking.

3.Embracing. For ISM to work and successfully embed in your company, the executive lever must embrace it first and take part in the conversation. One of Yammer's best example (I think), is how the groundswell thinking helped solve the problem with Northwind Hotels' room keys: Executive lever identified the problem, created a group on Yammer and ask for ideas, employees from all levers brainstormed and shared ideas. (Click here to check the video.) See how this work? 

ISM is powerful, because it could foster a whole new conversation structure within your company that we would have never imagine 30 years ago. And technology has made it so easy for even international enterprise's employees to connect and cooperate with each other. Decisions could be made faster, communication is easier, and most importantly, employees are empowered.

So here's the question: are you ready for the groundswell within?

Be A Chunk Spelunker - Ben & Jerry's

There's always a moment in our life (or many moments) that we craving for ice cream. The New England local brand Ben & Jerry's has always been my favorite. Founded in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has a over-20-year-old history and a good reputation. You can barely see their commercials on TV, leave alone billboards, newspaper ads, etc. Yet they are active groundswell participants.

About Ben & Jerry's

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, from Merrick, Long Island, were childhood friends. When Jerry couldn't get in to med school after college, and Ben dropped out of school, they decided to start their own food business. Having no experience but both love ice cream, they started their own ice cream store in a old gas station building in Burlington, Vermont, May 5, 1978. People love their home-made ice cream. So business soon took off and later they spread the brand Ben & Jerry's, which is named after themselves, across the nation with an ice cream truck.

Ben & Jerry's is now owned by Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational food giant, since 2000. It has retails all over the world. But other than being just an ice cream manufacture company, it has also shown care for politics, social change, and environmental sustainability.

It created its own website in 1995, and now is active on many social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, and Blog. To monitor and analyze how Ben & Jerry's social platform have performed, I use Social Mention, Google Trends, Icerocket, Addictomatic, and Raven Tools to monitor its social media activities.

Who's Talking

People are not quite about Ben & Jerry online. Even though Addictomatic shows that there's no tweet found on Ben & Jerry's, there's actually a lot of people talking about it on Twitter. To have a better peek into its social media effort, I listed out some of its social platforms that have gain most attentions.

Website
Ben & Jerry's has a really cartoonish website, which is different from Hagen Daz and Cold Stone's sophisticated business appearances. This fun and even childish looking design not only fits Ben & Jerry's brand image, but also deliver a message to the audience saying "Ben & Jerry' = Fun", which has won over a lot of young people.

And when you suppose it would be just like any other company website using formal tone, it doesn't. All the contents on the website approach you like a long lost friend, guiding you into the world of Ben & Jerry's. They even make their history sound like a fun story. Hence, with the website being the first online platform of Ben & Jerry's, it has set a cool, fun, friendly tone for its publicity and brand image.


Facebook
Unlike other business Facebook pages that we've all surfed through, you can't find out when Ben & Jerry's joined Facebook because it actually took the time to create posts from 1978, when it was founded long before Facebook was created. This is remarkable since it took great effort to be accomplished. Yet it would definitely earn big: all those posts are like a history book of Ben & Jerry's, and if you go through them, it would unconsciously create an emotional link between you and the brand. Once you get attached, you are more likely to get influenced.

Socialbaker statistic report

Ben & Jerry's Facebook page has already gain 7.2 million Likes. It's posting everyday (besides weekends) and its posts are always with photos. As for its posts, according to Socialbaker, over the past years, Ben & Jerry's has generated more than 1.3million Likes, 2.2million Shares, and 310 thousand Comments on its Facebook posts. And they apply to fans' comments very often, which has created a great interactive atmosphere.

Twitter

Ben & Jerry's Twitter account has by far created 9,857 posts and it's active almost everyday. Although it doesn't have as many followers as its Facebook account does, it still has 125 thousands followers. But its tweets are mostly focusing on event promotions, supporting Fair Trade, and so on. As Twitter is not so much photo oriented (you need to click to view the photos that are hidden in the posts), it doesn't seem that delicious.

Instagram

Our craving for good good starts with our eyes in the world of internet. Instagram, as a photo/video oriented social media platform, has great advantage in online marketing/branding when it comes to Ben & Jerry's. So there's no doubt that even though they only have 600+ posts on Instagram, they already have 258,959 followers. 

Why is their Instagram account more influential than Twitter？Look at what they are posting. 

Besides posting photos that they've taken or created, most of their posts are gathered from their fans. It's like a "Ben & Jerry's in your life" map. This is a great way to engage with your customers in groundswell! Also it has enlarged Ben & Jerry's brand influence. And thus, almost every one of their posts at least got 10k Likes, which is an outstanding result.

Youtube
Surprisingly Ben & Jerry's official Youtube Page is not under the name Ben & Jerry's, but under BenandJerrysHomemade. And most of the videos that they have posted are aimed at European or Asian market. Some of the videos are cute but they didn't really engage with the audience. And thus they have little views and comments.

Analytical Data Observations

Social Mention:

After monitoring Ben & Jerry's social media input and outreach with Social Mention for two weeks, here's the statistic result. So Ben & Jerry's definitely been talked about. Strength means the likelihood for people to talk about your brand, sentiment shows the ratio of positive mentions to negative mentions, passion indicates the likelihood that an individual would talk about your brand repeatedly, and reach measures the range of your influence. So Ben & Jerry's seems to be doing pretty good. How about those couple negative comments? When I dig into it, these "negative" comments turned out to be words like: "I want Ben & Jerry's so bad!""We are killing the Ben & Jerry's." etc. Hence there is, actually, though seems unreal, no negative comment about Ben & Jerry's on social media.

Google Trends

To my surprise, people's interest in Ben & Jerry's peaked in 2008 online. And since then, it dropped. The up and down during each year is understandable: people would want ice cream more in summer than in winter. But with social media's development during the past 3 years, its interest trend should be increasing but not decreasing.


Icerocket

Here, Icerocket shows the Daily Blogs Citation Trend of Ben & Jerry's from mid September till now. It holds a fair consistency. There's no doubt that foodies are enthusiastic people. So this result doesn't surprise me.


Overall, Ben & Jerry's doing a decent job with social media marketing. It has a clear vision for its social media marketing strategy and has successfully made a good influence online. There's always more be done. But I'll say by far, it's made a great effort.

Small Business - Market Yourself with Social Media

Music is a huge part of my life. I've created a lot of playlists for different occasions. One of them is filled with songs from The Piano Guys. So imagine my excitement when I learned that they are touring to Boston this October. There's no way that I would let this opportunity go so I am going to their concert next week! Can't wait!

The Piano Guys are a music group consisting of Jon Schmidt (Piano), Steven Sharp Nelson (Cello), Tel Stewart (Videographer/Editor), Paul Anderson (Videographer/Producer) and Al van der Beek(Music and Studio). Unlike most of the mainstream artists, they gained their fame via social media. They first started on Youtube, posting self-filmed and edited videos of mash-up pop songs, and already have over 2 million subscribers. After they were founded for six months, they did a "Without You" Cover dedicated to their fans and invited them to be a founder of the Piano Guys and help release their first album.

As their social media fame grew, The Piano Guys became increasingly interactive with fans on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 

They basically just marketed themselves using social media and it has been a great success. Now they are touring around the world, releasing new albums, and producing accessories like posters, calendars, caps, etc. 

This got me thinking: social media is definitely a great marketing tool for small business; it's low cost, low risk, and high gain. But the question lies in “how”: how to best utilize social media for marketing yourself?

1. Locate your target customer. "Locate" doesn't mean you need to know where they live, where they work, but rather, are they online and which social media platform they are most active on. Then step by step build your stage and stretch onto other platforms. As for the Piano Guys, their target audience age is from teenagers to people in their 50s. And thus most of them are really active on social media. Choosing Youtube as a start is also very smart. Who doesn't enjoy good music with great scenery? Hence they've gradually built up a big fan base there.

2. Be interactive with your fans! Social media is all about creating relationships. And the Piano Guys are really good at this. They listen to their fans opinions and also would pick from fans' suggestions of songs to do mash-ups or covers on Youtube. Steve even asked the fans to help name his new born daughter! Also, they interact with fans on Facebook by letting them decide album covers, posters, etc. Recently (actually just yesterday), they hosted Live "Q&A" on Facebook and answered 1343 questions posted by the fans. 

3. Be humorous and be their friend. People are long tired of the traditional downward marketing campaign. So if you want success out of social media marketing, you need to be your audiences' friends. The Piano Guys have always been genuine, funny, and sometimes silly to their fans. It shows in their videos, interviews, social media posts and also their replies to the fans.

Well, obviously there are a lot of other tips, and you should never simply copy someone's success. But the Piano Guys definitely set a great example of how to market yourself with social media if you have limited budget. 

So if you are running a small business or thinking about starting one, why not give social media marketing a try!