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Monday, September 12, 2011

Pinkberry Exec On The Most Important Part Of Social Media Marketing

Kim Bhasin | Sep. 12, 2011, 1:07 PM | 759 | 2

Every company has a Facebook page these days, but surprisingly few have a real online personality.

We talked with Pinkberry's Director of Digital, Pamela Naumes, about the secret to the company's award-winning campaign:

We're very authentic. I am very real about who I am and who we are in the online world. I think that you actually need to be yourself and build trust through personalizing interactions with the human touch. We definitely believe that you have to build and encourage trust with your community instead of going straight to the hard sell. And the only way that we can do that is by not hiding behind the logo. We have to be an authentic and very real voice, and really what that comes down to is just being yourself and making that human connection.

So what we do is on Facebook, we make sure that every single post back to our customers is signed off with a name, so they know that there's a person versus a brand's logo behind a response—that there's someone paying attention. Same with Twitter. We have a profile around who it is that's responding to the tweets, and I think what that does is it really humanizes that connection back to the customer, which is critical to us because we know ultimately we're trying to build customers' trust online, and humanizing is a way to build that trust.

The frozen yogurt brand has developed a fanatic following of hardcore customers and earned the 11th spot on the Restaurant Social Media Index—the highest of any frozen yogurt chain, and beating out big brands like Domino's and Subway.

We also spoke at length with Naumes about the importance of social media marketing, what makes a company successful on social networks and what Pinkberry is doing in the space.

Read the full interview below:

How important is social media to Pinkberry's overall marketing strategy?

It's extremely critical. Social media is one of the ways in which we at a most cost-effective manner are able to reach out to and engage with our customers on a daily basis. And I think what's interesting with Pinkberry is at the end of the day, we haven't hired a director of brand advertising or director of brand marketing. Instead, the company has decided to really look for a director of digital as their focus, and as their way to show that the social space–the digital space–is one which is becoming more and more critically important for brands moving forward.

So I think that through that intention and by having a director of digital, that they've really committed to the importance of what social means for the brand–in terms of not just the awareness side of it, but also ensuring that we're constantly staying engaged and connected to customers both inside our stores and also outside in their offline worlds.

How do you think social has contributed to the growth of the frozen yogurt industry?

I think that what has happened is that people within social media love to rally behind something that they believe in and that they're passionate about–and they want to share that with others. So it's my feeling that when someone really latches on to something that they love through an experience–and I think it's even less about the frozen yogurt but more about the experience in total, so it's what you feel when you enter the store and what you see and what you smell and what you taste–I think it's that whole experience that social allows you to really connect with in an online manner.

So it's easily translatable. The idea of frozen yogurt and the idea of what Pinkberry stands for as a social brand just inherently translates well into an online social world. That store experience can be brought to life in an online way, and has enabled us as Pinkberry–and even some other frozen yogurt brands–to really take that feeling and be able to apply that feeling online.

In what ways is social changing how companies communicate with their customers?

For Pinkberry, it's really about building and nurturing relationships with our customers in an authentic and honest way. It's about celebrating successes but staying humble and real at the same time. Ultimately, while we tie everything that Pinkberry does back to the strategy, I think that what you still need to do is recognize the strengths of each social channel, and really acknowledge the reason why customers are there. A perfect example of that within Facebook is recognizing the fact that people are passionate about who you are and what you stand for, and they want to share that with their friends and people that follow them. So it's helping and enabling them to rally around something that they love.

And what's important for Pinkberry, more specifically, is that it's not just about Pinkberry connecting with customers. It's trying to find a way to get the people that love us–our customers–to connect with other customers outside of the store, in a form in which they feel comfortable.

Here's an example. We recently got some posts to our Facebook page about one of our flavors–salted caramel. And another customer responded on top of a customer's quote saying that they wanted to bring salted caramel back. So I saw this and felt this was a moment of opportunity to connect these two fanatic customers that love salted caramel and introduce them. So I introduced them in a very safe space on our Facebook page, and said Theresa meet Patrick, Patrick meet Theresa. And I suggested to them to go ahead and create a fan page that shows that you guys are salted caramel's number one fans, and they did. What I've been doing with that is as we get more and more requests and posts about salted caramel, I let people know that this fan page exists.

What we've done here is through communication we've not just listened to and heard what our customers want, but I think what we're trying to do is to make connections–customer to customer–and we're really trying to bring those connections to life in a way and in a message that's controlled by them and not by us.

What are some other types of things Pinkberry does to engage its customers and build relationships through social?

It's dependent on the channel. I really want to emphasize that Facebook has and plays a very specific role–as does Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram. So what we try to do is build relationships and engage specifically on what Facebook does best and how the customer is doing that particular channel. It's more about really leveraging the functionality and usage of each medium in the way that our customers are using it.

As a perfect example, people love checking in on Foursquare and show it on Twitter. They love telling us which location they visited and what they loved most about the Pinkberry that they bought. So what we did is take that mindset and feed it back to our customers with a gift card giveaway. What we're doing is honoring the Twitter followers that we have and we're asking them to let us know which Pinkberry city they live in and which one they think "rocks." What we're essentially doing is crowdsourcing. Five random people from the Pinkberry city with the most votes will get a gift card.

I think what this is doing is two things. One, it's acknowledging that people on Twitter–specifically Pinkberry followers on Twitter–love to show pride in their city. And I think number two, what Twitter does well and enables us to do is develop relationships and nurture those relationships by surprising and delighting them with gift card giveaways like this.

What is the hardest part about marketing to people over social networks?

I think the hardest part is just knowing that every day is going to be different, and that you need to be prepared to respond in a very authentic way. And you can't be afraid. I think that marketers have finally learned that we are not in control–the customer is in control, as they should be. It's knowing that it's okay that every day will be a different day and it's about the flexibility and the ability to really just go with what you see, but to be responsive too.

And I think Pinkberry does a great job at that because one of the things that we follow, in terms of our guiding principles, is to always be on. Just because we're not here in the office doesn't mean that the conversation about the brand is not continuing to happen, so it's critical for us to always be on and to be able to respond to almost every question that we get, and almost certainly every post that we get on Facebook.

How can you tell you're actually succeeding in digital marketing?

There's a lot of metrics that brands put out there in terms of success metrics. We certainly look at the basics of followers and follow growth, but we know that it's more than just a popularity contest. You might have 500,000 followers, but if none of those 500,000 followers are engaging or responding to your posts, then you're not really talking to anybody.

For us it's really about engagement. If a post that we posted on Monday on Facebook receives over a certain amount of likes or comments, we try to build against that benchmark for future posts. On Twitter it's the same thing. It's less about the popularity contest; it's more about are people responding? Are they retweeting? Do they find our messaging valuable and are they sharing it with their friends? And if that's happening with a certain post, we take that learning and we say, what is it about this post that really resonated with our customers? Then we find ways to maximize and optimize a post like that for the future.

So we're constantly testing and learning, and I think it comes down to being willing to take risks and not be afraid of posting content.

How does Pinkberry's digital marketing reflect Pinkberry's brand as a whole?

So what we do is on Facebook, we make sure that every single post back to our customers is signed off with a name, so they know that there's a person versus a brand's logo behind a response–that there's someone paying attention. Same with Twitter. We have a profile around who it is that's responding to the tweets, and I think what that does is it really humanizes that connection back to the customer, which is critical to us because we know ultimately we're trying to build customers' trust online, and humanizing is a way to build that trust.

What is the biggest threat to Pinkberry's brand?

The biggest threat for us right now is just ensuring that we're constantly looking forward–that we're not looking back, that we're not too overly concerned with what's happening around us, that ultimately we are seeing every new opportunity that comes in and ensuring that we're finding a way to make it work for us. It's not about the shiny new toy. It's not about jumping into something that's new and there. It's looking into it, being curious about it and wanting to learn about it.

I think ultimately we have to make sure it fits strategically back into what we're trying to achieve in our social world. But it's just constantly staying up to speed on all the technology choices that are out there, and that customers are using in their own social worlds in terms of wanting to connect with brands. I think that going back to 'the customer is in control,' we need to be out in as many channels as we need to make that makes sense for our customers, because they're the ones who are dictating how they want to be communicated with. We no longer have that control.

Why is it important for companies to devote resources to social marketing?

What it comes down to is that social is not a choice anymore. It's something that brands have to do in order to stay connected and relevant with customers. Whether it's through Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare, brands need to communicate with customers on their terms. If they don't, then they will definitely be left behind.

So it's definitely not even a choice anymore. If brands want to stay relevant and connected, we need to follow the patterns of customers. It's very clear that customers are online, socializing and talking about you, so it's up to you as a brand to be part of that conversation–and if you're not, I think that you're going to be left behind.

What's the next big step for Pinkberry's digital marketing?

It's continuing to leverage the learning that we're received thus far in terms of building our foundation and finding ways to tap into that customer-centric mindset. It's about continuing to engage customers and talk to them the way they want to be spoken to.

I think that the best is yet to come. There's so much more to learn in this space. It's also about keeping your eyes open about any opportunity that comes around the corner, and being tapped into what changes are happening in social and being a part of that. So is there a specific tactic we have in place? It's continuing to do what we do, but optimize it and make it better.

I would love to see much broader campaigns around what it is that we do online, and find other ways to take a campaign-based approach to social and really bring this to life even further.

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