So often we hear about various brands and PR who use social media outlets simply to pitch to key players or use it to generate leads. While that is certainly not wrong, in most cases, it is the way in which these brands and PR approach these tools with a lot of old school mentality that lands them on black lists and leaves users with a bad taste in their mouth, thus tarnishing the image of the company. Aren't you tired of hearing about these companies? I sure am. So I went in search of one that does it right. I didn't have to look far though, I have long been impressed with Zappos and the way they solidify their focus on customer service through active participation in social media. Most importantly through my favorite microblogging tool--Twitter.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, isn't simply working behind the scenes to keep his company operating smoothly, he's a true leader in every sense of the word. He gets involved, works to be a motivational masthead and it is with this people-first moto that he inspires the Zappos team to be at the forefront of customer service. It is customer service, after all, that Zappos is well known for, even above the actual high quality products the brand sells. While on a flight to Cabo, St. Lucas for the SIMA Surf Summit Conference, he took the time to tell me how social media has helped improve upon Zappos' brand value.
Shannon: Which social media tool was the initial one put to use by Zappos? How many would you say Zappos is using now?
Tony Hsieh: We started out with a presence on MySpace and Facebook just to try things out, but the problem with both of those is that the people involved were not regular users of either of those social networks, so we didn't really get very far with either of them.
With Twitter, it was something that I was already using anyway and very passionate about (as well as several other Zappos employees), so turning that into a bigger presence for Zappos was a very easy thing for us to do.
Shannon: Prior to venturing into the blogosphere and building a presence on social media sites, were there any ground rules put into place to keep the Zappos brand image intact?
Tony: Our #1 focus as a company is our company culture. We believe that if we get the culture right, most of the other stuff (including great customer service, which is what we want our brand to be about) will fall into place on its own. As an example, our Customer Loyalty Team (what we call our call center) does not have any scripts, unlike most call centers.
For our culture, we just want to make sure that our employees are always exhibiting our core values. As long as that's happening, we don't really see the need to "police" what employees are saying, which is why we encourage our employees to Twitter and publicly post what employees are twittering at: http://twitter.zappos.com
Shannon: Are Zappos employees encouraged to utilize social media to further the brand's reach? Do you have ongoing social media trainings with the staff?
Tony: Employees are encouraged to Twitter. We do offer Twitter classes at Zappos, but that's for employees to learn how to sign up and use Twitter, not to tell employees what they can and can't say on Twitter. I think it's important for employees to be able to express their individuality. We want our customers to feel like they are interacting with real people, not a faceless corporation.
Shannon: With Twitter being more like conversation with your consumers than microblogging, how do you keep the balance of being a participant of value vs. a spammer.
Tony: Whether it's Twitter or telephone conversations, I think the key is to just be real. So when I twitter, I will basically talk about whatever I happen to be thinking about. Sometimes it's about my personal life, and sometimes it's about Zappos. Usually it's a combination of the two.
Shannon: What rules of thumb would you give to other brands looking to get involved in social media?
Tony: Just make sure to be real and to be passionate about whatever it is that you're doing. For example, if you're not personally passionate about Twitter, then hire someone who is passionate about Twitter to do the twittering. Look at Twitter as a way of forming deeper, more personal relationships with your customers as opposed to a way to market to your customers.
For Zappos, we're actually more interested in Twitter because it's a great way to help make our company culture even stronger. It gives our employees a chance to get to know each other in ways they might not otherwise inside the office. We currently have over 300 employees using Twitter: http://twitter.zappos.com/employees I would also add that I think it's really important to have fun with whatever it is that you do!
So what do you think? Can other brands successfully follow the social networking model Zappos has laid out that continues to reinforce the brand's success?
Posted by Shannon Nelson on May 15, 2008 5:57 AM
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