About the Book
Use Social and Viral Technologies to Supercharge your Customer Service!
Using social media, you can deliver amazing customer service–and generate an army of fans who’ll promote you in good times, and rescue you from disaster. Now, legendary online marketing expert Peter Shankman shows you exactly how to do all that–without spending a fortune! Shankman draws on his immense experience as founder of the online growth company HARO and marketing consultant to multiple Fortune 500 clients. He presents straight-to-the-point solutions for building customer loyalty, trust, and credibility online–and rebuilding it when catastrophe strikes. Companies around the world are driving enormous value from online customer service at remarkably low cost. You can, too. Peter Shankman will show you how–step-by-step, right now!
You’ll learn how to:
• Organize a small, powerful social media team on a tight budget
• Listen to what your customers, advisors, and markets are really saying
• Make prospects feel like rock stars from the moment they find you
• Choose online media that make the most sense for you
• Avoid wasting time with platforms that won’t help you
• Earn your customer’s loyalty, trust, and credibility
• Learn from other companies’ viral “disasters”
• Rebuild your credibility after you’ve taken a public “hit” online
• Make sure everyone hears your customers when they compliment you
• Capture all your customer knowledge–and use it in real time
• Keep people talking–and not just about you
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
1 Putting Together a Social Media Team 11
Meet Your Team 12
The Customer Service People 13
The PR Person 13
The High-Level Exec 14
The Marketing Guys 15
The Guy from Accounting Who Has a Facebook Page 15
The Flip Side: Meet Your Audience 16
The One-time Complainer 16
The Constant Complainer 16
The Axe-to-Grind 17
The Happy Customer 17
The Prima Donna 17
End result 17
2 Examples of When It Doesn’t Work (and What Happens) 19
Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst 24
Always Be Aware–It’s the Thing You Don’t Think of
that Can Kill You 25
Trust Your Instincts 27
Cooler Heads Prevail 28
Doing Something Is Better Than Doing Nothing 31
Your Audience Is Smarter Than You Are 33
Never Deceive Your Audience 34
3 Before the Explosion: Winning Your Customer 37
Before the Customer Is Even a Customer 38
Driving Revenue 39
Find Out Where Your Customers Are 39
Pay Attention 41
Devise a Plan to Reach Your Customers 44
Case Studies 49
Solematescom 49
HARO 50
4 Customer Service Is a Way of Life 53
Self-Promotion Versus Helping 59
Case Study: Bravo! Italian Restaurant and Bar 61
Case Study: Risdall Integration Group 61
Case Study: Law Offices of Daniel R Rosen, PC 62
Background 62
A New Approach 63
From Invisible to the First Page 63
Case Study: Grasshopper 63
Case Study: Peter Kuhn’s Food Truck 65
Case Study: Inclind, Inc 66
Case Study: Which Wich Superior Sandwiches 67
Summary (and a Challenge) 69
5 Social Media Damage Control: Stopping Small Problems from Becoming Big Ones 71
First Things First: Different Types of Complainers 73
Overarching Rules for Handling any Complaint 75
Handling Different Kinds of Complainers 76
The Never-Complained-Before Complainer 77
The Multi-Complainer Complainer 79
The I-Can’t-Believe-He’s-Complaining Complainer 80
The One-with-Photos-and-Videos-and-Multiple-Camera-Angles Complainer 84
Dealing with Complaints That Are Personal 86
The @cnnbreakingnews Complainer 90
Wrap-up 91
6 Making Customer Addicts Online: Best Practices That Work! 93
A Few Rules of the Road 95
So, How Do You Do It? 96
So You Have a Physical Presence 97
Make Them Feel Welcome 100
Make Them Feel Appreciated 103
Make Them Want to Return 105
Make Them Want to Share 107
Loyalty Codes 108
Recap 112
7 Keeping the Addiction Going 113
Ten Rules to Live By 115
You Want to Hook Your Customers 116
Poor Quality = Fewer Returning Customers 117
Yours Better Be Better 119
Breed Loyal Customers 120
Offer New Value 122
Make It Easy for the Customer 124
Refine, Refine, Refine 124
Know How Customers Want to Receive Information 126
Keep an Eye on the Competition 128
Freebies = Loyalty 131
Supply and Demand, Baby 132
Summary 133
8 Monitoring Your Successes and Failures 135
Google Tools 137
Google News Alerts 138
Google News (http://newsgooglecom) 141
Google Blogsearch 141
Twitter 141
Facebook 145
Email Marketing 148
An Example of Email Marketing Done Right 151
Finding the Time to Monitor Social Media 152
9 Putting It All Together: What Did We Learn? 157
The World of One Screen 160
Be “That Guy” 163
Saddling Up 164
Recovering from Social Media Face-plants 166
Paying It Forward Pays Off at Crisis Time 167
Learn It Know It Live It 169
Head ’em Off at the Pass 171
Creating Customers for Life 172
Thinking Like a Drug Dealer 174
The Right Tool for the Job 175
A Few Final Words 175
Index 179
About the Author :
Peter Shankman–PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking,” and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you harness the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and make it work to your advantage. An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about social media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.
Peter is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out (HARO), which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 125,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone Is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week.
In addition to HARO, Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique social media and marketing strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog (www.shankman.com), which he launched as a website in 1995, both comments on and generates news and conversation.
Peter’s PR and social media clients have included the Snapple Beverage Group, NASA, The U.S. Department of Defense, Walt Disney World, The Ad Council, American Express, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many others. In addition, he sits on the board of the Scott-e-Vest, the world’s first technologically enabled clothing line.
Peter is the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006) and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences and tradeshows worldwide, including The Public Relations Society of America, The International Association of Business Communicators, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association.
A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York DailyNews, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and USA Today.
Peter started his career in Vienna, Virginia, with America Online as a senior news editor. He helped found the AOL Newsroom and spearheaded coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event.
Born and raised in New York City, Peter still lives there with his two psychotic cats, Karma and NASA, who consistently deny his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few hours of spare time Peter has per month, he’s a frequent runner, with 13 completed marathons and countless triathlons to his credit, and is a “B” licensed skydiver, specializing in free-flying.
