Social Media Part 2: Searching Starbucks on BlogSearch

Using Zeitgeist and BlogSearch, I searched for Starbucks. I found Zeitgeist interesting but was really intrigued by BlogSearch. I first search “Starbucks” and came up with more than I could handle, mostly news sights or recently released information from Starbucks. If I was Starbucks, searching for helpful information, none of this information was helpful. I then searched a little narrower topic that came to mind: “Starbucks taste”. This provided much more interesting information, leading me more into personal blogs by Starbucks customers or critics. One blog talked about the taste of Starbucks new Via line, their instant coffee. Great insights could be gained by reading her blog. She described her experiences with instant coffee in the past and why having a good instant coffee with her on her light backpacking trips was so important. She also presented an interesting problem she has with Starbucks instant coffee. She likes to choose how much instant coffee to put in the water and she wanted more, but with Starbucks selling their instant coffee in mini packets, she isn’t able to do this. She wants a jar of instant coffee. Since I was already thinking about problems with Starbucks products, I searched “Starbucks problems” and found a blog about how Starbucks can win back customers (because McDonalds McCafe is luring customers away). As Starbucks, it would be interesting to see what outsiders see as the problem, a fresh view. This particular person felt, among other things, that Starbucks needs to learn how to manage queues, unleash creativity in its customers, and think locally. I think BlogSearch would be very helpful if I was doing research for Starbucks. It is a great way to gain insights about what people are really thinking. It is unprobed information (not an interview with possibly leading questions). What people say in these blogs is important to them.

Social Media Part 1: Facebook's Untapped Potential

Social media like Facebook and MySpace are great opportunities to create experiences for customers. They have untapped potential for creating interesting interactive web spaces to enhance a company’s customer experience. They have the potential to make the experience more personal, turning a company into a being they can relate to, a Facebook friend. Because MySpace usage has decreased over the years compared to Facebook and because MySpace has turned into a social media primarily for music, especially indie music, I will be focusing more on Facebook and its potential for creating customer experiences.

Many businesses of all types and sizes have begun to start their own pages on Facebook. From browsing multiple companies Facebook pages, I believe few if any are using Facebook to its potential, let alone understand its culture and how it is used. Most companies are using Facebook passively instead of actively. Anyone can use and be a part of social media, but the key to being successful at using any social media, whether business or person, is active participation. Having an account on Facebook so fans can merely join isn’t good enough.

There are several ways companies can use Facebook to create experiences. First, the Facebook profile should be an important part of an employee’s job, or a team’s job. This means the profile should be updated with wall posts at least every day and the site should be maintained, for example uploading photos and keeping track of “fans”, “members”, or “friends”. The goal is to basically create a being that your customers can connect with, the “Facebook” you have created. The manner of your posts should reflect your customer personas (older or younger, male or female, etc.). Even creating “interests” for your Facebook business profile is a good idea. For example, REI would have things like hiking, enjoying the fresh mountain air, and maybe even eating healthy. Second, blogs, twitter, and your company website should be linked to your Facebook making it your one-stop-shop. For example, I get on my Facebook, see in my updated list of wall posts that you’re having a sale, I go to your businesses’ Facebook profile by clicking on the wall update, and then can easily click on the website link from the Facebook page. But most importantly, the greatest way to create a customer experience would be to develop applications for Facebook. For example, Starbucks could create “Your own Starbucks coffee shop” application where their customers run their own virtual coffee shop, make coffee drinks, hire employees, and invite friends to come have coffee at their shop. Starbucks could also create Starbucks coffee “gifts” that friends could send/gift each other. You could even create an application for “What Starbucks drink am I”. For Nike, they could have an application on Facebook where you set distance or time goals for running and could update your application with your new information after every run. It could help you plan and reach your running goals. Maybe you could even create running groups through the application, enabling you to watch your friends’ progress and cheer them on. The application possibilities are endless and I think this is where companies can really create customer experiences through Facebook. Don’t let your customers just become a “fan”; make them an active fan through the use of applications.

What Wal-Mart Knows

I think that Wal-Mart has been good at converting their data into an experience that serves as a competitive advantage for them, but not great. They are doing some very crucial things such as anticipating customers’ specific product needs during certain times, i.e. hurricane preparation and holiday shopping. They are also doing a great job at looking at the customers’ shopping basket and identifying groups of products purchased and in turn insuring a low price of key products to lure shoppers into their store. But there are other areas that could be addressed. For example, the location of items needs to be addressed. Not only throughout the store, but where on the shelf items are located in regards to other items as well as the items location according to height/distance from the floor. They could analyze, of the products purchased in a “shopping basket”, what percentage of those products are located in upper levels, lower levels, or mid levels in the store. Where in the store are these products purchased? Therefore, what kind of journey does your customer take through the store? And…what customers are going to what areas of the store? Or…can we place other items around certain products to make an extra sell, products the customer isn’t currently buying with that product but should. Other technology that can be utilized further is their cameras. You could deduce the height of your customers, find and average height, and determine whether your customers have difficulty accessing all products without the help of an employee (because we all know you will never get help in Wal-Mart). That is a problem, in my opinion, that really needs to be addressed (but I’m biased since I’m 5’4”). My guess would be the majority of their shoppers are women, who tend to be shorter, and would have difficulty reaching the top shelves. They can also use data mining to find the key products people come to the store for and what products they do not come for (they might already be doing this; obviously everything they are doing won’t be revealed in a NY Times article) and explore the “whys” in those answers, creating new experiences from what is learned.

I don’t think there are any privacy issues associated with all of that data and the amount of personally identifiable data they are able to capture. They aren’t getting anything that you, the customer, aren’t willingly giving them. As far as the article says, they aren’t using the data you are giving them to go searching for any ungiven data, i.e. how much your home costs. So, from what was described in the article, it does not bother me and I do trust them. The correct way to look at this problem is not how it affects me if my information were to get out in some way, but how it affects them, because every individual and company will act in the interests of themselves/itself. It isn’t in Wal-Mart’s interests to take my personal information lightly. They want to guard it for their own personal gains. Information is power. If information were to be leaked, this is just as bad for Wal-Mart as it is for their customers, not to mention they will have many angry suing customers on their hands. Sure, I’m weary about any company having my information on hand, but if it means better deals, experiences, and service for me, I’m in. Bottom line is that it is in the company’s interest to keep that information locked up and safe.

I think Wal-Mart is having both good and bad impacts on its suppliers. It is good for Wal-Mart as well as their suppliers to move to RFID instead of barcodes. Wal-Mart helps move its suppliers forward as Wal-Mart moves forward. But, not sharing much or any of the data information with their suppliers is detrimental for both Wal-Mart and its suppliers. It doesn’t allow the supplier to gain insights and therefore to make their products better. For example, a supplier could possibly determine how customers are reacting, or not reacting, to their packaging from the video cameras in Wal-Mart, or maybe specific buying habits, or who is buying their products. By not sharing this information, and therefore not helping suppliers improve their products, Wal-Mart is not selling at their full potential. Increase in sales for suppliers means increase in sales for Wal-Mart.