Jive_From_The_Hive~Elizabeth_Hannan

Legal Versus Social: 7 Steps To An Amicable Relationship

2009-10-26T02:58:02Z

7 Steps to integrate your corporate legal department and an evolving social business model seamlessly.

(This post is designed more for those deep in the corporate trenches, looking for guidance on how to plan out a new guidelines around social business practices policy).

As social business communications become more prevalent in your marketing strategy, it should be expected that legal will also become more adamant about creating documents to lock down your companies brand message.

Evolving integrations of social with current legal policies and communications can be difficult for many reasons. In an era of personal branding there is usually a cause-and-effect scenario. Legal documents with lots of legalese are in place for many reasons. Primarily to protect the best interests of the company from outside, legal is there to defend the fort.

Since legal has had some influence in every business practice since the beginning of time, they are very traditional in their ways the majority of the time. Legal acts as the big brother to every department within the company including all employees. Sometimes the associated legal document's commands can be excessive and unnecessarily wordy in an age of technology and even infiltrate evolving forms of communication mediums. It becomes a natural instinct to broadcast the message and lock it down with legalese.

The power of the message and contents is shifting out of the legacy from a singular mediated source to multiple channels. There is fear and panic at most levels of upper management, traveling down through the internal infrastructure. The response is either openness to learn about new communication or a total knee-jerk response which usually ends up in the form of shutting down and ignore the new tools available for monitoring conversations, with an extra Dollop of "do - not" from legal on top.

There's a new compromise in between individuals and corporate, that is worthwhile mentioning. It is an old fashion tactic and works every time. Open the doors of communication internally between current employees, legal and upper management. In this situation there is no point of too much communication, with so much to be gained.

Ideally, I would highly suggest hiring a consultant who understands brand awareness building communities and a showcase of social media tools. Years of hands on experience in building businesses and has a solid grasp of communications. You want the consultant to act as a go-between legal and to represent your employees as they evolve into social mavens. Through surveys, research and other forms of communication internally will provide insight into the internal employee community, culture and customer concerns. The consultant would compile the data and discuss the data with legal department.

1. Research

Be aware and observe the trends outside the company. How are your competitors using social media to affect their lead generation? How are other legal departments adapting their policies to social communications? Here's a great list of current social policies being used customized different business can indication styles. This a breif overview of some social Media concerns.

2. Monitor

Monitor using social tools to examine whom is discussing your brand online, your competition, your employees and the sentiment about your brand.

You can use the simplest systems as socialmention.com, objectivemarketer.com and others are mentioned in my slide deck here. If you would like to upgrade to a more through product I would suggest Radian 6, Techrigy or DNA 13. Any of those systems accumulate the data quickly to give you answers that you need quickly. You can discover whom is discussing your company, is discussing you, when, why and what. Are there any employees that are actively blogging? Who is acting as an evangelist for your brand for your type of product or service. Pay attention to who outside of your company is discussing your product or service. (We will discuss how to use this information for good in the next post in this series)

3. Fundamentals

Interview and ask questions. Take a census of your employees, what do they think of how your brand communicates their message? If they are familiar with social media how do they think that social media can be be used to increase their customer service? How could social tools improve your business?

Every lead is based on building a trusting relationship with a potential client and with you. There are approximately seven to eight touch points required to build a relationship before trust is capable. Social media connections allow for those doors to be open quicker and in smaller touch points. Distinctively less direct and less intrusive than an old fashioned regular phone call might be.

Employee departments that I would include in my research and census would be customer service, sales, technical, and marketing. This because all these departments are on the front line with your potential consumer establishing touch points before the sale is actually made. They nurture the lead and foster a relationship long before the potential lead can be quantified.

4. Accumulate and Translate

Translate the data accumulated. You would be surprised what you learn. You will obtain a much better idea of what's going on inside your company. Additionally, you will also get insight into common consumer questions, which should be redirected into your customer service model. Customer service reps should also be made aware of solutions to these issues regularly. In your company are evangelists for your organization.

5. The Sit Down

Bring all the data and research to the table and hash it out with legal. Legal should have collected some thoughts on key points that are major concerns to the companies infrastructure. Collects legal samples here and here.

Define the final key points legal wants to lock down. Define the guidelines for internally and externally alignment within the company. It is okay to source new talent from within your own company walls.

The CEO and upper management is not always the ideal candidate to represent the company in social engagement. Too often they end up being broadcasters and sales pitch experts.

Define clear guidelines to insure internal individuals or employees that blog and externally align employees that blog. What is the clear difference between the two roles? Responsibilities, company support alignment, value and content. What platforms do you decide to use and who is authorized to respond when a negative comment comes in? Determine the best response when the PR nightmare happens. Prepare ahead of time; and anticipate and avoid potential problems.

Define whom in your marketing department measures, the SEO traffic and the social search traffic and pulls numbers together monthly to determine the effect on site traffic, site sentiment, additional leads down the sales funnel, and engagement process. Poll numbers monthly or per campaign for the most efficient accuracy. Pay close attention to the engagement stats.(Refer to number two for monitoring tools).

6. Educate and Enable

Educate and train your employees in social business practices because you're externally and internally aligned social candidates will be dealing with leads on a one-to-one basis daily. It is important to maintain a set of guidelines and clearly and openly communicate them. An example, would be ten guidelines. So that confusion and miscommunication does not occur. Your new legal document can assist with this ,but your ten basic guidelines must be also clearly posted within the department. Marketing and sales departments should be aware of them as well.

Hire a consultant to come on site or send your externally aligned employees for basic training in how to use the variety of social tools to the benefit of the company without compromising their own situations. An educated consultant will teach social principles and how they wrap around the fundamentals of marketing and business communications that have existed for years. Most important, your social media instructor must must be a thought leader in the industry. It's very easy to track his or her record of accomplishments online nowadays. In addition, they must have a history of experience. All different types of marketing campaign including direct mail, SEO, SEM, community building, e-mail marketing, campaign, PPC, content development and other commonly used thought processes current with today's business practices. I highly advise sending your legal team to the same classes as well. Help legal get a better understanding of what is to come in the future as technology evolves and affects business the new business model.
(Sokolove Law is a firm the understands the social legal dynamic.)

7. Summary

At step seven you will have to determine within your organization and decide who is externally aligned and representing your initiative in to the social sphere. You will have to have a clear idea of whom those individuals are at this time.

They need to be active online with a trusted transparent presence. The signs of evangelists are their passion about your company, product, blog and a sense of the social business model will be definite signs. Content of value and insight should always be in mind. When they blog, are they conveying a message online that individuals engage and respond to? This externally aligned evangelist for the company must versed in social tools, social etiquette, and legal requirements deemed by the company after steps one through Four. Usually more than one candidate is ideal to offer a diversity of opinions.

Being externally aligned with the company as well as being an employee is a difficult and weighted position. The company needs to be supportive and open to creative online ideas in which to convey the companies message to outside potential clientele is important. This candidate must be versed in how the product or service the company sells, solves the problem of the consumer. Having a repetitive solution to the consumer's question builds a trusting relationship and brand over time.

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How Do You Overcome Communication Obstacles?

2009-10-17T19:36:23Z

Creating content that all of your network or community enjoys all of the time is nearly impossible. It is Fall and my favorite season of the year. Everything changes and abruptly. I'm taking advantage of this and I suggest you do as well.

The way I communicate through specific mediums is changing. I usually communicate directly through twitter, text messages or through speaking gigs. Apparently, I do loose of connection points by not following through after the first touch point. Most often this happens after events and conferences. So in attempt to ignite new friendships and to continue to build on past relationships I've started a newsletter.

Recipe - It will consist of the following:

(1) part "What is new in my world."

(usually secrets, or something new that I don't circulate openly. new sites, projects, etc.)

(1) part "Something helpful or tip related to online Marketing."

(1) part "Tell me about you. What's happening in your world? How can I be helpful?"

It is my new recipe to get to know my network better, establish more touch points and extend relationships. In all reality, I will only get to send a newsletter once every full moon.

My first attempt: "Falling Into Change" Newsletter

Definitely, express your thoughts and ideas. I would love to keep improving on it.

Questions:

How do you overcome communication obstacles?

How do you connect with your network? Build new trusting relationship?

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Re-Evaluating Your Strengths and Goals in Eleven Steps

2009-09-29T22:54:00Z

Updating my Blog
In the past month I've been terribly absent from my blog and my writing passion in general. Not for lack of love of my readers I needed to step back and address my own life goals and priorities and where I want to go. Thank you for all the emails I am still here:) I was just getting stuck on the small stuff and reevaluating how I can be better to my community and grow my own personal Business Blue Blazing Media. I stepped back and sought feedback from my inner circle of friends. I had lost my focus. After reading a significant post By @PamSlim I realized fall is just a time for change.

I strongly believe there is a sense of flow to personal branding, life and your business. Like tides, you can guide the water into channels but you can't control it. Your business has a flow. Your sales profit and loss are the most obvious indicators of how you affect your businesses flow.

Access the situation
The best way to view your personal brand is to step back and view the situation. Create a visual diagram of where you are at. Take the position of a stranger looking in for the first time.
1. Is there direction?
2. Is there a current working plan?
3. Is there new technology out there that might make this process more streamlined?
4. Is it time to restructure your staff? Do you need fresh blood? Maybe new partnerships?
5. Can you grow your network and gain new perspective?

Determine a road map.
6. How do you get from point A to point B with out losing focus?
Building communities don't happen over night. The grow like a garden. If you don't plant seeds only weeds grow and take over. In my case its multiple project and lack of focus.

Road bumps
7. What are your 3 month, 6 month, annual goals?
8. How can you quantify your results?
9. So what if it all fails by traditional standards. Is there a more intuitive way to measure ROI of your efforts?

Challenges are great! If you falter get up and try again.
10. Whats plan B?
11. Who do you know that can help you?

Give back and paying it forward.
Cause I'm a big believer in social karma it seems the natural order of things to connect individuals whom might benefit through knowing each other. These are all touch points that make it easy to build better relationships and relate to others through commonality.

How I remember who you are.
Jeff Pulver told me once "Your only as strong as your network". There is great depth in that statement and carries over between personal relationships and corporate communities. My personal goal is to introduce myself to four new individuals a day, more indiviuals if at conventions or event. In corporate communities its reaching out to strangers, providing solutions, offering more creative content on a site, keeping the flow, and connecting across various social platforms usually to strangers.

So, if we ever meet face to face tell me what you do in 4 sentences or less and give me your business card. It is those four sentences that really describe what you have a passion for and it is how I will remember you. In corporate communities your level of engagement determines the relationships you share with others. It controls how your brand is viewed and what people's initial impression is.

Starting Now
I'm jumping in. You may want to move at your own pace.
Evaluate your answers to the above eleven steps. Where are the gaping holes? What can you fix now and what can you build on for future goals? How can you use this new appetite for success and determination to improve yourself?

Photo Credit: Flowery

Affiliate Summit East 09 NYC

2009-08-18T14:00:05Z

Affiliate Summit East 2009 My adventures at affiliate summit have been vast. I set out at any conference with set goals.

To maximize my time and to grow my networks.
This was primarily done in the blogger lounge.
To meet influential individuals that have the potential to be game changers.
Listening to the pros and perils of other people's experiences.
Communicate with other like minded individuals and to discuss what processes are working and what processes are not working.
To quantify and calculate my time and actions online and find algorithms in online success.

Why Go?
I attended affiliate to meet all sorts of money minded individuals. Basically, see how the affiliates function on the other side of the fence. I spend all my time at social conferences deep diving into social marketing strategy and have been in the SEM world for ten years. So this event was a total change in the thinking process. Individuals come to affiliate to promote products, manage their affiliate programs and find new publishers. It is a good group of fast paced and educated individuals looking monetize. If you make money off your online endeavors this is an event you want to attend.

What I learned?
Top to bottom just about everything I could absorb from meeting with new industry connections. It is always best to think out of the box. Although, naive in the affiliate lifestyle I learned I was one of only a handful of social marketing individuals there. Conversations were plentiful between me and attendees. It is my opinion that melding concepts together for a greater module is where the money can be made.

Points of interest
The exhibit floor speaking with industry related companies. Both keynotes were extremely beneficial. They provided insight and interpretation to the world around us and how multiple industries are evolving. What trends that they see and how they go started. Chris Brogan,Jullien Smith and Peter Shankman aka @skydiver were the speakers at this event. Tech Karaoke was a great opportunity to meet a fun group of people I had not had the chance to meet during the day.

Check out the blogger lounge Affiliate Summit East (#ASE09) videos.

Special thanks to Missy Ward, Shawn Collins, Heather in BC, and Jen Goode for making my first time at Affiliate Summit East beneficial.

Digging Into the New "Trust Agents" Book

2009-08-17T07:36:06Z

I just received my copy of "Trust Agents" authored by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith last night. I am excited to dive into it. So far, I'm about 1/3 of the way through it and overwhelmed with just how applicable the content is across a variety of industries. With every page I read it inspires new thoughts of how trust is actually very visual in everyday business life. Trust Agents has got my interest and will probably read it more than once as it is jam packed with information.

But don't trust me; trust a pretty face:

Grab yourself a copy here:

Photo Credit Attribution

Nutella Lover's Come Out of the Closet...It's a Big Closet

2009-07-24T05:55:42Z

(Traduire en français) (Traduci in italiano)

An interesting pattern caught my eye this week. Some friends Steve Woodruff, Sonny Gill, Kris Colvin, Kirsten Wright, Oliver Blanchard and others exposed their personal opinions about Nutella.

Online a secret society of Nutella lovers emerged to the fore front of online chatter. There are some of us that hide in the shadows with a favorite jar of the chocolate hazelnut delight and a large spoon waiting for the sweet escape. Other novices display there new obsession in the public eye. :)

Why is this an interesting topic?

Branding and History:
The Nutella brand is an old brand. If fact it is older than I am. My grandmother use to reward us as kids with a spoonful when we were behaving well. With that in mind the brand has done nothing to perpetuate it's larger following online. Facebook boasts six group pages all about Nutella all generated by self proclaimed addicts. They range from three million to two hundred thousand and all pages are very active.

What do they have?
They have a decent landing site that interacts well from a broadcasting stand point. It educates and kept my attention really only because of the build your own breakfast page. It was interesting because being a big of a health nut I can't see myself reaching for the Nutella as a substitute for a quality meal. For me, Nutella is more of a comfort food. There is plenty of history and other goodies on their site to.

They do have a sweepstakes on nutellausa.com I have concluded it probably to gather information about their consumer. It is composed of five basic questions and your entered to win a case of Nutella. Yes, I said a case. The survey has been running for two years. Ironically, if Nutella was to just paying a little attention to their own online buzz and with the right buzz they could obtain far more data on their user much quicker than just using one a simple survey.

Why are they missing the boat on this one?
Here is a prime example of a brand ignoring their community and the online consumers. They probably attribute a growth in sales to the wind blowing the right direction that day. In general just hoping for the best. Most large brands will just hope for the best and ignore the influx for several years. Reason is they just don't get how the world have evolved and will continue to post static news releases on their site.

To the Nutella virgins and the Nutella Diehards:
Have you tried it yet? If you haven't and like chocolate is to die for. I explain my technique in my video. You can also find out all the ways people customize their Nutella experience at Ms. Adventures in Italy. She does a deep dive into a variety of Nutella eating techniques. I got half way down the list before I had to click off. It was just too yummy!

Questions:
So what happens if there is a major PR disaster or something similar?
What can Nutella do to accept their new online surroundings?
Whats your favorite way to enjoy Nutella? Are you a "spoon" or "spreader" or other?
What? You don't like Nutella? Hard to believe. Leave your comment below .

Independence Day: It Is Up To Individual Interpretation

2009-07-05T02:06:24Z

Independence day is my favorite holiday of the year. In my personal opinion how to celebrate the holiday is it is up to individual interpretation. Beside the "normal" celebrating it is my annual half-way point where refreshing and realigning is my main goal. Secondly, its time for catching up with family and friends on all levels. My family and friends remind me I need to disconnect from my wifi connection and live life. A couple years ago I looked at the holiday like just as an escape from the daily grind but that all changed when I really found what I love to do on a daily basis. I enjoy my balance of "real life" (as my friends put it) and my online responsibilities. I hike, run, travel, work out, ride horses, pretend to be an "experienced" yogi, and tango on Tuesdays. I think it is a good healthy balance or at least the best I can manage at this time. I love having my personal independence to express my expertise and test boundaries in online marketing.

If you love what you are doing it is not work and technically I stopped feeling like I was "working" about three years ago.

We all need to escape
That little voice in your gut tells you when you need a vacation. My vacation is this weekend. My family says I need to log-off. That's really, not going to realistically happen anytime soon. In actuality, my responses are slower online due reduced online time. My time is balanced more like 80% off line and 20% online. I use my online time to read up on individuals I feel fit the algorithm as top leaders in the industry. Individuals who have ideas that make you think. Some are friends and some are friendships to be made but all have great minds. Normally, my 9-5 doesn't allow me to fully read their blogs during the week. So, this turned out to be the greatest weekend to deep dive into my Google reader.

Realigning my own strategy
Sometimes you need to re-access what is right in front of you. Today is my Independence day from the unsuccessful repetition of daily life. Time to lose old habits that aren't getting me anywhere and make new acquaintances in the next couple months.

A time to brainstorm
What are the trends in your industry? How do you make them better? Where is the world evolving to? Will you make your mark? What drives you? Who around you is important and who do you want to get to know?

Here are some of the individuals on my reading list and why:

@chrisbrogan He is incredibly talented and half of the time I read his posts and think "damn, why didn't I think of that?"
@jaybaer Who new you could develop email and social media strategies in such a manor.
@mackcollier The blog master. I read his posts and think hmmm that might me cool on my new blog.
@armano Can we say Visuals? I "heart" pictures
@ambercadabra Uhm... I nominate her officially "Miss. Community". If you don't know her you should.
@leeodden Creative SEM guy.
@dannybrown 12K for 12K and more.
@lewishowes His ideas are spot on. Have you seen his book Linkedin Working.
@riasharon Babies and kids.. gotem? you should speak with Ms. Sharon.
@kirstenwright Great graphic designer.
and more.. I can't give them all away.. its a process:)

There are lots of individuals I'd like to meet and have coffee with. After all a relationship is always created with a a hand shake.

My Independence from the daily grind starts tomorrow. For tonight:
#1 Finish my drink. A delicious summer mixture of Patron Silver and Newman's lemonade.
#2 I will blog more often because I like it:)

Questions:
What are you declaring Independence from? How do you refresh? What does independence mean to you?

Photo Credit: My BFF Joseph. He is the true meaning of an friend and he and his kids keep me well rounded and on my toes. From kid-related crazyness to just fun it is all good.

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Friendly Skies : Traveling Tips

2009-05-18T13:55:57Z

Picture that last piece of luggage circulating endlessly on the baggage claim carousel at the airport. It has traveled from somewhere far away to get here and now it circulates round and round just getting bumped around. This summarizes more of my experiences when it comes to flying the friendly skies.

I really enjoyed reading workshifting.com this weekend. I think Chris's post offers a lot of comfort and objective tips to someone who is starting to take the skies by storm. I did really enjoy the share the power concept with the portable six outlet surge protector.

Airplane travel has never been my favorite experience and I will have to travel more via the friendly skies soon. The entire experience feels like an abusive experience so I am always overly prepared for potential chaos. I hate not knowing how the internal airline processes works and what the shortcuts and options are available when you need help from an airline / airport representative. What do you do when you get stuck? This includes lost luggage, redirected flights, missed flights, nasty attendants, unpleasant passenger in the seat next to you, etc. (Read more myths about lost luggage here.)

My own default for long trips is finding the Admiral's Club. You can relax, sleep, have meetings, find power outlets and sometimes they even have a spa-like set up with showers. Usually, there is a cost around $50.00 which I consider a business expense.

In fact, I think it would be great if individuals (Seth Godin, Guy Kawaski, David Meerman Scott, Gary Vaynerchuck and others who fly constantly would actually blog about their best / worst experiences and the shortcuts to safe yourself if you find yourself in a bind. ** Hint Hint**

What is your worst travel experience?
Are there any airlines you won't fly?

Shortened URL: http://is.gd/AU2N

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Opposites Attract: Corporate Social Media Policy Guidelines

2009-05-11T10:00:48Z

Molding aspects of a social media in a medium to large sized corporation can be tricky. Old fashioned corporate philosophy dictates control over the flow of communication be regulated by the proper in house channels only. In the evolution of social we see individuals representing company ideals and company brands when we use to see press releases and public relations broadcasting their spun version. The core of the company's foundation ordinarily was concealed unless a controversy manifested and then public relations was brought in to fix it.

The Problem
It amusing to watch some companies evolve into the social sphere so eagerly and staff positions with no comprehension of goals, strategy, or acceptance. The evolution of social platforms and the infectious nature of how quickly information is transferred effects every department of the corporate environment.

On the simplest level, social platforms are designed to accommodate individuals and the complexities of forming and engaging in communities. Individuals form a sense of companionship through the commonality of a similar lifestyle and goals designated online.

Most companies are trying to embrace the influx of their brand's image online and their individual employee's representing themselves online. Corporate is not forced to support open dialogue and the exchange of ideas. Some companies have come to terms and developed policies to address the additional attention and enticement of social sphere.

Acknowledgment
Companies need to acknowledge that their own employee's are ambassadors of their brand. Online, offline, anywhere.

Considerations for Developing a Corporate Policy

Everyone in your company who wants to have a Facebook, Myspace, Twitter login will have one.
Employees should consider personal responsibility and a sense of common sense when engaging online. This includes blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, Friend feed, or an user generated platform. be mindful and considerate of others.
Advise your employees to be authentic about who they are. It is suggested they use their own identity rather than user name related to the company. Employee statements should reflect their individualism and a realistic point of view.
Do not share proprietary or company confidential information. See your legal team for all the fun legal ease terms. (Don't over do it with restrictions either.) If you put restriction on every aspect and event at your company you are doomed to have a conflict or issue. In general, Archaic legal ease and terms will be the last to adapt to a social environment.

Creating Content

Always add value and insight attempt to educate, solve a problem or just don't bother.
Disclaimer. Your company should have a standard 2 sentence disclaimer created by your company and accessible for all employees to add to their blog, wiki, etc. Uniformity is a the key here. It should be available for all employees and approved by your legal team. Every employee should have free reign on the individual opinions but also acknowledge they have an employer and their own opinions do not represent their employer.
Don't pick fights with others. Present yourself how you wish to present yourself with colleagues and clients even when you are online.
Show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory.
As an author/ publisher do you research find out who else is blogging, authoring, twittering about your topic. When you site a source always try to link back to original URL source. Create link love.
Always cite your sources for photos, videos, quotes. Respect creative commons licenses. Plagiarism is still a bad idea. (You do have good ideas... put them out there. Most individuals don't bite.)
If you wish to write about a project or experience directly related to your employer/client request permission from your designated corporate employee or committee whom controls the flow of information to the external world. Usually the director of marketing.

Who Should This Task Fall too?

Development: A commitee of no more than 4-6 should be composed. To many opinions can make the point of this process obsolete.

Commitee should consist of the following departments:

Marketing dept: Because they are on the front line for exposure and monitoring for the company's brand. Internal to the the marketing dept I would suggest adding your SEO person technically because its important to adjust the analytics to accomidiate and monitor the new traffic that is generated by social networking.

Sales dept: They need to know what is going on in the social world and how social effects will ripple through how they build relationships, process leads and push potential sales down the sales funnel.

Legal dept: They control the how policies are created and are aware of current policies and guidlines. They are the gate keepers.

Executive dept: They just need to be aware of changes.

PR dept: They are professionals at putting a positive spin on a complicated situation.

Implementation: Human Resources should add the new policy to the companie's communication plan. They should also translate it to all current employees.

It get ugly out there.

Scenario #1
You have been monitoring your brand with Radian6 or Techrigy out in the wild online world and all goes south one day fast. Something monumental happens to your corporate brand and its all over online. Its ugly out there.

Action plan #1
You ignore it. It might just go away... (best of luck with that).

Action plan #2
Chaos happens
Chaos and change always offers opportunity. Have a plan to spin the hype in your favor. Time frame is crucial. The less time it takes to get a educated retort online the better your brandwill fair. Keep monitoring and addressing the conversation. The above corporate policies are there to avoid chaos as much as they are there to combat it. Add to the above guidelines and have a plan to educate your community and the media when things go awry. Examine Domino's reaction.

Summary
Design a corporate social policy that is an amendment to your communications policy. Educate and address your employee's in an understanding fashion. Acknowledge your employees worth and value as a blogger, contributor to the community and distinguish the difference between corporate and individual opinion online. It's just Frank demonstrates these concepts well.

What are your current policies on communication within your corporate structure?

Is your company adapting their own policy?

How does it affect you?

Shortened URL: http://is.gd/yllr

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Ovaltine Re-brands and Ignores Their Online Audience

2009-04-21T22:47:32Z

Dear Ovaltine. Please take a hint from SPAM.

I do love my Ovaltine (the orange can) and have no idea why. It is just one of those foods we were raised on as kids. Hersey's syrup was never my thing.

My first observation is Nestle really needs some guidance in engaging their online audience. Ovaltine changed to the new logo and container. The unveiling of the new look has been so silent that there has been little to no online excitement about it at all. I Googled Ovaltine after seeing the new bottle and logo on the store shelf. From an SEO perspective they don't have many search results on Google and Twitter is a-flutter with Ovaltine lovers and their chatter. Too bad all was not acknowledged or even embraced. For a major company like Nestle to re-brand a classic product such as Ovaltine you would hope there would be a larger budget behind the promotional and awareness campaign.

Carrot did a good job of the basics. But, I needed to evaluate the entire campaign. As all parts make a whole solution.

Ovaltine's History
View the Ovaltine history; it quite interesting. Did you know it was ones used a cure?

Influence from the web:
Uhm..Hello, we are out here! Engage your community!

A Look at Branding

In situations when a brand has been firmly established yet is simply outdated or needs to be refreshed due to the addition of new products or services, tweaking is required, rather than a full-blown rebrand. In these cases, you don't want to eliminate the brand value that's been developed over the years, but merely make subtle changes to update it or make it representative of an expanded offering. John Williams

Ovaltine 's New Look:
The logo, label and container is not that radically different. I was pleased I could recognize the bottle on the shelf. Ovaltine has also retained the traditional colors associated with each product. The traditional can is being retained by the " Ovaltine® Rich Chocolate Mix" (blue can)

The old Ovaltine logo felt like a sports - like with its font and the new one is similar to all of Nestle's other's product's including Nesquik. Ovaltine does highlight what minerals and vitamins are fortified in the product. An obvious source of their marketing push. That kind perked my curiosity. When I reach for chocolate milk it is not to supplement my dietary needs nor is it on my usual nutritional plan. It is a a delicious treat!

(A way better attempt at branding then Tropicana.)

Ovaltine's Site Content
Very interesting.. they are trying to engage their consumers in an unusual way. There is no flow to the site. There is a section where you can tell them your Ovaltine stories. Some fluffier content sections to make five page minimum for any website. The other section that caught my eye was the Health and Nutrition section.

Ovaltine is international product with an international market and the site reflects that. But there is no flow for the site visitors. If I have interest in their product's nutritional value I visit the nutritional section. There I get a visual of the same nutritional label that would be on the back of the bottle. I can also compare the nutritional facts of "Brussels Sprout-Salmon Sorbet" and Ovaltine. Seems point less feature and probably not my first choice for a food combination. There are also some regular vegetable combinations that (if experimental) I could combine with my Ovaltine for a meal.

The most valuable content on the site is under emphasized, below the fold and in the form of a PDF. It's a image of a child and what vitamins are associated with your various body parts and organs. This bit of information could be the whole exciting part of the nutritional page. It does not really matter how great the nutritional value of Cod Liver Oil and Ovaltine couple pair up to be. Any adult and kid alike is not going to believe it and definitely not going to drink it.

Overall, I still enjoy my Ovaltine but Nestle really needs help managing their site content and engaging their online community. It is a recreational use and fun product and there could be a lot of fun campaigns that could be created and revolve around this product.

Be creative! Create content that related to your targeted community!

What's your favorite flavor (or color) Ovaltine?
Can you tell the difference between the different Ovaltine products? (I can't)
Would you buy Ovaltine after visiting Ovaltine.com?

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