Zappos: How To Build A Brand That Matters.

Tony, baby. You had me at overnight shipping.

When I need my Naughty Monkeys, I need them now. I wore my favorites when Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh spoke at the recent WOMMA Summit and I will admit to flashing my stilettos at him as he walked by my table. I wanted him to see customer delight in action.

For Tony Hsieh, it’s all about owning Z. Over the years, the brand has done a masterful job of appropriating Z’s, from engaging dubious celebs in creating Z comic book characters on The Apprentice to pioneering a new Customer Service phenomenon to boldly revolutionizing employee training.

While the rest of the world is trapped on hold with some call center in the Philippines or scouring Help pages for signs of humanity, Zappos‘ 9-million happy customers find an 1-800 number on every single page. Along with this 24/7 real living-breathing person access, they get free shipping, free return shipping and a 365-day return policy.

But Zappos doesn’t stop there. In its mission to build a brand that matters, the company tapped into a customer-centric toolkit of social media tools, transforming the customer service industry forever. From the 440+ Zappos employees who tweet (lead by @Zappos, CEO Tony Hsieh) to blogs to innovative rep training plus a corporate culture book that sets the tone, the thriving retailer is authentically a service company that happens to sell shoes.

To build a brand that matters, Tony outlines these key things:

• Vision: Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger. Chase the vision not the money.
• Repeat customers: Great product, great service or low prices. Choose and focus on two of the three.
• Transparency: Be real and you have nothing to fear.Zappos is real everywhere, from its blogs to Twitter to ZapposTV to its real human being customer service agents. (Click here for an amazing story.) Tony even blogged when the company sadly had to reduce its workforce.

Zappos mandates that all employees be a good fit with core values and company culture. Interviews and performance reviews are in fact 50% based on this blend — and Tony has actually fired C-level executives who while talented and experienced, did not fit the culture. Here are some Zappos’ values to live by:

Committable Core Values

• Deliver WOW through service
• Embrace and drive change
• Create fun and a little weirdness
• Be adventurous creative and openminded
• Pursue growth and learning
• Build open and honest relationships with communication
• Build a positive team and family spirit
• Do more with less
• Be passionate and determined
• Be humble.

Guru’s Note: Having been inside countless corporations over the years, I’ve been privy to numerous positioning statements, rules to live by, business mantras and the like. Some of these do become deeply embedded in corporate culture (I can pick out an Ogilvy alum the moment they utter ‘Where’s the Big Idea?) others are merely the latest blather from On High. (You know who you are) What makes Zappos’ Core Values meaningful is the link between the ‘emotional’ and ‘functional.’ If the customer service agent hadn’t been able to act on her instinct to send flowers (see Amazing Story link above), then all the WOWS and DELIGHTS mean nada.

Six Signs Your Business Needs A Spring Cleaning.

Open the windows and let all that stale air go whoosh. There’s a lot of creepy, cruddy build-up crowding our attitudes, beliefs, behaviors — and probably our bottom lines as well, courtesy of sitting inside and stewing all winter. We’re living with a year’s worth of sludge that rates a serious scraping.

When it comes to your business, it may be time to start fresh. And for some, it may be time to scrub it completely.

Here are the Six Signs Your Business Needs A Spring Cleaning:

Your business is in a ‘soiled’ category.
Many businesses were built on the assumption that our world economy would be forever in 20th century growth mode. Starbucks is a vivid example of this mis-guess. Dubai, in fact, is looking like another one. Then there are the products smudged by environmental, cultural or humanistic factors, from Hummers to plastic bags to fur coats. Is yours a service business based on ‘guilt-inducing’ services people can no longer afford or have cut back on? Does your product dwell in a consumer-unfriendly category? Could you, should you, make it greener?

Clean-up: The chain Massage Envy is cleaning up in this stress-packed environment versus pricey (empty) spas by offering low-price massages ($49-59), memberships, convenient hours and locations. Former poster-children for luxury fashion, the style mavens at UrbanDarling created a Purge, Merge and Splurge program that promises not only to help you spend your clothes dollars more wisely but also simplify your life. Smartly, this new ‘invest in you’ positioning taps into the two key trends of simplicity and frugality. Plus, this show of empathy assures reluctant clients ‘we get it.’

You’re stuck. (Under thick layers of cloudy thinking).
You know who you are, that guy with the cobwebs covering his ears. You’re convinced that if you just ‘wait it out’ maybe ‘things will go back to normal.’ But even the most optimistic of experts, from economists to psychologists (we’re leaving the politicos out of this equation) believe that many of the consumer changes in progress may well be permanent. Yes, there is a certain amount of pent-up demand but increasingly today is the ‘new normal.’

Clean-up: Now is the time to power-listen to your customers. Survey, interview, chat, do whatever it takes to connect with your regulars and then listen hard. If yours is a face-to-face business, take your best customers out for lunch, invite them to a town-square type meeting and ask for opinions. Follow the conversation about your industry or product category already in full swing online via Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and relevant niche sites. You need to get a realistic sense of what’s happening. Resistance is futile, dude.

Call in the Merry Maids.
Yup, we’re lone wolves, mavericks, solopreneurs and renegades. But perhaps some of the crud is coming from the sweat and swagger of always going it alone. It may be time to switch from me to we. You may know best when business is booming but times like this call for additional brainpower.

Clean-up: The solution? How about a Board of Advisors? If you don’t have one already, tap into the wellspring of genius around you and for god’s sakes, pick their brains. Make sure you have assembled a balanced group with a combination of backgrounds, specialties and personalities. The secret to an effective Board is to choose experts rather than networkers. You don’t need schmoozers. You need supporters who will speak their truth.

Buzz is fogging up your brain.
In a world where breakthrough tools like HARO, pitchengine and Twitter make buzz-generation easier and more fun than ever, it’s possible to spend hours everyday pursuing reporters and social media mavens. Often these efforts are successful — at least in terms of seeing your name and words in black-and-white. And occasionally, you’ll land the right mention in the right media and voila! your business is booming overnight. (This is also known as The Oprah Effect.)

But here’s the caution: Make sure your buzz-generation efforts actually result in real business. Like customers. Sales. Products. All those non-buzzy words. I don’t mean trying to calculate ROI, which has eluded most traditional and neo-PR pros these days. But with all the do-it-yourself PR tools today, it’s all too easy to spend too much time chasing buzz and thinking it’s always relevant to your bottom line.

Clean-Up:Allocate a certain percentage of your day to buzz. Peter Shankman sends HARO twice a day, so plan on at least skimming it for potential. Update your social networking sites, follow up on blog comments. Be very strict with your time.

Your brand identity looks dingy.
If you haven’t re-evaluated the look and feel of your brand’s identity for years — business cards to collateral materials to website to your business profile photo — it might be time to reassess. What may have been perfect when first created may either feel dated or be inadequate for your communication needs today.

Clean-up: Optimizing Social Media sites with professional photographs makes a big difference in impact. And I don’t mean those stiff, fold-your-arms-across-your-chest business pictures that Colbert so brilliantly lampoons. Find a photographer like the Bay Area’s talented Monica Michelle, who specializes in bringing out what’s naturally fascinating about you. And don’t neglect the power of pimping your Twitter Profile: an interesting and polished Twitter background (@hughbriss) will immediately increase your Follows the right way.

Your MyFax Messy Office Contest Facebook Page has 31,218 Fans.
The first step is admitting you are powerless over the contents of your messy office. If you can’t do it yourself, call in one of those de-cluttering experts or maybe one of those portable pods hauls the whole thing away.

Clean-up: Pine Sol. White vinegar. Lemon oil. Baking soda. These are all your friends. So are the spring-fresh new non-VOC paints. So is getting out of the office altogether and working in your favorite cafe, on the train to Timbuktu or at the beach.

Guru’s Note: The Guru has just launched a rollicking Spring Cleaning by ripping up the office carpet with a handy boxcutter and throwing it out the window. Next step: a ‘greener’ office via natural cork floors, which will make me feel squeaky clean and freshly virtuous.

Seven Signs You May Be Ready for a Social Media Detox.

I gave up Facebook for Lent.  For forty days and nights, I will not be updating my status, becoming a fan, poking anyone or commenting on 25 Random Things.  I will not be turning to page 56 and finding a sentence, sending good Karma or sipping along with my A Glass of Wine Solves Everything group.
 
My decision has absolutely nothing to do with any religious fervor, other than being fervently grateful to the Episcopalian calendar which served up a handy excuse to log off.  Said calendar also delivered a mighty reason to take a look at Social Media’s impact on my life.
 
What I saw was not pretty. 
 
And yet my addiction is on the mild side, more like a low-grade fever than a full-on infectious case of Facebook-itis. I may have sampled the Social Media Koolaid, but I’m not chugging the stuff like many of the ‘tweeple’ I know.  I’m enamored but not enslaved. In fact, I’ve only made my way through a smattering of Chris Brogan’s 100 Personal Branding Secrets.
 
Still, as a market researcher and passionate digital anthropologist, I knew it was time for a dig. Like Yahoo’s Internet Deprivation Study of yore, I wanted to understand the grisly details of deprivation.  I wanted to know what I would miss about Facebook; what I actually value; what I would be overjoyed to leave behind.
 
By the time I posted my last status update shortly after Ash Wednesday (which I pretty much only knew about because of Joe Biden’s forehead), I realized I was more than ready to not only give up Facebook for a time but also consider a complete Social Media Detox.
 
Ask yourself: Do you need to do a Social Media Detox?  Here are seven signs you might be ready:
 
 
Are you an Early Adopter? 
Ho-hum. Are you sort of over it? Those of us who are perpetually on the bleeding edge of new, sometimes either want to ditch it when the vox populi show up in droves or simply because it’s no longer the pretty shiny new thing.  We thrive on beta. We thrive on sneaking behind the velvet rope. When they let everybody in . . .  On the other hand, there are enough cool new tools popping up virtually every second, especially for Twitter, (Twiddeo) and a parade of nichey new social networks to keep boredom at bay.
 
Does buzz equal biz?
Despite the constant chatter from all directions about ‘putting yourself out there’ via networking, much of this buzz is total BS. Even if you aggressively transform yourself into a social media rockstar via the notorious TweeterGetter, your newfound fame may not automatically translate into mucho dinero.  Those shameless self-promoters swarming over every social network may generate noise but that doesn’t mean they’re doing much real, sustainable business. The dirty secret of social networks? Too many sellers, too few buyers. Consider: What’s the benefit of social media to your bottom line? Show me the money, folks.  
 
This doesn’t mean social media tools aren’t valuable –I’ve met terrific people, gotten great projects and leads, mined countless consumer insights, and overall, found the tools to be worthwhile if sometimes overwhelming.  But to be blunt, I have solid skills and talents to back up my putting myself out there. I am not using them to shill for an empty suit.

Who owns your stuff?
Facebook’s recent Terms of Service switcheroo shocked many into re-thinking how they want to use the social network.  Although they’ve since reversed themselves and formed a consumer advisory group, the brouhaha was tantamount to social media shock therapy.  The pivotal question:  who owns my content? Do I want Facebook to ‘own’ it even after I’ve deleted my account?  And for businesses who routinely recommend Facebook as part of a social media strategic plan, what are the guidelines for who owns and retains an advertising or promotional campaign that’s appeared Facebook?
 
Are you blurring your business and personal life?
You may have jumped on to Facebook early on and populated your profile with real-life friends.  Then along comes the barrage of networkers, business colleagues and in betweens. Now you’ve got a quixotic stew of business and personal.  Sometimes it works just fine. It can be a joy to get to know colleagues and clients in a more human way. Last fall’s political campaigns pointed up a growing issue:  For example, do you want your clients to know your thoughts on Prop 8? (I do!) And then there’s its discretional corollary: Do you want your Great Aunt Hazel or favorite high school teacher to see your tipsy party pix?
 
Is social media a time and energy suck for you?
How do you find time to blog, tweet, update Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace, post your pix on Flickr, your articles on Mixx, Digg, Biznik and Kirtsy, your favorites on Delicio.us, your sites on Stumbleupon, your art on etsy, comment on relevant blogs and networking email lists, search for juicy links to share — and oh by the way, also do your real work? Sure, some Tweeters are using a variety of time-saving organizational tools (Tweetdeck, Friend Feed) to manage their activities.  Even so, putting your best business face forward across multiple social media platforms is a challenge. (Quite a few rely on Virtual Admins like the awesome @jkvirtualoffice). 

I don’t know about you, folks, but I need time, quiet and focus to serve my clients well and feel good about what I do.
 
True Value
In the immortal words of Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks:  How can I miss you if you won’t go away?  
Perfectly said, Dan. I’ll soon know what it is, if anything, that I miss about Facebook.
 
Do you have a personal social media strategy?  Should you get one?
Last night, social media pioneer Chris Brogan mentioned on Twitter that he had already deleted 350 of his Facebook friends. I don’t know his reasons but I do know more and more people are re-defining how they want to use social media. They’re pondering social networking’s role in their lives and rejiggering the balance of business and personal. My neighbor here on the Monterey Peninsula, @fuzznfeathers, recently took a short break from Twitter and enjoyed the extra offline time. Jumping off-the-grid results in more time and energy available for face to face connection. According to research I’ve recently conducted, the blend of online + offline touchpoints turns out to be one powerful combo for increasing engagement.
 
What have I learned already?
I already know, mere days after exiting Facebook, that I don’t miss the Frammers who weaseled their way into my list of Friends. I do miss seeing the new pictures of my baby cousins and the parade of polls, surveys and beer-apps from my dear sorority sister, Kimberly. I do miss the pithy and often intriguing posts from Laurie Peterson, Eric Weaver and Katherine Ruppe.   

But most of all, I miss my daughter’s ever-changing profile pictures, usually taken in the dorm around 2 a.m. while she’s avoiding writing a term paper.

Easter’s so close I can almost smell the egg-salad sandwiches.

15 Social Media Secrets To a Successful Event.

Once upon a time, I envied my event planner buddies. They were perpetually zipping off to Beijing or Paris, snoozing on Egyptian cotton sheets at ritzy hotels and despite a few cases of Spock-ear from wearing those geeky headsets, the event life was good.

Now, thanks to an expanding list of contrary forces, from AIG’s zillion-dollar tomato-basil facials to the R-word and even the emergence of webinar technology plus the unconference trend, planning an event is now rife with boobytraps. Like its sister industry — PR — there’s a growing divide between ‘traditional’ event planning and neo-event planning.

You can guess where I’m going with this.  Social Media.

Anyone planning an event, conference, party, trade show or group gathering is plain loco to resist  tapping into the  social media tools and technologies now available. In fact,  if you only use half of my list below, you’ll still greatly increase the odds of running a successful event — and even better, you may also win points for cost-efficiency and even carbon-offsetting, to say nothing of cool.  That goes double if your event is targeting Millennial/Echo Boomers.

Here’s my list:

• Your first priority should be setting up event tags. You’ll be using these tags across multiple social media platforms from Flickr to Twitter. Think of a tag as a simple category name. Attendees can categorize their posts, photos and videos with the event tag(s) you create.

 

• Post your event with event planning sites such as Upcoming, Eventful and if appropriate, Meetup.com, evite.com and pingg.com.  Pingg has a feature called SurroundSend, which lets you send invitations via SMS (text) message.  Note: Be vigilant about privacy issues. Without opt-in, this can backfire bigtime.

 

• Use Facebook for events as well — but don’t try to project attendance from the numbers of Facebookers who check Attending on the page. Most Facebookers are exposed to dozens of events per week, many of them online-only events. Often there is initial enthusiasm and even acceptance. This doesn’t mean they’ll actually show up.

 

• If the company or organization doesn’t already have its own website, use Ning to create one and promote your event from your new site.

 

• Use Google Maps to direct people to your event. Set up carpooling as well and post links to public transportion schedules and fares.

 

• Set up Flickr tags and inform your participants so they can use them when posting their own event pictures.

 

• If appropriate, recruit bloggers to Live Blog the event. And always contact influential bloggers in advance with event information.

 

• Set up a YouTube channel for videos of your event.

 

• Many events are using live video tools like Ustream.tv which lets you broadcast and chat online with a global audience. It’s completely free, all it takes is a camera and Internet connection

 

• Go beyond traditional wire services by tapping into the neo-PR world of Pitchengine.com.
  Founded by social media pioneer Jason Kintzler, PitchEngine is shaking up the PR industry by making it possible for PR pros, brands, and agencies to build and share digital, social media releases with their contacts for free.

 

• If yours is a Social Good type of event, add this new cause related widget, Reply For All. Replyforall offers an application (currently only for Gmail and Yahoo! mail) that allows users to raise money for their causes of choice by embedding a brand-sponsored message into their e-signature.

 

• Twitter is one of the best event tools ever. Set up a hashtag (example: #yourevent) so that tweeters may follow the event tweets or even coordinate a Tweet-up. By placing the # symbol before a word, phrase, or abbreviation, it creates a mini-search engine phrase that can be looked up and followed on Twitter. Not only is this a powerful tool for organizing tweets about your events but it also may boost your SEO. 

 

• Ask your speakers or presenters to use hashtags. When I am the speaker at events I invite the audience to tweet in real time using the hashtag created specifically for the event. Or if the event is a Lab360, brandstorming workshop or other Guru of New event, I suggest that ‘tweeple’ tweet #guruofnew.

 

• Use Twitpic or Twiddeo to tweet pictures or video links of the event. Invite key influencers to tweet event info prior to the event.   Twitpic lets you share photos on Twitter.  Twiddeo is a powerful but simple service that let’s you Twitter updates with Video. Upload from the web, your cameraphone and record from your webcam.

 

• Is there an event- relevant iPhone app?  Even if there isn’t ‘an app for that’ specific industry or topic, there may be one for the city where the event is being held, or a food/wine/travel info app.