By Deanna Ferrari
In the world of online consumer engagement, it’s no question that it’s easy to get people talking and even excited about your brand when you’ve got something different or interesting to say. Take the recent explosion of the very popular Old Spice YouTube videos where its spokesperson, “Old Spice Guy,” answered questions directly per its audience. In fact, Old Spice was so successful that its sales went up 107 percent in July 2010.
How did the 71-year-old company do it? Thousands of followers? Maybe. Celebrities posing questions to Old Spice Guy? Absolutely. But those were just pieces of the concept called “social currency” that jolted Old Spice to the top of the trending topics faster than you could say “mansmells.”
According to a recent Fast Company article, social currency is “the extent to which people share the brand and/or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home made up of six key dimensions or “levers” — utility; affiliation; identity; conversation; advocacy; and information.”
It seems somewhat easy to track the social currency impact on a huge consumer brand like Old Spice or the recent unveiling of the 2011 Ford Explorer. But what about small, niche business-to-business companies that sell a specific product or service to a specific group of people? How do they determine social currency?
You can be a B2B company and use social media to not only appeal to your target audience, but the masses. Take Regency Global Transportation, a WordWrite client. Regency, a Pittsburgh-based first-class ground transportation company, aims to be the transportation company of choice for corporate clients. A typical Regency client uses the company for all of its ground transportation across the United States. Regency used the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in fall 2009 to unveil its Twitter identity. The company knew its 40-plus chauffeurs would be driving six of the international delegations and would have first-hand knowledge of traffic conditions caused by the overwhelming security considerations for the summit. This public service opportunity to deliver real-time traffic tweets to help the Pittsburgh community learn of security-caused traffic situations near the downtown G-20 meeting site, and on major arteries leading to the airport and other G-20 venues, was the perfect opportunity to incorporate a social media presence measured by social currency.
Not only was the transportation company tweeting traffic updates, but also offering its online audience a first-hand look at restricted areas in the city. The drivers had access to our then-new president’s colleagues from delegations all over the world right there in Regency vehicles. Of course, Regency did not reveal any confidential information, but this information was intriguing enough to start a quick following and lead to a conversation, which fits into its own niche version of social currency.
While Regency Global Transportation may not be Old Spice with a plethora of YouTube videos and its own catch phrases, that also wasn’t what its goal was with social media. The B2B brand identified advocates, put out the right information and identified the right types of conversations. And that’s what matters most for B2B companies to have a success in social currency. Also, to quote Old Spice Guy, “I’m on a horse.”
(Image copyright Old Spice.)
Social media tool of the month is a regular feature on the WordWrite Storytelling Blog that appears monthly.
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Deanna Ferrari is a senior account executive for WordWrite Communications
