Alberto Culver: Making the Most of Facebook for Brands — Live from BlogWell

3:50 — Bergen Anderson introduces Alberto Culver‘s Global Director of Interactive Marketing, Stephen Strong, and Director of Integrated Marketing Communication, Brandy Ruff.

3:51 — Stephen: We’ve titled our presentation, “We Want a Facebook Page” (crowd laughs) — so clearly, you’ve all heard that before.

3:52 — Stephen: We’re going to focus on TRESEmme for this presentation.

3:52 — Stephen says they literally had brands coming to them saying they wanted a Facebook page, so they didn’t really have to pull brands into the space. Stephen’s team told them they could have one, but they’d have to stay dedicated to them.

3:53 — Stephen: Don’t improvise in social media. Stephen says they didn’t want teams making it up as they go — and they came up with five different types of communications:

1. Brands News
2. Pillar Events
3. Marketing Program Support
4. Fan Promotions
5. Gap Fillers

3:53 — Stephen and his team set up an overall frequency calendar of which type of content to use. Then, they pulled in all agencies and brands and laid out a complete editorial calendar. They could go back to their agencies or teams and know what everyone was focused on for the next 3-4 weeks.

3:54 — Stephen introduces Brandy to discuss TRESEmme.

3:55 — Brandy shows their “Pillar Event” strategy for TRESEmme — focusing on an event where they have a bunch of hair designers come for live demonstrations.

3:55 — Brandy shares their key learnings from Pillar Events:

Before Launch:

• Develop content strategy prior to usage negotiations
• Agencies to provide Facebook content recommendations as part of broader programs
• Identify opportunities to recruit new fans

During Program

• Schedule bursts of content
• Central coordination
• Leverage media / blogger buzz on your Facebook wall
• Extend Facebook calls to action into other digital channels

After Program

• Analyze and optimize based on fan comments / engagement with content
• Record Facebook insights reports for the specific time periods

3:57 — Brandy’s team realized one of their most popular pieces of content they shared from the designer event was a picture of a Mercedes Benz — and wondered why all these fashionistas cared. They realized it was because it was from something event attendees didn’t normally have access to — and have adjusted their content strategy to share more of this.

3:58 — Stephen introduces their strategy for sharing coupons and promotions through Facebook and says they benefit from how easy it is to share this content on the platform. They’ve found promotions do well for driving traffic and acquiring new fans.

3:59 — Stephen: Simple coupons work best. His other findings:

• Allow easy sharing to recruit new fans organically
• Be prepared to address consumer complaints on your wall
• Announce via status post when the promotion is over

4:00 — Brandy shares their “Marketing Program Support” strategies. She talks about how when they partner with other brands or have special offers, they do quick promotion of it via social channels. Her key learnings:

• Collaborate between the brand and the agency
• Embed the content on Facebook so people don’t have to work too hard to find it
• Review communication calendar quarterly to keep up to date
• Don’t become a “Social FSI”

4:03 — Brandy says their brand focuses on driving meaningful conversations — not just coupons or giveaways.

4:03 — Stephen introduces their “Brand News” content strategy. Stephen: When we’re planning our editorial calendar, we make sure to make space to actually talk about our brands and products. Stephen says they talk about new product launches, partnerships, etc.

4:04 — Stephen says they also do a lot of promoting “found content” from searches of fans talking positively and sharing content about their products.

4:05 — Stephen’s Brand News learnings:

• Many fans are loyal users and want to hear about your products
• Aggregate content from all brand sources
• Leverage other marketing programs to provide content (PR programs, editor events, event marketing, etc.)
• Find and promote consumer generated content

4:06 — Brandy introduces their “Gap Filler” content strategies. Brandy says when repurposing content, they always make sure to add their lens and voice to it. For example, when sharing existing content about a celebrity’s hairstyle, their team will look for simple ways to add their voice such as asking, “What do you think of this?”

4:08 — Brandy’s key “Gap Filler” content learnings:

• Keep content target-relevant with a brand lens
• Leverage media dollars for additional content
• Open ended questions, surveys, and polls encourage engagement
• Monitor and moderate your wall

4:10 — Brandy’s final recommendations:

• Organize your calendar — your agencies can’t do it all alone and the brand marketing team needs to own the master calendar
• Organize your content — multiple channels of content, one stop for upload/maintenance; don’t “over talk” your wall; establish and archive strategy for old programs
• Organize your learnings — Monthly recaps of fan growth, quarterly assessments against established goals, and incorporate Facebook results into broader program measurement

4:10 — Brandy adds that having their established editorial calendar is huge for getting legal buy-in and taking any legal issues out of the equation when quick responses are needed.

Q&A

Q: At what point does all the time and energy and success of your Facebook page mean you don’t need a traditional corporate website?

A: Stephen: It’s a discussion we have often. Our brand site obviously still plays an important part. Stephen says each platform we use tends to play a different role and doesn’t necessarily serve as a hub for everything. He also talks about how brand sites play a role in consumer reviews, etc.

Q: On one of your slides you said be prepared to handle customer complaints on your Facebook page — how do you do that?

A: Stephen says they have a couple layers. He says lots of regulatory and legal teams freaked out when they said they wanted to build a Facebook page, so they put PR in charge of it because they have a lot of experience with these issues. They gave it to PR for a trial month and then sat down with legal to review what was happening on the page, and this really helped with concerns. Brandy adds that most of their “issues” that flare up get buried fairly quickly on Facebook — and any response they might have would just resurface it. They use an informal 24-hour rule to determine if something really needs a response.

Q: At what point do you guys stand your ground on content that you won’t take down?

A: Brandy: It’s highly rare we pull something down. But if it’s not worth the fight, we’ll simply take it down. Stephen adds if they get enough negative comments — say, around a product — they’ll bring in PR to try and engage the customers by suggesting another product or application instructions.