If you’ve ever been chided by your grandfather’s tiresome rant for not finishing your supper, using the computer too much, or listening to rock ‘n roll, you may have internalized the stereotype that the elderly are grumpy and cantankerous. Despite our subjective experiences, psychological research exists that counters this, and instead proposes that positive emotions increase with age.

Positive sentiment increases with age

A study by Arthur Stone, PhD illustrates that self-reported well-being dips during the younger adult years then increases sharply from age 50, with females being slightly more positive than males. Recently, the Social Analytics team dove deep into our ocean of review data and discovered strikingly similar trends in product ratings.

The visualization below represents our analysis of 12,000 reviews on brands that sell beauty products at department stores. Here we can see a similar bend in average rating by age group that Stone shows with subjective well-being. Ages 25-34 and 35-44 are the most negative, while the older age groups are most positive – beginning in the 45-54 age bracket.

Curious to see whether this pattern holds in other industries, we replicated the analysis on 275,000 hotel reviews and produced a markedly similar chart. In fact, we are seeing this trend across the entire network, and I expect to see it in future investigations.

Brands and retailers targeting Millennials need not fear the critical opinions of these young and middle-aged adults. Their feedback contains valuable product improvement insights. Knowing what’s wrong reveals what should improve in the next iteration.

Women are more positive than men

Stone shows a heightened positivity in females across the board, which also coincides with our analyses. In our Conversation Index Vol. 1, we found that the average rating for female-written reviews was 4.43 stars, compared to the male average of 4.32 stars. This can also be seen in this more recent industry-level example from a sample of office supplier data in 2012:

Despite the lack of an experimental design, it’s fascinating to see how quantifiable, external judgments – like product ratings – can be an extension of internal cognitive judgments – like perception of happiness. Although some say that data lacks emotion, let’s not forget about the insights that can be achieved by tying consumer demographic data to raw emotional data itself.

With great contextual data come great customer insights

Sure, demographics like age and gender are bread and butter, but if you want the “full meal deal,” you need to be collecting as much contextual data as you can about your customer base. As an appetizer, we explored 75,000 reviews on five of our top hardware retailers who ask their customers about skill level.

We discovered that customers who deem themselves experts give, on average, 13% lower ratings when compared to beginners. Similarly, customers using products as trade professionals rate 6% lower than the casual “DIY-er.” This may seem pretty intuitive, but now we can prove it using data.

Retailers are able to hear their customers with reviews, but they need to truly listen by digging into the text. Even though these highly-skilled customers give less positive reviews, their knowledge is a key to gaining awareness of what products could use improvement.

We ran these reviews through a sentiment analysis engine to breakout the top themes, frequently used phrases, and their associated sentiment scores. Here we can see that these experienced customers are still happy with things like value, price, and ease of use, but are scrutinizing qualities like fit, size, and design. Indicated by negative sentiment (red), specific product categories are called out, like shower heads, ceiling fans, and light fixtures that should be more closely examined.

At the end of the day, star ratings and demographics are just the surface. Break through and actively listen to the voice of your customer by asking relevant questions. Then, read between the lines with sentiment analysis to gain a deeper understanding.

Expert opinions can carry more influence in purchase decisions than others. Not always, of course, but in some situations.

Home Depot launched a new video series last month featuring an expert influencer, Martha Stewart, to inspire new home gardening projects and steer viewers toward certain products. In “Ask Martha” videos, she answers some of the most-asked questions across categories, pulled from the brand’s consumer Q&A on the brand site. And in “Learn & Do” videos, she walks viewers through do-it-yourself projects like home organization and gardening.

It’s a great example of a brand acting as a publisher to inspire new needs in consumers while also proving valuable, sharable content that draws viewers in. Home Depot has especially embraced its role as a publisher, featuring how-to videos in aisles via mobile apps and QR codes, and offering in-store do-it-yourself classes.

But what defines an expert today? No one can argue with Martha Stewart’s gardening chops. But not every brand can afford to land their category’s Martha – especially not for an extended campaign. How can these brands give more credibility to their products and services?

Create your own customer experts

Brands can identify and anoint their own customer experts using tools like helpfulness voting. Badge contributors who receive the most helpfulness votes as “most helpful” or “expert contributor,” and those who provide the most feedback and answers as “top contributor” – adding credence to their content across your site.

Badging these advocates as experts also feeds their ego and gives them recognition, making them want to keep contributing. Create leaderboards of the most helpful and active contributors to encourage them to participate even more. Thank them for being so active by inviting them to focus groups or offering unexpected perks.

Become the expert brand

On retail sites, brands that answer shopper questions – especially technical, fact-based questions – cultivate a helpful and expert image. “Can I wirelessly display my tablet’s screen on this smart TV?” “Which shades of eye shadow pair best with my eye color?”

Badge your brand experts on retail sites with your logo to add credibility to your answers. Our data shows that shoppers who interact with Q&A on product pages show 94% higher conversion – and that lift jumps to 111% when they interact with answers from brand reps. Shoppers also vote answers from brand reps 85% more helpful than those from other consumers.

Your branded answers live on the retail site forever, helping other shoppers who undoubtedly have the same question, says Sten Hallock, Senior Manager Online Marketing for Samsung:

“For every question you’re getting, there are ten people asking that question but just aren’t going to go through the hassle of writing it down, or assume it’s going to take a long time [to get an answer], or are going to go somewhere else.”

Place products in expert context

An expert needn’t be a specific person so much as a context. For example, take shoppable magazines. Young women read Teen Vogue and Elle because they trust the style tips – and studies show that shoppers are more open to ads when in researching and buying mode. They respect the magazine’s expertise in fashion, and therefore give attention to the products it curates. Of course it’s not new to advertise in magazines relevant to your category. But many of these magazines are adding shoppable functionality to their online and mobile editions, letting customers click through to the brand’s product page and buy – tacitly endorsed by the publishing brand for added credibility and more subtlety than an obvious ad.

Some TV shows are likewise becoming shoppable. CW’s Gossip Girl – a very fashion-focused program – has partnered with mobile app Shazam to make the wardrobe available for purchase. Viewers simply use the app during the episode, and Shazam loads product pages for the wardrobe seen in the scene. Unlike ads pushed on viewers during the program, these consumers have opted in to the content – self-identifying as interested in being marketed to.

Reveal every customer as an expert in their own way

In some categories like consumer electronics, buyers trust reviews from average consumers over those from expert, professional reviewers. It may be that shoppers in a complicated category like electronics relate better to casual users like them. A review from an amateur documentary filmmaker bashing a simple digital video camera’s lack of functionality won’t resonate with a dad looking for an easy-to-use camera for his daughter’s dance recitals. Many factors can make a particular reviewer an expert in a certain shopper’s eyes.

• “They’re like me”: A Floridian praising a specific grass seed is more “expert” to a lawncare shopper in Ft. Lauderdale, due to their shared geography and weather conditions.
• “They share my use case”: A reviewer describing their experience using a carpet cleaner to remove pet stains is more “expert” to a new puppy owner than the reviewer who details using the product on their children’s spilled finger paints.
• “They have more experience than me”: A diaper genie review from a mother of three is more “expert” to an expecting first-time mom because the reviewer has been in her shoes (thrice!).

Help shoppers find the reviewers most expert to them by letting them search for specific keywords and filter by persona, geography, etc.

Truly, anyone can be an expert – a brand, a consumer, a publication, or a celebrity like Martha. Determine the right experts for your brand and budget, and start influencing.

“Social networking, and social media, and user-generated content allow the act of marketing to not be an art of war, but an art of syndicating the truth,” says Mike Maples, Jr., founder and managing partner at FLOODGATE Fund, LP. In the next installments of our video series, Connected Perspectives, Mike describes how the next wave of technologies, our ever-increasing connectedness, and the evolving nature of marketing are changing the way businesses must operate to stay alive.

First, he observes that technology waves affect everyone, while advancing the standard of living “across the board.” In his view, catching a technology wave is a lot like surfing: Spot the swell, control your board, and time it just so.

Mike then dives into the hyperweb: A fundamental shift in the internet itself, and a user experience change from a world of computers to a world of smart devices – everywhere.

Finally, Mike reflects on how marketing used to be taught – as though it was the art of war. But marketing has fundamentally changed; it’s now the art of syndicating and seeking the truth about your brand in the marketplace.

Connected Perspectives profiles the people and ideas shaping the next phase in business. Past and future videos include Porter Gale (Virgin America), Joe Fernandez (Klout), John Bell (Social@Ogilvy), Tim Leberecht (NBBJ), Doreen Bloch (Poshly), Andrew Deitchman (Mother New York), John Ellett (nFusion), Don Tapscott (author and speaker), John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing), and Jez Frampton (Interbrand).

The message today is the same as it was 10 years ago: Your most important customer is the one you already have. But the tactics through which you retain, satisfy, and impress your current customers have dramatically changed. It’s critical, as a business, to go beyond traditional marketing to integrating customer service and marketing in order to create a customer experience before people even try your product or service… and long after they have tried it.

Many companies cannot keep up with what Altimeter Group analyst and author Brian Solis has termed “Digital Darwinism,” which is when technologies and societies advance faster than businesses can adapt. Without adapting to technology and society, you cannot create the right message in the right medium for your core customers. Solis points out that the churn of businesses in and out of the Fortune 1000 list is increasing as businesses fail to listen to and engage with their customers in the ways their customers expect.

When you boil all of this down, the most important thing to create for your customer is an integrated, positive, defined experience across every touchpoint in the dynamic customer journey. I was lucky enough to ask Brian a few questions about his latest book What’s the Future of Business, and here’s what he had to say:

Without alignment between customer service and marketing, it’s difficult to create the experience your customers want and need to remain loyal. What are some of the ways companies are bridging the gap? When it comes down to the details, what are they actually doing to achieve synchronization?

Your question touches upon something that I believe represents the immediate future of business and it’s also the main premise of the new book. Right now, businesses are exploring new technology with both excitement and skepticism. Many are doing so without a greater understanding of customer needs or expectations, their overall journey throughout the lifecycle, and most important, without a common vision for a holistic or converged experience. To that end, the answer is bigger than customer service and marketing. It’s everything at every touch point. Consumerism is changing and businesses have not given enough thought to the role technology plays in decision-making and relationships.

You reference the first mile of customer engagement as being the most important. What are some brands that do this in a way that is replicable and extraordinary in your mind?

I’m not sure I’m looking for examples that are replicable, but I do believe extraordinary is the key word. It means remarkable, which implies special. When you study extraordinary companies, what set them apart is often the LF… the leadership factor.

Sephora, for example, is one of the brands that’s leading the way toward the digital experience. The company recently invested in an entirely new shopping experience that integrates mobile, social, and in store activity. Starbucks is also exploring the art and science of integration. The company recently appointed its first Chief Digital Officer. As Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says, the company isn’t in the coffee business, it’s in the experience business. Once you shift perspective to see the bigger picture, you can then take steps toward synchronization. But everything begins with looking beyond products and services to then define how they (along with your customers) align within a greater ecosystem.

How can paid media work with owned and earned to add to a brand experience instead of being “the insurance salesperson” at the party?

This is such a great analogy. I will say though that some of my insurance salesperson friends are among the best to have at a party.

With that said, it comes back to the last point about experiences. Part of the challenge with paid, earned, and owned media is that each often reside in different departments with mismatched goals and metrics. When you aspire to deliver an intentional and integrated experience, each group needs to work with one another. This is why Starbucks is in the experience business. They’re not alone. When asked what business Virgin Group is in, founder Richard Branson replied:

“The experience business. Anybody can sell a cup of coffee. Anyone can buy an airplane and we all buy planes from the same manufacturers (Boeing or Airbus), but there the difference stops. If you fly on a Virgin plane… you know you’re going to have a completely different experience.”

When we think about media in this context, it’s less about how it can work together and more about, as you asked, how it can add to the brand experience. With Starbucks and Virgin, media becomes an extension of the business vision and mission. Leadership and DNA is more important than ever before. And, if it doesn’t exist within the organization, it’ll come down to you as the champion. Someone has to make the case and if it’s not you, then who will it be?

The saying “Mother knows best” now extends to social media and brand recommendations. More moms than ever before are active on social media, and they aren’t shy about writing about products or interacting with brands they like. Moms also turn to other moms for advice on shopping and products, making them some of the most influential and social consumers.

Moms are ubersocial 

The vast majority of moms (91%) make regular use of social media, which is a 20% increase from 2010. Mothers are not only using social media more often than ever, they are also using it more than the rest of the overall population.

Mothers spend 260% more time than the average user on Facebook and overindex in their use of all the other leading social platforms. Sixty percent of moms reported using Pinterest in the last six months, more than double the 30% of the general population; and 77% used YouTube compared to 60% of the rest of the population. Says Mike Fogarty, senior vice president and global publisher at BabyCenter:

“Social media has become so pervasive [among moms], it’s now fundamental to the way today’s moms live their lives. Today’s mom is the most influential and social consumer you’ll meet.”

These visits aren’t just a once-a-week fad either: 46% of US moms surveyed visited social networks multiple times per day in 2012 — up from 32% in 2010. To reach moms online, brands must become meaningful contributors to their online conversations.

The social mom is a global trend. In Canada for example, almost six out of every 10 mothers with internet access visit social sites on a daily basis. Canadian moms also demonstrated a willingness to interact with brands online: More than six in 10 have Liked a brand’s Facebook page, while about 25% have commented on a brand’s page. And one in five used their own Facebook page to comment on a brand.

Moms trust each other over anyone else when buying 

Nearly half of mothers say that the most important overall factor when making a purchasing decision is reviews and ratings from other moms. An additional 9% said recommendations from other moms were “critically important” in their purchasing decisions. For brands, it’s important to connect moms from their current satisfied customer base with other moms online. Encourage reviews from all your customers, and ask moms to identify themselves in demographic fields. Help other moms find these trusted opinions with the option to sort reviews by persona.

Half of mothers also use social networks for making their purchasing decisions. One of the more popular networking apps they use is Pinterest, which they rely on to help find ideas on what groceries (75% of moms), home décor (59%), travel (27%), and clothing (24%) to buy.

Moms who are also heavy social networkers are also more likely to shop online, where they purchase clothing (61% of moms), portable devices (91%), baby supplies (63%), and home and garden products (65%).

Moms rely heavily on mobile for social and shopping activities 

Mothers are also 49% more likely to have smartphones than the general population, with 8 in 10 owning them, up from only 8% in 2009. Mom smartphone ownership is up 25% this year, while tablet ownership is up 79%. Seventy percent of moms use a smartphone or tablet to shop, and one-third of moms say mobile devices accounted for half their shopping time or more. To reach on-the-go mothers, it’s essential for brands to build a robust and helpful mobile presence. Outside of the branded app, consider partnering with popular shopping apps to reach more moms on more devices.

Accessing mobile moms can be especially important for CPG and grocery brands. Nearly 50% of moms use their smartphones for grocery shopping, and 47% said it was because it made shopping easier and more convenient. Also, 36% said they used their phones to help them decide what items to purchase for a specific meal.

Networking moms also use their smartphones often to access social media sites. Mobile devices were used by 53% of moms to access their favorite social media sites (vs. 34% of general population). Moms also frequently use their mobile phones for texting (86%); getting online (61%); accessing social media (53%); and mobile banking (30%).

Moms are active social, mobile, and digital shoppers. For brands that frequently target mothers, being active where moms are most influenced should be a priority.

What if you could have an adviser with you every time you shop that tells you what product is good and what product is a dud? You do. It’s on your smartphone.

Let me introduce you to Trevor and Jane, fictional expecting parents. They’re deciding which diaper pail to choose. Jane uses her iPhone while in the store to scan UPC codes of each diaper pail to compare online prices, in-store prices and, more importantly, owner reviews. She doesn’t want a diaper pail that, well, stinks.

Now imagine you’re a major family care brand advertiser with a product relevant to expecting parents, and you serve Jane your ad in her shopping app. The ad isn’t intrusive, it’s helpful – studies show that when people shop, they’re open to ads for ideas and products that help them. She clicks it and comes to your “new parent checklist” of all the products she needs to bring baby home. You’re having a valuable conversation with Jane and Trevor that arms them with much-needed advice.

And you just created a brand loyalist.

Shopping apps benefit both consumers and brands

There’s an army of smartphone owners out there that are using their phones to help them shop – surprisingly, even for low-consideration CPG products. Over 40% of shoppers use their phones in stores to find deals. More interesting to CPG brands: 29% of men and 41% of women use their phones in-store to research consumer product details.

Shopping apps are incredibly valuable to consumers because they keep them from buying bad products at bad prices. And they’re incredibly valuable to brand advertisers because they get brands in front of a captive audience while they’re open to stuff they need.

The advertiser knows exactly what they need, too – simply by how the consumer uses the app. Their location, the retailer they’re in, the products they’re currently holding in their hand, as well as their scanning/shopping history reveal exactly what they’re already in the mood to buy.

When done right, mobile shopper marketing benefits both parties: The consumer and the brand. When brands provide relevant and helpful information to shoppers, they respond. Brand advertisers get to spend a little more time with their prospects in a more meaningful way than an interruptive pop-up for a product they don’t want.

Mobile allows for a richer conversation than traditional shopper marketing

What CPG company wouldn’t want to have a genuine conversation with these shoppers while they’re in a store considering their products (as well as their competitors’)? Most would probably say they’re already doing that with in-store shopper marketing executions – end-caps loaded with a particular product, life-sized cardboard cutouts of whatever soda that summer blockbuster action hero loves, machines that dispense in-aisle detergent coupons as shoppers pass by.

But while those traditional executions can be effective, they miss a big opportunity – they only communicate one way. Does the brand get to do anything beyond showcasing a line of products? Do they help the brand communicate any information beyond price? And is there any guarantee the shopper is interested at all?

Shopping apps provide a two-way mechanism. The brand knows what the shopper is interested in based on their scans, as we discussed. The brand can then invite them to a deeper conversation, for example, searching for the right shampoo by hair type and color – valuable information for the brand that lets it deliver a valuable result to the consumer.

Real-time mobile is stickier than traditional coupons

I’m impressed when I get a register coupon for a product I didn’t buy yet, but probably would like based on my shopping history. But I’ve already left the store! The advertiser is asking a shopper to hold on to a piece of paper in the digital age. If you’re anything like me, you have the best intentions to use that coupon, but it wastes away in some void in my home. One day I’ll find a mountain of expired coupons for stuff I always wanted to try.

Mobile coupons have a 10% redemption rate versus traditional coupons’ 1%.

Rather than placing a generic ad in a circular, wouldn’t a detergent brand prefer to talk to a mom as she stands in front of an energy-saving washing machine? As she reads reviews for the machine on her smartphone, wouldn’t the brand love to tell her about how its new cold-water formula can help that very machine get her clothes cleaner? Oh, and here’s a discount for it – she can pick it up just a few aisles away.

Adopting new shopper technologies will allow brands to have more meaningful, stickier conversations. In a digital world, we need to start thinking differently about what effective shopper marketing means.

Mobile commerce is here and it’s growing. Today 8% of women are most likely to buy on a mobile device (over in-store and via desktop/laptop), and 24% have made a purchase via mobile at some point. Commerce on smartphones is projected to reach $31 billion in 2016. While there is no doubt that there will be more direct purchases from hand held devices, the biggest impact on retail is yet to come: Its influence on the rest of the purchase funnel.

Awareness and discovery

As with other elements of content, shopping media has been transformed by the development and growth of smart phones and tablets. While mobile has bolstered overall viewing to platforms such as video (video viewing on phones and tablets increased 300% and 360% respectively last year), it has also significantly increasing the time people shop. As Digital is making store hours obsolete, mobile is slowly changing the way we view shopping. Window shopping is giving way to “couch shopping.”

Consistent with the rest of the online publishing industry, the percentage of retail mobile traffic is now in the double digits, and in many cases accounting for over 25% of a retail publisher’s overall traffic. As Smart phones and tablets have made it easier to surf the web, it is also that much easier to shop online. Beyond the purpose driven need to make a particular online transaction, browsing is growing. Sixty percent of all mobile users and 80% of tablet owners using their device for shopping, report beginning that research at home. Like couch surfing it is becoming yet another lifestyle activity and form of entertainment.

Consideration

No part of the purchase funnel will feel more impact from mobile than consideration. More than just shopper convenience, mobile has translated into consumer empowerment. What once required the diligence of doing your homework in in advance of a purchase, now simply means pulling out your phone. A variety of apps, along with mobile optimized shopper comparison sites, now let consumers compare prices at any time and in any place (including store aisles). Bar scan apps such as Shop Savvy are providing the ability to compare pricing at the actual store shelf, before the point of purchase. When searching for local products and services, 45% of consumers turn to their mobile device first, and 46% exclusively use mobile.

And this activity leads to purchases: 60% of smartphone users and 53% of tablet users have completed purchases after researching on their mobile device.

Digital coupons are ceasing to be something you print and bring to a store, instead becoming something you just open on your phone and acquire, even at the last minute. Mobile coupons boast a 10% redemption rate compared to 1% for traditional coupons. Mobile coupons’ portability and convenience will not only increase general usage, but also the variety of ways brands and retailers can employ coupons as a tool for customer acquisition and retention (i.e. mobile coupons dispensed in-store as a thank you for a purchase). With the ability to be tied to individual users, digital coupons represent less than 1% of all coupons – a huge opportunity for growth.

Even bigger than price is the mobility of social influences. Four in ten (41%) people have checked reviews on their mobile devices while in stores – and that number jumps to 73% for higher-consideration purchases in the consumer electronics category.

Offline, online, “nowline”

If digital brought the store to the home, mobile is bringing digital to the store. Beyond just transactional clicks, mobile’s impact on retail is already being felt at the store level. Much has recently been written about the concept of “showrooming,” where consumers do their research at the physical store, but ultimately make their transaction online. As referenced above, in many ways mobile has the potential be an equalizer for retailers in combining the information, perspective, and reviews of digital with the “touch” of the physical store presence. Many retailers are already moving fast in developing apps that can be utilized in-store for product information, price comparisons, floor maps, and even ability to earn loyalty points.

We are at just the beginning of digital retail, and it’s even earlier for mobile. For retailers, it’s time to explore beyond just the mobile optimization of their sites. For brands, the opportunity to engage with their digital customers out of home, and on the aisle will only get bigger. We are at just the first click of the mobile retail iceberg.

I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles to share. You can share articles you find interesting with me on Twitter at @Bazaarvoice.

Four totally insane marketing campaigns that actually worked
By Ekatrina Walker for Fast Company

Three of Ekaterina’s “so completely crazy that it works” campaign examples feature video. The common thread? Videos that get consumers to participate.

Samsung created a video promoting their new 7-inch Tab2 and calling all other electronics “useless.” They created a “useless auction” where people could bid on all the items that are no longer needed because of the Tab2 — TVs, cameras, phones, etc. The catch? Not the highest, but the lowest unique bid won each device, emphasizing their “worthlessness” in a world with the Tab2.

Volvo asked Facebook fans what they would do with £5,000 cash to spend on having fun — and showed up at the front doors of the people who gave the best responses. Using fans to create the videos themselves made the project scalable, and showed Volvo the sort of fun things their fans value — great fodder for future campaigns.

And of course, we all saw Red Bull’s now-famous campaign featuring a skydiver’s supersonic freefall from the edge of space. The genius in this campaign was making the event live — creating a conversational event that had everyone talking and watching together.

The content myths surrounding video advertising
By Phil Townend for Marketing Magazine

Branded online video ads account for 22.6% of all online videos that people watch. With four billion items shared on Facebook in a day, and 700 videos shared on Twitter each minute, that’s a big chunk of viewers. Figuring out how to scalably produce this content is essential for marketers, says Townend:

“A wildly successful video ad is usually seen as a black swan, an outlier that’s unpredictable and unrepeatable. Discovering how to create and distribute highly shareable content, repeatedly and at scale, should be at the top of every brand marketer’s wish list.”

One way to scale video production is to encourage consumers to create their own videos relevant to your brand — in the form of reviews and “haul videos” in which consumers share their recently purchased items after a shopping trip.

According to the research, many marketers are under the false impression that overbranding in a video will discourage people from sharing it, but the facts show it’s simply a myth. Studies show that videos that play to viewers emotions are much more likely to be shared (at least 30% more often). So, make people feel something connected to your brand and your video has a chance to make an impact.

Lowe’s gives home improvement tips in 6-second vines
By Todd Wasserman for Mashable

The home improvement giant Lowe’s has launched a new campaign on Twitter’s video service, Vine, called “Lowe’s Fix in Six.” The brand’s Vines feature six-second videos showing how to perform various DIY household improvement tasks. The subjects of the videos include: storing cleaning products, peeling stickers off items using a hairdryer, using a pillowcase to organize sheets, getting rust stains off utensils using lemon juice, using a rubber band to work with a stripped screw, and keeping squirrels away from your plants with a dash of cayenne pepper.

It’s a great example of using social to spread helpful, educational content that has real value for the viewer. They’re not six-second commercials — they’re six-second lessons that associate Lowe’s with helpfulness and achievement. The brief, useful content is highly sharable and fits the context of Vine well.

Gartner predicts that refusing to communicate by social media will be as harmful to companies as ignoring phone calls or emails is today
Via Gartner

While creating great content like videos is an excellent way to engage consumers in social, even a brilliant content strategy won’t make up for an unresponsive presence. Responding to customer inquiries and comments, and engaging with your fans is just as important as delivering helpful or entertaining experiences. According to Gartner:

“By 2014, organizations that refuse to communicate with customers by social media will face the same level of wrath from customers as those that ignore today’s basic expectation that they will respond to emails and phone calls. For organizations that use social media to promote their products, responding to inquiries via social media channels will be the new minimum level of response expected.”

The big takeaway is this: Consumers don’t see channels as unique. You see a call center, a support email address, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, etc. You (hopefully) see a place to create and distribute great content, like videos, that gets people to watch and share.

But what do they see? Your brand. And they expect the same level of service from you everywhere you are. Marketing leaders tasked with running social media campaigns need to plan for what types of inquiries to respond to, who from the organization should be the one to respond, and how to follow up after an initial response.