April 10, 2010

Natalie Malaszenko

Director, Social Media & Commerce

Blog: petcoscoop.com

Twitter: @petco, @GenNaturalPet, @NatalieatPETCO

Facebook:

Better Business Blogging - Using Your Blog to Engage

with Customers

2222

blog (blŏg) n.short for weblog; an online diary, a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page. typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

2

3333

COMMUNICATION 2.0

• Human beings talk with each other – a conversation

• Traditional corporate communication and marketing is a one way communication – easy to ignore

• Blogging opens new ways to communicate

4444

EUREKA! WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT…

•Write what you know and about what you like

• Show that you are just like the customers: Share experiences, stories, best practices, and who you are

• Combine your passions and hobbies with animals

• Think about what would add value to a customers life

• Ask yourself what you would find interesting to read

• Subscribe to other blogs (pet and non-pet; corporate and non-corporate) to get ideas and have blogs to link to. examples

5555

WRITING THE ENGAGING POST

• Compelling Title: Catchy, short and simple

• Do your research! If you don’t customers will for you

• “Link Love”: Add links to other sites, blogs, petco.com, etc. Let them know when you have linked to them

• Add photos or videos (also known as vlog’s)

• Speak with the customers, not to the customers. It’s a conversation, not an essay, press release or marketing material

• Stay under 500 words. There is no such thing as a post too short, but a post can be too long

• Don’t write anything that you wouldn’t want your mama, your friends, your CEO, your manager or legal to see!

6666HANDLING COMMENTS

• Think like a customer (again) when reading and posting comments

• Never underestimate the value of a sincere “I’m sorry…” or a “thank you” with no strings attached

• Answer the tough questions, and do so with honesty and transparency

• Response to issues must happen in minutes and hours, not days and weeks.

• When negative issues arise, deal with them head-on as quickly as possible

• Don’t engage in argumentation• Don’t ‘side’ with negativity publically• Don’t be negative

7777

Can’t make everyone happy…..at first

• There will be critics

• Initial reaction, when negative, will not last

• Same people who are resistant are often the same people who champion it

• Criticism and negative chatter is a GREAT opportunity to change perception and tell people YOUR side of the story

AND DON’T WORRY!

8888

But MOST Importantly…

9999

HAVE FUN!

10101010Have fun sharing what you do with your fans!

Blog posts driving awareness for float and how community can win prizes during parade including pre-parade letting people know on the blog that if they hold a sign and PETCO sees it, they can win prizes:

Through twitter and facebook shared photos, comments and contest questions live from the float.

PETCO vendor Natural Balance had the Guinness Book World Record Breaking “World’s Largest Rose Parade Float”. To drive awareness and conversations a PETCO associate rode on the float and used social media to bring the event to the world live, through facebook, twitter and blogs pre- and post- event.