This Door Might Cause Complaints
News

interior doorThe door would be normal except that the door handle is pulled up and the door is pulled to exit.

That’s two strikes for most people They can handle the door being pulled in, but complicating things by pulling the door handle up is a bit much. The image is poor because I was inside an imaging center with someone and had to hurriedly grab a cell phone photo while the radiology tech intoned, “Pull Up” in a tone usually heard when parents tell a pre-teen, well, anything for the fifth time that day.

The room behind us had machines that cost more than my car, maybe more than my first home.  There were other rooms with MRI machines and other acronyms that most people hear during bad times or on television.

The place was a tribute to modern medicine, scientific advancement and the best that money can buy.

Except for the door.

And let you think I’m going to rail about the door handle being installed in a way that isn’t typical, I am here to reassure you that I understand these things happen.  They’re dumb things to have happen when everything else is great, but we all understand they happen.

 

My issue is with the two pieces of tape that read:

To Exit,

Pull Handle Up ^

Worsening matters is the up arrow drawn in black marker and unnecessarily labeled “Up” on a door that some purchasing agent negotiated hard to buy for a good price.  All of this activity–the drawing, the two arrows and the word “up” takes place at the waist-high height where most people reach a door handle.  This is in a room filled with people who don’t regularly visit so the simple act of opening the door to leave frustrates the staff.  Their annoyed tones are the last thing people here, and the thing they remember.

The answer for this organization is to simply buy the proper door handle and a simple “Pull” sign available at any office supply or hardware store. If the staff really had to take matters into their hands, something posted at eye-level would help.

But even that only solves the problem of the door in the imaging room.  The bigger, possibly organization-wide issue is that no one is experiencing the organization as a customer does. This minor issue could be a symptom of something bigger.  At best, the cheapo solution doesn’t work. At worst, people may leave with a sense that of something amiss, all because of frustration around a door handle and the way the organization dealt with it.

Your takewaway as an organization’s leader is to walk through your organization this week like a client or prospect does.  What takes special knowledge to understand, and what is idiosyncratic to your firm?  Could you benefit from a mystery shopper program?

What kind of messages is your firm sending for lack of a minor change?

You don’t have to pay a lot for a program if your firm is still small. Offer to switch places with a trusted partner and compare notes.  You’ll bond with your partner, and you’ll both save money.

News

Sharing on a Pinterest board is a hobby millions of people enjoy. Many marketers, especially national brand marketers, quickly followed the passionate pinners online and began doing what marketers do best.  They did everything possible to encourage people to pin information about their brands.  So far, so good except now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says some of the activity can seem a little too much like an undisclosed endorsement.  That is a huge blow for organizations running social media contests.

In a March 20 letter to the attorneys for shoe manufacturer Cole Haan, the FTC’s Mary Engle wrote that a contest Cole Haan had sponsored created a situation where “…participants’ pins featuring Cole Haan products were endorsements of the Cole Haan products, and the fact that the pins were incentivized by the opportunity to win a $1000 shopping spree would not reasonably be expected by consumers who saw the pins.”

Engle, the FTCs Associate Director for Advertising, said the agency would not recommend enforcement action because they had not previously addressed whether a contest entry is a form of material connection.  They also had not yet commented on “whether a pin on Pinterest may constitute an endorsement”.  Cole Haan apparently worked with the FTC and adopted a social media policy that would similarly address any similar promotions in the future.

This is important. Read the words again.

The FTC has publicly said that “entry into a contest to receive a significant prize in exchange for endorsing a product through social media constitutes a material connection”.

You already know that people endorsing your brand for an incentive must disclose the relationship. Now the FTC is saying that requiring one of your products to be pinned on a Pinterest board for a contest entry requires that same disclosure. Guidance for other social media contests may be issued, and that is something you should watch for.

Your takeaway as a small business leader is to understand how even innocuous-seeming contest entries in social media channels can create the “material consideration” relationship the FTC warns everyone about.  You should talk with your attorney once and have that person help you create boilerplate you can repurpose later. Not doing so is to create a lot of risk for not much reward.

The link to the FTC’s letter to Cole Haan is in PDF at their site.

Case Studies

Moms Clean Air Force faced a daunting task. The organization wanted to harness the power of mothers throughout the United States to advocate for clean air to local, state and federal governments.

Why mothers?

The group knew that unclean air—whether in homes, schools, or outside—causes disproportionate health hazards to children.

Moms Clean Air Force logoHarnessing a crack editorial and social media team, the organization received funding from the Environmental Defense Fund and many celebrity endorsements.

Digital Director Shaun Dakin knew early on that the group would have to advertise in addition to reaching beyond traditional editorial channels. A skilled marketer in the public-private sector, Dakin also knew that stories were important to connect with audiences, but successful organization leaders rely on metrics, not just anecdotes.

“I asked Silver Beacon Marketing to help us solve advertising on search engines, on Twitter, Facebook and other social media,” said Dakin. “I worked with them in the past and knew that they don’t present fluff or fake numbers. Everything they do is strictly ROI driven.”

Silver Beacon’s passion for return on investment paid off handsomely for Moms Clean Air Force.

“We collaborated on powerful tracking reports immediately,” Dakin said. “Those reports helped the organization decide our priorities. Then Silver Beacon began advertising and found ways to match actions through multiple channels. Using analytics methods that most organizations can’t create for us, Silver Beacon showed us which channels worked for building community and the actual costs of adding a new community member and having that community member convert to our mailing list. The bottom line success metric is moving people from the web to our email list.”

Silver Beacon’s focus on return-on-investment (ROI) gave Moms Clean Air Force the confidence it needed to build a Facebook community that engaged with decision makers and also joined the group’s mailing lists for local and federal activity. The company continued weekly reporting to the leadership team on costs and ROI.

More responsibilities followed. A request to audit the organization’s website found more opportunity for improvement, and Silver Beacon Marketing built a new website for the organization while assuming responsibility for search engine optimization, website analytics and web development.

Successes of the Social Media Case Study, Advanced Search Optimization & Advertising

  • Cost-effective social media and search engine advertising opportunities
  • Search engine optimization of the organization’s website
  • Analytics reporting and analysis to organization leaders
  • Rebuilt and hosted the organization’s website