How to Use Social Media for B2B Marketing

Social monitoring report 2: Kiehl's

After I post my first monitoring report of Kiehl’s, something has changed for Kiehl’s since then. However, some problems I found in my first post still exist. In this post, I will continue to monitor some changes of Kiehl’s and considering the problems I find in my post, I will also figure out some steps that Kiehl’s can generate more buzz in the groundswell and enhance customer engagement.

l  Increasing fans in facebook and twitter 

 



                                                     

According to the data or graphs I get from twitalyzer and socialbaker.com, I find that Kiehl’s fans in twitter and facebook keep increasing, though slowly as well. More importantly, I can’t see any obvious peak in the graph. The line is very smooth and looks almost like a straight light. Actually, in last few weeks, several new campaign of Kiehl’s really work, but not very obvious. Considering that after I make a presentation last week in the class, most of American classmates know nothing about this brand, actually, the number of fans of Kiehl’s are relatively fewer than other brands that their tags are beauty. A ranking list of the facebook fans of beauty products in socialbaker.com shows that Kiehl’s is ranked 336^th.

Obviously, Kiehl’s failed to attract more attention in social media, which can prove that Kiehl’s is not as well-known in the U.S.A as I image before I monitor this brand. And I also find something interesting that no one ever rate for Kiehl’s on this website. So it’s necessarily to enhance customers engagement in the groundswell.

 

 

l  Kiehl’s people talking about

 

  

 

                                                                                                                                                                          A graph I gain in socialbaker.com shows an upsurge of Kiehl’s people talking about from Oct 29. The facebook account of Kiehl’s also highlights an increasing trend of “people talking about this” since October 25. I will talk about something that is contributed to this increasing trend below. As a matter of fact, lack of enough buzz in social media is one of reasons why Kiehl’s is not as well-known as I image before in the U.S.A. The trend tool in ice rocket shows an increasing trend Oct 26 and then drop down after Oct 30.    

l  Social mention

The information I gain from social mention shows that on November 5, the strength of discussion and the reach up to 28% and 45%, which is the highest during my monitoring time. However, the passion, only 36%, is lower than the other two days November4 and November 6. Compared with the other two days, the sentiment on November 5 is also up to 10:1. The ratio of the sentiment shows that the majority of the mentions are neutral.

l  New campaigns after I post monitoring report 1

1.        How you stay youthful at heart

Obviously, this campaign is mainly for Kiehl’s new product NEW Rosa Arctica Lightweight Cream and eye cream. Actually, this campaign really works on boosting the number of people who talk about Kiehl’s in social media. We can see this trend in the graph “Kiehl’s people talking about”.

 

2.        Limited Edition Creme de Corps

100% Kiehl’s net profit up to $200, 000 from the worldwide sales of limited edition Creme de Corps will support children’s charities around the world. I only find this campaign in homepage. However, it doesn’t be showed in social media, such as facebook or twitter, which help little to generate buzz in the groundswell. As we all know, the package of Kiehl’s is very simple, which is consistent with its tradition of this brand that is found as an apothecary and dedicated to science. But this time, Kiehl’s have partnered with pop-surrealist artist Kenny Scharf, for its Limited Edition Collection. So, the package of this limited edition looks very beautiful. 

3.  Quick response to the public events

Obviously, this post in facebook has nothing with any products of Kiehl’s. But this action of Kiehl’s bring warm to those who are suffering in that serious hurricane Sandy and leave a great impression on consumers that Kiehl’s is reliable brand.

l  Customers who don't use English to comment can receive replies from Kiehl's

In my second stage of monitoring work, from October 20, 2012 to November 6, 2012, some changes were found on the Facebook page of Kiehl’s. The customers who don’t use English to comment have received replies and particularly, the languages of replies given by Kiehl’s are consistent with the customers did.

l  Compared with my first post, I find fewer negative comments in Kiehl’s facebook and twitter.

l  The responds of Kiehl’s to the negative commens is sitll as quickly as I monitored in my first report.

l  Major problems of Kiehl’s

1.      Lack of enough buzz in the groundswell.

2.      The customer engagement is insufficient.

l  Steps for kiehl’s to generate enough buzz in the groundswell and increase the customer engagement

1.      Listening to the groundswell. “Your brand is what your customers say it is. And in the groundswell where they communicate with each other, they decide.(page 78)” Kiehl’s indeed have a recommendation session in its facebook page. However, all recommendations don’t have a reply from Kiehl’s. Maybe Kiehl’s will carefully read them, but its customers know nothing about this. Listening to the customers and acting on their recommendations are both important. Customers will be encouraged to engage with Kiehl’s when they know that their recommendations really work. And acting on reviews or comments help Kiehl’s build up a trust relationship with its customers and increase loyalty customers.

2.      Talking with the groundswell. The only social media platform facebook I monitor is mainly for deliver the latest information about Kiehl’s. Most posts in twitter page are for reacting for customers. And also, there are very few viewers in the YouTube page of Kiehl’s. Obviously, Kiehl’s is not good at creating chances for consumers to buzz about it. Particularly, it’s a little boring in Kiehl’s blog, which can’t attract more viewers. According to the marketing funnel, the first step is to get people’s attention. Kiehl’s should pay more attention on how to attract more customers in social media. Besides uploading its latest campaigns and promotions, the blog of Kiehl’s should allow people to add comments. If it doesn’t, there is no dialogue and Kiehl’s are no longer talking with people as they make decisions about its products—and that’s the whole point.

3.      Energizing the groundswell. “With so many products trying to get people’s attention, shouting at them isn’t as effective as it used to be. And once they reach the middle of the funnel, shouting hardly works at all.(page 102)” Energizing the groundswell is particularly important to cosmetic brand. Customers prefer to believe in the recommendation of their friends. It’s disappointed that Kiehl’s haven’t provided a chance for customers to communicate with each other. Actually, the most important thing is to cultivate enthusiastic customers. The power of word-of-mouth is very strong. Kiehl’s can build up a website and take advantage of its official blog to allow customers to share their stories and feelings about Kiehl’s.

4.      Helping the groundswell support itself. Indeed, consumers can get some reviews about Kiehl’s products in the page of facebook or twitter. However, those reviews are not classified by different products. So it’s not convenient for customers to find what they want to know as quickly as they can. As a matter of fact, many customers prefer to read the reviews and comments on the homepage of Kiehl’s. However, customers can’t reply to these reviews on the official website. Consequently, Kiehl’s can provide a website for customers to post their reviews and classify them by the names of products.

5.      Embracing the groundswell.

A single website for customers to post their ideas is good choice for Kiehl’s. And the links of Kiehl’s official site, facebook, twitter and YouTube page can be added on the website. In this community, customers not only can post their ideas but also communicate with and help each other.

 

l  Conclusion

 Kiehl’s, a long-history brand, is still popular among the customers around the world and is dedicated to provide the safest and the most useful products to its customers. Nowadays, the movement groundswell is a trend we can’t stop it. That’s the most important point in the movement groundswell. Just like you are standing on the cliff edge, only flying over canyon with some social technologies tools can you reach the prosperous side. If you turn back, you will fall behind. This is the reality. The history will move on. If you can’t change the world, then change yourselves. An old brand, Kiehl’s, try its best to keep up with the development of this society. Although for now, Kiehl’s haven’t done a good job in the groundswell, it begins to figure out how to thrive on the groundswell. In all, Kiehl’s should try to be more energetic in social media. More importantly, it will be better for kiehl’s to take initiative to listen to and talk to the groundswell instead of just reacting to its customers passively. Kiehl’s needs to build up a more energetic image in the groundswell.

Creating a community for your customers

http://empowered.forrester.com/groundswell/book.html

 

After reading the chapter 9 to 12, I have a deeper understanding of five primary objectives, listening, talking, energizing, supporting, or embracing, that can be achieved by groundswell. Nowadays, almost no companies can get rid of the groundswell—which can help you deliver and get some information to and from your customers. Besides outside of companies, groundswell also brings transformation to inside companies.

 

Actually, in chapter 9, it gives us three cases about embracing the groundswell. After finishing the reading of these cases, I, as a consumer now, begin to think that what’s it for me? It’s true that many companies regard their customers as their God. They not only provide the best products and service to them, but also involving them to be part of brain power. “People who’ve connected with customers in this way are always amazed at how much more quickly they generate ideas. It’s because they’ve just supercharged their dozens or hundreds of engineers with thousands or millions of other minds (page 183).” However, customers will ask “what’s it for me?” To be customers, they will think how do they post ideas on the website. If they do, do these ideas or suggestions really work? What they can get from them?

 

 

 

The case in the chapter 9, salesforce.com: embracing through an innovation community intrigues my interest on this website. After launching the salesforce.com Idea-Exchange (ideas. salesforce.com) and the ideas were channeled and directed by the groundswell of Salesforce. com’s own customers. In one year, over five thousand ideas arrived; now the best ones bubbled to the top. I am so interested that why the customers of salesforce.com have a lot of passionate to post their ideas. When I open salesforce.com and then click the session ideas, I can read that “Welcome to the IdeaExchange. The IdeaExchange let sales. Com customers get involved. You can suggest new enhancement, vote and comment on your favorites and interact with product managers and other customers.” According to this short introduction of IdeaExchange, we can know that it’s not just post ideas on the website, more importantly, IdeaExchange help salesforce.com create a community to its customers.

 

Besides posting their ideas on the website, customers also can add a comment on other ideas as well as vote for their favorites. As a matter of fact, they can help each other in this community. Most importantly, their ideas actually work. When I open the website salesforces.com, I find that the top idea contributor, top vote contributor and top merge request and comment contributor are listed on the website. And newest achievement of these ideas, Deliver in Winter’ 13, were released recently.

 

 

 

              

In addition, starbucks also leave me a great impression. “Are you ready to change your company’s reputation? Do you want people to think of you as a company that listens(page 193)?” Starbucks does. Starbucks create a website, also a community, My Starbucks Idea, for consumers to post their ideas, interact with other consumers and talk with featured starbucks idea partners who will be on line to listen to your ideas, ask questions, tell you what you are doing behind the scenes and make sure thinks run smoothly. Just like salesforce.com, customers also can add a comment on other ideas and vote for their favorites. Consequently, the most popular one will be bubbled to the top. More importantly, “they’d have to prove they’re ready to listen to their customers and act on those customer’s suggestions, right at the point of sale(page 193).” In My Starbucks Idea, we can find the ideas in action, which shows that starbucks are listening to their customers and the ideas from them really work. It’s true that the reaction in ideas will encourage more customers to talk to starbucks and also help starbucks a lot to improve its products and services.

 

 

              

“So work on both fronts in your company—muster up the humility to listen and tap into the skill to take what you’ve heard and make improvements(page 194).” As matter of fact, a good community is not only can help a company embrace the groundswell, but also listen to, talk with the groundswell as well as helping the grounds well support itself.

Social Monitoring of Kiehl's

Before beginning my graduate study in the U.S.A, I have already become a big fan of Kiehl’s. Kiehl’s was founded as an old-world apothecary in New York’s East Valley neighborhood in 1851. Today, they serve patrons around the world skin and hair care formulas derived from the finest, most efficacious natural ingredients. By combining tried-and-true methods with the latest innovations from Kiehl’s chemists, they assure the high level of quality and efficacy their customers have come to expect from Kiehl’s for more than 160 years. Since Kiehl’s was built as an apothecary, it dedicates to bringing the safest and the most effective products to its customers. If anyone comes into a Kiehl’s shop today, you will find that the store looks like a chemist’s shop and clerks also dress medical uniform. And if you know anything about Kiehl’s, you will know Mr. Bone, the life-size teaching skeleton and Kiehl’s icon appears in all their shops. Today, Mr. Bones represents Kiehl’s pharmacy heritage, commitment to customer service, education and science. In addition, Kiehl’s also promised that they won’t test on animals, which is another reason I admire this brand.

I have been monitoring the social media works of Kiehl’s from September 30, 2012 to October 19, 2012. In the last three weeks, I used several tools below to finish my monitoring work, Social Mention, Facebook Insights, Ice Rocket, Google Insight, Twitalyzer, Tweetstats, Famecount and Alexa Web Infromation Tool . From the data, graphs, website I collect during this monitoring, I have a further understanding of how Kiehl’s, a brand that has a long history, thrives on groundswell. In addition, though overall, Kiehl’s performs well in social media, I still figure out something that Kiehl’s should pay more attention on and improve them.

 

• The presence of social media platform



The appearance of Kiehl’s products is simple, not as gorgeous as other cosmetic brand. This kind of style is also showed in different aspect of this brand, such as its r social media platform, facebook, twitter, or youbube. According to the snapshots of website, an obvious feature is general appearance of snapshots don’t seem colorful. The design keeps consistent with brand’s tradition and also its formation of target audience--almost half consumers are male.

• The landing page of “Kiehl's” official website

 

•  The target audience



From Alexa Web information tool, we can see that unlike other cosmetic brand, male customers cover almost half of the website visitors in Kiehl's. However, the major customers are females who are in the age between 25 to 34. Most of them have children and brows  from school or work. According to the chart, about half of them receive college education.

• The followers of twitter and facebook

 



 

  

                                                                                                                                                                                          From the tools facebook insight and twitalyzer, the number followers of Kiehl’s drop down and almost keep the same since October begin. From the graph, we can see that from Sep 18 to about Sep 25, the number of people talking and new likes increase sharply and then showing a reduce trend after that. Considering I haven’t began to monitor social media work till September 30, I check on the internet and know that a 20% off big sale, friends&family, was held from September 18 to September 24. However, after the big sale, without any other campaigns or promotions, the increase of followers in facebook and twitter become very slow and almost stay the same.

 

• The social memtion analysis

 

Through observation from social mention, besides on october 14, the strength reach 17%, the percentage in sep 30, October 5 and October 19 are almost the same. Obviously, sentiments on that four days show a similar trend as strengths do. The majority of the mentions are neutral. From the graph, it’s very obvious that besides passion, the percentages of strength, sentiment and reach are much higher than the other three days, which is attributed to an introduction of sales promotion through facebook on October 8 and October 14 is the last day.

• The citation in blog

The blog citation begins to rise from Oct 11 and reach to the top on Oct 12. However, the overall graph looks relatively smooth instead of noticeable up and down. Speaking of blogs, the blog of Kiehl’s doesn’t show interactive communication with its  consumers.

     

The blog of Kiehl’s doesn’t be updated very frequently and I find something special that I can’t add a comment in the blog except sharing it with other social media tools. Consequently, maybe the major mission of this blog is talking to its consumers. Because of limit time, I just take a glance at the content of blogs. About half of the blogs are about Kiehl’s products, and the rest are the campaigns of this brand. Perhaps Kiehl’s doesn’t need to collect feedbacks of its consumers from blogs. However, interactive communication is not just to collect information from customers. More importantly, it can encourage engagement of consumers with this brand. And it’s not difficult to open comments function in the blog

• The campaigns of Kiehl's

Many campaigns launched by Kiehl’s are about Kiehl’s Gives. For more than 160 years, Kiehl’s since 1851 has been committed to the betterment of the communities where it serves its patrons. Kiehl’s Gives is an ongoing global, philanthropic initiative that supports Kiehl’s three pillar causes — HIV/AIDS research, environmental issues and children’s well-being.

“Kiehl’s Gives is a celebration of our causes, our customers and our communities.”

--Chris Salgardo, Kiehl’s U.S. President  

 

                                                                                    



In this campaign, customers are encouraged to like this post to show their support of children’s health, which is a good example of talking and energizing with the groundswell.

 

The data show that the number of people like this is much more than those actually share stories with others. Maybe Kiehl’s should make some improvement on engagement of customers with this campaign.

 

Sharing your stories with others

Every female is dedicated to keep a younger looking in her whole life. There is no doubt that cosmetic products, just like Kiehl’s, provide a chance for us to have a healthier skin. Besides that, something in your life keeps you young at heart are also important. Kiehl’s tries to attract its audience psychologically through this campaign.

• Conversations in facebook and twitter

No matter the comments are positive or negative, Kiehl’s replies its customers in a short

 

I still find something that Kiehl’s needs to pay attention on. That is some foreigners don’t use English to comment in facebook. If Kiehl’s can use these customers’ spoken language to reply them, which is a good way to get closer to foreign customers.

• Conclusion 

After monitoring Kiehl’s social media marketing, I make a conclusion as below. Obviously, Kiehl’s is a long history brand and a good reputation among its customers. Consequently, the most important thing for Kiehl’s is to increase loyalty of its customers and then develop prospective consumers. It’s good to see that the tradition of Kiehls, pharmacy heritage and commitment to science, pass from generation to generation. The major way Kiehl’s talk with the groundswell is from facebook and twitter. Actually, they have done a good job. According to my monitoring, Kiehl’s upgrade its facebook and twitter to introduce its new products and its campaigns. As a matter of fact, Kiehl’s is not a brand have new products very frequently, because some formulas of its start products have been existed for a long time and texted by the time and customers. In addition, besides high quality products, Kiehl’s also provide good service. No matter the comments are positive or negative, almost every comments can get a reply in a short time.

 However, compared with twitter and facebook, Kiehl’s blog seems gaining little attention from customers. It surprise me that the blog can’ be acted a comment, which reduce engagement of customers. Actually, besides the 20% off big sale, the campaigns launched recently didn’t generate enough buzz in the groundswell, which doesn’t be shown in the noticeable increase followers in facebook or twitter and   remarkable raise in blog citation observed in ice rocket. Especially in the facebook, there are few comments under the campaign. As far as I am concerned, as a long history brand and not attracted by customers with its frequent new products and nice design of pack, especially male customers cover almost half of its market. The most important thing is to raise royalty and engagement of its target audience. An old brand also need some fresh air and learn how to thrive on groundswell

In the next few weeks, I will continue to monitor this brand Kiehl’s about its social media work.