23 Mar The Power of One Knowledgeable, Dedicated Social Media Marketer
You can’t go through your feed reader these days without running into a number of posts about corporation x’s new use of social media.
However, I’d like to dig back into the Dark Ages of 2004 to pull out this nugget of social media goodness from an industry close to my heart.
I love taking backpacking trips, and like many modern backpackers, I have discovered the importance of lightweight gear. The lighter the load, the more miles I can cover in a day and the more I enjoy the trip. One typically heavy piece of gear is a water purifier that makes the water you pull from lakes and rivers potable. I can’t recall where I first heard about the MSR MIOX purifier, but I remember it sounded like a good, lightweight product. So, like any good member of my generation would, I looked it up on Google.
One of the top links was a 2004 review of the product on Silverorange Stuff, a product review site created by a team of web developers. The review itself was not remarkable, but what happened next was: Katie Bolek, a marketing manager at MIOX, left a detailed comment, 
explaining who she was and clarifying some of the details in the review. Katie’s initial comment was 1 month after the review was posted and 7 days after the first comment was left (Katie’s comment was the third comment on the post) – again, keep in mind this is 2004. One brave commenter, noticing that an official representative of the product had responded, asked Katie a direct question comparing the MIOX to a competitor’s product. Katie responded with another detailed post that, while highlighting the benefits of the MIOX, also provided relevant praise for aspects of the competitor’s product, suggesting that in some situations the competitor’s product would make more sense.
With her detailed knowledge of the products and industry, her honest approach and timely response time, Katie successfully gained the trust of the other readers. She continued to build this trust by answering specific questions of potential buyers and current users of the MIOX. Katie commented a total of 53 times over the course of 2 years.
Currently, this product review and subsequent conversation rank high in Google search results. Here are a couple examples of these search results:
- “msr miox” – 2nd main link (above Google’s shopping results)
- “miox review” – 1st
- “msr miox review” – 2nd
- “steripen versus miox” – 3rd (Steripen is one of MIOX’s biggest competitors
This means that most web-savvy consumers who research products online, will likely find this conversation if they look for the MIOX.
Readers of the Ignite blog should already know the benefits of a two-way conversation like this and the effect it will have on a company’s bottom line, but I’ll let one of the later comments from this review explain specifically:
“I want to thank Katie and the many others on this forum
who have contributed such a wealth of information. The
level of community and vendor support on this page was a
significant factor in my decision to buy two MSR MIOX
gadgets. (I believe anything worth buying is worth buying
twice.)”
Katie followed the basic tenets of corporate social media:
- find where the conversation is happening
- listen
- get involved
- be transparent
- be helpful
I love that this example from 2004, when the term “Web 2.0” had only just been coined, still exemplifies an extremely successful approach to social media. Over the last few years, some of the platforms where these conversations are taking place has changed, but the best way for businesses to participate remains the same.
Before you start thinking of the additional costs of participating in social media, I will refer you to Jim Tobin’s post about social media marketing trends in 2009 where Jim suggests a Return of People to social media marketing:
“Being human can be a tremendous marketing advantage,
freeing them from $20m, $40m or $100m advertising budgets.
That pays for a lot of staff…”
One Katie Bolek on staff, getting involved in the right conversations in the right way, is worth a lot more than some Facebook or banner ads.
