Twitter is a fast paced social media network. It’s important for every company to engage with their users through social media, but unless you have a lot of spare time, or a person dedicated to moderating social media, it’s easy to miss things in the shuffle. This is particularly true with Twitter, and engaging users into ongoing conversations is challenging. Customers are always reaching out to companies through social media. However most of this feedback is getting lost and ignored, and many companies treat Twitter like a traditional broadcast channel, filling their feeds with promotional posts. Just like the other social media channels your company uses,  you should be be building a community and engaging in conversations with customers.

Now with Twitter Nests all of this is possible. Nestivity is a community engagement and management tool for Twitter. Nestvity is the first and only tool that can turn your Twitter handle into a community. Nestivity allows you to connect with your followers in structured conversations organized around topics you choose. You can turn tweets into projects and discussions that are easy for you to moderate, and easy for your followers to find, follow, engage, and share.

With Nestivity your followers are invited to share their experiences, questions, and ideas; which is probably already occurring. The difference is with Nestivity all of that feedback is organized, accessible, and easy to use. Incoming tweets in your community are categorized, sortable, and searchable. Your message is echoed throughout the Twitter universe, and can be shared through other social media networks. As your message is shared, more people will become engaged and join the conversations, strengthening and growing your Twitter community.

All mentions and Tweets from your Twitter account are stored, so you can extend the shelf-life of your conversation threads. This data can also be used to gain deeper understanding of your community.

There is no lack of options for consumers in the fiber industry, so engaging your community and listening to your followers is essential to setting your brand apart from the competition. By engaging and building your community you can gain loyalty from your customers, and improve your business to better fit their needs.

The recent incident that played out on Ravelry concerning Trendsetter’s copyright violation serves as a great case study in what to do when your company or your brand suffers a social media crisis.
In a nutshell, Trendsetter was accused of stealing the design for the knitting pattern, “Wingspan” from designer Maylin Tan. They said in an email to the designer that they had made minor changes to the pattern and had consulted a lawyer which they felt allowed them the use of that pattern in kits and selling it in a booklet. Designers cried fowl and the crisis played out in the designers group on Ravelry.com—a forum for the fiber community. In the end, Maylin felt that Trendsetter resolved the issue to her satisfaction with a donation to a charity of her choosing.
Here are a few of my takeaways from this incident:

Be Prepared
First and foremost, this crisis is a harsh reminder of the power of social media. When stakeholders have an issue with your product, your brand or your company, the negative backlash can spread like wildfire, causing major damage. Being prepared means not only having an internal company policy on how to deal with a social media crisis including who will respond, what you will say and how you compensate aggrieved parties. There are many social media articles online on how to prepare a plan.

Act quickly
When crisis hits, too many people ignore the issue hoping it will just go away. The first 24 hours of a crisis is the most critical time period to respond. “Trendknitter” (the owner of Trendsetter Yarns, Barry Klein) replied on Ravelry after 117 posts had gone up about the issue but still on the same day as the crisis hit. Although his comment about “everyone shares patterns” put him a bit deeper in the hole, I do give him credit for his quick response. Overall, his response was good because he was apologetic, sincere and admitted wrongdoing.
Had Barry been my client, I would have recommended that as soon as Trendsetter became aware of the posting on Ravlery, he should have jumped in with an official, personalized, sincere response without a lot of details.  A good response could merely have included three elements: Admit the mistake, Apologize for the mistake, Describe intended process toward resolution.  “We are aware that we have made a mistake in our use of the Wingspan pattern and want everyone to know we are truly sorry for the pain and suffering this has caused everyone. We are working with Maylin to resolve this issue quickly and to her full satisfaction”. This may have been effective in quelling the growing mob mentality that ensued without providing all the nitty gritty details which ended up being picked apart by the objectors.

Don’t Delete
Further, although it’s extremely difficult to see your company facebook page plastered with negative comments, it’s worse to delete posts. Instead, I do recommend that an official company response to every comment showing your commitment to sincere dialog and resolution of the issue. If you’ve got to delete something (such as the original offering of the pattern) then do so with a follow up comment so that it does not appear you are hiding something. In Social media, forthright communication is always the way to go.

Have a strong tribe
In the new world of social media, the voice and opinions of your customers can be MUCH more powerful than the voice of your company. If you don’t have a tribe of evangelistic supporters, you’re going to flounder when crisis hits. In a perfect world, Trendsetter would have been working to build an engaged audience of loyal knitters, crocheters, designers and other industry leaders who could have helped defend Barry’s (maybe not his action, but certainly his character and his inarguable commitment to the industry) and may have made an impact in the final analysis.
With only 2K facebook fans and no presence on Ravelry whatsoever, there was no tribe to step in when the mayhem started.  Moreover, Barry could have also TURNED to the tribe to get feedback on this issue before he got into trouble with the designers.  For example, he could have done a poll on Facebook or just posted a question about this pattern and accepted use in the designers group. Remember that having a strong facebook or Ravelry following is not always about converting that engagement into sales—it’s also useful for valuable feedback.
I might also add that having a strong tribe does NOT abdicate your responsibility to respond as the CEO or leader of the company. Again, I applaud Barry as the owner of Trendsetter for responding sincerely using his own profile account and in his own words. I’ve seen more than one instance where the “company spokesperson” (Knitpicks anyone?) has been the official voice of the company which further alienates that company from the customer and just makes the mob more angry.

Mark the end of the crisis
When there is resolution, be sure that you post to indicate the END of the crisis. This encourages everyone to move on and achieves closure for everyone. In this case, a moderator posted on behalf of Maylin that the issue had been resolved to her satisfaction with a donation to Knitters without Borders. She also noted that Barry had asked her to post a reply. Both of them might have been better served if they had done their own posting  to indicate that the crisis was over and that both were happy with the outcome.

Get help if you need it
I hear it all the time, “I just don’t GET Ravelry (or facebook or twitter)”… and that is not an excuse for ignoring social media. Yes it’s confusing, Yes, it’s time consuming, but if you’re like most people I talk to in the yarn and knitting industry, you’ve spent years building a business, a brand and a product or identity you want to protect and grow. Don’t risk what you’ve worked hard to build by ignoring social media.
The Wool Wide Web is a marketing consulting agency that specializes in helping yarn and fiber companies build a social media presence. They can be reached at 719-539-3110

It wasn’t that long ago that you called or even wrote a letter to address an issue that needed to be rectified with a business. Whether you contacted themtocomplain or to thank them for their service, both of these channels were viable contact points, but the response time could vary and there was significant effort put forth by the customer to contact the business. In today’s internet-driven world, businesses have lost the control over the customer; it only takes one disgruntled customer on Twitter or Facebook to damage your brand image.

The whole point of social media is to encourage interaction and communication. We all know that if used effectively, it can be a great promotional tool to increase brand awareness and showcase your business, but users have become used to getting answers and feedback within hours of posting. Most customers don’t have the time or inclination to phone your business and wait to speak to someone when they can quickly contact you publicly on your Facebook wall or @mention you in a Tweet.

It’s important to listen to what is being said about your brand online. You can set up google alerts (insert link) to receive updates in your email inbox with mentions of your business online. That way you can address issues and promote posts that highlight your business.

Make social media work for you
Social media is the most transparent communication method as all questions and answers are personalized and public. Here are a few things to remember about conducting customer service through social media:
1. Be there for customers when they need you, respond quickly and don’t make people wait for each answer.
2. Provoke interactions and build relations–if someone pays your business a compliment through social media thank them with a re-tweet or a short message.
3. Be honest and acknowledge your mistakes, show customers you deserve to be trusted.

Another thing to remember is that deleting negative comments and complains gets you nowhere – it does not solve the problem of an unhappy person and if it is seen by the community, it will unleash a storm of criticism. Try to respond and help that person instead, no matter how angry he or she got. You might also be tempted to resolve inquiries that come in over social media offline, by phone or by email, but again transparency is important. Do everything you can to resolve an issue over whichever channel they reach out.

Train your staff
You never know who on your team you might need to handle social media at some point. During a crisis or heavy customer service times, you might need everyone helping out. Don’t assume that someone who deals with customers in person and over the phone will know what to do over social media. Some people who are really great at customer service might not necessarily understand a company’s voice on social media.

As social media continues to grow, it is really important for businesses to accept the fact that consumers will turn to online channels to either complain about service issues and in many cases praise you. It’s very easy for your customers to go elsewhere if you fail here, so unless you get this point of your customer journey right whatever you achieve with your social media marketing can be damaged by your lack of care.

If you own a yarn shop it’s important for you to connect with potential customers-knitters who live near your shop. It’s easy to find Ravelers in your area who also tweet.  Go to “advanced people search” and type in “twitter.”

Select a number range in the left-hand column that reads Distance from Me.  From there you can click on peoples’ profiles and be whisked away to their Twitter feed!

If you’re new to Twitter,  this is a great way to start  populating your account with potential customers and loyal LYS enthusiasts alike.  You never know who might show up to your next event!

A while back I ordered a kit from an online store; when it arrived in the mail they’d forgotten to include the patterns!  I sent them an email explaining the situation and within a day or two they responded and e-mailed me the .PDFs.  I was a satisfied customer, but what if my e-mail had bounced back or they didn’t respond to me in a timely fashion?  When the phones are down, the shop is closed, or the e-mail inbox is full, what’s a customer to do?

Increasingly, customers have been using @ mentions on Twitter to get their attention.  Any time a user references your account in a tweet using the @ symbol in front of your username, you are notified – and once the ball is in your court, it’s time to let your top-notch customer service do the talking!

The immediacy of Twitter provides both parties in this equation with distinct advantages:

1.     Problem is resolved quickly – sometimes only in a couple of tweets.

2.     Responding to customer service issues in a public forum shows you care

3.     Customers will feel like you are more available to them

4.     You will both save time and money

The following thread of tweets is a good example of these points:

yarnyjane

@sampleyarnstore I’ve been trying to call your shop all morning, need to speak to a human please- my order needs to be adjusted and sent out!

20 Dec Favorite Retweet Reply

yarnyjane

@sampleyarnstore please respond!

20 Dec Favorite Retweet Reply

sampleyarnstore

@yarnyjane Can you let me know the order # and I’ll see what I can do? Our shop is closed but I may be able to help.

One more note:  Be sure you respond to customer feedback and comments as soon as possible to maintain your stellar reputation in cyberspace, making the immediacy of social media work for you! Just as the viral aspects of social media can boost your sales and visibility, an unhappy customer whose needs are not addressed in an appropriate manner can have the reverse effect.  Before things spiral out of control, be sure you have responded to comments and complaints to address your customers’ needs.

We’re moving our Wool Wide Web marketing posts over to our new platform for Yarn Shops– Yarndealer.com

So hop on over there and check them out!

Facebook is a great platform for yarn retailers, manufacturers and yarn companies to reach out to their audience. I’m often asked, “what’s the best way to build the fanbase quickly?” so I thought I’d take the time to give my feedback on this question.

Although the total number of fans is certainly an important metric, it’s NOT the end-all, be-all. Some of my clients have highly evangelistic fans that do more to tout the brand than having masses of low-quality fans that never translate to sales and have little net benefit for your company.

The key here, is to build your fanbase by targeting your outreach in an effort to attract and engage those fans that will have the most influential effect on your brand.  Otherwise referred to as the mavens, the connectors, the influencers, these are the people most likely to blog about your product, post projects in Ravelry.com and tell all their friends on Knitty.com how much they love your new yarn, knitting needles, knitting book etc….   OK, so how do you attract them??

Giveaways, Promos & Contests:

We’ve had a lot of success lately with targeting giveaways, promos and contests on client fanpages.  In one such case study, we did a series of regular Friday afternoon offerings for Manos del Uruguay that resulted in a huge jump in fans and followers of their social media accounts. I know we’re discussing Facebook but when we carried this giveaway over to Twitter, the brand-new account leaped from 7 followers to over 200 in just under a month’s time.

Here is a sampling of giveaways, promos and contests that have had stellar success rates for our clients:

• Participation in a naming contest– we’ve done contests for both patterns and yarn colors. Our color-naming contest for one client cost us only one skein of yarn, but brought in invaluable feedback from fans for owner to work with. And SUCH creative submissions— that one was fun and the fans really appreciated hearing their voices heard and suggestions considered.  I’m confident we created a lot of customer loyalty– and again, just for the cost of a skein of yarn.
• Giveaways to introduce new yarns— gaining traction on a new yarn can be slow-going sometimes. Giving away mini skeins or even full skeins allows your most loyal fans the opportunity to touch and feel the yarns, or even swatch on or complete a small project. We encouraged users to upload finished projects which resulted in more social media fodder to discuss on Twitter and Ravelry. This was a win-win and gave the client a nice jump-start in the introduction process.
• Giveaways once you hit a certain number– Although I think this sometimes brings in a lot of fans that may not be as targeted… I have seen numbers surge overnight with the offer to do a giveaway once a target number is reached. In one particular example, we were at 385 fans and offered $100 gift certificate once the fanbase reached 500. I thought it would take a week or so, and we hit the mark in just under 48 hours. Knitters are voracious for a giveaway like this, that’s for sure…
• Limited Promotions–For one client with a large following, we offered limited promotions to our most active Facebook fan users. In this case, we scanned through a month of activity and created a limited-time offer on a needle sale which was extended only to that select group of fans. Our hope was that this small group of influential users would replicate the offer to their network creating a viral effect. We were also confident that an offer recommended by a trusted, well-connected influencer would be redeemed at a higher rate than if  it came directly from the company. Sales were very healthy for this particular campaign.

Hope this gives you some ideas for increasing your Facebook fan page numbers….I know I should be saying “Like” numbers, but that phrase still feels so strange to say it that way! I’d love to hear what’s worked for you too! What other tactics have you used successfully in your yarn or knitting business that you’d like to share? Email me at admin@ (domain) to share!

Happy Holiday’s and hope Santa brings you stockings full of knitting joy! Leanne

Confession:  I’m falling behind on the blog  because I’m inundated with client work and the phone keeps ringing….. I think it’s time to expand the team:

http://www.thewoolwideweb.com/JOB.htm

Position closes December 31st, so if you have the right combo of marketing chops and knitting knowledge, please apply!!

I came across this article recently about the average value of a Facebook fan: $136.38 and I wondered what that value is for companies in the knitting industry.  Are your “fans” 28% more likely to use your yarn brand than non-fans as this article suggests? What about members of your Ravelry group? How loyal are they?

The researchers used five variables to measure the value including product spending, brand loyalty, propensity to recommend, brand affinity, and earned media value.  Without rehashing the entire article, (I know you can read it too), I believe this is an important argument as to WHY we need to continue to be engaged with our knitting audiences.

Lest I have been remiss in reminding you of an important point with social media:

“familiarity builds trust and trust earns the sale”

We do know from industry survey’s that Facebook continues to be a hub for knitters and crocheters: The breakdown as follows:

Facebook: 67%
Ravelry: 38%
YouTube 29%
Twitter: 16%

The growth of Facebook continues to amaze me:

• Facebook is the #2 most visited website behind Google
• 50% of users log on daily
• The average user spends 7 hours per month on the site

When I asked Casey for stats on Ravelry, he replied, “In a normal month, we have only 250,000 users who use the site but 6,000,000 visits and 130,000,000 page views.”

OK, so I’ve asked the questions here, but not really answered them.  For most companies, the exact ROI from these users is going to remain nebulous because your efforts don’t typically exist in a vacuum right? Buyers are seeing you on ALL the social media channels and maybe even print ads, podcasts, videos etc… so it’s going to be impossible to trace the value of JUST the Facebook fan– because that loyalty has been reinforced by other means.

One of the things I do recommend is to capture buying statistics whenever possible. Take a look at your ordering systems to see how you can integrate a feedback mechanism. Your sales agents and/or your shopping cart forms can help you collect some of this data.

*Sigh* Today is June first,  the beginning of the summer season.  If you’re in the yarn & knitting industry you know you’re about to face a long summer of sluggish sales and possible cash flow troubles (unless you’re lucky enough to be in a tourist town like my lovely shop Fringe).

In light of the “panic” I always hear this time of the year, I wanted to provide some helpful tips and ideas to take advantage of the slower time here:

Optimize your website for mobile users:
Mobile phone use is increasing at an ever increasing clip. Over 93% of Americans own a cell phone and mobile phone use is up 34% from last year. Trends indicate users are engaging in what’s called ROBO behavior, “Research Online and Buying Offline”. That means, they use their mobile phones to look up your shop, check the hours, get directions and then come in to buy yarn.

According to this article on SearchEngineLand, 20% of Americans access the mobile web everyday. With FourSquare, Twitter Geolocation and Yelp for Mobile on the rise, this is not a passing trend.

Quick summer tasks here include:

• Ensure your key contact info is accessible and obvious on every page (phone, address, directional information (we’re across from the marina etc).
• Experience your website on a mobile platform.  Opera has a mini mobile view just for this purpose.
• Create a mobile-friendly version of your site. Use a converter like Mofuse for this purpose. There are also wordpress plugins for mobile use.

Optimize Your Website for SEO

An often neglected task that’s worth revisiting in the summer. What are your stats looking like for your website? Could you use this downtime to work on search engine optimization?

Quick summer tasks here include:

• Relevant Commenting on other blogs
• Improving your social bookmarking (here is a good list to start with)
• Work on your inbound links (reciprocal are not as highly valued as incoming)
• Improving your title tags, and keyword density

Begin to lay the foundation for your FALL social media efforts:

I wish social media worked like my lightswitch– *flick* and you instantly have 100 fans on Facebook and 100 followers on Twitter. If this were true, I’d be out of a job!  Although social media is an incredible tool for engaging your customer base, it doesn’t happen overnight. NOW is the time you should be laying the groundwork for Fall:

• Set up your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Ravelry.
• Design your backgrounds, headers and such to brand the spaces.
• Begin to generate postings which eventually build the traffic— by Fall you’ll be poised for the busier season.

I might add– that if you DO have a nice social media following already– then congratulations! This is one of THE BEST ways to stay in touch with your customers when they’re NOT coming into the shop during the Summer! Connect with them through contests, events and sales to motivate in-store visits.

Other things to consider during the Summer slow season?

• Evaluate and freshen up your merchandising and displays.
• Have you considered carrying other non-seasonal items such as gifts, fabrics or beads?
• Offer summer events to get folks in the store such as wine-tastings, yarn crawls, Ravelry parties or other clever ideas.
• Take a breather and care for yourself! Now is the time for personal restoration or vacations!

Of course, if you find you want some help with any of these tasks–our full media kit of services offerings is available here. We also offer a new line of service offerings dedicated  to website improvements and SEO. Download that here.