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.

Facebook.com is an incredible marketing tool that allows yarn companies and yarn shops to see inside the hearts and minds of their customer. Having a fanpage about your yarn company or yarn shop puts your finger directly on the pulse of how knitters and crocheters experience your brand and allows you to gain  insight into their behaviors their perceptions, and even potential problems.

Once you understand exactly what it is your consumers love about your yarn and how they use it, you can begin to either solidify (if you got it right the first time) or redirect your brand message around your customer experience.

Furthermore, the viral effect of the fanpage is the modern version of word-of-mouth advertising– and it’s free! We love free marketing around here!

For the purpose of illustration, let’s just assume you’re a yarn company.  Suppose you had a Facebook fanpage where you began posting about how fabulous your yarn was partly because it came in larger skeins. But, after about a month of promoting this aspect of your product, you discover from your fan’s wall postings that the yarn base was VERY popular….. among sock knitters….. and the large skein that you thought was so fantastic, was actually falling short of meeting the needs of sock knitters  who were posting they really wished it came in smaller balls?

(sidenote, thank you to Maggie Pace for the image from her company Pick Up Sticks, She actually does sell “small balls”!)

In addition to providing this kind of quality feedback which helps you improve and refine your brand message,  you might discover confusion about your brand, inconsistency with your advertising messages or even hidden opportunities, like introducing the smaller skein of your bestselling yarn base!

Yarn Shops, can get feedback on your class offerings, feedback on yarn lines you’re considering and the best time to offer that Spring sale so it doesn’t conflict with something else in town that weekend?

Let’s examine one company using Facebook  and getting it right. With over 100,000 fans, the Lion Brand fanpage serves as an excellent feedback mechanism from consumers, as well as a direct (and cost-free) line of communication back to them.  A few things I noticed they do well:

• They’ve got their “Join our Facebook fanpage” prominently displayed on their website.
• They are using photos, videos, discussions and other tabs that help index content on Facebook. Don’t just rely on your wall postings.
• They blend a variety of “giving content” with “push content” — which means they offer content that is valuable to the reader like tips, tricks, free patterns and even  knitting humor. They’re not screaming “BUY OUR YARN” in every posting.
• They comment back and respond to their fans photos to further increase engagement.
• They connect to their other social media. Every so often, they remind the fanbase about the e-newsletter, and Twitter account  and also encourage fans to suggest the page to other fans, thereby increasing the viral effect of Facebook. I also like how they’ve listed the location of ALL these other vehicles in their INFO tab– that’s just where I’d look!

It’s never too late to get started on your Facebook page. Here is where you get started on Facebook.

I’d love to hear other examples of how a Facebook fanpage has helped your Yarn Company or shop? As always, if you need help or have questions, feel free to send me an email at Leanne (AT) thewoolwideweb.com

So, you’ve got an e-newsletter for your yarn shop but maybe it’s very small or hasn’t grown much in recent months. What to do? Here are some tips to build your consumer e-newsletter specifically for yarn shops:

Tip 1: Be sure you’re gaining PERMISSION to send an email to your customer. Too many times, yarn shop owners put out a sign-up sheet next to the cash register or have a fish bowl of business cards with a sign that says “enter to win a basket of yarn” without disclosing that you are planning to enter those cards into your database and add them to your email list. 

Are you collecting names in a fishbowl?

A recent study showed that 76% of consumers deleted an unsolicited email without reading it compared to 2% for permission email.  People who switched to permission-based emails reported seeing click throughs jump upwards of 10%.

I certainly encourage you to collect names at the point of sale, but be sure that your customer is fully aware that by putting their card in the fish bowl means they’re giving you permission to send them your yarn shop e-newsletter.

Tip 2:  Be sure your website has an automated sign-up form. Many services, including the one I use, Constant Contact will provide free, easy to use coding tools to create your sign-up form. You need only copy and paste into your website. This saves the hassle of manualy entry too! Read more about tips for creating a great sign-up form here!

Tip 3: Segment your lists. Once you begin to build a decent list, I’d recommend beginning an autoresponder program that is designed to further tailor the content and offers your readers want to see. Did you have 100 people click on your “free sock pattern” link in your last email? Those people might be great for another targeted email focused on sock yarns, sock pattern books, sock classes etc. Sending readers content they want to read ensures loyalty and that will reduce your opt-out rate.

Tip 4: Turn your “forward to a friend” into a contest. Offer a random freebie gift to a group of people who forward your email. Constant Contact allows you to easily see who did forward your email and you can choose a winner. Be sure your “join our mailing list” button is clearly visible and prominent in your newsletter.

Tip 5: Promote in your other social networks. Encourage frequent visitors to your ravelrygroup or facebook fanclub to sign up for your newsletter. Be sure your “signatures” on other forums such as knitters review, knitting daily and knitty include a link to sign up for your newsletters.

Please use the comment form to add YOUR best practices for increasing your e-newsletter mailing list!  Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for mine!

In my last posting, I blogged about the social media tool, Twitter and the many reasons WHY it’s so important for yarn shops and yarn businesses to establish Twitter accounts for your main identities. At the very least, set up an account for your knitting business or yarn shop name and your personal name—even if you never tweet in your entire life. It’s just smart identity protection. Read that post here.

Today, I’ll just give you some quickie marketing suggestions on how LYSO’s and yarn/ knitting companies can and should be using Twitter. First, I present the mother-of-all success stories: Dell Computer. If you’ve got a minute to read this article  from the gal who actually tweets for Dell, Stefanie N. it’s an interesting read.  Basically, she started out with “twitter exclusive offers” which were “retweeted” or repeated on Twitter creating an ever expanding message.

SO, why can’t YOU offer twitter-only offers for your yarn shop? Here’s a few tips to get you started:

1) Prepare a list of Twitter-only offers you can make in one month (yarn discounts, special knitting offers etc..) so you don’t have to think about it 2 minutes after you log into your Twitter account.

2) Keep it clever and funny. With so many tweets, you need to stand out and give people a reason to hone in on your postings.  “Novelty Yarn Sale, First 100 people to pound down the door get a free pair of 1990’s acid wash jeans”

3) Mix your offers with other interesting tweets— DON’T just be selling in your Tweets or you’ll be losing followers.  New yarn colors, new books, Class announcements (on the day of class?) are all good info.

4) Make your Tweets time-sensitive and include the call to action (which I’ve bolded and italicized here): “Come in before 5pm friday and ask for a free sample of the new Ravelry SOAK scent sample with any purchase” . Use Tinyurl to truncate longer website addy’s to get it all in 140 character limit that Twitter imposes.

4) After you’ve sent out a couple of tweets, follow others who might be interested in your shop. I use Monitter for live twitter feeds which you can search for key terms. For example, if your shop is in Dallas, Type in Dallas+Knitting, or the name of your shop to see who’s tweeting about those terms. Then follow them. They’ll likely follow you back.

5) Once you get rolling, consider some tools to help you manage Twitter. I use Tweetdeck to categorize the people I follow into “knitterati” “shops” “friends” etc… and I use Hootsuite to schedule tweets and monitor brands.  Check out this article in the Top 10 twitter tools to organize your Tweeps. which lists even more apps to help you  navigate the Twitter world.

Don’t worry dear yarn shop owner, I know this may seem very daunting and impossible– but it will be worth it

Malabrigo

when you DO have people banging down the door for the new Malabrigo worsted merino in Ravelry Red in that just arrived.  The knitting world right now is VERY dialed into community and exclusivity… you can take advantage of those two traits with Twitter.

 If you think sticking an Addi Turbo in your eye sounds more fun than all this… I’m happy to put you on my social media monitoring and marketing program and get you started, or do it all for you. Just send me an email at inqury@thewoolwideweb.com

Good Business to you! Leanne