Category: Social Media

Have you heard of Cinch?

Tonnisha J. EnglishLeave a comment

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So as a Klout user I was invited to try out a new social networking platform called Cinch.

The dictionary definition of the word “Cinch” means: an extremely easy task.

Using the Cinch app is just that!

Need to know what to get your significant other for Valentine’s Day? All you have to do is pose the question and you will receive advice from other people on the network about gift ideas.

You can also personalize your profile so that you are able to answer questions for others.

As the internet and social media continuously evolve, more and more consumers are looking to each other for reviews on brands, products, and services. We trust that our twitter followers will lead us in the right direction when we ask which brand of detergent will make our clothes softer.

We are steadily moving further away from trusting what the brand says about themselves and moving towards testimonies from within our networks to make decisions about brands. We want to know how consumers use products and what are the pros and cons and with that information we will make decisions on purchases.

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What does this look like for brands?

No matter how much money you spend on your detergent advertisement, consumers still don’t trust you; unless maybe a friend or a follower tell them to. Consumers will no longer make decisions based on who has the funniest commercial. Purchasing decisions will be based on the recommendations from past and current users of brands and will be followed through based on the transparency of the brand.

Brands need to continue to move towards the idea of transparency to gain trust from consumers and maintain it; as well as gain new consumers. Without being open and honest, consumers may know a brand exists from that million dollar 30 second spot, but that does not mean that it will turn into a purchase.

While the app could be considered similar to brands like Yelp and those alike, Cinch found their niche and fulfilled an unmet need. Instead of focusing on reviews, the app focuses on recommendations. Users wanted a quick and easy way to get advice on products and brands and the app created just that.

The app has a slick, clean and simple look and is very easy to use.

Superbowl Social Media Hiccup

Tonnisha J. EnglishLeave a comment

It’s one thing to spend millions of dollars on a commercial but hey, that’s marketing. Public Relations is the earned brand awareness that now a days, comes mostly from social media.

And what is the worst day of the year to screw it up? Superbowl Sunday.

JcPenney’s took to Twitter last night with some tweets that had many typos. Similar to the “drunk tweeters” we find on our timelines around 2:00am when the bar closes.

The brand quickly cleared the air after twitter users, including myself, wondered if too many brews had caused the misconstrued tweets. Even Kia Motors offered to send their hamsters over to be the DD for the night.

JcPenney insisted that the typos were due to the fact that they were #TweetingWithMittens. Good Morning America poked fun at the hashtag by making a post of two employees also #TweetingWithMittens.

So, what really happened here? I mean to JcPenney’s defense, they did make a tweet before the game with the Team USA mittens:

But was that the real cause of the typos? It almost seems like it was a joke gone bad – they thought it would be funny to tweet with mittens and make typos not realizing it would get confused with drunk tweets? Or maybe T-Mobile shared their margaritas with the company? Who knows.

My concerns here are:

1. Why are you tweeting with mittens from the web – so you’re probably indoors. Why?

2. If this was a mistake, why are only 2/5 tweets made last night have this many typos?

3. It’s the biggest night of the year for pr/marketing professionals, why aren’t you proof reading your tweets before sending them out?

4. Think your pr/social media stunts through. Think about how some one could take a joke the wrong way. If your joke or stunt could be twisted into a negative, it is probably not a good idea!

In all, I do not believe this will hurt the brand at all but it was a minor setback and a little embarrassing.

On the other hand there was one company that had fun with social media and did it flawlessly!

Allstate’s Mayhem took to twitter last night poking fun at last years power outage amongst other things. The Mayhem also mentioned the wardrobe malfunction that we will never forget from ten years ago.

Both are great examples of how to be risky and funny, yet tasteful.

Unlike that awkward Butterfinger commercial. Yikes!

What are some other brands that did social media right last night?