Integrating social media with traditional content marketing

E-Newsletters Making a Comeback on Prezi

The E-Newsletter is Making a Comeback

Integrating social media with traditional content marketing

E-Newsletters Making a Comeback on Prezi

Run Away with Lululemon

Social Media Monitoring - Lululemon Athletica

     It has been two weeks since my last social monitoring on athletic clothing brand Lululemon Athletica. For the purpose for better analysis and a deeper focus in trends, I have chosen to narrow my scope of research to Lululemon’s Run campaign. It is unlike other traditional campaigns because it does not stick to one theme of running. It is on-going, ever-changing and not limited to a single brand ambassador or one large theme. The campaign evolves from the love for running. Although Lululemon is very much a yoga brand, it endorses running as the next most important activity. The Run ambassadors are launched along with their new running gear. This second attempt at monitoring Lululemon’s Run campaign documents the brand’s social media activity from September 19^th to November 6^th 2012. 
     Lululemon has dedicated this fall season to focusing on the love for running through their online presence on their homepage, blog, facebook, twitter, pinterest and youtube channel. In the past two weeks, Lululemon has changed the color of their logo on social media sites from Black to Hot Pink. As I had commented on my last social monitoring post, their twitter page was not aligned with their current campaign on their website. However, that has changed as well in a positive way because since the, it has changed its backdrop to match the website's campaign, linking all its social platform sites together. What I have also noticed is that local Lululemon stores are encouraged to have their own Facebook and Twitter account so actually make customer engagement more intimate and relatable. This is the missing puzzle piece from my first Lululemon analysis. Local Lululemon facebook pages post about local charity runs, marathons and running groups. 

     Three Lululemon Run ambassadors featured in October: Tom, Jill and Jessica. This campaign heightens with the launch of fall/winter running gear. A lot of posts and events about running campaigns are consistently circulated through Lululemon’s online platforms. Not until this past week in November, did we finally see a campaign specifically for winter running “Let’sbundle up and run!”, which features their newest winter running apparel and gear.

     Looking at the snap audience analysis for Lululemon using the Alexa tool, the Internet averages show that Lululemon.com is visited more frequently by females between the ages of 25-34, have no children, and are college educated. I compared this to female runnersstatistics, which says the average age of female runners are 38.6 years, 61.9% are married, and 78.7% college educated. Lululemon needs to expand their target audience to reach those above the age of 34. 

• Consistent increase in followers and fans

     Lululemon’s Facebook and Twitter pages have a positive and steady growth in followers. Facebook went from 729,134 fans on October 4, 2012 to 741,439 fans on November 4, 2012, which is an increase of 12,305 fans in a month! [socialbakers] 

• Interest over time

     Compared to its competitor GapAthleta (red), Lululemon Athletica (blue) draws significantly more interest over time, from September to the end of October. However, it is evident that the interest in Lululemon is not steady and constantly rises and drops. Gap Athleta is more consistent. Gap Athleta created a link on their main website to encourage people to donate money to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane, which shows their community and charitable outreach. Lululemon did not address this issue online. This could be a reflection of the lack of deeper penetration and innovative social media marketing. October 31^st, marked the lowest point in interest with 64/100. It rose slightly with the introduction of the Winter Running gear.  [Google Insights]

• Blog trends

     Almost little to no activity on the blogs – very few ‘retweets’, very few ‘likes’ and very few ‘pins’. There are outliers for the two posts on October 12, which could be explained because it was very much emphasized online unlike the other posts. This is the brand’s weakest social media platform even though it holds the most information.

Blog Post	Date	Tweet	‘Like’	‘Pin It’
Catching up with Jessica	October 22, 2012	0	40	2
Run Pant Rundown	October 20, 2012	3	18	0
Run Into Fall Playlist	October 12, 2012	6	127	43
Catching up with Jill	October 12, 2012	8	100	7
Catching up with Tom	October 8, 2012	4	32	2
A Glimpse at New Gear	October 7, 2012	3	28	0
In the Face of Injury	September 21, 2012	0	17	4

• Twitter trends

     There is an absence of any ‘Run’ campaigns being tweeted and no ‘Run’ ambassadors are actually represented or linked through tweets. I have been cautiously following their tweets and have not seen any activity in relation to ‘run’ ambassadors. Very rarely will there be tweets on running gear. This is certainly surprising to me because I see that Twitter can be used more to promote cohesiveness of their ‘run’ category in their brand. Their Twitter page seems to lack transparency as only @lululemon tweets are visible and conversations can be viewed if clicked on only. However, it is evident that although the @lululemon Twitter followers are increasing, the number of tweets per day by @lululemon is decreasing (look at monthly tweet colored graph). It is a severe drop in statistics! [tweetstats]

• Qualitatively, a few things have changed both positively and a few negative things remain unchanged

     After two weeks, there are still no replies on how Lululemon only goes till size 13 when advertising Run ambassador and their Run Swiftly gear, Lululemon ignores their comments (even though they aren’t rude) and responds only to specifically ‘product related questions’. The comment on the left is very positive and attempts to help the brand expand its reach and its market, yet Lululemon's customer representative refuses to even acknowledge the customer's friendly suggestion. 

     On the other hand, Lululemon handled a very angered customer online in a very professional manner. They thought of the customer and did not just ignore the size issue. The post received 197 ‘likes’ and over 70 comments of other angry customers. Lululemon responded within the hour and was the first comment. The response from Lululemon was very positive and understanding, which eventually won the support back from customer ‘Nicole Valle-Garay’. Lululemon was smart in knowing that if this case was left unattended, it would lead the groundswell to fight back. At that time, this comment had already received 197 ‘likes’ and over 30 comments. 






     The focus on a Run campaign this fall has dramatically changed conversations online. Although Lululemon is most prominently know for their yoga apparel, the run ambassadors and the launch of the run campaigns have successfully marketed a different side of Lululemon online. A significantly more amount of posts from customers online ask about running related products than yoga related products. This is a sign that the run campaign over the past two months have been successful.

     Online followers seem to love the run campaign posts a lot more than the posts about yoga, meditation, etc. It is because the ‘likes’ for ‘run’ posts outnumber the posts about other physical activities. The image below is a comparative example of two recent posts, one for running and the other for barre exercise. 

     Over the past few weeks, there has been a very distinctive trend in the company’s posts. Their posts are often very product-oriented or do not really engage the customers beyond social media. Lululemon does a good job of posting regularly but the content itself is a little dry in my opinion. Lululemon is an international company but they have not even reached 1 million ‘likes’ on Facebook. The brand needs change their approach to attract more social media followers.

• Final analysis and goals to improve Lululemon's social media marketing

     Lululemon Athletica is a very successful sports apparel company that has fully integrated social technology as a part of how the company runs its marketing. The challenge for Lululemon is not in creating those ideas but in the selection and management of their current platforms to effectively and efficiently exploit them. Therefore it is not what should be changed in Lululemon’s online presence but what they can improve on. These improvements are best explained through the objectives of thegroundswell: 

Listening: Lululemon is very informal yet professional in their tone when engaging with customers online. I have observed that Lululemon listens to customer product enquiries and questions concerning already purchased products. Lululemon’s customer representatives are very prompt with these responses. The ‘listening’ is reserved for specifically product orientation and sales. They think in terms of ‘how do we help them buy?’ instead of ‘how do we reach out to more customers?' It might be good for Lululemon to expand their ‘listening’ to other areas of their company, not just to sales.

Talking: There is an obvious neglect of responding to criticisms of their products, specifically comments that address how Lululemon does not offer larger sizes in their clothing. It is always ignored and easily so, because the Lululemon community online do not acknowledge these outliers either. This doesn’t mean that Lululemon as a brand should not respond and listen. Listening to those who criticize the brand is the first step towards building a greater online community and deepening the relationship between brand and buyers. It will also broaden the company’s audience reach and grow its customer trust and loyalty. The response time is important but it is even more important to simply acknowledge criticisms appropriately. 

Energizing: Another aspect of marketing Lululemon can improve on, is by developing innovative ways to energize their customers, followers and fans. After monitoring the Lululemon community, I’ve found that they the most effective energizing methods are the blogs dedicated to Lululemon products. Lululemon Addict for example, is a blog created by a Lulu fan and posts pictures of new products almost daily. It is very visual and incorporates different people wearing the products. This is free marketing for Lululemon, but unfortunately, there are only less than twenty comments each post. It may be an alternative and free marketing strategy for Lululemon, but it may have little to no effect. Lululemon’s Facebook posts don’t have a very high number of ‘shares’ either. Energizing the groundswell is so much more than that. The need to develop a customer engagement section on their website that is truly dedicated to customer testimonials. They are the most credible source of product and brand review. Like other companies that I’ve researched for my past blogs, experience is the key to success. How does Lululemon make their products an experience that transcends beyond the online realm? One way is by developing a creative campaign that involves customers and their products. They could create a competition where customers create a 30-second video featuring what they love to do in their Lululemon gear. These videos would be put up on their website where other customers can vote. It could be a charity themed competition or an inspirational themed competition. The winner would win a shopping spree at their closest Lululemon store! This campaign idea is both energizing and engaging. It will also bring the Lululemon community together and strengthen the company’s mission statement.

Supporting: The openness and community Lululemon created through its various social media platforms have really encourage the groundswell to support each other. The company itself is not the only respondent to customer concerns and questions. On their website especially, Lululemon rarely responds to actual customer product reviews, most responses are from fellow shoppers. Many Lululemon customers help to answer questions if they have experienced the same problems or concerns. A suggestion is for Lululemon to reach out to their most active customers and ask if they’d be interested in joining a support community. Encourage Lululemon community ambassadors to actively participate in conversations online. Ask Lululemon bloggers to use their blogs as a forum for conversation and product review sharing in line with the current campaign. Lululemon must create a stronger community of support.

Embracing: Lululemon, as mentioned earlier, has fully integrated popular social media sites in their marketing. Their marketing serves to drive community development, the importance of health and the benefits of fitness. With such a widespread reach of followers, Lululemon should optimize their platforms by crowdsourcing: asking the groundswell to provide ideas. It is the most effective and affordable way to engage their customers and show them that you listen. It could be as simple as putting aside one product a month for a customer design contest. It can be a gear as small as a neck warmer but it will be big and attention grabbing. 

     According to the positive trends and analysis, Lululemon has successfully launched their Run campaign. However, I do believe that Lululemon can always improve by understanding what their marketing objectives are in the groundswell. It is evident that certain social media platforms are much stronger than others. With the social media tracking tools, Lululemon should understand what marketing plans work better than others for the business. Marketing should extend offline as well, such as organizing a Hurricane Sandy charity drive attract press. Although it may seem as though I have put forth a plethora of online marketing improvements, I understand that not everything will be practical or easily adoptable by the company. Their mission of health and wellness does come through their Run campaign and certainly impacts their fans and followers. It is more than an athletic apparel company; it is the whole experience of receiving the product and wearing it while doing what you love. They must show the groundswell that they are a lifestyle. Ultimately, Lululemon must deepen their customer engagement and discover that the groundswell has so much more to offer. Their exercise of the groundswell is only at the surface. 

The Groundswell Today – Not A Thing of the Past

Stay updated through the groundswell

            Business strategy books run the risk of becoming outdated due to periodical changes in the business world. Groundswell, however, has not fallen into that dilemma. Ina way, the groundswell sticks to traditional marketing objectives used by businessesfor the past decade but it knows how best to adapt to changes. We are the user, moderators, facilitators…however you want to call us…of the groundswell. It is there for us to appropriate for the benefit of our company and customers. In conclusion to the Groundswell book, Li and Bernoff describe the evolution of the groundswell as the ‘ubiquitous groundswell’. “The net result of all thisaccelerating activity is that the groundswell is about to get embedded withinevery activity, not just the computers, but on mobile devices and in the realworld”. This ultimately means that social networks will connect people with the groups they care about.

            Don’t you think that everyday, we push the cyber boundaries of the groundswell and are taken by surprise? I certainly know from my personal experience that the future of the groundswell is happening everyday. I receive immediate updates on my iphone of new emails, I tweet to my followers and I geotag my instagrams. Throughout all of my social media activity, I am constantly learning something new. I am assimilated into social media, but I would not that that I am fully assimilated. “All that’s missing is participation – by more people, and by morecompanies – and that’s coming. Rapidly.” Li and Bernoff also remind us that it is not about the technology, because if we were to focus on that aspect alone, companies would get nowhere and companies will lose control. Their social media marketing strategies will be “outdated” if technology was a priority.

It is also important to learn from other social media marketing gurus. Tim Leberecht, chief marketing officer at Frog, helps to spark and nurture new thinking among marketers all over the world by teaching them “3 ways to (usefully) lose control of your brand”. First, you can give people more control through collaboration to create new ideas (embracing). The second, is to give people less control with more meaning. Giving people less control counters the abundance of choice that customers might have online. Letting employees and customers interact limits that radical openness of the company (speaking). The third is to stay true to the brand’s true self. Do you think your company could live by these three advices?

The groundswell can help any business, no matter which stage of success or failure they are at. From a dying business to a thriving one, the groundswell is always there to help. Patagonia is a outdoor clothing company that released a daring sustainability campaign online and offline called “Don’t Buy This Jacket”. It is a part of their mission to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. “It would be hypocritical for us to workfor environmental change without encouraging customers to think before they buy.” Patagonia is honest with their consumers, so much so that they are willing to address the need to reduce consumption event though they thrive on product sales. They used the groundswell, like blogging, to spread this campaign and their website to gather pledges from enthusiastic fans. They have acknowledged the reality that brand identity and staying true to their mission is put on a pedestal online. They are marketing their brand’s transparency and it is working.  

The future of the groundswell is what is happening right now, how we are using it today, and not what we can predict it will do tomorrow. Taking risks involve making immediately decisions and the groundswell encourages that because of its unlimited possibilities and outcomes. Patagonia took a might big risk. I want to encourage companies to do the same but to understand your objectives thoroughly first before submerging into the groundswell. Make Li and Bernoff proud!

Li and Bernoff Groundswell Lessons summarized:

• Never forget that the groundswell is about person-to-person activity
• Be a good listener – listen to customers, employees, etc.
• Be patient – take that first step towards your journey, it will take time
• Be opportunistic – progress is progress even if it is small
• Be flexible – continue to adjust and learn from decisions
• Be collaborative - use support from colleagues and customers
• Be humble – understand that power in the groundswell does not belong to you

Please feel free to leave me any questions or comments.

Lululemon Athletica

Social Monitoring Report 1

     As a loyal customer of Lululemon, I immediately felt drawn to monitor its social media presence. I believe in their brand, their mission and the products to deliver greatness with every Lululemon product I own. Choosing Lululemon as the case study in my social monitoring project will help me go beyond my relationship with the brand as just a customer. I will be dipping my toes into the marketing world and attempt to give back to the brand with the skills I have attained through amateur social media marketing experience. This social monitoring project aims to create a portfolio of Lululemon’s character, habits and voice in the social media world as well as a personal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Lululemon Athletica is a self-described yoga-inspired athletic apparel company with stores in major cities all over the world. Their mission is to “create components for people to live long, healthy, and fun lives”. Their seven core values include: quality, product, integrity, balance entrepreneurship, greatness, and fun. 

Campaign Analysis

     Lululemon has created a campaign of brand ambassadors from all over the world. Selected to represent the Lululemon brand, these ambassadors are ordinary people who are passionate about certain athletic related activities. These individuals are chosen weekly and become the focus of their marketing. I have been monitoring Lululemon’s social media activities since September 29^th in an attempt to analyze the brand’s strengths, weaknesses and trends of their online marketing. Google Insights, Social Mention and  analytic tools that I have used to construct a overview of their social media presence. 

Social Media Presence

     There seems to be a lack of cohesion in the campaign idea, maybe because the campaign of ambassadors is not strong. I observe that Lululemon’s Facebook page is the only page that coincides with the main website and promotes the ambassador, however the other social media platforms do not. Their Twitter page is very vibrant and abstract unlike the others, perhaps because there are always so many tweets and so much going on. Their YouTube page offers funny and inspirational videos, but the uploads are random and there is not much emphasis on product-specific videos. Their blog is created as part of their website, which is clever because it makes their website much more user friendly and interactive. Based upon the comments and ‘likes’, the blog has little online activity. In addition, they also have social media sites with Pintrest, Flickr, and Instagram. 

Home webpage Lululemon.com

     The high-definition photography on the homepage is stunning and visually appealing. You can see how the ambassador truly becomes the focus of the website.

Target Audience

     Using the Alexa web information tool, the audience demographic for Lululemon is clearly represented in a chart. Based on Internet averages, lululemon.com is visited more frequently by females who are in the age range of 25-34, have no children, are college educated and browse this site from work. It is clear that males are greatly under-represented relative to the general population, even though Lululemon has a wide range of men’s wear. It successfully appeals to females but it fails to appeal to men.

Social Mention Analysis

 Social Mention showed that the percentage for strength and reach dipped and rose again over the course of 30 days. The sentiment steadily decreased over time from 10:1 to 9:1 and finally to 5:1. It shows that the number of positive sentiment has significantly decreased from 126 to 68 only, significantly affecting the ratio of positive and negative sentiment. This decrease in positivity reflects the recent customer posts on Facebook. Customer have been more likely to post about concerns and problems they have with the brand or product, and happy customers have not been posting much. The number of unique authors also decreased over time. The week of August 10 marked a slow social media presence for Lululemon with only 1% strength, 13 hours average per mention and 0 retweets. I expected the results to be more extensive, especially because it is such a popular brand.

Trends

• Facebook insights with Socialbakers - Lululemon online fans are growing positively and steadily over the past 30 days

• Twitter insights with TwitterReach, Socialbaker and Twitalyzer

• Decline in YouTube viewership of Lululemon Ambassador campaign videos

• Google Insights 30 days comparative analysis for Lululemon web search show that the company's social media campaign and marketing is more successful in 2012 than 2011

     Lululemon's Facebook and Twitter followers have significantly increased over the weeks.  Their facebook account receives a whopping average of 404 fan 'likes' per day! Their popularity is soaring according to social media statistics, but the change may not be due to their ambassador campaign. In fact, the section on qualitative analysis will go into detail about the effect of the ambassador campaign on facebook. I would attribute its online success to the forms of marketing that reinforces the brand, not so much the campaign. However, it is arguable that perhaps the ambassador campaign does have an impact. The highest peak in Google Insights "Interest Over Time" graph is dated October 15, which coincides with the blog post on Springfield Avenue ambassador Gina. The lowest drop occurs on October 11, with the blog post on "meditation for your yoga rut". The statistical trend seem to shock me because the comparison of these two topics posted on Lululemon's facebook timeline do not match the statistics of the blog posts. The facebook post on Gina received only 27 'likes', while the post on meditation received 327 'likes'. The decline of viewership of ambassador YouTube videos may prove how the campaign is not strong enough.

Qualitative Analysis

• Absence of buzz created with the Lululemon blog - even the blog post that coincided with the peak in 'interest over time' graph does not draw much attention

• Speaking: Transparency with customers on their products and materials - a very important trait for companies to grow a community of consumers loyal to the brand

• Energizing the groundswell: Active integration of alternative offline marketing strategies through Steve, the Pace Beaver (an innovative and in-your-face publicity tool), posted on facebook and on the blog to get consumers to market for them through word of mouth marketing

• Relevant humor created in response to social media movements - YouTube trends
• Embracing the groundswell: Lululemon really tries to embrace the groundswell through social media. The brand is most active with their customers on Facebook. Customers do comment on how the stitching comes undone or how their product should also be made for more voluptuous women. Customers are embraced by the Lululemon customer service team who respond to these disappointed customers in a way that is constructive and respectful. Lululemon does a very good job communicating with their customers to ensure that their product and brand lives up to their mission and the expectations of customers.
• The response team has a very personal and human tone of voice and sign off each comment with the name of the Lululemon team member that responded. At the same time, there are often complaints or concerns raised by unhappy customers that Lululemon does not respond to. If the question is too complicated, or Lululemon can't do anything about, there is usually no response at all. (see image on right)

Positive and Negative Feedback

• Personal test on social media response rate and customer service - 13 mins.
• Negative response rate is sometimes quite prompt and sometimes not attended to. The Lululemon customer service team is ready to handle certain types of complaints that concern the size of women or the shipping. However, when it appears that the negative comment has to deal with business policies, the response is straight forward without any follow up or solution. 

• Negative "tweets" observed through IceRocket seem to highlight the expensive prices or the status of people who wear the brand

• Response rate and reply of positive comments were always immediate, friendly and encouraging. The Lululemon team were very keen on answering all product related questions because their first priority is sales.

Conclusive Analysis

     On monitoring Lululemon Athletica's social media marketing, I am shocked to conclude that based upon my 30 day analysis, the Ambassador campaign is not very successful. It does not generate the most online traffic. The campaign, when posted on social media sites other than their website, is not given a heightened status unlike other companies. It is integrated into Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube in a way that portrays it as just another post, tweet or video. The differing social media platforms market generally the same 'concept' or 'news' for that day. Although it is the Lululemon blog that first posts the latest Lululemon news, it has the smallest online community and generates the least amount of traffic. These posts will reach Facebook, often one or two days later but receive a lot more buzz because it has a greater reach. It is also clear the although Lululemon is also a male clothing brand, men are underrepresented or simply not part of the marketing plan.

     There is more evidence showing the mild effect of the ambassador campaign. The ambassador campaign does not receive as much attention on Facebook compared to the timeline posts about new products or inspirational messages. Posted since October 10, the timeline post about Jill, the ambassador, only received 310 ‘likes’. However, the post about new running pants only posted three days ago already received 517 'likes'. Customers are still more interested in the new products posts according to the facebook analysis. Customers' communicate well with each other through helpful conversation. The ambassador campaign YouTube videos have significantly dropped in viewership despite Lululemon's attempts to integrate it onto their website, blog and Facebook page. It is also evident that Lululemon does not reply to customer comments and feedback on their homepage, and are more active on the facebook page returning responses to even the most mundane of questions. Lululemon certainly succeeds in a lot of areas of social media, but there are elements of it that are not delivering the ideal marketing plan.

Please feel free to leave any comments or questions for me!