CWL and social media

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
Throbbe
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by Throbbe »

AliBar wrote: For quality brands or niche products I think it could actually devalue the offering by bringing the local chavs and chavettes into a very non targeted form of communication.
Since someone else has performed thread necromancy ...

I agree that it can devalue a brand if done badly. Done well though, it can be very effective. Take a wander through Thomas Mahon's blog about bespoke tailoring. Very educational, shows the 'worth' of his product, and above all gives a strong sense of why he does it. http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000004.html
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by Dorito »

I think social media, if leveraged correctly, can be used for the following:

- Build the brand
- Increase visibility to the company/ brand and its products across the globe at very minimal cost
- This is most true for up and coming companies/ brands
- Specifically, CW can certainly increase their visibility in Asia (think the billions of people in China, India etc. a majority of whom do not know about CW.
- Engage directly with customers and users
- Quick-fire way of spotting market sentiment about the company/ brand
- Keep users engaged with the company/ brand by frequent interactions (e.g. publish interesting articles on the art of watch-making, etc.)
- Build an ecosystem of trusted brand enthusiasts/ evangelists who would 'spread the word' about the brand/ company and the great value it offers

That being said, social media is a very fast-paced setting and needs dedicated resources to monitor and respond to customer demands. You can't have a customer's rant unanswered for any more than a few hours, usually! Or else it goes viral.

My 2 cents.
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jmarchitect
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by jmarchitect »

Throbbe wrote:
AliBar wrote: For quality brands or niche products I think it could actually devalue the offering by bringing the local chavs and chavettes into a very non targeted form of communication.
Since someone else has performed thread necromancy ...

I agree that it can devalue a brand if done badly. Done well though, it can be very effective. Take a wander through Thomas Mahon's blog about bespoke tailoring. Very educational, shows the 'worth' of his product, and above all gives a strong sense of why he does it. http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000004.html
And, as far as I can see, is about four years old! One of the golden rules of a blog is to keep it current.
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jmarchitect
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by jmarchitect »

Dorito wrote:I think social media, if leveraged correctly, can be used for the following:

- Build the brand
- Increase visibility to the company/ brand and its products across the globe at very minimal cost
- This is most true for up and coming companies/ brands
- Specifically, CW can certainly increase their visibility in Asia (think the billions of people in China, India etc. a majority of whom do not know about CW.
- Engage directly with customers and users
- Quick-fire way of spotting market sentiment about the company/ brand
- Keep users engaged with the company/ brand by frequent interactions (e.g. publish interesting articles on the art of watch-making, etc.)
- Build an ecosystem of trusted brand enthusiasts/ evangelists who would 'spread the word' about the brand/ company and the great value it offers

That being said, social media is a very fast-paced setting and needs dedicated resources to monitor and respond to customer demands. You can't have a customer's rant unanswered for any more than a few hours, usually! Or else it goes viral.

My 2 cents.
Perfect summary of why social media is a thoroughly useful and powerful tool. I remember reading an article in about 2004 about why blogs are important and how they will change the business landscape. Given that we now know 53% of business decisions start on the Internet now with a projected increase to 80% in 2013, anyone without the means to engage with their customers via the Internet is going to miss out
Throbbe
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by Throbbe »

jmarchitect wrote:
Throbbe wrote: Since someone else has performed thread necromancy ...

I agree that it can devalue a brand if done badly. Done well though, it can be very effective. Take a wander through Thomas Mahon's blog about bespoke tailoring. Very educational, shows the 'worth' of his product, and above all gives a strong sense of why he does it. http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000004.html
And, as far as I can see, is about four years old! One of the golden rules of a blog is to keep it current.
I'd linked an old post that illustrated my point, more recent posts are available!
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by tom_uk »

I loathe Facebook - I simply don't understand what it's trying to do.

I'm trying to remember how I learned about CW. I think it was actually something in the Observer in the spring - something a limited-edition watch that was selling at that time. I visited the website, had a look, and asked for the catalogue. About a month later I was the happy owner of a C60.

So this customer was snagged through print media (newspaper, catalogue) and the website itself. In fact, it's probably true that if the Observer article had pointed me to a CW Facebook page, I wouldn't have looked at it. I hate it.

PS - Just in case I'm perceived as a luddite I'll mention that I work for a software company selling line-of-business web applications, and my job has me doing sysadmin stuff on Linux-based web servers. So even if I am a luddite, I reckon I'm an informed luddite.
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Re: CWL and social media

Post by akirk »

I am new to CW and this forum, so I might not fully understand all the nuances of how they run their business, btu some thoughts for what they are worth...

- A business should have a strategic goal for their company and that will have elements which cover each aspect of the business - Social Media sits in one of those elements (e.g. marketing / client / etc.) and how a business interacts with social media must be driven by their strategic intent / goals - there is no one correct answer

- For some businesses they die without social media - for others it is neutral - for others it is negative - e.g. I know of a business where you can't find out about them online / they are extremely exclusive / they are the top in the world at what they do / their clients are in effect a private club - social media would kill the mystique / exclusivity - so for them it is a definite NO - but for every day consumer products - it might be an obvious yes... i.e. no assumptions - it is about the business, not the tool

- Social Media should be used as a tool, not as a purpose in itself - it is not about twitter / facebook / youtube / linkedin / etc. - it is about the outcome - which for CWL must mean an outcome of enhancing of / building of brand - and then selling of watches / increasing market etc.

- CWL needs to start this question from a different place - to analyse what their goal is in these areas (communication with customers / market) and then compare social media options against the alternatives - look at costs / returns and make a decision... My suspicion is that in that analysis they need to compare with differeing options / levels of social media involvement from simple auto-tweets to have a presence on Twitter to interactive Twitter involvement etc.

- Social Media should not be considered a cheap option - it is not - it is very high on time committment and in a business that directly correlates to salary spend - the base line looks cheap because these various platforms are 'free' but Social Media is an ever-demanding machine which expects high quality / constant / relevant content which is continually providing interest and interaction...

- Social Media if done badly can be dreadful - if done well can cost more than traditional marketing / advertising might...

- This forum is social media already (and low in cost to CWL), wouldd an analysis of customers / potential market suggest this is the correct route / alternatives would drive up brand or market share?

- There are easy and obvious wins - a youtube channel with relevant video on models / changing straps / batteries / the technology & how the watches work / lifestyle video / etc. is low on ongoing maintenance - but is a good gateway to drive people tot he website etc. - Twitter can be an out-bound publishing platform (micro-blogging) or an interactive experience - one is simple, the other takes time committment... Facebook tends to require a lot of involvement and simply replicates a website / forum, so perhaps has little cost benefit in putting in a time investment there...

Hopefully those random thoughts help - Social Media may not be the right step - it needs more analysis to decide that... lack of social media is not an automatic blight...

just to note - I run a company which provides 'Strategic Business Design' - we do design and web consultancy with small to medium size businesses on how to build / grow their businesses online...

Alasdair
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