Social Listening for your heart: 5 Feel-Good Stories for the Holidays
People often believe that the only purpose of social media listening is to uncover negative customer comments and feedback so that brands can address these issues and enhance their brand image and customer experience. However, many tend to forget all the times social media listening has led to the discovery of the generous and altruistic side of individuals and companies.
Just in time for the holiday season, we’ve highlighted five examples of brands that use social media listening to uncover opportunities to inject a little bit of positivity into their customers’ lives.
Social Listening Stories To Warm Your Heart Over the Holidays
Five brands that used social media listening to inject a little bit of positivity into the world.
IKEA
We’ve all heard of the furniture retailer IKEA, but have you heard about the Facebook group “I want to have a sleepover in IKEA?” IKEA uncovered the fan group using social media listening and saw it as an opportunity to show their customers that they not only supply furniture but also aid in the entire process of building a happy home.
The brand subsequently hosted “The Big Sleepover” campaign; they chose 100 fans for a sleepover in IKEA. Participants received sleepover gift bags, free massages, an IKEA dinner, and enjoyed various entertainment. IKEA even brought in a sleep expert who shared tips and tricks for having a good night’s sleep with guests.
The sleepover was a success – customers were able to see how IKEA could help them create their own fun experiences with their IKEA furniture at home.
Feel-Good Lesson: Social media listening can reveal the funniest and most charming things about your customers. How else would IKEA have known that they had a Facebook group with over 100,000 members that wanted to have a sleepover in their stores?
Zelmer Vacuums
Zelmer had no idea they had such a big-little fan until their social media team stumbled upon this Instagram post of a four-year-old’s birthday cake.
As it turned out, the little guy is a home appliance enthusiast, which is why his mother surprised him with a vacuum cake for his birthday. Zelmer subsequently reached out to the family and offered them a free tour of one of their factories, a gesture that made this four-year-old extremely happy!
Feel-Good Lesson: Not only did the post garner a lot of attention for Zelmer; the company was also able to contribute to their positive brand reputation and give back to their fans – even the little ones!
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
Actress Leah Remini’s book Troublemaker highlights her experience with leaving the Church of Scientology. The book received strong reviews with its initial release in 2016, and the publishers at Penguin Random House were interested in learning why readers responded so well to the publication.
Using social listening, they discovered that readers were not only fascinated with Scientology but also Leah’s “entertaining, honest, unpretentious, shocking and just plain funny” story-telling abilities, as seen here in an Amazon customer review.
Based on their insights, the publishing house decided to take advantage of the fans’ love for Leah’s relatable personality and promote the book by hosting Q&A sessions. In this case, not only did Leah’s fans get to meet her and ask her questions; the publishing house stumbled upon an unexpected opportunity that helped them understand their customers in greater depth.
Feel-Good Lesson: Besides uncovering opportunities for connecting with customers who had a negative experience with your product or service, social listening can uncover unexpected opportunities that allow your brand to connect with customers who want more of what you have to offer.
Tommee Tippee Cups
One concerned father was looking for a replacement sippy cup for his severely autistic son, Ben, who would only drink from this one particular cup. When he discovered that his son’s favorite cup model was discontinued, he created the hashtag #cupsforBen and posted a tweet asking his followers to search for the cup. The tweet went viral with hundreds of thousands of retweets, mentions, and shout-outs, and Tommee Tippee Cups caught wind of the situation. Subsequently, the company created 500 of the discontinued cups just for Ben!
Feel-Good Lesson: Tommee Tippee Cups showed their customers that they’re more than just a cup manufacturer by extending their empathy for Ben and his needs. You can use social media listening to show your customers that you’re more than just a business and that you are made up of real humans who care about their customers.
KLM Airlines
Using social listening, KLM Airlines decided that when their customers were experiencing problems, they would reach out on social media to complain. The company then created their #Happytohelp campaign – for one week, they used social listening and monitoring to find and solve problems that their customers were experiencing in real-time.
Here are some of the good deeds the airline went out of their way to do:
- A customer who was stuck in New York City traffic was picked up in a motorboat and ferried across the river to the airport.
- A family with a newborn baby on an extended layover was provided with a bedroom, complete with baby toys.
- A honeymooning couple whose baggage was lost during a flight was taken on a shopping spree by KLM staff.
Feel-Good Lesson: Social media listening can help uncover opportunities that are happening in real-time. If you jump on these opportunities, you will create a better overall customer experience and improve your brand’s reputation. KLM Airlines did not have to put the effort in, but by doing so, they showed customers that their happiness is important to them.
Conclusion
The benefit of social media listening is that it can be used not only to protect your brand from negative experiences but also to uncover opportunities for positive experiences that can lead to improved brand reputation and increased customer loyalty.
Use these examples to inspire you to do something extraordinary for your customers!
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