I was a fan long before they “got into social media.” I tweeted about every experience there enthusiastically. For a while, it went more or less unanswered, which was OK, I said what I said because I meant it and expected nothing in return. Then I went to a Cinco de Mayo party there this year, and had the pleasure of meeting owner Marc Bianchini and new “social media guy” Sam Sova.

Sam and Marc know they have some loyal fans, and they also get something even more important than that: the best way to get people talking about you is to offer an extraordinary experience. So they invited 10 of us, plus guests, to come sample their brunch menu and give them our feedback. And of course, nearly everyone at the table was tweeting about their favorite dishes (and the ones they liked less). I recommend the Chilaquiles for some spicy Mexican comfort food, and the breakfast burrito if you’re into spicy chorizo.

I have set up social “ambassador” programs for clients before; I’ve never really been a brand ambassador myself. (I would have been for Specialized Bikes, had they not ignored my enthusiastic tweeting, but that’s a different story.) And Coa’s effort isn’t what I would classify as a “formal” ambassador program. But whether they intended to or not, today, they turned me from merely a fan into something of a self-appointed ambassador. The food is always great at Coa. That’s not what changed. The service is always solid. That’s not what changed. What changed? The incredibly simple act of making a customer feel truly appreciated and “special”.

What are you doing in your business to make your customers into fans and your fans into ambassadors? Or, what could you be doing? If you’re not sure also drop a note below and we’ll get you some ideas.

Saw this ad in Cooking Light yesterday and I dig that it is using customer stories to spread the love. I’m awaiting confirmation but I believe the campaign comes from Carmichael Lynch, an agency I was with for 5 years in the late 90s. Their philosophy was – and is – “Speak to the core and let others listen in.” Meaning they were enthusiast marketers before social enthusiast marketing was cool.

Whoever executed the campaign, I’ve got a few questions, though. Why is “Dear Subaru” buried in the corporate website, not promoted on the home page (say, in place of the Free Outback Detergent promo)? It’s great advertising IMHO, but why rely on that to get people there when you’ve probably got tons of prospects hitting your home page? Why isn’t the campaign integrated into your Facebook page? Your fans obviously love you, but what better place to capture more stories and/or refer them to “Dear Subaru”? Why, on the “Dear Subaru” page, can we only see the three stories that you have controlled for advertising purposes? Have there been other submissions? Are people participating? The page isn’t social/transparent for us users to really FEEL the love.

Awesome idea. And I think it’s pretty new, so maybe it will get there. But it feels like a digital campaign executed by an advertising agency.

It’s just one form of storytelling, but why don’t more brands share photos, videos, anecdotes, lifestreams, to give us an inside glimpse of what makes them tick, their cultures, their values? What better way to make a personal connection? Maybe because their cultures aren’t as engaging as they could be in the first place? : )

Zappos does a great job of this, generally. Their storytelling reflects one of their core values: create fun and a little weirdness.

When I first started on Twitter I saw a photo that @zapposCEO shared of the coffee machine in one of their buldings that has been rigged to look like Rosie on the Jetsons. It made an impression: “Fun, intelligent brand.”

Last week, in doing some research for a presentation, I also came across this more recent video of a prank that employees there were playing on each other, involving dropping a bunch of ping pong balls on other employees’ heads. Funny, sort of. But stupid funny. It, too, made an impression: “Are they paying any attention to my order?”

So I did more digging and learned from a great post from ReadWriteWeb that the Zappos site aggregates the tweets from all of the Zappos employees on Twitter. As the post pointed out, there are no tweets that say “drunk”; however, at the time I first viewed the aggregation, the first tweet in the stream was something about how too much Jagermeister was going to make for a bad morning the next day. This, I believe,  definitely falls in the “TMI” category. But I also understand that it’s an isolated tweet, and that overall the stream sends a positive message. It’s more “real” because of the imperfections and the fact that its not scrubbed corporate clean. They also aggregate non-employees’ tweets about Zappos – positive and negative – which takes serious guts and I applaud.

I’m a big fan of leaning towards more transparency. I’m not suggesting that employees should be heavily “censored” or edited. But even if you let the silly pranks fly, wouldn’t it be OK to simply ask employees to not tweet about drinking? As far as social media policies go, “Don’t tweet about getting wasted” seems pretty lenient. What is “fun” and what is “stupid fun” is highly subjective. Jagermeister is…Jagermeister. Don’t you want to be seen as fun AND professional and trustworthy?

My point? This type of transparent storytelling, while a great strategy, walks a fine line between “fun” and “too much fun, not enough business.” Quite honestly, I’m usually the first one saying that people take themselves too seriously; but I do think Zappos could create stories that better reinforce their brand of great customer service. There’s a difference between storytelling and strategic storytelling. I’m excited to see what Zappos will do next now that Mullen is their agency.

Have you seen any great social storytelling? When do you think social storytelling goes too far? Where’s the line?

Photo credits: Rosie from DYN on Flickr.

Situation/Objective: Blood Drive. Need to get 16-18 year olds to donate blood in greater numbers. Muy pronto.

Strategy: Use social communication tool to enable current teenage blood donors to influence their friends and peers to donate.

Super Simple Tactics: Facebook. Coach 17-year-old blood drive organizer to 1) launch Facebook fan page and event page 2) add some simple video and links and 3) invite people to join. Watch cryptic teenage conversation unfold.

The Money Tactic: Create discussion threads. Ask “Do you know anyone who ever needed blood? What’s the story?” Experience awe as young woman steps up to offer this emotional plea:

Then, send reminder message two days before blood drive. Encourage group members to check out the above story.

Result: 23% increase in blood donation over previous blood drive, with no other significant differences in communication. Messages from other teens indicate that “I did donate today, and Hailey’s story gave me the extra boost of courage to get over my fear of needles.”

A Few Observations:

First of all, it is the best feeling in the world when you know without a doubt that what you just did made a difference. There is NOTHING better. Second, it is important to note that it wasn’t just that fact that we used Facebook that had the influence; the fact that we were on Facebook merely helped the organizers and participants get excited and talk up the event. All we did was organize the channel; they did all the real work. Finally, this is a best case scenario. Facebook is great for mobilizing actual causes, but I think even for those it is getting more and more challenging to get noticed on Facebook. And it’s not this simple for every brand, by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, it does whet the appetite, doesn’t it? Is this helpful or not?