98
c h a p t e r4 :THE SOCIAL BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM■Jeff Jarvis: Three Mistakes to Avoid
In an interview by BusinessWeek’s Diane Brady, Jeff Jarvis cited the three avoidable mistakes that
companies sometimes make when implementing social-media-based programs. Jeff notes the
three primary errors that are often made, and then he explains how to avoid them:
• Talking in a corporate or institutional voice. Instead, use the language that your customers
use, appropriately.
• Expecting your customers to come to your website. Instead, go to where they are and join
them in their activities.
• Trying to control the conversation. Instead, recognize that you (as the brand participant, for
example) are one voice among many.
You can quickly find the interview using Google and searching “Jeff Jarvis Diane Brady.”
Coca-Cola: Facebook
At about 10 million fans, Coke’s original outpost—its Facebook page—was one of the
most successful examples of a brand outpost. Even more remarkable, it wasn’t created
by Coke: it was built by Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewsk, two passionate Coke
Fans. When confronted with a site built on Facebook, but outside of Coke’s control,
Coke chose to empower the fans that created the site and embraced the work they’d
done. The result? Under the continued stewardship of its creators, Coke’s Facebook
page now has over 4 million fans.
Coke’s Facebook brand outpost, shown in Figure 4.4, is now a valued element
of its online marketing program, so much so that in January, 2010, Coke announced
that it would deemphasize one-off online campaigns in favor of extended social-media-
based efforts, in part built around its brand outposts at Facebook and YouTube. In an
interview at the time of the announcement, Prinz Pinakatt, Coke’s interactive market-
ing manager for Europe, said “We would like to place our activities and brands where
people are, rather than dragging them to our platform.” Look back at Jeff Jarvis’s list
of common mistakes and the steps he advises taking to avoid them: Coke clearly gets it.Coke Zero: Department of Fannovation
If a Facebook Business Page is an obvious fi rst step in a brand outpost strategy, what
else can be done? A lot, and surprisingly it’s not rocket science but is instead savvy
thinking combined with a deep-seated commitment to understanding the Social Web
and how it really works.Jeff Jarvis: Three Mistakes to Avoid