Perry Goldschein - Sustainability Strategy, Communications & Marketing

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News and analysis on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement, and Internet and other digital marketing and communications. You'll even get some very practical tips on these topics that you can put to immediate use!

October 30th, 2009

MoveOn blasts US Chamber Facebook page

Just before noon EST, today, I received a remarkable email from MoveOn.org as one of its millions of email subscribers.

The email revealed an existing story about the  US Chamber of Commerce’s (USCC) either very misleading, or completely false, membership and representation numbers.  The USCC has apparently, for a long while, mislead the public into thinking it had 3 million members, when its actual paid membership is something in the order of 10% or less of that number.

The MoveOne email then asked recipients to post a comment on the USCC’s Facebook page, calling it out on its lies. I reviewed the post, then went to the USCC’s Facebook page to participate. It was already inundated with a phenomenal volume of negative feedback.

The Chamber became flustered as evidenced by its responses to the comments and remained defensive, rather than owning up to its deception or apologizing for any confusion. It had its page settings initially set so that visitors would see its fan’s comments; but anyone can become a fan to comment and that’s what the MoveOn crowd did — the Chamber subsequently set its page to automatically show only its own comments within two hours after the onslaught started.

This was something to watch in action and shows the power of combing email and social media to vastly increase the audience from a traditional media story. There is simply nowhere for opaque organizations to hide; those that try, and then especially those that get defensive about it, will loose oodles of brand value, not to mention stakeholders leaving for the exits.  Anyone know exactly how many of the Chamber’s actual members are still left?

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February 24th, 2007

Online coupons grow in popularity

I’ve consulted a few natural and organic foods companies on online coupons in the past. Especially if you have perishable products and sell only through retailers (not through your website), this can be an important tactic for you. You can still obtain direct results, as well as branding, if you use an effective online coupons strategy.

Online coupons have had slow growth against their paper counterparts, but their popularity is growing as marketers learn how to distribute them, as a New York Times article reports.

Internet coupon companies, like Coupons.com and CoolSavings.com, run sites where visitors can click on an offer and print out a coupon to take to a store. But executives at Coupons.com, and elsewhere believe that consumers may be more receptive to online coupons if they come across them while seeking out other, related content, according to the NY Times article. For instance, if a recipe they are viewing contains an offer for an ingredient, or if a news article links to a coupon for a product or service it mentions.

Not everyone subscribes to that logic. Matt Wise, the chief executive of Q Interactive, which operates CoolSavings.com, said that his company tried a similar approach but saw a lukewarm response from consumers.

CoolSavings distributes most of the coupons it offers through its Web site, but a growing number of its clients choose to deliver offers by e-mail, Mr. Wise said. “We see more retailers wanting to create ongoing dialogue,” he said, “not just pass out the coupons anonymously.”

This is the approach I also advocate – email can be very effective in combination with online coupons. And why give coupons away when you can begin that dialogue in return for dispensing them online? The house list you create can be invaluable for extending your ROI.

Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers are growing more interested in online coupons. A recent survey of 100 large retailers by the E-tailing Group, a consultancy, revealed that 20 now offer online coupons, compared with just five a year ago.

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