From the THINKing Blog:
Posted: 14 Nov 2008 02:57 PM CST
Friend Jim Deitzel handles social media programs for the Rubbermaid brand, a Newell-Rubbermaid company. This is a big brand that truly gets social media, so I thought you might like to hear a bit about their efforts. The content of the Rubbermaid blog focuses on organization, one of their key brand drivers. Some of the recent stories on the blog include a Q&A with a professional organizer; laundry room organization; and festive holiday containers. The brand’s coordinated use of a variety of social media vehicles as a means of marketing content, I think, is the key to their success.
But you don’t want to hear me prattle on. Let’s hear from Jim Deitzel on Rubbermaid’s social media program:
Q: Not many major brands seem to have utilized or been as successful with social media as Rubbermaid has. To what do you attribute that?
Jim Deitzel: I’m not sure that’s an entirely correct statement. Most of the major brands have used or are using one form or another of social media. If you include reviews & ratings, polls, contests with voting, etc. then most brands are doing social media. But newer tools such as blogs, twitter and facebook - only a few companies are currently using them. Rubbermaid, Graco and Sharpie now have blogs. Rubbermaid and Graco both utilize Twitter. There could be many reasons for it. Some of it can be attributed to resources, people, time, etc. I do believe you’ll see some of the other brands beginning to engage soon.
Q: What was Rubbermaid’s primary objective when wading into the social media pool?
Jim Deitzel: Our objective was to connect with people who have an interest in organization. Professional Organizers, who happen to be heavy users of social tools, were the main focus of our outreach efforts.
Q: Can you briefly explain how you got the program started, which social media elements you included in the effort and how the program progressed?
Jim Deitzel: We started our blog and twitter usage at about the same time (actually we had a twitter account since nearly day 1 of twitter, but never used it). The blog began with content surrounding a specific product launch we had last spring. From there it expanded into a more general blog with content surrounding organization.
Q: What has been the most surprising result from the social media effort?
Jim Deitzel: The wonderful connections I’ve made with professional organizers. I have come to know some of them personally and it’s been great. The openness and willingness for them to participate with us has been outstanding.
Q: One of the things I like about your program is the way professional organizers seem to have embraced what you are doing. Can you tell us a little about how that has happened and evolved?
Jim Deitzel: As I mentioned before, one of the key goals was to get in touch with the organizers. Connecting with people online is not much different than connecting with people offline. You meet, get to learn a little about each other, and then begin to have longer and deeper conversations. We now involve professional organizers in our blog, the content on rubbermaid.com, they talk about our products online, and we actually meet up at professional organizer tradeshows. It’s been really great.
Q: You’ve used Twitter and your blog very nicely in a concerted effort. Please tell us how that evolved.
Jim Deitzel: Both tools have their own unique method of communication. Twitter allows for quick, ’stay in touch’, messages. It can also be used as a ‘look what’s new’ tool. The blog allows for longer length content as well as comments/reponses from our followers. We even ask our followers for input on home makeover projects we are working on.
Thanks, Jim.
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