TOP SOCIAL 

ENGAGEMENT
LESSONS
from JetBlue, Zappos,
Fab.com, and Kirkland’s
 Social Marketing: The time is now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Social marketing winners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A social marketing miss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

KEY LESSONS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESSES AND FAILURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

 Social Marketing:
Social marketing winners
A social marketing miss
Key lessons from social media successes and failures
The time is now
In this day and age, no one can ignore the effects of social media. The social
space touches all of us, either directly for the 1.5 billion individuals on social
networks, or indirectly through our friends and family on these networks.

According to Facebook, the phenomenon
of six degrees of separation no longer
applies – now it’s only three.
http://socialmediatoday.com/marketmesuite-app/395331/6-degrees-
separation-now-its-only-3-thanks-facebook
According to Facebook, the phenomenon of six de-
grees of separation no longer applies – now it’s only
three. And while individuals on social networks ini-
tially joined to connect with one another, networks
like Facebook now also pose a great opportunity for
companies, as Lab 42 recently found that eight out
of ten individuals think Facebook is a good place to
interact with brands.
These predictions clearly point towards great value
through social media from social commerce, ad-
vertising, or McKinsey’s all-encompassing view that
includes the value of social intelligence, improved
internal communications, public relations, direct
revenue, and more.
THE BAD

THE GOOD
Just how valuable is social media to companies?
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, social
has the potential to add $900 billion to $1.3 trillion
in value across various industries. Gartner predicts
that social media revenues will hit $16.9 billion by
the end of 2012, with income generated primarily
through advertising, while Booz & Co believes social
commerce will reach $14 billion by 2015.
No one can claim that social lacks value, but suc-
cess unlocking this value seems harder to come by.
An eMarketer white paper found that only 20% of
brands reported achieving measurable ROI in 2011,
with most marketers focusing their efforts on grow-
ing ‘Likes’ and followers as an end-goal rather than
a means to an end. Perhaps more telling, only 12%
of marketers in a Harvard Business Review survey
ranked themselves as “effective users” of social me-
dia. These two studies point towards a lack of com-

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 pany understanding in how to leverage social me-
dia, with enormous potential value remaining out of
reach without the right goals or success metrics.
However, a 2011 study conducted by Forrester dis-
covered that 72% of brands planned to increase
spending on social media marketing in 2012 despite
their lack of tangible success. For many brands, this
additional spending paid off, but many also failed to
make better use of the social space. As 2012 comes
to a close, three things are clear:
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1. Social has the potential to add billions or
trillions of dollars in value to companies
2. Many companies effectively leveraged social
media this year
3. Many companies failed to leverage social media
this year
The question remains: which companies are suc-
ceeding and failing with social marketing, and what
sets them apart? Read on for four case studies on so-
cial marketing winners, and a bonus case study on a
social marketing flop.
 Social Marketing: The time is now Social marketing
A social marketing miss
Key lessons from social media successes and failures
winners
In this eBook, we sought out companies using social to generate
value across the variety of forms mentioned in the McKinsey
report, with success categories including revenue generation, lead
generation, full social media integration, and public image.

McKinsey Global Institute:
The social economy: Unlocking value and
productivity through social technologies
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_
innovation/the_social_economy
The four social marketing media winners of 2012
are:
1. Leader in managing public image: JetBlue
2. Leader in generating revenue: Zappos
3. Leader in integrating social media: Fab.com
4. Leader in generating leads: Kirkland’s
While these companies represent only a small por-
tion of brands effectively leveraging their social
presence, each company clearly demonstrated suc-
cess in its respective category.
LEADER IN MANAGING
PUBLIC IMAGE: JETBLUE
In February of 2007, popular budget airline JetBlue
left over 1000 passengers stranded on the John F.
Kennedy runway for eight hours due to a combin-
ation of a severe ice storm, frozen wheels, and a
lack of available gates for return. Worse, passengers
sat in the plane’s cabin for eight hours with no real
information provided by the airline. To top things
off, after finally disembarking, JetBlue had trouble
booking alternate flights for passengers as a result
of the storm. Needless to say, passengers were more
than justifiable enraged, and the situation should
have sparked a huge hit in JetBlue’s credibility and
a dip in sales.
Using social media to mend customer relations
JetBlue quickly did what airlines never do: they
issued a heartfelt apology. Using both traditional
channels and YouTube, JetBlue’s founder and then-
CEO David Neeleman issued the apology, taking full
responsibility for the mishap and expressing genu-
ine regret. Neeleman took a public relations fiasco
and used it as an opportunity to humanize the com-
pany and actually improve their customer relations,
creating the now well-known JetBlue Customer Bill

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 of Rights and promising that future issues would
be handled exponentially better. Customers appre-
ciated JetBlue’s candor in admitting fault and their
clearly outlined plan to improve customer service,
thus averting the crisis.

Turning another public relations

To sum up: use social media to respond
quickly and honestly, while also
measuring customer sentiment. You can
simultaneously retain existing customers,
cause those customers to spend more, and
gain new customers who see your brand
effectively engaging in customer service.
crisis into an opportunity
Keeping with the mantra of immediate response
to problems, JetBlue handled their next public re-
lations crisis exponentially better than in 2007,
turning an incident with a crazed pilot into a pos-
itive customer relations experience. When JetBlue’s
Captain Osbon experienced a mental breakdown
in April of this year, JetBlue tweeted updates and
created a live-blog, keeping customers in the loop
and creating a sense that JetBlue and their custom-
ers were in it together. As a result, JetBlue won first
place in the consumer-decided Simpliflying Heroes,
demonstrating the power of social media in turning
potential disasters into PR wins.
The lesson: Use social media to respond
quickly and take responsibility for your failures
JetBlue has proven time and time again that social
media, and especially channels like Twitter, can be
used to quickly reverse negative customer experi-
ences and maintain a positive brand image. By re-
sponding quickly and providing customers with
real-time, honest information, even major crises
like Captain Osbon’s in-flight medical emergency
provide the potential for positive customer relations.
While customer relations is often seen as a defens-
ive rather than a proactive measure for generating
Image 1: JetBlue’s CEO mended customer relations
with a press release and YouTube video taking direct
responsibility for his airline’s mishap
revenue, the American Express Global Customer
Service Barometer found that social media users
who have engaged with companies in a positive
customer service experience at least once end up
spending on average 21% more with that company.
This represents a very real opportunity for com-
panies; not only can brands avoid losing customers
due to poor customer service, but they can actually
increase the money spent by those customers by
rapidly addressing their issues via Twitter and other
social channels.
To sum up: use social media to respond quickly and
honestly, while also measuring customer sentiment.
You can simultaneously retain existing customers,
cause those customers to spend more, and gain new
customers who see your brand effectively engaging
in customer service.

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In order to share in Zappos’ success, your
brand needs to facilitate social sharing
and incentivize that sharing, which you
can learn about here.
Image 2: Zappos provides a clear call to action to
share, while also providing options that give users
control over the amount of information to share
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LEADER IN GENERATING
REVENUE: ZAPPOS
E-commerce store Zappos enjoys a successful busi-
ness selling shoes and apparel from its website fol-
lowing e-commerce best practices such as offering
free shipping, free returns, and 24/7 customer ser-
vice. As a digitally focused company, Zappos found
itself poised to take advantage of social media, and it
has successfully leveraged the social space in a way
many companies have not: to drive direct revenue.
Image 3: Zappos ensures positive customer
experiences that build customer trust and increase
social evangelism
Using social evangelism to drive revenue
Zappos allows buyers to easily share their purchases
across Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, with im-
pressive results across social networks. For each
‘Share’, Zappos earns $33.66 on Twitter, $2.08 on
Facebook, and $0.75 on Pinterest in incremental
revenue. The brilliance of facilitating and promot-
ing social endorsement comes from the fact that
this revenue does not actually rely on Zappos’ so-
cial media presence, but rather it relies on the social
graphs of their customers. When a customer ‘Shares’
a Zappos purchase, they post it to their own social
network rather than a Zappos-owned presence, by-
passing the need for a strong social following on
Zappos’ part. While the apparel retailer happens to
have a large following of 275,000 Facebook ‘Likes’,
e-commerce companies without a social presence
can also utilize these social endorsement tactics.
To top their social-friendly website, Zappos also
leverages social media with custom sites like Pin-
pointing, which utilizes Pinterest users’ posts to
make shopping recommendations for them. This
initiative, combined with encouraging and facilitat-
ing social sharing, allows Zappos to generate both
quantifiable ROI and more comprehensive ROF (Re-
turn on Fan).
The lesson: Use consumer endorsement
to drive sales through social
Zappos has a strong presence on social media, with
a conversational, lighthearted tone that matches
their shoes. While a strong social presence is essen-
tial for overall success, what sets Zappos apart from
other companies successful in social engagement is
their ability to leverage consumers to sell products
for them. Mike Lazerow of Buddy media stated that
90% of purchasing decisions are influenced by so-
cial, and if the $33.66 Zappos earns for every pur-
chase shared on Twitter is any indication of influ-
ence potential, Lazerow was spot on.
 LEADER IN LEVERAGING
FACEBOOK TO INCREASE
WEBSITE TRAFFIC: FAB.COM
Go to Fab.com and click “Log in”. If you’re hesitant to
create yet another account, don’t worry: Fab allows
you to log in using your existing Facebook account.
Like Zappos, IR 500 Fab.com is a successful e-com-
merce retailer, and like Zappos, their website facil-
itates social evangelism. However, where Fab.com
truly sets itself apart is in the integration of Facebook
into the core design of their website, effectively driv-
ing website traffic through social media.
Image 4: Sample of the live user-populated newsfeed built
into Fab.com
Creating a website with social built in
In addition to eliminating the need for a traditional
login, Fab.com has done everything from facilitating
and incentivizing social endorsement to actually
creating a live “newsfeed” on the site using Facebook
Open Graph. This Newsfeed populates in real-time
with user activity on Facebook, creating a constant
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influx of new user generated content and allowing
users to browse and buy this socially shared content
directly from Facebook or their website.
Using these tactics, in just four months Fab was able
to double its referral traffic from Facebook and ex-
pand its membership from 1.8 to 3.2 million users.
If you doubt whether increased Facebook activity
actually helped increase the website’s membership,
Fab can allay your fears: they confirmed that 50% of
their new U.S. members have been joining as a result
of Facebook and social sharing. Even more impress-
ive is that these socially involved members generate
twice the lifetime value of members who do not en-
gage with Fab using Facebook, proving that build-
ing a valuable social media experience both on so-
cial networks and your brand’s website can provide
enormous short and long-term benefits.
The lesson: Incorporate social
media into your website
Social media extends beyond social platforms. Fab.
com created a website entirely integrated with the
social world and doubled its user base with a large
percentage of high lifetime value customers. This
success proves the merit of creating an engaging
social experience across both social and traditionally
non-social channels, and the more social value Fab
creates – such as adding recommendations based
on friend’s purchases in the live stream – the more
users will purchase their products and share with
their social graphs. Fab CEO Jason Goldberg had it
right when he stated “We have really honed in how
to harness interest targeting. We’ve found Facebook
to be an incredibly effective platform for that.”

This summer, Kirkland’s used Moontoast’s
Sweepstakes App to engage their
Facebook fans using the DITE framework,
which you can more read about in this
post.
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LEADER IN GENERATING
LEADS: KIRKLAND’S
Home décor retailer Kirkland’s operates approxim-
ately 300 stores in the U.S., and as social media has
grown in recent years, Kirkland’s jumped on board.
The retailer spent 2011 growing their social media
following with a focus on Facebook: they now have
over 580k Facebook ‘Likes’. Upon reaching their de-
sired audience size and seeing higher traffic to and
increased social spending on their site, Kirkland’s
shifted their attention to cultivating their following
by creating valuable content.
Embracing social commerce: Kirkland’s
Dream Room Giveaway sweepstakes
Kirkland’s used the sweepstake entry-for-email
transactional method to create great value for both
fans and the company. Fans entered their basic in-
formation without ever leaving their Facebook page,
combining Discovery (newsfeed), Interaction (pro-
motion), and Transaction (entry-for-email). Using
this value-creation tactic, Kirkland’s was able to
gather 16,400 fan emails, 2,269 of which were new
to their database.
$0.66/new qualified email address
and other quantifiable benefits
The Kirkland’s Dream Room Giveaway led to over
2,000 qualified (qualifying a lead was based on the
average spending for each email obtained through
Facebook) new emails obtained at an average price
of $0.66.
More than just lead generation, the Dream Home
Giveaway campaign offered returns not directly
Image 5: Kirkland’s Dream Room Giveaway offered
value for both fans and the brand
linked to monetary gains, with an increase of 40%
in new Facebook ‘Likes’ and 47% more people ‘Talk-
ing about’ Kirkland’s for the month of August. This
allows for successful campaigns to create a positive
feedback loop, where subsequent campaigns reach
a larger, more receptive base audience, and there-
fore achieve greater success and increase the size of
the potential audience even more.
The lesson: “Free” offers in social can drive
ROI with the right exchange of information
The value of social media amounts to far more than
driving direct sales and managing customer re-
lations. By creating a free offer in exchange for an
email address, Kirkland’s was able to cheaply drive
qualified leads, filling the sales pipeline and driving
revenue further down the line. Rather than running
competitions and giveaways simply to drive conver-
sation on social media, your brand can also collect
valuable fan information to nurture as sales leads.
 Social Marketing: The time is now
Social marketing winners A social
Key lessons from social media successes and failures

marketing miss
As much as brands want to succeed via social media, many have experienced
failures in the social space as a result of a lack of understanding and
foresight. As a counterpoint to the social marketing successes, we’ve
included Woody Harrelson as an example of a social marketing miss.

While Harrelson has a strong social media presence

overall, this particular transgression caused high
consumer backlash and an increase in negative
awareness.

FAILURE PROVIDING VALUABLE

CONTENT: WOODY HARRELSON
As mentioned earlier in this eBook, value creation
plays a central role in keeping social media follow-
ers happy and engaged. Of the many ways to cre-
ate value, actor Woody Harrelson joined the ranks
of celebrities such as Louis C.K. and Zach Braff who
opened themselves up to the Reddit community in
an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session. Fans love this
type of personal connection with famous celebrit-
ies, and it looked like the perfect opportunity to gain
some press for the upcoming release of Harrelson’s Image 6: Woody’s AMA session spawned a slew of
angry memes about his promotional treatment of the
new movie, Rampart. session

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Woody Harrelson could have enjoyed a
successful AMA if he treated it as one and
then briefly mentioned his movie at the
end, rather than treating the entire session
as a promotional opportunity for Rampart.
11 ∞ Top Social Engagement Lessons ∞ Share this white paper
Image 7: Woody Harrelson’s Ask Me Anything
session quickly turned nasty
Ask me anything… about Rampart
Harrelson’s PR team clearly didn’t fully understand
the nature of AMA, as Woody spent the majority
of the session deflecting personal questions and
bringing the topic back to his movie. Unfortunately,
Reddit users attending the AMA session had no in-
terest in his movie, which they could learn about
elsewhere—they wanted Harrelson to candidly an-
swer their questions to learn more about his per-
sonal life. As fans continued growing angrier, one
Reddit user claimed that Harrelson had slept with a
high-schooler at a Prom after party.
The danger with opening yourself up in a session
like AMA is questions like these. Instead of an-
swering maturely and asking for further questions
(preferably not stemming from rumors), Harrelson
bluntly attempted to steer the conversation back to
promoting his movie. Reddit users became even
more incensed, and the community began multiple
topics ‘Roasting’ the actor.
The lesson: Promoting yourself
does not create value
Fans connecting with you on social media expect
to receive value out of that connection. When you
promise to deliver value and then not only fail to
do that, but instead overtly self-promote, fans may
strike back and create the opposite of your desired
effect. Harrelson remained an active topic of ‘Roast-
ing’ on Reddit well after his AMA session, demon-
strating the falsehood of the notion that any press is
good press.
Woody Harrelson could have enjoyed a successful
AMA if he treated it as one and then briefly men-
tioned his movie at the end, rather than treating
the entire session as a promotional opportunity for
Rampart.
 Social Marketing: The time is now

Key lessons from social

Social marketing winners
A social marketing miss

media successes and failures

As you can see from the stories in this eBook, social media can benefit or harm your brand, sometimes flip-
ping due to very minute differences in messaging or response time. Social media users can react positively
or negatively to content, and to consistently succeed, we hope you take the following lessons from the social
marketing success and failure stories shared here:

• JETBLUE: Use social media to respond quickly and take responsibility for your failures

• ZAPPOS: Use consumer endorsement to drive sales through social

• FAB.COM: Incorporate social media into your website

• KIRKLAND’S: “Free” offers in social can drive ROI with the right exchange of information

• WOODY HARRELSON: Promoting yourself does not create value

Applying these lessons to your social marketing strategy will help you consistently succeed in the social
space through value creation, customer relations management, social commerce, and more. Even company
mistakes like JetBlue’s stranded plane crisis can create long term benefits if handled rapidly and candidly.

12 ∞ Top Social Engagement Lessons ∞ Share this white paper

 Key lessons from social media successes and fail-
ures

Moontoast is an emerging leader in social marketing, social commerce and

social analytics. Moontoast’s Social Activation Engine enables brands to
effectively focus their social efforts on relationships, relevancy and results
through a library of social engagement and commerce applications distributed
on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs and affiliate websites. Brands can
directly measure social and transactional results using Moontoast’s patented
Social Analytics Suite. Gartner Research has named Moontoast a “Cool
Vendor” in Music and eCommerce, and Billboard Magazine called Moontoast
a “Top Startup of 2011”. For more information, visit www.moontoast.com.

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