Social Media Marketing

Global Gateway Series

November 20, 2009

Intro

Jim D’Orazio j.dorazio@practicalwebstrategies.com

Engaged Learning:

Class Projects

Noon at Nance

Internships

Meet the Marketers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

What is Social Media

• An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Anvil Media

Social Media Defined

• Social media describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis and vlogs. – (-WebProNews)

• Social media is any site where users create their own content and interact including:– Blogs– Micro blogging – Facebook and MySpace– Flickr and SmugMug– delicious, Digg or Reddit

Some Numbers

• There are more than 200 million active Facebook users around the world with an average of 120 Friends. (-Facebook.com)

• Facebook has 70 million unique visitors in the United States (-PCMag)

• In the U.S., there are 94.1 million blog readers, which is equivalent to 50% of American Internet users (eMarketer)

• Worldwide, 184 million people have started a blog and 346 million people read them regularly. (-Universal McCann)

• In Feb. 2008, Twitter had 475,000 unique visitors. By Feb. 2009, the site grew 1,382% to 7 million unique visitors. (-Nielsen)

Some Numbers. Mobile Users

Some Numbers: User Generated Content

Why should you consider it?

• Social media is based on user-generated content and information– Marketers want users to be advocates for

their brand, product or service

• Large amount of active users

• Speed of communication

• Ability to build and maintain direct relationships

Some More Good Reasons

• An opportunity to provide accurate information and stay in “control” of the message

• Develop new relationships

• Engage consumers with a brand

• Monitor conversation to find unsatisfied consumers or properly address a situation

• Increase search optimization efforts

A Strategic Approach

All social media campaigns must maintain the elements of all strong advertising campaigns including:

• A purpose

• Goals and objectives

• Key messages

• Tactics

• Measurement

Getting Ready

Before beginning a social media campaign, an organization should:

• Determine that social media marketing is a correct strategy for their organization

• Understand how social media platforms work and how users communicate in the space

• Listen to conversation on the sites to learn more

• Then join the conversation.

Social Media Marketing Success Factors

The success of a social media marketing and optimization program depends on the following factors:

• Transparency. Without a level of transparency in your social media outreach, your campaign could blow up on your face

• Honesty. Dishonest messaging won’t work, as most information can be quickly validated via online fact-checking.

• Relevance and Value. All communications should be relevant and add value to the conversation or community

• Commitment. No campaign can truly succeed unless significant time and resources are committed over a period of time.

Best Practices – Lee Odden

• Start with a plan, not tactics.  Research and build a Social Media Roadmap involving:  Audience, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Tools/Technology and Metrics.  

• “Give to get” - Successful social media marketing programs involve listening and participation. That participation centers around giving value before expecting anything in return. This is not “sales” as you know it.

• Commit resources & time to be successful It’s important to forecast labor hours, who, what, when, how and where with the intention of succeeding, not just experimenting. Scalability.

• Be transparent with intentions & your identity. What types of commercial messages are appropriate.  It’s fine if goals are to increase sales, but participation should be focused on providing the kind of value that facilitates sales - not attempting to make sales directly.

Best Practices Continued

• Understand, you do not control the message.  It’s not like advertising where the ability to control messaging is the norm. People will inevitably mash it up, stretch it, pull it and reshape it according to their interests. Brands need to protect their identities, copyright and intellectual property, but also should encourage the mashup and creativity.

• Welcome participation, feedback and co-creation. Developing relationships and community within social communities on the web can facilitate buy in, provide invaluable feedback and crowdsourcing opportunities.

• Metrics should roll up to objectives and objectives should be relevant to the channel.  Social media marketing is more like public relations than direct marketing. It’s more like providing resource “A” results in “action “B” that influences outcome “C”.

Worst Practices Lee Odden• Being fake in any way isn’t good for anyone on the

social web. Walmart and Sony (via their PR firms) tried to fake their way into making consumers believe blogs were authored by impartial brand evangelists, when it wasn’t that at all. Not good.

• Not listening. How can you learn anything if information is only flowing one way? Listening is really the most important step in learning about social communities on the web.

• Being oblivious to formal & unwritten social rules. It pays to lurk a bit before participation with social communities, especially when you have commercial intentions.  Aspire to “speak like a native” when embarking on social media journey to improve your brand visibility and to encourage relationships. Ignoring these guidelines risks alienation by the community.

Worst Practices Continued

• Being pushy or overtly salesy in messaging and communications and expecting traditional marketing outcomes. Overt commercial messages, are taboo in most social communities. A social environment amongst “friends” and likeminded individuals isn’t going to accept interruptive messaging.

• Approaching social media channels as silos - Many companies approach social media via individual web sites rather than as a collaborative effort. Not working together is inefficient and can create mixed messages for consumers that participate in more than one social media destination for the brand.

Social Media Campaigns

• Social Media campaigns work best when they work hand in hand with existing online promotions:

• Link to social media profiles from the home page• Make social media profiles easy to find and clear• Integrate social media into e-mail marketing campaigns

• Social Media campaigns can also boost your traditional marketing efforts: – Design with the same look & feel to create a

consistent brand presence – Use similar key messages– Drive users online through print design and traditional

advertisements

Metrics for Success

Attention.  The amount of traffic to your content for a given period of time.  Similar to the standard web metrics of site visits and page/video views.

Participation.  The extent to which users engage with your content in a channel.  Think blog comments, Facebook wall posts, YouTube ratings, or widget interactions.

Authority.  Ala Technorati, the inbound links to your content - like trackbacks and inbound links to a blog post or sites linking to a YouTube video.

Influence.  The size of the user base subscribed to your content.  For blogs, feed or email subscribers; followers on Twitter or Friendfeed; or fans of your Facebook page.

So what's the monetary value of a visit, comment, link, or friend?  Only you know how much these interactions matter to your brand, regardless of industry, channel, or competitive results.

Peter Kim (Slide Show)

Some Last Thoughts

• Good strategy results in viral, but viral is not a strategy.

• What someone says about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

• Money isn't the best social currency; relationships and knowledge are.

• PR is great for news and launches, but social media creates the ongoing and sustained interest between news and launches.

• Social media sites, people, and applications have vastly differing capabilities. Random, unplanned usage of these tactics will deliver poor results.

• Social media is a strategic amplifier for your campaign, not the entire campaign.

Learn More

• Cleveland Social Media Club– clevelandsmc.ning.com

• Mashable.com• TechCrunch.com• Social Media Insider (e-mail newsletter)• Smart Brief on Social Media (e-mail newsletter) • Find a blog or e-mail publication that you enjoy

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