Social Media & Business Applications

Keith Feighery: Digital Media Strategist

Overview of social media

• Use of social technologies to:• Communicate, engage, develop and be part of

communities – Internally and externally for organisations

• Create and share content and information across networks

• Build and extend social networks through interaction

• Listen and participate in discussions, threads and develop ideas and relationships

• Learn from community (crowdsourcing)

Benefits to small business

• Directly engage with existing and potential customers• Cut out media spend• Relative ease of set up and engagement• Freely available tools and utilities

– As well as proprietary third party tools

• Measurable statistics to gauge impact and success (or lack of)

• Extensive fresh digital footprint is viewed positively by search engines

• Social media allows small business to create a presence online that outweighs offline

Associated risks

• Loss of control of the conversation– Two way communication– Openly negative transmissions

• Brands criticised for using social channel as a marketing or PR conduit

• Can be a difficult persona for businesses to adopt– Reveal a human voice of a corporate identity

• What it is that voice?

• Starting – and then not following through – Very common as social media is time consuming– Inevitable criticism

Social Media Landscape

Platform Types

• Social Networks– Facebook, MySpace, Bebo (Main ones in US and Europe)

• Blogging/Micro-Blogging– WordPress, Twitter, Laconica, Tumblr, Present.ly, Yammer

• Video, Audio & Photo sharing– YouTube, Vimeo, Seesmic, 12Seconds, Vidder – Flickr, MugShot, Photobucket– Blip.fm, Last.fm, Pandora, Spotify– Podcasts & Videocasts

• Aggregators/Status management– FriendFeed, SocialThing!, PeopleBrowser, Ping.fm

• Bookmarks/Tagging/Rating– Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Technorati, Digg

• Collaboration Networks– Wikis, Shared Workspaces, Forums, Commenting Networks (BackType, Disqus)

Blogging

• Common Blogging Platforms– WordPress, Type Pad, Bloggers, Blogspot

• Excellent way of engaging with readers – Inform followers what is of interest to you

• Can use an informal style – Show human face of organisation– Demonstrate your expert knowledge

• Participate in wider conversations – Leave comments, interact, generate interest, etc..

• Search Engines – Love regularly updated content

• Big MNCs are encouraging employees to Blog and engage with social media– IBM, Dell, Intel and Cisco

Blogs

Micro-blogging: Twitter

• Excellent B2B and B2C networking tool• Great potential for building relationships

– Directly with customers– Good examples

• Irish: Blacknight, Cubic Telecom, LookAndTaste (iFoods)• International: Zappos, Dell, Comcast

• Easy to engage with customers– Building networks – lots of small business/entrepreneurs using it– Reach out to them and resolve issues and improve service to them– Opportunity to convey a personal dimension rather than marketing speak

• Good listening tool – What is being said about you and most importantly are you hearing it?

• Becoming mainstream but still only 10 million unique users– 1400% growth over past 12 months

Twitter

Social Networking Sites

• Bebo– Age group 14 yrs – 20 yrs– Entertainment based– Can be very effective – but campaign must engage with users (Pat the Baker

– model campaign)– Social capital rewards– User generated content– Incentives

• MySpace– Age group 16 yrs – 24 Yrs– Like Bebo, media and entertainment based– Jan 09 - 124 M unique users – 2% decline in traffic (Comscoore)– 81 Million Users (3% Drop in users over 2008 – Nielsen)– More Music based (historically – but becoming Open platform/Aggregator)– Campaign success depends on level of engagement with users

Social Networks - Facebook

• Functional social networking platform more so than Bebo and MySpace– Emphasis is on Communicating with Friends (as opposed to

media consumption)– Businesses can create fan, product or group pages (

• Re-worked recently to facilitate easier distribution for business pages

– Largest Social Networking site in world – In Now attracting twice as many users as MySpace (TechCrunch)– Less advertising friendly than Bebo and MySpace (Nielsen)

• Others have media platforms for publishing content – aimed at larger brands

– Main markets in North America and Europe (and AsiaPac)

Social Networks

Professional Networking

• Write a full Bio and highlight key points that you want reflected• Fill out full details –

– Employment History– Key achievements– Etc..

• Link to other networks – – Blogs – Websites– Presentations – (Slideshare.

• Update your status regularly (so you stay on the radar)• Include your linkedIn (Plaxo, Ziggs, Xing) profile in email• Contact people you meet at networking events etc…

Professional Networking

Video Sites

• Useful marketing and profile platform– Create video content and distribute using TubeMogul– User-generated content

• Run competitions for customers to build content (see Pat The Baker example)

• Link to promotional videos • Video blogs (WP Plug-ins, Seesmic, 12 seconds)• Mobile Video (QIK) – See Pat Phelan from Cubic Telecom

• Extending digital footprint and brand-building purposes– Create content & tag videos with keywords and distribute to

your network – Post all content and video blogs on your own website and

distribute on free video sharing sites

Video Sites

Photosharing Sites

Photos

• Blurring of social and business– Gen Y and Millennials tend not to see such a division

• Use Twitpic or Pikchur to share on Twitter • Make use of Mobile photos • Excellent for sharing content with network

– Events– Information– Social

• Tag all content with relevant keywords – Build digital footprint– Generally, share content

Social Bookmarking & RSS

• Add Bookmark Buttons to websites– Sociable, AddThis, Share are widely used

• Ensure that all your articles/content can be accessed via RSS– CMS Systems such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress etc..

Configured for this– Provide RSS buttons for Feedburner, GoogleReader, MyYahoo

etc… (Plug-ins)

• Add rating and individual bookmark buttons– Digg, Technorati, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious

• Share content to your community thru:– FriendFeed, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg as well

Bookmarking, Sharing & RSS

Documentation

• Publish& Share all legally or business insensitive material– Documents– Promotional Material– Training Material– Presentations

• Following Applications are well subscribed to:– Slideshare.net (presentations – this one for example)– Scribd, docshare.com (documents)

• These sites are well indexed by Google• Tag all material with using relevant taxonomy

Documentation

Aggregators & Profiles

• Brings together sprawling digital profile– SocNetworks, Professional, blogging, images, video etc.– Enables followers to subscribe to your feed (very popular)– FriendFeed, Facebook (since March 09), PeopleBrowser

• Fill in and update all profiles fully– Google, Yahoo, Facebook– Especially Google – it indexes automatically once complete– Helps with search engine ranking

• If Feed is public, then search engines will index – Again, good for visibility

• Update status from one location – ping.fm– Keeps you in front of followers without updating each network

• The more ways people can see and view info about you – THE BETTER (as long as that’s what you want)

Aggregators, Status & Profiles

Recent Irish case studies of brands engaging with social media

Bord Gais

• The Big Switch Campaign (TheBigSwitch.ie)– Contacted over 100 influencers before launch of

BigSwitch campaign– Elicit feedback on Consumer issues and how to

engage with online community– Well received by blogging community – lots of open

& public praise– Allegedly Bord Gais PR company advised against

(protecting interests?)– In Hindsight, Bord Gais very pleased with approach

taken – the way forward?

The Big Switch

Pat The Baker & Bebo

• Unlikely brand to become a template on how to run a social media campaign

• Engaged with their audience (very well)– Blogs, updates, conversational, responded to comments

and questions as they happened– User Interaction –

• Allowed and encouraged user feedback – solicited their opinions using Polls & questionnaires

– User generated competitions • Design related (skins, characters), video and

merchandise (T-shirts, bags)– Social capital as well as economic rewards

Pat The Baker

Listening to what is being said about you online

Set up Alerts and Listen

• Using third party tools brands can listen online to what is being said about them– Typical Channels covered include:

• Online Forums• Blogs – Post and Comments• Twitter• Social Networks• Video Sites• Photosharing sites• Wikis

– Operate on an Alert system • Close to real-time notification systems• Single View of brand and can manage conversations within the Third party

tool

• Brands can avail of Free tools and utilities• Do not get single view of brand mentions

Listening Tools

• Using the following tools brands can listen online to what is being said about them– Commercial aggregated listening tools

• BuzzMetrics, TNS Cymphony, Biz360, DJ insight, Visible, Radian6, TrackUr, BuzzLogic

– Twitter • Twittersearch, Tweetbeep, TweetDeck

– Blogs • BackType, Technorati, Techmeme, Disquss, GoogleBlogSearch,

WhosTalking.com, iceRocket– Alerts

• Google Alters– Customise Searches into RSS feeds and subscribe in RSS readers

• Using these, brands can listen to what is being said about them and manage reputation

Brands caught out by not listening and reacting FAST

Domino’s

• Domino’s Pizza Video– Two employees posted video of them “interfering” with food

production– Posted on a Friday night– Circulated around Twitter, YouTube and social web over weekend– No response from company until following Tuesday– Video received millions of views and large volumes of commentary – Eventually company release PR statement – not very satisfactory– On Wednesday President responds with Video – generally, well

received– Classic case-study in failure to respond immediately

Domino’s

Marks and Spencers

• Busts 4 Justice set up by Beckie Williams a year ago– Marks were charging a surcharge of £2 for Double DD

bras– She emailed M&S Bosses but dismissed out of hand– Set up Facebook page – now has approx 16500 fans– Lots of media attention (both on and offline)– Last Friday M&S publicly acknowledged they made a

“boob” of it – Offering 25% off all bras until 25th May – This shows that brands are (and need to more) listening to

what is being said on social networks

Marks and Spencers

Amazon

• AmazonFail– Amazon remove thousands of gay and lesbian literature

from ratings system on a Friday evening– Outrage amongst online community over weekend– No response from Amazon until following Tuesday– #Amazonfail hashtag in top 5 trending topics in Twitter– A lot of commentary about mismanagement of issue from

Twitter and Blogosphere– Eventually Amazon release a boilerplate PR release – calls

incident a “technical glitch”– Brand tarnished by incident – search Amazon on twitter to

see comments – #Amazonfail now part of digital lexicon

Amazonfail

The RyanAir approach

Ryan Air & “Idiot Bloggers”

• No time for bloggers– Blogger notices technical glitch on RyanAir site and blogs

about it– RyanAir employees respond in heavy-handed fashion– Affair generates publicity both online and offline – RTE

news, Irish Daily newspapers, Blogs– RyanAir release a harsh press release – calls bloggers

“idiots”– Incident picked up internationally (NY Times, Guardian.

Skynews etc…) – How not to manage online relations (but do RyanAir care?)

• Apparently bookings were up over incident

Ryan Air & “Idiot Bloggers”

International case studies of brands engaging with social media

Ford – FiestaMovement

• Ford Introducing Fiesta to US market• Ran a competition to receive Fiesta trial for 6 months (all

expenses covered)• 100 “Agents” chosen – (cool and diverse young mix)• Created Fiestamovement.com• Each agent will “lifestream” the experience

– Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Facebook etc..

• Unbiased commentary on experience• Generated a lot of press and commentary• Cars received end of April – interesting case study• Scott Monty – head of DigiComms well respected in Industry

Ford - FiestaMovement

Skittles

Dell

Zappos

Whole Foods

Walmart

Starbucks

About Digital Insights

Information

Contact Details:

Email: keith@keithfeighery.comWeb: http://www.keithfeighery.com

BIO:Over 11 years experience designing and implementing digital and online solutions. Providing consultancy and production services for businesses to develop web strategy and online presence using best in breed digital and social technologies.

Clients Include:Allfinanz, Eontec, Siebel Systems, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Yorkshire Building Society, DIT Aungier St, FOMACs, Fitzwilliam Institute, Digital Media Centre (DIT).

Qualifications:Hold a 1st Class MA in Digital Media Technologies