Doing Social Media
Right
Original creation by Marta Strickland, social
media strategist for digital marketing agency
“Organic Detroit.”
social media strategist for
What is Social Media?
Social media is an umbrella term that
defines the various activities that integrate
technology, social interaction, and the
construction of words, pictures, videos,
and audio.
But that doesn’t quite do it…
It’s how people engage,
participate, and share online…
… the experiences they leave behind
… and the shared meaning they create.
It’s…
> 100,000,000 videos on YouTube
4,000,000 articles on Wikipedia
200 M blogs
1 billion tweets on twitter
> 200 M people on Facebook each month
FROM HONEYMOON TO
MARRIAGE
Social Media By The Numbers
346,000,000
number of people globally who read blogs
700,000,000
number of photos added to Facebook monthly
273.1 minutes
time on average spent watching online video each month
55%
internet users who have uploaded and shared photos
57%
internet users who have joined a social network
93%
Americans online expect companies to have a social media presence
But It’s Not All Good News…
Recent Headlines:
• Social Media Fatigue. Too much out there?
• Blogging is Dead, According to Wired.com
• Forrester Says Consumers Don’t Trust Corporate Blogs
• Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites
• P&G marketing chief questions value of Facebook
• Half of 'social media campaigns' will flop
The Honeymoon Is Over…
Social Media Challenge #1
Companies have to overcome their fear.
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How do you learn to “let go”
Give control back to the consumer
Lose the limits imposed by legal
Reinvent PR… PR 2.0
But is the risk work the reward?
Social Media Challenge #2
This is a different kind of marketing.
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Stop thinking “campaign”
Stop thinking “channel”
Beware of Business Week syndrome
Objectives need to come first
It’s so much more than “marketing”
www.ideastorm.com
• http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
Social Media Challenge #3
It starts with the community inside.
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Bringing community to the business silos
Socializing success is the key to success
Watch out for company ADD
End users can tell if your “family” is
dysfunctional
Social Media Challenge #4
Social media advocates are over-zealous.
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It’s not just brands who are challenged
The world wide echo chamber
Don’t follow the “shiny object”
Bring brands in with baby steps
Prevent culture shock
Social Media Challenge #5
Consumers are suffering from fatigue.
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It’s a competition for consumer attention
They can afford to be picky
Human behavior is complex
But phony never flies
Who Is Doing It Right?
Reinventing Customer Service
The Unhappy Customer
Comcast’s Nightmare
23,000 subscribers
is how many TechCrunch's Michael Arrington told when
his Comcast service was down
1.5 million viewers
is how many have seen the video a Comcast customer
recorded when a service technician fell asleep in his
house
The customer’s voice has become a powerful weapon…
The Happy Customer
Zappos.com / Powered by Service
Zappos.com doesn’t sell shoes, they deliver “WOW”
through service. The primary sources of the company's
rapid growth have been repeat customers and numerous
word of mouth recommendations. Free shipping both
ways, an always open call center, and 365 day return
policy are part of what sets Zappos apart.
"Hopefully, 10 years from now, people won't even realize
we started out selling shoes." Tony Hsieh (CEO)
How Do You Measure Success?
Active Participation:
438 Zappos employees on Twitter
Instant Access to Your Customers:
47,104 Followers on of the top Twitter accounts
Extending Your Reach:
Increased traffic and search volume
More Efficient, More Effective:
Limit the amount of advertising by focusing on a customer
experience that will generate natural word of mouth
Increasing the Bottom line:
75% of Zappos sales come from repeat customers
$840 million in 2007, about $1 billion projected in 2008
Reinventing The Infomercial
Take A Look Around
Blendtec Before “Will It Blend”
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A faceless company with expensive product
New marketing director means a set of new eyes
A charismatic CEO with some interesting habits
“Extreme blending” as a regular occurrence
How Do You Measure Success?
Millions of Eyes and Ears:
65 million YouTube views, 120 million WillItBlend.com views
Dominate the Search Results:
Turn search buzzwords (“Chuck Norris”, “iPhone”) into video traffic
More Efficient, More Effective:
They’ve received national media coverage (TV appearances, awards)
that is equivalent to millions of dollars in advertising
Increasing the Bottomline:
Total Blender retail sales grew 700% in the past two years
Making the World a Better Place:
Blendtec auctioned the blended iPhone on Ebay which sold for
$1,000 and proceeds were donated to a children’s hospital
Reinventing Public Relations
Change The Conversation
The Trouble Ford Was In
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Consumers don’t trust corporations
Trust needs a face and a name
Enter the automotive crisis
Ford put into an interesting position
Can a bad situation be a brand defining moment?
How Do You Measure Success?
Get Your Content Out There:
Traffic increased 100% in past 4 months to thefordstory.com
“Ford Story” CEO YouTube video has received 53,354 views
A Strong Leading Man:
Scott Monty has 14265 followers on Twitter and conducts almost
daily interviews with blogs, news sites, and television
Be the Brand Everyone Is Talking About:
#12 in AdAge’s most social brands of 2008, next to Disney, Sony,
Dell and Apple
Owning Your Story, Before It Owns You:
Ford effectively changed the conversation around the automotive
bailout to position themselves in a different light than the others
What Are The Best Practices?
The Inconvenient Truth
There are no best practices.
• Every project is a custom fit.
• You learn as you go.
What are the best practices for a conversation?
What about for a relationship?
You can read books, attend seminars, but it all comes back to
who you are and who they are.
There is one best practice to which there is no exception…
BE REAL
An Approach to Being Real
Understand
You need to understand
• Who they are
• Who you are
• What you can handle
Act
You need to act
• Accordingly
• Transparently
• Honestly
Evolve
To evolve, you must
• Always be learning
• Always be teaching
• Always be improving
How to UNDERSTAND
Understand
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Act
First and foremost, listen
Define the problem
Match the problem to project objectives
Find the community inside your company
Understand the community outside
Evolve
Are you ready to listen
Understand
Tools You Can Use
Social Media Buzz Monitoring
1. Free Alert Systems
2.
Paid Analysis Dashboard
3.
Full Service Insights Partners
Understand
What Ford Heard…
“If we all bought American, where would the competition and innovation be?
Have you seen the junk on wheels they sell? The Big 3 haven't been
selling what people want, but the foreign car companies have.”
Why are American cars still so unreliable?
Nobody buys American anymore!!
Six in 10 oppose auto bailout…
Hello?! I think we have a problem
Understand
Define the Problem
It all comes down to a problem in communication…
• Our customer thinks of us as _____ instead of _____
• People don’t know the facts about our brand
• We don’t know what our customers think about us
• Our marketing message isn’t resonating with our customers
Ford’s big communication problem…
• Big faceless corporation
• American people against the bail out
• Ford lumped in with misinformation and bad press
Understand
Determine Your Objectives
Social media project objectives must…
• Directly solve your communication problems
• Have a clear way to benchmark before and after
Ford’s objectives…
• Put a face forward, humanize the brand
• Combat misinformation
• Tell your story, get others to tell it for you
• Change opinion around the brand
What is your corporate culture
Understand
The Community Inside
Questions you need to ask…
• What is (who owns) our corporate culture?
• Who is allowed to talk on behalf of the brand now?
• What assets are we or could we be creating?
– Events, content extras, internal superstars
How they did it…
• Blendtec picked up on internal meme and decided to share it
with the world wide web
• Zappos looked at their core values, commitment to culture,
and ways employees were already talking online
Reach out to your followers
Understand
The Community Outside
Questions you need to ask…
• What the types of people exist out there already?
• Should we build or join a community?
• What does the community need?
– Should we support, energize, or embrace them?
How they did it…
• Blendtec understood the tone people looking for and
embraced their requests for content
• Zappos continues to find and actively follow people that
mention their brand
How to ACT
Understand
Act
1. Create a pilot program with core influencers
2. Ignite conversation and engage your audience
3. Don’t forget to share results, content, and plans,
be transparent and giving
4. Be a great party host by connecting community
members together
Evolve
Act
Create A Pilot Program
• Start with creators and influencers.
• Find renegades and evangelists.
• Be interesting.
How they did it…
• Microsoft put together Channel 9 to show behind-the-scenes
interviews with developers and even executives. On the first
day, word of mouth had drawn 100,000 viewers. Half a year
later, traffic was up to 1.2 million unique visitors a month.
Find ways to ignite conversation
Act
Engage Your Audience
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Ignite conversation.
Develop community activities.
Build a content calendar.
Be social.
How they did it…
• Chrysler engages business units on a weekly basis for
discussion topics to put up for their Customer Advisory Board
and finds executives to participate in online monthly chats.
Act
Don’t Forget to Share
• Be honest. Be giving.
• Be transparent, esp. when you are wrong.
• Let the community own the community.
How they did it…
• When Cork’d was recently hacked, the very first thing Gary
Vaynerchuk did was post a video comment on TechCrunch
to apologize and inform
• What not to do… When AMC first found out that fans were
Twittering posed as characters from the hit show Mad Men,
they asked that the accounts be shut down
Remember to be a great party host
Act
Connect the Community
• Be a great party host.
• Encourage member interaction.
• Drive exploration.
How they did it…
• Mr. Tweet takes a look at which Twitter users you should be
following based on your personal interests
• CCS, the College of Creative Studies, uses Facebook to match
potential students to counselors and current students who can
answer important questions
How to EVOLVE
Understand
1.
Act
Empower your advocates through reward and
recognition
2. Cross-pollinate and extend into other programs
3. Measure, report, share, and improve
4. Learn what works and what doesn’t
Evolve
Evolve
Empower Your Advocates
• Reward and recognize.
• Give them the tools.
How they did it…
• Yahoo! Answers gives users different privileges based on
how many questions they have answered
• At Dell IdeaStorm, community members suggest and vote
on ideas for how Dell can improve their business.
• Lego Factory allows users to create 3D lego bricks. The
community can vote on the best creations and some of the
winning creations end up at local toy stores.
Extend your reach beyond the web
Evolve
Extend into Other Programs
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Integrate.
Cross-pollinate.
Widgetize.
Meet up in the real world.
How they did it…
• The Barnes and Noble community is a lively brand loyalty
community supported by the Lithium platform. Hot topic
threads are featured on the e-commerce site.
• ArtShare is an application developed by the Brooklyn
Museum to share the Museum's collection on Facebook.
Rather than expect users to come to the website to learn about
the collection, they engage people in their own social space.
Evolve
Measure, Measure, Measure
• Match metrics to your objectives.
• Report, share, improve.
How they did it…
• Many brands use buzz monitoring software such as Radian6
or Sysomos to measure fluctuations in volume of
conversation compared to competitors.
• CCS, the College of Creative Studies, uses the metrics
provided by Facebook’s Insight tool to measure increased
traffic, photo views, and wall posts.
What Do We Want From Them?
To talk about the brand
BRAND MONITORING
Track, quantify, and analyze
conversations around a brand,
their competitors, and their
industry through out the entire
online space
To spread our content
CONTENT TRACKING
Determine the spread and velocity
(how far, how fast) of branded
syndicated content (video, widget,
article)
To engage us directly
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Qualify and analyze social interaction
within a defined channel in order
to determine community health,
sentiment, and engagement levels
Evolve
Learn + Adapt
• Go with the flow.
• Catalog what works and what doesn’t.
• Rethink often.
How they did it…
• Community platforms such as Lithium and SalesForce
(which runs Dell Ideastorm and MyStarbucksIdea) have
implemented “idea management” features which help brands
manage insights collected from the community and measure
and learn from user engagement.
• Get Satisfaction is feedback widget that can get integrated
into websites to provides real-time, dynamic customer
support content that leverages the wisdom of crowds.
This is HARD WORK
But it will get easier…
Introducing Web 3.0
The Information Portal
Web 1.0
• information exclusivity, be the first to own the content
• dividing the world wide web into usable directories
• everyone has their personal own little corner in the cyberspace
The web became STATIC + LONELY
It lacked:
• community
• interaction
• scalability
The Social Platform
Web 2.0
• focus on the power of the community to create and validate
• the power of a seemingly freer form of organization (“tags”)
• setting up “hooks” for future integration (RSS, API)
The web became NOISY + OVERWHELMING
It lacked:
• personalization
• true portability
• meaning
We Broke Dunbar’s Number
Dunbar's number is the supposed cognitive limit to the
number of individuals with whom any one person can
maintain stable social relationships
And here are
all my friends
There’s me
And their
Myspace, Flickr, Yelp,
YouTube, LinkedIn,
Facebook, Last.fm…
And their friends
with their content
There’s my
Myspace, Flickr, Yelp,
YouTube, LinkedIn,
Facebook, Last.fm…
Navigating the seas of the social web
Introducing Web 3.0
What does it mean?
The 3rd decade of the Web (2010–2020), when simultaneous and
complementary technology trends will finally reach maturity:
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a network of separately siloed applications and content repositories creating
more seamless interoperability between connected devices
data anywhere anytime via broadband adoption, mobile Internet access,
software-as-a-service, and cloud computing
true data portability via open identity (OpenID), APIs and data formats
a consistent web language via RDF, OWL, SWRL, SPARQL, etc.
intelligent agents, natural language processing, and machine learning
Web 3.0 is The Relevant Web
Improving How We Listen
Social Monitoring 2.0
• Monitoring based on keywords makes it hard to distinguish brand
conversation (“jaguar” the car vs “jaguar” the animal)
• Sentiment changes based on the context (ie “lemon”)
• Too much reliance on manual adjustments and interpretation
Social Monitoring 3.0
• Smarter aggregation, mapping conversation trends
• Conversation tracking beyond keywords
Better Customer Acquisition
Online Advertising 2.0
• Contextual ads can be inaccurate and unsafe for brands
• Behavioral ads don’t account for multiple users
• Consumers trust each other more than corporations, brands, and
their advertising messages.
Online Advertising 3.0
• Deliver relevant ads to the right consumers
• Make content easier to discover by interested users
Better Community Management
Community Management 2.0
• Shear number of social networks with disconnected profiles makes it
difficult to find the most valuable people to connect with
• Hard to distribute the conversation beyond your blog or community
• No relevant social information when you need it most
Community Management 3.0
• Finding the influencers across the social web
• Extending the conversation beyond the networks
Improving How We Measure
Measuring Success 2.0
• Limited amount that we can measure: reach, exposure, volume of
conversation
• Social networks are “walled gardens” with inconsistent metrics
• No algorithms to measure that a community has been built
Measuring Success 3.0
• Better sentiment analysis than “positive, neutral, negative”
• Social graph analysis, conversation connections
Thank You.