Transcript Slide 1
Leveraging Social Media : Actions You Can Take Today to Grow Your Site Audience
Linda Fisk Senior Vice President, Internet Marketing
Agenda
A little bit of background
Progress to date
Actions you can take TODAY to drive audience – at little or no cost!
Use the network effects of the Internet to achieve your marketing objective Encourage people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily Target audiences in their favorite places.
First, A Little Bit of Background
Introduction
• • The internet: Is changing Is growing up • • Users: Want to participate Want to share • • Companies: Should be aware Should use the possibilities
Consuming Information Differently
• Teens watch 60% less TV and spend 600% more time online (Arthur W. Page) • 22.4 million people access news daily from a mobile device (Cellular News) • YouTube is third largest search engine • 3.5 billion shared each week on Facebook • Facebook has 350 million users • 3.1 million Wikipedia entries Not just consuming - creating & interacting
What is Social Media?
An ongoing conversation that’s happening RIGHT NOW A dialogue - not a monologue A promotional channel for our brands A steady stream of information for: Research Feedback Building Relationships
What is Social Media?
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
Why Social Media Marketing?
Past • Incoming traffic through search engines • Focus on Google, MSN/Live Search and Yahoo! Present • In less than 1 year, 15% of internet traffic to and from social sites Future • Trends predict increasing importance
Did You Know?
5 of the top 10
fastest-growing websites are user-generated content sites.
There are over 500 social networking websites with
1.46B users
worldwide.
67% of businesses say that the
best source for advice
on products and services are their consumers.
45% of adult Internet users have
created content online
. There are approximately 1.2 million
new blog posts
every day.
69% of buyers use social media to assist them in decision making.
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Trends in Social Media
• • • • • •
Consumer Use and Perceptions
Social networks are more popular than email 2 36% of online users think more positively about companies that blog 1 17% feel more positively about companies on social nets 20% want more communication from brands 6 • 69% of online users read blogs and write product reviews 1 • • 19% read RSS feeds and tag internet content 1
Corporate Response
48% of marketing/PR professionals increased social media spend in 2009 3 85% of businesses participating in social media are blogging 1 77% of Fortune 500 use some sort of social media tool 5 44% report social media as “very important” to business/marketing strategy 5 1 Forrester Research, 2008 July 2008 5 2 Nielsen Online, 2009 3 CareerBuilder Internal statistics, June 2009 University of Mass., Dartmouth, Financial Institution, Inc., Dec 2008 6 4 Society for New Communications Research, Anderson Analytics, 7/09
Who Is Using Social Media?
Use by Age Group
• 76% of 15-24 year olds • 68% of 25-34 year olds • 65% of 35-44 year olds • 64% of 45-55 year olds • 60% of 55 and over • • Social Media is a Global Phenomenon: 73% of all Internet users have at least one social media account 71% of social media users are in N.A.
Source: Forrester Research, 2008
Reaching a Critical Target Audience
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations Only 14% trust advertisements By 2010, Generation Y will outnumber Baby Boomers $350 billion in spending power 16 – 19 hours online each week 96% of them have joined social networks Median age: MySpace – 26 Twitter – 31 Facebook – 33 LinkedIn - 39 Source: 2009 Consumer 2.0, Pew Internet Research
The World of Social Media
Subject to Change!
Examples of Social Media
Blogs
:
“Web logs” like Gizmodo and Tech Crunch
Social bookmarking
:
Users recommend headlines and stories to one another (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon)
Media sharing
:
Flickr, YouTube
Instant messaging
:
Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk
Forums
:
Websites for open discussions about specific topics. (Something Awful, Digital Spy)
Social networks
:
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning
Micro-Blogging:
Wikis
:
Wikipedia, WikiHow
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Which Matter and Who’s Using Them?
Age Source: Graph 1: Facebook statistics, July 2009; MySpace and LinkedIn: comScore data, July 2009; Twitter: Mashable and comScore data, July 2009. Graph 2: Nielsen Online, 2009
What Can Social Media Do For Me?
Helps manage our company’s / brand's
reputation
. Builds brand
awareness
and helps improve how people view our brands. Gets us closer to our customers and helps us
learn
about their needs then
respond, discuss, converse, and debate.
Offers creative and effective ways to
gain insight
not previously easily available. Features new and inexpensive ways to
support engage
our clients. and Typically
less expensive
than traditional advertising.
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Why Participate in Social Media?
It Promotes Credibility:
Brands are defined by the experiences and opinions of consumers, not necessarily what the brand seeks to convey 43% of online persons trust information posted by people they know over other sources Buy-in from brand evangelists who can passionately endorse a message within their networks can prove extremely influential
It Generates Valuable Consumer Feedback:
Social networks provide the opportunity to interact with consumers, asking and answer questions
It’s Expected:
People demand authenticity and responsiveness from brands 1 Forrester Research, 2008, image source: http://www.biojobblog.com/
Leveraging the Power of Social Media
• Connecting professionally • Sharing information • Conducting business • Posting videos/photos • Sourcing leads • Using as a CRM tool • Publishing blogs • Writing reviews • Answering polls/surveys • Researching information
Social Media: Mainstream Adoption
Company
Ikea
Example
Ikea Fans
Type
Blog
Success Metric
85,040 Fans Starbucks Zappos Community Twitter Voting Micro-Blogging 95,600 Votes 177,610 Followers Monster Trulia JetBlue Monster Jobs Widget Real Estate Widget Twitter Widget Widget Micro-Blogging 221,290 Downloads 20,198 Downloads 124,324 Followers Harley Davidson Compact Target YouTube Viral Digg Entry Desktop Widget Video Viral Content Widget 20 235,000 Channel Views 5,649 Diggs 48,628 Downloads
Measuring Social ROI
• Starbucks Free Pastry Day exceeded expectations and Via sampling helped prevent negative perception of instant coffee (source: Brandweek http://bit.ly/SCXS5) • Dell posts Twitter-exclusive deals on @DellOutlet, earning 2 million over two years, 1 million from the last 6 months alone (source: Reuters http://bit.ly/luT9y) • United and JetBlue offer Twitter-exclusive ticket deals (source: USA Today http://bit.ly/HKcDG) • Viral wedding video to Chris Brown’s “Forever” increased purchases by 2.5x, #4 on iTunes and #3 on Amazon (source: Google blog http://bit.ly/3FCRBG) • Online Blendtec sales increased five-fold over company's old revenue record prior to YouTube “Will it Blend” videos (source: Information Week http://bit.ly/ipHzJ)
Social Media: A Few Tips and Caveats
Any one campaign is not indefinitely sustainable What’s “in” one day is “out” the next This goes both for topics and web hangouts Take the time to insert your message in several locations. Timeliness and location are everything.
Social media is the inexact science of placing the right message in the right location at the right time.
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Ways to Use Social Media
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Listening – Use for research to better understand our customers and perceptions about our brands Talking – Use to spread messages about our brands to advocates, influencers and potential clients Energizing – Super charge the power of our brand advocates’ word of mouth. Supporting – Help our alumni support each other, connect with each other and serve as brand advocates.
Embracing – Integrating your customers insights and perspectives into how our business works.
Ways to Use Social Media
6.
7.
8.
9.
Foster business – Nurture leads long-term with targeted, qualified prospects /referrers Asking permission – Use for building a strong permission marketing asset like newsletters and email campaigns Attracting – Attract leads at a more significant scale once our brands 'tips' in the social web Cross-linking – Maximize the social and SEO synergy, consistently attract organic, editorially endorsed links
Review of Our Progress to Date
Social Media Planning
1.
Audience – Who are you trying to attract when you use social media?
2.
Objectives – What do you want to achieve with social media usage?
3.
Strategies – How are you going to use your social media channels?
4.
Budget – How much time and resources will you be able to commit to the initiatives that you enact?
5.
Integration – What do you currently do to market your services, and how can you leverage the power of social media to make it happen?
6.
Measurement – How will you know you are successful or not, and what will you do if you are/aren’t?
Audience for Social Media
If you don’t know who you are targeting, then you are sure to miss them
Our Key Audiences
Potential clients Alumni of our programs Referral sources Influencers in our industry
Objectives for Social Media
Align with overall business objectives Match audiences with strategies
Strengthen Alumni Relations Positively Engage Influencers Lead Generation for Prospective Clients
Objectives for Social Media
To raise awareness and increase the volume of conversation about our brands across the web To build relationships with individuals who consider themselves advocates of our brands To develop relationships with potential clients who may be unfamiliar with the brand To directly increase inquiries and admissions through online channels
LISTEN
Conversations are happening, whether we participate or not
Listening to the Conversation
Monitoring Conversations Key industry influencers Competitors Industry news sources Blog comments Video posts Alumni Groups
Benefits of Listening First!
Find key audiences from listening Chart out their presence in social media Market Segmentation - age, gender, family, geography, income Geographic - region, population, climate Psychographic - activities, interests, opinions, attitudes Behavioral- brand loyalty, benefits sought, readiness to admit/refer Continue to gather customer information
LEARN
Learn
Where do our key audiences congregate?
What do they think of our brands?
What are they looking for?
How do they like to interact?
How much time do they spent interacting?
How willing are they to share openly?
Do they want exposure?
Do they want to shape the industry, help others struggling with issues, or influence the next generation?
Becoming Familiar with Platforms
What is Feasible with Each?
Selecting the Right Tool Align Tactics with Objectives
Learn How to Connect the Dots
Alumni Relations Potential Clients Engage Influencers
It’s no longer about controlling information. Create, nurture, respond
Join the Conversation
When people trust our content, they’ll trust our services Write about what we know, and offer insights Offering links to resources we find Build reciprocal relationships with influential bloggers
Tell your story, then let people interact with and share it
Joining the Conversation
Update 10 internal blogs 3 /week Comment on external blogs 3 times /week
Social Media - Next Steps
Listen:
Map the Landscape
Engage:
Meet Them on Their Turf Conversation Mining Enterprise Generated Content - Company Websites Engage the Consumer Blogs Micro-Blogs Main Stream Media - Blogs - Forums Widgets Wikis Consumer Generated Content - Social Media - Blogs - Texting Social Networks Videos/Photos Social Bookmarking
Measure:
Test, Then Invest Data Analytics Track Traffic Track Conversions Track Sentiment Track Volume of Conversation Other Variables
Actions You Can Take Today!
Action 1: Get Drudged
The Drudge Report is still one of the best places to get noticed on the Web: Over 28 million visitors in a 24-hour period Over 800 million visitors in 1 month About 7 billion visitors in the past year E-mail links to your website stories to: [email protected]
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Action 2: Get Buzzed
Yahoo’s Buzz program Send your web articles to Buzz. Stories with the highest Buzz scores may get published on the Yahoo! home page.
If your story reaches that level, you’ll introduce hundreds of thousands of first-time visitors to your site.
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Action 3: Get on Fark
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Action 4: Work Your Alumni Sites
This is viral marketing at its core – using your dedicated social networking site to grow your brand’s visibility. Tease content on your site. Provide links so visitors end up on your site.
Spend at least a few minutes each day updating your site and reaching out to alumni.
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Action 5: Blog Away (with your links!)
Take 15 minutes each day to visit one of our internal blogs – and post content, comments and links.
Post a comment on and internal blog with a link to your story.
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Action 6: Distribute Your Content
Get Winked, Dugg, Redd, StumbledUpon 50
Distribution - Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites allows users to:
Submit story descriptions, as well as links back to stories, from all over the web Vote for submitted stories they feel are worthy of being read. Top-rated stories end up on the homepage and on the 1 st page of the category pages.
An article of high interest can generate high quality back links – meaning lots of traffic!
Leveraging Social Bookmarking
Examples of social bookmarking sites include: Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Newsvine, Furl, Wink, StumbleUpon, BlinkList, Mag.nolia
Articles need to be submitted to the social bookmarking sites to be effective Submitters need to be active in the site community If an article is going to be submitted by the same person multiple times, then they will need to have multiple accounts to avoid being banned from the communities
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Benefits of Sites Like Digg.com:
Digg.com is a popular site that millions of people visit. Getting a story and link on the home page or a primary category page can result in significant traffic to your web site. Digg.com has a high page rank. Search engines pass this page rank value on to pages linked to and from high-level pages. An external link from a website with a high page rank tells search engines that this site is of value and the link value is passed on.
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Submitting Content to Digg.com
Submitting content to Digg.com can be done in 5 simple steps.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sign up for an account Begin story submission to Digg.com
Submit the story link Submit title and description Check duplication and submit
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Using Digg.com
Step 1: Sign up for an account Page 55
Using Digg.com
Step 2: Begin story submission process Page 56
Using Digg.com
Step 3: Submit Link Page 57
Using Digg.com
Step 4: Submit title and description Page 58
Using Digg.com
Step 5: Check duplicate articles and submit/cancel article Page 59
Overall Takeaways
Listen first!
Be respectful, human, considerate and passionate.
People congregate around relevance and value.
If its not valuable to your audience, don’t bother.
Community before commerce.
It is a cocktail party, not a lecture.
Tolerate criticism.
Encourage positive personalities.
Wrap Up
Sharing and collaboration vs. broadcasting Create and seed content across the Web Tell your story via multiple channels Leverage what’s already out there Build a community and engage with it Monitor always Follow guidelines for response
Resources
Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Forrester Research Twitter Power by Joel Comm Whuffie Power by Tara Hunt Sales 2.0 by Seley & Holloway The New Influencers by Paul Gillin Mashable (Blog on Social Media Trends) Bernoff,