The Truth about Social Media Marketing

The Truth about Social Media Marketing By Susan Gunelius President & CEO KeySplash Creative, Inc. www.KeySplashCreative.com

2 Things You Must Know About Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a long-term strategy.
Social media marketing is a powerful brand-building and word-of-mouth marketing tool.

What is a brand?

What a brand is NOT .

A brand is not a logo.

A brand is not a product.

A brand is not a slogan.

A brand is not an ad.

A brand is not a company.

A brand is a promise.
A brand promises something to consumers.
A brand sets consumer expectations .
A brand meets those expectations in every consumer interaction and experience .

Brands that don’t keep their promises fail.

What is a brand?

The Elements of Branding
Tangible
Logo
Color palette
Typeface
Intangible Image Messages Promise Brand Perception

Tangible Brand Elements
Elements of a brand that consumers can see and touch such as logo, typefaces, and colors.
AT&T uses Pantone Process Blue as the primary color and the AT&T Clearview font for its corporate identity, logo and marketing materials.

Intangible Brand Elements
Elements of a brand that consumers indirectly attribute to that brand and anything that bears that brand name or association such as messages, image and promise.
Harley Davidson communicates messages related to freedom and has an image of camaraderie. When combined with the tangible elements of the Harley Davidson brand, the brand promise is clear and consistent.

3 Steps to Brand Building
Consistency – messages, image, and so on must be consistent or consumers become confused and turn away from the brand.
Persistence – brands are not built overnight.
Restraint – don’t be tempted to go too far.

Brands are built by consumers, NOT companies.
Companies put out the messages and nudge consumers in the desired direction, but consumers create brands through experiences and emotions .
Brand loyalty develops.
People talk about the brands they love.

Example: Harry Potter
The Harry Potter brand was originally built by consumers not marketers.
Consumers shared it, experienced it and lived it, particularly on the social web.
Fan sites, blogs, forums, fan fiction, fan art, music, videos, podcasts, and more
J.K. Rowling and the publisher originally send cease & desist letters but quickly learned letting fans take control of the brand on the social web was far more powerful.

Social media marketing offers the single largest opportunity to build brands and build businesses.

Social Media Marketing
Social media is a term used to define the online communications tools of Web 2.0 that are rooted in two-way conversations, engagement, and active participation.
Social media marketing is any form of direct or indirect marketing used to build awareness, recognition, recall and action of a brand, business, product, person, or other entity using the tools of the social web.

The Social Media Marketing Opportunity
Consumers have more options than ever thanks to the ease of finding information online.
The social web has created a global conversation that most companies still don’t understand how to leverage effectively.
Social media presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage with current and potential customers, create branded experiences, and develop an ongoing dialogue that ultimately creates loyal brand advocates and guardians.
You can’t buy that kind of access!

Cindy Gordon’s Success When 7 people become 350 million in just 24 hours The social Web is the most powerful form of word-of-mouth marketing in history and the most powerful we’ll see in our lifetimes.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV
Gary Vaynerchuk grew his father’s local wine store in Springfield, New Jersey to a $50 million per year business with HALF of those sales coming from the Web.
How did he do it?
Through the power of the social web.
Gary’s passionate and informative video blog posts on Wine Library TV quickly drew audiences from around the world as word spread about his contagious content.
Today, Gary is a sought after social media speaker, makes frequent appearances on television, and recently signed a multi-million dollar book deal where he will share his knowledge and experience of using social media tools to grow a small business.
And it all started with a blog.

Keys to Social Media Success
Brand consistency in message and image.
Set and meet customer expectations based on the brand promise.
Let the audience take control.
Build relationship with create a loyal band of brand advocates who talk about your brand and stand up for it in the face of opposition.

Secrets to Social Media Marketing Success
Forget everything you know about marketing.
Think like a publisher, not a marketer.
If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You have to give them a reason.
It’s not a part-time gig.
It’s not about you.
Let the audience take control.

No one cares about you
Define who you want to talk to.
Find them and get involved.
Learn what they want to talk about.
Produce valuable content that they want to hear and share.
Share their content, too.
Be accessible and human.
Absolutely no corporate rhetoric.

Think of it this way …
If your social media participation is 100% self-promotional, then you’ll fail.
Imagine you’re in a conversation with a person and all he does is talk about himself. Imagine that he never gives you a chance to speak throughout the conversation. Is this someone you’d want to continue speaking with now or in the future? Chances are you’d want to run away as far and fast as you can. The same holds true for social media participation.

The 80-20 Rule For every 20% of self-promotional content you produce, create 80% that is not self-promotional.

Give up control
The power of the social web comes from the participants (i.e., consumers).
Loyal brand advocates and online influencers are a word-of-mouth marketing dream come true.
Plant the seeds and let the conversation grow, but be sure to continue watering it with valuable information that people CARE about.
Make yours a relationship brand by creating various brand experiences for consumers to self-select which they’d like to engage in.
In time, your band of brand advocates will spread your messages for you.

Dell’s Big Mistake 1,730 Diggs, 422,032 views, and 77 pages of comments 3,672 Diggs, 149,963 views, and 142 pages of comments
Don’t try to control the conversation.
Admit your mistakes.
Be transparent.

But What If They Say Something Bad?
Ignore it.
Join the conversation.
Bury it.
You have three choices:

What are the popular tools of social media?
Blogs (Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, MoveableType, etc.)
Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, etc.)
Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, etc.)
Social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.)
Podcasting (iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, etc.)
Photo sharing (Flickr, Picasa, etc.)
Video sharing (YouTube, Google Video, Viddler, etc.)
Online chats and telephone (Skype, Google Voice, etc.)
And many, many more

But where to begin?

Multiple departments can get a piece of the social media pie.
Marketing
Create Content
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
MySpace
You name it!
Customer Service
Direct Dialogue
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Public Relations
Commenting
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Other social bookmarking sites
Review sites like Yelp and Epinions
Executive
Thought Leadership
Blogs
Twitter
Human Resources
Networking
Facebook
LinkedIn
MySpace
Bebo
Niche networking sites
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube

Social Media Employee Participation Tips
Employees crave involvement and ownership.
Allow employees to take control.
Offer flexibility and leniency but within specific guidelines.
Make it easy and non-threatening to participate.
Create a 360-degree loop of information sharing.
Be accessible.
One sentence of corporate rhetoric will ruin everything!

Step 1: Find Your Best Audience
The social web gets more crowded everyday.
Your efforts are for naught if you’re not spending time in the right places.
Take time to find the people you want to communicate with, and then join the conversation.

Example: Playboy
Playboy U Social Network
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube
MetaCafe
FriendFeed
Blogs
Mobile content
And more
Surround people with branded experiences.

Southwest Airlines
Blog and Twitter profile include non-official and entertaining conversations by real employees in their own voices.
Notice a REAL person is tweeting with you! Southwest Airlines can be found all over the social web.

Step 2: Content is Key
What you say is the most important key to success on the social web.
Be human, be honest, be transparent, be you! Personality is important to engaging with others in social media.
Give something extra or exclusive.
Leave jargon and corporate rhetoric out!

Example: Walmart
Written by employees
Given flexibility
Personal voice
Readers feel like they’re “in the know”
Employees feel like they matter

Jet Blue
Another example of making a corporate brand more human by putting a name to the Twitter profile.
The Jet Blue Twitter profile always shows who is “on duty” and tweeting!

Step 3: Research, Research, Research!
Check out what your competitors are doing.
Find companies that are doing great things and copy them (no sense in reinventing the wheel).
Find out what your target audience is looking for, what engages them, what keeps them coming back for more, and then give them more of it!

Comcast
Twitter profile, @ComcastCares, is a popular customer service site. The fact that a specific person is connected to the profile increases the “human” factor and gives the profile a personality.
Look at all of this useful info! And to make Comcast more human, you can even check out Frank’s family website and blog!

Step 4: Give More than You Receive
Don’t just publicize company news. Give more by creating interesting, useful and valuable content that can’t be found on a traditional website.
Answer questions, ask questions, be engaging and real.
For every hour you spend “publicizing” through social media, spend at least 3 hours engaging with people in your network.

Example: Whole Foods
Most of the Whole Foods Twitter stream is @replies.
Targeted content adds value: Additional Twitter profiles for specific topics (e.g., @WFMCheese, @WFMWineGuys, @WholeRecipes), for specific metro areas, and dozens for specific store locations.
The Whole Foods blog provides recipes, industry news, green tips, and more.
Additional company blogs by the CEO, about special ingredients and food podcasts.
On Facebook
Flickr photo profile
ALL adding value and giving the Whole Foods brand a personality and direct dialogue with consumers.

H&R Block
Twitter profile and blogs which answer questions, particularly during tax season.

Step 5: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Diversify your social media presence to connect with a broader audience and build your network.
Just be sure to remain active in all your social media ventures.
Quantity is good, but quality is better.

Example: Dell
Dell operates several Twitter profiles targeted at specific audiences (e.g., @DellOutlet, which generated $2 million in direct revenue in the past year).
Dell runs a number of blogs targeted at specific audiences (e.g., Direct2Dell is a highly popular blog for Dell consumers).
The Dell Community is the Dell customer social network.
Dell is on Facebook and LinkedIn (a group for Dell partners).
There is even a Dell forum.

Google
Google has 102 company and product blogs to choose from (and growing)!
Dozens of Google employees write blogs, too!
Google owns Blogger, YouTube, Feedburner, Google Buzz, Orkut, Jaiku, Google Docs (for document sharing), Gmail, Picasa, Knol, Google Voice, and more! Google should have a strong social media presence.

How ALL Businesses Can Benefit from Social Media
How do you and most of the people you know find information about business, products, and services?
A key benefit to building your brand online through social media is the enormous SEO boost your business website can get.

It’s about Entry Points!
Each new blog post is a new entry point to your website. If you published 1 blog post each day for a year, that’s 356 MORE entry points to your blog than your traditional website provides.
Google includes blog posts and Twitter updates in its search algorithm.
Your great social media content could get linked to by other social Web users through blogs, Twitter, and so on, which means even MORE entry points to your blog.
The more time you spend creating great content and building relationships with other people on the social Web, the more people will get to know you, trust your content, and link to it or share it.
All of that content creation, linking, and sharing means more entry points to your blog and website, which also boosts your site’s search engine rankings. And more traffic = more opportunities to build your brand and your business!

Everyday You Wait is a Missed Opportunity
Start a blog. Leave comments on other blogs where your target customers spend time.
Get on Twitter and be active!
Answer questions on LinkedIn.
Start a blog written by the CEO like Zappos.
Create groups and fan pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Create a Facebook app.
Create videos (upload your videos to your branded YouTube channel or to TubeMogul.com for instant distribution to multiple online video sites and for tracking).
Find online forums and social networks where your target customers spend time and join the conversation.
Start a weekly podcast (you can set up an online radio show through BlogTalkRadio.com in minutes and automatically upload it to iTunes).
Go mobile!

Whatever you do
Take control of your brand,
Make it their own,
Self-select social media experiences to engage in with the brand, and
Become loyal brand advocates and brand guardians.
Don’t be afraid to let consumers (and employees):

Contact Susan Gunelius
Website: www.KeySplashCreative.com
Blogs: www.KeySplashCreativeConversations.com and www.WomenOnBusiness.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/susangunelius
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/susangunelius
LinkedIn: www.Linkedin.com/in/susangunelius
Email: [email_address]
Books by Susan Gunelius (available now online and in book stores): And Coming Soon: Spread the Word: Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes a Day and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress

The Truth about Social Media Marketing

by KeySplash Creative, Inc. on Apr 26, 2010

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