Engage Your Online Community

ENGAGING your customers online ‘dialogue’ marketing

About Me Creative Director at Empirical Successfully started a sold interactive marketing company Been in the online game for 12 years Produced 100+ websites, and hundreds of marketing programs Blog @ www.whiteboarddiaries.com Online Communities I engage in: Facebook, linkedIN, Twitter, MyBlogLog, Flickr, CreativeHotList, Technoratti, SlideShare, del.icio.us, digg

My Blog www.whiteboarddiaries.com

Online Marketing 101 What I’m not going to talk about today Make sure you have a website Make sure you have a GOOD website • Up to date - should be able to be updated at an hours notice • Make sure any user can CLEARLY and QUICKLY ﬁnd the info they need • Well designed and professional - impression counts Have a customer database that you can act on • At the very least, you should be able to send email newsletters to registered users Your URL (web address) is on every single piece of communication you produce • ads, posters, tickets, emails, business cards, banners, videos, buttons, coasters, maps, programs, schedules

Agenda What I Am Going To Share Today Ideas about Engaging your customers A sample integrated marketing program driven through online activities Give you the ﬂoor to ask questions - even if they’re about the stuff on the previous slide

Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement Source: Stan Rapp 1. the internet is the CENTER of the Universe

TV/Radio Internet Word of Mouth Ofﬂine ads billboards posters Events

Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement Source: Stan Rapp 2. the EXPERIENCE is the brand differentiator

3. the DATABASE is the primary marketplace Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement Source: Stan Rapp

4. the TECHNOLOGY is the explosive ingredient Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement Source: Stan Rapp

are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are? you

In the new free market, individual customers expect to be listened to. They not only expect it, they demand it. are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are? you

Each and every customer expects to be treated as they are the most important. are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are? you

Each and every customer expects to be treated as they are the most important. Expectation Shift are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are? you

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship Customer

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship You You better know who they are and what they want. Customer

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship You Another Thing You better know who they are and what they want. Customer

You’re not always invited to the conversation Customers Customers

You’re not always invited to the conversation Customers Customers Customers You must ﬁnd a way to authentically You join the conversation.

You’re not always invited to the conversation Customers Customers You Customers Better yet, you need to be at the center of the conversation

76% A huge amount of consumers don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertising and marketing -- Yankelowich

Their Friends Their Friends There is still one trusted medium left in the world Me and My Friends

People Trust People When forming an opinion of a company/product or service how credible would the information be from... Edelman Trust Barometer - 2006 % Academic 62 Doctor or similar 62 Person like yourself or a peer 61 Financial Analyst 58 NGO Rep 58 Accountant 53 Lawyer 36 Regular employee 33 CEO 29 Union 19 Entertainer 17 PR person 16 People like yourself Blogger 15

Web 2.0 It’s a free channel if you can ﬁnd an authentic way to harness it.

What Really Distinguishes Web 2.0 Systems that harness network effects to get better as more people use them Web 1.0 Web 2.0 DoubleClick Google AdSense Ofoto Flickr Akamai BitTorrent mp3.com Napster Britannica Online Wikipedia MySpace/Blogging/Facebook/ personal websites LinkedIN evite upcoming.org page views cost per click screen scraping web services publishing content participation content management wikis systems directories (taxonomy) tagging (“folksonomy”) stickiness syndication Image courtesy of David Armano

The Lines Have Blurred We’re all marketers Image courtesy of David Armano

14,463,346 auctions 200,000,000 blogs www.ebay.com - Nov 21, 2006 Almost 4,000,000 articles > 100,000,000 Videos (10 languages) (65,000/day) 1,500,000 Residents 33,347,000 proﬁles Some mind boggling stats

Dialogue Can users ENGAGE in your site? Company to Consumer: Shut up & listen Consumer to Company: Is anyone there?

User Participation This is the true value of the web Blog or Be Blogged If people are already talking about you online (and they are) you need a way to participate/respond to that conversation. 200 million + blogs 120,000 new blogs created today 1.5 million blog posts today 1.4 new blogs every second Adult blog usage grew 163% in 2006 If you don’t add blogging to your marketing mix - you’re not even in the game.

The Blogospere is on Fire What does this mean for you? Remember: People trust People blogs are about user participation Is there a way to motivate your audience to participate in your site - even if it is not a blog? (joining the conversation - read the new book by Joseph Jaffe)

Dialogue Blogs Are The Next Generation Websites 1 out of 5 adults will comment online 80% of all consumers read online comments/recommendations 75% do online research before making a purchase decision 1 out of every 30 comments is an employee discussing the company they work for Jupiter Research

Why This is Important If Google says it is.....it must be 82% of Google’s top result pages have blog/discussion posts 63% of Yahoo’s top result pages have blog discussion posts

Do you have the stomach to play in this game? You can’t control word of mouth (community), you can only guide it

Who is participating?

A Crazy Statistic Users with high-speed internet spend 48% of their spare time online Why would they spend it with you? Give them a reason (join their conversations)

Are You Worth Talking About - Online? “Be Remark-able” Seth Godin

Creating Remarkable Marketing Programs Pick the Campaign, not the medium Where does your market congregate? What kind of message will resonate best? What are my touch-points? The medium is the facilitator not the differentiator. Remember: The Internet is the center of the universe

Technorati Windows Live Spaces Yahoo! vimeo MSN You Tube Blogs Outlook Wikipedia MySpace Lavalife Flickr del.icio.us Joost Zazzle.com MySpace Meetup dailymotion Sharkle digg Friendster clipshack grouper.com LinkedIN ning.com dabble Personal Blogs Orkut Revver twitter goﬁsh AOL Shutterﬂy hi5.com Stumbleupon.com Facebook grew by 1300% this year can you make your content authentic and relevant in this (and many other) environments

a strategy is necessary { as of April 24th, 2007 }

{ as of Feb 19, 2007 }

Do you have video on your site? Use the power of SYNDICATION and EMBEDDING This little piece of code is your best friend <object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"> <param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1\"></param> <param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"></param> <embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1\" type=\"application/x- shockwave-ﬂash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"355\"></embed> </object> It’s attached to every video on YouTube and its free

TIP Be proactive in enabling sharing and syndication

TIP Don’t be guilty of the ‘cart before the horse’ or ‘chicken and egg’ syndrome Before you even think about optimizing for search engines... ...optimize for user experience I can take a blind man to see a mime, but chances are he’s not going to care

Final Thoughts Remember its not about you - its about them Enable the voiceless to have a voice because they’ll take care of each other - and you.

Program Idea

Obvservation a large audience that congregates around a speciﬁc event little or no relationship exists post event word of mouth activity is not facilitated no database is generated no online follow-up

You Are Canadian

how are you going to bridge the gap? ...and truly connect digital life and real life Online - Mobile - Ofﬂine - Event You Are Canadian

Image courtesy of David Armano

What’s the one thing that Amusement Park, Fair and Expo attendees usually have after attending?

Memories

Right now - that responsibility is left completely up to the consumer

What If... Every entry ticket has a unique ID or a barcode

Camera’s/photographers photo opportunities placed throughout the event

All digital photos were captured and associated with that unique ID and uploaded to web-app at the end of the day

Remember This? Enable quick and easy sharing and Syndication

Photos will be shared with friends and family who will be looking at them in YOUR branded, engaging environment

A Sponsor/Partner Opportunity?

A collaboration Alain Thys Kim Sheehan Thomas Purves Marketing3 University of Oregon Ben Kelly Creative Director Jeff Brennan Laurel Papworth Apollo Ideas Social Network Strategist ben.kelly@empirical.com David Armano Logic + Emotion Christina Wodtke Andy Howard Public Square Online Community Dude

Engage Your Online Community

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