Getting on the Grid:
The Basics of Social Media
Presented by:
David Mitzenmacher
Director of Customer Experience
Rackspace Hosting
Date: November 2008

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Today’s Agenda
• The Evolution of Online Brand Discussions
• Levels of Involvement
• Rules of Engagement
• Taxonomy of Popular Social Networks
• The Social Media Toolbox

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Web 1.0
Buy XYZ brand
widgets!
Buy ABC brand
widgets!
XYZ.com ABC.com
Customers
Companies were the primary publishers of
information about their brand. Customers were
passive audiences.

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Web 1.5
XYZ Widgets are Except the new
pretty good. model has bugs
QUIET YOU!!!
XYZ.com
Customer comments integrated in to companies’
websites … but only the positive ones.

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Web 2.0
XYZ Widgets are Except the new
pretty good. model has some
bugs.
Buy XYZ brand widgets
Customers.org
Conversations are happening in a million different
places, and often times companies aren’t invited.

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Why does any of this matter?
SO WHAT?

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People are
talking about
your brand.
Right now .

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Only14% of consumers trust
marketers.

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Only 14% of consumers trust
marketers.
78% trust the recommendations of
people in their network.

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The Platform is Already Burning
D’oh.

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Using Social Media
GETTING INVOLVED

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Levels of Involvement
Trusted
Content Community
Do Nothing Brand Watcher Publisher Member

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Levels of Involvement
Involvement Description Good For …
Do Nothing Completely ignore social media. Industries where brand reputation
is not important, or decision
makers are not influenced by social
media.
Brand Watcher Use tools to find when your brand Most companies.
is mentioned, and respond as
appropriate.
Content Publisher Create brand-specific content Companies with compelling
content, opinions or features that
will attract regular visitors.
Trusted Community Active participant in your niche High-touch, close knit community
communities, even when the topic of customers. Products aimed at
Member is not about you. bleeding-edge adopters and power
users.

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Your Platform or Mine?
Platform Pros Cons
Social Network hosted You can moderate and Hard to attract audience
on your own site direct the conversation
May be viewed as
censored or
whitewashed
Can be costly
Established Social Huge audience Getting a mass market
Network audience to care about
Prebuilt platform your specific product
Niche Networks/Blogs Incredibly passionate Incredibly passionate
audience audience!

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Before You Jump In …
Think like an anthropologist. Before engaging, determine:
• Who are the members of the community? Who are the influencers?
• Are there any companies currently interacting with this community? What
are the successful ones doing?
• What are the written and unwritten rules of this community?

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Social Network Taxonomy
Network Description Good For … Not So Great For … About the Users
Facebook The most popular social networking Advertising – higher click through Conversations tend to be Early membership
site in the US. Originally targeted to and conversion than most social limited to those within your requirements seeded the
college students, it later became open networking sites. network, thus narrowing scope community with college
to anyone corporate employees, and and reach graduates and corporate
eventually to anyone. Incredibly viral community a good employees. “Where white
match for B2C products that have collar workers let their hair
passionate customers. down”
MySpace Prior to Facebook, MySpace was the Passionate community, especially B2B is a non-starter on Comparatively younger, less
king of social networking sites. around entertainment (music, MySpace. Don’t bother. educated and lower household
Acquired by Fox Interactive. movies). income compared to
Facebook.
Youth brands.
Twitter Microblogging platform – update via Very passionate community, 140 characters limits what you Technically savvy, early
mobile phone or web in 140 relatively easy for messages to go can communicate. adopters. Many influencers are
characters or less. viral. power-users of Twitter.
Great channel for customer
service.
LinkedIn Professional social networking site. B2B. Reaching decision makers Non-luxury consumer brands. Highest average income &
and high-income individuals. education of all social networks
(by far).
YouTube Video sharing site Publishing content. Lots of views Comments section will remind Viewers are varied, but active
and linking. you of Junior High. commenters are mostly
teens/tweens.
Digg Link sharing site with voting The “kingmaker” for getting sites Very insular community. College-age, technically savvy.
to go viral

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Social Media Rules of Engagement
• Authenticity matters. Steer clear of “marketing speak”
• Each community has its’ own social mores. Ignore them at your own peril!
• Don’t attempt to control the conversation.
• Never, ever ask someone to unpublish something simply because it is
negative.
• Always remember that it’s a two way conversation.

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Using Social Media
BRANDWATCHERS TOOLBOX

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What is an RSS Feed?

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Choose Your Reader
• Google Reader
• Firefox
• Feedburner
• Net News Wire

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Creating a Watch Feed
1. Enter your keywords into Google Blog Search (google.com/blogsearch)
2. Click on the “RSS” link on the results page
3. This feed will be automatically added to your feed reader!

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Someone is trashing us online?
BRING IN THE
CAVALRY!!!
Not So Fast …

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Placing it in Context
Break Stories Commentary
Size of Audience

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Placing it in Context
These are your influencers. Make
Model of “break news and then every attempt to be continuously
move on” means short attention engaged with this group. Seek
span. Evaluate damage and product input, ask them to serve on
formulate response with the mindset your customer council, etc.
of “respond now or don’t bother”.
Break Stories Commentary
Size of Audience
This group sees themselves as one
hot tip away from being the next Matt This group tends to be personal
Drudge. Tread carefully. Understand blogs that are read by the friends and
the size of the audience and family of the author. In most cases,
potential liabilities before responding, this is a job for your customer service
as this group is more interested in department to handle in a 1:1
being first than being right. manner.

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Create an Influence Map for Your Industry

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How Can I Determine the Reach of a Blog?

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Recap: Create Your Plan of Attack
• Decide on your level of involvement
• Choose the networks in which you wish to participate
• Setup your “brand watcher” feeds
• Develop your response plan for each of the 4 quadrants

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Q&A

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Don’t Forget to Connect!
• Email: dmitzenm@rackspace.com
• Rackspace Blog: http://www.rackspace.com/blog/
• David’s Blog: http://www.davemitz.com
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davemitz
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davemitz