Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing
26 th November 2009
MANG6228

Session Plan
Blogs
Twitter
Facebook
Punch Above Your Weight research project
Critique of social media marketing

‘ Big name’ social media pioneers

Online communities
Social networks (Facebook, MySpace)
Business networks (LinkedIn, Ecademy)
Macro communities (Get Satisfaction)
Industry level communities (CIM)
Company-specific communities (Dell, Amazon)
See our article on Blackboard for background information: “ Communication, collaboration and aggregation: how online communities are transforming marketing strategy for entrepreneurial small businesses” published in Journal of Business Strategy

Social Networks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
Total traffic to Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, Bebo and Wikipedia now accounts for 1 in 15 of all website visits in the UK
Latest favourite is the microblogging site Twitter
Online business networks also developing: LinkedIn, Ecademy, Zing…changing the dynamics of staff recruitment
Boundaries between social and business networking are blurring

Google adds social networks to search
The experimental Google Social Search service adds opinions from friends and others to information provided on products and services
"We came up with a way to have social networks influence your search results. If you're signed into Social Search, you get content from your friends.”
Google also disclosed that it had inked a real time search deal with Twitter.
“ Social Search can mine your own circle of contacts for information, whether it's for recommendations on a handyman or a pointer to a company that's hiring. It will also encourage people to expand their networks, since more friends and a wider range of friends mean more useful information."
Google Social search is a good example of networks becoming more valuable as they get larger.
Users will be able to fill out a Google Profile, which links to friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other social networks.
Opt-in basis to mitigate privacy concerns

Opportunity or threat?
Allow interaction and engagement between business and customers
Allow customers to engage with each other
Customers now more likely to take recommendations from a stranger than one directly from the supplier
Companies can no longer control the content of their message, but can influence the dialogue to some extent

The 1:9:90 rule
1% are content CREATORS (aka make a lot of noise)
9% will COMMENT (aka make some noise)
90% will CONSUME (aka say nothing, but presumably still obtain value)

Blogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI
As of December 2007, blog search engine www.technorati.com was tracking more than 112 million blogs.
Blogs are online diaries usually maintained by an individual or company with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, graphics or video.
Top 100 marketing blogs: http://veryofficialblog.com/2008/10/18/clearing-a-path-for-newbies-in-the-social-media-echo-chamber/
New verb: ‘to blog’

English Cut Thanks to his blog, London Tailor Thomas Mahon is one of the most well publicised tailors in Savile Row. The blog is full of talk about how suits are made and marketed. Mahon is offering his wisdom on his industry and publicly talks about the secrets of his trade.

Gary Vaynerchuk
http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/07/01/the-personal-brand-gold-rush-is-going-on-where-are-you/
Gary’s Internet celebrity can be attributed to his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business building.
Over 6 years, Gary and his father Sasha rebranded the family business as Wine Library and transformed it from a local store doing $4 million in annual sales to a $50 million national industry leader.
In 2006, Gary launched Wine Library TV (WLTV), a free daily video blog in which Gary tastes and reviews wines in a creative way.
In 2008, Gary became increasingly known throughout the Web 2.0 community through F2F conference speeches and his hyperactive online networking.
Gary’s rationale is that with the proper utilisation of social media, brand building is simply a matter of passion, effort, and time.

The power of video

Corporate concerns
Corporates tend to be tied into complex and bespoke IT systems and traditional organisational structures.
Management permission is required for IT changes. This may disrupt the existing complex environment.
There may be concerns that trade secrets might be given away.
Change may be regarded as threatening and disruptive, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

Blogging Policies: BBC
‘ Blog Smart’ – Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.
Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.
Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.
Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments.

General Motors GM is using a blog as an instant publishing and marketing channel that bypasses mainstream media. It is a way to put their own version of the story out there and to get feedback. They have opened a window into their world.

Exercise 1
With reference to the New York Times article (on Blackboard), what lessons can large businesses learn from Walmart’s experiences with blogging?

Twitter

Twitter
Twitter users are early adopters of web technologies
They are well educated, influential and earn high salaries
They are receptive to advertising and are likely to talk about products to ‘spread the word’

Rapid Growth
High profile real time coverage of major events, eg Mumbai attacks, Hudson river plane crash, #uksnow
Celebrity endorsement (@wossy, @stephenfry, @barackobama…)
User controls who and how many people to follow
Now 7 th most popular social network in UK, and 41 st in full website list (Hitwise)
Recent F2F ‘Twestivals’ in major world cities raised over $1M for charity

Exponential growth…

Example: Bletchley Park
World War 2 code-breaking centre outside Milton Keynes, Station X
Shortened WW2 by two years, foundations of computer industry
Very dilapidated: campaign organised by Dr Sue Black, U of Westminster
So far just under a million pounds has been donated to restoration work by the likes of Microsoft, IBM, and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
@bletchleypark has acquired over 1,000 followers, but its influence has spread far wider, informing a tech-savvy crowd about developments at the site and is used as a way of organising visits.
"We wouldn't have won without social media," Dr Black told me, "this kind of campaign wouldn't have been possible a few years back. It's power to the people."
Importance of #bpark

Personal Branding with Twitter
Provide feedback . Become known as a reliable and informative source of help
Get Feedback . Ask for advice and you’ll receive ‘collective intelligence’ from your network
Hire People . Send out a message to your followers asking for recommendations.
Direct traffic . Include links to direct traffic to your blog or to other recommended posts
Read News . subscribe to feeds for specific events or from content providers such as the BBC.
Network for benefits . Interact with other like-minded people, or experts in your field. Develop relationships for future mutual benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
Business Management . Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another, for example when working remotely or on collaborative projects
Notify or Support Your Customers . Advise your customers of new products, or address their technical queries/complaints.
Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users.
Provide Live coverage . For example to provide real time coverage of conference keynotes
Set Up Meetings . An informal and casual way of arranging adhoc meetings.

Practical examples
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o (Twitter in Plain English)
Suggested examples to follow:
www.twitter.com/delloutlet
www.twitter.com/gmblogs
www.twitter.com/barackobama
www.twitter.com/gartner_inc
www.twitter.com/davechaffey
www.twitter.com/bbcnews
www.twitter.com/johncleese
www.twitter.com/tubeupdates
www.twitter.com/lisaharris

Facebook

Brands on social networks
Through the use of engagement marketing tactics such as…
Applications
social ads
brand groups
sponsored pages
sponsored applications
… brands have opened up communication channels with their customers on social networking platforms

Why do brands use social media?
"It's really important that we are on Facebook. We’re at the early stages so it’s all about lesson learning and gaining those insights in the early days rather than waiting for it to become massive and then jumping in and not knowing what to do with it."
(Ted Hunt, Innocent Drinks)
"We are a public service funded by the licence fee, so our
mission is to get the content that we are making for our
audience, to as large a section of that audience as possible. So what we are doing by publishing content on Facebook and MySpace is taking the content to the audience where they choose to go."
(Sam Bailey, BBC Radio 1)

Dealing with negativity
"Brands should definitely take into consideration that users at
any time can turn on a brand; this is why they need to engage
with them honestly." (James Kirkham, Holler)
"There’s not a lot you can do with negative comments. I think
you’ve just got to let people get it out of their system and just
treat everyone else with the intelligence that they will be able to
make their own decisions from the comments." (Ted Hunt,
Innocent Drinks)
"In the case of our client brands you do get the occasional
negative comment that gets posted up on pages we have
created, but what you will see is that other users will actually
attack that minority of negative users so they protect the brand
like an army of ants." Matt Bamford-Bowes, MediaCom

The user viewpoint
56% would pass on an application or widget to their friends
49% would encourage their friends to add a brand to their profile.
Little support for e-commerce functionality and purchase intent on the platforms, which actually serves to irritate rather than stimulate engagement with a brand.
Strong disagreement with the public display of a user’s purchase to their network, which destroys trust and loyalty between brands and users (see FB Beacon example).
Consumer conversation appears to be the most significant contributor to brand value creation - the level of intimacy would increase considerably if the brand listened and responded to opinions and points of view.

The brand executive viewpoint
The brand executives interviewed also see engaging with social network users as a great way to ‘crowd source’ and innovate a brand product or idea with consumers.
By giving up control, a brand is seen to display trust toward the users. This trust is a powerful brand value which forms the basis of loyalty.
Any brand that offers value can tap into social network sites to create niche communities that users will want to self-identify with
“ Social network marketing, engagement marketing and brands” © Tom Chapman 2008

Facebook for Business
Create special interest groups
Companies can sponsor groups (see Apple Students and Ernst and Young)
RSS feeds can pull in content from your blog or other online source
Facebook Flyers for promotion
Facebook Polls to get quick answers to questions. Target Facebook users based on gender, age, school, location, or profile keyword.
Profiles can be created for brands, bands, etc and people can sign up as ‘fans’ rather than ‘friends’

Punch Above Your Weight

The ‘Punch Above Your Weight’ Research Project
We are studying how small firms are maximising their marketing effectiveness with Web 2.0 tools
Builds upon the 2006 ‘Abandoned Heroes’ project involving 400 SMEs in London and South East
30 follow up F2F interviews in took place in 2007
Project output to date is 3 academic papers, a CPD training course and e-book
Our current phase of the project (2008/9) is examining
12 detailed case studies of SME “collaborative gangs”
Online and offline networking styles in SMEs

Entrepreneurial marketing: the reality
It’s about generating leads
You need a strong story that connects you to your customers
You have only so much time available for sales and marketing – 12 hours per week on average
But it can’t be too expensive and take up too much time
Use the Internet to generate ‘warm leads’. If you’re clever you can get a significant boost in enquiries

Average marketing activity in SMEs is 12 hours per week
Our current research tells us that:
25% do more than 8 hours a week online
In that time you can write one blog article and keep an active presence on a social network
Conventional face to face activity with a bit of PR and Adwords spend seems to be the norm
But here are some examples of what some more adventurous souls have done…

Ellis Pratt – CherryLeaf
Technical communication company based in Brighton, Heathrow and Thame
Expertise in single sourcing (reusing content) and online Help.
www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm
www.twitter.com/ellispratt (150 followers)
Over 500 connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn
30 million members worldwide
How does it work? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM
Recent addition of partner applications such as Slideshare and Wordpress add significant value, see www.linkedin.com/in/lisajaneharris

Social Media Critique

Benefits
Enables dialogue with consumers
Regular renewal of content gives customers reason to return
The company is ‘seen to be embracing “Web 2.0” and Social Media’
Improves search engine visibility
Requires little budget input
Reaches more employees/customers with a single message
Company becomes more accessible
Creates a permanent searchable archive of thoughts and ideas
Potential to harness the ‘cognitive surplus’ within large companies (under-used human potential at the grass roots level)

Challenges
Time consuming activity to respond to comments and keep content fresh and updated
Legal minefield, privacy concerns
Lack of control vs. over-moderation
Sourcing relevant “voice”/blogger
Hard to measure ROI
Need to master a new style of communicating
Creates an expectation that you will post regularly
Puts the company “out there”. The content will be thoroughly scrutinised by the media
Benefits may come from unexpected uses other than what was intended

Early adopter research by McKinsey
Survey of 50 ‘early adopter’ executives
Level of investment in web 2.0 expected to grow by 15% annually for next 5 years
The research identified issues with:
Restrictive organisational structures
Resistance to change
Inappropriate use of social media (eg for one way communications)
Lack of support from senior managers to ‘scale up’ creative ideas from workers

McKinsey’s recommendations to address the challenges…
Senior executives should become role models and lead by example
Don’t dictate exactly how employees can/can’t use the tools
Encourage take up by appealing to participants’ ego and desire for recognition
Incentivise ‘early adopter’ employees with rich personal networks to encourage others to follow their example
Balance the top down and self management of risk (many communities are effective at self-policing)

Exercise 2
What have you learned from these two sessions that is new and different?
What are you going to go away and try for yourselves?

Reading
http://socialnomics.net/2009/11/12/social-media-roi-examples-video/
The comments on the Socialnomics blogpost which includes the above video are very revealing. The author, Erik Qualmann, produced an earlier video which had many inaccuracies and he was heavily criticised. He has therefore changed his approach and the new video is excellent. One of the biggest critics has commented on this blog post stating that he has now been converted to a supporter because his feedback was responded to in a positive manner.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16316521/300-Case-Studies-of-Social-Media-Marketing
Walmart’s experience with blogging (word file on Blackboard )

Background Reading
Bhargava, R. (2008) Personality not included: why companies lose their authenticity and how great brands get it back, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York
Li, C. and Bernhoff, J. (2008) Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, Harvard Business, Boston.
Tapscott, D. (2008) Grown Up Digital: how the net generation is changing the world, Mcgraw-Hill, New York
Schawbel, D. Personal Branding Blog, http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com
Schawbel, D. (2009) “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”
Qualmann, E. (2009) “Socialnomics: How social media transforms our lives and the way we do business” Wiley Publishing

Social Media Marketing

by lisa harris on Nov 22, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 52

Statistics

Social Media Marketing — Presentation Transcript

http://www.lisaharrismarketing.com	51
http://www.slideshare.net	1