PR Day 2009
Delivering Value: Maximizing the Role of PR
The Brand Impact of Web 2.0 and Social Media
SAVAGE
Robin Tooms
Stephen Banks

State of the Web 2.0
TIME “Net time”
Near real-time
ATTITUDES “Citizen journalists”
Anyone is a journalist, publisher
TOOLS “Word-of-Mouse”
Anything can go viral with a click
CHANNELS Fragmentation
Low barrier to entry
2

State of the Web 2.0
What to do?
– Shape, drive, monitor
Build your brand
– Don’t just bounce around the social web –
proceed with purpose
Build your community
– Where is your audience?
– Who are your ambassadors? Evangelists?
3

Shape, Drive, Monitor
Shape
– By joining the conversation
– Getting your site seen as the source
Drive
– Traffic by writing for SEO
– Using social media to bring visitors
Monitor
– Is the right message getting out
4

Online Brand Building
REPUTATION/BRAND
Build positive perceptions over time by
engaging your audience
Provide valuable information
Get your audience to evangelize (and share
your content)
5

Building Social Media Channels
COMMUNITY/NETWORK
Be where the conversations are.
Position yourself as a resource.
The best press outlets are online (vs print)
Some check social networks more than email
Some provide reach, others depth
6

What Not to Do
Should not be just a “crisis” tactic
– Can’t just be a “party crasher”
– Social media is part of a bigger relationship
building strategy
– Not a magic bullet
Should not be thought of as advertising
– It’s about providing valuable information
7

Channel Choices
Blogs and websites are
better for long-term
conversations and
brand-building
Blogs, Websites
They give you depth
Social networks and
search engines can
give you reach
Social Networks, Search Engines They feed blog/web
traffic
8

Social Media as a Channel For:
Positive brand
perceptions build
Conversation Pillars
over time
Blogs turn into
“conversation pillars”
built upon your brand
attributes
Conversation Pathways
Brand Attributes
9

Social Media as a Channel For:
Brand A need for PR
Building in all areas
Viral Crisis
Marketing Communications
10

Examples
Food for Thought

Food for Thought: Grasshopper
Brand
Building
Highlighted a re-brand
Viral Crisis
Sent chocolate-covered Marketing Communications
grasshoppers to a carefully
crafted list of 5,000 bloggers
and thought leaders
Conversation Pillars
Call to action was a link to a – Entrepreneurship
video about entrepreneurship – Innovation
– Unconventional
12

- Unconventional
- Buzz-building
- Multi-channel
- Brand-specific

By the Numbers Month 1, May 2009
$68,103
Food for Thought: Grasshopper 130,000
Total cost of the 5,000 campaign YouTube views for the Entrepreneurs
4,911%
Percentage increase of visitors
Appendix B - YouTube Statistics Can Change the World video from Twi4er vs. previous month
Exhibit D
3,286%
Percentage increase of visitors TWEET
INC. MAGAZINE
47,000
Unique pageviews of
1,461
YouTube Views & Campaign Timeline
Number of 7mes the
from Facebook vs. previous month grasshopper.com/idea campaign was Tweeted
KEVIN ROSE TWEET JASON CALACANIS TWEET
119
GRASSHOPPER.COM LAUNCH
Number of blog posts/news ar7cles
VIDEO GOES PUBLIC
51
Number of user‐generated pictures
14
Number of user‐generated videos
published about the 5,000 campaign GUY KAWASAKI TWEET
FIRST BLOG POST
8K
93%
Percentage increase of people clicking
8
Number of 7mes the 5,000 campaign
4
Number of grasshoppers
“How it Works” on Grasshopper.com was featured on na7onal TV broadcasts eaten on live TV/radio
Unique Views
6K
Month 2, June 2009
4K
30,000 more
YouTube views for the Entrepreneurs
GRASSHOPPERS
10,255%
ARRIVING VIA
FEDEX
Percentage increase of visitors
470%
Percentage increase of visitors
2K Can Change the World video from Twi4er vs. April 2009 from Facebook vs. previous April 2009
CONTINUES TO AVG
6,077
Unique pageviews of
43
Number of blog posts/news ar7cles
356
Number of 7mes the
2K VIEWS PER DAY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
grasshopper.com/idea 9 10 11 published about the 5,000 campaign 20
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Mashable ar7cle was Tweeted 30 31
May 2009
Exhibit E YouTube Comments,May-July Favorites
Totals, Ratings &
140
183,000+ 51,709 Comments (165)
YouTube views for the Entrepreneurs
Ratings (377)
Unique pageviews of
25,209
Favorited (1,226)
Number of referrals
Can Change the World video grasshopper.com/idea from StumbleUpon
120
100
80
2,959 Number of
1,664 Number of
170
Number of blog posts/news ar7cles
referrals from Twi4er referrals from Facebook published about the 5,000 campaign
60
2 Copyright © 2009 Grasshopper Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 3
40 15

Food for Thought:Media
Appendix C - Social
Grasshopper
Exhibit F Blog Posts
Appendix C - Social Media "The Grasshoppers" (48) The Video (72)
14
Exhibit F Blog Posts
12 "The Grasshoppers" (48) The Video (72)
10
14
# of Posts
8
12
6
10
4
# of Posts
8
2
6
0
4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
2
May 2009
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
May 2009
Exhibit G Twitter Mentions
grasshopper.com/idea (241) YouTube URL (981) "chocolate covered grasshoppers" (239)
120
Exhibit G Twitter Mentions
100 grasshopper.com/idea (241) YouTube URL (981) "chocolate covered grasshoppers" (239)
120
80
Tweets
100
60
80
40
Tweets
60
20
40
0
20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
May 2009
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
May 2009 16

Food for Thought: Domino’s
Brand
Building
Had to respond and take
immediate action to Viral Crisis
Marketing Communications
negative videos on YouTube
Had to restore trust and
brand value
Conversation Pillars
✕
– Fresh
– ✕
Service
– Youthful
– Convenience
20

- Two rogue employees
- Several videos posted to YouTube
- Massive Internet chatter
- Damaged the Domino’s brand

Food for Thought: Domino’s
23

Search Optimization

Search Optimization with
Social Media
What is the connection between Search
Engine Optimization & Social Media?
– Are they even related and if so, isn’t this just for
extremely viral internet “memes” or videos?
– How can I use social media to effectively
increase my organic or non-paid search engine
rankings and thus, my traffic?
– Should you actively include social media on
B2B campaigns, even if the goal is primarily
just to increase traffic and rankings?
26

Search Optimization with
Social Media
Although it is not common knowledge, Social Media is
already having a direct influence on search engine rankings
– No longer just about SEO – optimize your search for all
social media
– Submitting sites to bookmarking or social voting sites can
affect rankings
Google and Yahoo are now assigning higher rankings to sites
(blogs, microsites, websites) based on social media voting
– This is most typically seen in regional search results
– Only a matter of time before they broaden it out to national and
global results
Google has even patented this process
– patent link (its long!)
27

Search Optimization with
Social Media
28

Search Optimization with
Social Media
Delta’s Safety Video: 2,333 ratings & 1,418,049 views
Virgin’s Safety Video: 575 ratings & 316,465 views
29

So What Did that Prove?
This test showed us that Google “respected”
YouTube’s social rankings and ratings for third-
party content
– These are NOT what you get in YouTube if you perform
the same search
– YouTube’s social rating system positively affected the
Google rankings for the target terms (safety videos)
– Homework time – try this out for yourself when you
get home. It’s consistent!
It’s not just Google, Yahoo is adopting this method
of site ranking as well, let’s try an example there.
30

Search Optimization with
Social Media
31

So, What’s the Lesson There?
In the past, to achieve a higher organic ranking a site
had to succeed through a costly and time-consuming
program of inbound links, and content publishing.
This was the only way a search engine could determine
if a site’s content was relevant to a “searcher’s” terms.
It was assigning an artificial rank based on a series of
assumed technical milestones.
Longevity of the domain + amount of content being
published + the number of inbound links + the general
site traffic = had to equal the site being #1 organically.
Right?
32

And This Means… What?
Search engines are beginning to incorporate social
media voting (rankings, ratings, etc.) into their
organic results.
Social media is being used to validate and adjust
search results for visitors in “real time.”
We no longer need to rely solely on meeting the
technical criteria of a search engine’s formula to
achieve “first page” organic rankings.
We can begin to affect rankings through a directed
PR or marketing campaign, that targets the social
media sites that are pertinent to our audience base.
33

Additional Search Optimization
Benefits with Social Media
Additional meta data: social media sites
utilize keywords, descriptions and ratings
which are all used to help quantify the
target site or link.
Instantly relevant: social media suggested
links or bookmarked sites can land on
people’s radar instantly, as opposed to
waiting weeks for a search engine to pick it
up and hopefully rank it appropriately.
34

Social Media Audits
Initial Kickoff Audit
– Listen to the current conversations, review top competitors
and discussed phrases
– Set quantitative and qualitative goals
Ongoing Monitoring
– Constantly monitor using alerts and reports
Annual Audits
– To understand how and why audiences responded
– Determine which topics are most talked about
– Benchmark, measure and analyze changes
– Review/revise quantitative and qualitative goals
and budgets
35

Basic Monitoring Tools
Free Social Media Aggregators/Alerts
– Social Mention
– Google Alerts
– Addictomatic
Paid Social Media Dashboards/Analytics
– CrimsonHexagon
– Radian6
– ViralHeat
36

Key Takeaways
Build conversation pillars
Turn “citizen journalists” into brand
ambassadors
Think “search optimization,” and not just
search engine optimization
Practice diligent monitoring/analysis
37

Key Takeaways
Develop a Social Media response plan, for
both positive & negative social messaging
– Accentuate the positive
– De-emphasize the negative
Develop internal policies for employees &
associates’ social media participation
– Encourage social media discourse about
important & pertinent topics
– Educate on branding & messaging initiatives
– Educate on the pervasiveness of social media 38

Thank You
rtooms@savagebrands.com
sbanks@savagebrands.com
http://blog.savagebrands.com
http://twitter.com/savagebrands