Engagement And Roi

Engagement & ROI
Shailesh Ghimire
Director of Interactive Marketing
sghimire@airmarketing.com
airmarketing.com/blog

Recap
Integrating Social Media and Sales
Setting goals
Assessing return on effort
Overview of social media usage among consumers
Social technologies tour
Developing a strategy
Re-visiting a case study

Social Technologies
Blogs, Podcasts and vLogs
Social Networks/Virtual Worlds
Social Bookmarking Tools (Digg, StumbleUpon)
Collaboration Tools (Wikis, Google Docs)
Video / Photo Sharing
Micro blogging: Twitter (text), Seesmic (video)

What Consumers Do Online
Source: Forrester Research

Audience + Goals  Strategy
Example 1
Audience = Primarily commenting
Goal = Generate leads
Strategy = Engage via blogs, feedback options - on product pages and create avenues for data capture
Example 2
Audience = Primarily observing
Goal = Thought leader
Strategy = Develop content-rich blog, supply ample photos and videos, weekly podcasts

Wiggly Wigglers
Sells compost worm kits in the UK, started in 1995
Based in a town with less than 70 people
Target audience: farmers
Less than 25,000 farmers in the UK
Deployed podcasts, blog posts and social networking
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/17/smbusiness/Facebook_marketing.fsb/index.htm
http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/2008/04/blogher-business-2008-hats-off-to.html

Worm Success
Now a multi-million dollar company
Growing robustly at 10% per year
Growth attributed to a combination of Podcasts, Blog posts and social networking
Now even has a developed a thriving catalog business

By Now You Should Have…
A basic understanding of Social Media
Interactive Online Marketing
A basis for developing a strategic plan
GMOOT is not a plan
An appreciation of the commitment required

Today
Mastering engagement
Refining strategy
Developing a ROI plan

Engagement
Characteristics:
Personal and authentic
"How to Win Friends and Influence Others"
Timely and relevant
Prepared for the long haul

Two Platforms
Twitter
Blogs

Twenty Twitter Tips for Happy Tweeting
Comment on local events
Comment on local news stories (stay away from highly charged political stories)
Comment on local sports teams
Comment on fund raisers and good causes
Comment on your industry related news

Comment on funny ads you may have seen (do not disparage competitors)
Comment on how much your customers love you
Comment on relevant historical markers (for example this year is the 55th anniversary of the electric toothbrush - if you’re a dentist this would be great.)
Respond to interesting Tweets from your followers (VERY IMPORTANT)
Re-tweet interesting Tweets from your followers (VERY IMPORTANT)

Recommend some of your followers to others on Fridays (It’s called follow Friday)
Discuss your likes/dislikes on any given topic - (I loved “Amazing Race” last night)
Comment on the weather
Talk about some of your special events and promotions (10% off etc.)
Share a link to an inspiring story, funny video, great picture etc. (use common sense)

Invite your followers to a Twitter exclusive event (Tweet-up)
Attend some local Tweet-ups to meet the community - and Tweet from the event as you meet them
Tweet about personal achievements, goals, ideas etc.
Post pictures from the farm, the store etc.
Have fun connecting with new people, and remember, you can’t plan a conversation, so you’ll find plenty to talk about once you connect with others.

Twitter Tools
Tweetdeck – on desktop
Mobile apps –for iPhone, Blackberry
Twellow – Directory list
Tweetlater – for scheduling tweets

Blog On!
Have a goal to write 2-3 blog posts every week.
Make a list of topics you'd like to cover. Stay on task until blogging is part of your normal life.
Make a list of relevant keywords for each topic so you're focused on SEO.
Write in an easy style. This is not a college paper.
It is important to stay within your topic. But sprinkle some personal opinions, tastes etc.
Highlight any words or sentences to draw attention to specific content.

Blog it Baby
Include several out bound links in each post. For example, if you’re writing a post on “salads” then include a link to a website with more information on “dressings”.
Link to past blog post when relevant.
Make the post title relevant to the content.
Learn to utilize tags and categories
Write one stunningly awesome blog post every three weeks and link to this article in future blog posts.
Use pictures and videos when relevant.

Blog it Up!
Respond to comments on your post.
Write back if someone contacts you from your blog.
Share your blog posts on Twitter.
Include your blog address on your business card.

Now Your ROI

Blogs
Social Networks
White Label Social Networks
eMails
Wiki’s

Critical
Important
Nice to Have
Resources - ROI

ROI Question
What Social Media can do for you:
Expand the audience for your message
Excite fans, customers
Enable connections with new audience
Gather insights, opinions
Listen more effectively and create dialog

Setting Expectations
Biggest impact:
Reputation management
Brand building
Public and customer relationships
Substantially improves:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Lead generation

What to Measure?
Determine conversion
Sales leads
eCommerce
Awareness
Measure engagement
1200 friends
500 followers
3 blog posts/week , 5 comments

Practical Way of Measuring
Use Web Analytics Tools to measure traffic
Set up conversion events:
Sale
Sign-up
Download
Assign dollar value to each event

Closing Thoughts
You can't ignore this anymore!

It's Reached a Tipping Point
60% of Americans interact with companies on a social media website
One in four interact more than once per week
93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media
85% believe a company should also interact with its consumers via social media
Boston consulting firm Cone, Boston Globe, September 25, 2008

What They Want From You…
43% said companies should use social networks to solve their problems
41% said companies should solicit feedback on their products and services
37% said companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand

What This Means….
You’ll need to have a social media presence
Develop and execute an effective strategy
Ideally, social media will be integrated within your overall marketing

Marketing

Getting Started
Focus on relationships and not campaigns
Commit resources to learning and training
Learn from mistakes
Test, test, test, improve, improve, improve!

Questions?
Shailesh Ghimire
(480) 748-2694
sghimire@airmarketing.com
airmarketing.com/blog
SocialReflections.Com