Old presentation from Internet Brands' days on value of adding Social Sharing to IB's various verticals' sites

1. SOCIALMEDIA
Sharing Our Strategies, Challenges and
Successes Around Building Social Interaction
on Internet Brands Shopping Websites.
@ INTERNET
BRANDS
Created By Mike Flacy& Steph Gerber
Stephanie.gerber@internetbrands.com

2. ENTERING THE
SOCIALSPACE
Creating a Social Presence and Attracting Fans
According to a recent Nielsen study conducted over April 2010, the average internet user spends more than 4 times the amount of
time on Facebook than Google, six hours a month per person. As our audiences are directing more of their attention to social
networks over search engines, we need to have a presence on the social space as well. After 9 months worth of experimentation
on Twitter and Facebook in the Shopping segment, we have identified a series of best practices when launching our websites into
the social space.
Why does a reader want to become a fan?
What unique content / presence is found
in our social space?
VALUEPROPOSITION
How do we convert website readers into
new fans? How do we convince current
fans to invite their friends?
CUSTOMERACQUISITON
As a website, what are we getting in return
for our efforts in the social space? Does
this come in traffic, monetization, etc?
RETURNON INVESTMENT
How do we intice fans / followers to
interact with the content on our websites
and our official brand pages?
FAN ENGAGEMENT
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Sources:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-
media-accounts-for-22-percent-of-time-online/

3. WHY SHOULD THEY
BECOME A FAN?
GivingOurAudience a ReasontoJoin
• Facebook can provide a space for
different forms of content that
Facebook users are used to sharing;
photos, videos, polls, discussion, etc
• Unique content can also include
fan submitted content that’s more
appropriate for the social space
than our main site.
UniqueContent
• Offering a way to win prizes
through becoming a fan or follower
will gives readers a reason to sign
up and follow our updates.
• Continuing to promote the
promise of future giveaways (with
small or large prizes) will also keep
fans from unfollowing our brand
pages.
Contests/Giveaways
• Facebook and Twitter allow for
direct customer relations in the
public space, giving our fans a voice
and a direct line to us.
•These social platforms are also
excellent for reaching out to fans
with questions for market research.
Fan Interaction
3 of 13

4. EXAMPLE OF
FAN PAGE VALUE
Steve’sDigicamsFacebookBrand Page
Due to technical limitations, Steve’s
Photo’s of the Day library wasn’t able
to be included in the site redesign.
They have a home on Facebook until
we can add that functionality.
Library of Content
Fans leave comments on photos and
those comments are published in their
feeds, causing their friend to look at
the photo and become fans.
ConstantInteraction
Fans continue to submit photos to us
for prizes and notoriety, thus we have
an endless stream of FB content.
ContinuousStream
4 of 13 www.facebook.com/stevesdigicams
Facebook Fans: 2,200
TwitterFollowers: 2,150
FB Post Quality: 4 - 5 Stars
Updates: Photos, Reviews, News

5. HOW DO WE ACQUIRE
FANS THROUGH OUR SITES?
GainingFollowersbyProvidingOpportunity
• Simply put, invite fans on a regular
basis on the site. High-Def Digest
promotes their fan page in an
announcement once a month on the
home page and sees a constant jump in
their FB fan base.
•IMPORTANT: The post should
promote the forms of content and
interaction that are unique to our
social space.
Invite Them
• Place a simple graphical link to our
social pages on the home page.
Better yet, use Facebook’s Fan Box
to keep readers on our site.
• Consider using Facebook Like /
Share buttons on content as well as
the community reccomendations
widget to highlight popular shared
content.
Graphics / Widgets
• Encourage existing fans to invite
their friends by providing an
incentive. Giving away a prize when
reaching a certain number of fans is
one method.
•A more advanced version of this is
using an application to keep track of
referrals and awarding prizes to
both the entrant and the refered
person. (Used on DealsPl.us)
Contest Actions
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Sources:
http://developers.facebook.com/plugins
http://dealspl.us/

6. EXAMPLE OF
AQUIRING FANS
High-DefDigest Blog
At the top of the article, we have FB
Like & Share and Retweet buttons. At
the bottom of the article, there’s more
sharing options as well.
AggressiveSharing Tools
In the sidebar of the blog and the main
site, we use the FB reccomendations
widget to highlight popular stories. We
also use the FB Fan Box on the Blog.
WidgetsGalore
6 of 13 www.highdefdigest.com/blog
Facebook Fans: 4,400
TwitterFollowers: 1,500
FB Post Quality: 3 Stars
Updates: Reviews, News, Blog

7. HOW DO WE ENGAGE
FANS OVER SOCIAL MEDIA?
Invoking Response fromour Fans / Followers
• Use the Fan Page as an extension of
the brand. Be sure there are logos on
Twitter and Facebook pages.
• Don’t let new visitors land on our FB
wall. Create a landing page for all non-
fans with a call-to-action to becoming a
fan. (Good Example: Retailmenot)
• Use our Facebook sidebar to
promote other ways of contacting us or
related pages.
Fan Page
• Decide on a posting schedule and
stick to it. We can post multiple
times a day on Twitter without
losing fans. Facebook requires a
more reserved approach.
• Highlight our best content and use
humor to promote it, even corny
humor. Also, we will illicit more
responses by asking
questions, which increases the
amount of people exposed to the
brand page.
Compelling Content
• When our fans ask questions or
post accolades, try to respond
within a day or two. Pages with an
active admin noticably get more
community involvement.
•When posting on Facebook or
Twitter, take advantage of the
mentions system to appear in
search and other brand pages.
Posting Tips
7 of 13 Sources:
http://www.facebook.com/RetailMeNot

8. EXAMPLE OF
ENGAGING FANS
Outblush’sFacebookBrand Page
An Outblush editor is quick to respond
to Facebook comments as well as fan
posts.
CommunityInvolvement
Outblush mentions other brand pages
in their posts, hence those posts are
created on the mentioned brand page
as well, ultimately increasing fans more
rapidly.
BrandMentions
Outblush’s Fan page gets about 2 to 4
posts a day depending on the quality of
the content.
ExcellentFrequency
8 of 13 www.facebook.com/outblush
Facebook Fans: 1,500
TwitterFollowers: 3,500
FB Post Quality: 3 Stars
Updates: Products, Blog

9. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF
ENGAGING FANS
Steve’sDigicamsFacebookBrand Page
Beyond posting the logo in the profile
picture, we also post the winner of the
photo of the day contest and a call-to-
action to join us on Twitter. Consider
this spot a billboard for what makes us
unique.
OurBrandisnotour Logo
All new visitors that aren’t fans land on
a custom landing page that identifies
why and how you can become a fan.
CustomLanding Page
Along the left sidebar on the Wall
tab, we promote company pages as
well as related brand pages.
PromotingOurselves and Others
9 of 13 www.facebook.com/stevesdigicams

10. WHAT DO WE GET
IN RETURN FOR THIS EFFORT?
BenefitstoLaunchingourBrandsinto Social Media
• Across Shopping sites, Facebook
referral traffic has grown (on
average) by 50% to 80% between
Q4 2009 to Q2 2010.
• Over Q4 2009 to Q2 2010 over 11
sites with a social presence, our fan
base has grown by 8000 fans on
Facebook.
• Average Time spent on the site
coming from Facebook is on par to
40% higher than search traffic.
Referral Traffic
• Through a custom Facebook
tab, we have the ability to collect
email addresses for direct email
marketing.
• Similar to Quantcast, Facebook
Insights gives us a specific look at
the age, gender, origin
country, language, etc of our core
fan base.
Emails / Analytics
• Sending followers / fans directly to
merchants via affiliate codes in
short url form is another form of
monetization that works on Twitter
and Facebook, but at the expense
of referral traffic.
•Custom Facebook Applications
appear to be the more direct route
to monetization of Facebook brand
pages. This requires a greater level
of internal development than
managing brand pages.
Monetization?
(Still Early)
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11. EXAMPLE OF INCREASE
IN REFERRAL TRAFFIC
OutblushFacebookTrafficGrowth
In Q3, Outblush didn’t have any official
Facebook presence. In Q4, we rolled
the brand page. In Q1, we rolled out
Facebook Share on the website. In
Q2, we are rolling out a fan box on the
site as well as an activity widget.
ConsistentTrafficIncrease
On many of our sites, we are
outperforming all other search engines
other than Google.
Outperforming Yahoo! / Bing
Shopping site traffic typically spikes in
December / January and falls until Q3.
Facebook traffic has continue to grow
against that trend.
TrendingDifferently
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www.outblush.com
(Analytics found in IB2 account)
0.00%
0.50%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.50%
3.00%
3.50%
4.00%
Q3 2009 Q4 2009 Q1 2010 Q2 2010
%ofSiteTraffic
No Page
Brand Page
FB Share
Fan Box

12. 2nd EXAMPLE OF
CHANGE IN REFERRAL TRAFFIC
High-DefDigestFacebookTrafficGrowth
In Q3, HDD started an official Facebook
page. In Q4, we continued to grow the
brand page. At the end of Q1, we
rolled out Facebook Share on the
website. In Q2, we rolled out fan
boxes, activity widgets and blog
sharing.
TrafficChangeOver Time
We didn’t offer enough tools to our
audience for sharing our content
automatically in Q1. We remedied
that in Q2 be trying an increased
number of buttons to share content as
well as more visibility of the most
popular shared content.
AgressiveisGood
12 of 13
www.highdefdigest.com
(Analytics found in IB2 account)
0.00%
0.10%
0.20%
0.30%
0.40%
0.50%
0.60%
0.70%
0.80%
0.90%
1.00%
Q3 2009 Q4 2009 Q1 2010 Q2 2010
Brand Page
Grow BP
FB Share
FB Widgets
%ofSiteTraffic

13. RESOURCES
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Helpful Resources
• Mashable: 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand’s Facebook Page
• All Facebook: 10 Secrets To Creating Your Brand’s Facebook
Presence
•All Facebook: How To Develop A Facebook Page That
Attracts Millions of Fans
•Outspoken Media: Creating Facebook Pages Customers Will
Want To Join
• Techcrunch: How to Build Engaging One-of-Kind Facebook
Fan Pages
• Simply Zesty: 10 Great Facebook Fan Pages
• Mashable: 5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand
• All Facebook: How we got 40K in 4 days.
Examples of Great Pages
• Best FB Landing Page for Becoming a Fan: RetailMeNot
• Best FB Landing Page for Email Marketing: One.org
• Best FB Contest Design for Getting Fans: DealsPl.us
• Best FB Monetization Tab: Threadless
Excellent FB Applications
• Static FBML (for creating custom tabs): Link
• Youtube Box: Link
• Twitter Tab: Link
• Poll: Link
• Extended Info (sidebar html): Link