A brief overview of the books written by Joseph Jaffe and Larry Weber on conversational marketing

3. Traditional Marketing versus marketing to the social web Source: Weber, 2007. p 33 Components Traditional Marketing Social Marketing Marketing mindset Use one-way, one-sided communication to tell brand story. Nurture dialogue and relationships; be more transparent, earn trust, build credibility. Brand equity Brand recall is holy grail. Brand value is determined by customers: How likely are customers to highly recommend the good or service? Segmentation Group customers by demographics. Group customers by behaviour, attitudes, and interests – what’s important to them. Targeting Target by demographics, especially for media buying. Target according to customer behaviour. Communication Broadcast style: create and push message out for customers to absorb. Digital environment for interactive communication through search and query, customer comments, personal reviews, or dialogue. Content Professional content created and controlled by marketers. Mix of professional and user-generated content, increasingly visual. Virality A nice feature but popularity too often driven by flashy presentation rather than content. Virality based on solid content about remarkable products or features that will get people talking and forwarding e-mail. Reviews Think Michelin Guide: the experts weigh in. Think Zagat or Amazon: users review and vote on everything. Advertiser / Publisher Role Publisher establishes channel and controls content to gather an audience for the advertisers who sponsor channels or programs. Build relationships by sponsoring (not controlling) content and interaction when, where, and how customers want it. Strategy Top-down strategy imposed by senior management drives tactics. Bottom-up strategy builds on winning ideas culled from constant testing and customer input. Hierarchy Information is organized into channels, folders, and categories to suit advertisers. Information is available on demand by keyword, to suit users. Payment Cost per thousand (CPM): emphasis on cost; Advertisers buy with the idea that share of voice = share of mind = share of market. Return on investment (ROI): Invest in marketing for future growth and profitability based on measurable return.

4. Steps to marketing on the social web Source: Weber, 2007 1. Observe 3. Evaluate platforms 5. Measure 7. Improve Step into social media and the blogosphere to understand the most influential places within the social web. Create an understanding of what is relevant and what they are talking about. Eveluate the best platforms for your marketing goals. Consider weblogs, reputation aggregators, online communities, social networks, search tools, and more. Define measurement metrics and KPI’s. Measure the success of your social marketing efforts. Make it better. Add improvements. Make it more convenient, more useful, more friendly, more rewarding. 2. Recruit 4. Engage 6. Promote Enlist a core group of people who want to talk about your company, your products, things you are doing, and where you are going. Build relevant content that will get people coming, talking, and responding. Get the dialogue going. Get out to other communities and use social media to get people talking so they will come back to your online efforts. Advertise like as if nothing had changed. Step Explanation

5. Measuring your marketing efforts on the social web: The urge for social web analytics Observing the social web requires social web analytics. Each and every organization will have its own specific motivations for adopting Social Web Analytics. 4 important drivers can be identified: Source: Shelldrake, 2008 ‘ New’ PR ‘ new’ PR or “PR 2.0” refers to a reversion to the objective of building a dialogue with all your influencers and audiences, and developing content that helps to earn understanding and support. Social Web Analytics let you measure your new PR efforts Brand Your stakeholders collectively define what your brand means based on their lifelong interactions with your organization. Social Web Analytics helps to go towards serving that finely attuned ear and acting to inform your voice and, critically, your actions across your whole organization. Measurement & Evaluation Semantic Web Analysis tools will have intriguing ramifications for the measurement of marketing campaign effectiveness. Market Research & New Product Development Supplanting or supplementing market research with continuous engagement requires A new strategy, · an implementation framework, new analyses methods, and sound corporate performance measurement to close the loop. Driver Explanation

7. A brief overview of free social web analytic tools and resources Search BlogSearch News Readers Analytics Social News Community

8. Social Web Analytics Vendors – a brief overview

9. Metrics: An example of a simple social web analytics dashboard

10. So we’re observing the conversation… and then what? According to Jaffe (2007), there are 5 ways you can join the conversation: Source: Jaffe, 2007 Listen Listening to a conversation equals observing the social web. Find out what conversations are going on right now about your company or brand. Use the tools and vendors described earlier. Respond Respond to the conversations that are taking place on the social web by reaching out and responding to communities and bloggers with an authentic voice. Respond on blogs, communities websites, your website through customer service. Join Joining the conversation requires you to be invited to join the conversation. You have to be approached to join or request permission to participate and partake in the dialogue, community, and discourse. Decide whether you are a party-crasher, party-pooper, party animal or the life of the party. Catalyze Catalyzing the conversation means that a brand steps up to the plate and lead the conversation or attempt to take the conversation to the next level. Sponsor promising initiatives. Start Starting a conversation has the most resemblance with traditional marketing, but notice the word conversation: it’s not a communications-heavy, forced, and diluted attempt to soliciting feedback. Conversation is not on your terms. Give your consumers a voice and they will use it. Approach Explanation