Social media marketing utilizes social media platforms and online communities to market, promote, and provide customer service. This document discusses how social media marketing works, the key social media channels used, and provides strategies for companies to listen to online conversations and seed relevant information through social interactions to increase brand awareness and conversion rates. It also introduces Freedata Labs, a company that provides social media marketing services including web monitoring, social media optimization, and seeding conversations online.

1. Social Media Marketing Made Real!Listen & Act: Increase Your Conversion RatePioneers in social dataJanuary 2010Member ofLondon Milan

2. A definitionSocial media marketing, also known as social influence marketing, is the act of using social influencers, social media platforms, online communities for marketing, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of Web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees). Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites (also know as PR 2.0).According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council "Social media isn't just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it's about brands having conversations.”

3. What It Is Not It is not e-mailingIt is not Web advertisingIt is not bannersIt is not newslettersIt is not communication on the company siteIt is not the company site forum

4. How Marketing Reaches CustomersBrand(reach customers through brand image) Advertising

5. Promotions

6. “in store” promotions

7. Web banners

8. ….

9. Company Generated ContentSocial Networking(understand what people say and advice each other) Communities

10. Social Networks

11. Forums

12. Blogs- Micro-blogs ….

13. User Generated Content

14. Who’s talking ?

15. What do they say ?

16. Who are the influencers ?

17. How to measure ?

18. Which is the background buzz ?

19. Which actions to take?Call to actionMetriche

20. Point & Shoot vs. Listen & ActMarketingUser GeneratedContentCompany Generated ContentPointListenActShootCall to ActionUser Initiated ActionBuy

21. Social Media ChannelsSocial PlatformsSocial InteractionsWIKIsPersonal Social NetworksWhite-label NetworksEvents & CalendarsE-mailsStatus UpdatesConversations(Purchase)SMS & TextSocial ContentsBlogsMicroblogsPhotosVideoPodcast

22. Everything Is ThereConversations leave indelible traces on the WebThey are there, I can: - listen to them - analyse them - understand them - get indispensable information - act

23. Act Seed information that help highlight your presence(Social Platforms)Provide information on you and promote your initiatives only and only if they are useful to the debate, promoting your initiatives in the right contexts (Social Content)

24. Keep On MeasuringKeep on measuring over time how youractions change perception towards you and your competitors.You can not calulate ROI (Return On Investment) of your Social Media Marketing actions, but you are sure of ROI (Risk Of Inaction)

25. 5 Key Points1Arguments are choosed by the communities,you can not force them2 Most important arguments bubble up, just listen3 Problems are solved within the community, the critical ones emerge4 You do not need to create new containers, but listen and act in those already there5 Do not stop listening and measuring

26. Listening MarketingListen & ActAddress all marketing mix initiativesGrow businessWebMarketing MixWeb MonitoringSocial Media MarketingFeedback info to all of the Marketing Mix

27. What Can You Do ?Level 2Level 3Level 1Listen & ActTake a “picture” of how, where and how much your company and solutions and competitors are talked about on the Web.Listen & ActBuild a Digital Identity on the Web for your brand or solutions identifying where, how and how much your company/solutions and competitors are talked about on the Web “seeding” information that help your growth. Listen & ActListen to the Web to understand how, where and how much your company and competitors are talked about, build a Digital Identity for your brand and act with proper initiatives on social networks.Freedata Web Listening PlatformFreedata Seeding Activator

28. Listen & Act ApproachListen: Strategic: campaign measures over time through buzz & advocacy metricsTactic: listening to people where they talk, about what, how they talk and generation of primary information for actAct: Seeding: “seeding” of conversations where people are interested with the final goal of a wider visibility for the company and new contactsTactic actions: viral, interactive, playful, competitive to stimulate new contacts

29. Freedata Web Listening PlatformWithout continuous listening and measuring there can be no effective Social Media Marketing campaign.Freedata Web Listening Platform is a proprietary instrument for the constant and effective monitor and measure of the Web aimed to Social Media Marketing.Freedata Web Listening Platform adopts the most advanced Web crawling, semantic analysis and data mining technologies.

30. Web Monitoring & Seeding ProcessWeb Monitoring & Seeding ProcessSet of search keywords definition + contextWeb crawling-> clip extraction (URLs) -> Freedata Seeding Activator with ranking -> URLs selection for seedingConstant measures (metrics)Web Crawling and daily clip analysis (pages, conversations, blogs,…) through the set of kewords:Google Web

31. Google Groups

32. Google Blog

33. Technorati

34. Extrapola

35. Moreover

36. Yahoo Answer

37. Ad-hoc sourcesBuzzPositioningHow much ?SeedingAdvocacyHow ?FeaturesMetrics

38. Freedata Seeding ActivatorFreedata Seeding Activator gives access to the most relevant Web URLs on a daily basis as input for the seeding phase. Clips (pages, conversations, blogs, ..) extracted on a daily basis through search keywords reveal Web places where the matters of interest are discussed. Clips are ranked and are made available to Conversation Agents (seeders).

39. Seeding: we chat for you!Seeding is necessary to strongly support any marketing campaign and help build the company Digital Identity.Highly specialised Conversation Agents (seeders) generate conversations online around the matters of interest and take part into conversations. Seeding lets you: have a discrete and daily presence in the life of consumers, listening to their needs, knowing them and offering them the right products;

40. take part into conversations and exchange of opinions to positively influence them;

41. build ad-hoc social networks and leverage on those already there, interact with consumers and let them become your brand testimonials;

42. activate indirect communications that facilitate exchange of positive opinions on your brand or product. Increase Your Conversion Rate

43. About Freedata LabsFreedata Labs has been on the market for more than fifteen years and today has 50+ clients all over Europe comprising companies from different market sectors. Freedata has a wide experience in data management, in statistic analysis and data mining, in business and marketing modelling and today can follow its clients from data quality that supports marketing activities to the right and effective marketing and business initiatives. Freedata offering comprises and concentrates on digital marketing, Web 2.0 and social networks to develop innovative marketing services and on-line measurements and metrics. Freedata Labs was founded in 2003 as the UK branch in London of Freedata to serve the UK and European markets. From the branches in Milan, London and Torino, Freedata offers its services in all of the European languages. From 2008 Freedata is member of DMA (Direct Marketing Association) UK and of Word Of Mouth Marketing Association UK & USA. It is also Oracle partner for Oracle CRM On Demand Services.

44. Customer Story: TelcoCustomer: one of the biggest world-wide mobile phones operator.Countries (main language – secondary language): Italy (Italian - English)Objectives:launch the new online platform for customers with access to applications, music, games, maps download, documents sharing, online phone backup, communities. Increase the number of active users.How we reach them: through the Web listening platform we identify Web places where people are most interested, we keep on monitoring conversations and seed information through a team of 10+ conversations agents. We build a Facebook, Netlog, Flickr, MySpace network. We engage people in instant win games and music and photo contests with final prizes. We spread viral videos. We produce a set of videos telling a story which raises curiosity among the communities discovering the brand only at the end of the story. We set up an outdoor flash-mob event involving people and uploading videos and photos.Results: new active users in 4 months 200,000+. 45,000+ users through the Facebook network. 1M+ visits to the landing page with games, instant win and access to contests.

45. Customer Story: ITCustomer: one of the biggest world-wide player in IT hardware, software and services.Countries (main language-secondary language): UK (English) & France (French - English)Objectives: understand how the Web perceives SaaS, Cloud Computing, Business Intelligence & Enterprise 2.0 software and services. Understand the relative positioning of main competitors on the market. Build a marketing action plan.How we reach them: for 3 months we monitor the Web, find places where companies and IT experts look for and find information and advices on the solutions. We find the competitors perceived from the Web users for these solutions. We build a competitive quadrant updating it on a monthly basis to see how marketing actions change the relative positions. We build a marketing plan to act to increase sales and market share. We involve bloggers with attractive outdoor and online initiatives to test the solutions of the customers and let them write about the solutions on their blogs.Results: main competitors identification, shift of the relative position of the customer on the quadrant vs. competitors from renew to success quadrant. New contacts from SMB sector for the customer.

46. Customer Story: FinanceCustomer: the forth Italian banking group.Countries (main language): Italy (Italian)Objectives: bring new customers for mortgages, accounts and loans. How we reach them: for 4 months we monitor the Web understanding how the bank and its competitors promote their offers and how the users perceive them, which are their needs and concerns. We build a network of users on Facebook, LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing and bring the users to the campaign landing page engaging them in games. We promote the offers leveraging on environment and technology offering prizes such as an hybrid car or a low energy consumption led TV as well as iPhones. Results: main competitors identification, shift of the relative position of the customer on the quadrant vs. competitors. 200,000+ visits to the landing the page. Increase of the contacts to the bank and new customers.

47. Customer Story: UtilitiesCustomer: the main provider of energy on the Italian marketCountries (main language): Italy (Italian)Objectives: bring new customers for the fixed price offer for residential energy supplyHow we reach them: we monitor the Web and identify how the competition and the customers are perceived along with their offers. We engage customers online through prizes, contest and advantages when buying from the customers. We spread the voice through conversation agents online in the main social networks. We leverage on the fixed price to highlight that people do not need to bother about fluctuating energy costs anymore. We build a green message.Results: increase of contracts signed with provider +20% in 4 months.

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