The document discusses strategic principles for successful marketing on social media. It emphasizes listening to conversations, participating authentically, initiating discussions, making content easy to share, and allowing the brand to facilitate user interactions. Five pillars are outlined: listening and observing discussions; encouraging people and participation; starting conversations and inviting participation; providing social sharing tools for content; and enabling the brand to connect communities. Transparency, authenticity, and truly understanding each social platform are crucial. The document also provides an overview of a marketing firm that helps connect brands to communities through various online and offline strategies and services.

1. Heavybag Media
Marketing on the Social Web

2. Intro
• Many brands still get social media wrong:
• BMW - lack of transparency on recent videos
• Target Rounders Facebook fiasco
• Walmarting Across America
• Whole Foods CEO blog fiasco
• All I want for xmas is a PSP
• This is because they treat social media as they would a traditional campaign
• The social web is a new environment
• To succeed you must participate and be transparent
• Mirror and build upon interactions that take place naturally
• Take the time to explore a social tool before using it as a marketing platform
• Marketing on the social web is one part marketing, one part PR, one part
branding and one part sociology.

3. Five Strategic Pillars
1. Listening and observation
2. People and participation
3. Initiate conversations and invite people to join
4. Give content “social lube.”
5. Allow you brand to act as a conduit

4. Listening & Observation
The social web provides us with immense amounts of data in the form of
conversations, tagging, meta data and actual content. Listening to
conversations that are happening around your brand or around related
affinities and verticals can give valuable insights and help shape everything
from product development to the marketing plan.
• Social media monitoring
• Conversation monitoring
• Sentiment monitoring
• Trend monitoring

5. People & Participation
The social web is about interpersonal relationships and interactions. People
are out there having conversations about your brand. Where is your voice in
all of these conversations? Who within your company is out there actively
engaging in conversations with people? What are they saying? You can use a
combination of social media monitoring tools and good old human poking
around to pick up on the majority of these conversations. These
conversations are opportunities, open invitations for you to interact with the
people you value most; your customers.
• Encourage individuals within your organization to have their own voice
• Train employees and representatives on how to use social tools effectively
• Identify both internal and external community liaisons
• Great examples:
• Zappos
• Southwest Airlines
• Lego (AFOLs)
• ___atDell

6. Initiate Conversations &
Invite People to Join In
You don’t just need to go out and find conversations, you can invite them to
come to you. In the age of conversation, blogs can do wonders to allow
your company’s personality to shine through, establish a channel for PR and
they have the additional benefit of doing wonders for natural search engine
results. The people who take the time to read your blog are also the ones
most likely to share it!
• Establish company blog
• Share product development process and invite comments and
suggestions
• Generate video content and invite comments
• Great examples:
• Dell blogs
• Dell Ideastorm
• MyStarbucks Idea
• GM FastLane blog

7. Give Content “Social
Lube”
The social web is about conversations and it’s also about sharing. Sharing is a natural by-product of
conversation. It’s the logical next step. You can encourage people to share your content by giving
them access to the tools they use to do so directly from your content. They still, of course have to
decide if they like it enough to pass on, but once that decision is made, it makes sense to remove as
many hurdles as possible. This means adding social bookmarking links to sites like digg and
del.icio.us and making sure videos and other multimedia content are easily shared by including links
to embed and share them. Make it effortless!
• Make content that’s worth sharing
• Ensure it gets in the hands of the right people
• Right affinity group
• Influencers
• Collectors
• Participants
• Make it easy to share
• Social bookmarking links
• Add to profile links
• Embed code
• Email links

8. Allow Your Brand To Act
As A Conduit
Allowing people to preform the interactions they naturally tend to engage in via
your brand just makes sense. And offering something unique and relevant that
they don’t get elsewhere adds value for the user. Examples of this type of
marketing include:
• Social networking applications
• Community sites
• UGC submission sites and contests
• Mashup and remix type tools
• Discovery and sharing platforms
• Great Examples:
• Radiohead Remix
• Radio Shack Invention Lab
• Playboy U
• TripAdvisor Facebook App
• my.Barackobama.com

9. A Note on Transparency
& Authenticity
Be Transparent!!! Obscuring or hiding the truth will only get you in trouble, it’s been proven again and
again. This should be a no-brainer by now, but seeing as many international brands and their
agencies are still getting it wrong I feel the need to bring it up again.
Authenticity goes a long way on the social web. Showing that you are listening and that you value
input from your customers is key. Another part of authenticity is taking the time to get to know the
space you are asking to be a part of before you plop yourself down in the middle of it and expect
people to come running. This is where people “hang out” online. People don’t tend to want to have
billboards on their living room walls, and they don’t want your brand spewing marketing jargon at
them. But if you approach them respectfully and invite interaction, they may choose to allow you to
participate in their community.
The social web is about authentic two-way communication streams, the sharing of content, ideas and
information. Traditional advertising fails on the social web because the social web is no longer about
“viewing” or “browsing” it’s about “sharing” “interacting” and “doing.”

10. About Heaybag Media
Approach
Conversations with friends and peers is a powerful influence in the decision making process. Word of
mouth, both online and off, is shaping the way people make decisions, do business and spend their
time.
We connect the dots between brands and communities. Heavybag Media develops campaigns and
marketing strategies that utilize social tools, community platforms, traditional and non-traditional
media and cutting edge technology. We enable brands to engage their audience on a meaningful
level.
Partial Client List Services
Sun Microsystems Online marketing strategy development
Fender Intensive sessions
Guitar Center Branding
eHarmony Messaging
Yale University Blogger outreach
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Social media presence management
Newell Rubbermaid Social media monitoring
Getty Images Media planning/buying
New England Brewing Graphic design
NFW Watches Website design/development
AARP Video production/post production