This document provides an overview of social media and why companies should engage with it. In 3 sentences: It discusses how social media has grown tremendously, with billions of users and content shared daily across major platforms. While many companies still treat social media as just another marketing channel, the document advocates that they instead focus on conversations and harness its power for customer service, loyalty building, and other strategic objectives. It provides advice on defining a social media strategy and engaging with customers through listening, responding, and measuring engagement and impact.

1. ?
WHAT
THE
F**K
IS
SOCIAL
MEDIA
one year later*
*Bigger. Badder. More f**king than ever.

2. “
Social media is like teen sex.
Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how.
When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.”
Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google
photo by Zellaby on flickr.com

3. Officially, though, social media
is not like teen sex.
*
* Phew!

4. Officially, social media is “an umbrella term
that defines the various activities that integrate
technology, social interaction, and the construction
of words, pictures, videos, and audio.”
http://www.wikipedia.org

5. IT’S ALSO
A FANCY WAY
TO DESCRIBE
THE ZILLIONS
OF CONVERSATIONS
PEOPLE
ARE HAVING
ONLINE
24/7.
photo by Kris Hoet on flickr.com

6. WHY
THE
F**K
SHOULD
I CARE
one year later*
?
* Still an excellent question, by the way.

7. REASON #1
BECAUSE 3 OUT OF 4 AMERICANS USE SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY.
Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2008

8. REASON #2
BECAUSE 2/3 OF THE GLOBAL INTERNET POPULATION
VISIT SOCIAL NETWORKS.
Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

9. REASON #3
BECAUSE VISITING SOCIAL SITES IS NOW THE 4TH MOST
POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY—AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL.
Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
photo by Bruno Girinon flickr.com

10. REASON #4
BECAUSE TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
IS GROWING AT 3X THE OVERALL INTERNET
RATE, ACCOUNTING FOR ~10% OF ALL
INTERNET TIME.
Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

11. REASON #5
BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEMOCRATIZING
COMMUNICATIONS. BIG TIME.
“
Technology is shifting the power away
from the editors, the publishers,
the establishment, the media elite.
Now it’s the people who are in control.”
Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur

12. REASON #6
BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE
WORD OF MOUTH
ON STEROIDS.

13. BECAUSE, DEAR FRIEND, SOCIAL MEDIA
IS A F**KING FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
photo by Balakov on flickr.com

14. 13 HOURS

15. 13 HOURS
The amount of video uploaded
to YouTube every minute.

16. 412.3 YEARS

17. 412.3 YEARS
The length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.

18. 100,000,000

19. 100,000,000
The number of YouTube videos viewed per day.

20. 13,000,000

21. 13,000,000
The number of articles available on Wikipedia.

22. 3,600,000,000

23. 3,600,000,000
The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009.

24. 3,600,000,000
The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009.
That’s roughly 1 photo per every 2 people on the planet.

25. 1382%

26. 1382%
The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009.

27. 3,000,000

28. 3,000,000
The average number of Tweets per day on Twitter.com

29. 5,000,000,000

30. 5,000,000,000
The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day.

31. 1,000,000,000

32. 1,000,000,000
The amount of content
(web links,
news stories,
blog posts,
notes,
photos,
etc.)
shared each week
on Facebook.

33. “ The word blog is irrelevant.
What's important is that it is now common,
and will soon be expected,
that every intelligent person
(and quite a few unintelligent ones)
will have a media platform
where they share what they care about
with the world.”
Seth Godin, Author

34. 5,000,000
photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

35. 5,000,000
The number of active Barack Obama
supporters across 15 social networks.
photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

36. 14,200,000
photo by EricaJoy on flickr.com

37. 14,200,000
The number of views Obama’s
famous “Yes We Can” video got
on YouTube.
photo by EricaJoy on flickr.com

38. 14,200,000
The number of views Obama’s
famous “Yes We Can” video got
on YouTube.
An additional 15 of the 1,800 official
and 139,000 unofficial Obama
videos received over 1 Million
views.
photo by EricaJoy on flickr.com

39. $6,500,000
photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

40. $6,500,000
The amount of money 3 Million online donors
contributed to the 2008 Obama campaign.
photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

41. IF FACEBOOK WERE
A COUNTRY,
IT WOULD BE THE 8TH
MOST POPULATED
IN THE WORLD,
JUST AHEAD
OF JAPAN.
Mark Zuckerberg, January 7, 2009

42. HOLY
F**K
*
*Gratuitous, but lives up to the promise on the title page.

43. BUT
WAIT,
THERE’S
MORE.

44. 93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BELIEVE A COMPANY
SHOULD HAVE A PRESENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA.
Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008

45. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT 93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA
USERS THINK COMPANIES SHOULD TREAT SOCIAL MEDIA AS YET
ANOTHER CHANNEL FOR BROADCASTING BULLSH*T.

46. YOU SEE, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE A DIALOGUE,
NOT A MONOLOGUE.

47. “Marketers don't understand channels
where you have to talk
and listen at the same time...
The marketing industry's idea
of a two-way communication
is to put an 800 number
or a web address in an ad
and take orders.”
Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

48. This couldn't be more obvious
than with email. Your company
has a chance to turn its email list
into a two-way communication.
Except that most mass emails
from companies are "do not
reply".
"We want to talk to you,"
they say. "But we don't want
to hear back from you. Unless
you want to place an order,
and if so click here."
Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

49. “ The people in charge of talking
are in the marketing department.
The people in charge of listening
are in the research or service
or sales department.
They hardly ever talk to each other,
let alone have full-duplex conversations
with customers.”
Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009
photo by Jamie Mellor on flickr.com

50. “ This won't fly in social technology
because the minute you talk,
people expect you to listen.
And if you start to listen,
you'll be tempted to talk.
It's a full-duplex channel
that befuddles one-way-marketers.”
Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

51. FACT:
SOCIAL MEDIA
PLAYTIME
*
IS OVER.
*See http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,47665,00.html for more on that topic.

52. SO, PLEASE.

53. SO, PLEASE.
*
STOP F**KING AROUND
& GET SERIOUS
ABOUT HARNESSING
THE POWER OF THIS THING.

54. SO, PLEASE.
*
STOP F**KING AROUND
& GET SERIOUS
ABOUT HARNESSING
THE POWER OF THIS THING.
*C’mon, I said please.

55. 85% of social media users believe that a company
should go further than just having a presence
on social sites and should also interact
with its customers.
Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008

56. “ For companies,
resistance to social
media is futile.
Millions of people are
creating content for
the social Web.
Your competitors
are already there.
Your customers have
been there for a long
time.
If your business isn't
putting itself out there,
it ought to be.”
BusinessWeek, February 19, 2009
photo by Archie McPhee Seattle on flickr.com

57. UNFORTUNATELY, MOST COMPANIES
ARE STILL TREATING SOCIAL MEDIA
*
LIKE JUST ANOTHER MARKETING CHANNEL.
*Oops.

58. WHEN IN FACT,
*
IT’S SO MUCH MORE.
*Wait for it...

59. 1: PUBLIC RELATIONS

60. 2: CUSTOMER SERVICE

61. 3: LOYALTY-BUILDING

62. 4: COLLABORATION

63. 5: NETWORKING

64. 6: THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP

65. AND YES,
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, TOO.

66. SO,
HERE’S
WHAT
YOU
NEED
TO
DO:

67. photo by cyndie@smilebig! on flickr.com
DEF INE YOUR C OMPANY’S
SOC IAL MEDIA STRATEGY.

68. HOPE IS NOT
A STRATEGY.
photo by quest for the heartstone on flickr.com

69. photo by eye2eye on flickr.com
STOP THINKING “CAMPAIGNS”.
START THINKING “CONVERSATIONS.

70. photo by Malingering on flickr.com
HELP, IF YO U NEED IT.
ASK FOR

71. AND BECAUSE
I’D HATE
TO SEE YOU
F**K IT ALL UP,
I’LL ADD THIS
TINY BIT
OF ADVICE :

72. SUME SOC IAL MEDIA
DON’T AS ERYTHING.
IS THE AN SWER TO EV

73. photo by arlen on flickr.com
IF YOUR PRODUCT SUCKS,
SOCIAL MEDIA WON’T FIX IT.

74. (HOWEVER, IF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS,
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.)

75. photo by gari.baldi on flickr.com
IF YOUR REPEAT BUSINESS SUCKS,
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.

76. IF YOUR COMPANY’S WORD OF MOUTH SUCKS,
SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.

77. FINAL WORDS OF
*
F**KING WISDOM :
*a.k.a. The dramatic finale.

78. NEVER
FORGET
THE
BASIC
RULES.

79. RULE #1: LISTEN
• Google Alerts
• TweetDeck
• SocialMentions
• RSS
(FOR STARTERS)

80. RULE #2: ENGAGE

81. RULE #3: MEASURE
• Audience
• Engagement
• Loyalty
• Influence
• Action
(METRICS SHOULD MAP TO GOALS. PERIOD.)

82. NOW
GO OUT
THERE
& GET
SOCIAL!

83. F**K Espresso
http://brandinfiltration.com
YOU BOSTON
e: marta@brandinfiltration.com
t: @mzkagan
VERY TORONTO
MUCH e: jacquelyn@brandinfiltration.com
t: @infiltrators
All photos in this presentation were purchased from iStockPhoto.com unless otherwise noted.