Social media brockville

INTRODUCTION

Bernard CharleboisVirtuo CMS Technologies

“No profession stands to influence social media more than public relations.”

Paul Gillin, The New Influencers, A Marketers Guide to the New Social Media

INTRODUCTION

Social media is a conversation online.

Look who’s talking:o your customerso your donorso your volunteerso your employeeso your investorso your criticso your fanso your competition.... o anyone who has internet

access and an opinion.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

The conversation is not:o controlledo organizedo “on message”

The conversation is:o organico complexo speaks in a human voice

Social media is not a strategy or a tactic – it’s simply a channel.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

o Social Networkso News & Bookmarkingo Blogso Microbloggingo Video Sharingo Photo Sharingo Message boardso Wikiso Virtual Realityo Social Gamingo Related:

o Podcastso Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

The power to define and control a brand is shifting from corporations and institutionsto individuals and communities.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

Word of Mouth is the Future of Marketing

Marketers can effectively use social media byinfluencing the conversation.

One way to do this is by delivering great customer service experiences.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

o Zappos, an online shoe retailer, makes customer service central with a focus on “making personal and emotional connections.”

o Divert marketing budget to customer service (they outsource marketing to their customers; they don’t outsource their call centre)

o Use Twitter to promote their brando Website displays any public tweets

mentioning of their brando CEO has over 400,000 followerso 430 employees on Twitter

o $1billion in sales last year and their expanding into new product categories

CASE STUDY

o 91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions - JC Williams Group

o 87% trust a friend’s recommendation over critic’s review - Marketing Sherpa

o 3 times more likely to trust peer opinions over advertising for purchasing decisions - Jupiter Research

o 1 word-of-mouth conversation has impact of 200 TV ads - BuzzAgent

* Slide courtesy of Digital Influence Group

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

Social media sites are the fastest-growing category on the web, doubling yearly.

o Biggest increase in the 45 plus demographico Gen Y outnumber boomers. 96% of them use social

mediao 80% of companies use LinkedIn to find employeeso 25% of time spent online is on social mediao Average number of Facebook friends is 150o 83% regularly watch video clips

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

o 4 out of 5 4 out of 5 Canadians use social mediaCanadians use social media

o 2222% of Canadians % of Canadians over 60over 60

o 7070% of Internet users % of Internet users under 30 do so dailyunder 30 do so daily

o 60% of users 60% of users 25-2925-29 do so daily do so daily

Canada Online, The Internet, Media and Emerging Canada Online, The Internet, Media and Emerging TechnologoesTechnologoes

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

• Younger users (under 45) and women use these sites for socializing

• Older users use these sites to obtain and share information

• Youth (12-17) use these sites for entertainment

The reason doesn’t matter

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

Social media can help you in all stages of marketing, self-promotion, public relations, and customer service:

o researcho strategic planningo implementationo evaluation

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

o Learn what people are saying about youo Create buzz for events & campaignso Increase brand exposureo Identify and recruit influencers to spread your messageo Find new opportunities and customerso Support your products and serviceso Improve your search engine visibilityo Gain competitive intelligenceo Get your message out fasto Retain clients by establishing a personal relationshipo Be an industry leader – not a follower

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

Reacho Website visits / viewso volume of reviews

and commentso Incoming links

Action & Insighto Sales inquirieso New businesso Customer satisfaction

and loyaltyo Marketing efficiency

Engagement & Influenceo Sentiment of reviews

and commentso Brand affinityo Commenter

authority/influenceo Time spento Favourites / Friends / Fanso Viral forwardso Number of downloads

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

Source: The Digital Influence Group, Measuring the Influence of Social Media

Resources required for social media may include:

o Strategic consultationo Trainingo Creating contento Integrating toolso Distributing contento Relationship managemento Measuring value

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

o Social Networkso News & Bookmarkingo Blogso Microbloggingo Video Sharingo Photo Sharingo Message boardso Wikiso Virtual Realityo Social Gamingo Related:

o Podcastso Real Simple Syndication (RSS)o Social Media Press Release

THE TOOLS

o Contains profiles of Fortune 500 executives and leading entrepreneurso average individual salary

on LinkedIn is $109,000

o On LinkedIn you can:o Post a profile and resumeo Connect with colleagueso Share professional

recommendationso Find jobso Forums to demonstrate

expertise and find answers

THE TOOLS

o Fastest growing social network in Canada and the world (450 million members)

o Powerful tools to engage and understand your audience:o Brand pageso Custom applicationso Targeted advertisingo Audience insights/metricso Opinion polls

THE TOOLS

o Your brand’s homepage on Facebook.

o Allow you to post photos, videos, events and other messages.

o Users interact with you byo Becoming fanso Commenting on your postso Participating in discussionso Post photos to your page

o Fans see your page updates in their newsfeed

THE TOOLS

o Facebook ads give you the ability to advertise directly to specific demographic groups

o This is unlike paid search, the most popular form of online advertising, which only lets you to bid on keywords the user is searching for right now

THE TOOLS

o Locationo Ageo Sexo Keywords (appear in

your users profile)o Educationo Workplaceo Relationship statuso Relationship interestso Languages

THE TOOLS

THE TOOLS

o Very affordable and easy to control your budget

o You can specify a daily budget

o Schedule specific dates for your ad to run

o Pay for clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM)

THE TOOLS

o Facebook Insights provides information about your ad campaign:o Track ad performance

with real-time reportingo Gain demographic and

psychographic insights about people that view or take action on your ad

o Use this information to identify how you can improve your campaign to maximize your results

THE TOOLS

o A blog is a website with regular entries of commentary or news

o Blogs serve to establish your company as transparent, relevant, active, and expert.

THE TOOLS

o engage in dialogue with your customers

o improve your search engine visibility

o promote product launches and events

o gain expert status by providing useful tips

THE TOOLS

Doo post on a regular schedule

o encourage conversation by asking questions

o respond to people that comment on your posts

o use a few bloggers from your company for more viewpoints

Don’to write press releases – be real

about why something is exciting

o let complaints go unanswered

o make users register to comment – they won’t bother

o delete fair but critical comments

THE TOOLS

o Microblogs are blogs limited to a sentence or two (about 140 characters)

o People use microblogging to promote themselves, share content and follow friends, celebrities and brands

o Companies use it for marketing, public relations and customer service by giving their brand a voice within the community

THE TOOLS

Twitter can help you:

o share timely informationo promote useful content

including resources, contests, deals, etc.(not just your own)

o personify your brando connect with your customers

and develop leadso build credibility and influenceo listen to consumer buzzo research competitorso network and learn from

experts in your field

THE TOOLS

Doo find and share useful

content

o pose questions and reply to others

o keep it fun - put a friendly face on your brand

o promote sales, deals, news, updates, and build buzz for big releases or events

o know what people are saying about your brand

Don’to sound like a press release –

you’re in a social space

o spam with constant links to your company website, either in tweets or private messages

o post useless information – do people really care what you had for lunch?

THE TOOLS

o Video sharing sites let you upload videos and share them with people.

o They’re a perfect repository for video blogs, taped seminars, witty Power Points, commercials, how-to’s and a behind-the-scene look at your organization.

THE TOOLS

o helps you gain exposure and direct traffic back to your website

o sparks interest without a hard-sell

o videos can be low-fi and cheap to produce - immediacy and content is more important than quality.

o videos can be a place to showcase your leadership in a field, and spread customer testimonials

THE TOOLS

o Blendtec was a faceless B2B/B2C blender manufacturer that couldn’t afford a traditional marketing campaign

o Published low-cost videos of CEO blending everything from iPhones, hockey pucks to the financial bailout

o Launched the website WillitBlend.com and a YouTube channel

http://www.youtube.com/blendtec

CASE STUDY

o Videos went viral generating “millions of dollars in brand recognition”o Channel Views: 3,469,098o Subscribers: 183,949

o Online Blendtec blender sales increased 500%

o The videos have made over $50,000 in ad revenue turning the marketing department into a profit centre

CASE STUDY

Lessons learned:

o Be entertaining and keep it relevant to your brand (the videos promote the durability of their blenders without an overt sales pitch)

o Experiment – the idea might not have worked, but what could they lose?

CASE STUDY

Doo be informative, useful, or

entertaining

o create a summary and detailed description

o post video replies to others

o allow commenting and participate in the conversation

o save bandwidth costs on your website by hosting videos on YouTube

Don’to just upload infomercials

o be afraid to experiment until you find a formula that works.

o pull down other people’s videos showcasing your product for copyright infringement

o make your video longer than it needs to be – keep it concise and entertaining

THE TOOLS

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Experiment personally before professionally

o Try a variety of social media tools

o Be yourself, make some friends, and share

KEYS TO SUCCESS

1. Discovery(people, competition, and search engines)

3. Skills(identify internal resources and gaps)

5. Maintenance(monitor and adapt)

2. Strategy(opportunities, objectives)

4. Execution(tools, integration, policies, and process)

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Source: 5 Phases of Social Media Marketinghttp://socialcomputingjournal.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=789

o Find where your audience is participating and identify the influencers

o Read industry blogs (including comments)

o Google your company name & your competition

o Find tools that can help you listen

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Tap into the wisdom of the crowd to access a wider talent pool and gain customer insight

o Companies that use crowd sourcing include:o Starbucks (MyStarbucks)o Dell (Ideastorm)o DuPonto Netflixo Wikipediao iStockphoto.como Threadless.como Mechanical Turk (Amazon)

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Amelia Arlington

KEYS TO SUCCESS

56 unanimous responses in under 4 minutes from YouBeMom.com

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Avoid puffery (people will ignore it)

o Avoid evasion and lying(people won’t ignore it)

o Companies have watched their biggest screw-up's rise to the top 10 of a Google search

o Admit your mistakes right away

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Belkin employee busted offering payment for fake positive product reviews

o Belkin president claims it’s an isolated incident

o Influential tech blogs expose a larger cover up and name more employees involved

CASE STUDY

o Don’t be afraid to share. Corporations, like people, need to share information to get the value out of social media

o Make your content easy to share

o Incorporate tools that promote sharing:o Share This, RSS feeds,

Email a friend

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Don't shout. Don't broadcast. Don’t brag.

o Speak like yourself – not a corporate marketing shill or press secretary

o Personify your brand – give people something they can relate to.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

CASE STUDY

o Think like a contributor, not a marketer

o Consider what is relevant to the community before contributing

o Don’t promote your product on every post

o Win friends by promoting other people’s content if it interests you

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Don’t try to delete or remove criticism (it will just make it worse)

o Listen to your detractors

o Admit your shortcomings

o Work openly towards an explanation and legitimate solution

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Don’t wait until you have a campaign to launch - start planning and listening now

o Build relationships so they’re ready when you need them

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o You may need buy in from people in your organization

o Convince your CEO that social media is relevant to your organization

o Get your communications team together, discuss the options, then divide and conquer

KEYS TO SUCCESS

1. Experiment with social media

2. Make a plan

3. Listen

4. Be transparent & honest

5. Share your content

6. Be personal and act like a person

7. Contribute in a meaningful way

8. See criticism as an opportunity

9. Be proactive

10. Accept you can’t do it all yourself

KEYS TO SUCCESS

o Photo sharing sites give you a place to upload and organize your photos

o You can invite friends to check out your photos and people can find your photos by searching for the keywords (tags) you apply to your photos.

THE TOOLS

o Internet-based 3D virtual worlds like Second Life reimagine our world with all its potential for commerce and branding

o people interact through characters called avatars

o residents explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items and services with one another

THE TOOLS

o RSS is a way for content publishers to make blog entries, news headlines, events, podcasts and other content available to subscribers.

o an effective way to distribute your content and lead users back to your website

THE TOOLS

5 TAKE AWAY MESSAGES

1. Word of Mouth peer-to-peer discussions are more influential than the mass media

2. Participate by enabling and feeding the conversation(follow the 10 keys to success)

3. Be transparent & honest

3 TAKE AWAY MESSAGES