PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

Moving from Listening to Engaging

May 19, 2010

#listengage

2

Agenda

• Introduction

• Engage or Die

• Who Owns Social Media

• The Social Media Hierarchy

• Social Media Guidelines

• Social Media Best Practices

• Seven Steps to Creating and Cultivating a Brand

#listenengage

Who is StrongMail?

• Leading provider of online marketing solutions for email and social media.

• We enable our clients to boost the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, while saving a significant amount of money.

• Our products and services provide an end-to-end solution for some of the world’s biggest brands.

Over 500 Customers

If a Conversation Takes Place Online & You’re Not There to Hear It, Did It Really Happen?

It’s not what you say, it’s what they say that counts…

Motrin Moms• A seemingly harmless advertisement caused a

backlash amongst moms who took to Twitter, blogs, YouTube and eventually spilled over to mainstream media including WSJ, Forbes, AP, NYT

• Motrin wasn’t listening to responses on the social web and as such, the company couldn’t diffuse the groundswell against the campaign and ultimately the brand– It was the first CPG and also brand example where the

real-time web proved that it required full-time monitoring

• The apology was also chastised for appearing as voice “by committee,” lacking candor and sympathy

Identify problems before they evolve into crises

Monitoring vs. Listening

Who Owns Social Media?

Social Media Affects Every Step of a Decision Making Process

Discovery

Evalu

atio

n

Action

Exp

eri

en

ce

Engagement

Listening

1. Need2. Awareness3. Consideration4. Decision5. Satisfaction6. Recommendation

The Conversation Funnel

Listen

Sort

Assess

AssignService Product Marketin

gHR Finance Sales

The Social Customer Hierarchy

Google is adapting PageRank for people…

The Human Algorithm

Everything Starts with Listening and Research

Intelligence

The Brand Dashboard

Monitoring

A socialized approach

Assign Roles and Responsibilities• Social Media is more than participating in

conversations– A workflow is required to ensure a seamless process

for listening, responding, learning and leading• People (consumers) expect to be heard and

without an official process in place, many would-be fans and followers are not addressed and therefore, never have the chance to become advocates

• Assign roles and establish workflow for monitoring, responding, engagement, and seeking answers internally to provide resolution and direction– Also determine the process for routing conversations

between marketing, service, product, communications, etc.

Establish Guidelines and Processes

To prevent information leaks and other liabilities, companies are drafting guidelines for social media interaction.

Common Sense is Not Common at All

Draft Social Media Guidelines• Workflow requires boundaries and guidance to

run smoothly• Guidelines are required to protect the brand and

the people representing the brand • Guidelines also protect consumers, fostering

productive, collaborative, and also entertaining communities where people self-govern the society based on empowerment

• Without guidelines, representatives are required to rely on instinct, experience, and common sense, all things that work against the nature of social media

• Like any role within the brand, representatives can benefit from training and direction– They must learn to balance between what they should or

shouldn’t say, when and how

Guidelines: Best Practices• Ensure a consistent, personable, and brand enhancing tone or

voice

• Add value to each engagement — contribute to a stature and legacy

• Respect those whom you’re engaging and also respect the forum in which you participate

• Ensure that you honor copyrights and practice and promote fair use of applicable content

• Protect confidential and proprietary information

• Be transparent and be human (well, be believable and helpful)

• Represent what you should represent

• Know and operate within the boundaries defined

• Know when to fold ‘em and don’t engage trolls or fall into conversational traps

• Keep things conversational as it applies to portraying and reinforcing the personality and value of your brand and the brand you represent

Guidelines: Best Practices

• Stay on message, on point and on track with the goals of your role and its impact to the real world business in which you contribute

• Don’t trash competition — directly anyway• Apologize where applicable• Take accountability for your actions and

offer no excuses• Know who you’re taking to and what they’re

seeking• Disclose relationships, representation,

affiliation and intentions• Practice self-restraint, some things are not

worth sharing

Social Media is About Sociology and Psychology More So Than

Technology

There’s a difference between listening and hearing…

Becoming the people we want to reach and win over (sway, influence, affect…)

What Inspires people to Share…

Self-Expression Status Recognition

Altruism Self-Interest

Acceptance Acceptance Acceptance Greed

Honor Honor Honor

Idealism Idealism Idealism

Independence Independence Independence

Social Contact Social Contact Social Contact

Status Status

Curiosity Power

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The art and science of influence

Participation

Identify your influencers

Influence… The ability to inspire meaningful and measurable action

Word of mouth marketing is not created, it is co-created

Engage outside of your domains

Identify ways to provide value…

Transparent

Believable

Authentic

Be Yourself

Believable

Proprietary and Confidential |

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The Credible Role for a Brand

Matching Social Motivators Real Campaign Tools

• Advisor• Contributor• Host/

Facilitator

• Self Expression

• Achievement• Altruism• Self-Reward

• Social measurement

• Active incentives

• Test and Learn

Seven Steps to Creating and Cultivating a Brand in Social Media

1. Who: Define the brand personality, it’s mission and purpose in the Social Web

2. What: Listen to see how the brand is perceived today – create a benchmark around status quo and also prevailing sentiment

3. When: Monitor the real-time Web to surface any conversations that, without response, represent the potential to burn out of control

4. Where: Focus on proactive engagement within the priority networks of relevance to ensure prominence, which by default, diffuses animosity and promotes constructive conversation

5. How: Understand the dynamics, culture, and behavior defining the social networks that are important to you. How you engage says everything and dictates next steps

6. Why: Without knowing why something is erupting or why your presence is necessary in important networks practically begets the old adage of “you get what you deserve”

7. To What Extent: Understanding the influence of those who are leading dialogue on both sides of the sentiment scale, will help you extinguish crises as they emerge and help ensure a greater volume of positive sentiment in between

We're measured by our actions

and not words.

#ThisisYourTime

Thank You!

Brian SolisFutureWorksTwitter: @briansoliswww.briansolis.comwww.future-works.comhttp://bit.ly/engagemehttp://bit.ly/prbookwww.nowisgone.com

Ryan Deutsch

VP of Emerging Media

(650) 421-7124

rdeutsch@strongmail.com

Twitter: @rdeutsch