Lessons Learned Launching Dozens of Brands on Twitter

Web2.0 Expo SF 3/28/11

Approach, Best Practices and Lessons on #Winning with Twitter for the Enterprise

#W2twitter

What We’re Covering• Premise for Launching Multiple Brands on

Twitter• What We’ve Done• How We’ve Done It• What We’ve Learned• Conclusions

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Premise• New medium, no fast rules, just guides• We proposed a content spectrum

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Publishing Participating

Search favors super fresh content--why cut your brand off from all that <3?

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Defining the SpectrumMap to a Content Spectrum• Manage expectations while participating in SocialMedia• Manage resource requirements and risk-tolerance• Find the right balance through experimentation

Participating•Controlled•Time-Released•Syndication

• Editorial guidelines• Real Time• Socialization

Brand StatementsBrand Promotions

LinksPolls

ReTweetsReplies/Mssgs

HashtagsEvents

Publishing

Content People Will Follow

All Followers Not Equal

Brand Twitter Quitters

The Master Brand Road Map• Objectives• Find the sweet spot for each brand and

consumer• Listen, Listen, Listen• Secure & Set Up Accounts• Schedule 100s of tweets for each brand• Launch• Learn

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Representative Brand Objectives• Establish consistency to enable cross-brand learnings• Create a baseline of scheduled tweets for all brands, to

be distributed via co-managed SMMS• Test resource and effort levels by brand, consumer and

category• Gather learnings and uncover insights that may be

applicable to all brands on Twitter• Establish best practices for interacting on Twitter and

leverage learnings across other social media platforms• Develop common tool kits for brands to reference/use

for all social media initiativesPage 8

What we’ve done and how you can do it tooA practical path to deploying Master Brands on Twitter

What We’ve Done1. Set-up infrastructure2. Conduct basic discovery3. Inventory current assets in social media4. Use data and asset inventory to create a plan5. Conduct training and craft rules of engagement6. Engage, optimize, and measure

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Master Checklists:• Avatar• Existing Digital Assets Online• General Brand Background• Consumer Facing Positioning Statement for Profile• Consumer Auto-follow Message• Important Seasonal/Brand Dates• Brand Marketing Calendar• FAQ’s• Potential Tweet Content• Brand Related Icons• Brand Related Programs• Content Management System

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Brand Background Checklist:Provide the following general information about your brand:

•Target Audience•General Brand Philosophy•General Brand Tone•Brand Values/Consumer Insights the Brand

Operates on•Brand Related Activities/Topics•Top Sources Related to Brand

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Calendar Checklist:Provide your brand’s most important dates:

•Brand Dates•Consumer Dates•Natural Seasonality•Holiday’s (both National and Brand)•Sponsorships•Global Affiliates•Causes / Charities•Events

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Marketing ChecklistProvide detailed entries around your brand’s marketing calendar

•Advertising, campaign launch and videos•Media•PR•Promotion•Shopper Marketing•Other

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Cohort ChecklistsSeek out existing content around your brand’s and consumers’ categories

• Human Values• Recipes• Nutrition• Back-to-School • Home and Family• Lifestyle• Beauty and Style• Work/Life• Promotions

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Insights from TwitterDozens of tweets in offering and requesting insights around:• Top 10 things your brand wants to know about

its consumers• Top 10 things your brand wants its consumers to

know about it• The 5 most important information your

consumers need around your category

Bringing along the EnterpriseManaging workflow across large matrix organizations• Education• Phased Approach• Guidelines• Roles & Responsibilities• Tools

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Phased Approach

Kick-Off Review Roll-Up

• Briefings• Strategy• Creative• Execution• Check-list• Orientation• Templates

• FAQ/Guidelines

• Escalation Path• Recruit• Concierge

class• Participation• Training• Support desk

• Brand measures• Benchmarks• Recommendations• Guide roll-up

approach

Set-UpContent PlanEditorial Dev

Listen

LaunchRecruitmentMonitoringParticipating

,Brand Owner orMarketing Services

Brand Owner orMarketing Services

Phase I: Set-Up Phase II: Trial

Twitter Basics• Let’s Do a Quick Review• What is Twitter?• How Twitter Works• Key Terms• Do’s and Don'ts• Launching• Managing• Measuring• Recruiting• Tools• Resources

Twitter Program Guide

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Roles and ResponsibilitiesInvolvement Frequency Volume Access

Brand Ultimate decision maker Daily Authorize guidelines Co-manage

Lead Agency Strategy and consumer approach Daily 2-3 times/day and as

needed Co-manage

PR Agency Breaking news, crisis & message management Daily 2-3 times/day and as

needed Co-manage

Ad Agency Creative voice and assets At onset At onset Input

Consumer Services Product-related issues and FAQs As needed As needed Co-manage

Legal Legal review and terms At onset As needed Input

Other Experts, celebrities, etc. Pending Legal Approval

Pending Legal Approval

Pending Legal Approval

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SMMS Editorial Workflow

SMMS Team Response Workflow

OK, We Launched. Now what?Recruitment and Likenomics

Recruitment Approach

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We used the following steps in recruiting for brands:1. Facebook, newsletter and hashtag marketing efforts to recruit new

followers2. High conversion rate by following those that expressed brand love3. Post to directories and used search engines to identify high-

affinity prospective followers for both brand and category4. After building a strong initial base of followers with positive brand

affinity, we searched more broadly for followers who were following Twitter accounts within the relevant category (competitors, beverage, health, etc.)

Additional On-Platform Recruitment Options-Lists:• Use lists to group influential and/or active

community members• Reach out to them individually with exclusive or

advanced offers• Watch them for trends• Mine their lists for additional people to follow

(and hopefully earn a follow back)

Off-Platform Recruitment OptionsUse mature channels to drive growth in social mediaIntegration with Email

• Use email content to drive social activity• Like This• Retweet• Favorite

• Include links in email footer to drive traffic to social channels.• Like Us• Follow Us

• Send social focused email, make social connections the main CTA

Commercials, point of sale, print and more

Additional Recruitment OptionsEmail and other channels• Use your mature

channels to drive growth in social media.

• Use email content to drive social activity.

• Include links in email footer to drive traffic to social channels.

• Commercials, point of sale and print

Posting, Photosharing, Commenting and discussing are lead activities by your

twitter users, and they over index and out perform in every category

Twitter Followers do more in every channel

MeasurementOrganizational learnings•Understanding of resources necessary to manage Twitter Accounts

•Develop initial view of opportunities for Brands moving forward

Qualitative•Understanding of what content consumers engage with

•Established connection with Brand advocates

•Creating a channel to deliver key Brand initiatives

Quantitative• Benchmark number of followers • Increase in activity around Brands with live

tweeting• Recommend benchmark search engine page rank

(work with Mindshare)

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New tools, providers, s

olutions

What We’ve LearnedDrum roll, please...

Thousands of Tweets Later...Many assumptions have held true

• People are already talking about Brands on Twitter

• Successful publishing or participating

•Either way, engagement increases nearly every KPI

We’ve continued to learn

• Employees and departments are talking and eager to learn more

• Brands are sharing information, strategies and legal documents

Twitter has continued to change

• Real-time search is real (Bing, Google and Yahoo!)

• Search effect is conclusive

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Key Findings - Overall

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Brands that Participated significantly outperformed Publishing brands, indicating that engagement amplifies content.• Content is essential to get followers, but can’t do the job alone• With active management, the most valuable content rose quickly to top• With active monitoring, insights and opportunities surfaced • Strategic recruitment resulted in:

• 30x more followers of followers• More influential followers• Significantly greater brand influence

• Participatory brands had a Klout score that was 8x higher than Publishing brands

Brands that Participated had 10x more growth than brands that used the Publishing side of the engagement spectrum

Follower Growth Rate

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Second-generation followers of Participatory brands had a network 30x larger than Publishing brands

Second-Order Followers

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The reach and influence of Participatory brands proved to be dramatically higher than Publishing brands

Velocity & Social Capital by Brand

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Social Capital: A measure of how influential a Twitterer’s followers are.

Velocity: Averages the number of first and second order followers attracted per day since the Twitterer first established his or her account.

On average, Participation brands earned 8x better Kout scores than Publishing brands

Influence and Engagement Ranking

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Klout Score: A measure of online influence., a Brand’s Klout score can range from 0-100. The larger the number, the wider and stronger the sphere of influence. Klout score is a measure of 25 different variables.

Return On Twitter (ROT)

Conclusions• SM takes real commitment, effort, time and collaboration• Ignore the purists in emerging platforms--have approach

meet the objectives vs contorting into some form of compliance

• Both Publishing and Participating work• SMO is the new SEO• Likenomics is a lot more than just followers; it includes:

listening/research; devising a relevant content plan; earning more likes and follows; reciprocity

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Questions & Discussion

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RESOURCESTwitter How To Articles

http://delicious.com/marksilva/twitter+howto

Twitter Case Studies and General Articleshttp://delicious.com/marksilva/twitter

Subscribers, Fans and Followershttp://bit.ly/ETSFF