Social Media V3.0

Social Media
What you’re afraid to
Richard Meyer 
Internet Marketing Consultant 
admit you didn’t know

+
Among the companies that have tried to work
with communities online, many have found
that they conversation is dominated by
extreme enthusiasts rather than average
users, and have concluded that online
community is a distraction from their real
customers.

That turns out to be a very dangerous
mistake.

Rubicon Consulting
October 2008

+

I just got used to
the World Wide
Web and
now you’re
telling me that
this thing is
“evolving” ?

For it was written….
+
That this “thing” called the Internet would
come along and people could sit in front of
their computers , eMail friends, get
information 24/7/365 and shop online.

Then almost overnight…
people realized that they could be connected
to each other…and they realized that they
trusted each other a hell of lot more than
marketers and they began to use sites like
Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and Linked In.

and as they became connected marketers
messages became more irrelevant.

and consumers realized “we have the power”
and it was good

+
But some marketing people were
still ignoring this “new trend”
called social media because they
didn’t understand its power to
influence

+
Then came a “sign”

“[It was] amazing to have that happen over 48
hours, on a weekend in the blogosphere,” she
said. “People are now spreading around the
apology; it’s such an immediate time
frame.”Indeed, seven of the top 10 search
returns today for “Motrin” and “headache” on
Google referred to the marketing debacle.

“We now have indisputable proof that online
marketing, YouTube and Twitter and all that it
encompasses is meaningful and has arrived,”
said Gene Grabowsk, chair of the crisis and
litigation practice at Levick Strategic
Communications.

“We are seeing real consequences to a
mistake. If [social networks] didn’t matter,
you wouldn’t see this type of reaction from
J&J or consumers.”

+ And now marketers are really scared

Because they now know that they really don’t control the message anymore !!!!

© Richard Meyer Internet Marketing Consultant

The relevancy and evolution of the
+
Web continues at a very fast pace

The entire Internet is becoming more social, and social media has
come to represent almost everything on the Web, and new
portable devices like the iPhone are changing the way consumers
interact and connect with each other.

+ And now the Web is having a big
impact on social lives

  Who's #3 in social sites? Most people know that Facebook and MySpace are the leading social networking sites
in the US, but the strong #3 in registrations is Classmates.com, followed distantly by LinkedIn. Those two sites
have many more adult users than teens.

  Twitter and SecondLife serve niches. Although both Twitter and SecondLife have received enormous amounts
of press coverage, and are used intensely by some people, they are dwarfed in membership by the major social
sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and even LinkedIn.

  Social sites are much more satisfying to teens than adults. Although many adults have joined MySpace and
Facebook, those sites are much less effective and satisfying for users over 21. Adults say they make fewer
friends through social sites, and say the sites play a less important role in their social lives but this maybe
changing as social sites enter the growth phase of the their life cycles.

  Adults and teens use their social networks differently. Most adults will approve someone as a friend on a social
site only if they already know them. Many teens will approve someone as a friend as long as they have even a
vague idea of who they are. This means the two groups use the friends list in different ways. To adults, the
friends list confirms relationships that they already have elsewhere. To teens, the friends list is an entry point
for a relationship.

  Despite differences over the social sites, the web as a whole has a significant impact on the social lives of many
users. For example, about 24% of web users say they have dated someone they first met online. In the 22-30
age group, that percentage rises to 37%. Many of those meetings are happening outside of dating websites, as
only 9% of web users said they visit dating websites at least once a month.

+ as the makers of Motrin
found out

  Two days after a new ad push
for Motrin triggered an online
backlash, J&J's McNeil
Consumer Healthcare unit is
pulling the campaign, from the
New York office of
independent shop Taxi, and
begging a vocal mommy-
blogging nation for
forgiveness.


+ The consequences of a mistake
can be costly and immediate with
social media

“We now have indisputable proof that online marketing, YouTube and Twitter and all
that it encompasses is meaningful and has arrived,” said Gene Grabowsk, chair of the
crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategic Communications. “We are seeing real
consequences to a mistake. If [social networks] didn’t matter, you wouldn’t see this
type of reaction from J&J or consumers.”

+ And where are all the marketers
when social media is taking off?


+

Do they know that three
in four US adults now
use Social Media to
connect with each other
compared to just 56% in
2007

+ there is also risk in
But
doing something social if
you don’t understand the
channel.

75% of the Fortune 1000
companies with Websites
have undertaken some
kind of online social
networking initiative to
help meet brand
objectives….but 50% of
those campaigns will be
classified as failures.

+ What’s driving social media & why is
it growing so fast?

  Emotional need/desire to be heard

  Desire to connect with one another

  Need to create and make change

  Evangelize for the things and people we love

  Quest for authenticity

  Ease of Use / Low Barriers to Entry

  Better, Faster, Cheaper

  Power and Leverage

+ And the Influencers are the primary
contributors

  Most web users are consumers of information, not creators.
About 80% of the user- generated content on the web, including
comments and questions, is created by less than 10% of web
users, a group we refer to as the most frequent contributors.

  But despite the low content creation rates, online communities
have enormous influence on almost all web users. Online
comments and reviews posted by the enthusiasts are second
only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for all web users.
Those personal reviews are far more influential than official
reviews posted by a website or magazine, or information posted
online by a manufacturer.

  This means the old idea of quot;influencersquot; is confirmed and
explained. The most frequent contributors are the influencers,
and they have a strong influence on purchase decisions because
they write most of the online recommendations and reviews

+ As social media is still evolving

The social media sites have
deployed the platform but it is
the users who are defining how
this platform is going to be used.

+
When did this start and what
really is social media?

Well, back in 1999 the Cluetrain Manifesto warned
+ business that a revolution was taking place.

Through the Internet, the people in your
markets are discovering and inventing new
ways to converse. They're talking about your
business. They're telling one another the truth,
in very human voices.

There’s a new conversation between and
among your market and your workers. It's
making them smarter and it's enabling them to
discover their human voices. You have two
choices. You can continue to lock yourself
behind facile corporate words and happy talk
brochures. Or you can join the conversation.

+ And social media is really the “art of
great conversation” …online

  Think of social media as “conversations” between groups
of people. The conversation can revolve around any
subject or person.

  As with most social dynamics there tends to be one or two
people who are “influencers” within the group. The
people who follow the group and listen are called “tribes”.

  These conversations take place on technology platforms
such as Twitter, FaceBook, and MySpace.

  With mobile devices and widgets the conversations can
take place anywhere at anytime as we connect 24/7.

+ The art of conversation requires
excellent listening skills

Think of it this way:

  If you were approaching people at a cocktail party or
business dinner you would first listen to the conversation to
determine the tone and content of what was being said.

  Once you learned this you could then enter the conversation
provided you had something relevant to say to the
participants.

  By continually engaging, listening, you could then become
part of the conversation and learn who the influencers really
are.

  You don’t, however, want to interrupt people with traditional
brand messages. This will just turn people off and waste
resources.

+ Remember the old marketing model
is dead

Advertiser

Consumers

You did your research on brand messages, targeted audiences
and pushed messages via mass media in a one sided
conversation

+Changes are happening that are
reshaping marketing
Advertiser

Consumers

People started to have conversations about your brand and
products, after all most companies were not interested in having a
conversation

+ Empowered consumers realize that they
have a say when brands weren’t listening

Today’s consumers have all the power and
they don’t just question, they challenge and
flat out reject the irrelevant, unnecessary,
and insulting.


+ And the need to speak up and
engage others has been fueled by..

+ Just look what people are saying
online…

  “My tax dollars are being used to bailout companies that
made bad business decision? Screw them let them go
bankrupt”.

  “Do we really want to bail out GM, which mocked global
warming and stubbornly cranked out SUV’s? Darwinism
should prevail: adapt or die”

  “I worked hard to get my home and support my family and
now my nest egg is worthless than I paid for it. Damn right
I’m angry, I was taught to work hard and the American dream
would be within reach but now I may have to work well into
my 60’s and won’t be able to enjoy the rewards of my hard
work”

  “I’m sick and tired of these CEO’s getting millions of dollars
to ruin companies. It’s greed pure and simple”.
Frustrated consumers realize that they can vent, and have an impact,
via social media

+
This is bad news for
brands because
consumers are now
going to scrutinize
every product and
brand message.
Transparency is no
longer an option and
you better be ready to
have a conversation and
listen to your customers
not talk at them

+Clearly the marketing environment
has shifted to consumers

Supply
(Marketing)

Demand
(Consumers)

Informational revolutionary forces
Demand has changed.
Most marketing and advertising, has not !


+ as most marketers continue with the
shotgun approach to marketing over
the sustainable

+ they are now learning that one
one is a powerful number


+ and that Micro-Media is still evolving
and changing


+ but for some the corporate social
media decision circle remains
unbroken
Has legal seen
this?

This could change
everything
Legal just got back
to us

Let’s do something Let’s re-think our
“social” strategy

What about ads on
You Tube?

Let’s do something “viral”

+ The risk of not doing
anything maybe greater
than doing something


+ Yes there are a lot of people
using social media

But are your customers and prospects using social media ? Let’s take
a look at the demographics of some key social media sites..

+ And with over 117 million BLOGS
people of all ages are BLOGGING.


+ Forrester has even segmented
bloggers for marketers
Adults  Youths 
•  Publish a blog related to business 
Creators •  Publish online demos/rich media apps 
18%              39%  •  Upload videos, audio, or podcasts 
•  Upload photos, images, or presentations  
•  Author articles, case studies, whitepapers 
Critics •  Post ratings/reviews 
25%       43% 
•  Comment on business blog or group page, or forums 
•  Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki/forum 
•  Give a reference or testimonial 

Collectors 12%              14%  •  Use RSS  feeds and publish favorite lists 
•  Add labels or tags to Web pages, article, etc. 
• Download a widget for my desktop or mobile device  

•  Maintain profile on a social networking site 
Joiners 25%       58%  •  Visit social networking sites 
•  Recommend someone on networking site 
•  Use personal portal/content sites for work  

•  Read business blogs & watch videos posted by firms 
Spectators 48%        66%  •  Listen to podcasts, audio & read online forums 
• Read customer ratings/reviews and attend Webinars & Webcasts 

Inactives •  Don’t acknowledge using  
44%                26%          any social technologies  


+ And there’s a good chance that your
audience is blogging

Younger  Older 
Youth   Youth  Gen Y   Gen X   Boomers   Boomer    Seniors 
(12-17)  (18-21)   (18-26)
   
(27-40) (41-50)
  (51-61)  (62+) 
Creators  34%  37%  38%  24%  12%  8%  5% 
Critic  24%  37%  41%  30%  22%  15%  13% 
Collectors  11%  16%  22%  15%  9%  6%  4% 
Joiners  51%  70%  59%  33%  15%  8%  4% 
Spectators  49%  59%  63%  55%  46%  39%  30% 
Inactives  34%  17%  25%  27%  48%  55%  66% 


+ about their personal experiences
with your brand


+ Even female bloggers, although not
as big as males, carry a lot of
influence
  34% of active bloggers and older (only 9% of
female bloggers are 18-24 vs. 15% for male)

  More likely to be personal bloggers

  Women blog to stay connected and make
connections

  Blogging style is more conversational


+ And a majority of bloggers don’t blog
for money

They do it for personal
satisfaction and to have
their say.


+ No matter the age, people
are using social media…


But should you care
+
about social media?

You Tube= 10% of all Internet traffic

You Tube & Wikipedia among top brands

Five of top Websites are social media sites

Over 100 million blogs online

120,000 BLOGS launched every day

1.5 million posts per day (17 per second)


+ Well just look what Apple has done
in a “down economy”

  Apple has brought the Internet to the next level. The
level that everyone expected during the tech bubble
has arrived. The efficiency of distribution is
impossible for the traditional model to compete with.

  Consumers are eating this thing up. During a quarter
in which consumers supposedly quit spending, Apple
grew real revenue by 54.5% and grew net income by a
staggering 81.2%. That kind of growth is absurd for a
company as mature as Apple. That kind of growth is
absurd during an economic collapse. But it
happened. And it's just beginning,quot;

  The competition is too late to the party. The snowball
has begun. There will come a time when Apple stock
will no longer be bogged down by its sector. I don't
know exactly when that day is but it's coming.


Social media is also empowering
+
patients and challenging the medical
community


+ So what’s a brand to do?

Marketers have to act as aggregators for the brand and get people to
connect via the brand.


+ First, understand the evolution of
marketing touch points

Touch

See

Hear

Radio Print TV Web


And the six drivers of brand
+
credibility

+But that is only the beginning. Brands have to learn to listen to people
who are engaged in conversation before they even think about joining the
conversation

It’s not about pushing irrelevant information it’s about engaging in a
conversation that is

-Vibrant

-Relevant

-Fun
Social media is a
-Compelling conversation so
before you jump
in make sure you
-Valued listen…

+ And when engaging in
conversation tactical
transparency is not an
option anymore

  Tactical transparency means the use of social media tools to let
brands talk authentically about their products and services to their
community.

  It's a behavior as well as a philosophy.
  You do not have to have full disclosure around your brand or organization to have
authenticity or breed trust, but you do have to show your audience that you are
listening and that you are in the places online, at Facebook, MySpace, et cetera,
where they already spend their time. It's a fact: your brand is being discussed off
of your main portal. If you do not have a voice in those places where your
audience already is, people will wonder why you are silent and they also will
wonder what you may be hiding.


+ Lot of elements to keep brands in
consumers good graces
loyalty

trust

authenticity

credibility
transparency
positive
interactions

negative
interactions
inconsistency

distrust
disloyalty

corruption

inauthenticity

+ The new marketing spiral is now
social by definition


+ This means it time to rethink your
marketing and remember
remember the power of one !

Don’t think of them as customers think of them as people and then talk with
them

Use unconventional marketing as a
+
social media communication channel

Conventional Marketing= Big ideas, lots of research, big launch, big budgets 

Unconventional Marketing=micro strategies for all groups, quick adjustments as needed, rapid implementation 


+

Working
with social
media,
some
guidelines

+ acknowledge that…
First

“Online Markets...
Networked markets are beginning to self-
organize faster than the companies that
have traditionally served them. Thanks to
the web, markets are becoming better
informed, smarter, and more demanding
of qualities missing from most business
organizations.”

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual: Rick Levine,
Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger; Perseus Books ©2000

+ Including 95 Theses of the
Cluetrain Manifesto
1. Markets are conversations.
2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the
era of mass media.
9. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and
knowledge exchange to emerge.
10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a
networked market changes people fundamentally.
25. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they
hope to create relationships.
34. To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.
75. If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.
94. To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound
confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are.
95. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.
We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

+ Some social network
marketing guidelines
In order to be effective all social media marketing programs should:

  Meet business objectives: First and foremost, any marketing campaign or activity should match with a
business objective, regardless of the tools being used.

  Supports Community Goals: Every community is different, and each has unique goals (from supporting
products, to each other, or to just be entertained) the campaign focus should therefore meet the needs of
the community, before the needs of the marketer. Effective campaigns will first understand the core drivers,
interests, and rituals of the community and learn how to meet those desires.

  Encourage Member Interaction: The most successful social networking campaigns and efforts involve the
audience.

  Quickly scale: Social networks are designed for information to quickly move from member to member, so
campaigns that lean on these capabilities perform the best. These attributes known as Velocity, Viralness,
and Spread are key.

  Utilize Media: In some campaigns, the best way to get members to return is to offer them media. Depending
on demographics and community needs, this could be audio, videos, or demos

  Foster self-expression or communication: Members in social networks like to communicate with each other,
or self-express. As a result, campaigns should satisfy these needs with the appropriate tools

  Offer a satisfying User Experience: This encompasses the overall experience of the campaign, the content
and navigation items should be where expected, the language familiar to the audience, and overall look and
feel of the site appeasing.

+ Some social network
marketing guidelines(cont)

  Provide longer term utility: Successful campaigns have a longer term value, rather than a short term
‘disposable campaign”. These campaigns add value by being a useful application to the members, rather than
just quick dose of entertainment

  Enhance Value as Community participants: As more people contribute or interact with the campaign, the value
is increased. This can be in the form of content that is created by the community, contests, voting, or games.

  Integration with other marketing activities: Successful marketing campaigns aren’t single channel, in fact they
utilize multiple channels and mediums to enhance the overall activity. The same thing applies to marketing
campaigns on social networks, those that are promoted from other locations such as (corporate websites,
email newsletter, blogs, podcasts) outside for the social network have a great chance for success.

  Maintain agility during the campaign: Social networks are living, breathing organisms made up of real people
connecting with each other. Marketing campaigns also should share these attributes and show be flexible to
change in-flight, yield to legitimate requests or complaints of the community. Those campaigns that reflect the
same dynamic behavior as human interaction have a higher chance to be interacted –and accepted –by the
community. (Submitted by Graham) Twitter Profile Friendfeed Profile Facebook Profile Upcoming.org Events
Follow me on Twitter TOPIC CATEGORIES Analyst Asia Blogger Dinner Career Case Study Challenges Citizen
Journalism Collaboration Community Manager Community Marketing Conference Content Management
System Curated Social Content Data Portability Data Storage Digest


+ Justifying marketing dollars for social
media engagement can be done

  Determine what to measure The first step is determining what to measure. Start by considering
why social media is being used in a particular campaign, and then look for ways to measure the
results. It is important to set the campaign up for success. Don't track data that is hard to
gather, but do set your sights on the low-hanging fruit that will yield meaningful results.

  Take advantage of existing tools Social networking sites recognize that they live or die by their
user base, and they understand that advertisers on these sites want specific insights into who
they are talking to and how the message is being received. By using Facebook's sophisticated
tool kit, it is possible to track specifically who is engaging, and what they are doing there.

  Track how social networking impacts other channels Tracking the number of daily users is a no-
brainer, but mapping in-network interaction to external behaviors becomes much harder. There
are, however, a few ways to skin the cat, given creativity and tenacity. If a brand creates its own
social network, using a pre-existing platform such as Ning, in conjunction with metrics tools, it's
possible to track entry and exit points on the site. If a clear destination has been identified as a
project goal, it's possible to drive the user there and track the volume. If a social networking
campaign launches, look outside the web to see if there is a correlation between sales and the
viral growth on the networks.

+ Use examples of how brand are
using social media

+ But those that do usually use some
guidelines for like these for
Microblogging
  (Careful) Product Pushing As a company, you should avoid being blatantly self-
promotional on Twitter. Because people are choosing to subscribe to your site you
can assume they'll expect (and want) some discussion and updates about your
products. But the key is to have some voice or commentary in your tweets to go
along side product information.

  Community Outreach One way companies can be successful is by thinking about
the communities that they serve, both online and offline.

  How-To and Service Questions Some companies such as Comcast
(@comcastcares) have begun assigning an employee to take customer questions
over Twitter. This level of communication allows for a level of intimacy absent from
corporate websites that offer FAQ sections of their site.

  Humanizing the Head Honcho CEOs (with some exceptions) have generally been
lousy bloggers because they aren't good at it or they don't have time. Now, with
microblogging tools like Twitter that integrate with their mobile phones, there is a
better opportunity for them to communicate with employees and customers.

Even with the buzz around social
+
media some marketing people still
don’t get it
  Facebook, MySpace Aren't Making the Marketing Cut. Blogs And Mainstream Media Intersect
More than one-quarter (27%) of consumer and B-to-B chief marketing executives surveyed online
in late October by GfK Roper Public Relations and Media for marketing services firm Epsilon
identified social networking and word-of-mouth as the tools they would most like to introduce to
their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts--ahead of all other traditional or
digital marketing channels.

  However, more than half (55%) of the 180 responding chief marketers--representing brands with
revenues ranging from $250 million to more than $10 billion--indicated low current interest in
actually incorporating the networking sites into their plans.

  One-third said they're quot;not interested at allquot; in getting Facebook and MySpace into their plans,
and 22% said they're quot;not too interested,quot; while 35% are very or somewhat interested.

  Other, more quot;traditionalquot; social media scored far higher on the very/somewhat interested in
integrating question. More than half (52%) ranked both Internet forums and Webinars in this
category, followed by Webcasts and podcasts (47%), email (also 47%) and blogs (37%).»
November 2008 » October 2008 » September 2008 » August 2008

  Why the lack of use of these networks? These sites quot;narrowly appeal to college and high school
students,quot; pose results-measurement challenges and yield a limited amount of actionable data,
sums up Epsilon CMO Steve Cone. To put it more bluntly, quot;marketers don't care about teenagers
sharing photographs with one another,quot; Cone tells Marketing Daily. And while companies can
post their own products or marketing-oriented profiles on these sites, site users quot;are likely to
turn offquot; if they see too much marketing on these kinds of channels, which they consider vehicles
for personal communications, he adds.

+
Remember the 4C’s of Social Media

+ Measuring social media
strategies

  Brand equity study (test vs. control groups)

  Brand tracking study

  Intent to purchase (test vs. control groups)

  Number of mentions in social media by a service like Nielsen
Buzz Metrics

  Google analytics, Feedburner, Hit tail, Technorati

  Blog comments

  Customer service feedback

  Sales chart with spikes attributed to specific programs

+ Finally…..

  Social Media is hot but it is only one element in your marketing plan.
Don’t expect social media to solve all you marketing problems overnight.

  If you don’t have the people to successfully deploy and monitor social
media initiatives then don’t do it. You have to think how management
would react to a program failure because you didn’t have adequate
support levels.

  Move from shouting to listening: learn about the art of the conversation

  Social media requires a new level of transparency that must be
communicated from the most senior executives down the chain.

  Learn who your influencers are and feed them information with insights
but also learn who are those who are determined to “sink” social media
marketing and do everything you can to win them over with good
measurable examples.

+ Sources

  Forrester Research

  eMarketer

  Clutrain Manifesto

  Facebook, Twitter and My Space

  Logic and Emotion BLOG (David Armano) http://www.darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/

  Web Strategy by Jeremiah (BLOG) http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/

  http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2396

  http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.html

+ Contact

  Richard Meyer

  For an updated resume or consulting please eMail me at
richardameyer@me.com

  http://www.worldofdtcmarketing.com

Social Media V3.0

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