beyond the buzz: how to leverage the social web

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Beyond the Buzz How to leverage the social web

By: Lisa Torjman, Associate, MaRS Discovery District January 27, 2010

AN INTRODUCTION – Why we’re here today

1.  Help run the Social Innovation Generation at MaRS program, which includes a social entrepreneurship program

2.  Creator of Net Change Week

3.  Work background in social marketing

4.  Academic background in cultural theory & semiotics

5.  Today’s focus: The Social Web…Caveat: I am not a “social media maverick”

Hi, my name is Lisa

There is no silver bullet

BUT [strategy + tools + tactics] many new ways to create impact

Nice to meet you, ENT101 audience

1.  Coming from a multitude of disciplinary and work backgrounds

2.  Variety of entrepreneurial activity – a company, an organization, a campaign or event

3.  Came together today around a common interest

4.  We all have a different working knowledge of the “social web”

SETTING THE SCENE – the current communications paradigm

INDUSTRIAL/BROADCAST

“we tell you”

Demand for better systems & shift in expectations

INTERACTIVE

“Tell us what you think of what we tell you”

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/1500595259_23539c2b60.jpg

A new paradigm emerges when the current systems are rendered insufficient for the level at which we’re

operating

http://blogs.knowledgegenes.com/

www.information_overload_as_driver/ofchange

SOCIAL

“Talk amongst yourselves”

Overwhelmed?

This is not a strategy

The social web: how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web

How has the social web changed information? Consider the following…

http://sidawson.org/images/2008/08/ponder.jpg

www.lifeboat.com

INTUITIVE Distributed, self-organized systems instead of one centralized channel gives us more meaningful information.

DEMOCRATIZED A world in bits has

changed how information is

controlled

VALUABLE We’ve created the “link economy.” Making things linkable has changed the face of media, the way information can be searched and how we value it – Mathew Ingram, tech & business journalist

http://www.usabuckles.com/

OPEN transparent,

authentic, shared, remixed,

collaborative co-created

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3155/2578932310_b2c39281df.jpg

http://artblart.files.wordpress.com

VIRAL Copying and spreading information has never been easier or faster

MEASUREABLE Metrics & analytics give new level of detail in real time

www.benjaminpeters.com/

OPPORTUNITY With the web as our

window, we can now bear witness to change as it happens and to a detail

like never before

CASE STUDIES – leveraging the power of the social web

“Because the world needs to know”

•  350 Campaign: Open-source, people-powered •  350 parts per million is the safe level of C02 in our

atmosphere. Any higher, the Earth is overheating •  350 is a # that transcends race, religion,

nationality •  350 is the kernel and it is the whole story •  Based on a precedent Step It Up 2007 •  350 is “The most widespread day of political

action in the planet’s history” – CNN

The World Responded

Hope. Action. Change.

•  Obama Campaign: Make it personal to more people •  MyBO is the online mechanism that personalized the Obama

campaign •  MyBO delivered information based on the hyper-

segmentation of the audience, making data relevant by making it hyper local

•  MyBO made it easy for online users to take offline action •  MyBO gave incentives: it charted your $ raised where

everyone could see. Heaviest users got more rewards (like SMS texts before news broke to mainstream media)

•  Obama’s campaign raised: $745M (33% offline, 67% online) compared to McCain’s ~$360M

“Get Local! Create your MyBO Account”

This is Amy, she’ll give you a tour

Hi Nicole, Hello James

The Apple consumer as environmental activist

•  An open source campaign that mimicked the Apple brand, not Greenpeace brand

•  Mobilized the Apple consumers to pressure Steve Jobs •  Apple consumers became ambassadors of the greener

apple message •  Green My Apple online hub: a platform for consumers to

create and remix their own Green My Apple ads •  Viral campaign: Using large scale platforms to publish

their artifacts, everything is cross-posted to heavy-traffic sites like Flickr and YouTube

•  Within 9 months of the campaign launch, Steve Jobs announces Apple to create greener product

Brand Remix

To Steve, from Brian

Ultimate consumer-centered approach

•  Adopted a new strategy in reaction to the company’s inability to deal with customer feedback

•  Dell can gauge which ideas are most relevant to customers

•  Co-creation with customers •  Variety of ways to engage with the company &

products: Ideas, Blogs, Videos, Discussions •  From closed corporation to accessible company •  Understood how to leverage their following to their best

advantage

If we’re not on Twitter, there won’t be talk about us on Twitter

“Dell sucks”

How can we best service the community?

How can we best leverage the community?

Another case using

NEW CASE STUDY - how STAN can do it

User designed experiences

•  Starbucks first social media website is a way for the company to get consumers to design their best coffee-going experience

•  Co-create the future of the company with customers •  Cheap & strategic: a way for Starbucks to get more

feedback, achieve a higher degree of openness and get some great new ideas

•  Variety of ways to engage with the company & products: Share, vote, discuss, see

•  75,000 ideas submitted in less than 6mos, thousands of votes, hundreds of comments

NEW CASE STUDY - how YOU can do it

OK, SO YOU’RE NOT RUNNING FOR OFFICE OR CREATING THE NEXT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGN…

Important take-aways

•  It’s about people – trust & relationships •  Understand “people-powered” and WHY you want

to leverage the social web •  Brand integrity: Authentic, consistent, easy? •  Experiment! Low/No barrier to entry, low/no cost •  Old tricks work too! Storytelling, incentives &

competition •  Know how to measure what you put out there (the

afterglow…)

And remember… •  There is no silver bullet, so “If you build it,

they will come” does not apply here.

Where to start?

Read, Follow, Attend, Inspire! •  Groundswell, Here Comes Everybody, What Would Google Do?

Wikinomics, Facebook Cookbook •  Follow Idea Leaders: Clay Shirky, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Goldman, Don

Tapscott, Beth Kanter •  Free resources: NetSquared toolkit, Slideshare

•  Attend web-enabled events: MaRS’ Net Change (June 7-11, 2010), Changecamp, Ho-hoTO, Tweet-ups

•  Inspiration download: Pass around great links regularly, like TED.com

Come to Net Change! June 7-11, 2010

+ + NETCHANGEWEEK.ca HUB + 30 COLLABORATORS + ONLINE COMMUNITY + 2,000 PARTICIPANTS

EQUALS

Thanks & be in touch! Lisa Torjman ltorjman@marsdd.com @lisatorjman

Shout-outs! Jon Warnow, StepItUp, 350 Rahaf Harfoush, Yes We Did Beka Economopoulos, Fission Strategy Jay Goldman, Rypple