building buzz without a budget
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Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #1 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
Followers, Friends and Fans:Expanding Your Online CommunityA Case Study in Building Buzz…
…Without a Budget
Jonathon D. ColmanAssociate Director, Digital MarketingThe Nature Conservancy: www.nature.orgjcolman@tnc.org206/343.4345 x368
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #2 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
Case Study: Digg [Buzz-Building]
Breaking news, video, and amazing content from all over the world —
users find, post, and vote on the best of the web’s newest content.
• 169th most popular site on the Web [ALEXA]
• Over 22 million unique visitors/month [COMPETE]
• 2.7+ million registered users [ESTIMATED AS OF JAN 2008; JOHN GRAHAM-CUNNING]
• Largest age demographic: 18-34 years old (40% of total) [QUANTCAST]
• Referred 234K visitors to nature.org for FY2008
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #3 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
With a large, well-connected audience, Digg’s “democratic” algorithm promotes diverse stories, niche news to its homepage
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #4 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
The Nature Conservancy’s first entry into the “Green Living” genre: science-based tips from TNC staff and green bloggers
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #5 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
“Green Living” ads are now mainstream on search engines,not just a niche market, which means a lot of competition = $$$
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #6 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
flickr: ricko
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #7 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
• Digg and social news can help you get the word out fast
• Among the most popular sites on the web
• Diverse audiences, not just kids in college
• Free for you to use
• Great at driving traffic as well as commentary
No Time? No Money? No Problem!
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #8 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
Our post on Digg earned enough votes to become “popular” and get elevated to the homepage where all Digg users could see it
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #9 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
“Typical” web feature on nature.org
200 visitors/day
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #10 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org
20,000visitors/day
“Typical” web feature on nature.org
200 visitors/day
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #11 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org
20,000visitors/day
“Typical” web feature on nature.org
200 visitors/day
Everyday Environmentalist
Digg traffic
18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #12 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org
20,000visitors/day
“Typical” web feature on nature.org
200 visitors/day
Everyday Environmentalist
Digg traffic
18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second
76,000+ visitors in one day
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #13 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
• Yes: High bounce rate and relatively few actions taken on our site
• And: Motivated much engagement on Digg: 2,200+ total “diggs”
and over 600 total comments
• Created “spillover” success in other social networks
• Drove many unsolicited links from other web sites and blogs (50+)
• Inspired links from elite sites (1,000+ authority in Technorati),
inc. The Huffington Post, Cisco.com, Mental Floss, and LockerGnome
• Increased organic search engine findability, positioning
But Isn’t This Just “Empty” Traffic?
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #14 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post
• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg
“shouts” to friends, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, etc.)
So: How Much Work/Time Did This Take?
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #15 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post
• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg
“shouts” to friends, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, etc.)
• Plus 1.5 years to build up a credible, authoritative Digg profile
• Becoming a good member of the community, learning best practices
• Building reliable contacts, voting for their stories
• Creating network of links to/distribution for our posts
• Posting content other than nature.org stories (i.e., not spamming)
So: How Much Work/Time Did This Take?
Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy
October 21, 2008
Slide #16 of 16
eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget
Conclusions on the Value of Social News
• Social news is not always the right tool for all marketing scenarios
• Complements a strategy leveraging traditional online tactics
• Success generates short-term (and huge) bursts of web traffic
• Engagement on social news sites will be high, but will be low on your site (as measured in length of session, conversions, etc.)
• Becoming popular can drive coverage on elite blogs, web sites driving many new links, audiences to your web site
• Can take time to build up credibility and authority in the network
• Offers short- and long-term benefits for search engine positioning
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