chapter 1 hausman book
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This is the first chapter of Social Media Marketing: The Art and Science of Building a Brand. I'd love your feedback as I edit the rest of the book.TRANSCRIPT
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I. What is Social Media Marketing
and Why YOU Need It?
What is Social Media Marketing?
Simply put, social media marketing is an effort to support your brand
using one or more social networking platforms.
“Social media marketing consists of the firm’s efforts to
create content on various social networking platforms.
The goal is to encourage users to engage the firm on
these platforms and share its messages throughout the
users’ own social network.”
Social media experts often include paid advertising on social networks
(such as Facebook sponsored stories), banner advertising on other
websites (including AdWords), and sites, and Affiliate Marketing as part
of social media marketing. However, these tools fit equally well with
notions of traditional marketing and media. In this book, for the most
part, we’ll discuss UNPAID social media marketing – something
Wharton (School of Business) calls “earned advertising”. In Chapter 11,
we’ll discuss paid advertising on social networks briefly. Much of what
we present in terms of concepts and strategies that optimize your
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“earned advertising” also work effectively with these paid advertising
tactics.
Social networks provide marketing tools to build one-‐on-‐one
relationships with customers and create a community of loyal
customers who continue buying your brand and draw in future
customers. Social networks also motivate people to share their great
experiences with your products and people and become advocates for
your brand.
Social media marketing gives giant multi-‐nationals all the advantages of
the little pushcart guy who truly knows his customers and shoots the
breeze with passers by. It turns any business into “Cheers” where
“everyone knows your name”.
Social media marketing is much more than just Facebook, although, with
nearly 1 billion users, Facebook is the largest social platform. Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn are considered the top 3 social platforms (at least
at the time this book was written). But, new social networks arrive on
the digital landscape every week – including Google+ and Pinterest,
which gained followers more quickly than comparable platforms. Other
common platforms include: YouTube (for video-‐sharing), Instagram
(photo-‐sharing), Foursquare (a location-‐based social platform), Reddit
(a social bookmarking platform), and many more. In fact, there are
probably hundreds, maybe even thousands, of social platforms. Some
are specialized for specific types of content, like YouTube is for video,
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others are specialized to a specific demographic, such as Mixi for
Japanese.
More than 300 million people spend at least one hour a day on
Facebook, approximately 200 million people are active on Twitter, and
100 million use LinkedIn1. The most active social media users are 18-‐ to
34-‐year-‐olds (82%) and women (78%, vs. 66% of men), according to a
survey by Netpop Research2. However, according to CBS, 80% of baby
boomers are online; mostly on Facebook3. Socially savvy consumers
likely employ multiple social networks, so these numbers do not reflect
unique users, but the numbers are still staggering2. By 2014, 65.8
percent of Internet users are likely to become regular social network
users4.
But, don’t forget blogging (a blog is short for weblog). Blogs are one of
the earliest forms of social networks, dating from 19945. Originally
consisting of online diaries with limited appeal, except for those run by
journalists, today’s blogs are powerful tools for branding, creating
engagement, and generating revenue through online advertising. We’ll
see later why nearly 90% of firms plan to increase their usage of blogs
in the future6.
Blogging software makes it incredibly easy for folks with limited
technical ability and NO programming knowledge to create
attractive and effective websites. Content management systems
such as WordPress (my personal favorite), Drupal, and Joomla
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allow users, with a little effort and practice, to create professional-
looking websites.
But, more than these tools and tactics, social media marketing is a
paradigm shift from traditional marketing. Engagement is the
mantra of this new paradigm and gifting is its currency. Let’s take a
look at how new media differs from traditional media:
New Media Traditional Media
Two-‐way conversation
Open system
Transparent
One-‐on-‐one marketing
About you
Brand and User-‐generated Content
Authentic content
FREE platform
Metric: Engagement
Actors: Users/ Influencers
Community decision-‐making
Unstructured communication
Real time creation
Bottom-‐up strategy
Informal language
Active involvement
One-‐way conversation
Closed system
Opaque
Mass marketing
About ME
Professional content
Polished content
Paid platform
Metric: Reach/ frequency
Actors/ Celebrities
Economic decision-‐making
Controlled communication
Pre-‐produced/ scheduled
Top-‐down strategy
Formal language
Passive involvement
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Why Social Media Marketing?
Not every firm chooses social media as a means to market their brands.
For instance, Apple Computers doesn’t own any social media territory.
OK, so there’s a little Facebook FanPage, but Apple, Inc almost NEVER
posts anything or responds to posts there – it’s not even clear if this is
really owned by Apple. You certainly don’t see any social media icons
listed on Apple’s website. No obligatory: “follow us” on Twitter or
Facebook in their advertising or packaging. Some may find this
shocking considering Apple’s reputation as a technology innovator and
the darling of the social media generation. I mean, Apple created an
early version of social sharing with iTunes.
But, knowing Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-‐founder, it’s not surprising he liked
to control the conversation about his brand7. Apple encourages
consumers to interact – with the forums on their website, not in the
free-‐for-‐all of social networks. Through its forums, Apple CONTROLS
the conversation and conscientious moderators remove posts that
conflict with Apple’s view of their brand.
Other firms, big and small, find it harder to avoid social media –
including iconic brands like Coke and Starbucks. Ford recently
reintroduced its Mustang using a social app allowing users to customize
their own version of a Mustang. And this tactic was a resounding
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success. Facebook “Likes” nearly doubled on the Mustang FanPage in
just a few months8.
As you can see from the Ford example, firms see social media marketing
as a valuable tool for marketing their brands. For instance, Social Media
Examiner found 83% of the nearly 4000 marketers surveyed believe
social media marketing is important for their business9. Many
marketers plan to increase their use of and budget for social media
marketing. In a recent report from Awareness, marketing managers
report use of several social media platforms including 87% using
Facebook, 86% using Twitter, and 76% using LinkedIn6. Moreover,
experienced social media managers plan to increase their use of various
forms of social media beyond these 3 major platforms – 91% plan to
increase use of blogs6.
In addition to vast numbers, social networks appeal to firms because
they embed commercial actions within a community10. Thus, social
media reaches organizational goals by employing “creative and
communications marketing aspects to enliven ideas, unite communities,
and amplify stories”11. Blending commercial and non-‐commercial
expression reflects the reality that purchase behavior “is part of a social
process.... it involves not only a one-‐to-‐one interaction between the
company and the customer, but also many exchanges of information and
influence among the people who surround the customer."12. Large
numbers of consumers use social networks as a major source of this
information and influence.
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Additional factors argue for corporate use of social media. One study
finds, for instance, consumers are more satisfied with retailers’
Facebook pages than they are with the retailer’s websites13. Declines in
the effectiveness of alternative communicative channels, such as
television, also make social media an attractive option14. Disruptive,
self-‐centered conversations marketers commonly employ in traditional
media are not effective in social media and marketers must find new
ways to embed messages into naturally-‐occurring conversations15.
Rather than broadcasting marketing messages to an increasingly
indifferent, even resentful, audience jaded by the 2,000-‐plus messages
the average American reportedly see every day, marketers should
participate in, organize, and encourage social networks to which people
want to belong. Rather than talking at customers, marketers should talk
with them16.
The top 3 benefits marketers find from using social media marketing
are: 1) building brand awareness; 2) driving traffic to their websites and
physical stores, and 3) improved customer insights6. Although we’ll talk
about each of these elements in more depth later in the book, let’s take a
look at each benefit briefly now.
Building Brand Awareness You know the old saying: “Build a better mousetrap and the world will
beat a path to your door” – well that only works if people 1) know about
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your mousetrap and 2) believe it’s better. Otherwise, the path to your
door will be pretty overgrown.
Traditional media actually does a pretty good job of building brand
awareness because it reaches millions of people with memorable
messages and catchy jingles. But, social media marketing builds a
DEEPER awareness of your brand. Now, instead of just remembering
your brand name and, maybe, a few factoids about your brand, social
media marketing encourages consumers to develop a more connected
set of attitudes related to your brand. Instead of just hoping they’ll get
warm fuzziest about your brand because they like the celebrity
endorsing your brand, social media uses your friends to endorse the
brand. Now, you not only know about the brand, but you know what
your social network thinks about it, which increases the likelihood you’ll
buy the brand. You begin to see the brand as another friend and, when
you like the brand, it even shows up in your newsfeed just like other
friends. With social media marketing you not only develop an attitude
toward the brand, you develop “feelings” for the brand.
Driving Traffic
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Alright, I don’t want to get into too much of this now (you’ll get a lot
more of this in Chapter 9), but social media marketing drives a lot of
traffic to your website and to your brick and mortar store. Increased
traffic comes through 2 related channels – SEO and Customer Insights.
SEO
OK, pretend you’re an average user looking for information online.
First, you type your search term (keyword) into the Google Search
Engine (or Bing or Yahoo, etc). Google returns links to websites that
match your search – or SERPs, which is an acronym for Search Engine
Results Page. If you’re the average user, you’ll start exploring links near
the top of the SERPs and you’re unlikely to go beyond the first page or
so in the results.
If you’re a firm, you want to be near the top of the search results
because you know you’ll get more traffic that way. According to Optify,
you’ll get over 35% of the search traffic when you’re in the first position
in the SERPs, but only about 12% of the traffic for a 2nd place finish. By
position 10, you’ll only get about 2% of the traffic visiting your site17.
Google (and Bing and Yahoo) use a complex algorithm (that changes
frequently) to determine where your site shows up in the SERPs. And,
social media marketing helps your site rank higher in 2 ways. First, the
more social media interest you generate the higher you’ll rank. Second,
the more you and your friends engage with the brand, the more higher
Google will rank the site in YOUR results – see an interesting thing is
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that not everyone will see the same SERPs. SERPs are individualized to
ensure YOU get the most relevant links possible, so they’re customized
to what Google knows about your online activity.
Improving Customer Insights Academic readers and those already engaged in market research
probably already recognize the value of all the data consumers share
about themselves on social platforms. But, the average social media
marketer probably hasn’t explored this data deeply.
Using sophisticated ethnographic tools and software such as nVivo,
SPSS Text Analysis Software, and HyperRESEARCH, firms can
understand not only consumer sentiment about the brand, but elements
of lifestyle, unmet needs, and other critical information that allows the
firm to develop new offerings, maximize the consumer benefit of
existing offerings, position brands, and drive consumer demand for
their brands.
Although developing consumer insights is a major benefit of social
media marketing, details go well beyond the scope of this book. I’ll list
some resources to learn more about developing customer insights after
the references to this chapter.
Other Major Benefits of Social Media Marketing
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Here are a few more reasons why your firm should consider social
media marketing:
1. COST
Social media marketing is much more cost effective than
traditional advertising. In fact, many so-called social media gurus
contend social media levels the playing field for small businesses
because it’s free. Well, that’s not exactly true, but it’s sure cheaper
than a Super Bowl ad – at over $3 million for a 30 second spot.
To see the cost effectiveness of social media advertising, let’s look at a
little example of how social media spreads a message compared with
traditional media.
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This diagram demonstrates the potential reach of social media
marketing, which is vast. This example assumes 2 million people see
your message across your various social media touchpoints – YouTube,
Facebook, etc. Now, 2 million eyeballs may seem like a lot, but when
you think about firms like Starbucks that have 16 MILLION fans on
Facebook alone, you can see it’s really not that difficult to reach 2
million users when using multiple social networks.
Each of those 2 million users has, on average, 245 friends according to
the Washington Post. If only 10% of the people who saw your message
share it with their network – you’d reach 49 million people. And, if that
49 million shared the same way, you’d reach 1.2 billion people. And, the
transmission cost – the amount of money you pay to get this reach – is
$0.
Now, compare that with traditional media. Even the Super Bowl, the
most watched program 2 years running, only reached 111 million
viewers in 2011, according to the Huffington Post. And the cost of a
single ad airing on the Super Bowl was over $3 million for 30 seconds,
which doesn’t include the production costs for the commercial, which
can be another million or more.
While spreading your message across social platforms may be free and
creating a presence on these social platforms is very inexpensive, doing
“good” social media requires other resources. You have to create
content, share that content effectively, and encourage linked consumers
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to share your content. And, whatever you do in social media has to be
done consistently and regularly, or you risk turning the medium against
you. So, you’ll have to either dedicate some time for an employee to
handle your social media or add it to the already-‐long list of things you
have to do.
How much time will it take to do “good” social media. Well large
companies may have several full-‐time employees who do nothing but
manage their social media platforms. Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic
employs a social relations team combining expertise in marketing,
advertising, public relations, and customer service to manage his social
media marketing efforts1.
The amount firms invest in social media marketing varies widely. Most
small businesses spend more than 6 hours a week managing their social
media and this number increases as the firms GAIN experience9.
2. TRACKABLE
Social media is trackable. While it’s still difficult to directly link social
media output to revenue, social media marketing efforts generate a
number of useful metrics. Set things up right and you can tell exactly
which types of content work best with your target audience and
calculate ROI pretty accurately.
You can also track:
How people reach your website and what they do on your site
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Where people go after they leave your site
What time of day generates the most click-‐through and/or sharing
Which social platform performs better
How social media engagement indirectly translates into ROI for
your firm.
Armed with this knowledge, a marketing strategist can more easily
optimize their strategy to get the greatest return. You can also do A/B
testing to determine which offers work best, which copy appeals to your
linked users, and even test different graphics or layout performs best.
We’ll discuss and demonstrate analytics in more depth in Chapter 6.
3. LOYALTY
Folks confuse loyalty with repeat purchases. Consumers might buy
your stuff over again, but not be truly loyal. Loyal consumers not only
buy your stuff, but resist efforts by competitors to lure them away. So,
when your competitor offers a coupon for purchase, other consumers
might switch, but loyal consumers stay true to THEIR brand.
Loyal consumers also like to bask in the light of their brand — sharing
their love of your brand with their friends. Sharing by friends is a major
motivator driving purchases.
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Organization of the Remainder of the Book Armed with your expanded knowledge of social media marketing, the
next chapter will refresh and deepen your knowledge of traditional
marketing concepts, demonstrating how these concepts impact the
success of your social media marketing efforts. Chapter 3 delves more
into consumer behavior that underpins online behavior and helps you
understand how users make buying decisions on social networks.
The next 7 chapters expand on the most popular post from Hausman
Marketing Letter – the top 7 skills you’ll need to make your social media
marketing successful. Chapter 4 discusses how to organize for social
media marketing success listing tools and strategies necessary. Chapter
5 shows why social media marketing takes time. The chapter includes
pert charts demonstrating the pathways to success, a checklist of daily
and weekly activities necessary, and sources of help in getting these
tasks done. Chapter 6 discusses metrics and how to use them to guide
decision-‐making. Online sentiment is the topic of Chapter 7, including
the topics of listening and coding sentiment, maintaining your online
reputation, and crisis management. Chapter 8 covers the important
aspects of creating valuable content. Finally, Chapter 9 discusses how
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sharing works across some of the major social networks and how to
make sure your message shows up.
Chapter 10 tries to bring everything together – showing how to
integrate your social media marketing across platforms and how to
integrate online marketing with mobile and offline marketing. Finally,
Chapter 11 discusses some paid advertising options and how to use
them to support your earned advertising strategy. Chapters 10 and 11
also include case studies of successful social media strategies and how
your business can duplicate these strategies. Sometimes, I’m challenged
at a speaking event or client pitch by notions that social media
marketing only works for certain types of firms or in certain areas.
That’s not true and I hope to show you this in my case studies.
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