SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT2014ORLANDOOCTOBER 27–29, 2014

How to lead a social mediaengagement strategy

RYAN DICKERSONCOX MEDIA GROUP

Social Media Engagement

@RyanGDickerson

What does it even mean?

@RyanGDickerson

Defining engagement Engagement looks different for every brand, and defining

it for your brand is key.

What’s your brand voice?

Why are you engaging with people?

What’s unique about your brand?

Why would I want a relationship with you?

@RyanGDickerson

The good news You likely had a brand voice, brand promise, and

differentiators well before this guys was in diapers.

@RyanGDickerson

The challenges Engagement is hard to scale… despite technology

advancements

Engagement costs $$$

Platform proliferation requires creativity & focus

The noise is deafening, and organic reach is declining for many brands

@RyanGDickerson

The rewards

From Conversations To Conversion

Customer Analytics

Improved SEO

Addressing The Haters

Product Feedback

Casual Customers To Raving Fans

Product Promotion

Brand Awareness

Rules of engagement

@RyanGDickerson

Rule #1

Listen First – just like your mom told you

@RyanGDickerson

Rule #2

Be Present – no posting and running

@RyanGDickerson

Rule #3

Have Purpose – conversations should be intentional

@RyanGDickerson

Rule #4

Be Authentic – deliver on that brand promise

@RyanGDickerson

Rule #5

Stay Unique – don’t boilerplate me bro

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Rule #6

Take a Walk – seriously… they are good for you

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Customer Service

Intriguing stat slide

@RyanGDickerson All stats provided by huffpo social care study

@RyanGDickerson

Be present A presence isn’t the same as being present

Be human

Don’t fall for the Klout/Kred game… everyone deserves excellent service

Listen, and research before you speak

Be personal… boiler plate won’t cut it

Empathize

Brands are faceless, and easy to dislike… genuine people are not.

@RyanGDickerson

Scale

Can you scale?

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Answer: probably not

Be realistic with yourself and your team

Set clear objectives with your leadership

Set clear expectation for your audience

Leverage technology wherever possible

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Don’t run the benchmarking rat race

Crisis & Trolls

Are you ready? People are imperfect… brands aren’t infallible.

@RyanGDickerson

You need a social media crisis management plan

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make them worse.” – Randy Pausch

It will happen, and you’ll often be the first to see it

It probably won’t be exactly what you expected

Crisis management rarely falls on one person, or one department

@RyanGDickerson

How to organize the chaos

Work within your business to gain stakeholders for a crisis plan Legal Customer Service Public Relations Marketing Operations (store, web, supply chain, etc.) HR

Identify decision makers, and escalation paths

Have a process that the business commits to

Run a test scenario @RyanGDickerson

Trolls will be trolls

@RyanGDickerson

People will be people Nearly a quarter of those who have ever posted content (23%) admit to having maliciously argued over an opinion with a stranger

Men are more likely to get into a malicious argument than women.

Millennials are twice as likely as those aged 55+ to engage in trolling behavior.

All stats provided by reaserch.yougov

@RyanGDickerson

Don’t feed the trolls If you’re ever tempted to engage with overly-negative comments, start by asking the following questions…

Do we have a real issue, or is this just hype?

Where is this comment, and who will see it?

What can we gain from responding?

What will happen if we don’t do anything?

@RyanGDickerson

Takeaway time

Defining your engagement strategy shouldn’t be an exercise in free thinking… follow the brand.

Listen, be present, have a purpose, be authentic

Be human, and remember that everyone matters

Be honest with your ability to scale, and set expectations with your communities & management

Have a crisis plan, and have internal stakeholders

Don’t feed the trolls, and take those walks

Takeaways

@RyanGDickerson

Questions?

@RyanGDickerson

Thank You

Feel free to tweet comments, questions, criticisms and good margarita recipes to @RyanGDickerson

SOCIALMEDIA.ORG/SUMMIT2014ORLANDOOCTOBER 27–29, 2014

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