mapping a social media strategy for roi
DESCRIPTION
As part of the Marketo Revenue Masters Webinar Series, Sergio Balegno discusses key social media strategies for ROI.TRANSCRIPT
Setting the stage –The state of social media marketing
Based on two annual studies of 4,200 social media marketers•Most comprehensive benchmark studies of social media marketing
2009 Report: Marketers captivated by hype and ease of implementation• Ignored proven marketing principles, launched social initiatives without a plan or purpose
2010 Report: Social marketing maturing from trial-and-error to strategic•Methodologies for developing a coherent strategy to achieve objectives emerging
Payoff of two-year study – the Social Marketing ROAD Map Methodology•A practical method for mapping an effective social media strategy for ROI .
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Three questions to ask yourself before starting down the ROAD to social marketing maturity
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Q1. Where are you now?
Q2. Where do you want to be?
Q3. How do you get there from here?
Q1. Where are you now?Factors that determine social marketing maturity
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33% 40% 23%
Q2. Where do you want to be? Social marketing objective – measureable ROI
How organizations perceive social media marketing at budget time…
7% producing measureable ROI, increase budget liberally
49% promising tactic, eventually produce ROI, increase budget conservatively
27% value unknown, why invest more?
17% basically free, keep it that way•Destined to get what they pay for .
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Q3. How will you get there from here?Develop a strategy that outlives technology
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Trial phase thinks “Devices” first –(social media technology platforms)
Focus changes as marketers mature
Strategic phase – “devices” last
Technology-agnostic methodology to map a strategy that outlives technology and optimizes ROI
The Social Marketing ROAD Map
The Social Marketing ROAD Map –A method for mapping a social marketing strategy
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ROAD Map –Research Phase
Gathering intelligence on target audiences and their behavior
Segmenting and profiling target audiences
Recruiting a social marketing team
Finding and repurposing existing content
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Gathering intelligence –What to monitor on social media
Related search phrases
Industry sectors
Technologies
Companies
Brands
Products
Services
Key issues
Industry experts
Key employees
Social media factors
Social voice (or strength)
Sentiment
Passion
Unique authors
Social reach
Content downloads
Content sharing
Reviews and recommendations
Platform preferences
Audience segments
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Monitoring factors unique to social media
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Monitoring tools and solutions used
Free tools – measure social media in general or specific social sites
Paid solutions – complex monitoring and reporting requirements
More than 100 listed in handbook .
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16%
20%
58%
82%
Custom tools or solutions developed in-house to monitor and measure social
media initiatives
Paid tools - licensed social media monitoring and measuring solutions
(Radian6, Omniture, etc.)
Free tools used to monitor and measure a specific social site (Twitter Search,
Facebook Insights, etc.)
Free tools used to monitor and measure social media in general (SocialMention,
Google Analytics, etc.)
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded Nov 2009, N=2,317
Segmenting and profiling target audiences –Simple segmentation
Silent Majority• Joins but rarely participates
•Reads, watches, listens to UGC
•Few friends, contacts, followers
•Low level of social influence
Vocal Minority• Joins and actively participates
•Shares UGC and commentary
•Many friends, contacts, followers
•Moderately high level of social influence
Social Authority•Builds and moderates communities
•Creates and aggregates UGC
•Very many friends, contacts, followers
•Very high level of social influence
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Profiling target audiences
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The social marketing team –Finding and recruiting candidates
Not many organizations outsourcing social marketing responsibilities
Bad news: you may have to build a team from existing resources
Good news: You’ll find qualified candidates everywhere!
•Marketing
•Top management
•Customer service
•Sales
•Technology / engineering
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Finding and repurposing existing content –A solution to the content problem
Problem
Sharing content is critical aspect of social marketing
Creating content is time consuming and expensive
Constant pressure to create original articles, posts, videos, etc.
Need for entirely original content for social marketing is over-rated .
Solution
Many types of content already exists in your organization
Most content has only reached small share of target audiences
Start with audit of existing content
Repurpose content – update or reformat existing relevant content
•Rewrite news releases as blog posts
•Voice-over PPTs to create videos
•Rewrite self-published articles as blog posts
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ROAD Map –Objectives phase
How organizations are targeting and measuring objectives
Aligning objectives with target audiences
Aligning objectives with social marketing metrics
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Targeting and measuring objectives –The first step to alignment
Chart: organizations targeting and measuring objectives, by maturity
You can’t achieve what you can’t target and measure
Mature social marketers much more likely to target and measure
The more mature your social marketing, the more effective .
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7%
15%
18%
11%
21%
20%
42%
40%
32%
58%
20%
32%
31%
20%
35%
29%
56%
56%
53%
76%
32%
36%
44%
45%
54%
54%
69%
71%
75%
88%
Reduce customer support costs
Improve customer support quality
Improve public relations
Reduce customer acquisition costs
Increase brand or product awareness
Improve brand or product reputation
Improve search engine rankings
Increase sales revenue
Increase lead generation
Increase website traffic
Phase III: Strategic Phase II: Transition Phase I: Trial
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded Nov 2009, N=2,317
Aligning objectives with top target audiences
Use “audience profile” to define target audiences and where to find them
•Vocal minority – end users on social networks
•Social authority – key bloggers covering topic
What do you want from each target audience (objectives)?
•More VM members in our social networks
•More SA bloggers posting about us .
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Aligning objectives with metrics that matter
Metrics used depends on your unique business model, for example…
Metrics if driven by B2B leads•Leads generated into pipeline
•Leads qualified and nurtured
•More difficult to track metrics related to ROI
Metrics if driven by B2C ecommerce•Traffic origination
•Sales conversions
•Easier to track metrics related to ROI
Also depends on metrics that matter most in each social media platform .
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Aligning objectives with target audiences and social marketing metrics
Target audience segment Social marketing objectives Social marketing metrics
End users / Vocal minority Increase website traffic
Improve search engine rankings
Increase sales revenue
Reduce customer support costs
# unique visitors
SERPs
# conversions
# microblog incident posts
Engineering / Social authority Increase technical community
Increase member engagement
Increase product awareness
Increase product education
# discussion group members
# new discussions / comments
Reach
# content downloads
Purchasing / Vocal minority Improve brand reputation
Increase sales revenue
Sentiment and Passion
# conversions
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ROAD Map –Actions phase
Why “fast and easy” trumps tactical effectiveness
Social media platforms were not created equal •Different tactics and best practices are required
The importance of a social media policy
Managing tactics and resources
Budgeting for social media ROI
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“Fast and easy” trumps tactical effectiveness
Comparing effectiveness, effort and usage of tactics
Blogger relations is most effective but requires most effort – low usage
Social networks ½ as effective but ¼ the effort required – highest usage
Prioritize by effectiveness to create and prove value
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Social media platforms were not created equal.Why various tactics and practices are required.
Blogging
Microblogging
Social networking
Multimedia content sharing
Social bookmarking
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Blogging tactics and best practices
Brand and personify your blog. Focus on building personalized relationships and thought-leadership
Be engaging. Write compelling content with the goal of triggering a reaction and commentary
Define your community. Readers must immediately understand the topic of your blog
Plan your content mix. Create editorial plan with interesting mix of posts and content
Drive conversions. Add links to posts that drive readers to landing page conversion points .
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Microblogging tactics and best practices
Build a following. Post keyword-rich messages that will be found and followed by your intended audience
Post a relevant mix. A mix of messages with links to conversion points, third party content, etc.
Use @replies and direct messages. Individually engage those you are following and are following you
Hashtag it. Add the hashtag symbol # to keywords to track and attract an audience
Leverage applications. There is a plethora of Twitter tools to manage microblogging .
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Social networking tactics and best practices
Build a community. Building a community for your brand is like building a following of friends
Instigate a mob mentality. Attract like-minded people who share common interests
Make it eventful. Use invites to events like webinars, conferences and training programs
Q&A. Use tools to ask thought-provoking questions and demonstrate thought leadership
Post a relevant mix. Use a balanced mix of original and third party content
Gather insights interactively. Surveying fans and polling contacts is a way to engage .
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Multimedia sharing tactics and best practices
Find content everywhere. Training videos, sales presentations, event photos, other multimedia content
Publish it everywhere. Embed links to multimedia on blog posts, website landing pages and email
By invitation. Find friends and peers on sharing sites and invite them to subscribe to your channels
Generate leads. Add links to offer landing pages on videos, photos, presentations and documents
Search engines love multimedia. Use keyword-rich descriptions and tags on content to rank content .
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Social bookmarking tactics and best practices
Start by sharing content yourself. Bookmark your own website, blog or other content hub
Add sharing buttons. Including social bookmark sharing buttons on blog posts and outbound comm
Identify relevant content and engage contributors. Interact with those who bookmark relevant content to build a community …
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Managing many tactics and resources
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The most important practice –the social media policy
A good social media policy…
Encourages, rather than discourages, participation
Aligns with company values and existing guidelines
Safeguards reputation and intellectual property .
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Budgeting for ROI –Social media’s slice of the online marketing pie
Social media’s slice growing at expense of other tactics
Time intensive – 59% of slice allocated to staff salaries
Email and search workhorses
Website is content hub for other tactics so cost often allocated to website …
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ROAD Map –Devices phase
Selecting social media technology platforms and brands last
Random acts of social marketing
Constructing a social marketing architecture
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Selecting technology platforms last –a giant leap in social marketing maturity
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Trial phase thinks “Devices” first –(social media technology platforms)
Strategic phase – “devices” last
Time to shift from technology-agnostic to technology and brand specific thinking
Tactical plan will identify technology platforms required…
From technology platform to brand –Analyzing characteristics of social media brands
You may need a social network –but which one?
•Leading brand, niche or custom
Conduct a SWOT-like analysis to prioritize social brands
Select brands that fit your tactical plan and have a clear purpose in your social architecture
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Random acts of social marketing –how it works without an architectural plan
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Constructing a social marketing architecture –the hub and spoke framework
Hub sites for content and conversion
Spoke sites for building communities and relationships
Architecture directs traffic flow in and out of hubs
Number of sites not important –a plan and purpose for every site is .
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Case study: the social marketing architecture for Cisco’s Collaboration Solutions
Target audience is collaboration solution prospects and customers
Platforms selected based on tactics to achieve objectives
Every platform has a manageable plan and a clear purpose .
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Hub sites:Purpose of website
Website is hub of the marketing strategy for collaboration solutions
Occasionally updated content with marketing information on solutions / products / services
Traditional SEO tactics – search ranking influence diminishing
Primary point of conversion .
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Purpose of blog
Blog is hub of the social marketing strategy for collaboration solutions
Shareable content / commentary on collaboration solutions
Content frequency and relevance increases search ranking influence
Primary point of conversation and referral to conversion .
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Spoke sites:Purpose of Facebook
Build a community of fans (“Likes”) for Cisco Collaboration
Fans engaged by sharing opinions and commentary to posts
Links drive traffic to content on blog or website for conversion .
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Purpose of Twitter
Share 140 character tweets with “followers” for quick engagement
Adds value to relationship by connecting customers and prospects to relevant content
Links drive traffic to content on blog or website for conversion .
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Purpose of Forum
Build a community of technically-oriented prospects and customers
Visitors “join conversations and share collaboration best practices.”
Members gain access to exclusive content and member-only events
Adds mutual value via customer service and product development .
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Purpose of YouTube
Videos are “most engaging” and entertaining media
YouTube provides video storage, sharing and embedding capabilities
Keyword-rich video tagging increases search ranking influence
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Purpose of Flickr
Photos are “most used” type of online multi-media
Flickr provides image search, storage and sharing capabilities
Keyword-rich image tagging increases search ranking influence .
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Purpose of RSS Feed
“Push” blog content rather than require readers to “Pull” it
Links traffic to source of feed, content and conversion .
Use of RSS declining as Twitter and other notifications increase .
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Every platform in the Cisco architecture has a manageable plan and a clear purpose
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Putting the pieces together –constructing your social marketing architecture
Content and conversion are essential factors – start at the hub
Prioritize roll-out of spokes sites mastering each before adding next
Practice continuous improvement –repeat the ROAD Map process …
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SummaryMapping a social marketing strategy for ROI
Social media marketing creating a new world of opportunities for marketers
You need a compass to help you explore this new terrain
Social Marketing ROAD Map – a practical methodology for mapping a social media strategy to ROI
Thank You!
Sergio Balegno
Research Director, MarketingSherpa
@SergioBalegno
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