SOCIAL MEDIA MULTIPLIER – A RESEARCH REPORTPaul Gillin

April 1, 2010

Go Where the People Are

32 million members

300 million members

44 million members

1 billion daily views

6 million daily visitors

50 million members

10 million members

1 million daily visitors

1.5 million daily visitors

Top-Line Findings - Interim

• Social Media has reached critical mass in corporations

• Organizations are turning their attention to popular gathering spots

• Multi-platform deployment and management are critical new issues

• ROI metrics are still ad hoc• A multiplier factor exists but few can

quantify it• Twitter has become the killer app

Source: Elliance, Inc.

Credibility Through Validation

Social Media Platforms in Use

Virtual world

Mobile application

Public community

Private community

Specialized social network

Video podcast

Topical blogs

Employee blogs

Photo-sharing

Discussion forum

Podcast

Facebook group

LinkedIn group

Text/SMS

LinkedIn page

YouTube or similar

Business blog

Facebook fan page

Twitter or similar

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Who are the principal audiences for your company's social media efforts?

Investors

Media

Business partners

Channel

Existing customers

Prospects

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Platform Adoption by Year

Before 2006 2007 2008 2009

38

99

137

187

38

137

274

461

New Cumulative

55 respondents

Effectiveness Compared to ExpectationsFrom most positive to least positive

Public community Private community

LinkedIn page Text/SMS

Podcast Facebook group

Discussion forum Specialized social network

YouTube or similar LinkedIn group Business blog Topical blogsPhoto-sharing

Mobile application Facebook fan page

Video podcast Employee blogsTwitter or similar

Virtual world

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00

Effectiveness Expectation

ROI Perception

Somewhat negative

Neutral

Somewhat positive

Very positive

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Planned Changes in Social Media Activity, Next 12 Months

No change

Somewhat increase

Significantly increase

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

What has been the business impact of your company's use of multiple social media platforms?

No answer

Little/no impact

Somewhat postiive

Strongly positive

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

• Sales• Conversions• Search rank• Leads• Conversations• Cost per lead• Retweets• Comments

Verbatims: Most Common Metrics

Verbatims: What They’re Doing Now• “A new blog entry is typically also communicated on

Twitter or cross-posted on Facebook.”(multiple mentions)• “We leverage content that we produce across all of the

social networks - and then engage in each conversation that follows.”

• “All product launches now have a social media component.

• “We repackage everything through our content marketing site in industry-specific LinkedIn groups."

Typical Multi-Platform ScenarioCorporate website

Feed Aggregator

Partner website

Email Newsletter

Improved applicant quality

Image of Sodexo as progressive young company

Recruitment costs substantially reduced

Principal Value

“The human touch is essential. People know there’s somebody behind the message and the photo.”

-Kerry Noone, Manager, Marketing Communications

Sodexo Recruiters• Most of the company‘s 60 recruiters user

Twitter and other social media to meet hiring demand.

• Focus is on building relationships and enthusiasm among prospective employees

• Traffic to careers site up 182% in last two years, job applications up 25%. Recruitment ad costs down $300K

Demonstration often beats description

Multimedia conveys excitement

Bottom-up combined with top-down for maximum impact

Social media drives ongoing engagement via e-mail

Principal Value

Ford’s Content Factory

“We use whatever channel we can to spread the message.”

-Scott Monty, head of social media

• Constantly delivers news about the company’s reinvention using every available media social channel.

• Press releases paired with video, images, audio whenever possible

• Everything is shareable, nearly all is tweeted• Key metrics: retweets, Facebook comments,

media coverage, awareness studies

10M quarterly impressions

100-fold amplification of blog/Web content

CEO developing side business as automotive social media consultant

Principal Value“My inbox is overflowing every day with people who want speakers, partnerships, training and certifications.”

-Jody DeVere, CEO

AskPatty’s Syndication Wizardry• Syndication partners include TwitterMoms,

BlogHer, Parenthood.com, SheKnows• Articles automatically posted to bookmarking

sites, multiple Facebook fan pages• Spokesperson for Rain-X Division of Shell

Oil, Mobil1 division of Exxon/Mobil• Hired for 12-part video series on AutoNet TV

Invitation and welcoming committees formed spontaneously around the globe

Reinforces message of happiness, youth

Principal Value

“Consumers who participate with our brand online have a higher purchase intent”

-Adam Brown, Director , Office of Digital Communications & Social Media,

Coke’s Global Expedition• Three ambassadors selected by community

are visiting all 206 countries in 2010• Travels documented through all available

media; no advertising support• Promotion channels target international

audiences: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Bebo, Orkut, Tencent CC

400M media impressions in first 22 days

Management Challenges

• Who speaks for the company?

• What restrictions should exist on what

they can say?

• When to use a corporate vs. a

personal presence?

• Who takes action and how?

• How to scale real-time public customer

service?

• What to do about negativity?

• How to organize for continuous online

interaction?

How do we avoid this?

Marketing Challenges

• Audience segmentation?• Appropriate messaging?• When to pitch?• Metrics and ROI?• Marketing integration?• Roles and governance?• What to avoid?• Resources and budgets

and on Facebook

Coke on LinkedIn…

Thank you!

Paul Gillin

508-656-0734

paul@gillin.com

gillin.com

Twitter: pgillin

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Coming late 2010: Social Marketing to the Business Customer By Paul Gillin & Eric Schwartzman