How social media is
driving marketing change

www.linkedin.com/in/CalvinJones

With Calvin JonesFollow @WriterCJ on Twitter

Why am I here?

Co-author of Understanding Digital Marketing&The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the World

Published in English by Kogan Page in the UK, US and India, available globally

Translated (to date) into Russian, Chinese, Malaysian, Italian and Polish

Content and Social Media specialist with more than 15 years online experience

Staunch advocate of the power of social media to add value and effect real change.

Brief introduction... about me, my background, what I do, etc.

Why are you here?

Introduce yourself

Let me know a bit about you, and why you're here

Max 30 seconds... we have lots to cover

Get a bit of insight into the audience... who they are and what they want out of the session.

Managing expectations

No prescriptive formulas THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A ONE-SIZE FITS ALL SOLUTION!

No easy quick fix

No platform specific formulas how often should I post to Facebook etc.

Strategic advice... guidance... trends... insight that we can manage (with luck).

No prescription: No such thing as one-size-fits-all

Relationship between every business and its customers is unique

No Quick fixBuilding sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships takes time and effort

What is Social Media

Social media is an umbrella term used for web based software and services that allow users to come together online and exchange, discuss, communicate and participate in any form of social interaction.- Me, Understanding Digital Marketing

It's just people... talking to and sharing with other people... using online tools.

Lots of different definitions but boils down to people... talking to and sharing with other people... using online tools.

Exercise:Social Media Challenges

What are is your organisation's biggest social media challenge?

Have a think about it... we'll come back to the question a bit later

Exercise

Where are we now?

Early days, but social media is growing up fast!

More and more brands are jumping aboard the social media bandwagon... ...but how many are connecting effectively?

Facebook and twitter are youngsters, and Google, perhaps the most iconic digital brand in history, is barely an adolescent as it approaches its 15th birthday.

Established platforms and communities, maturing beware of jumping into the next big things stay with your audience

A question...

Can anyone tell me what is the second most popular social media platform in the world today?

Source -- Global Web Index Social PlatformActive Usage Dec. 2012

Surprisingly G+ now the second most popular social site... and YouTube #3

Bear in mind that the most effective social platforms for your brand are the one your customers / prospects use which may or may not match the trends.

Focus energy on where your customers are active (Pinterest or Flickr).

Passive Consumption: RIP

More than 40% (and growing) of UK viewers access social media sites on mobile devices while watching TV!Source: Zeebox report

52% of the total minutes spent using the tablet or the smartphone occured while also watching TV (GFK Knowledge, USA).

Social Media is (still) nothing to be afraid of

Why are marketers (still) so wary of social media?It's just people, interacting with other people

It's communication. As marketers that's what we do

We already know the rules of social engagement we learnt them in the school playground

Afraid to lose control! But not in control any more anyway....

No need to be afraid if:

You're Honest, Authentic, Helpful

Add value, are genuine

Respect the people you interact with!

... and remember BE SOCIAL

A harsh truth
for old school marketers

Product-focussed campaign-based marketing is on borrowed time.

Smart marketers are moving to an iterative, sustainable model based on building relationships with a growing community around their brand. And it's being driven by Social Media

The old campaign approach to marketing is hanging on... but it no longer makes sense.

Building sustained engagement through regular interaction and sharing valuable (interesting / informative / entertaining / problem-solving) content is the way forward.

Traditional campaign mentality
misses the point

Building value through sustained earned engagement is more effective

Source Chemistry Communications Group

Back to basics

Social Media is Simple

it's people that make things complicated!

Start with the most powerful tool in your social media arsenal

LISTEN to your customersWhat are they talking about?

Where are they talking about it?

What do they like?

What don't they like?

Amazes me how many businesses and brands dive in without listening.

Understand them... know where they are online... and engage on their terms on the platforms they choose to use.

Keep listening!

LISTEN to your competitorsWhat are they talking about?

Where are they talking about it?

What can you learn from them?

How can you do better?

Amazes me how many businesses and brands dive in without listening.

Understand them... know where they are online... and engage on their terms on the platforms they choose to use.

We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.

Zeno of Citium, as quoted by Diogenes Lartius

Learn from your customers --
then give them what they want

Social media is like the worlds ultimate focus group

Marketers can learn directly from their customers...

It's practically free, and almost real time

Where do you listen?

Go wherever people are talking about and sharing stuff that's relevant to you

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr, etc.

Blogs, social sharing sites, forums, review sites

Industry specific verticals / niche social media sites

Use online tools to find and monitor relevant conversations

How to listen

Social media dashboards

Social media monitoring tools

Search

Automated Alerts

RSS feeds

Community interaction

Paid monitoring services

Social media dashboardsHootsuite, Tweetdeck

Social media monitoring toolsTrackur / Sprout

SearchTwitter Search, FB Graph Search, Google, etc.

Automated AlertsGoogle Alerts

Filtered RSS feeds

Community interaction / Advocates

Paid monitoring servicesSysomos Heartbeat / Radian6/Salesforce Cloud

Simple Case Study
Barclays Ping It

Leading UK Bank launched mobile app

Social monitoring flagged negative feedback

Bank took positive action

Win win for customers and brand

users were unhappy that the app didnt work for under 18s.

Not just teens... also parents who couldn't transfer money to their children.

Within the week Barclays opened up the app to 16 and 17 year-old users,

Showing they listen and creating positive buzz

A little test
at the Marriott Lisbon

No response so far...!

users were unhappy that the app didnt work for under 18s.

Not just teens... also parents who couldn't transfer money to their children.

Within the week Barclays opened up the app to 16 and 17 year-old users,

Showing they listen and creating positive buzz

Exercise:Social Media Challenges

Lets talk a bit about YOURsocial media challenges and experience

Exercise

What's the foundation of enduring social engagement?

GREAT CONTENT!

Just create something valuable that people want to share, and make it easy for them to do so.David Meerman-Scott, Author, World Wide Rave

(Most) people are social creatures

We are compelled to interact with and share things we find interesting. We're hard wired that way

Social media simply magnifies a very natural human instinct

Content is not King

It's much more important than that!

Why is content so vital to your social media marketing?

Content does the heavy liftingContent gets your brand noticed and shared

Content sparks conversation and engagement

Content earns customer attention and advocacy

Content drives conversion

How do you create great social content?

Sometimes creating powerful, shareable, high impact content happens by accident. You just find yourself in the right place, at the right time.

Image 2012, Simon Duggan

More often it takes
a lot of hard work

Creating outstanding shareable social content requires:Understanding, insight, empathy, planning, timing, talent, relevance......and INVESTMENT.

But what makes great content?

THERE IS NO MAGIC FORMULA

Know what your customers want, understand what resonates with them

THEN GO CREATE IT!

Finding great content ideas
and great content to share

Back to listening againWhat are people (customers, competitors, thought leaders) talking about?

What are they sharing?

KeywordsWhat are they searching for?

AnalyticsWhat are the most popular content types on your blog / website?

Q. What kind of online
content works?

Here's what most marketers believe... according to eMarketerThe real answer is that the best content is whatever your customers need / want / like / enjoySo we're back to listening again (anyone spot a theme here?)

Why are we talking about
content so much?

You can't look at social media without talking about content

Great content drives social sharing, and boosts your credibility

High quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience gets your brand noticed

Sharing OTHER PEOPLE's great content is a crucial part of the Social Media equation

Content tips

Create content that adds value for consumersWill it make them laugh, will it solve a problem, will it make their day a little (or a lot) easier?

Would you share it with your friends?

If it doesn't then you're just adding to the noise

Understand your community and focus on delivering relevance and value for them!

More Content tips

Use visual content for instant impact (video and photos can be incredibly shareable

Create a content calendar to stay organised... but ALWAYS be flexible to embrace new opportunities

Build Evergreen content that keeps adding value for new waves of customers.

Ditch the anonymous posts! Give authors credit!

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing. Benjamin Franklin

And the Oscar for best marketing element
in a supporting role goes to....

Your Product!

In the consumer empowered age of social media, we need a new kind of marketing driven by relevant content that EARNS attention

Advocacy
A focus for 2013 say Marketers

Source: 2013: The Year of Advocacy, a study conducted by Zuberance and UBM Tech

70% of marketers plan to increase spending on advocate marketing programs in 2013

How about bringing the conversation home?

Feeds from social media accounts

Blogs

Support Forums

Live Online Support

Reviews and ratings (www.amazon.co.uk)

Social applications (www.ideastorm.com)

... use your imagination.

Adding social elements to your own site

Dell Ideastorm giving customers what they want

Measuring Social ROI

What are you really measuring?

Social metrics (likes, retweets, shares, mentions, reach etc.) can be good milestones of social engagement, but they don't really measure Return on Investment (ROI).

Conversion of social media effort into tangible business value (ROI) doesn't normally happen on social platforms

When senior management say show me the money you need to be able to link social engagement to established conversion metrics on other platforms (web, email, etc.).

likes, fans, retweets, reach, mentions, interactions measure reach and engagement, but don't really measure ROI

Google Analytics Social Reports

Track social activity relating to your content

See which social platforms send the most people back to your site

Set goals and measure how social impacts conversion.

Use measurement to inform strategy

Which social platforms are driving the most traffic to your online content?

Do visitors from different social channels seem to engage more with different types of content

Measurement and analysis of real data lets you make informed decisions about your social media and content strategies.

Use measurement as a guide... learn from it, but don't let it override your human instinct. Remember... social media is about people!

Share some of your favourite examples of Social Media
in action?

The Social Media Rules of Engagement

Listen and learn

Draw on what you already know

Be open, honest and engaging

Be relevant, interesting, entertaining

Add value with great content -- don't just push your message

Respect rules written or otherwise

Respect other people

Thank you...!

@WriterCJ on Twitterwww.linkedin.com/in/CalvinJonescalvin@cjwriting.com

www.cjwriting.com

Understanding Social Media

Calvin Jones

Catholic University of Portugal, March 2013