Social Media Marketing

What it is and how it can fuel your business

Who are we?

• Jeffrey Veffer is a technology veteran with over 15 years experience specifically within the Internet space.

• Formerly a founding member of Bell Canada’s Innovation and Strategy team and has worked with Discovery Channel and several online start-ups

• Currently a partner with Brandsential – "bringing companies

closer to customers." • Follow @jeffreyveffer

• A veteran of online marketing, Peter Flaschner has worked in online strategy and design since 1997, for clients like Turner Broadcasting, Unicef, HP, Yahoo, CBC, etc

• In 2004, he founded The Blog Studio, the world's first design studio focussed specifically on the then emerging social web

• Today, Peter is the Creative Director and Consulting Practice Lead for Sequentia Environics

• Follow @flashlight

Overview

• What is Social Media Marketing [and does it differ from traditional marketing?]– “a term that describes use of social

networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service.” -wikipedia

Huh?

Marketing

• Isn’t this was successful companies have been doing for years, even before the Internet was born?

• Basically yes, but now electronic channels allow you to reach many more potential customers faster than ever before

• Have rules of engagement changed? Stay tuned!

The landscape

• Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Flickr, Hi5, blogs, Orkut, Bebo, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Plaxo, Stumbleupon, tribe.net etc. etc.

• There are many places where your customers and prospects are interacting online

• But where do you need to be?

Objectives

• What are your objectives?– Increased awareness?– More transactions?– All of the above?

Marketing 101

• What is your target market? (Who is your customer?)

• Product• Promo• Price• Place

But….

• Maybe traditional marketing might not give us the whole picture

• Place – online, can sell anywhere• Product – is it a product or the overall

experience• Etc. – you get the idea

Basics (again)

• Interactivity means that “one-way” push of information out is less effective- you are only “renting eyeballs” till the next marketer’s campaign

• How to build relationships so that customer not only buys your product/service, but actually becomes an advocate for it to others!

How do customers think?

• Relevance• Interaction• Trust• Understanding

What can you provide?

• Content- material to share “give to get”

• Community – get interactive• Conversation – be open, 2- way

One size doesn’t fit all

• Each case is different• Have a plan and objectives• “Customer-focused” culture

Case Study-Servus Credit Union

• “Feel Good Ripple”- customers given $10 to do something nice for someone else, and explain why

• Blends real life and online• Have a twitter account and facebook

page• Over 600 posts in a month on the

page and great coverage in other media (blogs, print)

How to start?

• Listen! Find out what customers are saying

• Contribute – Be willing to share• Have clear objectives + develop a plan• Build relationships – customers can

evangelize your products if they feel strongly

• Commitment – you wouldn’t get a phone then not answer it

Thank you!

• Questions?

Backup

If Facebook were a country…

• Facebook would be the worlds 3rd largest country by population! (Facebook internal)

More than 400 Million active users!

Facebook pages (profiles for Brands)• Developed because brands were using user profiles for their

companies (contravening the user agreement)• Pages look like user profiles – a brand’s “home” on Facebook

and a place to make connections with fans of your brand by joining the conversation

• Pages can integrate multiple applications

Facebook profile [has friends]

Facebook group [has members]

• What does it mean to me? (Part 1)- Brands are using them to build awareness, drive traffic to a destination, create a new distribution channel and more!

Facebook page [has fans]

Applications

What’s a Facebook “Application?”

• An application could be anything- A game, a tool, a way to interact with users.

• The platform is free – you don’t need to pay Facebook anything for the application

• Need to consider context – most applications on the site aren’t overly complex but the successful ones keep users coming back

• Applications are viral – friends get notified when your users interact with an application AND

• Applications are extremely easy to share – users just invite their friends right from the application!

• FBML (the language that developers use to program apps) is similar (though not exactly the same) as HTML; so there are many developers that can write apps

• Platform stats- more than 5,000 applications have 10,000 monthly active users

Source (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet#/press/info.php?statistics)

• Wildfire launched a sophisticated B2B application that allows brands to manage campaigns in Facebook and on other sites (MySpace, Ning).

• The cost is as low as $1/day

• What does it mean to me? (Part 2) – Tools to help you manage engagement

Case Study - JLM Couture: Simple way to get started

• Bridal dress designer based out of New York selling a wide range of bridal designs

• The company doesn't sell direct to consumers but directs them to a retailer

• They created an application called “The Wedding Dress that Fits You Best” that is a light-hearted quiz asking you about your preferences then suggests the style that would be best for you

• Currently has 916 active monthly users

• They put up the link for it on their webpage

• Whenever users take the quiz, their Facebook friends are notified, spreading awareness virally