Social Media, is it a Marketing Tool?

An Educational Seminar Connecticut Business Expo

June 2008

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Travelers and Social Media

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Travelers and Social Media

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About Marci

VP Digital, Imre Communications• MA, Public Communication

– American University• Certificate Online Promotion

– Georgetown University• Internet Think Tank

– E-Voter Institute (2.5 years)

First social media campaign: 1998

Specialties: • Algorithmic content development• Web data & patterns analysis• Public dialogue management online• Web communication for business

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Agenda

Why do we care about Social MediaWeb 2.0 - The Social Media FactorCase StudiesThe Opportunity is EverywhereHow Business can “Do” Social MediaHow to Get Started

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Why Do We Care About Social Media

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Why do we care about Social Media

2007 Comscore Report• 772 Million online worldwide, age 15 or older

2007 Enquiro Study• 50% of B2B buyers convert online. 50-50 split online Vs. offline

Facebook -- top 10 Web property• Growing faster than any other top 10 site• 5X more visits per visitor than any other top 10 site

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Why do we care about Social Media

February 2008, INC MAGAZINE - North America stats• 100 million blogs worldwide.

– 66% trust blogs for product information (Neilsen, 2007)• 2/3 of all users visit a social network at least once per month

– Myspace: 57 Million Monthly– Facebook: 34.7 Million Monthly– MiGente: 384,000 Monthly (Latino)

• Wikipedia: 52 Million in 2007• Stickiness: 4 hours/month

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Why do we care about Social Media

Online Video:• User-generated videos - 22 billion views in 2007• Up 70% over 2006

2007 Comscore Report:• Ave. 158 minutes of streaming video each• Ave. stream duration - 2.5 minutes• 74.3% U.S. Internet users streamed video online• 35% streamed on YouTube.com• Average: 63 streams, Over 2/day

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Let’s Talk Social Media

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The Social Media Factor

Web 1.0

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The Social Media Factor

Web 2.0

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The Social Media Factor

What’s being said about SOCIAL MEDIA• User generated content• User thinks he is in control• Quantifies the masses• The public forum for the common man

Focus: Authenticity

Visibility provided by:• Voting• Popular consensus via links

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The Social Media Factor

Social Media is a digital realization of the “Six Degrees of Separation” theory• Milgram’s Small World Experiment Circa 1967

Six degrees of separation

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The Social Media Factor

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The Social Media Factor

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Case Studies

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Case Studies

Obama on Twitter• 6000 followers• Obamatars

Obama’s tweets tend to lack the personal commentary that make for interesting reading, but his campaign has created a powerful social media brand by using social media sites like Twitter.

From the Blogsphere

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Case Studies

Geico — CaveMansCrib.com• Flash animation with embedded movies showing the popular

CaveMen characters in their fictional apartment before and after a party

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Case Studies

Geico — CaveMansCrib.com• Additional Distribution

– TV commercials– YouTube Clone (www.cmoviesonline.com)– Provided embedded links for republishing– Promoted on YouTube and AOL Video– Supplementary advo videos directing traffic to the URL

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Case Studies

Geico CaveMansCrib.com• August - over 400,000 visits, 7 minutes each (ave)• More than wholefoods.com, Lexus.com, or LuisVuitton.com on average

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Case Studies

Geico CaveMansCrib.com Results:

Blog entries: 3000+Spirit: Positive and Negative, often both in the same article

“It's a cool if rather annoying vehicle for you to keep thinking about  Cavemen and thus GEICO — you know. So easy a Caveman could  do it? Personally, the commercials were not only annoying, they  seem to poke fun at the real-life calls by people of color for better  treatment and representation on television, and thus my main issue  with this ad campaign.

I think it's stupid and at a level even a Caveman could not reach.

Ok. That aside, the online media efforts a good example of what's  possible. This is great branding.”

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Case Studies

Home Depot — YouTube

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Case Studies

Home Depot and YouTube

Final Contest Metrics Final #s (original goal)Web banner impressions: 2.87 million (1.5 million)Videos watched: 427,000 (65,000)Page views: 130,400 (20,000)Group members: 931 (150) Qualified video entries: 262 (50)

• Customer engagement time: – 10,000+ hours

• Time it would take to watch all of the videos: – 7+ hours

• Online press mentions and blog discussions: – 70+ (including Houston Chronicle and several major dailies)

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Case Studies

Target’s Standard Response to Bloggers:

“Good Morning,Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to     

respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with     non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us

   to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

   Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.”

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Case Studies

Target: The Danger of Not Responding

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RJE Business Interiors

RJE Business Interiors —• $26 million supplier of

office furniture to corporations in Indiana

Strategy: 6 episodes of “reality TV” on www.rjefurn.com

Cost to produce: $25,000

Results: Revenue increase of 22% HTML Email open rate for continuing communication is up 10%

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Opportunity is Everywhere

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Opportunity is Everywhere

Monitoring Social Media• Keep an eye out for spikes• Read content in spikes• Measure positive vs.

negative

Learn Reward

Engage

Learn mindset & languageReward attentionEngage as an ambassador

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Opportunity is Everywhere

Max Factor • Already over 11,000 videos

on YouTube• Thousands of visitors• Real people, not stars• Extreme comment activity• Drug store brands used• Embedded into

Myspace/Facebook pages

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NWjcJziLEcAhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=OjgZ_IgmiiQ

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

Do Identify Yourself

Why?• It’s the right thing to do

– Be impeccable• Allows others to communicate with full disclosure• Forces maturity • If you are discovered posting anonymously, the backlash

is significant– The “Google Guy” did it right

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

Case in Point: “The Google Guy”

• Google was constantly hammered in SEO Forums• “Google Guy” responded to significant threads about “hokus

pokus” and “rigging”• Popped in and out — about every 2-4 weeks• Provided significant technical guidance• Stayed out of the “Google Bashing”• Only participated when a specific kind of conversation arose

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

Think about this:

• They can be anonymous • You can’t• They have nothing to lose• You do

– Onus is on you to bring professional and appropriate dialogue to the party

– Stay focused on your communications goals

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

If possible, provide intellectual property barter

• Social media readers will barter their attention for:– Tips & tricks – Insider knowledge (The “Scoop”)– Genuinely valuable info

• Google Guy taught us how to work with the algorithm– Being treated with respect

• This barter only works if they are actively talking about your company• Make sure the info you provide is what they are looking for

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How Business can “Do” Social Media

As with ANY mass audience, you simply can’t win them all

However,• Some readers are inspired by the truth • Others are looking for a good reason to like you• If you can swing some to your side, why wouldn’t you• And, if you don’t reach out to these folks, someone else will

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How to Get Started

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How to Get Started

Start Practicing• Set up a Blog

– Trusted network – Supported publishing

• Error alerts• Content monitoring

– Web 2.0 Syndication• Syndic8• Technorati• Etc.

– Moderated Comments• On / off

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How to Get Started

Linked In• Set up your profile• Connect• Watch the traffic• Contribute

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Thank you

Marci De VriesImre Communications410-821-8220

Marcid@imrecommunications.comwww.ImreCommunications.com

Marci403 @ aol.com (IM)Marcidevries (Twitter)iMarketer Blog