Social media and marketing: One practitioner’s perspective

MoACTE SummerConferenceJuly 27, 2011

@andrewcareaga@MissouriSandT

www.slideshare.net/andrewcareaga

How digitally connected are you?

Source: Trevor Young , “Social media in a ‘tag cloud’ nutshell,” Jan. 28, 2010 (trevoryoung.posterous.com/social-media-in-a-tag-cloud-nutshell)

Social media is…

• user-generated• ‘architecture of participation’

‘A shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content’

- Wikipedia

Source: HubSpot, 101 Awesome Marketing Quotes (www.hubspot.com/101-marketing-quotes/)

Social media is not…

another marketing channela substitutemerely an option

2010 Social Media Marketing Industry report, reported in Inc. online, April 23, 2010 (www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/04/how-social-media-helps-small-business.html)

‘One in three business owners say that social media helps them to close business.’

• Increases web traffic• Opens opportunities to build new partnerships• Generates good sales leads• 73 percent reported a significant rise in search engine rankings• 48 percent said social media reduced their overall marketing expenses

2010 Social Media Marketing Industry report, reported in Inc. online, April 23, 2010 (www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/04/how-social-media-helps-small-business.html)

Social media’s Big Four

Commonly used social media tools

Source: 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner, April 2011

Game-changer?

Marketing isn’t going to go away. Nor should it. But it needs to evolve rapidly and thoroughly, for markets have become networked and now know more than business, learn faster than business, are more honest than business, and are a hell of a lot more fun than business.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos on Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec

Amazon’s mp3 music stream on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amazonmp3

vitaminwater on Facebook: www.facebook.com/vitaminwater

Old Spice Man on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice

Image via Anna Vignet, www.flickr.com/photos/annnna/2228189828/

Humanize your business

Image via www.chilloutpoint.com/featured/human-and-robots-visions-of-the-future.html

Communicating in a human voice adds a sense of personal and sociable human contact to the interaction with the public.

… [P]erceived conversational human voice may promote trust, satisfaction, and commitment in relationships between an organization and the public, which in turn results in favorable behavioral intentions toward an organization.

Hyojung ParkMissouri School of Journalism

Source: MU News Bureau, “Use of Human Voice in Social Media Can Help Organizations Build Relationships,” May 18, 2011.

Connect with your customers

Extend your reach

Image via msspider66 www.flickr.com/photos/msspider66/44397492/

Jack Dorsey: St. Louis native, Missouri S&T alum, Twitter co-founder

Jack Dorsey has more followers on Twitter (1,691,086) than The New York Times has subscribers (877,000)

@jack followers on Twitter as of June 18, 2011; New York Times subscribers as of Sept. 30, 2010

Put yourself in control

Image via Ben McLeod www.flickr.com/photos/benmcleod/523653908/

Diving in …

‘Like skydiving, a lot of learning comes from doing.’Brad J. Ward, co-founder, BlueFuego.com, “Skydiving Into the Social Web,” Squaredpeg.com, Jan. 6, 2010

But before you dive in…

Are you ready?• Research• Planning• Resources

Cartoon courtesy of @debrasanborn

Research• Who are your

customers?

• What are they doing online?

• Where are they going online?

Research: Socialgraphics

1. Where are your customers online?2. What are their social behaviors online?3. What social information or people do

they rely on?4. What is their social influence?5. How do your customers use social

media in the context of your business?Adapted from Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, Social Strategy: Getting Your Company Ready,” April 14, 2010(www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-strategy-gettingcompanyreadyapr14final)

5 keys to social media success

1. Listen2. Add value3. Respond4. Do good things5. Keep it real

Adapted from Aliza Sherman, “Revisiting 10 Golden Rules of Social Media,” Web Worker Daily, Jan. 5, 2010,www.webworkerdaily.com/2010/01/05/revisiting-10-golden-rules-of-social-media/

Create a social media listening post

•Google news/blog alerts•Twitter search•Active monitoring•Hootsuite•Tweetdeck

The value of listening

“Listening to our customers has always been at the heart of what we do.”

Kerry BridgeHead of digital media communications for Dell

Listen + respond + add value + do good

Twitter saves the day!

The social media audit

• What is your business currently doing in social media?

• Who are your internal experts? (Identify and involve them.)

Planning: 4 steps

1. Develop a plan Integrate it Know what’s

already working

2. Beware the bandwagon

3. Understand your audience(s)

4. Feed your social media beast

Integration: what’s already working?

• Campus visits/summer camps– More than 70% apply– About 61% enroll– @ 25% of freshmen attend at

least one summer program• Tele-counseling

– Increases attendance at high school visits, receptions, etc.

• Consistent, frequent communication

• Relationship building

Source: Hobsons Domestic Research Report 2009-2010, cited by Karlyn Morissette, www.doteduguru.com, Oct. 22, 2009

Trust levels among prospective students

A four-step approach

1. Develop a plan Objectives Measures (metrics) Management Resources Content (type and

source) Promotion

Objectives Measures

Extend university reach and influence online by connecting and building relationships with key audiences (prospective students, current students, alumni, influentials)

•number and types of followers•social media referrals to web content (campaign-based and not)•feedback from friends, followers, etc.

Provide additional channels for audiences to communicate and interact with the university

•volume and quality of feedback •Comments•“likes”•DMs, RTs, @s

Objectives Measures

Provide additional channels for audiences to receive official university information

•number and types of followers

Monitor online reputation of the university in the social media sphere

•number of interactions•qualitative analysis of comments

Management and resources

1. Who is the social media “owner” in your business?

2. How do you allocate time and staffing?

Social media content

1. Type Official? User-generated? Tone? Frequency? Interactive! Responsive!

2. Source Feeds? Personal? Combination?

• Empower employees to use social media to further your business goals

• Make it easy for them to use social media for that purpose

• Reinforce or expand on existing policies to make sure your business is protected

Guiding principles

A four-step approach

1. Develop a plan Integrate it Know what’s

already working

2. Beware the bandwagon

3. Understand your audience(s)

4. Feed the beast

Commonly used social media tools

Source: 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner, April 2011

The social media cheat sheet

www.thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media-cheat-sheet/

The social media cheat sheet

www.thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media-cheat-sheet/

Planning: 4 steps

1. Develop a plan Integrate it Know what’s

already working

2. Beware the bandwagon

3. Understand your audience(s)

4. Feed your social media beast

Helpful hints: Facebook• Facebookers “like” food• Most “liked” pages: movies, TV shows,

books, musicians/bands• Least “liked” pages: religious

organizations, pets, bars, pharma• Sharing video more effective on

Facebook than Twitter• Click-through rates are higher on

weekends

Source: Dan Zarrella, “The Science of Social Media ,” smsci.danzarrella.com

Helpful hints: Facebook & Twitter• Numbers matter

• Bigger and louder works – to a point• Avoid “link fatigue”• Stay positive• It isn’t all about you (your business)• Use combined relevance• Help your audience look cool

Source: Dan Zarrella, “The Science of Social Media ,” smsci.danzarrella.com

4. FEED ME, SEYMOUR!

Source: HubSpot, 101 Awesome Marketing Quotes (www.hubspot.com/101-marketing-quotes/)

In conclusion…

Don’t be afraid to fail

12/21/2012

Its easy to get stuck in the past when you are trying to make a good thing last

-Neil Young-Neil Young

Courtesy of Mark Greenfield (@markgr)

Thank you!

Andrew Careagaabout.me/andrewcareagaTwitter: @andrewcareaga