Social MediaBoot CampJune 24, 2011
Welcome to
Social Media Boot Camp Agenda
• Overview and Introductions
• Social Media Bootcamp
• Workshop
• Questions & Answers
Introductio
ns
Top Floor Technologies
• Website Design & Development
• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics & Conversion Improvement
Maximizing Online Marketing Resultsfor Hundreds of Businesses Since 1999
Getting the MostFrom Today’s Workshop
Write down three key learning points that you’ll begin putting into action within the next two weeks. Then – follow through!
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Social Media Boot Camp
Presented ByAnthony Verre – Senior Search Marketing Specialist
Twitter: @topfloortech | Hashtag: #TFTBootCamp
The Line Up• What is Social Media?
– The Tenets of Social Media
• Social Media Listening Strategy– Online Rep Management (ORM)
– Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Key Points About Social Profiles
• Tools of the Social Tradecraft
• Social Media Attack Strategy
What is Social Media Marketing
In a nutshell, it’s marketing your brand, your products, or your services through social media networks.
It’s building relationships with your customers online and having that translate in sales (both online and offline).
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
9
Communications in a Connected World
• Communications has changed from a monologue to a dialogue
– Consumers are increasingly controlling the dialogue about companies and defining brands
• Marketers must reach consumers through social media since that is where conversations about brands are taking place
• Consumers trust reviews more than corporate advertising
– 91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions
• Social media facilitates word of mouth, which is the most powerful advertising medium
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Where to begin?
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Tenants of Social Media
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And A Viral We Go
1. create something newsworthy through events/contests, videos, or blog posts that attract attention
2. the objective is to have this meme/message go viral
3. plenty of successful social campaigns have gathered steam through a compelling message. It doesn’t have to be about your products to induce conversions and sales
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Enabling Your Consumers
1. build ways that enable fans of a brand or company to promote or champion a message themselves in multiple online venues.
2. make your website or the message as share-friendly as possible: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, etc.
• Giver users and consumers every possible chance to share your message
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It’s All About Conversations
1. when it really comes down to it, social media is based around online conversations
2. social encourages user participation and dialogue. Success means fully engaging and respecting users
3. social media is about getting people to care about what you have to say. In any way, shape, or form.
• pander to their greed, charitable side, emotional side, or the little kid in all of us
4. give someone a reason to invest in you, and they will
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
Influencing Consumers
• 67% of Twitter users who become followers of a brand are more likely to buy that brand’s products
• 60% of Facebook users who become a fan of a brand are more likely to recommend that brand to a friend
• 74% of consumers are influenced on buying decisions by fellow socializers after soliciting input via social media
* Core Metrics: Comprehensive Measurement: The Key to Social Media Marketing Success
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Social Listening Strategy
Using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Effectively For Business
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The Human Element: Listening First
1. if you don’t listen, how do you expect to communicate?
2. how can you provide something meaningful to the conversation if you never heard what was asked for?
3. If you’re continually pushing a message without listening, don’t expect people to listen to you
What can listening do for you?
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Online Reputation Management (ORM)?
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What is ORM?
Is the act of monitoring, addressing, or rectifying undesirable/or negative search engine results or mentions in online media.
• the objective: have people speak about your brand/company in a positive sense by achieving and maintaining a positive online sentiment.
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The ORM Strategy. What is it?
1. using social media to manage and monitor online buzz and sentiment about your company or product set, by engaging people positively.
2. pushing down negative (or undesirable) mentions of brand, products, or company in the search engine results pages
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Sometimes, It Finds You
You could do everything right: be responsive, treat your employees and customers well. It happens to the best of companies.
• a customer, an employee, or an ex-employee feels they have been wronged, mistreated, or is just wants payback.
• even after your best efforts to resolve it, they post negative comments on blogs, forums, or they lodge a complaint online.
• fact or fiction, after months on the web, and possibly thousands of eyes, the damage has been done.
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A Bad Reputation, Human. To Combat it, Divine
Two fundamental concepts when dealing with search engine reputation management: Monitor and Engage.
What Should You Be Monitoring?
• Your Brand(s)
• Your Product(s)
• Your Key Executive(s)
- Include Negative and Positive modifiers: “sucks” “scam” “kudos” “great”
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How Monitoring Might Have HelpedReal World Example:
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How Monitoring Might Have Helped
SERP: Coco Key Reviews
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Treating the Symptoms: Preventative
Protect your brand visibility on the web: optimize brand content as a best practice
• optimize all of your digital communications (i.e. newsletters, emails)
• press releases
• website
• human resource listings (job ads)
• investor relations
It doesn’t necessarily put the brand in control, but it’s a much better situation than scrambling after the fact.
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
Engaging the NegativeOnce a negative mention has been identified, here are a few basic
steps in dealing with it:
1. Research the situation
- is there merit behind these negative remarks?
2. Be ready to respond
- if the remarks need correction, respond with the corrections and ask for those to be posted.
- if the remarks are true, attempt to work it out with whomever
3. Above all: be honest, be transparent, and LISTEN
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Tools To Help You Monitor
• Google Alerts
• SocialMention
• Trackur
• Google Blog Search
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
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A company must be able to provide quick, effective CRM. It’s crucial in today’s market place.
CRM, in the social age, combats negative remarks about your company, products, and service, while responding immediately to a customer’s concerns and reverse the situation.
Using social media as a CRM tool, can allow you to earn the trust of the consumer quickly.
Sting like a Bee.
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How to Benefit from Social CRM and ORM
In order to benefit from social media, you must become part of the community.
Referrals/comments from customers posted to various social platforms who have used your product or service, more often than not, influence a potential customer’s decision to purchase.
Social media is a referral program on hyper-active-hyper-drive.
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Coffee Break
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Key Points About Profiles & The Social Graph
Key Things About Social Profiles
Followers and FollowingEach Social Platform is unique, but there are constants between them: who follows you and who you follow.
Not All Followers Are Created EqualThere isn’t a 1:1 with followers, and there isn’t a 1:1 with who you’re following. Key Items to keep in mind with your profiles:
• Have a wide gap between followers and following
• Influence of a follower and following matters
Influence Effects Reach and Impact
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Social Influencing Search Results
Google and Bing Are Using Social Profile Data
Beyond augmenting the SERPs with Twitter firehose data (Bing with firehose Facebook data), your Google Profile also effects the results.
Your Google Account is also being used to personalize your results beyond search history, results clicked-on, and IP address. They are also monitoring who is in your “social circle”.
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Social Influencing Search ResultsGoogle Search Result Examples
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Tools of the Social Tradecraft
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Dashboard CentralHootSuite, Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and others allow for you survey and monitor your Social Media Universe.
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Bit.ly & Goo.glbit.ly and goo.gl allow users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier.
Bit.ly and Goo.gl use 301 Redirects (Permanent Redirects) allowing trust and relevance to flow through the shortened link. Giving the original source the credit for the link.
*Bit.ly also allows users to create custom shortened links to make them more memorable and clickable to users
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Bit.ly Metrics
Once you shorten your links using bit.ly, it begins tracking metrics on those links.
As you can see, this information can give you an idea of the how “viral” your links are, and how far your message/meme has spread.
Bit.ly Metrics
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Bit.ly Metrics for Individual Links
This is the individual link view of a specific link that you have submitted.
• Individual Link Clicks
• Referring Sites
• Country Referrals
• QR Code for LinkTIP: adding a “+” to the bit.ly link URL will display this page.
Bit.ly Metrics
Create a Social Media Attack Strategy
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)
Creating Your Internal Push Strategy
• the strategy you use to push your social message out into the wilderness
Create a Social Blitzkrieg
• the aim of this strategy is to create “waves” (multi-prong approach) of pushes throughout your communities by using internal resources
• the advantage: makes everything a team effort. one person doesn’t carry the load and/or the success or failure of a campaign
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Positioning Your Attack
Assessing Influence
After the team has been assembled, it’s time to assess their spheres of influence. It’s a key element to this strategy; understanding who has a strong influence over communities and who doesn’t.
Klout and PeerIndex.net
These tools will help you assess which of your chosen team members has better, stronger, and longer reach of impact and influence.
Please remember these are not gospel, but a guide to help you determine member positioning based on the available metrics
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Positioning Your AttackSample Roster and Flights
It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)
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It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)The 1st Wave
The Parent Entity in the diagram above is a social media asset (i.e. company blog, parent Twitter account, parent Facebook Fan Page, or LinkedIn Company Page, etc.)
• when the parent entity publishes on the aforementioned platforms, it will have it’s own natural push into the communities at large. Without an internal strategy in place, this is where the meme dies: left to generate it’s own buzz and movement.
• every company should/needs to encourage it’s employees to become satellite proselytizers of the brand and the meme.
• individuals to create and manage a trustworthy reputation within their space
• relies heavily on the 2nd wave.
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)
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It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)The 2nd Wave
The integral piece of the strategy.
- relies on the “individual” off-shoot from the parent to have a good reputation within their respective community and following
- relies on meme-timing, so as not to seem “disingenuous” or “spammy”.
The second wave can last a couple a days, if need be. This is where the coordination comes into play. Depending on how many individuals you have, you can set up “mini-waves” at the 2nd Wave.
The objective at the second wave level is to penetrate as deeply as possible into the 3rd Wave (The Communities-At-Large)
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)
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It’s a Ballroom Blitz (Krieg)The 3rd Wave
Controlling the meme at the 3rd wave is close to impossible, which is why it is imperative in the first two waves that message be engineered but not feel contrived. It’s walking a fine line of control and art.
The more strategy you can apply to social media efforts to ensure visibility, branding, and interaction to elicit the desired reaction in a community/communities, the better.
Twitter: @topfloortech | @TonyVerre
Proof is in the Pudding
* Campaign was engineered by myself and TFT colleagues over a 2-day Period
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• Visits increased over 264% | Unique Visits increased over 259%• Total Website Bounce Rate decreased over 5%
Measuring Social Success• Attribute relative credit to social media investments for
influencing customer acquisition, persuasion, and conversion
• Understand the total impact that social media investments have on the business from both direct traffic (click-through) and e-Commerce perspectives
• Compare the click-through performance and conversion performance of social networking websites against other campaigns, such as syndicated video, blogs, and micro-sites
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Questions & Answers
Thank You!
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Next Top Floor Technologies Seminar
Website Usability WorkshopFriday, August 5th – 9 AM to NoonCrowne Plaza – Wauwatosa
See flyer in your folder for more information and a discount code.