Conversations Thro‟ Social Media

Srivathsan

Agenda:

Context setting

Technographics in Groundswell (Forrester term)

Social Media campaigns (How to plan)

Examples

Career in Social Media

References

Being a one hour session, only at a high level social media is

being discussed

A few thoughts!

“When you can affect the behavior that produces your desired outcome, you can

produce more of your desired outcome”.

“Your brand is what your customers say it is”.

“The value of a brand belongs to the market, and not to the company. The

company in this sense is a tool to create value for the brand...Brand in this sense -

it lives outside the company. When I say that the management is not prepared for

dealing with the brand, it is because in their mindset they are managing a closed

structure that is the company. The brand is an open structure - they don‟t know

how to manage a open structure”.

Groundswell & Social Media

Groundswell: A social trend in which people use technologies

to get things they need from each other, rather than from

traditional institutions like corporations.

Social Media: Fostering conversation and connection between

people.

Eyeballs |Awareness Consideration Preference Action Loyalty| Buyers

(items in bold – focus for social media)

Social Technographics

Creators

Critics

Collectors

Joiners

Spectators

Inactives

So, what is this?

Joiners

• Maintain profile in a social networking site

• Visit social networking sites

Spectators

• Read blogs

• Watch video from other users

• Listen to podcasts

• Read online forums

• Read customer reviews / ratings

Inactives

• None of these activities

Other three…

Creators

• Publish a blog

• Publish your own webpages

• Upload video you created

• Upload audio / music you created

• Write articles or stories & post them

Critics

• Post ratings & reviews

• Comment on blogs

• Contribute to online forums

• Contribute / edit articles in wiki

Collectors

• Use RSS feeds

• Add tags to webpages or photos

• "Vote" for websites online

Planning

Take a „POST‟ approach

P – People – Assess your customers‟ social activities.

O – Objective – What needs to be achieved?

S – Strategy – Plan for how relationships with customers

will change?

T – Technology – What platform to use? Whom to partner

with?

P - People

Build a team of enthusiastic people. To start with a small

team.

They should assess what customers‟ are talking about your

brand / product / service etc

O - Objective

From this exercise what is to be achieved?

Is it…increased brand awareness, lead generation, handing

customer complaints, managing a PR crisis etc?

Budget and ROI

S - Strategy

Steps Explanation

Listening

Use the SM for research and to better understand your customers. This goal is best

suited for companies that are seeking customer insights for use in marketing &

development.

Talking

Use the SM to spread messages about your company. Choose this goal if you are

ready to extend your current digital marketing initiatives (banner ads, search ads,

email) to a more interactive channel

Energizing

Find your most enthusiastic customers, and use the SM to supercharge the power of

their word of mouth. This works best for companies that know that they have brand

enthusiasts to energize.

Supporting

Set up SM tools to help your customers support each other. This is effective for

companies with significant support costs and customers who have a natural affinity for

each other.

Embracing

Integrate your customers into the way your business works including using their help

to design your products. This is the most challenging of the five goals, and it is best

suited to companies that have succeeded with one of the other four goals already.

Important questions

Questions to answer before proceeding:

How will we engage our customers?

How will that engagement grow over time?

General advice:

Create a plan that starts small but has room to grow

Think about consequences of your strategy

Put somebody important in charge of it

Use great care in selecting your technology and agency partners

Listening

M.D. Anderson Hospital

listened to its patient

Mr Perry and improved

its scheduling

More examples

Community for AXE body

spray and got insights on

how men think & what

language they use (main

topic of discussion: girls)

Main question for the company,

what did the owners like about

these cars? How could Mini take

advantage of that?

How to listen using technology

tools and leverage vendors

Set up your own private community:

A private community is like a continuously running, huge engaged

focus group – a natural interaction in a setting where you can listen

in.

Vendors: COMMUNISPACE, MARKET TOOLS, NETWORKED

INSIGHTS

Begin brand monitoring:

Hire a company to listen to the internet – blogs, discussions /

forums, YouTube, and everything else – on your behalf.

Vendors: Nielson‟s BuzzMetrics, TNS‟s Cymfony

What can be done?

…Through Listening:

Find out what your brand stands for

Understand how buzz is shifting

Save research money; increase research responsiveness

Find the sources of influence in your market

Manage PR crises

Generate new product and marketing ideas

Talking:

Techniques to „talk‟ in social media:

Post a viral video

Engage in social networks and user generated content sites

Join the blogosphere

Create a community

Examples

P&G

Blendtec

TIBCO

Energizing Energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of word of

mouth by connecting with, and turning on, your most committed

customers.

Word of mouth succeeds because:

It is believable:

Testimonials from customers are far more credible than any media source

It is self-reinforcing

Hear it from one person, and it is intriguing. Hear it from five or ten, even if you didn‟t

know them before, and it has to be true

It is self spreading

If a product is worth using, its word of mouth generates more word of mouth in a

cascade that‟s literally exponential

Techniques to Energize

• Tap into customers‟ enthusiasm with ratings and reviews

• This works best for retail companies and others with direct customer contact. Ex: eBags

• Create a community to energize your customers

• This works best if your customers are passionate about the product. Ex: Constant Contact,

Lego

• Participate in and energize online communities of your brand

enthusiasm

• Example: Lego

Supporting & Embracing

Supporting – Set up SM tools to help your customers support

each other

Embracing - Integrate your customers into the way your

business works including using their help to design your

products.

In all this, what to say?

How different your company is? [Say No to FEATURES]

How you THINK?

How you SERVE?

How you LISTEN?

How you RESPOND?

How do you add VALUE to your MARKET?

Content is King for Social Media. Answer customers‟ question

while creating content – “What is in it for me?”

Return on Investment

A big subject on its own.

General metrics: Buzz generated, leads generated, brand

awareness. Companies are investing in tools to make it

quantifiable.

If time permits, will prepare material on the same & share it.

Career in Social Media

Social Media Marketing Manager

Reputation Manager

Copywriter

Link Builder

SEO Specialist

Online Ads specialist

Operations

References

Books: Groundswell, Inbound Marketing, Social Media

Metrics, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Trust Agents

Blogs:

http://mashable.com/

http://chrisbrogan.com

http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog

QUESTIONS

THANK YOU

SRIVATHSAN.SRIDHARAN@HOTMAIL.COM