social media whats going on

http://richardstacy.com

Social mediaWhat’s going on

Presentation by Richard Stacy to PRCA Food & Drink Group

12 August 2009


Why I am not going to talk about Twitter

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008


Why I am not going to talk about Twitter

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

• Tools are coming and going all the time • The future of even the well established ones is still in doubt

• If you base your strategy on the latest ‘bright shiny things’ you will always be changing your strategy

• If you understand ‘what’s going on’behind all these tools your strategy will be future proof


Traditional media Social media

Its different


Traditional media Social media

Its different

You wouldn’t drive your car into the ocean or try to take a sailing dingy to Tesco

But lots of people are doing this with social media, assuming it is just a new channel – its not

If it worked with traditional media it almost certainly won’t in social media


Why is it different?

Clay ShirkyHow cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history

Presentation at the State Department, Washington DC, June

2009


The Connected Crowd

Red Lines = one-to-many mass messages(i.e. the way we have always done it)

Green Lines = social media space - highly specific, individualised, communication Some call it nonsense, but it is connected nonsense (just like the contents of your head)

Red line communication just doesn’t work in social media


The Connected Crowd

Be useful

So how do you exert influence in the world (network) of connected nonsense?


Sacred objects of social media usefulness

The sacred cow of Content

The silver bullet of Conversation

The holy grailof Community

Different Lots more

The home ofinfluence

The new media


Content: liberate what you have

• In the ‘Old World’ we locked-up content in web sites, newspapers, press releases

• The world of social media is all about creating information that is mobile and can live in many different places – blog posts, tweets, status updates

• So the first step with content is to liberate and optimise the stuff you already have


Content liberation: the first four steps



Populate your YouTube‘real estate’ – its the World’s no.2 search engine



Flickr is the world’s all your photo library –

key images should be in it



Social media news releases –they penetrate social

media they are proven to improve coverage traditional media

not only do

in



Social media newsrooms –an easy to use platforms

(as well as allowing you to do other useful stuff)

that automatically optimises your content


Content: think gravity


Content: think gravity

• Issac Newton’s law of gravity basically said “the more mass you have, the greater the attraction”

• That is sort-of how it works with content in social media

• You don’t want one-off smash and grab, here today gone tomorrow content – you want a mass of gravitational content that will attract people over a long period of time

• It is detailed, it is niche and it can be inserted into conversations – therefore it is USEFUL


Conversation


Conversation

Don’t expect tools such as these to monitor the conversation or

provide the information you need to design and operate a social

media strategy

They are not specific or real-time enough and they focus on places as

centres of influence

However, the conversation is a space, not a place, and it comes

and goes in real-time


Conversation: tracking the space

The most important tool to have is something that monitors social

media spaces in real time. Without one of these you can’t

‘do’ social media


Conversation: 24/7 monitoring panel

You need one of these – a 24/7 real-time monitoring panel,

specific to each client, that you use to stay in touch with what is

happening AS IT HAPPENS


Conversation: 24/7 monitoring panel

• The good news is you can’t buy one of these – you have to make them, using freely available tools

• The other good news is that they only work if someone is watching them and extracting information and analysis from them

• i.e. they are a service, more than a product and this is a service you should be selling to every single one of your clients - NOW


Conversation: talking back

• Once you know what the conversations are, you will probably need to join in

• This can seem difficult – i.e. there are millions of people / consumers out there all talking = too much information to deal with

• Fortunately, while you may have millions of consumers there are only four conversations they are prepared to have with you– The your product or service is good conversation

– Your product or service is bad conversation– The “how to / what is” conversation– The “make a new one / make it better”conversation



“Your product or service is good”So say “thanks”

“Your product or service is bad”Say what you are doing to fix it, or why

you can’t fix it

“What is your product or service?”Provide the links to the content that explains this / tells them your story

(P.S. Never a link to an ad.)

“This is how your product or service could be better”

Create a space where all this information can be shared

(Check out Getsatisfaction.com)



“Your product or service is good”So say “thanks”

“Your product or service is bad”Say what you are doing to fix it, or why

you can’t fix it

“What is your product or service?”Provide the links to the content that explains this / tells them your story

(P.S. Never a link to an ad.)

“This is how your product or service could be better”

Create a space where all this information can be shared and discussed

(Check out GetSatisfaction.com)

This is basically Every organisations’ Social Media

Strategy on

One Piece of Paper


Conversation: example

I recommended AideRSS to a fellow twitterer and AideRSS were

listening, got back and said


The future of customer service

• Prediction: Within 5 years all of customer service will have moved to Twitter

• Because if someone has a question they will simply use Twitter (or its replacement) to ask it. And they will expect one of three things to happen:– The company concerned to be listening and respond with

the answer– Someone else who is monitoring the space (perhaps a

competitor) to provide the answer– If the answer isn’t satisfactory, they will be contacted

by the digital community that is pressuring for a satisfactory answer

• This is why Twitter is not a fad – but a front-line tool for engaging the power of the Connected Crowd


Community: what not to do

Huggies paid money to place (dump) their own ‘zone’within this mother’s

community

Why was this not sensible?See next page


It was not sensible because...

• Circle of Moms may be a big community – but it is still only one of many hundred (possibly thousands) of parenting communities

• All of these parenting communities contain only a fraction of the total conversation about parenting issues

• In any case – there is no point in creating your own zone – the action is happing in the ‘zones’that community members have created for themselves

• And it doesn’t cost you any money to be here

• This is a classic example of driving a car into the ocean – crunching a traditional media approach into social media. Not surprisingly it was an idea of Huggies digital and media agencies


What Huggies should have done

• Listened to the conversation that was going on• Worked out which bit of it was relevant to their

product (i.e. Just the bit of parenting that is about dealing with the messy stuff that comes out of the middle bit of kids)

• Produced content / initiatives that responded to the issues this conversation highlighted

• Talked to people in the places where the conversation was happening

• Media cost – zero• Time and content production cost – miniscule

compared to the cost of an ad


Community: summary

• Don’t see community as a way to engage with your whole audience

• Never rent space in a community• Work out how to support existing communities with content and conversation (rather than create your own community)

• If you are creating a community – keep it small (brand loyalists, employees)

• Adopt an outpost strategy – e.g. an outpost in Facebook, never a paid-for “walled garden” within Facebook


Beware: The Trough looms!

Most organisations are here

Tacticalopportunity

Strategic opportunity

Dell is here


Make sure your client’s social media initiatives

don’t end up as one of these

I am here to helpRichard Stacy

[email protected]://richardstacy.com

@richardstacy

mailto:[email protected]

http://richardstacy.com/

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