Setting the stage –The state of social media marketing

Based on two annual studies of 4,200 social media marketers•Most comprehensive benchmark studies of social media marketing

2009 Report: Marketers captivated by hype and ease of implementation• Ignored proven marketing principles, launched social initiatives without a plan or purpose

2010 Report: Social marketing maturing from trial-and-error to strategic•Methodologies for developing a coherent strategy to achieve objectives emerging

Payoff of two-year study – the Social Marketing ROAD Map Methodology•A practical method for mapping an effective social media strategy for ROI .

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Three questions to ask yourself before starting down the ROAD to social marketing maturity

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Q1. Where are you now?

Q2. Where do you want to be?

Q3. How do you get there from here?

Q1. Where are you now?Factors that determine social marketing maturity

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33% 40% 23%

Q2. Where do you want to be? Social marketing objective – measureable ROI

How organizations perceive social media marketing at budget time…

7% producing measureable ROI, increase budget liberally

49% promising tactic, eventually produce ROI, increase budget conservatively

27% value unknown, why invest more?

17% basically free, keep it that way•Destined to get what they pay for .

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Q3. How will you get there from here?Develop a strategy that outlives technology

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Trial phase thinks “Devices” first –(social media technology platforms)

Focus changes as marketers mature

Strategic phase – “devices” last

Technology-agnostic methodology to map a strategy that outlives technology and optimizes ROI

The Social Marketing ROAD Map

The Social Marketing ROAD Map –A method for mapping a social marketing strategy

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ROAD Map –Research Phase

Gathering intelligence on target audiences and their behavior

Segmenting and profiling target audiences

Recruiting a social marketing team

Finding and repurposing existing content

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Gathering intelligence –What to monitor on social media

Related search phrases

Industry sectors

Technologies

Companies

Brands

Products

Services

Key issues

Industry experts

Key employees

Social media factors

Social voice (or strength)

Sentiment

Passion

Unique authors

Social reach

Content downloads

Content sharing

Reviews and recommendations

Platform preferences

Audience segments

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Monitoring factors unique to social media

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Monitoring tools and solutions used

Free tools – measure social media in general or specific social sites

Paid solutions – complex monitoring and reporting requirements

More than 100 listed in handbook .

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16%

20%

58%

82%

Custom tools or solutions developed in-house to monitor and measure social

media initiatives

Paid tools - licensed social media monitoring and measuring solutions

(Radian6, Omniture, etc.)

Free tools used to monitor and measure a specific social site (Twitter Search,

Facebook Insights, etc.)

Free tools used to monitor and measure social media in general (SocialMention,

Google Analytics, etc.)

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded Nov 2009, N=2,317

Segmenting and profiling target audiences –Simple segmentation

Silent Majority• Joins but rarely participates

•Reads, watches, listens to UGC

•Few friends, contacts, followers

•Low level of social influence

Vocal Minority• Joins and actively participates

•Shares UGC and commentary

•Many friends, contacts, followers

•Moderately high level of social influence

Social Authority•Builds and moderates communities

•Creates and aggregates UGC

•Very many friends, contacts, followers

•Very high level of social influence

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Profiling target audiences

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The social marketing team –Finding and recruiting candidates

Not many organizations outsourcing social marketing responsibilities

Bad news: you may have to build a team from existing resources

Good news: You’ll find qualified candidates everywhere!

•Marketing

•Top management

•Customer service

•Sales

•Technology / engineering

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Finding and repurposing existing content –A solution to the content problem

Problem

Sharing content is critical aspect of social marketing

Creating content is time consuming and expensive

Constant pressure to create original articles, posts, videos, etc.

Need for entirely original content for social marketing is over-rated .

Solution

Many types of content already exists in your organization

Most content has only reached small share of target audiences

Start with audit of existing content

Repurpose content – update or reformat existing relevant content

•Rewrite news releases as blog posts

•Voice-over PPTs to create videos

•Rewrite self-published articles as blog posts

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ROAD Map –Objectives phase

How organizations are targeting and measuring objectives

Aligning objectives with target audiences

Aligning objectives with social marketing metrics

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Targeting and measuring objectives –The first step to alignment

Chart: organizations targeting and measuring objectives, by maturity

You can’t achieve what you can’t target and measure

Mature social marketers much more likely to target and measure

The more mature your social marketing, the more effective .

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7%

15%

18%

11%

21%

20%

42%

40%

32%

58%

20%

32%

31%

20%

35%

29%

56%

56%

53%

76%

32%

36%

44%

45%

54%

54%

69%

71%

75%

88%

Reduce customer support costs

Improve customer support quality

Improve public relations

Reduce customer acquisition costs

Increase brand or product awareness

Improve brand or product reputation

Improve search engine rankings

Increase sales revenue

Increase lead generation

Increase website traffic

Phase III: Strategic Phase II: Transition Phase I: Trial

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded Nov 2009, N=2,317

Aligning objectives with top target audiences

Use “audience profile” to define target audiences and where to find them

•Vocal minority – end users on social networks

•Social authority – key bloggers covering topic

What do you want from each target audience (objectives)?

•More VM members in our social networks

•More SA bloggers posting about us .

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Aligning objectives with metrics that matter

Metrics used depends on your unique business model, for example…

Metrics if driven by B2B leads•Leads generated into pipeline

•Leads qualified and nurtured

•More difficult to track metrics related to ROI

Metrics if driven by B2C ecommerce•Traffic origination

•Sales conversions

•Easier to track metrics related to ROI

Also depends on metrics that matter most in each social media platform .

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Aligning objectives with target audiences and social marketing metrics

Target audience segment Social marketing objectives Social marketing metrics

End users / Vocal minority Increase website traffic

Improve search engine rankings

Increase sales revenue

Reduce customer support costs

# unique visitors

SERPs

# conversions

# microblog incident posts

Engineering / Social authority Increase technical community

Increase member engagement

Increase product awareness

Increase product education

# discussion group members

# new discussions / comments

Reach

# content downloads

Purchasing / Vocal minority Improve brand reputation

Increase sales revenue

Sentiment and Passion

# conversions

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ROAD Map –Actions phase

Why “fast and easy” trumps tactical effectiveness

Social media platforms were not created equal •Different tactics and best practices are required

The importance of a social media policy

Managing tactics and resources

Budgeting for social media ROI

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“Fast and easy” trumps tactical effectiveness

Comparing effectiveness, effort and usage of tactics

Blogger relations is most effective but requires most effort – low usage

Social networks ½ as effective but ¼ the effort required – highest usage

Prioritize by effectiveness to create and prove value

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Social media platforms were not created equal.Why various tactics and practices are required.

Blogging

Microblogging

Social networking

Multimedia content sharing

Social bookmarking

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Blogging tactics and best practices

Brand and personify your blog. Focus on building personalized relationships and thought-leadership

Be engaging. Write compelling content with the goal of triggering a reaction and commentary

Define your community. Readers must immediately understand the topic of your blog

Plan your content mix. Create editorial plan with interesting mix of posts and content

Drive conversions. Add links to posts that drive readers to landing page conversion points .

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Microblogging tactics and best practices

Build a following. Post keyword-rich messages that will be found and followed by your intended audience

Post a relevant mix. A mix of messages with links to conversion points, third party content, etc.

Use @replies and direct messages. Individually engage those you are following and are following you

Hashtag it. Add the hashtag symbol # to keywords to track and attract an audience

Leverage applications. There is a plethora of Twitter tools to manage microblogging .

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Social networking tactics and best practices

Build a community. Building a community for your brand is like building a following of friends

Instigate a mob mentality. Attract like-minded people who share common interests

Make it eventful. Use invites to events like webinars, conferences and training programs

Q&A. Use tools to ask thought-provoking questions and demonstrate thought leadership

Post a relevant mix. Use a balanced mix of original and third party content

Gather insights interactively. Surveying fans and polling contacts is a way to engage .

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Multimedia sharing tactics and best practices

Find content everywhere. Training videos, sales presentations, event photos, other multimedia content

Publish it everywhere. Embed links to multimedia on blog posts, website landing pages and email

By invitation. Find friends and peers on sharing sites and invite them to subscribe to your channels

Generate leads. Add links to offer landing pages on videos, photos, presentations and documents

Search engines love multimedia. Use keyword-rich descriptions and tags on content to rank content .

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Social bookmarking tactics and best practices

Start by sharing content yourself. Bookmark your own website, blog or other content hub

Add sharing buttons. Including social bookmark sharing buttons on blog posts and outbound comm

Identify relevant content and engage contributors. Interact with those who bookmark relevant content to build a community …

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Managing many tactics and resources

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The most important practice –the social media policy

A good social media policy…

Encourages, rather than discourages, participation

Aligns with company values and existing guidelines

Safeguards reputation and intellectual property .

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Budgeting for ROI –Social media’s slice of the online marketing pie

Social media’s slice growing at expense of other tactics

Time intensive – 59% of slice allocated to staff salaries

Email and search workhorses

Website is content hub for other tactics so cost often allocated to website …

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ROAD Map –Devices phase

Selecting social media technology platforms and brands last

Random acts of social marketing

Constructing a social marketing architecture

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Selecting technology platforms last –a giant leap in social marketing maturity

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Trial phase thinks “Devices” first –(social media technology platforms)

Strategic phase – “devices” last

Time to shift from technology-agnostic to technology and brand specific thinking

Tactical plan will identify technology platforms required…

From technology platform to brand –Analyzing characteristics of social media brands

You may need a social network –but which one?

•Leading brand, niche or custom

Conduct a SWOT-like analysis to prioritize social brands

Select brands that fit your tactical plan and have a clear purpose in your social architecture

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Random acts of social marketing –how it works without an architectural plan

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Constructing a social marketing architecture –the hub and spoke framework

Hub sites for content and conversion

Spoke sites for building communities and relationships

Architecture directs traffic flow in and out of hubs

Number of sites not important –a plan and purpose for every site is .

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Case study: the social marketing architecture for Cisco’s Collaboration Solutions

Target audience is collaboration solution prospects and customers

Platforms selected based on tactics to achieve objectives

Every platform has a manageable plan and a clear purpose .

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Hub sites:Purpose of website

Website is hub of the marketing strategy for collaboration solutions

Occasionally updated content with marketing information on solutions / products / services

Traditional SEO tactics – search ranking influence diminishing

Primary point of conversion .

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Purpose of blog

Blog is hub of the social marketing strategy for collaboration solutions

Shareable content / commentary on collaboration solutions

Content frequency and relevance increases search ranking influence

Primary point of conversation and referral to conversion .

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Spoke sites:Purpose of Facebook

Build a community of fans (“Likes”) for Cisco Collaboration

Fans engaged by sharing opinions and commentary to posts

Links drive traffic to content on blog or website for conversion .

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Purpose of Twitter

Share 140 character tweets with “followers” for quick engagement

Adds value to relationship by connecting customers and prospects to relevant content

Links drive traffic to content on blog or website for conversion .

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Purpose of Forum

Build a community of technically-oriented prospects and customers

Visitors “join conversations and share collaboration best practices.”

Members gain access to exclusive content and member-only events

Adds mutual value via customer service and product development .

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Purpose of YouTube

Videos are “most engaging” and entertaining media

YouTube provides video storage, sharing and embedding capabilities

Keyword-rich video tagging increases search ranking influence

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Purpose of Flickr

Photos are “most used” type of online multi-media

Flickr provides image search, storage and sharing capabilities

Keyword-rich image tagging increases search ranking influence .

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Purpose of RSS Feed

“Push” blog content rather than require readers to “Pull” it

Links traffic to source of feed, content and conversion .

Use of RSS declining as Twitter and other notifications increase .

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Every platform in the Cisco architecture has a manageable plan and a clear purpose

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Putting the pieces together –constructing your social marketing architecture

Content and conversion are essential factors – start at the hub

Prioritize roll-out of spokes sites mastering each before adding next

Practice continuous improvement –repeat the ROAD Map process …

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SummaryMapping a social marketing strategy for ROI

Social media marketing creating a new world of opportunities for marketers

You need a compass to help you explore this new terrain

Social Marketing ROAD Map – a practical methodology for mapping a social media strategy to ROI

Thank You!

Sergio Balegno

Research Director, MarketingSherpa

@SergioBalegno

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