Social Content MarketingSocial Content MarketingEric Rehl, Interactive, Robert W. Baird

Financial Services Social Communications Forum

Business Development Institute

April 14, 2011 – New York

Agenda

• A little about Baird

• Baird’s social presence, and why we did it

• What is social content marketing?

• Formalizing social content marketing

• 5 rules to live by• 5 rules to live by

• What’s next?

A Little About Baird

• Headquarters in Milwaukee, WI

• Founded in 1919

• Approximately 2,600 Associates worldwide

• Offices in USA, Europe and Asia

• $82 Billion in AUM• $82 Billion in AUM

• Complimentary business lines:

� Wealth management

� Capital markets

� Equity research

� Asset Management

� Private equity

• Employee owned – “fiercely independent”

Baird’s Social Presence

TODAY COMING SOON

Private

Communities

Why Did We Do It?

• Reputation management

• Brand awareness

• Market our capabilities

• Recruiting

BUT HOW DO YOU DO IT?

• Products?

• Pricing?

• People?• Recruiting

• DIFFERENTIATE

• People?

• Performance?

SOCIAL CONTENT MARKETING

Demonstrate Expertise, Prove Capabilities = Differentiate

What Is Social Content Marketing?

Content marketing is not a new concept, but SOCIAL MEDIA has changed it.

OLD

Creation and distribution of content to attract or retain customers.

• Website• Email

SOCIAL

Offering relevant content to the right audience where they are.

• Facebook• LinkedIn• Email

• Direct mail• Hand-to-hand• Press releases

• LinkedIn• Twitter• YouTube• Slideshare• Digg• Reddit• Share• Blogs• Communities• RSS• Mobile• And so on…

�Unexplored marketingopportunities

�Untapped content potential

Formalizing Social Content Marketing

Good News – You are probably doing some of this already.

• Establish social media strategy and presence

• Find and generate content

� Look internally – probably already being produced…and approved

�Research and analysis�Research and analysis

�Newsletters

�Videos, speeches, presentations

�Create new social initiatives

• Establish editorial management – must be someone’s job

• Tagging and metadata (SEO)

• Minimize PDFs…to an extent that’s realistic

• Partner with Compliance

�Help them understand the nature of social distribution

Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By

Rule 1: Tell…don’t sell.

• People don’t want to be sold to via social media…they are seeking content that adds value for them.

• Regardless of your content strategy (thought leadership, strategy (thought leadership, recruiting, etc.), your audience will see right through selling via social media…and will turn away.

• Let the story your content tells do the selling.

Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By

Rule 2: Just because you have a social presence…does not mean you are present.

• It’s not enough to just be out there.there.

• Audience needs to know you are active to continue visiting, stay engaged.

• Consistently publishing and sharing.

Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By

Rule 3: Be consistent. Be relevant.

• Consistency is key.

• Establishing a publishing schedule and stick to it.

• At Baird…• At Baird…

� Twitter: 2 tweets/day

� Facebook: 4-5 postings/week

� YouTube/LinkedIn: Ad hoc, as content is available

• Content must be relevant to audience to be of value.

• Publish selectively – what’s relevant for Twitter may not be relevant for Facebook.

Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By

Rule 4: Compliance corners…don’t cut them.

• Compliance corners are square…not round.

• Engage Compliance as a • Engage Compliance as a partner is social content marketing – make them part of publishing schedule.

• Best way to torpedo social content publishing is to introduce unnecessary Compliance risk.

Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By

Rule 5: Activate, activate, activate…repeat.

• Critical element that is often overlooked.

• This is not “Field of Dreams”…audience will not come just because you build it.it.

• Activate your social presence:

� Integrate into other online channels – websites, email signatures, online advertising, cross promote social.

� Integrate into traditional communications channels.

� Leverage employee networks.

� Drive traffic to social channels first.

� SEO

What’s Next for Social Content Marketing?

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOBILE

• You’ve seen the stats…

� By end of 2011, 50% of mobile devices in use will be smart phones

� Smart phones expected to out-� Smart phones expected to out-sell computers and laptops during 2011 holiday season

• I AM NOT talking about the social platforms going mobile. They are already there.

• I AM talking about your content being ready for mobile. Is it consummable via mobile devices?

� HTML as much as possible

� Optimize for mobile interfaces –mobile sites and apps

Thank You. Questions?

Eric Rehl

Robert W. Baird & Company

Vice President, Interactive

414-298-7465

erehl@rwbaird.comerehl@rwbaird.com

@ericrehl