Soci

al M

edia

Roa

d M

ap

Char

t by:

Arn

o G

hel�

D

ata:

For

rest

er R

esea

rch

Sour

ce: h

ttp:

//w

ww

.bus

ines

swee

k.co

m/m

agaz

ine/

cont

ent/

07_2

4/b4

0384

05.h

tm

Viral marketing is to word of mouth what social media is to networking. These are not new phenomena or strange blips of human activity; they are old concepts on new platforms. The hundreds of thousands of new users per day �ocking to a variety of social media platforms are not exhibiting a new trend of consumer behavior, they are simply illuminating human behavior in an environment where we can �nally measure networking activity. And, of course, the ease with which users can network has made this human activity faster, more constant, and more likely to mutate at the drop of a hat.

So, when dealing with a mutating, super dynamic, and very demanding environment, you do not want to develop a strictly tactical roadmap. What you need instead is a social media marketing philosophy, and a nimble, dynamic, modern approach to content creation and management. Once your team has adapted to the idea of adaptability, your marketing presence will evolve alongside the market.

Goal

The best place for you to be in the social media landscape is leading the conversation. Though the current environment may be intimidating to the uninitiated, it is actually far easier to establish yourself now than it ever was before. Content is currency in the social media world and your way of thinking will be rewarded more than your budget or your one great idea.

The biggest challenge for corporate marketers and business leaders as they enter new media will be the seeming lack of control. User generated content not only avoids the checks and balances of scholarly research, but far worse, it avoids the boundaries of marketing speak and key message alignment. Do not despair; savvy consumers and business decision makers don’t want to hear savvy marketers. The new tone for e�ective marketing is frank speech with interested audiences.

The goal of your social media strategy should be to lead the conversation. The corporate website is no longer in control of the online brand presence, and the websites not part of the conversation are withering with a lack of interest. Here are the options ahead of you:

End users are talking about you.

End users are not talking about you.

You are talking about you and your industry.

Conversational marketing. You can take a proactive approach to the negative and you can promote the positive.

Perhaps you and your industry are just not that interesting. Perhaps you are not talking in the right place.

You are not talking about you and your industry.

If you are not part of the conversation, you either do not know what is being said or do not care what is being said. End users won’t like either.

Silence.

The reality is, marketers should only despair for lack of participation. Control was always an illusion maintained by strictly adhering to a set of narrowly de�ned variables, and in times of great demand the fact may be obscured, but never changed, that the end user (consumer or decision maker) is always ultimately in control. When you accept that, you are ready to perform social media market-ing, where the goal is to converse with your audience, not control messaging through soliloquized

Use your in�uence wisely

Develop the community

Build a relevant presence

Evaluate the landscape

delivery. Social media is like a kitchen table, and most companies are accustomed to a podium.

Once you are ready to be a part of the social media landscape, you have four basic activities ahead of you that you need to consider not only to develop a social media presence, but to maintain and continually improve your social media strategy.

Who is Participating?

Not every industry will be revolutionized by social media. Some parts of the world are not as connected as others and some industries do not have as much relevant discussion as others. However, social media usage continues to increase and there is a groundswell of participation starting with consumer markets and spreading to business markets. It may not be industry standard yet, but it seems clear that one direction social media is not moving in, is away.

Large Corporations12% of Fortune 500 companies run a corporate blog as of June 2008. Blogging arguably began in the mid 90’s, but the spread of corporate blogs among large corporations has been rapid, with the earliest Fortune 500 blogs cropping up within the past 2 to 5 years.

Small Business2008 research by Warrilow & Co. shows 28% of all small business owners participating in social media. The research also showed 67% of fast growth companies (that is companies with annual revenue growth of 20% or more) participate in LinkedIn.

B2B2007 research by KnowledgeStorm shows 69% of B2B buyers participating in social networks, 80% participating in blogs, and 80% participating in wikis. It also shows 90% participating in online video and 53% listening to podcasts.

ConsumersImprovements to mobile platforms, cheaper mobile data packages, and increased access to WiFi are making mediums such as vlogging and microblogging more in�uential. The next generation of content is already waxing, and many marketers have yet to indulge in existing opportunities. Keep an eye on trends and try your best to know what is happening now, and what will happen next.

Pamphlet created by Benjamin Little of benlittle.vox.com. Cover image is public domain courtesy of the United States Library of Congress.

Population Population Internet Usage, % Population Usage Usage Growth( 2008 Est.) % of World Latest Data ( Penetration ) % of World 2000-2008

Africa 955,206,348 14.30% 51,022,400 5.30% 3.60% 1030.20%Asia 3,776,181,949 56.60% 529,701,704 14.00% 37.60% 363.40%Europe 800,401,065 12.00% 382,005,271 47.70% 27.10% 263.50%Middle East 197,090,443 3.00% 41,939,200 21.30% 3.00% 1176.80%North America 337,167,248 5.10% 246,402,574 73.10% 17.50% 127.90%Latin America/Caribbean 576,091,673 8.60% 137,300,309 23.80% 9.80% 659.90%Oceania / Australia 33,981,562 0.50% 19,353,462 57.00% 1.40% 154.00%

Global Totals 6,676,120,288 1,407,724,920 21.10% 290.00%

NOTES: (1) Internet Usage and World Population Statistics are for March 31, 2008. (2) Demographic (Population) numbers are based on data from the US Census Bureau . (3)

Internet usage information comes from data published by Nielsen//NetRatings, by the International Telecommunications Union, by local NIC, and other reliable sources. (4) This

information was gathered at www.internetworldstats.com. Copyright © 2001 - 2008, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.

There is Opportunity Everywhere

1. Evaluate the Landscape. To truly be an e�ective social media marketer you have to be an e�ective social media participant. Just as with traditional marketing mixes, social media has di�erent mediums and combining them in di�erent manners will create di�erent textures. Blogs tend to be directed conversations where forums are more collaborative conversations. Networking communities have unique cultures and di�erent platforms have di�erent opportunities to engage community members. Not all social media outlets will be right for your message, but you should be aware of them all.

The �rst phase of your strategy is to build your own awareness of the landscape. Discover and monitor what is being said, and where it is being said. Use tools like Google blog search, Technorati, Summarize, and other blog aggregators to �nd the threads of conversation. Seek out back channels where thought leaders and bloggers might be connecting through social networking sites or the now old fashioned list-serv.

2. Build a Relevant Presence. Your organization, if it is any good at what it does, has some very skilled and specialized knowledge stored away. To be successful at using social media, you need to make it a priority and create relevant content. Ambiguous marketing promises have their place, but in the world of social media, people want to get to the point. Any lack of honesty, lack of interest, or lack of expertise can de-motivate your stakeholders as much as compelling content and expertise will motivate them.

Where you have found relevant conversations or communities, participate. The environment does not have to be yours for it to carry your brand. IBM has more than 100,000 employees registered

on LinkedIn, making them much more accessible on a personal level and placing their brand name into thousands of connected pro�les. Your employees are an important

part of your brand. Encourage them to participate and allow some time to be spent on work hours updating their professional online presence. This could

be as simple as a networking pro�le, or as involved as commenting on blogs and forums.

Commenting is extraordinarily important in social media. Not only does it show that you are a community member rather than

simply a speaker, but it also allows you unique opportunities. Sharing expertise boosts your authority on the topic. Leaving links back to your blog or community drives tra�c when people are interested in what you have to say.

Responding to negative coverage gives you an opportunity to be proactive with your community, and people appreci-ate being answered.

The beauty of sharing your expertise via social media is: people are reading because they have interest. In the classic marketing sense, your job is to match supply with demand, whether you �nd demand or generate demand. The new arrangement with consumers who have integrated their lives with the internet is one where they will �nd you some of the time, if you are there to be found. What you are seeking now is an intersection of interest and information, and you are responsible more for the information than the interest. Certainly do not plan to abandon your demand generation e�orts, or assume that interest will spontaneously manifest in the market-place; but in social media you can set aside your demand generation mode of thinking and focus on really connecting with your constituency.

4. Use Your In�uence. Nobody needs a new 75¢ �ashlight or another cheap pen with your logo on it. In a world full of data and laden with advertising, your brand will �nd the most traction through good ideas and interesting content. The more people that identify with your brand and �nd your online presence interesting, the more in�uence you command.

Measure your in�uence by looking at metrics such as RSS subscribers, bookmarks, digg presence, technorati presence, Facebook fans, and the time tested measure of unique visitors. Anything to amplify your message, such as mentions in blog posts, wikis, or end user referrals, should be considered valuable. Your social media mesh will develop ideas and brand awareness, but when it comes time to measure results, the ROI may not be directly associ-ated. You are not guiding people down a particular path or putting forth particular calls to action in your conversational tone, so think of your measure of in�uence in the same way you might measure public relations e�orts.

One of the greatest bene�ts of social media marketing is an integration of the voice of the customer with the voice of the company. Your brand’s stakeholders will become an integral part of product development, messaging, and, at times, will even vet your brand to prospects. Past, present, and future of the company will become a wonderfully jumbled mess and your job in this phase is to pick and choose where you pay the most attention. Focus your e�orts on continued development of the community, and harvest good ideas from the conversations taking place about your brand or industry.

3. Develop the Community. In a 2006 Roper report titled “Public Pulse,” the most e�ective method of in�uencing others was identi�ed as listening. Authority, status, and, experience are

better for the ego, but do not develop communities where emotionally invested stakeholders are created. Organiza-tions with online communities are seeing a trend of increased loyalty associated with engaged stakeholders, and that

creating that engagement is exactly what you want to do. Provide opportunities for your community members to settle into the level of participation they are most comfortable with.

» Draw in existing stakeholders using the methods available to you. Email signatures, corporate newsletters, and corporate websites are great ways to start bringing tra�c to your social media network.

» Direct your customers to increasingly more detailed content by connecting your blog, forum, newsletter, corporate website, and micro-blogging e�orts into a marketing mesh so that one can smoothly navigate from one outlet to another.

» Consider establishing a social media newsroom and juxtapose user generated content with corporate messaging.

Social media provides a leveling e�ect where the voices of all stakeholders are given equal attention

and customers, employees, and investors of any size or status become your business partners. The only di�erence is

how much they want to participate, and it is up to you to provide those di�erent opportunities and empower your advocates. In the end, the reference from a friend or an articulate online community member will do more to convince a prospect of your good qualities than any amount of ad copy. Part of encouraging that personal reference and in�uential community message is having in�uential, objective, brand evangelists. You will have succeeded in developing your community when there is momentum for conversations without your participation.

contribute relate le

verage

e

valuate

Goals for this phase: » Identify in�uential channels » Identify in�uential users » Identify important industry topics

With unprecedented access to industry experts, online community building o�ers great opportunity to pierce the corporate veil and show absolute transparency. Because of this, be sure to establish proper boundaries. Create a set of communications guidelines before unleashing your newly expanded marketing force. You are welcoming a lot more voices to speak for the company, and you want to be sure your team members know what the company is prepared to share and what it is not (for example, competitive information or internal politics should still be kept internal. Text can last a long time.)

3. Develop the Community.

2. Build a Relevant Presence.