SocialGO Building Social Media...

Contents

Introduction 3

Social Media Evolution 4

Social Media in the Marketing Mix 5

Social Media Tool Kit 5

What Roles the Tools Play 6

How Much E�ort is Required 7

Measuring ROI 8

Introduction The Social Media wave is hitting every business in every corner of the world. This

wave is gaining enormous momentum for the simple reasons that its highly

e�ective and value for money when executed correctly. Those that have got on the

wave early are reaping real commercial bene�ts allowing them to sprint in front of

there competitors.

However the road to Social Media success is not yet an obvious one for many

businesses. There are many tools such as Facebook, SocialGO, Twitter and Youtube

that leave business wondering how they pull these components together into a

coherent strategy and how Social Media �ts within the greater marketing mix.

This White Paper sets out to provide you with a clear and easy to execute road map

so that your business can achieve commercial success from Social Media.

SocialGO + Facebook + Twitter

Let’s learn how they can be used together to create an

overall strategy

Building Social Media Strategy

Social Media EvolutionThe genesis of Social Media came from the early social networks phenomenas such as Friendster and Myspace,

as well as the advent of Blogging. But it wasn't until the arrival of Facebook and Twitter that business on an

enormous scale started to work out how it could use these online tools to engage customers in social

conversational way. Business discovered that forming one-to-one conversational relationships with customers

based upon special interest, passions or causes was emerging as a powerful way to do business.

Blogging was probably the �rst real foray of business into social media. Businesses via formal and informal

blogs engaged customers in a more informal conversation style on matters previously though taboo or private.

This also included public engagement of unhappy customer through honest and humble conversation.

In 2009 business arrived on mass at Facebook creating simple web pages on the platform in order to attract

"Followers". After the initial business surge to Facebook, many were confronted by numerous privacy and data

ownership concerns forcing them to look further a�eld for alternate tools. Twitter quickly gathered enormous

traction and business began engaging customers via the 140 character tweets.

Following the Facebook privacy scares and understanding the limited nature of the relationships that can be

formed on Facebook and Twitter, business have more recently started developing their own dedicated social

networks around a community of customers with a common interest, passion or cause. Thus facilitating much

deeper customers relationship to get richer customer insights, while developing brand evangelists and business

activists.

With the emergence of multiple social media tools, business are now pulling together the leading online tools

such as Facebook, Twitter, SocialGO and Youtube to create a focused and consolidated Social Media strategy.

Social Media in the Marketing MixYour social media strategy is simply a new strand to your marketing mix. It does not set out to replace the more

traditional components such as advertising, PR or sponsorships. Instead it simply provides you with an

additional opportunity.

Social Media Tool KitThe Social Media tool kit is expanding all the time, however there are four primary components. Facebook,

Twitter, Blogs & Social Networks.

Blogs are the traditional component of the social media mix which are widely used and understand today.

Adoption of blogs is high amongst business and they provide for a low to medium level of engagement largely

through "commenting". They often do not provide for any user data capture which limits their value.

Facebook and Twitter have seen enormous adoption over the past 24 months and probably make up the mass

of most business social media strategy. While they can expose a business to enormous volumes of potential

customers, they are a very low levels of customer engagement as they o�er limited tools for business to interact

with customers.

The more recent addition to the social media tool kit is niche social networks that are setup and owned by a

business and built around a special interest, passion or cause. These propvide for a deep level of engagement

through a rich set of ways a business can interact with a customer.

Measure ROIMany social media tools have emerged to measure the ROI e�ectiveness of a strategy. These sentiment analysis

tools allow you to monitor what is being said about a brand, product or company and form a very of there

worth. They will scourer the internet searching for references about your company, then aggregate the

references and sometime analyse them for you. These are very sophisticated software solutions, and while

often expensive, can be very useful tools when you start get to the advanced stages of your Social Media

strategy.

However, and certainly to begin, you might be best just to quantitatively analyse what people are saying about

you and by that we mean simply skim selections of the online commentary on a regular basis. Using Google

News Feed you can scrape in online references to your business, or if your using a niche social network, from a

supplier like SocialGO.com, you can simply browse what is being written in the forum, blogs and walls. It really

can be as simple as spending 15 minutes a day to skim what is being said in order to form an opinion. Its best

not to over complicate it to begin.

The SocialGO Concierge Team

What Roles the Tools PlayWith the emergence of multiple social media tools it is critical to understand the role that each play, so that

they can be combined to deliver the required commercial return. These can be broken down into a few simple

categories:-

a. Collect Followers

b. Develop Evangelists


Tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog and Youtube allows business to develop large volumes of low level

relationships with existing and potential customers, known as "Followers". While the level of engagement and

conversation is relatively low using these tools, they serve as the ideal �rst step in building a social media

strategy.

These tools are viewed as high volume low level engagement catchment areas from which you harvest the

customers that will be come your evangelists and activists who champion your brand or products.

Note - there are businesses who may already have a dedicated following and may not need to harvest them

from Facebook, Twitter or a Blog. For example you might have a product like Harley Davidson that already has

a passionate user base or a sporting team that has its dedicated supporters.


Once you have harvested your Followers from Facebook, Twitter, Blog or existing communities, you are then

looking to distill and funnel as many of them into a niche social network around a relevant special interest,

passion or cause.

From the dedicated social network the business is able to establish much deeper relationships with the

customers which not only provides greater consumer insights, but also turns them into brand and company

evangelists whom spread the good word.

It is also an opportunity for the business to facilitate the added value of customer to customer interaction in

order to galvanise and enduring community around the special interest, passion or cause. If customers form

binding relationships between each other, they are more likely to return to the niche network giving extended

commercial opportunities for the business.

Once you have developed evangelists from the rich conversations a niche social network provides, then

through word of mouth your evangelists put out the good word to their followers and friends.

How much e�ort is requiredEstablishing a social media strategy need not be labour intensive. Setting up a Blog is very straight forward

with a supplier like Word Press. They can be easily branded and con�gured with virtually no computer skills.

Running a blog is equally straight forward provided that someone has the time and inclination to write

meaningful articles on a regular basis and engage customers should they comment on the blog.

Equally creating a Twitter account takes minutes, while building a following will take time provided that you

actively promote you Twitter account and are targetted in who you follow (as they often reciprocate). Plus you

must have something interesting to say which is worthy of following.

A Facebook page in a basic form also takes little e�ort to establish and again the e�ort largely lies in making

potential customers aware of your Facebook page so they are encouraged to join and engaging in any

conversations with followers.

Creating a dedicated special interest social network has been made very simple with suppliers like

SocialGO.com whom, for $150 per month, will provide a fully hosted fullly feature social network website, do a

custom design in line with your brand, then help you manage it in a monthly basis, including providing launch

and best practise advice. They have a full range of support services as well.

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























3

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























4

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























5

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























6

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























7

Contents

Introduction 3






Measuring ROI 8





there competitors.























activists.














with customers.









strategy.










categories:-







strategy.









passion or cause.
























8

SocialGO Building Social Media...

Documents

Transcript of SocialGO Building Social Media...