Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #1 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

Followers, Friends and Fans:Expanding Your Online CommunityA Case Study in Building Buzz…

…Without a Budget

Jonathon D. ColmanAssociate Director, Digital MarketingThe Nature Conservancy: www.nature.orgjcolman@tnc.org206/343.4345 x368

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #2 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

Case Study: Digg [Buzz-Building]

Breaking news, video, and amazing content from all over the world —

users find, post, and vote on the best of the web’s newest content.

• 169th most popular site on the Web [ALEXA]

• Over 22 million unique visitors/month [COMPETE]

• 2.7+ million registered users [ESTIMATED AS OF JAN 2008; JOHN GRAHAM-CUNNING]

• Largest age demographic: 18-34 years old (40% of total) [QUANTCAST]

• Referred 234K visitors to nature.org for FY2008

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #3 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

With a large, well-connected audience, Digg’s “democratic” algorithm promotes diverse stories, niche news to its homepage

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #4 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

The Nature Conservancy’s first entry into the “Green Living” genre: science-based tips from TNC staff and green bloggers

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #5 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

“Green Living” ads are now mainstream on search engines,not just a niche market, which means a lot of competition = $$$

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #6 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

flickr: ricko

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #7 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

• Digg and social news can help you get the word out fast

• Among the most popular sites on the web

• Diverse audiences, not just kids in college

• Free for you to use

• Great at driving traffic as well as commentary

No Time? No Money? No Problem!

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #8 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

Our post on Digg earned enough votes to become “popular” and get elevated to the homepage where all Digg users could see it

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #9 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #10 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #11 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

Everyday Environmentalist

Digg traffic

18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #12 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

Everyday Environmentalist

Digg traffic

18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second

76,000+ visitors in one day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #13 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

• Yes: High bounce rate and relatively few actions taken on our site

• And: Motivated much engagement on Digg: 2,200+ total “diggs”

and over 600 total comments

• Created “spillover” success in other social networks

• Drove many unsolicited links from other web sites and blogs (50+)

• Inspired links from elite sites (1,000+ authority in Technorati),

inc. The Huffington Post, Cisco.com, Mental Floss, and LockerGnome

• Increased organic search engine findability, positioning

But Isn’t This Just “Empty” Traffic?

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #14 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post

• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg

“shouts” to friends, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, etc.)

So: How Much Work/Time Did This Take?

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #15 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post

• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg

“shouts” to friends, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, etc.)

• Plus 1.5 years to build up a credible, authoritative Digg profile

• Becoming a good member of the community, learning best practices

• Building reliable contacts, voting for their stories

• Creating network of links to/distribution for our posts

• Posting content other than nature.org stories (i.e., not spamming)

So: How Much Work/Time Did This Take?

Jonathon D. Colman: Associate Director, Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy

October 21, 2008

Slide #16 of 16

eMetrics | Washington, DC 2008 | A Case Study in Building Buzz… Without a Budget

Conclusions on the Value of Social News

• Social news is not always the right tool for all marketing scenarios

• Complements a strategy leveraging traditional online tactics

• Success generates short-term (and huge) bursts of web traffic

• Engagement on social news sites will be high, but will be low on your site (as measured in length of session, conversions, etc.)

• Becoming popular can drive coverage on elite blogs, web sites driving many new links, audiences to your web site

• Can take time to build up credibility and authority in the network

• Offers short- and long-term benefits for search engine positioning