The Business of Social Media: How to Turn Opportunities and Risks into Business Success

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The Business of Social Media How to Turn
Opportunities and Risks into Business Success

• Pete Scott, APR
• VP, IZEA
• peter_at_izea.com
• _at_prscott

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What do you want to cover?
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What is Social Media?
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or Media?
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Its BothPlatforms Media 2Way Conversation
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Combined with Devices
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Makes everyone is a publisher.
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All this creates massive scalability that makes
it relevant to everyone this room
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(No Transcript)
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The Internet is Growing Up

• Its about 17 years old
• Its been hanging out with friends and going to
  parties since it was about 11
• Now its really getting into the whole
  socializing thing
• Its not quite as awkward, and its more mature.
• But it can still get in big trouble.

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The Internet is Growing Up

• When the Internet got social, it started with
  sharing thoughts in blogs
• Over the next couple of years, it became
  important to make friends and connections
• With those friends and connections, it was cool
  to share fun pictures and videos
• After a while, short updates made keeping in
  touch with your connections easier than sharing
  your thoughts
• Today, while all of these are still important,
  the Internet is growing up mobile, and with that
  comes geo-social - Foursquare, Gowalla, WeReward,
  Scavngr, etc.

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We are facing hurdles

• No one has the time
• Everyone is distracted
• Trust is harder to come by
• Expectations are out of line
• One blogger can overshadow your media budget

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We also question

• Are we doing this right?
• How do we get more fans?
• How can we get more engagement?
• How do we get noticed?

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Its easy to be busy with social media, but its
hard to be strategic
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Social media goes far beyond communications,
marketing, pr
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HR, Employee Engagement, Product Development,
Customer Service, Sales and others can gain value

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LinkedIn
83,000
join each day.
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Facebook
618,500,000
active users
SocialBakers Facebook Feb 1, 2011
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Facebook
830,000
join each week
SocialBakers Facebook Feb 1, 2011
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Facebook
55
minutes spent each day
Facebook Feb 2011
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Brand touchpoints generated by consumers
McKinsey 2009
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0.19
Clickthrough rate for average banner
6.49
Clickthrough rate for Facebook post
Forrester Vitrue
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What Consumers Feel is Important

• 2006
• Quality Products
• Customer Service
• Financial Performance
• Fair Pricing
• Well Known Brand
• Visible CEO

2010 Transparent Business Practices Company I
Can Trust High Quality Products Communicates
Frequently Treats Employees Well Good Corporate
Citizen
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Social channels enable us to build trust
affinity - moving from audiences to advocates
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To Affinity Beyond
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Ill use social media to push my marketing
messages to millions of people for free!
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From Audience to Advocate
Study gtgt Listen gtgt Engage gtgt Influence
gtgtAdvocacy
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A goal for your social media initiatives should
be to have a community of advocates on issues
that directly align to business objectives.
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1

• Look internally at your product and experience -
  are you ready for social media?
• Look internally for the right initial team (might
  not be you final team)
• Find your passion
• Secure your name on every platform
• Read other industry and social media blogs
• Become familiar with your competition and
  identify key influencers and advocates
• Know the law - FTC, FINRA, HR, Pharma, etc.

Study
This can apply to both internal and external
social media programs
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2

• Start learning to really listen
• Mentions, sentient, employees, stakeholders,
  competitors
• Use free tools and use trial versions of paid
  tools
• Determine and track basic metrics
• Establish a Social Media Policy
• Train key staff on policy
• Communicate generational differences behind
  social media adoption
• Recruit an executive champion
• Seek outside help if necessary to build the
  foundation

Listen
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2

• Begin to understand and ask questions such as
• Who are your customers?
• Where they are online?
• What do they like and dislike?
• What do they talk about?
• What do they think of you?
• How are your competitors?
• What are they doing?
• Where are they on the path?
• What are people saying about them?

Listen
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2

• Listening Objectives
• Obtain intelligence from everywhere and
  everything
• You can scale back later
• Identify specific friends and foes
• Determine volume and conversations, share of
  voice, sentiment, topics tied to your company and
  industry
• Identify potential crisis communications issues
  early
• Identify misperceptions and inaccuracies
• Identify correct and inappropriate employee
  behavior (training issue)

Listen
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3

• Start creating content and finding your voice
• Begin to experiment - but do so carefully
• Begin to engage
• Share the love
• Correct misperceptions and inaccuracies
• Initially, respond to everything - the good and
  the bad
• Add value - not noise
• Answer questions
• Provide Tips
• Selflessly help people
• Formally align social media activities to
  business objectives
• Develop metrics that demonstrate the value of
  social media
• Develop a formal plan/strategy and include
  relevant aspects in strategic plans of business
  units impacted

Engage
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4

• Expand content and platforms
• Consider video, podcasts, mobile
• Increase level of engagement
• Editorial calendar - consistency is key
• 3 - 5X per week on long form content (blogs,
  videos, podcasts)
• As necessary for short form content
• Establish Service Level Agreements
• Who and how quickly will you respond
• Begin to find ways to co-create with your
  customers and fans
• Train everyone on the social media policy
• Build Crisis Communications into Social Media
  Plan/Strategy
• Establish more formal reporting to senior
  management
• Establish funding requirements going forward

Influence
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4

• Whats an Engaging Post?
• Ask open ended questions
• If you were in Orlando this weekend, what would
  you like to do the most?
• Prompt people to Like and Follow you
• Like us if you wish you had the best sushi ever
  right now
• Fill in the blank
• My favorite pizza topping is ___________
• Either/Or
• Which dessert for Mothers Day - Apple Pie or
  Crème Brule?

Influence
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4

• Content that Builds Trust
• Proof Points
• External voices, expert interviews (all formats)
• Testimonials
• Yelp reviews, customer testimonials, employee
  interviews
• Behind the Scenes
• Webcams, tours, advocate trips
• Employee Perspectives
• Video interviews, human elements, employee blogs
• Management
• Thought Leadership, CEO podcast, videos, blogs

Influence
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Online Reputational Response
Source Ants Eye View
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BP Social MediaOil spill is tragic and people
will talk, but how BP responded drove more
mentions
Source Radian 6 Ants Eye View
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What BP should have done

• Be Timely
• First messages were to avoid guilt and to control
• Be Honest
• Admit that size of spill is not understood in the
  beginning
• Be Responsible, But dont Control
• Ask for help
• Invite ideas
• Be Transparent
• Talk about the who is working on the ideas, what
  you are doing with the ideas submitted by
  ordinary citizens
• Be Human
• Empathetic, apologetic, disgusted, angry
• NO whining
• Real content

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5

• Integrate social and personalization into your
  Website/Intranet
• Integrate social media activities into a variety
  of on and offline programs
• Focus more on quality of engagements and not
  numbers
• Develop special programs for advocates
• Conduct offline events to deepen relationships
  across the board
• Develop a more robust staffing and organizational
  model
• Incorporate social media into annual budgets and
  forecasts

Advocacy
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In order to foster advocates, there has to be an
idea that moves them.
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QUESTION
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Which is more accurate? Social Media is a
great equalizer Social Media is a great
differentiator
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Its impossible to have a great community that
thrives on an mediocre experience.
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AJ Bombers

• Amazing Experience
• Know Their Audience and Their Situation
• They Listen to Their Audience
• They Know Where Their Audience Hangs Out Online
• They Co-Create with Their Customers
• They Added Value to the Conversation
• They Have Fun!
• They Engage, Turning Their Audience into
  Customers, their Customers into Fans, their Fans
  into Friends and their Friends into Advocates
• They not only built a community, but more
  importantly, built a great business.

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http//sporkmedia.com/2010/08/aj-bombers/
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AJ Bombers, a burger joint in Milwaukee, joined
up with FourSquare last summer by promising a
free burger and fries to anyone who dethroned its
"mayor"a title FourSquare bestows upon the
person who "checks in" to an establishment the
most via the free mobile application. The
restaurant also ran a promotion where customers
could get a free cookie by posting a
recommendation to their FourSquare profiles of a
menu item or something to do while they're at the
eatery, such as play a board game. AJ co-owner
Joe Sorge says sales of menu items promoted on
FourSquare have risen roughly 30.began using the
service.
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AJ Bombers
Product gt Studied gt Listened gt Engaged gt
Influenced gt Advocacy
Measured Adjusted
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Key Takeaways

• It is possible to replicate this level of
  success, people and businesses are doing it every
  day
• It is not easy - and is not the job of the intern
  (sorry interns).
• It takes time - how much?
• It takes commitment, consistency, and focus
• Its not free - while many of the tools are free,
  your time is not
• It has made an incredible difference in his
  business

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We are talking about a burger joint in Milwaukee
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Nobody cares how awesome you say you are.
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They sort of care how awesome their friends say
you are.
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They care how awesome you actually are.
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But they really love when you tell them how
awesome they are.
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To be successful in social media, you really need
to be relentlessly passionate about your product
and the people around it.
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And you are always trying to find genuine ways to
connect and care for both of them.
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Its not about selling, its about telling great
stories.
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But bad things can happen.
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Key Social Media Risks

• Failing to Listen to the Conversation
• Failing to Respond when Expected
• Blocking Access to Social Media Sites
• No Alignment with Business Objectives
• Lack of a Social Media Strategy
• Lack of a Social Media Policy (with semi-annual
  review)
• Not Training All Staff on Policy (with continual
  training)

Source Institute of Internal Auditors
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Key Social Media Risks

• Intellectual Property Issues ( and Creative
  Commons)
• Liability Issues
• Human Resource Issues
• Lack of Metrics
• Compliance with Applicable Laws
• Focusing on numbers, not engagements
• Crisis Communications
• Failure to Train All Employees on Social Media
  Policy

Source Institute of Internal Auditors
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Social Media Policy Questions

• Will the organization block access to social
  media sites?
• Will employees be allowed to post comments on
  external sites?
• Will employees be allowed to post comments on
  internal sites?
• Will those comments be moderated?
• Are employees allowed to become subject matter
  experts?
• Are there different rules for senior management,
  designated spokespeople, and employees?
• Is their trust in use common sense or is there
  a lack of trust in this area?

Source Institute of Internal Auditors
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Social Media Policy Questions

• What (and where) is the disclosure requirement
  for employees?
• How will employee account differ from individual
  accounts?
• What data can never be shared or discussed? Even
  if public (stock price and earnings)
• Are employees allowed to become subject matter
  experts?
• What are the consequences of violating the
  policy?
• Will the policy also be incorporated into other
  policies such as HR, IT security, privacy
  policies, etc.

Source Institute of Internal Auditors
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3 Good Examples

• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• Kodak Social Media Tips
• Intel Social Media Guidelines

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Employees Your Policy

• Educate.
• Most people fall down due to lack of education.
• Commit to ongoing workshops and extend the
  conversation.
• Extend the conversation.
• Make sure to create a space where people can find
  you and ask questions.
• It can be an internal blog, wiki, or an internal
  discussion group.
• Empower.
• Highlight the Dos over the Donts from your
  policy.
• Make sure to focus the discussion on positive
  behaviors in your governance.

Source Mashable
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Employees Your Policy

• Create a solid process.
• This is the part that takes the most time, so
  dont despair if it doesnt work on the first
  try.
• Make sure that every part of the organization is
  looped in.
• Tune into WIIFM.
• Make sure to address how proper social media
  training is good for employees individual
  careers.
• Address problems proactively and gently.
• There will be things that go awry.
• Its always better to politely point out the
  problematic tweet or blog comment in private.
• Most people want to do the right thing even if
  they make mistakes.

Source Mashable
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Employees Your Policy

• Address internal social too.
• Make sure that your governance extends to your
  internal collaboration groups and networks.
• One of such issue is to not repost private
  discussions into public forums.
• These thoughts are my own.
• Encourage people to speak for themselves, not the
  brand, even when they are talking about the space
  and the company.
• Make sure that your employees as well as official
  spokespeople have access to brand documents and
  QAs.

Source Mashable
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The best quote there is that just about sums it
all up You cant take something off the
Internet. Thats like trying to take pee out of
a swimming pool.

• Joe Ragan, Newsradio
• As quoted in Groundswell

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Thanks
Pete Scottprscott_at_prscott.com_at_prscott
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Photo Credits

• http//www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/127044964/sizes
  /z/in/photostream/