Tag Archive for 'twitter'

SES - Social Media Marketing: What is it and What is it Good For?

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Tom Dressler
on August 20, 2008
in Online Marketing
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Social Media Strategists Sharing Ideas with peers at SES San Jose

Social Media Strategists Sharing Ideas with peers at SES San Jose

Marketing to and through social networks means humans are hot again. Not as directory editors; it’s Web 2.0, and your customers are in control. The old-fashioned media buy has gone bye-bye. Social media marketing is fast emerging as a must-have in search strategies. Learn about the social search revolution, and hear case studies of how marketers have successfully promoted brands and products with it.

Moderator:
Speakers:
Notes from Vanina Delobelle from Moster Worldwide:
  • The requirements for Social Media
    • Global means local - You are with your friends in your world; be close
    • Resources - Community managers need to get more focus - People come to be entertained; be proactive as a community facilitator
    • Consistency - The effort should start and last
    • Content - Make it meaningful to the audience
  • Most Social Media links display in the Golden triangle of Search - Social media is updated/current and contains links
  • Moster created user centric products giving them the controls for people to share, etc.
  • Both YouTube Video Views and FaceBook fans used as primary key performance indicators (KPI’s)
Notes from Erik Qualman, Search Engine Watch Expert & EF Education:
  • Erik starts by asking how many people use facebook, twitter and u4 (hmm what’s that?)
  • Don’t be the sender who forwards outdated jokes or messages
  • EF first started in social media by creating a travel application called Global Footprint; Since they were asking for authentication, users started an application without authentication and that one took off. Followed by Cities I’ve Visited and Where I’ve Been. Lesson learned: You don’t need new concepts just make one appliciable to your audience
  • They had a second attempt catering to teens. This sight did not go so well.
  • Third attenpt said “What can we offer that no one else can?” This looked like a application that focused on tour location. A status update allowing travels to tell others where the curently are in the world today. Seems to be successful.
  • Erik recommends starting today with a prototype followed by marketing and understand that the first thing probably won’t work. Don’t give up learn and move on.
  • Does Facebook PPC work? Study it and learn how to use. Look to use your Facebook page as the landing page.
  • What is the best way to use Twitter? - Use to monitor your brand today
  • Erik is talking about how search is diffent than Social Media. A year or two from now when you search “New Car” you will get stats from your friends network showing how many people bought the car, or researched that car, or wrote a comment on that car, etc.
Notes from Brent C. Sutoras
  • His primary use for Social Media is to get SEO Links
    1. Create Content
    2. Submit to relevant communities (Propeller, stumble upon, delicious, reddit, digg, etc…) This voting process get “vote favor” which then becomes distributed webwide.
    3. As a result you build links, even though the window is short that boost helps and when the users read you you now become an authority that creates a ripple effect of inbound links.
    4. Since this is natural Google likes it.
  • Social Media Tips
    • Have a site that is Social Media friendly
    • Pick communities you relate to
    • Check what worked before
    • Create high quality content
    • Undestand how to submit and push social campaigns
    • Understand what to do with success
  • Most Importantly — Be Social -  Just like real life
Open Q&A:
  • Brent recommends being activly involved as a “friend” in social media not a markerter.
  • Social Media is a resource intensive content expert - i.e. IBM has 1 person per country times 26 countries.
  • Content can be broken into two categories; “it” content vs. “me” content which is much more valuable
  • Bring something of value
  • Panel is asked about 3rd party apps related to twitter causing them to use more
    • Twirl - A desktop app like instant mesanger
    • Check GreaseMonkey for tools and scripts
    • TweetPro - Search keywords to add people
  • Reutation management is the current topic-the panel suggests bringing the negative comments should be directed back to your site. Sometimes a call on the phone can be helpful. Give them free stuff if possible…it’s amazing how quickly people change their mind. Also do respond…do not sit idle. Another solution is to contact the community manager for removal if it is serious.
  • The IBM moderators site an example of how community members can take care of reputation management as well.
  • The question is where is socail media going in the next few years?
    • Search results with personal influence from people you choose to listen to.
    • YahooBuzz has some new updates to their site allowing more interaction
    • BusinessWeek announces an upcoming social platform

SES - Orion Keynote Panel: Technical and Information Giants

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Tom Dressler
on August 19, 2008
in Online Marketing
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SES - Orion Keynote Panel: Technical and Information Giants

Technical and Information Giants with Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts and Kirsten Mangers

Looking forward to this session as the panel is awesome.

We have an opportunity to see a video featuring various clips referencing search in media today. Very funny South Park clips. As a side note, this session is available on WebmasterRadio.fm for those that want to listen.

Internet-based technologies have shaped the way we seek, collect, and share information. Before innovations can be exploited for marketing purposes, somebody has to build them. More importantly, somebody has to need them. Key innovators, movers, and shakers discuss how the past will shape our future and attempt to answer some of the biggest questions in search. What are the most important changes in the space that you should be aware of? How will the decisions made today affect our marketing and communication efforts in the future?

Moderators:
Speakers:

The first question is about the history of the web and how  we got here. Immediately, conversation has turned to what  Google killer is and how you support this idea from an infrastructure perspective. Danny Sullivan indicates that Microsoft would be the logical candidate but they have tried for the last 5 years with limited success. Danny predicts that there will be incremental Google killers that will be acquired or improved upon by Google. Matt Cutts added that when he left his studies to come to Google he could not find the office and when he did, it was a small room with a desk and a PowerPoint presentation.

Discussion has turned to the data that Google has and how they use it to develop new products as well as there brand being unmatched. Most people don’t care about search or how they search, they just want what they want when they want it…Google provides this experience.

The moderator is now reading off stats about how Google is huge in so many categories. One question is… does Google focus on internal resource development or acquiring technology. Matt Cutts says they do both. Google focuses on scale. Matt references his office mate Ben when he does studies the aggregate volume of data has differences can be huge.

Panelist are discussing the “live” web and how people can search twitter in real time vs. the way Google provides search results. Conversation around local and what that means is a hot topic. Some people are defining local as extension of reach and distribution or find. Urban Spoon is an example of this concept. Local search has a “long way to go” according to the panel due to the mass of data and the usability of that data. Some of the open formats for “local” have a huge opportunity based on where the users are going with the market. This could be an additional layer placed on top of today’s web.

“How do you make things relevant?” Matt talks about broadband and wireless and how these things have improved our life. He cites that 70% of all phones will be smartphones in the next 10 years. Everybody will have them and is this where local will go?

Tim Westergren from Pandora indicated that their business went up significantly when they launched an iPhone app. Discussions still are focused on what local search is and is not.

Kevin Ryan has interjected to change the topic back to “the motherload” as search. The panelist are discussing various examples on how search is being used today. The way people use search and re-search to get what they want quickly is real. Search is right on by providing exactly what someone is looking for vs. traditional outlets that try to push messaging to a “proposed” audience.

Matt Cutts talks about the future of search that delivers a result like this; when ever you search you get a result that creates an awareness opportunity based on where you are.

We are now fielding questions from the audience.

OMS Session : Social Media Strategies

Published
by
Tom Dressler
on August 12, 2008
in Online Marketing and Social Media
. 1 Comment

Online Communities - A Strategic Marketing Channel:  Learn how leading companies like Nike, CNN and Intel are building online communities and strategically leveraging the latest web 2.0 technologies to proactively engage their customers, drive product innovation and build loyalty across their customer base and partner networks.

Barry Tallis, Solutions Consulting Director, Jive Software

A topic that is very popular with The OMS crowd. Standing room only. Barry tells us that this will not be about the technologies, but he will focus on strategy and tactics. The big question is how to get started? Step 1: Start listening to what people are saying about you, on twitter for example. Once you figure out what these conversations are, then you can come up with a strategy.

The marketing aspect of online communities.

Most marketing money is being spent on awareness. The optimal target is telling somebody something once and then they tell all their friends. We tend to believe friends when it comes to advise. Blogs, micro blogs, rss all flow into the first part of the marketing funnel (awareness). An online marketing community actually can flow to all categories in the marketing funnel.

The business case for Online community

  1. Gain Insights - Mine community content & identify experts
  2. Boost Loyalty - Members remain clients 50% longer and revisit your site 9x as often
  3. Drive Sales - Members purchase twice as often and 5x more than the average client
  4. Gain Control - Communities will form around your solution whether you choose to host them or not. Using this approach can allow user-generated content that will define the longer tail keywords. Communities also drive keywords. What are people really talking about and/or interested in? and how can I use that information in my SEO strategy?

Types of Communities

  • Loyalty
  • Enthusiasts
  • Innovations
  • Partner
  • Developer
  • Event
  • Education
  • Support

Case Studies

  • Customer Engagement - Nike
    • Provides a platform for users with similar interests to connect with each other
    • They offer links letting users submit the content to Digg, Delicious, Facebook, etc…
    • They can download their running stats to a website and setup challenges to others
    • Original intent of the site was for support
    • Users took control by issuing challenges
    • Nike adjusted their strategy to allow this type of discussion
    • Through this, they found out the arm band slips when it gets wet and product improvement ensued
    • Now ownership of the site is solely user centric
    • Results
      • 40% of not product owners when joining the community eventually purchased the product.
      • 500,000 members

Q & A

  1. How do you address your reputation when it comes to Social Media?
    • Embrace and learn from it. There might be an uncomfortable situation at first, but properly addressing these issues will benefit you in the long run
  2. Thoughts on strategies for lesser known brands
    • Embrace current online communities
  3. If no one wants to join your community what do you do?
    1. Best practices conversation starters
    2. Hire out initial content (footnoted)
    3. Make sure you reinforce the value on why they are there.