Marketing Learning SeriesSocial By Design

“Social Marketing doesn't always mean it has to be done on social networks - if it's remarkable, it becomes social.”Scott Lum, Microsoft

“Let’s face it, an ad is a recommendation from a most subjective source.”

Steve Goldner, @SocialSteve - Digital Strategist

“Your consumer is your marketer. That’s a real shift because it used to be a one-way conversation from the marketer to the consumer. The consumer is doing as much now as the marketer is in getting the message across.”Jane Buckingham,

President – Trendera

“Instead of selling the product to the audience, the idea is to get the audience to sell the product for you.”Douglas Rushkoff, Author

– “Present Shock”

“Social by design is the strategy to make #OneMicrosoft a reality. The social web allows connections to help us like, live and learn.”Geoff Colon, Microsoft

10 months at Microsoft in Search Marketing BG Last residence: Past 17 years in Brooklyn, NYRecent employers: Ogilvy & Mather (IBM), 360i (Coca-Cola, Kraft, Amex, Spotify)Hearts: Experiences, Futbol, Teaching, Running, Disruptive Innovation, Podcasting

Subjective: Earned:

Social by design is a strategy, not a set of tactics

Social is about the art of immersion: understanding how to involve others in sharing our story

Experiences, not messaging, activates word of mouth

3 things to take away

Social by design associates ourselves with something important to our target audience. We reinforce what is important to our audience as opposed to talking about our brand.

Social is not a “Tactic”…

…that allows companies to engineer experiences…which in turn inspires others to share.

Social needs to be a core part of what we do and not just a “siloed” discipline or an add-on.

Paid/Owned/Earned work best when they work together in a 360 framework.

Social marketers most important skills: listening, analyzing, creating.

Understanding this concept is key to designing marketing that takes human behavior and technology into mind. A strategy becomes social when it leverages the aspect of human behavior rather than simply uses a social network.

It is a “Strategy”…

Spotify, IBM and OneNote designed these videos to immerse into communities:

It Speaks the Language of the Web

We should think about these three core areas prior to enabling a social by design strategy:

Personalization The “Reason” to share Connecting Community

It Uses Three Primary Elements

Personalization

A social strategy customizes a personalized approach for the user that enhances their experience by highlighting what’s important to them.

The user’s identity then defines a large part of what their experience becomes. They then share this experience with others who they feel personally connected (social, interest, professional, knowledge, discovery graphs).

Think Customer Persona…

Examples: Bing Ads and IBM

Ask an Expert / Engineering Connects aka “Dear Dare”Personalized customer experience on our LinkedIn groupWe allow the community to submit their questions direct with our experts and engineering team

#PPCChatNot a community or activity owned by Bing AdsWe immerse our experts into the conversations to build influence/connectionSearch for #PPCChat on Twitter

IBM SocialcastsA series of debates live streamed in real time with Q&A via Facebook and TwitterDebates unique topics like “Are hybrid clouds what’s next for IT?”

Examples: Human Connection and Identity

The Reason toShare

Content is shared or creates a response because it contains an emotional trigger. Sharing is dependent on the content, the emotional context of consuming that content, the device one is using and the platforms in which they are active.

When designing for social, we should not ‘hope’ that people share content. We design the strategy.

Emotional Triggers

Personal RelevanceHumorUtilityRelationships

Content Sharing Motivations*

*2012: Dan Zarella, Huspot study “What Makes People Share?”

Common InterestsThey Might Miss It (Immediacy)ConversationsReciprocity

Examples: Bing Ads, Xbox, OneNoteBing Ads: “You Spoke, We Listened”Blog pieces don’t show, they tellTo raise awareness with customers of their feedback we incorporated into the product, we created a visual which was shareable by design (different assets for different platforms)

Xbox One: “Game of Thrones”Contextually relevant tweets around “Game of Thrones” premiere on HBO and those without HBO GoTopically relevant to a target demo (Cord Cutters) around a pop culture event

OneNote Mac: “Les Miserables”Broadway video parody touting the benefits of OneNote on Mac (HT to OneDrive)Triggers sharing based on humor, utility, immediacy, conversation

Connecting Community

A social strategy aims to connect us with a community of people.Sharing content introduces us to those not part of our tribe. It acts as “currency.”Social works best in smaller, tighter and more interesting communities.Connecting community has more to do with empowering ambassadors to build new communities than to add people to your sales database.

Content is the Currency

Examples: Brands that power conversationAmerican Express Open ForumA community to power conversation amongst SMBs. No sales.Evolutionary by design. Started on website, now gets most engagement on Twitter and Tumblr.

ForbesLike The Atlantic and Buzzfeed, it’s online publishing community is social by design.High commenters and contributors receive a higher ranking for their multitude of input into discussion.

EatonCommunity first, then business. Active member in the IT community Spiceworks. Eaton built relationships by putting its product experts forward as helpful ambassadors within the community.

The Art of Immersion

Wakes up, checks Facebook on iPhoneMakes breakfast, listens to Pandora on iPhoneHeads out to work passing billboards in subwayAt work, checks Twitter, SMS group chat with friends using WhatsApp on iPhoneListens to Spotify while working on Office 365 with Windows 8 OS on work PC laptopDoes searches on Google for work projectChecks Facebook at lunchtime, finds restaurant to eat at using Yelp application on iPhoneUploads photos to Instagram, backups photos using OneDrive on iPhoneSkype with UK office on iPadTakes creative notes using Evernote and OneNote on iPhoneAfternoon, checks Twitter - leads to some videos on YouTube and some blogs on work PC laptopTweets about items in her interest graph, comments on article on NewYorkTimes.com on work PC laptopOrders takeout dinner while watching “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix on iPadSMS with various friends about upcoming trip to the Hamptons on iPhone

This gives us many opportunities to create immersive experiences into our brand via shareable content.

A customer needs at least 15 opportunities to experience our brand including endorsements from friends and followers.

Persona of a 27 y.o./F in Brooklyn:

Post-digital

More and more as we define Microsoft’s place in the world of mobile first/cloud first, messages about empowering one’s business no longer resonate due to crowded communications. Every tech brand is pushing that message. How do we “humanize the cloud to differentiate our thinking?”

We go post-digital in our social by design strategy…

People crave experiences

Pop-Up Traveling Cloud Lab

Part interactive art/education lab.

Microsoft SMEs answer questions creating advocates.

Photo and video content creation and sharing galore.

Face-to-face interaction, second screen interaction, upload your photos to our community OneDrive, Skype the shop, Check-in on Foursquare, Instagram!

“Tipping point” neighborhoods (e.g. Crown Heights, Brooklyn) to collect data and scout locations for potential Microsoft store locations.

Your handset is your camera, editing studio, publisher (all in one) to create real time discussion 24/7/365:

Map out your social by design strategy prior to creating or activating content Human connection experiences create the most mindshare

Click here to check out the #BingAds team Mindshare 101 videos all about optimizing your personal social brand

3 things to take away

Join the conversation on One Marketing Yammer and send questions to ideashare@microsoft.com

Questions?

“Why You Won’t Read This Content”“You Work for the Customer, Not Your Company”“Big Data Will Shape Social Media Too”“Why Content is the Ultimate Strategy”“Is Content the New Currency?”The Art of Immersion by Frank RoseThe Design of Business by Roger Martin

Additional Reading

Thank you!

© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.