BE FOUND BE ENGAGED BE SUCCESSFUL

Cure the Chaos: How to Coordinate Your Company’s Social Media Efforts

September 29, 2010

Marc EngelsmanVice President, Client Programs & Services

Digital Brand Expressions

Michelle BrusyoGroup Manager, Marketing & Communication

Digital Brand Expressions

What We Bring to the Table

• DBE helps companies be found on the Web faster and better positioned than their competitors

• Solutions typically include integrating:– SEO– Paid Search– Social Media

• …into the rest of the marketing mix

What We’re Talking About Today

• An action plan for pulling together social media initiatives across the organization

• A checklist of items companies should include in their social media policies

Where Are You Now?

• Which Department Leads Social Media Adoption Efforts at Your Company?

* Digital Brand Expressions Study September 2010

Integrating Social Into the Marketing Mix

• Today we’ll refer to the framework DBE has developed to guide entire organizations into the social media channel

• Use it to start or reset your social media communications

• The process forces you and your colleagues to ask and answer the tough questions before communicating with stakeholders on behalf of your brand

Buyers Expect Brands to Engage With Them

* Source: Opinion Research Corporation, October 2008

Accept Reality

• It’s 1998 all over again.

– Remember how 1995’s “what is a website for?”

– …Became “what are the risks of a website?” and “what are the benefits of a website? And “what can we do with a website?” and “what are our competitors doing with their websites?”

• Social Media is here to stay and is evolving rapidly

• But don’t jump in without a parachute

DBE’s 5-Phase Parachute ProcessSM

DBE’s 5-Phase Parachute Process

• A well-planned, strategic approach to social media adoption will ensure:

– Brand protection

– Sustainability

– Measurability

– Ongoing ROI

Before You Begin: What’s Your Mission?

• What objectives do you want to achieve?– Increased sales– Better quality job applicants– Improved customer relationships– Streamlined media relations– Higher awareness with industry

analysts– Some of the above– All of the above and more

Realistic Expectations For Social Media

• Sales shouldn’t be the short-term goal– Repeatedly, people say they DON’T want

to be marketed TO– Use this channel to influence rather than

drive sales

• Consumers and B2B decision-makers do want:– Knowledgeable resources – Responsive partners– Companies that listen

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• If you are authorized, you will want to claim your brand name(s) on at least 10 of the most popular social media sites

– Prevent/Curtail brandjacking by:

• Competitors and evil doers

• Loyal fans

• Enthusiastic employees

– Lay the foundation for future activities

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• Fan created content

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• Fan created content • Malicious intent brandjacking

Recommend To At Least Claim Name On

TIP…

• Remember there are industry specific sites you will want to name claim on as well. E.g.,:– Real Estate--ActiveRain– Physicians—SERMO– Lawyers—LawLink.com – Hospitality/Travel—ItsHospitality.com

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• Establish protocols for claiming names:

– Who is authorized to claim branded names and accounts?

– What is the procedure for obtaining corporate approval?

– Who maintains records of accounts and names claimed?

– What names will be claimed up front?

• Variations on name

– Character limitations

– “Official”

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• Various Pages all branded “Dunkin Donuts” – all appear to be official

• Corporate oversight needed

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• Establish protocols for claiming names:

– Keep registration information consistent, document it all

• Decisions about avatars/compiled personas

• Birthdates and other sensitive info (ID fraud)

– How will the information be safeguarded?

– Who will create passwords

– How will you ensure compliance

Step 1: Put on That Parachute

• How often do you need to post “something” to keep the account live? – E.g., Twitter needs to see something posted

at least every 6 months to keep the account active

• Change your password every 6 months or so

• Document decisions• Keep current with policy changes at

each outpost

TIP…

• Before you start, check protocols for name claiming across multiples sites, come up with best common denominators. E.g.:

– Twitter usernames have a 15 character limit

– Facebook requires 25 fans before brands can get a vanity URL

• Keep protocols consistent but unique to avoid someone “guessing” and hacking your accounts

TIP…

• Be aware of Facebook’s Community Page feature

– Pulls in content from Wikipedia and posts from the Facebook community

– Community Pages are not brand controlled, but should be monitored

– Highlights the need for well-branded company-created Pages and Groups

• Always ensure that the profile name you choose for your brand pages is the company or brand name

• Indicate that it is an official brand profile

TIP…Facebook Community & Brand Pages

59,357 fans, separate from the brand-created page

2,542,330 fans, brand-managed

Community Page

Brand Page

Step 2: Take in the View

• Take the time to understand what the social landscape looks like for your brand

• Go to the sites themselves, search for info on your company and competitors– On Twitter search for variations of your

competitors names.

Step 2: Take in the View

– Check hash tags directory to see what’s being tweeted in your industry. http://hashtags.org/tags

– On LinkedIn, search your company and brand names in “companies” search box

– On YouTube, check for channels and keyword posts

– Etc.

Step 2: Take in the View

• And Don’t Forget the Search Engines

– Enter your brand name and see what besides your website shows up

– Check out your competition the same way

– Enter topics you think your customers would be discussing—see what conversations or sites appear in the natural search listings

Step 2: Utilize Monitoring Tools

• Monitor the social media landscape (qualitative and quantitative)

– Free tools include: • SocialMention.com

• Google Alerts

• Addictomatic

– Paid tools include: • ScoutLabs

• ListenLogic

• Radian6

Step 2: Take in the View

• Avoid the temptation to talk—just listen

• What are your stakeholders doing?

– Are your customers already there?

• Are they talking about your brand?

• Are they talking about competitors?

• What do they think of your industry and your role in it?

– Who do media/analysts turn to for info?

Step 2: Take in the View

– What are your competitors doing?

– Do prospective customers behave differently from current customers?

– What are your employees doing now?

• By department

• As individuals

– Personal use

– Professional use

Step 2: Take in the View

• DOCUMENT Your Findings

• What did you learn?– Are your competitors

• Absent, present, or active?

– Are your customers:• Lamenting your absence or complaining

you’re not paying attention?

– Are potential employees• Being turned off by current employee

profiles?

Step 2: Take in the View

Step 2: Take in the View

• Info change your plans?

– Can you move forward from zero or a position of strength? Or…

– Do you have remediation work to do first?

Step 3: Overarching Plan

• What resources do you have available and when– People– Content

• Text

• Video

– Tools– Training required

Step 3: Overarching Plan

• How will you fund it? • Measure success?

– What are you measuring?• Hard Goals• Soft Goals

– Which tools will help you?– How often will you be analyzing & reporting?

• How will problems be addressed?• Which departments or outside resources do you need? (IT to

unblock social sites? Customer service to handle requests, etc.)

Step 3: Home In

• What’s Your Game Plan?– Restate and clearly define your objectives – Agree on how success will be measured – Question: what will be different a year

from now?– Mobile– International– Video

– Develop strategies that will start to meet your answers

Step 3: Home In

• Start with a plan to build out and maintain 1-3 outposts

• This provides opportunity to gauge resource allocation/commitment needs

• Expand according to your resources

• DON’T START TALKING YET

Step 3: Home In

• Consider what you want to do in each of the environments to begin to achieve your goals

• DON’T UNDERESTIMATE the resources that will be required to keep the conversation going

– Free ≠ no cost

– Stale posts worse than none at all

Step 3: Home In: Resources—Agency Posts

In-House Agency

Knows the latest inside story Knows what’s told is important

Easy access to peripheral personnel More planning/coordinating to tap client players

Dedicated resources Team assigned, may get pulled away

Tighter controls Reliant on agency execs/process

New fires deprioritize social day to day Being paid to deliver on results

May not keep up with latest techniques, best practices, tools: siloed

Motivated to stay on top of innovations

Resources fixed Resources fluid: more experts available to pitch in

One brand, one view Many brands, more successes to build on

Step 3: Home In

• Things to think through:– What are your company’s policies about

content created by employees? – Who owns the content? – How will employees represent their posts?

• Professional

• Personal

– What is your company’s Internet policy? • Can the social media policy be added to it?

• Are they in conflict?

– Are employees allowed to talk as individuals during work hours?

Step 3: Home In

• More To Think Through

– Are social media sites blocked by your IT department?

• How will this impact your ability to monitor & respond?

– Who will be responsible for monitoring and responding to conversations about your brand?

Step 3: Home In

• More To Think Through

– How often will you check the sites?

– Will you converse as a team with one persona or as individuals representing the brand?

– What will be the tone if one persona but many players?

– How will multiple players be represented?

Step 3: Home In

• Involve the legal team on policy development – What employee activities can you regulate

and which are off-limits?

• Develop policies based on industry:– Assess the regulations and requirements

in your industry• Financial services – SEC, FINRA, NYSE

• Public companies – SEC

• Healthcare – HIPAA, FDA

Step 3: Home In

• Educate your employees – Those who will be actively communicating– Everyone else so they are aware of the

changes

• Map out contingency plans for communicators:

– What happens when team communicator(s) are:

• On vacation

• Let go

• Quit

Step 3: Home In

• Get approval – you need buy-in from all departments/personnel affected

• Key to consider:– Executive Team– Marketing– HR– Customer Relations– Corporate Relations– Brand Managers– Legal– IT– Individuals within the organization

Risks

• Possible risks include:

– Overzealous employees

– Overly aggressive competitors

– Vocal, unhappy customers

– Negative press for missteps

• Industry-specific regulations need to be considered, too

– Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare

– Finance

– Professional Services

Rewards

• More open, real-time information for your organization

– About your industry

– From your customers

– Requests from the media

– Spotlights by analysts

• Better employee communications

• Improved product development/refinement

• Increased sales through positive associations and user-generated messaging

Step 4: Step off the plane

• Your plan’s approved!

• The commitment to continuous communication is made

– The commitment to LISTEN

– The commitment to RESPOND

– The commitment to be PROACTIVE

• Your team is ready to go

Step 4: Step off the plane

• Gotta’ Have: If/Then Scenarios

– What happens with negative posts?

• The pros and cons of vetting posts before they go live

– What if we don’t like what’s being posted, when do we jump in?

– What if one of our competitors is posting nasty information?

– What if there is a PR disaster, how should we respond in our posts?

TIP…Program Management Tools

• Managing the social media outposts  – Hootsuite

• Works well for most companies

– TweetDeck or Seesmic • Depends on the type of mobile

device used

– Socialware Compass • For regulated industries that need

to moderate employee output

Step 4: Step off the plane

• Set up the 1-3 outposts you chose in the previous stage, configuring them according to your formal plan

• Examples:

– Facebook:• Pages or Groups

– Does a community page already exist?

• Vanity URL• Dual- or single-stream wall (see examples)• What kind of photos? Who can post/tag?

Permissions/Releases.

Example: Fans & Company Posts Together

• Fans & Company posts together=single stream

Example: Splitting Posts Company/Fans

• Fans separate from company content=dual stream

Step 4: Step off the plane

• Twitter: – Background design—logo, design elements– Editorial calendar or serendipitous topic

commentary?

• YouTube channel:

– Regularly scheduled posts or topical commentary?

– A destination or a pit stop?

Don’t Have a Standard Background—Brand It

…even if it’s just there for brand protection…

Step 4: Step off the plane

• Soft launch them among “friends”

• Get inputs as you would with web usability

Step 5: Pull the cord

• Start talking, quietly at first

– Gauge reactions

– Fine tune

• Continue to listen, respond promptly

• Learn by doing

Step 5: Pull the cord

• Don’t hide mistakes, learn

• Remember, it’s all transparent

• Succeed because you know what success looks like

Post 5: Measurement

• How’s it going?

– Are you sure?

• If you can tag it, you can measure it!

• The “trend” is your friend

• Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

• Make measurement actionable –if this, then that

Post 5: Measurement

• Some things to keep in mind for measuring success:

– Don’t forget to benchmark all applicable data so you can show progress

– Referred traffic to website• Coupons, downloads, sign-ups, click-thrus,

phone call activity, etc.

• Sales leads and sales if set up to capture

• Bit.ly clicks

Post 5: Measurement

• Volume: #of Fans, Followers, Diggs, comments measures exposure

• Buzz levels: Use Addictomatic or other tools to see what they’re saying

• Sentiment analysis: Use SocialMention.com, ListenLogic, Facetime

TIP…Additional Measurement Tools

• Measuring program results– Google Analytics– Built-in analytics

• Many networks, including YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr, provide their own Insights data

– Bit.ly or Ow.ly click-thrus

Plus the tools on monitoring tools slide

Post 5: Measurement

• Tools for Facebook Pages:

– Number of fans

– Page visits, site visits

– Interactions (wall posts, “likes”, comments, etc.)

Post 5: Measurement

• Tools for LinkedIn:

– New connections meeting pre-set criteria (sales-force goals)

– Utilize applications (track document downloads using Box.net application, etc.)

• Utilize shortened, trackable URLs within employee status updates

• Track how employees are ranked in LinkedIn Answers

Post 5: Measurement

• Tools for Twitter:

– Number of followers

– Number of interactions (retweets, messages, etc.)

– Click-throughs on links posted

Post 5: Measurement

• bit.ly:– Put a + after URLs and bit.ly tells you how often they’ve been

clicked on Twitter

Step 5: Expand the Conversation

• What’s working? Do more of it

• What’s not working? Figure out why

– Ask questions

– Share answers

– Keep the dialogue open

• Expand channels only when you are sure it will derive a benefit

PTS Case Study

• Data center design blog as hub of social outreach

• Coordinate content calendar with other online/offline marketing activities – events, white papers, newsletter, email, etc.

PTS Case Study

• Moderates industry-focused LinkedIn networking group

PTS Case Study

• Reinforces presence with Twitter and Facebook

Edmund Optics Case Study

• Unified and coordinated activity across outposts

– Editorial calendar, response protocols and management tools/training in place to achieve efficiency in execution

– Use of Hootsuite to streamline team management of accounts

Edmund Optics Case Study

• Facebook tabs mirror website presentation

Edmund Optics Case Study

• Proactive use of Twitter to identify/reach industry media and consumer influencers

Edmund Optics Case Study

• Educational videos on YouTube provide value to customers and enhance product awareness

Edmund Optics Case Study

• Branding guidelines for LinkedIn Profiles

Additional Information & Downloads

www.DigitalBrandExpressions.com/Web2Expo

Today’s PowerPoint Social Media Policy Checklist Corporate Social Media Report

Questions?

Veronica Fielding

Twitter: @VFieldingLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/veronicafielding

Or Call Toll Free: 866/651-6767

Appendix/Additional Info

Active & Recognized Marketers

Diverse Experience