Social Media Strategy for Increased Activity
A case study at Ericsson Labs of how off-site activity affects on-site activity
M I K A E L P A L M
Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2010
Social Media Strategy for Increased Activity
A case study at Ericsson Labs of how off-site activity affects on-site activity
M I K A E L P A L M
Master’s Thesis in Media Technology (30 ECTS credits) at the School of Media Technology Royal Institute of Technology year 2010 Supervisor at CSC was Christer Lie Examiner was Nils Enlund TRITA-CSC-E 2010:148 ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--10/148--SE ISSN-1653-5715 Royal Institute of Technology School of Computer Science and Communication KTH CSC SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden URL: www.kth.se/csc
Abstract
Social media is defined as any form of online publication or presence that allows end users to engage
in multi-directional conversations in or around the content on the website. (Coleman 2010) Modern
technologies found on the Internet opens up new social ways of communicating and interacting
between persons, this also effects how knowledge is received and shared.
Back in 2007 (Dunn 2007) companies blocked Facebook for their employees because it was a time
consuming activity, but recently more organizations realize the fantastic advantage in opening these
channels. Social media opens up great opportunities for companies to gather their crowd and
converse with them quickly, exchange ideas, brainstorm and receive feedback on their products. Since
the corporate attitude changes towards being interested in social media, strategies for companies is in
need of being defined.
This master thesis at Ericsson Labs (Labs.ericsson.com) is delimitated to look at the strategies
Ericsson Labs use for social media and how they should act. Ericsson Labs has been working since
the fall of 2009 with social media and has seen great results in publicity. This paper focuses on
strategies how to create maximum spin-off-effect from social media to traffic on the home page.
In so doing a monitoring system were created to follow movements in the social media channels that
were used. Carefully designed social media activities were performed and monitored during weeks of
measuring. By applying different campaigns and activities in the social media channels, numbers were
affected. This resulted in a theory of how to behave as a brand in social media and what content to
focus on. The empirical study of the movements in activity created an idea of how to run social
media campaigns and was added to the already existing strategy at Ericsson.
This report suggest that content ought to have a high news value and a high core business value, and
also that social media channels should be synchronized, or work in cooperation with each other, for
maximum impact.
Sammanfattning
Denna studie har genomförts på Ericsson Labs, en avdelning underordnad Ericsson Research i
Stockholm Kista. Ericsson Labs är ett forskningsprojekt startat våren 2009 som går ut på att skapa,
hantera och distrubuera APIÊer. APIÊerna används som små delar av program vilka externa
programutvecklare kan använda som byggstenar för att skapa applikationer. Dessa applikationer kan
användas till iPhone Apps eller andra mobiltelefonplattormar och datorplatformar. APIÊerna
distribueras via hemsidan Labs.ericsson.com till hela världen. Genom att skapa ett nätverk utav
utveklare runt världen och studera deras arbete, positionerar sig Ericsson Labs i framkant med
förståelsen om vilken typ utav applikationer som det finns behov utav. Detta, tillsammans med
Ericssons breda kompetens att bygga trådlös kommunikation, erbjuder utvecklare sätt att
implementera dessa applikationstjänster i det mobila nätet.
Ericsson Labs använder sig i huvudsak av sociala medier för att marknadsföra sina APIÊer. Twitter är
den mest frekventa kanalen och sedan LinkedIn, även YouTube, Facebook, Amplify, SlideShare och
den egna bloggen används för att sprida Ericsson Labs på webben.
Denna rapport är resutltatet utav veckovisa mätningar i Ericsson Labs sociala medie kanaler eller off-
site kanaler, och on-site nyckelvärden. Totalt användes 17 mätvärden. Under mätningsveckorna
utfördes också veckovisa specifika aktiviteter för att på något sätt påverka Ericsson Labs roll på
webben. Ett exempel på aktivitet var att vara extra aktiv på Twitter under en vecka, eller driva en
kampanj på Reddit för att se om det har i effekt i det viktigaste mätvärdet „downloaded APIÊs‰. För
att mäta tredje parts siter användes automatiserade sökverktyg bland annat Google Alerts.
Resultatet visar att det är fulltmöjligt att mäta sociala medier, det går att påverka ens position på
webben genom att ha tydliga mål i sociala medier. Rapporten påvisar vikten av att synkronisera ens
närvaro på den sociala webben och förslag på hur kampanjer kan drivas genom sociala kanaler ges.
De sociala nätverken går att använda som verktyg för att nå affärsnytta. En modell för hur det ska gå
till presenteras i rapporten.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank a lot of people for helping me in this work. First of my Supervisors at Ericsson
Labs in Kista, Tor-Björn Minde and Gerardo Montero for being a great support to me. You have had
a key role in the writing of this report. Thanks Tor for believing in my idea and develop it along with
me, and Gerardo for patiently reading and discussing results with me. I would like to thank Christer
Lie my supervisor at KTH for the support. Also a big thank you to the people I interviewed at
Ericsson Kristin Lindkvist, Ulrika Bergström, Richard Brisius, Olof Lundström and Karin Ronander,
thank you for your time. A big thanks to my friends at The Amazing Society, Tobias Franzén and
Peter Ragndahl for the advice and knowledge about social media strategies. A big thank you to Stefan
Hyttfors at Wenderfalck for pouring out a fantastic two hours session about the future of digital
media to me personally a cold winters day in early 2010. And a special thanks to Therese Reuterswärd
form Electrolux for sharing valuable information about business strategies in social media and her
willingness to help out in this research.
My friends at KTH Carl Gillbland, Olof Hansen-Swärd, Samir Fors, Adam Gardefjord and Said El
Shobaki thank you for the support during writing. I also have to thank my wife Alice for the support
and patience with me when I was writing the report.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction! 11.1 About this report! 1
1.1.1 Ericsson Labs! 11.1.2 Thesis! 21.1.3 Hypothesis! 2
1.2 Background - Social media at Ericsson Labs! 21.3 Social Media - definition! 21.4 Purpose of this thesis! 21.5 Method for solving the task! 31.6 Delimitations! 3
2. Theoretical background! 42.1 Social media development! 4
2.1.1 Human behavior, why social! 42.1.2 Trust and relations! 52.1.3 Influence! 5
2.2 social media strategies (collecting existing ideas)! 62.2.1 Twitter and Facebook! 6
3. Method! 93.1 Introduction! 93.2 Measuring social media at Ericsson Labs - Monitoring chart and KPIʼs! 9
3.2.1 When numbers were monitored! 103.2.2 How numbers were monitored! 103.2.3 Onsite KPIʼs measured with in-house tools! 103.2.4 Defining activites during brainstorming session! 113.2.5 Defining KPIʼs from brainstorming meeting.! 12
3.2.5.1 The 17 KPIʼs monitored3.2.5.2 Comments on KPIʼs
3.2.6 Listening to the web - Google Alerts and RSS! 133.2.6.1 RSS-feeds
3.3 Interviews! 134. Result! 14
4.1 Early strategies at Ericsson Labs (2009-2010)! 144.1.1 “The Recipe” by Tor-Björn Minde! 16
4.2 Ericsson Labs China! 164.3 Global social media engagement within Ericsson! 174.4 Results from the monitoring chart! 17
4.4.1 Twitter! 184.4.2 Ratio between Twitter following/followers! 184.4.3 Onsite KPIʼs! 18
4.4.3.1 Registered Members KPI4.4.3.2 Key usage each week KPI
4.4.3.3 Visits to homepage KPI4.4.3.4 Downloaded new API keys KPI
4.4.4 Hacked API during the measuring period! 194.5 Missing numbers in measurements! 204.6 Interview results! 204.7 Results from social media activities! 21
4.7.1 Physical event! 214.7.2 Boost weeks, Twitter and LinkedIn! 214.7.3 Release of new API! 224.7.4 Reddit campaign! 224.7.5 Code for cash! 224.7.6 Ideas 4 Aps! 234.7.7 Webinar! 234.7.8 New homepage design! 23
5. Analysis ! 245.1 Proposing the Social Media Content Square! 26
5.1.1 News value! 265.2 The recipe! 27
5.2.1 Making the recipe even more effective! 286. Improvements and suggestions ! 29
6.1 Suggestions for Ericsson! 296.1.1 Synchronized campaigns! 296.1.2 Monitoring chart! 306.1.3 Campaigns with high core and news value! 30
6.2 Listening to the web! 306.3 KPIʼs to monitor for Ericsson Labs! 306.4 Further research! 316.5 General suggestions for improving this research! 31
7. Conclusion! 327.1 Was the thesis proved?! 32
List of References ! 33Monitoring ChartLabs ! 37Appendix! 38
1. Introduction
1.1 About this report
This report is written as a Master Thesis at KTH, The Royal Institute of
Technology, at the Media Technology Section. The report was done on behalf of
Ericsson to evaluate the social media strategies at Ericsson Labs based in Kista,
Stockholm, Sweden. A visit to Ericsson HQ in Beijing was performed June 25 to
synchronize findings and as a part of understanding the global perspective on
social media. The report was written during the period march 2010 to august 2010.
This thesis is written as a report on the existing social media strategies at Ericsson
Labs, a result of an empirical study on activities performed during spring 2010 and
a suggestion for the future, with a purpose of finding out how to increase traffic to
a webpage with the use of social media.
1.1.1 Ericsson Labs
Ericsson Labs was founded the 27th of November 2008 and is an open innovation
initiative for beta applications and beta API’s and tools. It enables for
entrepreneurs and developers to create applications for the Ericsson platform. The
site Labs.ericsson.com guides developers in forums and blogs to drive the software
development forward in an open API involvement.
The fundamental idea with Ericsson Labs is to understand what functions users
need and what they use. With the unique connection Ericsson Labs has to the
market through social media they are able to follow the development on the market
closely. Together with the online community they reach it is possible to be in the
very forefront of application development.
The stand out feature that Ericsson Labs offer is an deep understanding of mobile
communication infrastructure. Ericsson can provide knowledge and methods on
how to solve the tasks on a deeper level than what operators usually are able to do.
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Therefore developing a service or application along with Ericsson Labs simplifies
the process of bringing an innovation to reality.
Ericsson Labs wants to reach out and engage influencers, attract developers, grow
and maintaining a certain number of APIÊs and applications and foster innovation.
With a vision of developing the future of applications together with developers
around the globe fits in well in a modern way of thinking. Reaching out through
social media is then the natural way of collecting and conversing with the target
group that can actualize the purpose of Ericsson Labs.
1.1.2 Thesis
It is possible to influence the activity on the webpage by using selected social media
channels combined with strategically chosen content and activities.
1.1.3 Hypothesis
A general trend in new media is the social engagement among end users. Through
new media channels, commonly known as social media, companies can affect
traffic to be directed back to the companyÊs homepage, and thereby generate
activity.
1.2 Background - Social media at Ericsson Labs
Since May 2009 social media engagement at Ericsson Labs has been performed.
They had tried several social media channels for instance Twitter, YouTube and
Facebook. Mainly the head of Ericsson Labs has run all social media channels at
Ericsson Labs. Since Ericsson Labs is a part of the research department of Ericsson,
early adopting is a part of the everyday routine. During 2009 and early 2010 the
social media engagements had a few times generated a viral spin that brought a lot
of traffic to their webpage.
1.3 Social Media - definition
Social media is defined as any form of online publication or presence that allows
end users to engage in multi-directional conversations in or around the content on
the website. (Coleman 2010)
1.4 Purpose of this thesis
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The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how to increase traffic to a web page with
the use of social media.
1.5 Method for solving the task
In order to get full insight and knowledge in how to solve this task a thorough
study of the existing strategy were performed, interviews with people working in the
line of business and also literature seeking, mainly over the Internet, were deeply
looked into. From this base of knowledge a number of activities were carefully
designed, see section 3.5.4, to be performed during the spring of 2010 and then
investigated and analyzed to create a more perfected strategy how to act in social
media. The activities were well monitored through 17 Key Performance Indicators,
KPIÊs, numbers, see appendix 3. These numbers were monitored each Monday
during a monitoring period of nine weeks. Numbers were monitored in an
monitoring chart, see Monitoring Chart and Chapter 3.
Because of the difficulty in finding printed scientific research on social media
strategies, due to its reasonably young nature, most references are from Internet
links. Also knowledge about social media is often, naturally, posted on blogs and
on the web. Basically a majority of the target group for social media strategies
spends a lot of time on the web, and therefore knowledge on this topic is found on
the web.
1.6 Delimitations
This report is looking at Ericsson Labs involvement in social media. How to affect
the ongoing conversation on the Internet to create a spin around the webpage
Labs.ericsson.com. Therefore it is delimited to the division of Ericsson Labs at
Ericsson Research.
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2. Theoretical backgroundA short explanation about human behavior, some existing strategies that companies
today use, a framework for the content of this Master Thesis.
2.1 Social media development
This section gives insight in why social media is able to develop itself. It talks about
how people interact and the principals behind being social.
2.1.1 Human behavior, why social
Humans are by nature social in the sense that they cling together. When humans
meet they almost intuitively invent tools to communicate, its like a basic need for
their existence. Thus an oral language is developed and body language, and social
communities are formed. With this follows relations and also organizations.
Communication is a foundation in societies and nations. The most common way
of communication is obviously the use of the oral language. This evolved into
letters. The alphabet combined with the printing press later became an extended
arm for communication. Along the way the telephone, television and fax machine
etc. were invented. (Groves 2005)
Normally humans easily adapt and learn how to use different communication
channels. A new invention appears to be important if it can offer communication
with another human being and in doing so develop a relation, develop trust
between individuals. (Grooves 2005)
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2.1.2 Trust and relations
Trust means being able to predict what other people will do and what situations
will occur. If we can surround ourselves with people we trust, then we can create a
safe present and an even better future. (Starker D. 2008)
Trust means making an exchange with someone when you do not have full
knowledge about them, their intent or the things they are offering to you. (Starker
D. 2008)
2.1.3 Influence
The science behind influence in sociology, communication, marketing and political
science has long been studied (Rogers 1962; Katz and Lazarfeld 1955). In following
influence trends, forecasts of the future becomes the basis for how businesses
operate and how society functions - for instance, see observations on how fashion
spreads (Gladwell 2002) and how people vote (Berry and Keller 2003). Studying
influence patterns can help us better understand why certain trends or innovations
are adopted faster then others and how we could help advertisers and marketers
design more effective campaigns. (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto and Gummadi 2010)
Historically it has been difficult to study influence patterns due to the problem in
tracking back where the idea started. Traditional communication theories state that
a minority of users, called influentials, excels in persuading others. (Rogers 1962)
A more modern view of looking at the influence theory is that the key factors
determining influence are 1) the interpersonal relationship among ordinary users
and 2) the readiness of a society to adopt an innovation. (Watts and Dodds 2007;
Domingos and Richardson 2001)
Today in the social medium influence can be measured more easily since tweets and
messages can be tracked back in time and thus its easier to find a way back to where
it all started. Therefore science in how influence is created in social media is
developing. (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto and Gummadi 2010)
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2.2 social media strategies (collecting existing ideas)
As the digital market opens up, feedback is more or less instant. Any information
posted digitally on the web can be copied and pasted, downloaded and shared. This
enables a new way of acting and thinking when moving as a brand on the web.
When a marketing campaign is published companies has to take in consideration
the immediate feedback from the crowd it reaches. (Studstill 2010)
When browsing the web and collecting information about social media strategy one
are soon to find out that the number of self-declared social media experts grows
speedily. (Martin 2010) Having realized this its easy to understand why the quality
of the blog posts explaining social media strategies differ in quality. The UGC, user
generated content, principals behind the web makes knowledge evolve in the same
rate as the people who participate in the conversation learn. Therefore time will
sort out the real professionals form the self-declared experts. Like in any other
professional line of business, the strongest and best ideas will survive and the
online community will glorify itself as time goes by. (Wunsch-Vincent and Vickery,
2007)
Ideas and strategies are easily shared on the web and the philosophy many social
media involved people have is the one of free information. Thoughts spread on
blogs faster than the printing press allow. New media and thoughts about new
media seldom make it in paper form. Therefore it has been hard to find social
media strategies in print. Also the fact that the new media is new makes it hard to
find research in an academic level. (Lidman 2010)
A general idea about the social media evolvement is that the end users tend to lean
towards a social digital media. Research show that people spend more and more
time on the social web. When target groups move in quantity in this sphere, it is
important for companies to move along into the social web. (Lidman 2010)
2.2.1 Twitter and Facebook
A common idea ran in 2010 by companies as shown by three Swedish companies
and organizations are the „follow us on Twitter and Facebook‰ strategy. As seen at
Telia, TV4 and Barncancerfonden. (Telia #1, TV4 #1, Barncancerfonden #1). The
idea is simply to collect a lot of people and then have a conversation with them. A
successful Facebook group is the Trysil fan page (interview S. Hyttfors). Trysil is a
ski resort in Norway. Quickly the group collected over 45000 followers. By
interacting and posting engaging content the discussion within the group is heavily
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active. Companies engaging their end-users usually have an engaging product, for
instance traveling agencies, niche companies and rock stars.
What Twitter and Facebook does is enabling an simple channel for communication
between people. The principal about online communication has been around much
longer in forums around the web. The difference now is the availability, readiness
in the target group and readiness in the infrastructure that enables this attraction of
so many end users. (interview Montero)
Still the Twitter and Facebook strategies are young. Most company strategies for
social media started 2010 and knowledge about how to act is still under
investigation. An American based company, online PR media, has done deep
studies in Facebook versus Twitter strategies for companies. A condensed
compilation of their original study is quoted below. (Moir 2010)
Summary of Business-to-Business marketing advantages:
Twitter advantages- Twitter performed better in the general business to business marketing category due to its viral marketing benefits. Viral Marketing is a core business-to-business social media application for Internet exposure and expediency. The 140 character Twitter Re-Tweets (RT's) that include links to popular or relevant business content can increase branding, drive website traffic and multiply outside of the Twitter network. Including being streamed in Google 'Real Time' searches and featured on many third party resource platforms. The study also concluded that it's not even necessary to have a large group of followers to benefit from Twitter's viral marketing advantages.
Facebook advantages- Facebook performed better in the business-to-business marketing category for select companies that are 'personalities'. These are companies that are already universally recognized by their name, product or service. As such they naturally attract large followings and these followers often take the time to share relevant or important content among themselves and their followers.
Summary of Business to Consumer marketing advantages:
Facebook advantages- Facebook performed better in the majority of Business to Consumer marketing categories due to its format. A format that allows for the inclusion of photos, multiple outbound links, videos, surveys, promotions, direct engagement and other business to consumer applications. Facebook also facilitates the building of a large network of followers in the shortest amount of time to help market a consumer product or service.
Twitter advantages- Twitter performed very well in the Business to Consumer marketing category where mobile real time applications were vital. Mobile real time applications involve announcements that are time sensitive, distributed through a wireless network and intended for your target audience.
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Announcements of a spontaneous nature involving special offers, breaking news or notification of impromptu public appearances.
Conclusion- The larger study concludes that in order to maximize your Social Media Internet marketing results it's best to create a presence on both. However, if trying to decide which one to engage first or where to spend the most amount of your available time- It's important to perform basic Internet Market research, apply the findings to your target audience and weigh the benefits of each platform. The larger study also concluded that SEO combined with Social Media Marketing will yield greater potential results.(Moir 2010)
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3. MethodMethod for solving driving the thesis were divided into three parts.
Literature research and interviews - for knowledge
Activities - to affect KPIÊs
Empirical study - monitoring in social media
3.1 Introduction
As mentioned in chapter 1, this Master Thesis investigates how Ericsson Labs
should act towards itÊs target group, and from those conclusions reach a general
description for brands in their way of acting on the social web. An empirical study
were made over actions and behavior in social media in order to increase traffic to
the homepage.
The base for this study is the monitoring chart, see chapter 9. From there
conclusions were extracted. During ten weeks of the measuring period specially
designed social media activities were performed to see what kind of affects it would
have on the KPIÊs, Key Performance Indicators.
3.2 Measuring social media at Ericsson Labs - Monitoring chart and KPI’s
A hot topic of 2010 within the social media sphere is the discussion of how to
measure and monitor social media (Naslund 2010). In finding out how to measure
social media, research had to be done to find the best way to monitor the activity
outside the homepage. After trying out several different monitoring systems such
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as, Silverbakk, Ubervu, Radian6, Aitellu, Socialoomph, Twitteranalyzer, Tweetmeme,
Yahoo Pipes, Twitter Search etc, a conclusion were made that creating a custom
made manual excel-type KPI-chart would do deed at this particular time. Mostly the
measuring tools performed well, but when working with them they added a
complexity in measuring numbers that were avoided by measuring manually. Even
when measuring manually problems with databases occurred. For instance during
one week of measuring, one third of the tweets made by EricssonLabs had
disappeared, (see monitoring chart chapter 9) and a few days later it was all back to
normal again.
The monitoring chart consisted of 17 KPIÊs, see 3.2.5.1.
3.2.1 When numbers were monitored
Numbers were monitored every Monday at lunchtime. And measurements were
taken two weeks prior to the start of the activities. Also Google Alerts were used to
scan the web for third party blogs etc. This to find as much published material as
possible. In the past the biggest spin-offs had come from when social objects were
spread widely.
3.2.2 How numbers were monitored
A spreadsheet, see chapter 9, was created where all the numbers were documented.
The 14 offsite Key Performance Indicators were mostly public numbers, displayed
when visiting the relevant webpage. For instance the Twitter following number is
found when visiting twitter.com/ericssonLabs and the same goes with the Facebook
KPIÊs they are easily found when logged on to the Ericsson Application Award
page. The four onsite numbers are found through Ericsson Labs internal statistics
services. Therefore these numbers are hidden in the spreadsheet in this public
report.
3.2.3 Onsite KPIʼs measured with in-house tools
For the KPIÊs New Registered members, New keys registered and Key usage each
week internal statistics tool were used. The writer was given access to the webpage,
Labs.ericsson.com, for limited period after the measuring period in august 2010.
This enabled access to the statistics tool used internally so all relevant numbers
could be extracted.
The visits to homepage KPI were measured through PIWIK that is used by Ericsson
Labs. PIWIK is an open source analytics tool for web analytics. PIWIK is not open
to the public and a specific password had to be used for access.
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list 3.1 brainstormed ideas
list 3.2 Social media activities scheduled for the measuring weeks
3.2.4 Defining activites during brainstorming session
A brainstorm session was held at Ericsson Labs with the writer of this report along
with Tor-Björn Minde. The purpose of this meeting was to define what to measure
and what social media activities that could be done. Ericsson Labs employees were
invited and also an external consultant, Tobias Franzén from the Amazing Society,
attended.
A list of 23 different guidelines for social media was listed on the whiteboard.
List 3.1 included these activities;
* read evaluate third party blogs
* third party links / blog posts
* focus on quality content
*Important target group influencers
*Important developer
*Track the business emails
*Look at related context for e///
Labs
*Increase awareness in linkeind
*Relevant content to talk about
*Address trends and important
things.
*BBC tech review
* Improve conversation on forum at
Ericsson Labs
* Get more dialog (Twitter)
* YouTube template (splash screen)
* Be more personal
*A new fb campaign (mashup Twitter
feed)
*Demo stuff on fb
*Profiles on lab site / of Labs terms
*Webinar on enabler
*Email list (follow & write)
*Independent
*Carnival of bloggers
From list 3.1 nine activities were extracted, they were scheduled in do be performed
during the measuring weeks.
Physical event, web2.0expo San Francisco
Twitter Boost Week
Reddit Campaign
API Release
„Ideas 4 Apps‰ Facebook Campaign
New Homepage Design
Webinar
LinkedIn Boost Week
API Release
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3.2.5 Defining KPIʼs from brainstorming meeting.
During the brainstorm meeting a list of 17 different KPIÊs were defined. The 17 Key
Performance Indicators, KPIÊs, have 4 numbers that are on-site and 13 off-site-, or
social media, numbers. The thirteen off-site numbers were carefully picked to cover
the most influential social media efforts where Ericsson Labs were active. This
mainly include Twitter numbers.
Basically the general idea to figure out what activities in the „off-site‰ numbers will
have a spin-off effect in the „on-site‰ numbers. All these KPIÊs were of course
measured in numbers. A main goal of Ericsson Labs is to have Developers Keys
active, so the development of applications is taken forward. Therefore it is
important to study these numbers and se how they interact with each other.
A lot of questions were raised at the time the KPIÊs were defined, what numbers
would effect others and how. Some numbers might also be unnecessary.
Historically there had been times when a social object, like a YouTube clip, did
draw thousands of visitors back to the homepage during the week of its release.
Other times marketing activities had been performed but no apparent peak in the
numbers had been evident. This showing that there is a link between these
numbers, but itÊs complicated to understand the principles behind it.
3.2.5.1 The 17 KPIʼs monitored
Onsite
Key Usage each week
New key registered
Registered new members *total
Visits to Homepage
Offsite
Twitter Following
Twitter Followers
Re-Tweets "RT EricssonLabs"
Re-Tweets "Twitter"
@ericssonLabs
D ericssonLabs
#tweets EricssonLabs
#tweets this week
Facebook # Fans "code for cash
Youtube Channel views
LinkedIn #group members (list continues on next page)
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Amplify followers
Amplify sources
Amplify Posts
3.2.5.2 Comments on KPIʼs
Re-Tweets "RT EricssonLabs" and Re-Tweets "Twitter" are counted as one KPI. They
are basically the same number but Twitter use two different systems for Re-Tweeting.
Therefore it is counted in as two numbers.
3.2.6 Listening to the web - Google Alerts and RSS
Some time were spent in finding the right tool to listen to trends on the web. There
are several tools to follow topics and blogs that are being produced. The tool that
were used specific during the measuring period were Google Alerts
(alerts.google.com). The service does Google searches automatically and sends the
findings to an email address. The word „Ericsson Labs‰ was used for listening on
the web.
Google Alerts were also used with the search term „Social Media Strategy‰ and
„Social Media Monitoring‰ for continuous update in trends of these topics.
3.2.6.1 RSS-feeds
Also RSSÊs were used to follow blogs specific in social media. An RSS-feed is an
XML-based file format that is used to subscribe to web-content. Basically one can
follow a website and have newly posted material sent to ones RSS-reader. The RSS-
reader receives the feed and displays it, so in reality it looks like you get and email
from a webpage. The RSS-reader used for this report was Google Reader
(reader.google.com). List of some RSS-feeds followed are in appendixes.
3.3 Interviews
The writer found people working in the forefront of social media, marketing,
internal communication, consultants, researchers etc. These interviews were
performed in an open discussion about social media strategies. No specific form or
questionnaire was used along with the interviews. The main question asked was
their respective attitude and their knowledge about social media strategies. Nine
distinct interviews were held with the purpose of this thesis. During the meetings
notes were taken. (See appendix section 10 for interview listings.)
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4. Result
In finding our what gives more activity on the homepage, Labs.ericsson.com, this
are the results from the empirical study, interviews and literature searching.
4.1 Early strategies at Ericsson Labs (2009-2010)
Ericsson Labs is a web based
product and service. It attracts
entrepreneurs and developers
widely spread across the world.
Naturally, Internet campaign
initiatives by Ericsson Labs gather
people with developed computer
skills, perhaps this is a reason why
such an immediate response were
seen when Ericsson Labs started
working in social media.
With the attitude inspired by the
one-liner; „Marketing is too
important to be left to the
marketing department‰ (Godin
2008) Ericsson Labs started using social media to increase visits to Ericsson Labs
homepage. The visits to homepage were quadrupled in four months, May to August
2009, See fig 3.1.
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fig 4.1 Usage explosion showing visits to home page development during 2009 for Labs.ericsson.com pointing out when Twitter channel started (The Y-axis is without scale on request from Ericsson Labs but describes the visits to hompege)
During the first quarter of 2010 Ericsson Labs were active in nine social media
networks. These networks were carefully chosen out of hundreds of different
networks because they reach wide and deep into Ericsson Labs target groups. A
strategy formed internally was to divide the networks in two segments, namely
Social Conversation and Social Objects (Inspired by J. Engeström 2003-2010). The
first group mentioned contains networks mainly to converse with and the second
group contains social networks where objects are created. These sites cover the
biggest of the social media networks in the first quarter of 2010. Each site fulfill its
specific purpose;
Social Conversation;
Facebook - for campaigns
LinkedIn - for professionals
Amplify - for comments
Twitter - for conversations
Social Objects;
Slideshare - for slides
YouTube - for videos
Ericsson Labs blogs - for sharing developers content
Enabler blogs - for external comments
Del.icio.us - for relevant links
Alongside with these social media networks, traditional events at hackdays and
events has been used in combination with campaigns.
fig 4.2 Displaying how most social media content moves from Ericsson Labs
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table 4.1 Explains “the recipe” by Tor-Björn Minde
Most of the traffic produced by Ericsson Labs in social media is published through
the Twitter account @ericssonLabs, fig 3.2. Therefore Twitter is the most influential
and important social media channel for Ericsson Labs. The account gathers about
100 till 200 new followers each week and the @ericssonLabs account is in the top 6
swedish Twitter company accounts. (Kullin 2010)
4.1.1 “The Recipe” by Tor-Björn Minde
Distribution Content Sub Content
1/3 Core business related,
Promotion, Branding,
Company news etc
*Brand
*Company
*Labs
1/3 Business topic related,
3rd party blogs, External
research etc
n/a
1/3 Socializing, Re-posting n/a
Head of Ericsson Labs, Tor-Björn Minde, has developed, a recipe for content in
social media. Minde believes that by distributing one third of the content spread
on core business related things, and one third with related to topic content, and
also the last third of content posted being just social on the web, when doing this
the content produced is not too pushy or overbearing neither is it too social.
(Interview with Minde 2010)
Over time this has been a successful strategy. Since numbers and results has been
growing continuously with this recipe in operation.
4.2 Ericsson Labs China
The writer of this report visited Ericsson HQ in Bejing at June 25th 2010, a
meeting with Ericsson Labs China division were held. Ericsson Labs is starting up
in China. The aim is to „copy‰ the work that has been done in Sweden to reach out
to the massive market in China. Due to the „Great Firewall of China‰ social media
sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube are blocked. Therefore the work of
marketing Ericsson Labs China has to be done through chinese government
approved channels. For instance renren.com is a Facebook copy with over a
hundred million user accounts (2010) in China. In other words there are sites in
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China doing the same type of job as the dominating social media sites Ericsson
Labs are using outside China, one site equivalent for YouTube and another for
Twitter etc. A phrase used at the Ericsson office in Beijing is CtoC, and when used
is not referring to the common social media term Âcustomer to customer, but rather
meaning ÂCopy to ChinaÊ. At times when good blogpost etc are posted on the
@ericssonLabs Twitter account it has to be CtoC, copied to China, manually to
reach the audience in China.
This fact that information spread over the globe doesnÊt reach in to China shows
the importance of studying social media principles deeper. In understanding how
people act and communicate in social media one can move across platforms with
strategies not only being bound to specific sites like Twitter etc. At one point UGC-
site myspace were considered immortal due to its massive reach, over a 100 million
accounts (Cashmore 2006) but itÊs user activity has declined dramatically over a
short period. This again underlining the importance of being platform
independent.
4.3 Global social media engagement within Ericsson
During 2009 a big change in the core organization structure of Ericsson were
designed. New CEO, Hans Vestberg is emphasizing an attitude in learning bottom-
up rather than a traditional top-down system used pervious. Top management at
Ericsson is now pushing for web 2.0 solutions and this enables social media
engagements in a new way.
While interviewing the communication director at Ericsson, she stated clearly the
situation with Ericsson. Ericsson only has a few main costumers, and Ericsson is
mainly running business-to-business deals with them, therefore spending time on
social media is not a priority for gaining business opportunities. These few main
costumers are already in a close relationship with Ericsson on a day-to-day business.
On the other hand for marketing and branding it is always right to be active in
social media. Basically Ericsson are aiming to be in the forefront of social media
development and are well on the way of reaching there.
4.4 Results from the monitoring chart
The monitoring spreadsheet, chapter 9, stands as the main hub in this report. From
the numbers documented in there conclusions are drawn. The monitoring chart
was the tool used to find how activities in social media affect the main webpage
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and the products produced by Ericsson Labs. Here is some of the most important
results form the chart.
4.4.1 Twitter
Looking at the Twitter numbers they were growing steadily each week. Twitter
followers grew with an average of 105 listeners each week and with an impressive
204 following each week. With a number of 8100 following and 7632 followers,
August 2010 puts Tor-Björn Minde in a top 20 position (Hillman, A 2010) on the
Swedish Twitter account list and in a top 6 in corporate tweeters in Sweden (Kullin,
H 2010). Publishing about 50 tweets a week thus making about 7 tweets per day, is
a good number for staying in contact with the audience. There is no right or wrong
in how many tweets to do each day (Sysomos 2010).
4.4.2 Ratio between Twitter following/followers
The ration between Twitter following/followers gives an average each week of 0.949
showing the eager of the publisher to find new listeners and that he actively listens
to the audience. Having just about the same number of followers as he follows.
4.4.3 Onsite KPIʼs
When looking deeper into the KPIÊs onsite. The registered members number
increased with an average of 175.5 members each week. Mind you that Ericsson
Labs were subject to a hacker attack during the measuring period. Several accounts
were created by the hackers only to generate spam SMS.
The number of API keys downloaded each week runs stabile and growing steadily
in pretty much the same pace each week. This is when numbers are looked at
excluding the hacked SMS Send and Receive numbers.
4.4.3.1 Registered Members KPI
The onsite KPIÊs grew steadily each week during the measuring period. Registered
members grew about half of the rate as followers on Twitter.
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4.4.3.2 Key usage each week KPI
Probably the most dynamic number of all KPIÊs measured is the „Key Usage Each
Week (without „sms s/r‰)‰. It changed the most from week to week, differing more
than 100% from the average from week to week. There is no apparent pattern
related to the offsite numbers in how this KPI moves. This is probably due to the
fact that developers test their applications during development independent to
social media activities. Also when a new application is released containing an API.
4.4.3.3 Visits to homepage KPI
This KPI were stabile and didnÊt move either up of down. At a first glance at the
monitoring chart it looks as though no significant peaks in the „visitors to
homepage‰ were performed. During the nine weeks of monitoring, the visits to
homepage show that there has been no increase in visits. It pretty much kept itself
unchanged. It peaks at 6.3% over the average visits per week and it also hits the
bottom at 4.5% under the average visitors per week. Looking at these numbers in
an Gaussian Distribution or normal distribution it gives to little of difference in
order to give a result that can for sure tell us that our activity were the reason that
the numbers changed.
4.4.3.4 Downloaded new API keys KPI
Downloaded New Keys is a crucial measurement. It shows the number of new
active users. This number was quite stabile neither growing or decreasing. Some
weeks showed an 18% increase from the average on the measured week giving the
best number. In opposition there was a minimum of 8% below average. There is no
apparent pattern in the movement of this number. Looking in the monitor chart it
looks like random selected numbers.
4.4.4 Hacked API during the measuring period
During the measuring period the API; SMS Send and Receive were subject to a
hacking attack. Basically parallel accounts were generated and took out SMS Send
and Receive keys and sent SMSÊs. It was discovered before it went too far, though it
is evident in the measuring chart. The last week of May the SMS API has 93.8% of
the total usage that week. Keep in mind that there is 22 other APIÊs sharing the rest
of the 6.2% usage. The API were shut down when discovered it being hacked.
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4.5 Missing numbers in measurements
Twice during the monitoring weeks there were „missing numbers‰, for instance
measuring the total of YouTube channel views were 89335 and the following week
there were a total of 88917 views. For some reason there were -418 views from the
week before, an impossible measure. The number of total views can not decrease.
The same thing happened with a Twitter measurement. One week a third of the
total number of tweets were missing from the numbers. This opens up new
questions how reliable the numbers really are, and when and how they are updated.
4.6 Interview results
The open discussions about social media, both from in-house and external workers
gave knowledge well worth the time spent. A general idea that sprung out of these
meetings were the idea that social media will grow in the future. New media will
have a more disruptive impact on society and for marketing. (see appendix 1: list of
people interviewed)
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fig 4.3 Each (colored) line represent an API Key. Y-axis represent the number of keys downlaoded each timeperod. Purple (the peak) is the API that got hacked in May 2010, and then turned off in early June, where the peak falls down to zero. This obviously had a big impact in analyzing numbers in the end. (The y-axis is confidential scale on request from Ericsson Labs)
4.7 Results from social media activities
In looking at the nine activities there is a pronounced difference in the activities.
Some are directly social and others lean towards the core business products. The
activities were ran during consecutive weeks starting from the first week of May
2010, week 18 of the year, with the first specially designed activity starting two
weeks later, week 20.
4.7.1 Physical event
First out was an Physical Event at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Ericsson
Labs had a display at the fair and the expectations on this event were high. A
couple of months earlier there had been a similar event held in Sweden and during
that week a significant raise had been in the visits to the homepage. Looking at the
numbers after this weeks Expo, no significant raise or peak were shown, instead a
small but insignificant decrease in the visits to homepage were made this week.
4.7.2 Boost weeks, Twitter and LinkedIn
Two boost weeks were performed; first out of the two were the Twitter boost week.
During that week it was evident in measurement that the Twitter numbers increase.
A list of the 25 most influential followers of the Twitter account was made so
conversation could be focused on these people. Looking at the seven KPIÊs relating
to Twitter all the numbers this week were up. ReTweets were up by 26% prior to the
week before and @-mentions was up 60% compared to the week before. A peak in
the Twitter account was made. When looking at the „Visits to Homepage‰ numbers
this week, there is a small raise, 8%, from the week earlier but it is still not so
significant. In fact this week didnÊt generate the most visits to homepage during the
empirical study.
The same tendency, but even more significant, was observed during the „LinkedIn
boost week‰. The LinkedIn boost week was a simple but effective activity. Extra
effort were put in to the Ericsson Labs LinkedIn group, posting relevant topics and
links. Measurements show a 373% increase in „LinkedIn new group members per
week‰ measurements. One possible reason why the Twitter measurements didnÊt
increase as much during its boost week is that the Twitter account is active
continuously in a different way than what the LinkedIn group is.
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fig 4.4 Showing an analysis of the Social Media Activities. If an activity is positioned towards the left it has a higher value to the purpose of Ericsson Labs, and positioned to right itʼs an activity containing higher social value
4.7.3 Release of new API
During the second week of monitoring social media a new API were released on the
Labs homepage, network probe. The news of this release were posted on the social
networks. This release had no evident impact in either the social media sphere or
the onsite KPIÊs.
4.7.4 Reddit campaign
Week five of the empirical study gave time for the Reddit campaign. Social Media
expert at Ericsson Labs, Tor-Björn Minde made an effort in reaching a high ranking
at Reddit.com by posting relevant and interesting blog links in the name of
EricssonLabs. By having readers voting up the link the wider it spreads. Becoming
famous on this site is a branding type of social activity. Ericsson Labs posted six
links during this week. The biggest success was the link, „Learn HTML5: 10 Must
Read Lessons‰. It got 201 votes in one month. Which is to be considered to be a
success. The post generated a well-developed discussion of 58 comments. Looking at
the visit to homepage numbers it was remaining the same level as all the other
weeks.
4.7.5 Code for cash
The results of the Facebook campaign „code for cash‰ showed no direct increase in
members. The group only grew 1% during the 9 weeks of measurements. Keep in
mind that there was no effort made to make the group grow and the „code for
cash‰ campaign had its final day the in early June 2010, which was in the middle of
the measuring weeks.
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4.7.6 Ideas 4 Aps
During the brainstorming meeting an Ideas 4 Apps-campaign were designed. This
was meant to act as an Facebook group page where people that got an idea for an
app could post their thoughts on the wall to reach out to developers etc. This
would reach a new type of target group; The „new-thinkers‰ without programming
skills. At the time when this empirical study took place the time and effort needed
to run this project were not enough. It is a demanding job to gather a crowd in
social media. Therefore this activity never took place.
4.7.7 Webinar
Webinar, this activity never took place. It was suppose to be an informational
seminar broadcasted on the web.
4.7.8 New homepage design
New homepage design, were scheduled during the monitoring weeks. Ericsson Labs
has been ran on an separate platform to the main ericsson.com webpage. It was in
the pipeline to have the Labs webpage brought to the same platform as the main
dotcom. The fact that Ericsson Labs has been on a separate platform, has enabled
social media integration to be quick and manageable and therefore Ericsson Labs
has been in the forefront of social media development.
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5. Analysis
In defining what gives a greater activity on the webpage, Labs.ericsson.com, this
empirical study results in a couple of guidelines. There are a couple activities in
spin-off-effects that are shown in the history of Ericsson Labs. The biggest spin-off
were the short thirty second film explaining 3D-landscape API, were released on
YouTube January 16 2010. This film has so far generated the biggest activity on the
webpage. (see graph). It was posted on several famous blogs and spread widely
across the web.
Though 3D landscape clip on YouTube is, without doubt, the widest spread social
object, the 3D landscape API still not the most downloaded. The API that tops the
downloading statistics is the Mobile Location API with 51% of all downloads this
year. 3D landscape is currently on a fifth place in most downloaded API, excluding
SMS s/r. This indicates the theory that product that spreads widely in social media
it does not necessarily be of best use for the target group. The 3D landscape video is
to be considered as an entertaining video. The video of the 3d landscape had a high
news value but as for usability for developers the grade were lower.
Comparing the numbers generated during the empirical study week that were made
along with this thesis, we can see that during those two months no significant spin
or activity boost in the onsite KPIÊs is evident.
When interviewing the Digital Manager at Electrolux, she mentioned that things
spread over social networks is things that will give increased status among the
group listening. This comes more apparent when analyzing status updates on social
networks such as Facebook or Twitter. People do tweet things that draws attention
and that in some ways creates a buzz.
During the Twitter boost week, Twitter numbers increased and also during the
LinkedIn focus week, LinkedIn numbers grew. This indicates that when social
media tools intentionally used to gain activity numbers goes up. The fact that visits
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to homepage numbers were not affected during the weeks monitored opens up a
further question whether social media activity does have an impact on homepage
numbers. Looking at statistics from early 2010, when homepage activity numbers
have peaked, the peak is made in relation to a social media activity. It emphasizes a
theory that there is a link between activity on homepage and social media activity.
When studying the social media activities generating peaks, one conclusion is
drawn, that when social media activity is related to the core purpose of the
homepage it draws visitors to back to the homepage. This proposes a relation
between content in social media objects and how it is spread and what kind of
response it gets. Analyzing further it is shown that activities that have marketed
products from Ericsson Labs that contained a „News Value‰ or „Social Value‰ were
widely spread. According to Reuterswärd, that social object that promotes social
prestige is passed on (Reuterswärd 2010). Therefore if an product does raise once
prestige it will spread. The 3D landscape was a bit of a news breaking video and
therefore it was passed on in the social web.
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fig 5.1 Social media content square
5.1 Proposing the Social Media Content Square
During this research a formula for content on social media has been shaped. fig5.1
5.1.1 News value
The writer suggest that social objects spreading on the web is due to the „News
Value‰ the higher it gets the more likely the object is to spread on the web. For
instance if one post something that is uninteresting for the listeners than it most
likely wont be re-posted.
A problem with a formula that contains „News Value‰ is that „News Value‰ is an
subjective axel. What is a
piece of news for one
p e r son migh t no t b e
important for someone else.
„News Value‰ depends on a
lot of factors. During
interview with Digtital
Manager at Electrolux it was
mentioned that a piece of
news is depending on
closeness, presentness and
e f f e c t s o n d i r e c t
environment to the people
involed. The fact that there
is a news value parameter in social media makes it unpredictable and difficult to
grasp. Knowing exactly what the audience wants is key in creating a viral social
object. Still this is a difficult forecast to predict.
Through the results of measurements it is evident that spending time on social
tools, talking or writing to people and networking with people generates increased
numbers in the area where time is spent. For instance were there a 300 plus
percentage increase in members joined in the LinkedIn group the week some effort
were spent there. The same pattern is found with Twitter. Since the Twitter account
has been continuously active at Ericsson Labs, followers continuously join the
account. Also during the Twitter boost week numbers peaked and more people
joined. From this a conclusion is made; being active on social networks generates
activity on the network. Basically the administrator of the account is the driving
force for keeping the account alive. ItÊs a simple conclusion, if thought of in
extremes, if the account never were updated, nobody would visit. In opposition to
this conclusion there is also a peak in how much one can tweet before tiring once
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fig. 5.2 Figure showing the maximum point in how to act in social meida
table 5.2 Displaying The Recipe by Tor-Björn Minde
followers and subsequently lose followers. The activity formula on Twitter is
depending on a number of factors, for instance celebrity level, content etc.
5.2 The recipe
Referring back to the Social media recipe, see 2.4.1, research of this report gives that
when activities are done in the „last‰ third of the recipe, which is the social part,
numbers goes up in that area. Conclusions from this report indicates an add to the
recipe strategy. A social object combining all three aspects of the recipe gives the
biggest impact on the web. This means that an object containing a high „core
value‰ that also is packaged with a high social value will spread widely and than
appear in third party blogs etc. An object like that would contain all the parts of
the social media recipe at once.
In order to create this kind of social object it has to start from the business
platform. In other words the products has to have a launch strategy which include
all parts of the recipe.
Basically news spreads in an unconventional way in comparison with traditional
media where one sent press releases to printed press etc. Today news are launched
directly to the target group through social media or new media. A product is
launched on the web and the spread over the social network. Then as a final part of
the marketing process the product launch does reach the 3rd party blogs. When a
social object is picked up by an acknowledged blog often the spin is of, and it
reaches back to a bigger social crowd, it gets reposted and new blog posts are
produced again.
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Distribution Content Sub Content
1/3 Core business related,
Promotion, Branding,
Company news etc
*Brand
*Company
*Labs
1/3 Business topic related,
3rd party blogs, External
research etc
n/a
1/3 Socializing, Re-posting n/a
5.2.1 Making the recipe even more effective
In the launching process all effort in social media should follow the concept of
what is being released. In other words having all social objects referred to and
posted synchronized could effect the trend on the web, and then raise the interest
of the product being released.
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6. Improvements and suggestions
Results from this paper inspired for ideas for the future in how to act, here are
some ideas how to improve and how to act in the future.
6.1 Suggestions for Ericsson
-Synchronized campaigns
-Monitoring Chart
-Start strategies from the bottom
6.1.1 Synchronized campaigns
It is proved in the monitoring chart that if effort is put in numbers goes up. And
also that depending on content media is spread widely. Adding this together creates
a new type of strategy for Ericsson Labs yet not tried. If content with a high news
value is spread parallel over multiple channels, the message about new products
may spread faster. For instance the launching of the 3D-landscape API could be
launched in different ways in all social media channels. This means that the recipe
only include 3D-landscape related articles and posts.
In this way Ericsson Labs as a company could perhaps start a trend or follow a
trend that is seen on the web and emphasize that trend by posting and talking and
responding to conversations already running in that topic.
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6.1.2 Monitoring chart
The main hub for this report has been the monitoring of the social media activities
and engagements. From the excel chart with numbers a lot of knowledge about how
trends and costumers react and act on social media. Therefore the first suggestion is
to have a monitoring system that enables overviews and trends. From here a lot of
knowledge can be extracted and be a great learning and guide for future strategies.
6.1.3 Campaigns with high core and news value
Taking it from the start to create a product with high core and news value would
create a product that spreads easy on the social web. Making outstanding products
to position the products of Ericsson Labs in a unique and innovative position
would make the products spread wide and far quickly.
6.2 Listening to the web
Research was made to find an easy way to listen to tends on the web. The tool that
were used in the end for this report was „Google Alerts‰ and „Google Reader‰ those
are two common, easy to use and free tools that still can be very powerful. In social
media it is absolutely crucial to listen carefully to the web, what is being published
and produced.
6.3 KPI’s to monitor for Ericsson Labs
Obviously not all KPIÊs were as useful as others. The general principal behind what
KPIÊs to measure or not is simple, basically measure was the work is put in. If we
look at the Facebook measurements and the Amplify measurements they donÊt
move that much during measuring periods basically because no specific work were
put in to grow those numbers. And a lot of effort were put in to Twitter and to
LinkedIn and numbers are growing visibly the weeks effort were put in. Therefor a
monitoring chart should use the KPIÊs were the work is affected. Specific for
Ericsson Labs the chart suggest to keep the onsite numbers and the Twitter and
LinkedIn numbers and then to use Amplify, Facebook and YouTube for campaigns.
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6.4 Further research
The writer suggests to do further research in the field of social media strategies. Due
to the young nature of social media the strategies quickly evolve and the conclusion
of this report needs to be tried with an empirical study again to show the validity
of the results given in this report. Does synchronized campaigns give higher activity
on site? Is it possible to increase the core and news value in the social objects?
6.5 General suggestions for improving this research
To start of, a lot of activities were planned and only four of them were carried out
fully. This leave the monitoring chart a bit weak in its observations. Still this four
activities gave result in the raised KPI numbers in its respective area. A suggestion
from the writer of this report is to try out an opposite thesis. Basically to prove that
if nothing is done in social media, numbers will go down in the onsite KPIÊs. Then
the impact of the social media engagement perhaps would be more defined. Still to
perform a research project like that would be harmful to Ericsson Labs but still it
would answer the question whether social media activities does have an impact on
the fundamental homepage.
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7. Conclusion
This rapport shows that if effort is made to increase the activity in social media
channels the activity in the social media channels does increase. It also indicates
that if the content sent out in social media is solemnly social activity it is most
likely to stay in the sphere where it was put in. In other words if a Twitter admin is
being social it is most likely that no activity is sent back to the webpage.
From events prior to the time when the measuring period of this report took place
it is shown that spins can be created from the effort of planned activities. Still it is
difficult to trace exactly the reasons why the spins take off.
It is then proposed for further research that if an synchronized effort in parallel
campaigning in multiple social media channels is performed that it increases the
possibility of raising activity on the webpage. This indicates that a traditional push
strategy is working on the social web, rather than pull strategies, that are widely
suggested in the social media-marketing sphere.
Perhaps social media strategies are not so different from any other marketing
strategies.
7.1 Was the thesis proved?
It is possible to influence the activity on the webpage through selected social media
channels combined with strategically chosen content and activities. (see Chapter
1.1.1 thesis)
It is shown that if specific effort is made in a specific social media channel then
activity in that specific channel is increased. And it is suggested that the content
that is spread in the specific social media channel determines the likelihood of the
chance of spreading that activity back to the webpage.
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Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy. Free Press
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Appendix Appendix 1: List of people interviewed:
Name Position Contact
Bergström Ulrika Marketing Communications Manager [email protected]
Brisius Richard Director Marketing Communications [email protected]
Fransén Tobias Consultant at The Amazing Society [email protected]
Lindqvist Kristin Communications Director [email protected]
Lundström Olof Head of Ericsson LabsLabs China [email protected]
Hyttfors Stefan Consultant at Wenderfalck [email protected]
Minde Tor-Björn Head of Ericsson Labs [email protected]
Montero Gerardo Research Engineer at Ericsson [email protected]
Ragndahl Peter Consultant at The Amazing Society [email protected]
Reuterswärd Terese Digital Manager at Electrolux [email protected]
Ronander Karin Director, Internal Communications [email protected]
Thunberg Marianne Marketing Communications Manager [email protected]
Appendix 2: RSS-feed list:
Writer Web-address Title
Jerry Silfwer www.doctorspinn.se PR-consultant
Disruptive www.disruptivemedia.se Entrepeneurship, Web 2.0
Jesper Åström jesperastrom.com SEO, Social Web, Facebook tutorials, Google Analytics
Fredrik Stenbeck sixx.se/nextgen Next Generation Internet
Social Media Today, LLC socialmediatoday.com
Tech Crunch techcrunch.com Whats hot, web 2.0
Mashable mashable.com social and digital media, technology and web culture
Master of Science Thesis - KTH 2010 - Mikael Palm - Social Media Strategy Ericsson Labs
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Appendix 3: List of 17 KPIÊs measured:
Master of Science Thesis - KTH 2010 - Mikael Palm - Social Media Strategy Ericsson Labs
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