cp leveraging social media to drive traffic

© 2008 Commonplaces e-Solutions, LLCwww.CommonPlaces.com

Leveraging Social Media to Drive Traffic

© 2008 Commonplaces e-Solutions, LLCwww.commonplaces.com 603-329-6760

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CommonPlaces e-Solutions – Ben Bassi

Ben Bassi, President/CEO of CommonPlaces e-Solutions


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CommonPlaces e-Solutions – Heritage


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CommonPlaces e-Solutions – Philosophy

TECHNOLOGY solutions to execute your e-business strategy. In-house website design, CMS and WCMS, document management, and security solutions.

Alignment of e-business STRATEGY with real-world solutions proven through years of experience monetizing Internet Publishing sites and Online Communities.

CREATIVITY brands who you you are. We

deliver world-class interactive

websites and marketing programs to

drive customer acquisition

and conversion.


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CommonPlaces e-Solutions – Expertise

• One of the fastest-growing web development firms in New England (100% growth each of the past 4 years).

• Specializing in the integration of leading edge Open Source applications to deliver comprehensive and secure Web-based solutions.– Web Content Management Systems (WCMS) – Social Publishing / Social Networks– Adding Social Features to Existing Sites– E-Commerce - PCI Compliance - Security– Custom Applications, Widgets, Gadgets– Beautiful Designs – W3C compliant – SEO/SEM, Social Media Optimization– Internet Strategy and Online Marketing

• Open Source Expertise • eZ Publish, Drupal, PHP, MySQL, CSS, Flash and

Flex


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Recent Recognition & Awards

2008 WEBAWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN WEBSITE DEVELOPMENTCommonPlaces e-Solutions, LLC.Greenopolis - Learn. Act. Reward. Together.Online Community Standard of Excellence

Drupal Design Award for Greenopolis.comDrupalCon, March 2008


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For Publishers: The Clock is Ticking…

11 Crisis Planning Points for Publishing CEOs1

Issue an edict: Digital is first!

Consolidate print and online editing functions

Print edition: Don't bother chasing young people

Print edition: Focus on the core demographic

Guide older print loyalists to a life online

Reduce the number of print editions

Online: Broaden definition of news to include micro-personal

Hire a social VP

Experiment, fail, experiment more

Leverage your remaining staffers, and augment them

Consider retirement

1 Excerpt from My 'Crisis' Advice to

Newspaper Company CEOs: 11 Points to Ponder, by Steve Outing, 12/01/2008


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For Publishers: 5 Facts

1. You are no longer in control

2. There are no destination websites any more - if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You need to be where people want you to be.

3. People on online communities are not who you think they are (i.e. hoodie-wearing slackers)

4. Get the content right and the rest will follow

5. The future is niche - i.e. the much mooted and predicted proliferation of niche social networking sites that will provide an alternative to the generic Facebooks and MySpaces.

Excepted from “Harnessing the Power of Social Media“ presentation given at Will McInnes of Nixon McInnes, and Ros Lawler, Digital Marketing Manager at Random House during a London-based training series on “Digital Marketing for Publishers”.


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Opportunities

• As Publishers You Already Have / Create Content – Engage existing social networks – Add social features to your site– Socialize your existing online marketing – Create a new, niche community


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Web 2.0 and Social Media

Watch: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

The central characteristic of "Web 2.0" is that conversations and interactions are created and take place across disparate, unconnected Web sites, blogs and discussion forums across the Web.


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Social Media and SEO – Building Success


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Social Media - Sheer Numbers are Amazing!

• Current number of DAILY unique visitors and growth trend:– Digg.com: ~900,000 (no change)

– StumbleUpon.com: ~400,000 (increasing)

– Slashdot.org: ~300,000 (decreasing)

– Propeller.com: ~140,000 (increasing)

– Fark.com: ~130,000 (decreasing)

– Reddit.com: ~120,000 (increasing)

– Mixx.com: ~60,000 (increasing)

– Dzone.com: ~40,000 (increasing)

– Newsvine.com: ~25,000 (increasing)

– Sphinn.com: ~15,000 (increasing)

Weekly Visitors to S/N’s


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Traffic Comparisons


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Traffic Comparison

UGC vs. Traditional Publishing

Embracing Social Media concepts and features are becoming necessary to your survival whether your audience is large or niche.

If you have a extremely finite audience, social features will help you to show more value ($)

retain your audience cross into new audiences mine data and intelligence


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2008 Forrester Report

• 3 out of 4 US online adults now use social tools to connect with each other, up from 56% in 2007

• If growth of ratings and reviews continues at its current pace, then "reading peer recommendations will fast become a permanent stage in the purchase decision process.“ This is NOT retail-specific.

• “Social activity is way up among 35-to-44 year-olds, especially when it comes to joining social networks and reading and reacting to content.

• Even among 45-to-54 year-olds, 68% are now Spectators, 24% are Joiners, and only 28% are Inactives."


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2008 Forrester Report


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B2B Social Media Trends

• $4.6 Billion industry by 2013 – 69% of businesses allow social networking, up from 37% last year.

– 63% of Employers are using social media to build and promote their brand, 61% are using it to improve communication and collaboration, and 58% are using it to increase consumer engagement;

– 75% of employees are already using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn for business purposes, up 15% from 2007;

– Use of internal-facing communities is on the rise with 6% of organizations already reporting they deployed internal-facing communities, while 33% indicate their organization plans to implement internal-facing social media initiatives;

– Similarly, external-facing communities are increasing: 27% of respondents said their companies were planning to deploy external-facing communities while only 13% indicated their organizations already have external-facing communities;

– Online communities directed at specific interests and groups of people allow for more targeted marketing techniques and better results so for this reason 37% of organizations have specific areas of focus for their communities.


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What Happens? – Greenopolis.com

• The Spike - Days 1-7

Sample Social Media Campaign – Front Page Digg Story

CP New Site Launch Very Limited SMM Placement(Alpha) Focus Groups

Corporate Internal Announcement and Official Press Release

CP SMM Campaign

• The Step Effect

• The Tail - Days 8-43


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More Examples

Association Social Media Wiki’s List – The Association Social Media Wiki has a growing “A

to Z” list of some 100+ associations using social media with links to the association’s social media web pages. Ranges from the American Library Association’s Second LIfe intiative to the Urban Land Institute’s blog.

Forrester’s Groundswell Awards – Write-ups on 150+ submissions for the 2008

awards as well as write-ups on the 2007 winners of the Groundswell Awards by Forrrester. The awards showcase organizations that have shown “excellent and effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or corporate goal.” Nominees in 2008 include social media programs such as Quickbooks’ Community Site and Rubbermaid’s Adventures in Organization blog.


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Twitter Brand Index – Provides a list organized into categories such as

Business, Education, Entertainment, etc. with links to sub-categories within each.

Society for New Communications Research Award Winning Case Studies

- 50+ case studies from their awards which

honors individuals, corporations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and media outlets that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds, and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, journalism and professional communications, entertainment, education, social initiatives, government and politics.


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Cost and ROI


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CommonPlaces Social Media Plan

– Set Realistic Goals – ps. Its not all Traffic – Plan and Prioritize– Research– Open the Gates – Build Your Own Park – Engage – Participate – Measure, Monitor and Manage – Analyze and Repeat


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Set Realistic Goals

• New Clients (Subscriptions, Licenses, etc)• Retention • Monetization• Market Intelligence

Which is better: 100,000 visitors and 1 customer or 100 visitors and 10 customers?


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Plan and Prioritize

• You Have the Content! • Champion – You?• Company buy in • Resources (We use Interns, their free and

trained)• Budget (Marketing) • Software/Technology


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Research

• Case Studies• Know Your Audience (similar audience?) • Where is Your Audience? (search and find

them)• Data Mining your Membership (where do

they hang out?)• Take Inventory – What can you socialize?• Software and Tools• Competition and Possible Partners


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Open the Gates!

• Turn on RSS • Turn on Story-Level

Comments • Turn on Bookmarking Tags• Contextual Recommendations• UGC Ratings and Reviews • Staff, Community and Expert

Blogs• Enable Citizen Journalism• Assignment Desks• Video/Article Contests*• Matchmaking of Members• AOL Bots • Allow Open IDs

• Editorially-Guided Forums• Industry-Specific Wikis • Industry-Specific Q & A• Audience Communities• Conversational Spotlights• Event Listings / Calendars • User Edited Lists • Topical Debates • Topic Channels• User-Created Home Pages• Custom Search • Custom Alerts

DIY – Experts May Be Needed


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Avoid Walled Gardens!

Gramercy Park, New York, NY


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Practical Guide to RSS

• RSS = Really Simple Syndication– Can your visitors subscribe to your

content?– Added to home pages and readers – Instant alerts notifications– Easily Syndicate Your Content

• RSS Drives Visitors Back To Your Site• Most WCMS and Blogs have RSS

Built In• Portability of your content

– Syndications, widgets, gadgets, bots, applications

Watch: RSS in Plain English by CommonCraft


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RSS to Mobile

• Most cell phone users have their phone with them at all times.

• RSS lets you reach them - BuddyBuzz

- winksite.com- LiteFeeds- Bloglines mobile- PHONifier- iFeedYou- FreeNews


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Bookmarking – Social Tagging

• Make it Easy• Don’t Overwhelm• Use descriptive &

Unique webpage titles

• Monitor & Analyze

Watch: Social Bookmarking in Plain English by CommonCraft


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Top 20 Bookmarking Sites


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When To Build Your Own Park

• Build Your Own Social Media Site When: – You have an existing membership base– You have a niche or isolated audience – Your members need privacy to discuss their issues– Your audience is activist based

Experts Are Needed

Technology Considerations- Open / Proprietary

Platform- Customizable?- Scalable? Server Arch?- Streaming Media?- Server/Application

Security - PCI Compliance - Multi-Site Solutions?

Strategy Considerations- Monetization - Partnerships/Affiliates- Marketing - Brand/Standards

Compliance- COPPA Compliance - Moderation - Crisis Plans


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Engage: Join Other Social Networks

• Start/Build Membership or Subscriptions• Focus Groups• Brand Management • Trust • For Example: LinkedIn

– Company Listing – Excellent Profile Copy – Start a Group (Paid Membership Required?) – Answer Q&A Questions – Ask Questions – Applications – What are you Reading? Slideshare,

etc.


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Engage: Check your Username

Are These You? www.usernamecheck.c

om


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Get Beyond Facebook and LinkedIn…

• Google Knol: Article submission with an emphasis on the author as an expert.

• Yahoo Answers – Big audience, excellent SEO • Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being "your link to the Web

content that really matters." Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You'll also meet others with similar interests.

• Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.

• BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.


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Participate

• Participate on Other Networks• Do Not Do Drive-By Posting• Adhere to etiquette of the network • Educate, Never Sell • Answer Questions• Comment on other’s postings • Follow and Befriend Others with Similar

Interests or Industries


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Measure, Monitor, Analyze

Social Media Metrics to Track RSS Newsletter SubscribersAmount of Social Bookmarks Activity of Comments added to Your BlogNews Links from Social Media Marketing Monitoring the Viral Aspect – who’s talking about youMonitoring Referring Links Monitoring Brand/Search SaturationMonitoring Reach Mood of Conversational Marketing Engagement of Site Visitors Tracking email usage (if email campaign)


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Measure, Monitor, Analyze

• Free Tools for Measurement • Alexa (Reach) • Google Analytics (customizable) • Compete – add tracking code to your site • Quantcast – add tracking code to your site• Google Alerts, Bloglines• Twitter with tools like Tweetscan Here are 17 ways to visualise the

twitter universe• Perspctv – this real-time application lets you enter multiple keywords

and watch Twitter, the Blogosphere, and Google news for posts.

• Paid Measurement Tools • Serph - Serph is a social media search engine. An all-in-one system

thats great for those are quite busy.• Keotag - Keotag is another decent social media search engine.

Similar to Serph.


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Perspctv - Monitor Your Social Media Presence

Perspctv


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Thank You!

• Questions? • We love to help – give us a call to discuss

Internet Publishing, Social Media, etc.

– Ben Bassi, President – [email protected]– Sherrin Bull, VP, Marketing –

[email protected]

cp leveraging social media to drive traffic

Technology

social features

social tools

social activity

social media concepts

social media watch

existing social networks

social media sheer numbers

b2b social media trends