rust-oleum: striving for success through social media | imc 641

Kaitlyn Reeves July 22, 2013 IMC 641 | Social Media & Marketing

RUST-OLEUM | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN, 2013 2

Table of Contents

Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Audience .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Objectives .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Channels .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Strategy & Tactics .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Measurement .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 References .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34


Opportunity Why does Rust-Oleum need a social media makeover?

With the explosion of Pinterest and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and

crafts, a strong social media presence for brands such as Rust-Oleum is

imperative. Traditional advertising on television and in magazines is missing a

large portion of current and potential users who spend a majority of their time on

social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and

YouTube.

Sherwin-Williams is a major competitor of Rust-Oleum and has a much

stronger social presence. Sherwin-Williams uses various channels (Facebook,

Twitter, Pinterest) to promote its products, inform consumers of current sales

promotions, and engage with followers through sweepstakes. Rust-Oleum uses

social media, but not as effectively as its competitor. Rust-Oleum should be

seen as a high-quality paint brand with an extensive product offering various

types of products and not just a cheap can of spray paint that can prevent

outdoor furniture from rusting.


What is Rust-Oleum currently doing in social media? As previously mentioned, Rust-Oleum does currently utilize a variety of social

networks. They are active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Instagram.

The problem is that Rust-Oleum is merely “present” on these sites and not

effectively engaging their followers.

Rust-Oleum’s Facebook page (Rust-Oleum) has 10,152 “likes”, which is a

fraction of what competitor Sherwin-Williams has (160,006). Besides a lack of

followers, Rust-Oleum is also not very active when it comes to posting and

updating their page. So far for the month of May, Rust-Oleum only has a total of

four original posts, and five shares of others’ photos and links. That’s a total of

nine posts for the entire month of May – not very engaging for site like Facebook

with so many users. The posts on Rust-Oleum’s page have very few shares,

likes, and comments. Another important aspect of social media is visibility and

sharing, and this is an area that Rust-Oleum needs to work on with their

Facebook page.

On Twitter, Rust-Oleum (@RustOleum) has an even smaller following than

their Facebook page, coming in at 1,857 followers. According to Statistic Brain,

as of May 7, 2013, there were a total of 554,750,000 active registered users on

Twitter, with 135,000 new users per day (n.d.). Rust-Oleum is missing out on a

lot of impressions, and this probably has to do with the lack of activity on their

Twitter feed. Similar to Facebook, Rust-Oleum has tweeted very little. Rust-


Oleum has one original tweet for the entire month of May, which was tweeted on

May 24. Rust-Oleum does try to engage with its followers by replying to others’

tweets and retweeting other updates as well. Including original tweets,

mentions, replies, and retweets, Rust-Oleum has a total of 15 posts on Twitter

for the month of May – that’s about one post every other day, which would be

okay if these posts were more than just mere retweets and mentions. On a more

positive note, Rust-Oleum does attempt to answer customer questions and

address their complaints on Twitter, but they could be doing more. For example,

on May 17, Rust-Oleum attempted to address and resolve an issue a consumer

had while using Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2x spray paint. Rust-

Oleum responded to the tweet by urging the customer to call the customer

service number. While this is a step in the right direction, Rust-Oleum could use

a better plan to deal with complaints via social media rather than referring the

customer to call the customer service phone number. The customer has already

been inconvenienced by the product and reached out via Twitter, so he or she

might not be willing to spend more time speaking to a customer service

representative over the phone.

Rust-Oleum (Rust-Oleum U.S.) also uses Pinterest, which is a great

opportunity for the brand because of the large number of do-it-yourself (DIY)

and craft projects being pinned and re-pinned. Right now, Rust-Oleum has

2,168 followers, 325 pins, and 35 likes on its Pinterest profile. Of their 16

boards, they feature various paint projects for different rooms in the home,

including the garage; craft projects; holiday projects; how-to photos; how-to


videos; automotive paint projects; and products. The board featuring Rust-

Oleum’s products only features one pin for their Ultimate Wood Stain. It would

be beneficial for Rust-Oleum to update this board to include their other products

so followers know what Rust-Oleum has to offer and what projects can be

accomplished using their products (kitchen countertop and cabinet

transformations come to mind).

Next, there’s Instagram. Rust-Oleum (@rustoleumusa) has only 313

followers and 18 photos. These numbers are very low. The most recently added

photo from Rust-Oleum was from three weeks ago. A few of the photos are of

objects painted with Rust-Oleum products and a couple are of people actually

using the product, but most of the photos are from the Country Living Fairs

Rust-Oleum has attended. Most of Rust-Oleum’s photos have very few likes and

comments – the highest number of likes is only 16 and the most comments on

one photo is seven (one of which happens to be someone recommending

another brand of paint).

It is impossible to engage and communicate with followers if Rust-Oleum

isn’t frequently posting, updating, and maintaining its profiles. Simply having a

profile on a social media site isn’t enough – for social media to work as

powerfully as it does, it has to be maintained.


Audience Who are we talking to?

For Rust-Oleumʼs social media efforts, I chose to focus on white females

in the age range of 25 to 34. These females are likely married with young

children and, besides being mothers, also work full-time. These females are both

homeowners and renters and can be considered middle-class with a household

income of $45,000 to $75,000 annually. These women live in both city suburbs

and more rural areas.

How involved with social media is the target audience?

According to the social technographics tool available online through

Forrester, females in the United States between the ages of 25 to 34 are

primarily Joiners and Spectators. For the chosen demographic, 74% of all 25 to

34 year old females are Joiners and 78% are Spectators. These two groups,

along with five other groups, classify consumers by the level of social

participation (“Social Technographics,” 2012). Joiners tend to use social media

networks like Facebook and MySpace to connect with others; they maintain their

social media profiles and visit social networking sites (Bernoff & Anderson,

2010). Spectators are those who read blogs, online forums, customer ratings and

reviews, and tweets. Spectators also listen to podcasts and watch videos posted

by other users (Bernoff & Anderson, 2010). If someone within the Spectator


category were doing research before making a purchase, he or she would most

likely go online to do the majority of their research. The social technographics

tool did not specify the percentage of females aged 25 to 34 who are

Conversationalists, but I would consider the majority of the target audience to fall

in this category as well. Conversationalists are those who update their statuses

and post tweets on social networking sites at least once per week (Bernoff &

Anderson, 2010).

Females in the age range of 25 to 34 are much more likely to be Joiners

(Index = 145) and Creators (Index = 129) as compared to the population

average. These same females are slightly more likely to fall into the other

categories, as compared to the population average: Critics (Index = 116);

Collectors (Index = 114); and Spectators (Index = 107) (“Social Technographics,”

2012).


Considering this data, a social media plan with more involvement and

interaction on the part of Rust-Oleum will reach this target audience effectively

because these women already spend a good portion of their time online and are

involved in social media already.

What tools and technologies are being used?

An infographic posted in an article by Adam Popescu on Mashable.com in

April 2013 breaks down which social networking sites are most appealing to

specific demographics:

- Pinterest: Rural residents, women, whites, some level of college

education or higher, middle to higher income.

- Facebook: Women, 18 to 29 year olds.

- Instagram: African-Americans, Hispanics, urban residents, 18 to 29

year olds, women.

- Twitter: 18 to 29 year olds, African-Americans, urban residents.

Based on this information, it would seem that the best ways to reach the

whole of the target audience of 25 to 34 year old women are through Facebook,

Pinterest, and Instagram. Twitter could be useful to reach those younger women

between the ages 25 to 29.

Pinterest and Facebook hold the most potential to appeal to the target

audience, not only because these are the most appealing social network sites,

but because Rust-Oleum can capitalize on the sharing nature of these two sites.


Pinterest is an online pinboard where users can “pin” or save links to

content that interest them in order to be easily retrieved at a later time. Pins

range from Animals to Fashion to Food and Drink, and many more, including DIY

& Crafts and Home Décor, which would be ideal places for Rust-Oleumʼs content

to appear considering all the uses for Rust-Oleum products.

According to an article on SearchEngineWatch.com, Pinterest alone has

over 27 million active users and offers analytics to companies using business

accounts. The following information can be collected and customized by date

range: Pins, Pinners, Repins, Repinners, Impressions, Reach, Clicks, Visitors,

Most Recent Pins, Most Repinned, and Most Clicked (De Vivo, 2013).

Facebook is the worldʼs largest social network, with more than 1 billion

active users per month. More than half of all users log in every day and users

spend an average of 19 minutes on Facebook per day. Facebook is the top

photo-sharing site with 250 million photos being added each day (“Facebook,”

2013). There are a variety of third-party analytic tools for Facebook, as well as

analytics provided by Facebook itself. Facebook offers the following metrics to

measure the overall performance of a businessʼs Page: Total Likes, Friends of

Fans, Talking About This, and Total Reach (“Getting Started,” 2013). Facebookʼs

Page Insights also provides demographic data (gender and age, countries, cities,

and language) based on the Likes a businessʼs page receives (“Likes,” 2013).

Each of the four aforementioned sites (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram,

and Twitter) provide unique ways for Rust-Oleum to engage with its target


audience and grow its social media presence overall. The availability of various

analytics through these sites provides Rust-Oleum an easy and accurate way to

measure the effectiveness of its new social media approach.


Objectives What do we want to accomplish?

Gain 2,000 followers on Twitter over the course of eight (8) weeks.

Increase number of shares and comments on Facebook by five (5) per

post in 12 weeks.

Increase the number of photos shared on Instagram to one (1) per

week, with posting starting within the next four (4) weeks.


Channels How are we going to reach our audience? Twitter

Twitter is a solid choice for Rust-Oleumʼs current marketing efforts.

While it may not be the top social media network for the target

audience, it is one of the top three used. Among all Internet users, 16 percent

use Twitter, and 15 percent of those users are women (Bennett, 2013).

Twitter is a great place to promote a brand. Tweets are limited to 140

characters, but URL shorteners are useful for conserving character space.

Brands can link to a wide variety of content – photos, videos, and websites –

using Twitter, making it an ideal choice for Rust-Oleum to integrate its other

channels, including its website.

Twitter also offers a variety of ways to incorporate the brandʼs profile into

its website. Rust-Oleum can have a Twitter button on its homepage to promote

follows. Rust-Oleumʼs website features projects and tips, and Twitter actually

offers a retweet button to add to these posts, making it really easy for a reader to

retweet an article from Rust-Oleumʼs website and post it to the readerʼs Twitter

profile (Hines, 2013).

Pros:

-‐ Effectively reaches the target audience

-‐ Easily incorporated into Rust-Oleumʼs website


-‐ Link to a variety of content; means no limits on what can be posted

Cons:

-‐ 140 character limit can make it hard to create a headline to grab

attention

-‐ Facebook and Pinterest are more popular

-‐ Content isnʼt guaranteed to be shared or retweeted

Instagram

One of the objectives of Rust-Oleum’s social media marketing plan

is to increase the numbers of photos posted on Instagram.

Instagram is primarily appealing to women and those ages 18 – 29, which

covers part of the target audience. A better presence on Instagram will also help

increase engagement with customers.

Instagram provides the opportunity to not only create original content for

posting, but the chance to share customers’ content, too. If someone uploads a

photo of a finished DIY project they completed using a Rust-Oleum product,

Rust-Oleum can ask to share that photo and engage and build trust with

followers.

Pros:

- Reaches a good portion of the target audience

- Platform to post original content to drive engagement

- Ability to monitor hashtags and communicate with customers tagging

the brand/products


- Now available on the web (previously only available on mobile

devices), making it more accessible

Cons:

- No option to link to website

- Re-posting is not simple; requires a screenshot of others’ content.

- Can only view content, not upload new content via web.

Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform, largely used

by women and 18 – 29 year olds (Popescu, 2013). One of the

objectives selected for Rust-Oleum was increasing the number of shares and

comments on Facebook. In order to do this, Rust-Oleum must utilize Facebook

to engage its followers by posting relevant and new content. Currently, Rust-

Oleum shares photos from other Facebook profiles more so than creating their

own unique content. Rust-Oleum can focus its efforts more on featuring a

product and linking it to a how-to video (perhaps from their YouTube channel).

This will help integrate Rust-Oleum’s marketing efforts.

Pros:

- Reaches a large portion of the target audience

- Ability to share others’ content, which helps engage followers and

build trust

- Ability to share almost anything: photos, links, videos, etc.


Cons:

- Risk of being repetitive with content and losing followers

- Requires a lot of time to manage content and communicate with fans

- Risk losing followers if content is not relevant or valuable

What are our competitors doing?

Sherwin Williams and Instagram

One of Rust-Oleum’s competitors is Sherwin Williams, the United States’

largest producer of paint and coatings (“History,” 2013). They offer a variety of

paints and coatings for multiple surfaces, as does Rust-Oleum. However,

Sherwin-Williams is much more popular and present on social media channels.

Sherwin Williams is quite active on Instagram with over 800 followers

compared to Rust-Oleum’s 360 followers. One of the main reasons Sherwin

Williams is more successful on Instagram is simply the frequency of their posts.

Sherwin Williams posts much more frequently (almost every day) and it’s

important to note their posts are photos of things (objects, nature, scenery,

animals, etc.) that make the world more colorful and inspire the brand. This

unique content is more appealing than just photos of their products and gives a

personality to the brand.


Sherwin Williams uses Instagram for contests too, which further engages

the customer. They also use hashtags, but not too many that they appear

desperate for followers.

In comparison, Rust-Oleum rarely posts new photos, the most current

being from seven weeks ago. Rust-Oleum does attempt to use hashtags,

although not effectively – the hashtag #spraypaint is probably not needed for a

picture of cans of spray paint. Rust-Oleum has not attempted any contests on

Instagram and doesn’t give its followers a reason to stay engaged. If one were

to follow both Sherwin Williams and Rust-Oleum on Instagram, Rust-Oleum

would easily be forgotten because Sherwin Williams posts more frequently and

maintains awareness among followers.

Rust-Oleum has the ability to be as successful or more successful than

its competitors, but their efforts in social media need to increase significantly.

Rust-Oleum needs to spend more time monitoring and updating their social

media channels in order to better communicate and engage customers.


Strategy & Tactics How are we going to achieve our objectives? “Before and After” Photo Contest

Part of Rust-Oleum’s social

media plan is to increase the number

of photo shares on Instagram. To

achieve this objective, Rust-Oleum

will be holding “Before and After”

photo contests via Instagram.

Rust-Oleum will use other

channels, such as Facebook and

Twitter, to help promote the contest

and drive the target audience to Rust-

Oleum’s Instagram page.

Rust-Oleum is focused on

home improvement and do-it-yourself

(DIY) projects. A great way to capitalize on this is to ask fans and followers to

share their photos of projects or crafts they’ve completed using Rust-Oleum

products.


To participate in the contest, Rust-Oleum’s Instagram followers must

upload a photo of an object they transformed using Rust-Oleum products. The

photo must show a “before” and “after” shot of the item that was transformed.

Followers should also tag Rust-Oleum in their photos. Tagging Rust-Oleum will

increase impressions because followers of Rust-Oleum’s followers will become

aware of Rust-Oleum’s presence on Instagram and be able to easily find the

profile and follow Rust-Oleum. Hashtags are also very popular on Instagram, so

the hashtag #beforeandafter will be required to be used with the uploaded photo

for consideration in the contest.

After a period of two weeks, the photo with the most likes will be the

winner of the contest. The winner of the contest will be awarded a $100 gift card

to Home Depot, to help with other home improvements.

A contest like this is very well suited for a channel such as Instagram,

simply because it is a very social and very popular photo-sharing site. Asking

followers to “like” a photo to vote for it is easy and doesn’t require a lot of effort,

but still creates an impression. By using other channels, like Facebook and

Twitter, to promote the contest, Rust-Oleum is better integrating its efforts

across multiple platforms. Also, followers on Facebook and Twitter will then be

made aware of Rust-Oleum’s presence on Instagram, and lead to more

followers.


“Monday Makeover” weekly photo post

Rust-Oleum currently has a presence on Facebook, but is desperately in

need of a makeover. Posts and updates are very infrequent and there is a lack

of engagement with fans. To combat this issue, Rust-Oleum’s objective is to

increase shares and comments on their Facebook profile. In order to do this,

Rust-Oleum must provide more content for fans to share and comment on.

Each Monday, Rust-Oleum will be uploading a photo of an item that is in

need of a makeover. The item can be anything, such as an old patio set found at

a flea market or yard sale. Each week, when Rust-Oleum uploads a photo of an

object that needs transformed, Rust-Oleum will ask its fans which product/color

from Rust-Oleum’s line of products would they use to transform the object?

Rust-Oleum will monitor comments and use the suggestions to makeover the

item, and post a follow-up “after” photo by the next week.

By posting

photos of

random

objects and

asking for

input on how

to make them

over, this will

engage fans and increase the number of comments per post. The finished


“after” photos will depict the possibilities that can happen by using Rust-Oleum

products. The “after” photos can be easily shared by Rust-Oleum’s followers,

therefore helping meet the objective of increasing shares.

Currently, Rust-Oleum’s Facebook profile seems to speak at consumers

rather than encourage two-way conversation. The “Monday Makeover” idea will

increase the frequency of posts and engage feedback from followers. Followers

feel more connected with a brand when they can provide their input.

“Weekend DIY Challenge”

Rust-Oleum is active on Twitter, however most of their activity stems

from retweets and replies. There is very little original content posted by Rust-

Oleum. In order to change this, Rust-Oleum will engage its followers by posting

a “Weekend DIY Challenge” each Friday.

Because Rust-Oleum’s focus is on DIY and home improvements,

providing a weekly weekend project for followers to do will help increase

engagement among followers, and will gain new followers as well. Those looking

for easy projects to do in a day or two can follow Rust-Oleum on Twitter for new

projects every week.

Each Friday, Rust-Oleum will post its Weekend DIY Project in the form of

a link to a website (either RustOleum.com or Rust-Oleum’s Pinterest or YouTube


pages or even an outside source) that provides instructions and supplies

needed to complete the project.

The tweet might look something like this:

Rust-Oleum will also post a follow-up tweet encouraging followers to

upload their photos of their completed DIY Challenge and use the hashtags

#rustoleum #challengeaccepted and #weekendDIYchallenge.

Using Twitter for this specific challenge or topic is beneficial because

Rust-Oleum is able to link to its other social media profiles or its website easily.

By using hashtags, Rust-Oleum will be able to monitor the feedback it gains

from this DIY challenge.

Weekly Q&A session with Rust-Oleum product experts

Another use for Rust-Oleum’s Twitter profile is to engage followers by

opening up a chat session each week covering a variety of Rust-Oleum


products. These chat sessions will be presented by a Rust-Oleum product

expert who will be available to quickly answer any questions followers have

about a certain product and also to provide tips and tricks for using the product.

In order to engage followers during the week, Rust-Oleum will host a

weekly Question and Answer (Q&A) session on Tuesdays, to help provide

answers and helpful hints about its products. The Q&A sessions will be limited

to one hour each and as many questions will be answered in the timeframe as

possible. To participate, followers just need to tweet their questions to

@RustOleum and use the hashtag #Q&A. Prior to the Q&A session, Rust-Oleum

will tweet updates to remind followers that it is almost time for the weekly Q&A

session and let their followers know which product/topic Rust-Oleum will be

covering this week.

The goal of the weekly Q&A sessions is not only to engage followers, but

also to increase the number of followers. Followers of the followers who are

tweeting to Rust-Oleum during the weekly chat session will see what questions

are being asked and can go to Rust-Oleum’s profile to find the answers and

follow them so they won’t miss out on future chat sessions.

Twitter is the perfect tool for a timed Q&A session because tweets are

limited to 140 characters, and the answers will have to be simple to understand

because of the character restriction. If a longer explanation is needed, then the

host of the Q&A session can provide a link to more information.


The use of Twitter for a chat session will expand on the customer service

aspect that Rust-Oleum already uses on its profile. It is more of a proactive

approach rather than the reactive one Rust-Oleum is currently using. Right now,

if someone tweets a complaint about a product or has a question, Rust-Oleum

is responding with the answer or providing a toll-free number for the person to

call. The weekly Q&A session will be a way to provide answers up front and

possibly eliminate misuse of the product, which could lead to a complaint. Of

course, Rust-Oleum will still continue to respond to questions and complaints

outside of the chat session timeframe.


Measurement Did we meet our objectives? How successful were we? Quantitative measurement:

1. Number of Twitter followers

One objective of Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan is to increase

followers on Twitter, specifically

by 2,000 followers in an eight-

week time span. In order to

determine the outcome of this

objective, a tool such as

HootSuite can be used.

HootSuite provides a variety of analytics to measure effectiveness

of a social media campaign. The Twitter Profile Overview tool, found in

HootSuiteʼs dashboard, generates a report that includes a variety of data

based on a specific Twitter profile. The total number of followers and

follower growth are important metrics to measure the effectiveness of

Rust-Oleumʼs objective to increase followers. The report can be tailored to

include specific dates, which can be helpful in gauging progress during the

eight-week time frame set forth in the objective.


Using this tool, or a similar tool, Rust-Oleum should be evaluating

the progress of the plan by frequently checking the number of total

followers the brand has, and determining their follower growth on a weekly

basis. By tracking the progress, Rust-Oleum will know if itʼs on its way to

meeting its objective in the pre-determined time frame and whether the

tactics being used are effective in achieving an increase in number of

followers.

2. Number of photos posted/Post history

In order to increase its presence and engagement on Instagram,

Rust-Oleum is tasked with increasing the number of photos shared. Rust-

Oleumʼs objective is to increase the number of photos posted by one

photo per week, beginning no later than four weeks from the start of the

campaign.

This is an easy metric to evaluate, especially with the tools

available. One such tool, Statigram (statigr.am), is specifically designed for

use with Instagram and allows the user to promote, manage, analyze, and

engage with followers more effectively based on the statistics generated


by linking the userʼs Instagram profile with Statigram (Statigram, 2013).

Statigram provides the user with the total number of photos

uploaded and the number of photos posted in a rolling 30-day period,

dividing it by month, if necessary. Statigram can also help the user

determine what day, and even what time of day, is the best time to post

photos based on post history (the days and times photos are posted are

cross-referenced with the number of likes/comments each photo receives).


Itʼs not only important for Rust-Oleum to post new content more

frequently, but also to post at times when followers and fans are most

likely to engage with the content.

Statigram updates information every 24 hours for a rolling 30-day

period. Rust-Oleum can check its Instagram stats each day or week to

make sure it is on track to meet its objective of increasing photo posts.

Qualitative measurement:

1. Engagement rate

An objective proposed by Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan is to

increase the number of shares and comments on Facebook by five per

post in 12 weeks.

While looking at a quantitative figure of how many comments or

shares each post receives is an easy measurement of this objective, it is

more important to evaluate the engagement rate. The outcome of

measuring a postʼs engagement ranking can be positive or negative. Rust-

Oleum can use the knowledge from a postʼs engagement rate to

determine whether they are posting quality content, which content is most

engaging (content with the most likes, shares, or comments), and how to

continue to tailor content to its audience in order to meet the objective. Itʼs

not enough for Rust-Oleum to post any content and hope fans will engage,

but rather to post quality content that provides value. Quality content will


lead to more shares and comments, thus allowing Rust-Oleum to meet its

goal.

EdgeRank is an algorithm that measures the importance and value

of each “edge” – defined as any action that happens on Facebook, such

as status updates, comments, likes, and shares – posted on Facebook.

EdgeRank makes its evaluations based upon affinity (the one-way

relationship between a user and an edge), weight (certain actions are

deemed more valuable than others; i.e., commenting carries more weight

than a like), and time decay (how long the post or edge has been online).

Edge value is classified as low, medium, or high. (EdgeRank, 2013).

By using a tool such as EdgeRank, Rust-Oleum can evaluate the

value of its posts and determine what works and what doesnʼt. Obviously,

it will be more beneficial for Rust-Oleum to post more content that has a


high edge value as opposed to invaluable posts that wonʼt generate

shares and comments needed to achieve the objective.

2. Sentiment on Twitter

It is also important to post quality content on Twitter, not just

Facebook. As mentioned above, quality breeds quantity. In order to help

gain followers on Twitter, Rust-Oleum must post valuable content.

In attempt to measure

how followers and others feel

about Rust-Oleum as a brand,

Rust-Oleum can employ

another analytic from

HootSuite, known as Twitter

Sentiment. By measuring

sentiment on Twitter, Rust-

Oleum will know what type of

content is most valuable and

attractive to Twitter users, and

thus be able to generate more content to gain more followers.

Twitter Sentiment is a custom report that breaks data down into

specific sentiment groups. As opposed to other sentiment analysis tools

(like SocialMention) that merely break information into positive, neutral, or


negative, HootSuite defines its sentiment groups as: Affection

Friendliness, Enjoyment Elation, Amusement Excitement, Contentment

Gratitude, Sadness Grief, Anger Loathing, Fear Uneasiness, and

Humiliation Shame.

However, it may also be

beneficial to use a tool like

SocialMention.com to measure

sentiment in conjunction with HootSuite.

SocialMention searches multiple

platforms, not only Twitter, and provides

data such as how likely it is that the

brand is being discussed (strength), the

ratio of positive to negative mentions

(sentiment), the percentage of which

people discussing the brand will

continue to do so (passion), and range of influence expressed as a

percentage (reach). Sentiment is considered positive, neutral, or negative

and SocialMention displays Top Users – those who are mentioning the

brand the most – and various other information.

This type of information can be used to determine brand advocates,

who can influence their followers to also follow Rust-Oleum.

Return on Investment (ROI) measurement:


1. Socially-referred revenue

Socially-referred revenue is a metric used to measure ecommerce

revenue generated from social media. Revenue that could be generated

from Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan can be traced to Twitter and Rust-

Oleumʼs “Weekend DIY Challenge” and “Q-and-A session” tactics. The

Weekend DIY Challenges are designed to meet Rust-Oleumʼs objective of

increasing the number of Twitter followers and boosting engagement, and

link back to Rust-Oleumʼs website in order to find instructions for

completing the challenge. These challenges require the use of Rust-

Oleum products, so revenue can be generated in this way. The Q-and-A

session tweets can link back to Rust-Oleumʼs website in order to provide a

more in-depth answer. Once a user is on the website, he or she may make

a purchase.

It is only suggested to measure socially-referred revenue because

awareness created due to the various tactics used can lead to more sales.

Socially-referred revenue measurement is tied to the Twitter objective,

because the only tactics that directly link to Rust-Oleumʼs website are both

the Weekend DIY Challenge and the Q-and-A session.

While this is a metric that can be measured, it focuses on

ecommerce and doesnʼt incorporate revenue generated through in-store

purchases. A social media plan may improve sales, but it is hard to trace

the revenue increase back to a specific social media platform.


2. Media equivalent value

Media equivalent value is defined as “the monetary equivalent of

the impressions generated through social media that would have

traditionally been acquired through paid media” (Gold, 2012).

Measuring the media equivalent value is important in order to judge

the effectiveness of the “Monday Makeover” photo posts on Facebook and

the “Before and After” photo contest on Instagram. The purpose of these

photo posts and contests are to achieve the objectives, respectively, of

increasing shares and comments on Facebook and increasing photo posts

on Instagram. The posts on each social media site will also boost

impressions, website traffic, clicks, and engagement, so it is important to

know if these tactics are meeting the stated objectives for Facebook and

Instagram.

The results of measuring the media equivalent value will also inform

Rust-Oleum whether its money and efforts spilled into social media

marketing has a higher ROI than traditional marketing would.


References

Bennett, S. (2013 Mar 19). Social media 2013: User demographics for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram [Infographic]. MediaBistro. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-user-demographics_b38095

Bernoff, J. and Anderson, J. (2010 Aug 2). Social Technographics Defined.

Forrester Research, Inc. Retrieved June 10, 2013 from http://empowered.forrester.com/ladder2010/

De Vivo, M. (2013 June 10). Pinterest analytics: the ultimate guide to tracking

your siteʼs performance on Pinterest. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved June 10, 2013 from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2273658/Pinterest-Analytics-The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Tracking-Your-Sites-Performance-on-Pinterest

EdgeRank. (2013). What is EdgeRank. Retrieved July 15, 2013, from

http://www.whatisedgerank.com/ Facebook. (2013). CrunchBase. Retrieved June 10, 2013 from

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook Getting Started & General Page Metrics. (2013). Facebook. Retrieved June 10,

2013 from https://www.facebook.com/help/383440231709427/ Gold, H. (2012 Dec 18). 14 social media ROI metrics you can use right now.

Clickz. Retrieved July 15, 2013, from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2178428/14-social-media-roi-metrics

Hines, K. (2013 Apr 12). The 2013 Twitter marketing guide. KISSMetrics.

Retrieved July 21, 2013, from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/2013-twitter-marketing-guide/

History of Sherwin Williams. (2013). About Us. Sherwin Williams. Retrieved June

24, 2013, from http://careers.sherwin-williams.com/history/ Likes, Reach, & Talking About This. (2013). Facebook. Retrieved June 10, 2013

from https://www.facebook.com/help/355635011174004/


Popescu, A. (2013 Apr 12). Just who uses social media? A demographic breakdown. Mashable. Retrieved June 10, 2013 from http://mashable.com/2013/04/12/social-media-demographic-breakdown/

Statigram. (2013). About us. Retrieved July 15, 2013, from

http://statigr.am/about.php Tso, R. (12 June 2013). The Pinterest craze: Marketers, itʼs time to start pinning.

Huffington Post. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-tso/the-pinterest-craze-marke_b_3424359.html

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STRIVING FOR SUCCESS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

rust-oleum: striving for success through social media | imc 641

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