Presented byDamien S. Navarro,

CVO, Managing Partner

Twitter @damiennavarroFollow @EMGtheagency

Using Social Content to Build and Empower an Online Community

What You’ll Learn• What are the values of branded content and earned media

• Determine if a “Knowledge Center” might be a good approach

• Learn what forms and directions businesses are taking

• How to develop a content creation and promotional strategy

• Getting started

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Setting the Context & Relevance

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9 out of every 10 Internet users now visit a social networking site every month.

(The comScore 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review)

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Portals, Social Networking & Entertainment sites make up 47.2% most visited content destinations – email has dropped to 11%

Facebook now accounts for 12.3% of time spent online in US (2010)

comScore 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review

(March 2010 Pew Research)

Setting the Context

Teen Market Observations – Highlighted Trend

“Teens need to feel inspired by the brands in which they invest their time and money.”1

• Participation in social causes high among teens & collegians

• Nearly 75% have at least one cause they support or participate in

• Black, Hispanic, and Asian students tend to be more involved

• Students have a better of opinion of brands involved in causes that matter to them, and they prefer to buy products that give back to charitable organizations.

1. Chasing Youth Culture And Getting It Right, Tina Wells, 2011

All Others: The Ypulse Report – Social Causes, Ypulse Research, 2011

• Google sites (including YouTube) account for 10% of time spent online

• Facebook & Twitter garner 1MM new users daily

• 66% of all adult internet users watch YouTube videos• News and Education are #2 and #3 most watched

• Demographics between 26 – 44 are 60% of Facebook user base

• 77% of internet users read blogs

(March 2010 Pew Research)

Setting the Context

Content is Influence | Setting the Context

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• Over 1.2 Billion YouTube videos viewed per day

• 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

• 13,000,000+ articles available on Wikipedia

• 50 million Tweets per day, 600 Tweets per second on Twitter.com

• 8 billion minutes spent on Facebook daily

• Over 20 billion photos on Facebook

• 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week on Facebook

(March 2010 Pew Research)

Mobile &TabletsMay Change Everything

Why It’s Also Important – The C-level Perspective

Global survey of 1,700 corporate executives found that 69% claim advantages of social media include:

• Lower cost of doing business

• Better access to knowledge

• Increased marketing effectiveness

• Insight for developing more innovative products and services

• Higher revenue

McKinsey Report 2010

Social Content Can Fuel …

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• Branded Entertainment

• Cause Marketing

• Public Relations

• Customer Service

• Loyalty Programs

• Networking

• Thought-Leadership

• …and yes, Customer Acquisition too

PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN MARKETING(Paid Media)

EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN MARKETING(Earned Media)

Channels that Brands pay to leverage

Traditional, Digital, Mobile Advertising

The community drives the channel

BRAND CHANNELS(Shared & Owned Media)

Channels powered by partnerships or brick and mortar / physical collateral and visibiltiy

Social Content Contributors integrated with Brand hosted

platforms

STRATEGY & INTELLIGENCE

Paid, Shared & Owned vs. Earned Media (Social)

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Credit V. Miemis

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Traditional .edu and media targets here

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Branded Content and Earned Media Targets Here

Getting Started – The Eco System

The Business Case for Earned Media

• Increase revenue by providing ‘premium’ services or insight

• Build stronger partnerships – “selling sideways”

• Customer & Agent recruitment, acquisition and retention

• “Customer Service” – overcoming objections, community selling, FAQ’s

• Industry Visibility & Organic Search Result Rankings

• Reputation management and positioning in the marketplace

• Publicity (PR) and Brand Awareness (Digital Footprint)

Guiding Principles The difference between “selling” and “helping” is only two letters, but the gap is in reality, much larger.

The best – and most effective – social media programs aren’t based on promotions and message distribution. Instead, they revolve around removing friction and uncertainty for potential or current customers. It’s about marketing sideways, not marketing head-on.

- Jay Baer

ConvinceAndConvert.com

Does the Brand…• Pride itself in being “in the know”?• Have an active voice?• Have a fan base who creates content FOR it?• Take advantage of positive PR and battle negative PR?• Support a cause?• Establish trends?

Or is the Brand…• Out of touch, “old school” and/or boring?

• Having trouble creating engaging content?

• Struggling from the “silo” effect?

• Suffering from brand confusion or lack of awareness?

• Attempting to increase it’s digital footprint?

Own and BRAND the Knowledge Center

•Works well with highly niche markets

•Increases visibility and relevancy online

•Authenticity and transparency is critical

•Put power in sub-groups/chapters/niches

•Harvest ideas and popular trends

What we measureTraffic

Search results

Content Sharing & Downloads

Which Content / Which Audience•Your audience is craving information and will pay for it

oWebinarsoImagesoVideosoPodcastsoWhitepapersoStudies

• Which niche market could you experiment withoMom’soSeniorsoParentoHispanicoAsian oGLBToYouth

Evolving the Relevance and Access to Content

The Evolution of the ‘About Us’ Section

Scottrade’s ‘About Us’

•Company Profile•PR•Blog / Photos / Video•Resources•Sharing

•Scottrade About Us–Differentiator

Evolving the Relevance and Access to Content

Powering up the Community - Incentives

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•Harness “celebrities” and “ambassadors” to lead

• Monitor “search” trends to create more relevant content

•Challenge the community to engage – Create Milestones & Benchmarks

•Make content “valuable” and “sharable”

•Reward great content and ideas (scholarships, memberships)

User Generated Content –Tasking & Rewarding

• Most popular search on YouTube begins with “How To”

• Enable the members to battle the naysayers

• Grow digital real-estate and brand equity

• Sharing tools (marketing) extends the reach further*

• YouTube gives accessibility to national audience

• Mobile integration and sharing

What we measureAwareness / FootprintSharing of ContentEngagement Chatter & Buzz

Apps & Out-of-Box Technology: Making it Easy

• Ability to write descriptors for meta-tag content is CRITICAL for SEO

• Can allow for mobile content sharing and creation

• Supports critical decision timeframes

• Give choices on formats and media type

• Capitalize on existing content to reach and opportunity audience

Powering up the Community - A Cause Approach•Empower the community to give back

•Huge multidisciplinary opportunity

•Challenge the community to create and share

•Call to actions and content targeting is critical

Defining a Content Strategy

EVALUATE• “Gut-check” Current brand position within the social space

• High-level analysis of social data over the last 90 days*

• Cursory brand, competitive and industry review

• Primary data source: Message boards, forums and posts

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RESULTS• What level of visibility do you have within the social space• Is there an opportunity to build a dynamic “earned media” platform and business model

Content Creation – Think Like a Publisher• Reveal timely industry insights

• Respond to trends and popular topics

• Recognize staff, influencers and partners

• Ask questions, take suggestions and ideas

• Encourage content commentary

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What we measureFollowers / SubscribersEngagementContent Syndication

Content Promotion – Think Like a Publisher

Implement Crowd sourcing for Ideation & Promotion• Tap the crowd

• Democratize your brand

• Brace yourself – be prepared to respond

• Lead by example

• Spread the word – go beyond digital

• Target key voices

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Content Creation, Delivery & Syndication

Main Site URL

Social networks

Mobile Optimized Site / App (Future)

Branded Content

Third Party & Partners

Community

Personalizing Dynamic Content - Video

Learn more about Everest Programs

Personalizing Dynamic Content - Video

Personalizing Dynamic Content - Video

Opportunities – Our Findings

Communicate “sideways” to strengthen the relationship with the consumer

Paid media (e.g., search, display ad) is highly competitive.

Original and sponsored dynamic content in a strong community presence can help monetize ad budgets and create long term value.

Potential Tactics

• Maximize momentum of brand awareness around press/news releases

• Sustain presence in between press releases via active participation

• Actively counter-act negative sentiment where appropriate

• Build brand reputation, trust and credibility through original content

• Intercept the consumer at vulnerable decision points37

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Measuring Success

Social Media Intelligence & Monitoring

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Critical information from social network interactions and large data flows that can enable companies to:

• Be more aware of their reputation

• Anticipate and predict performance

• Identify valuable partners and loyalists

• Launch into the marketplace at greater speed / lower cost

• Respond to immediate events and trends

• Generate more business

Evaluating Your Impact & Reach

• Standard Awareness Metrics – Tracking impressions, video views, page views created through social campaigns

• Revenue – Either direct (PPV) or in-direct (memberships)

• Quality of Audience – How does social media traffic rank in terms of quality compared to others sources of traffic?

• Engage/Disengage Ratio – With respect to social profiles, tracking drop-off or lack of engagement in “fans” and followers

Evaluating Your Impact & Reach

• Actions Taken - Create promotions, events, and tasks specific to an audience or campaign

• “Customer Service” Metrics – How do you measure the success of other customer service or reduction in FAQ’s, e-mail, etc.?

• Volume of Conversation – Did you create something that got people talking? What is the volume of that conversation, the influence?

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Next Steps

Getting Started – Workshop Ideas

FISCAL, INVESTMENT & BUSINESS EXPECTATIONS & REQUIREMENT

• Opportunities for new revenue streams (e-Commerce)• How much should we budget? ($, Time & Resources)• Feasible goals• How far should we experiment?• Key Performance Indicators• What’s free? For members? Premium?

Getting Started – Workshop Ideas

INFRASTRUCTURE & PROCESSWho owns the process? How is content produced? Approved?How is content managed, stored?

 

PERSONAS & RELATIONSHIPSWho is the primary audience? Secondary?How can you identify a new “opportunity” audience?

 

CHANNELS, EXPERIENCE & FUNCTIONWhat are they used to seeing? Searching for?

Mediums?What content will be most relevant?

 

Getting Started – Workshop Ideas

AWARENESS & PR NEEDS/PLANNINGHow will you reward? Incentivize?How will you promote? --- E-mail? PPC? WOM? USC?

TECHNOLOGY, INSIGHT & INNOVATION  Custom, 3rd Party or Integrated Platform

Social Intelligence – What are you looking for?

SUSTAINABILITY & GROWTH PROJECTIONSWhat happens if this takes off? How will roles

transition?Prepare for the best and the worst…

 

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Q&A

My Top Ten

1. Identify your audience and business needs first (*it’s not you)

2. Gain momentum through small, measurable, experiments3. Be honest when evaluating what you’re capable of

sustaining4. Look across alternative industries5. Observe what the audience is watching, sharing and

creating6. Leverage your resources – talent?7. Task and reward the community to promote8. Protect your users – protect your brand9. Continually monitor, measure and manage your community10. Silence the “Devil’s Advocate”

Thank You!

Contact us today to learn how EMG can apply it’s expertise in building and branding knowledge centers and more to a number of your campaigns!

Toll Free: (866) 62-EARTHwww.visitemg.com

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FULL WEBINAR AVAILABLE TOMORROW AT:

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