Webinar on Social Media, presented in 2010.

2. SWIMMING LESSONS:
STAY AFLOAT IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Webinar | July 28, 2009
Prepared by:
BURNS MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Robert Bean
Alanna McLeod
Joellen Sarmast
Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved.

3. TODAY’S Introductions
Social media overview
AGENDA The changing landscape
The primary channels
_ Facebook
_ Twitter
_ LinkedIn
_ YouTube
Getting started
Sustaining your social media efforts
Planning and coordinating best practices
Conclusion
Questions

4. ABOUT Founded in 1972
Services:
US _
_
Strategy
Research
_ Branding
_ Advertising
_ Marketing communications
_ Direct marketing
_ Earned media
· Public relations
· Social marketing
_ Event planning
_ Interactive

5. ABOUT Robert Bean – Interactive Director
Alanna McLeod – Account Executive and social media
US team member
Joellen Sarmast – Copywriter and social media team
member

6. SOCIAL MEDIA Online social networks are communities of people who
share interests and activities, or who want to explore
OVERVIEW the interests and activities of others, both socially
and professionally.
Internet content is becoming user provided, versus
being published by companies and organizations.
Social networking web sites receive the most traffic
on the Internet – you should be where your customers
are and engage as an active brand.

7. IMPACT ON Social media is transforming the way marketers not
only reach, but engage with target audiences.
MARKETING The universe of “influencers” is growing to include
more than journalists and bloggers. Traditional media
AND PR is changing daily. You must adapt your
communications efforts accordingly to be successful.
It’s easier than ever for you to market – or be
marketed against.
_ Your brand could be the subject of social media chatter.
_ Your brand could be promoted or damaged.
You need to be equipped for these new realities.
_ Monitor your brand to know what is being said
_ Be trained in how to speak socially
_ Consistently participate in the conversation
_ Know when to hold back or bring in an emergency plan

8. “Consumers, who have become accustomed to the instant access
and gratification of the Internet, now expect the same level of
speed and ease in their customer service interactions. They trust
their social networks, and they look to their peers online for
information and advice. An unhappy customer has the power to
destroy a company’s brand with a single click.”
Chuck Ganapathi
Vice President of Marketing
Salesforce.com

9. THE CHANGING
LANDSCAPE

10. THE CHANGING People want to connect with others and have their
voices heard.
LANDSCAPE People trust what their peers, and even strangers, say
over corporate America or institutions.
Now, more than ever:
_ PCs permeate every home.
_ Nearly everyone is online.
_ Half of Americans online have broadband connectivity.
_ Technology is easy and ubiquitous.
Additionally, mobile web surfing, e-mailing,
Twittering, Facebooking, etc. are meeting people’s
need for anytime, anywhere interaction.

11. THE CHANGING With budgets being cut, marketers must find
innovative, cost-effective ways to reach customers,
LANDSCAPE partners, and constituents.
_ “Traditional media” is still viable, but media
consumption habits are rapidly changing.
_ Interaction and user-generated content are key
features of most media outlets today.
_ Traditional press releases are becoming less
welcome and less important.
In 2007, online advertising reached $14.6 billion in
the U.S. alone. The Yankee Group predicts that
number will climb to $50.3 billion in revenue by 2011.
People are spending their time on social networks.
According to Nielsen Online, in 2008, time spent on
social media sites surpassed e-mail.

12. THE CHANGING What does all of this mean to you?
_ The landscape continues to evolve and transform all
LANDSCAPE aspects of marketing, including product development.
_ Marketing and PR opportunities and challenges are at
an unprecedented high.
_ New channels will continue to emerge.
_ Many channels offer opportunities to get ultra-targeted
with marketing efforts by leveraging user profiles.
_ You can target people who are willing to engage with
meaningful brands.
Social media’s perception that it requires minimal
capital investment has lead to its growth. However,
marketers must remember, social media isn’t free.
_ While it may not require a significant cash investment,
social media is time-intensive.
_ A significant investment in human capital is required to
maintain an effective social media strategy.

13. CHANNELS

14. THE Facebook is a social networking web site that enables
users to join networks, communicate with friends, and
CHANNELS share information about their lives.
When a user becomes a fan of a brand page or
FACEBOOK interacts with an application, Facebook broadcasts
these actions to the user’s friends.
Facebook is the most popular social network with
more than 200 million active users worldwide.
_ The U.S. has 45.3 million active users.
_ About half of these users are on Facebook every day.
Almost half (45-percent) of Facebook’s U.S. audience
is now 26 years old or older.
_ Users age 35 to 54 and women 55 years and older make
up the two fastest growing demographic segments.
_ Women comprise 56.2-percent of the audience.

15. MARKETING Social and business organizations are adopting pages
and group functionality to facilitate discussion and
THROUGH meet marketing objectives because of the ease of use
and low cost.
FACEBOOK _ Increase brand awareness and reach
_ Target distinct audiences
_ Test market and promote new products and ideas
_ Build relationships with and among customers
_ Improve search engine optimization (SEO)
_ Recruit brand evangelists
_ Promote events
_ Foster word-of-mouth and viral marketing
Plus, without revealing personal identifying
information of users, Facebook will provide analytics
to advertisers about consumer behavior.

16. THE Twitter is a free social messaging service for people
to communicate and stay connected in real time by
CHANNELS answering the question: What are you doing?
Live updates (or tweets) consist of text-based posts
TWITTER no more than 140 characters in length that are
displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to
other users (followers) who want to receive them.
In February 2009, Twitter experienced 1,382-percent
year-over-year growth in unique monthly visitors
worldwide. (Nielsen Online)
Twitter is estimated to reach more than 4.1 million
people in the U.S. monthly.
_ Mobile, more educated, middle-aged adults
• At 42-percent of the audience, adults ages 35-49 have
the largest representation, with nearly 3 million unique
visitors.
• 35- to 44-year-old age group spends nearly 20 minutes
on Twitter during any given visit.

17. MARKETING Twitter’s permanent nature enables marketers to:
_ Find the tweets made about your organization
THROUGH _ Monitor what people are saying about your brand,
products, competitors, and other keywords that relate to
TWITTER your business
_ Listen to your customers, learn about their needs, and
respond accordingly
Release breaking news or live event updates
Support customer service efforts
Deliver promotions (i.e., coupons, sales, contests, etc.)
Build brand awareness by joining the conversations
and forging relationships
Share pertinent information (i.e., articles, blogs, links,
webinars, etc.) with your followers

18. THE LinkedIn is an interconnected network of more than
36 million experienced professionals from around the
CHANNELS world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries.
_ You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with
LINKEDIN qualified professionals who you need to work with to
accomplish your goals.
_ LinkedIn helps you make better use of your professional
network and assist the people you trust in return.
_ LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s
professionals to accelerate their success.
A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every
second.
About 50-percent of users are outside the U.S.
Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are
members.
Members are educated, affluent, middle-aged, and
slightly more male than female.

19. MARKETING Target advertising to distinct audiences
Recruit with LinkedIn Jobs and Talent Advantage tools
THROUGH Connect with like-minded people and organizations
LINKEDIN Demonstrate expertise by
_ Participating in an interest or professional group
_ Contributing to Q&A
Strengthen word-of-mouth communications
_ Get clients and vendors on LinkedIn to write
recommendations that will appear on your personal
profile and theirs

20. THE YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier
destination to watch and share original videos
CHANNELS worldwide through a web experience.
YouTube allows people to easily upload and share
YOUTUBE video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the
Internet through web sites, mobile devices, blogs, and
e-mail.
YouTube recently surpassed 100 million unique
monthly viewers in the U.S. and 300 million
worldwide.
Views on YouTube account for over 40-percent of all
videos watched online.
YouTube is the #4 trafficked web site in the U.S.,
behind only Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook.

21. MARKETING Set up your own brand channel – an official YouTube
page where your company’s videos are housed
THROUGH Post fun, instructional, viral, or informational videos
that your customers will find valuable
YOUTUBE Encourage user participation with video interaction
and contests
Foster word-of-mouth and viral marketing
Take advantage of tags to improve search results
Incorporate YouTube videos into your web site, blogs,
and other social networks

22. THE Social networks offer unique opportunities for
marketers to connect with consumers.
CHANNELS _ Increasing reach and recognizability
_ Interacting with customers where and how they want
CONCLUSION _ Engaging customers with your brand, creating brand
evangelists, and communicating with influencers
_ Targeting advertising to specific audiences
• Banner ads are available on all channels
• Decide how much to spend
• Save effort and money by targeting the right people

23. GETTING
STARTED

24. GETTING Think about how to strategically integrate these new
channels into your marketing plans
STARTED Conduct research and gain insight into your target
audiences yourself or hire a marketing firm with
experience in social media marketing
Determine which strategy and channels are most
appropriate to meet your goals – all social media
channels may not be right for every marketing effort
Have the resources internally or outsourced to sustain
the social media efforts you embark on
Engage an experienced marketing agency to help you
identify opportunities, tailor your strategy
appropriately, and implement your specific projects
Be willing to relinquish some control
_ Most content and opinions are created by users and help
shape your brand.
_ Sites have ever-changing policies, features, and layouts.

25. GETTING Find the best places to reach your audience and tailor
content appropriate for the culture of the channel
STARTED Remain consistent with your brand personality. It’s
always fun to surprise your audience, but your social
media content must be authentic and in-character.
_ Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not
_ Don’t be anonymous – use a real person with a name
and face to represent your company (i.e., be transparent
and accessible)
Don’t infringe on others’ intellectual property rights
Don’t violate users’ privacy rights or flout the
accepted rules of user engagement
Remember to be mindful of what you say
_ Keep the right tone for the right channel
_ News and actions travel fast – good and bad
_ Example: Tweets are permanent URLs that are
searchable and visible to anyone

26. SUSTAIN YOUR
SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS

27. SUSTAINABLE 93-percent of social media users think companies
should be present on social media, and 85-percent
STRATEGY believe companies should interact with consumers.
(2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study)
62-percent of marketers don’t monitor social media,
nor do they respond to negative comments. (MarketingSherpa)
_ These companies are missing the opportunity to learn
what’s being said about them and prevent negative
effects on their brands.
Social networking is fast and furious, so your company
needs to interact regularly, or the point is lost.
How do you create a sustainable social media
strategy?
_ Maintain a continuous presence
_ Align your social media communications with your overall
marketing and communications strategy
_ Create a balanced messaging strategy
_ Determine your organization’s ideal frequency for
posting – and stick to it

28. SUCCESSFUL American Cancer Society – The Official Sponsor of
Birthdays™
STRATEGIES _ For the more than 11 million Americans who have
survived cancer, Happy Birthday is a victory chant. The
American Cancer Society is encouraging people to join
the movement for more birthdays – and ultimately help
people stay well, get well, find cures, and fight back.
Morebirthdays.com
_ The Official Birthday Blog
• Celebration Stories from survivors
• Facts
• Happy birthday wishes to celebrities
_ Create your birthday page to collect donations and
celebrate your birthday or a loved one’s
_ Evites, blog badges, e-cards
_ Facebook call to action

29. AMERICAN Facebook
_ Page
CANCER • 162,500 fans
Consistent posts to the wall
SOCIETY
•
• Interaction with posts from fans
• Fan photos, official photos
• Causes
_ Application – Make us the official sponsor of your
birthday
• 313 fans
• 3,609 monthly users
• Five-star rating
Twitter
_ 9,585 followers; following 10,314
_ Consistent tweets – recipes, birthday wishes, volunteer
requests, real-life stories, news, and more

30. AMERICAN YouTube
_ 462 subscribers
CANCER _ 74 videos
SOCIETY •
•
•
Advertisements
News reports
Prevention information
• Survivor stories
LinkedIn
_ American Cancer Society Supporter Group
• 2,346 members
Why is the campaign successful?
_ Emphasizes their message – “A world with less cancer
is a world with more birthdays”
_ Connects with supporters to show how their support
makes a difference
_ Educates people about the organization, cancer
prevention, detection, and research
_ Consistently delivers the messages through all mediums

31. SUCCESSFUL Originally Zappos! started as an online shoe store
that offered “the absolute best selection in terms of
STRATEGIES brands, styles, colors, sizes, and widths.”
_ Known for their outstanding customer service
_ Have a quirky company culture
_ Expanded to sell clothing, handbags, watches, and
sunglasses
Active bloggers (http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs)
_ CEO and COO
_ Inside Zappos!
_ Running, health and fitness, outdoor, comfort
_ Fashion culture, couture
LinkedIn
_ Group for employees, former employees, customers, and
friends – 335 members
_ Company page – 291 members

32. ZAPPOS! Facebook
_ Page
• 18,580 fans
• Interaction with wall postings
• Very social – questions like “What’s the best fast food
hamburger?”
• Videos, blog postings, reviews, photo albums
_ Application
• 1,771 fans
• 186 monthly active users
• Share favorite products and brands from Zappos with
your friends
YouTube
_ 596 subscribers
_ Contests, comedy sketches, ask Zappos!, commercials,
Life at Zappos!

33. ZAPPOS! Twitter
_ Main page
• Internally focused – more than 400 employees use it
• Enables the public to see and interact with Zappos!
employees
• Explanation from the CEO “If you don't trust your
employees to tweet freely, it's an employee or
leadership issue, not an employee Twitter policy issue.”
_ CEO Twitter page
• 1,029,247 followers, following 407,241
• Some tweets about company and its culture, but mostly
fun comments – CEO Tony Hsieh is a true personality
• Customer feedback/testing – asking followers to check
out new social shopping site and provide thoughts
Why is the campaign successful?
_ Gives customers an honest look at the Zappos culture
_ Develops a personal connection with employees and
customers
_ Continues the promise of customer service – fast
answers, product ratings, constructive feedback

34. SUCCESSFUL Why are organizations and companies like American
Cancer Society and Zappos! successful in their social
STRATEGIES media efforts?
_ They have a clear message expressed consistently
SUMMARY across the channels.
_ The message is geared toward online social interaction.
_ They know how to speak socially.
_ They show personality, while remaining true to their
brand image.
_ They add value to fans and followers.
_ They do not blatantly market their services/products, but
instead create an environment where people want to
engage with their brands.

35. EPIC What guarantees social media failure?
_ You ignore questions and comments from your fans and
FAILURE followers.
_ You start something without following through.
_ You blatantly market your brand.
_ Your pages are void of personality and only contain a
news feed.
_ You spread yourself too thin, trying to focus on every
channel without considering your audience.
_ You don’t put any emphasis on the relationships you
make with your customers – or their feedback.
_ You take a haphazard approach and don’t strategize.

36. PLANNING AND
COORDINATING
BEST PRACTICES

37. TEAM By creating a social media team, you can achieve
the day-to-day maintenance that is key to success.
APPROACH A social media team should span the resources of
your entire organization. Your team may include
some or all of the following:
_ Marketing, sales, and public relations
_ General counsel
_ Investor and government relations
_ Human resources
_ Customer service
Teams provide a greater pool of resources, ideas,
and contacts from which content may be generated.
The more people available to suggest and write
content, the greater the chance your efforts will
continuously connect with your audience.

38. DEVELOP A Communications plans establish processes for
implementing social media strategies by helping you:
PLAN _ Collect your thoughts
_ Establish your messages
_ Determine your overall strategy
_ Coordinate with other marketing activities
_ Consistently communicate and sustain the effort
A good communications plan will:
_ Consist of a high-level plan uses social media to
support traditional media strategies
_ Include a tactical calendar that provides the details to
help you execute your high-level social media plan
_ Track consistent sources of inbound information
_ Track the main outbound channels where you can take
information and repurpose it across multiple channels
We can help you set up and tailor your social media
communications plan.

39. MESSAGING A balanced messaging strategy includes three main
elements:
APPROACH _ Fun (but relevant)
_ Knowledge-based (i.e., tips, techniques, and advice)
_ Marketing communications (i.e., product highlights,
releases, etc.)
Determine the ratio of these types of communications
based on:
_ Your company’s culture
_ Your social media goals
_ The amount of relevant content you have access to
Decide how frequently you will communicate.
Use a communications plan to pre-plan your
messages for the next several weeks based on the
ratio and frequency.

40. MESSAGE Once you’ve determined your communications ratio,
the next step is to identify your primary message and
PLANNING what materials you have to support it.
_ Video and photo assets
_ Insight and commentary on industry trends
_ Industry-related articles
_ Direct appeals
_ Product promotions
_ Employment opportunities
_ Organizational milestones
_ Announcements
Always remember that when talking socially, you
should discuss the topics that relate to your products
and not about your products directly.

41. Take advantage of your existing customer lists and
BUILDING the syndication inherent in social media platforms
TRAFFIC to build initial momentum.
Reach out to existing customers by inviting them to
(Organic) “join the conversation” on the new social channels.
Facebook traffic builders
_ Monthly contests
_ Posting questions from your fan base to the wall
_ Survey and polls
_ Facebook events to promote specific events
_ Interviews from industry experts, customers, and
brand evangelists – could be text-based or video
_ Communication, coordination, and wall posting to
other industry pages and groups
_ Monthly direct message to fans (Facebook e-mail)
_ Facebook applications

42. BUILDING Possible advertising topics could include:
_ The launch of your social media channels
TRAFFIC _
_
Specific product campaign tie-ins
Seasonal and special product offers
(Paid) _ Contest announcements
_ General awareness
Facebook ads can be targeted by:
_ Location
_ Age
_ Gender
_ Keywords
_ Education
_ Workplaces
_ Relationship status
_ Languages
_ Similar categories exist in LinkedIn

43. SOCIAL MEDIA Social media is enabling people to access and
respond to information on the Internet in new,
SUMMARY interactive, and collaborative ways.
People are hyper-informed and are constantly looking
to cut through the ever-mounting clutter.
New media can be used to better target consumers –
to find niches and interested, pre-qualified customers
rather than relying on mass marketing.
Don’t ignore social media. It’s here to stay, and when
properly integrated into your marketing plan, it can
make a tremendous difference in your success.

44. JOIN Want to see how much fun online socializing can be?
Join us on:
BURNS _ Facebook: www.burnsmarketing.com/facebook
_ Twitter: www.twitter.com/burnsmarketing
MARKETING _ Blog: www.burnsmarketing.com/blog
Have questions? Contact us today.
Rob Bean
Senior Account Executive/
Interactive Media Director
Burns Marketing Communications
4848 Thompson Parkway, Floor 4
Johnstown, CO 80534
970.776.1780, fax: 970.203.9657
www.burnsmarketing.com