Integrated Social Business, Deployment & Optimization

Integrated Social Business, Deployment & Optimization

© 2012 COPYRIGHT • BIG BLOCK STUDIOS, INC. • JUSTICEMITCHELL.COM • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Key Takeaways

• Understanding social media and social business

• Understanding the role of your brand in social business

• Understanding the new role of social media in your business plan

• Understanding engagement in social business

• Understanding the differences within social channels and their usage

• Defining steps you should take when deploying an online campaign

• Understanding social crisis management

• Understanding social “intelligence” and making it actionable

• Social deployment in 10 steps


Social Media


Social Media Defined

“Social media includes Web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication
into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a
group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated
content.”

Additionally:

• Free Web tools that allow communication to be distributed in multiple forms

• Creating user-controlled touch points

• Connecting with your friends, fans and followers = “F3”

• Tools that become a lifestyle layer to our “social fabric” - work, play, computer, tablet,
mobile

• Trusted engagement that relies on decision-making, loyalties, trends, behaviors and
alliances


Digital Marketing & Social Media Timeline


1990’s
• Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)

• Gen 1 Websites

1994 • Blogging

• Forums boards

• Gen 2 Websites (HTML Editors)
1996

• Email marketing

1998 • Search marketing (SEO 1.0)

• .Com era - land grab
1999 • Blogging 2.0 (blogger)
Social Media Timeline

2000
• Web 2.0 - varying tools & mentality

• Inbound marketing

• Compliancy - CSS

2003 • Linkedin

• Self promotion era
2004 • Facebook

2005 • YouTube

• Twitter
2006 • SEO 2.0 marketing

• Viral Marketing

2007 • iPhone & Smart phones - Apps; SMS; mobile web

• Location based marketing

2009 • Social Media monitoring

• Social Media channels explosion

• HTML5
2010

• iPad & tablets

• Mobile compliance & Responsive design

• Google+
2011
• Newly blossoming social channels (Pinterest)

Social Business


Social Business Defined

SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING

“NATURAL” SOCIAL CHANNEL ENGAGEMENT

SOCIAL PRODUCT & EDUCATION

SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

SOCIAL COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

SOCIAL TRAINING, EDUCATION & ENCULTURATION

BRAND PROTECTION & CRISIS MANAGEMENT

SOCIAL TESTING, SURVEYING, TESTING & OPTIMIZATION

FUTURE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Social Business Defined

All aspects of your business, both internal and external, are social by nature. Therefore
many of the same tools previously defined for social media also apply to social business. In
addition, other enterprise-level, B-to-B applications include:

• Articles and content

• Brand stewardship

• Alerts, news, recalls, etc.

• Customer service (internal/external)

• Pre-engagement, during, and post-engagement scenarios

• Community development, moderation and growth

• Prototyping, incubating and development

• Testing and optimization


Owned, Earned & Paid Media Models


Owned, Earned & Paid Media Models: Defined

Owned Earned Paid

Collateral & direct response Public relations Print advertising

Web, mobile & tablet site Word-of-mouth Advertising networks

Blog & video content Speaking engagements Paid search

Social media channels Awards, recognition Afﬁliate

E-mail/SMS & lists Search engine optimization Co-op & advertorials

Location marketing Social distribution Sponsorships

Custom apps Customer support Specials & coupons

Intellectual property Buzz/viral/mass opinion Outdoor & trade shows

Intelligence
Campaign Measurement • Social Reporting • Reputation Management • Segmentation & Predictive Modeling
UI/UX Testing • Optimization • Progressive Reﬁnement


Your Brand


Elements of a Brand

Logo Buzz/WOM Product Service Culture Style


Elements of Your Brand Essence

Voice Expertise Your Look Mantra Size


The Story “Seed”


The Story “Seed”

A story seed is the foundation, opening, platform or setup for something greater. The idea of
a story seed is simple in concept and nightmarishly complex in progressive execution.
What’s important to remember about this concept is that ALL great messaging (including
advertising and integrated marketing) has a great story to tell.

Marketers want “word of mouth” (WOM) and viral propagation of their marketing message.
With that said, if there’s no story to tell, then your messaging is bottlenecked from the
beginning.


Defining Communication Channels


“Traditional Channels”

Television: Radio: Print & newspaper: Out of home: PR:
•Default entertainment •Losing market share •Default advertising •Status quo •Quickest to adapt to social
•Seeking relevance •Non-satellite properties •Seeking relevance with •Seeking alternative media
•Non-cable properties are are seen as saturated in QR codes, Web and models •Emerging as a
seen as saturated in advertising “follow” programs •Digital and media signage synonymous method of
advertising •Dropping off as a medium •Tablet marketing is gaining popularity support within social media
•Growing reliance on cable within mix encroaching media share •Seeking customization of •Strong story seed
properties •Increase awareness and •Strong story seed content
•Betting on online content growth within multicultural •Weak story seed
•Strong story seed content
•Weak story seed


Landscape of Modern Social Communication Channels

INTELLIGENCE,
TESTING & ONGOING ENGAGEMENT

DEALS

SOCIAL SOCIAL

TRADITIONAL MARKETING SOCIAL WEBSITE SOCIAL SOCIAL PR, EMAIL & SMS

CONTENT &
SOCIAL SOCIAL COMMUNITY

BRAND
AMBASSADORS

EDUCATION


“F3”- Friends, Fans & Followers


“F3” Defined

Friends: (Leverage = HIGH)

• As you would assume, friends (and family) are people from within your immediate social
circles, peers, co-workers, and people from your past who are relevant and socially
important.

Fans: (Leverage = MEDIUM)

• Fans are people who find your content, conversation, thought leadership or
communication something relevant and apropos to their personal or professional lives.
Fans will communicate with you and can often be a source of knowledge if properly
engaged.

Followers: (Leverage = LOW)

• Much like fans, usually a follower is one that responds well to your communications and
content. They often do not engage.


Quality Vs. Junk “Leverage”


Leverage Defined

Leverage:

• Define leverage with a question: Would this person/brand/business take action
(respond, engage, buy, suggest, redistribute) based on your directives or suggestions?

• Leverage should be weighed by the circle of influence you perceive from your F3.
People with larger followings are great, but not so much if the following is in the wrong
demographic. So when messaging a friend, fan or follower, take some time to discern
the best user, group or community.


Trust Is Stronger Than Brand


Trust and Advertising

Advertising in the traditional “PUSH” context is dying:

• Buy now!

• While supplies last!

• Nation’s largest!

Trusted suggestions from your F3 are swiftly becoming the true test of a brand’s ability to
stay top-of-mind. Additionally, among brands, ongoing trust and high customer service has a
cool cache that is also of value commercially.

• Buy now! = What do you think of product X, we’d love to hear your feedback?

• While supplies last! = Be the first to try.

• Nation’s largest! = Valuing your patronage since ...

• Best of all, simply start a conversation!


Social Trust Fragility


Trust Fragility Defined

Social businesses that don’t consistently engage their F3 will lose business to more
engaging brands.

Social elements that = trust:

• Authenticity

• Consistency

• Diverse content that is consistent in approach - keep it interesting

• Don’t make it personal

• Don’t be negative

• Don’t attack the competition

• Above all else don’t ever make it feel like you’re trying to sell vs. communicate


Metcalf’s Law


Metcalf’s Law Defined

“Metcalfe's law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the
square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).”

“Metcalfe's law characterizes many of the network effects of communication technologies
and networks such as the Internet, social networking, and the World Wide Web.”

Applicational pro & cons of social media:

• The larger a social graph becomes (if properly managed), the more it can exponentially
increase the conversation within the audience collective as a whole.

• Unmanned channels within this scenario can equally be seen as a weakness and
frequently devalue your social currency due to your lack of attention to a given channel.


Mark Granovetter’s - Interpersonal Ties


Mark Granovetter’s - Interpersonal Ties Defined

“In mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying
connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: strong,
weak, or absent. Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the
embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of
information through these networks. Specifically, more novel information flows to individuals
through weak rather than strong ties. Because our close friends tend to move in the same
circles that we do, the information they receive overlaps considerably with what we already
know. Acquaintances, by contrast, know people that we do not, and thus receive more novel
information.”

Additionally:

• Laws of connectivity are easier trusted within social channels, as the “friend of a friend”
is still usually given the same level of trust as a friend.

• The absence of physicality also allows people to connect more uninhibitedly then they
would in a real life environment, making trust easier to delegate.


The Social Graph Defined


The Social Graph

Your social graph is your collection of “touch points” using Web-based tools to engage,
create and nurture communities online.

Important to understand:

• Each social channel has a unique vibe, audience, lexicon, behavior and style.

• *Minimize overlapping your messaging (don’t put a Tweet in a Facebook post)

• If you don’t think you can be passionate and engage a channel at least once a day with
an allocation of time, you should not start it. There’s no set amount of time that people
or business [should] spend on a social channel. It’s safe, however, to say that you
should do a lot of research on the channels (and the audience within) you choose.
Because it often takes a great deal of time to properly nurture and establish trust.

* Calling out my own hypocrisy; though I know that you should not, within my own personal
brand I’m terribly lazy and do this all the time. Shame on me.


Choosing Your Social Graph


When Choosing Your Social Graph You Should Ask Yourself

• Where are my customers?

• What’s topical within the context of our discussions?

• Do they (or my competitors) use a given social channel with success? What does
success look like? Activity? Followers? Trending conversations? Replies?

• Choosing a social channel is much like creating a micro-business plan:

• Assign goals

• Create content progressively

• Test, analyze and optimize

• Rinse and repeat ...


Social Channels


Your Website & Blog

At the epicenter of your marketing efforts lies your Website and your **blog. Think of this as
“home,” and treat all other channels as locations you visit in order to engage in conversation
and socialize. Here at your home base you will:

• Speak in the voice of your brand

• Harness your thought leadership within the space you will discuss

• Give more robust content surrounding your positions, knowledge and advice

• Create this as a “one-stop-shop” for your F3 to find all your social channels

• Give your F3 the ability to subscribe to your e-mail, blog, newsletters and additional
content

**The term blog has received sharp criticism over the years and has diminished in value
with its saturation. I advocate that you use the term “articles” or “commentary” – something
that disassociates you and your brand with standard personal web log.


A Facebook “Page” Provides Analytics

“Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated
and privately owned by Facebook Inc. As of February 2012, Facebook has more than 845
million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a
personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic
notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest
user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and
categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends".”

Additionally:

• Remains currently the largest social community

Rules of the social road:

• Listen the most; “LIKE” often; replay with frequency; react only if challenged
appropriately; respect all communities

• Speak with a positive, approachable tone and manner

• Facebook also contains a myriad of sub genres such as groups, apps and widgets that
allow you to further create and extend your social engagement


A Facebook “Page” - Continued

• Facebook is implementing “timeline” ubiquitously across personal profile and business
pages. It’s important to note that anyone will be able to see, and review, any post (that
you’ve assigned to be public) at any time.

• Facebook is the first social channel to allow commerce within the confines of the
channel itself.


Twitter Channels

“Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its
users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as “Tweets.” It was
created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. The service rapidly gained
worldwide popularity, with over 300 million users as of 2011, generating over 300 million
tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It has been described as ‘the
SMS of the Internet.’ ”

Additionally:

• Following competitors within your space can provide time-sensitive insight

• Following industry leaders can provide insight

• Retweet content from the leaders that you feel merit redistribution

• Tweeting with embedded links (showing resource) and #hashtags for searchability is
the best combination to make your content shareable - AKA: “retweetable”

• Easy way to show perceived activity and engagement within your space


A YouTube & or Social Video Channel Provides Analytics

“YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in
February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. The company is based
in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a
wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music
videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most
of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations
including CBS, the BBC, VEVO, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material
via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.”

Additionally:

• YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. It’s important to note that
when you post a video, you should fill in the description with keywords and links (back
to your website) that you want to be searched and found.

• Often YouTube videos will be the first way people will find your search terms, as they
are often indexed with less frequency on videos. Therefore your content has a
competitive edge to be found with higher priority ranking

• Please note: It’s good to document your brand’s speaking or live engagements with
video. It is a great reference, and a way to call participants back into your content


LinkedIn Provides Analytics

“LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December
2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 3
November 2011, LinkedIn reports more than 135 million registered users in more than 200
countries and territories. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese. Quantcast reports
LinkedIn has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally.”

Additionally:

• Incredibly power social channel for networking within your industry.

• Creating and participating in groups (not selling) can quickly increase your perceived
social credibility.

• Use the “Answers” tab as well to help (not sell) people/businesses within your niche and
thereby create instant brand loyalty. The more you give away, the more you will be
perceived as a brand that backs what they say


A Google+ Page

“Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and
introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. Google+ is available as
a website and on mobile devices. Sources such as “The New York Times” have declared it
Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook, which has over 800 million
users.Google+ is considered the company's fourth foray into social networking, following
Google Buzz. ...On January 19, 2012, it was reported that Google+ had surpassed a user
base of 90 million.”

Additionally:

• Google+ started as a Facebook-haters cult; users wishing Facebook wasn’t what it
continues to be instantly gathered here for conversation.

• The rules are the same as other large social channels. Follow your competitors and
like-minded associates within the space; “+1” (give kudos) to articles that you think
mertit your interests; create and communicate smart and inspired content.

• Conversations lean toward a more educated and affluent demographic.


Slideshare.Net

“SlideShare is a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. Users can upload files privately or
publicly in the following file formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenOffice
presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on the site itself, on handheld devices or
embedded on other sites. Launched on October 4, 2006, the website is considered to be
similar to YouTube, but for slideshows. The website was originally meant to be used for
businesses to share slides among employees more easily, but it has since expanded to also
become a host of a large number of slides which are uploaded merely to entertain.”

Additionally:

• Slideshare is a location where PowerPoint presentations, PDF, Keynote and other
documentation can be posted for review, embedding and social sharing

• Creating a grouping of materials within your field of expertise on this channel can
skyrocket your credibility and provide material to which you can link and embed within
your posts.


Flickr & or a Social Photo/Video Channel

“Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online
community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In
addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the
service is widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social
media. Yahoo reported in June 2011 that Flickr had a total of 51 million registered members
and 80 million unique visitors. In August 2011 the site reported that it was hosting more than
6 billion images, and this number continues to grow steadily according to reporting sources.
Photos and videos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account, but
an account must be made in order to upload content onto the website.”

Additionally:

• Visually documenting your travels, product and event is as important to the fabric of
your brand as the story is.

• Having photos that can be distributed, shared and embedded into your content brings
emotional association and context to your content.


Foursquare and/or Location-Based Social Channels Provides Analytics

“Foursquare, stylized as foursquare, is a location-based social networking website for
mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users "check-in" at venues using a mobile website,
text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the
application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or
network location provided by the application. Each check-in awards the user points and
sometimes "badges".”

Additionally:

• Location-based tools allow retailers and points of interest to create a digital landmark
that can be found with GPS-enabled smart phones

• This technology allows businesses to adjust the users “consideration set” by presenting
deals, offers and messaging within the same proximity space as competitors.


Alternate Social Channels


Email & SMS Marketing Email Service Dependent Analytics

Social marketing professionals often do not see e-mail, list or SMS as inclusive to their
marketing efforts. Nothing could be further from the truth. E-mail is a great story seed to
drop you further into conversation.

Please note: Your e-mail should as conversational as your social content is. Think of
creating the voice more as an invitation than a “delivery” of content. The faster you fold
people back into your content, the more social response you will build.

Additionally:

• E-mail is a required tool that (dependent upon service) can offer a wealth of information
about who is reading, forwarding and clicking through to your website via e-mail.

• Objectively is seen as an alternative to connecting to a brand outside of their social
channels. Many find e-mail as a passive connection to a brand or service


Channel Lexicon


The Powerhouse.

Channels to watch:
• Favo.rs
• Branch Out
• ReferralKey
• eLance
• BeKnown

Resume: Groups: Answers: Alumni: Jobs Board:
•Keep it current •Stay active in groups that •Take time to really answer •Stay connected •Watch closely and be timely
•Make sure it conveys your apply to your career the questions •Present your brand for the •Follow directions for
brand essence •Be authentic and smart •Support your answers with consideration of submitting to each job
•Convey your brand using when you post links entrepreneurial alums •Customize your cover letter
only tools that apply to your •Don’t dominate the •Be willing to engage in for each job posting to show
career conversations work, but don’t sell only you understand their brand
yourself


What Are You Saying Where?

Blogs: YouTube: Twitter: Facebook: Google+:
•Topical content •Keyword-rich descriptions •Content based on audience •Younger audience •Smaller, more professional
•Distributed across channels for SEO type, product & demo •Communities and groups and tech-savvy audience
•PR, articles & alerts •Detail content related to •Understand lexicon •Campaign connections •Brands still in fertile
other articles as value-add •Keep constant •Apps, modules and robust development within channel
commerce ties different
content


Social Engagement


Social Engagement with your Audience

• Start question threads • Progressively survey your community (using free tools like
http://www.surveymonkey.com/) to insure that your heading
• Elicit feedback (remember, you don't have to act on every in the right direction
comment or criticism)
• Evolve! Make sure that your content isn't stuck at a dead
• Respond to criticism rapidly (doesn't mean you have to do end
anything about it right away, but you do need to respond)
• Hold live events where everyone can meet one another in
• Acknowledge good communication real time

• Do not judge; simply be a part of the community and • Create Podcasts/Stream/Video for the group
intervene only if absolutely necessary
• Bring in outside authors, bloggers and spotlights
• Don't censor or edit discussion unless harmful or it falls
outside the rules • Keep a steady stream of like-minded links from google
alerts and RSS streams injected in your community
• Follow the rules; optimize the rules
• If you go on vacation, switch servers or do anything to
• Delete and inform “bullies” (AKA: Trolls) publicly disrupt communication let everyone know prepatorily

• Create themes and programs for discussion • Do your best to respond to all comments

• Listen, listen, listen. The group is not a platform for you to • Be authentic, honest and charismatic
do all the communication
• Be topical
• Make the site visually appealing by advocating user-
generated content • Have fun


Frequency


Frequency within your social channels

This is a typical conversation topic with social professionals. How much and how often
should you communicate externally with the goal of being social and involved in
conversation? The following should be used as a rule of thumb, you may very much want to
add and subtract dependent upon what your audience has come to expect.

• Your blog: 1-2 posts per week

• Twitter: 6-8 Tweets per day

• Facebook page: post 3-6 short posts per day

• Youtube: Check once a day for comments; “LIKE” 1 video per day; “Add to” 1 video to
a channel within your channel (typically something from your industry) once a week.

• Google+: 3-6 short posts per day

• Linkedin: Answer 1-3 questions on LinkedIn per week

• In addition to the suggested be sure to “LIKE” other comments and participate in as
many conversations as your schedule will allow


Hashtagging, Sourcing, @Handles, Keywords & Linking


Understanding Hastagging, Sourcing, @Handles, Keywords & Linking

• Hashtagging: Using a “#” before words on Twitter enables them to be searchable and
applicable to that post. Example: “I just picked up some great shoes! #nike”

• Linking/Sourcing: Using the link to a post or a Tweet to support it can add to its validity
and specifications. Example: “I just picked up some great shoes! #nike - http://
nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/”

• @Handles: Assigning an @handle* in a tweet (this is the name of a person or brand on
twitter) can show that you put them in context. Example: “I just picked up some great
shoes! #nike - http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid/ @Nike”

• Keywords: When you blog or post, try to use words that you assume people will want
to search. Then ideally they will find your content by those words and connect with your
content via a search call

*@handles are quickly becoming a way to connect users to other applications as well such
as Instagram


What Makes your Content Social?


What makes your content social?

The answer is usually pretty simple:

• Be authentic

• Don’t sell

• Be caring and respectful

• Listen, then respond

• Invite feedback, criticism

• Invite others to pass it on to their social graph for feedback

• Empower others with content they can use

• Ask questions that anyone can participate in (unless within the confines of a specific
conversation)


Blogging & Content Creation


Content Creation

There are many things that make compelling content for your articles. And while
consistency in your brand is paramount, diversity in content is key to both thought
leadership and maintaining your relevancy.

Here are some suggested types of topics:

• Trending topical news within your industry

• “10-steps” (or however many) with answering a specific industry question

• Discuss challenges from your past and how you overcame or changed based on them

• Prognosticate on the future of your industry

• Personalize your content by folding in elements of your personal life

Find thousands of ideas by searching “blog post ideas.” I also highly suggest following
http://www.copyblogger.com/ ’s blog and tutorials


Blogging: Consistency

It’s incredibly important that you are consistent with what you say. You need a consistent
voice, look, length and style. It’s fine to vary this from time to time, but ensure that the
content supports any inconsistency.


The Modern Blog

Today the modern web log, or “blog,” is used for a great deal more than documentation of
one’s personal experiences. Modern bloggers have seen their way clear to advance the
world of blogging to include their business.

Characteristics of business blog posts:

• Discuss the particular industry

• Create tease campaigns

• Take a look “behind the scenes”

• Product/service launches

• Crisis management tool

• Press releases; support; follow-up

• Overall communications tool to all clients, friends, fans and followers


Blogging: Look & Feel

• Typically 300 – 500 words. Maximum of 1,500.

• Try to base content on notable (linkable) fact(s) or supported assumptions

• Visually support with graphics; metrics or photography

• Make posts actionable vehicles for sharing!


Blogging: A Blog Post Blueprint

• POWER TITLE

• Image

• Goal sentence

• Image (alternate location)

• Support paragraph

• IAB (content advertising if applicable; 300x250 recommended)

• Bullet list (supporting links)

• Closing summarization paragraph

• Question? Incite discussion!

• Prepare to share!


Blogging: Pitfalls

• Lame headlines

• Trying to be too broad

• Not cross linking your content

• Not making your content SEO ready

• Focusing on quantity instead of quality

• Not writing for your audience/customer

• Only talking about your company/services

• Not asking for, or suppling ways for feedback

• Not taking time to respond to feedback

• Hiding your expertise

• Inconsistency


Blogging: Communications With Your F3

• Disqus.com & or other moderation-based tools for blog comments

• Setup “Google alerts”

• Respond to comments immediately

• DO NOT pick and choose; answer everyone

• NEVER DELETE negative comments/criticism (unless abusive)

• Kill them with kindness

• Be thorough


Blogging: Stickiness

• Be topical

• Always ask for feedback

• Acknowledge others comments within your own

• Don’t be ruler to a conversation, be a participant

• Cater to any egos you may encounter

• Turn that frown :( upside down :)

• Link to other posts when answering

• Ask active users to become guest bloggers

• Spotlight great conversation with enthusiasm

• Establish rules of conversation and follow them

• Don’t edit comments – moderate. What’s done is done


Blogging: New-World Posting

Facebook: Ask your group questions that will incentivize discussion. Have fun and “LIKE”
positive comments.

Google+: (while still in Beta) Start a corporate account here and be sure to use as a
notification platform for all new content.

Twitter: Use as a “Breaking News!” tool, post aggressively 3+ per day. Always retweet
positive comments and reply to @username specifically

YouTube: Organize and be very thorough with the descriptions of your video. Ask people
what they think. Respond to comments.

Flickr: Group photos by event, product or scenario. Much like YouTube, create rich
“searchable” descriptions, and tag copiously with associated search keywords.

Linkedin: Within groups and posts, create rich discussion about topical business trends.
Use “Answers” as a platform to connect your post from your blog to a topic.

Quora: Much like answers in Linkedin, start rich discussion with a definitive question that
refersback to an associated post.


Creating “Thought Leadership”


Creating “Thought Leadership”

While there are no hard and fast rules to thought leadership, I have found that compelling
subject-matter experts (SMEs) have specific traits:

• They take a side

• They admit fault and seek resolution

• They genuinely want to learn as much as teach

• They back up what they say with linked resources

• They open the floor to debate in an inclusive, non-confrontational way

• The connect with you if you have defined dialog

• They’re very active within your social circles

• They’re kind – but BOLD


Community vs. Conversation


Community vs. Conversation

Frequently I’m asked about the difference between “community” and “conversation,” and
that usually breaks down to a numbers game.

Community:

• Large groups of people are discussing the same material

• Typically a community has a Facebook (or alternate channel or forum) “Group” or page
where they have discussions

Conversation:

• This is usually a blog comment, single thread, tweeted question or unique
communication instance

• Conversations often are “within thread” - therefore a single post may create one or
many


Social Media Crisis Management


Social Media Crisis Management

What’s important to keep in mind about any type of crisis assessment is not overreacting to
a situation unnecessarily. We’ll cover a quick approach to assessing if an issue is going to
be a crisis, or it’s simply a downturn in opinion that will right itself over time.


The Most Critical Tool.

LISTENING.

Free Social Media Listening Tools

Use any of the following tools to setup a “keyword” alert. When someone/something online
posts that word, you will be alerted.

• Google Alerts

• Twitter Search

• Social Mention

• Addict-o-Matic

• Topsy

• Icerocket

• OMGILI (forum searches)


Paid Social Monitoring & Analyitics Tools

Although these service are “paid,” they are not necessarily monitored externally by a
service. These are simply more robust, feature-rich and expensive tools that you need to
maintain.

• Sysomos

• Radian6

• Trackur

• Sproutsocial

• Lithium (Previous ScoutLabs)

• Spiral16


Setting Up Keyword Alerts

A few suggestions for alert keywords:

• Your name

• Your @handle

• Your email

• Your phone number(s)

• Your URL

• Names of your directors and leadership

• Names of your clients, brand and products

• Keywords of any previous recalls, issues or industry related negative discussion


Crisis Assessment Steps

• Listen

• Trigger Identification

• Establish a “Pain Threshold”

• Identify

• Respond

• Assess


Trigger Identification

Using social media as a crisis management tool can come in many forms:

• Product recall

• Acts of God

• Customer complaints

• Guilt by association

• Mass opinion

• Smear campaigns

• Service & support updates

• Reputation management

• Suicide posts


Trolls vs. Mass Opinion


Trolls vs. Mass Opinion

Trolls:

• Trolls are people who seemingly just want to start fights, give bad reviews, be angry
and are often “one-hit wonders”. One-hit wonders will hit your site, be angry and never
return – because they feel their job is done.

Mass Opinion:

• Mass opinion on the other hand is critical to understand. When your collective
audience, group or community starts to turn on you (often lead by a troll or external
claim from a competitor) it’s important to embrace their concerns and do your best to
prove them otherwise. This is when consistency is key, and the best practice is not
overreaching without proper backup.


Community Resolution vs. Crisis


Community Resolution vs. Crisis

Often within the confines of a passionate, positive and loyal community, the group as a
whole will actually resolve many issues without your intervention. It’s important to judge if
someone is just being a “one-hit wonder” or venting. Often you can learn a great deal from
someone with a negative or conflicting opinion to your brand. Take the time and try to
resolve the issue prior to blacklisting the person.


Suicide Posts


Social media as a crisis management tool

WHAT YOU SAY
HAS TO STAY.

The “Pain Threshold” - Situation

Rank the viability of the situation:

• Acknowledge the issue and your intent to create a resolution.

• Do your best to work with them “off the grid” with a trained customer service
representative.

CRITICAL: LEGAL

RESPOND IMMEDIATELY

MESSAGING

RISK
REQUIRES RESEARCH

KEY MONITORING

LISTENING


The “Pain Threshold” - Situation

What if we get sued?

• If legal issues arise, seek professional representation.

• Don’t delay in your response, even if you must seek representation.

• Trust is created only when the customer believes what you say. Know your message,
brand and corporate promise.

Immediately weigh the outcomes prior to response.

• Who does it affect? Customers, community or both?

• How many people does it affect?

• Resolution timing and preparation.


The “Pain Threshold” - Individual

Rank the viability of the user:

• Does the user have a mass following or subscription base?

• Are they a “one-hit-wonder” or a chronic complainer?

• Does the user have an educated voice?

• Has the user supported their issue with additional content? Are there photos, blog posts
or adverse ratings?

• What do past posts say about their candor and how they resolve problems?


Crisis “Management”

"I'm sorry. How can I help?"

• Advocate that they communicate with you offline, on the phone or by e-mail.

If they refuse to work with you offline:

• Ask them to outline their problem, issue or criticism on their chosen channel.

• Listen to the problem and take their contact information. Tell them you will research the
issue immediately and respond on the channel. GIVE UPDATES PUBLICLY!

• Haste is key. It's about hours not days in social media. The faster you can respond, the
better. If it takes time, check in and give updates.

• Complete transparency of the issue is the best practice.


Crisis “Management” - Acts Of God / Terror

• Be immediate to the minute

• Address updates with care not to misinform

• Maintain position until public opinion is at rest


Crisis Management: Preventative Maintenance

• Empower all customers to give feedback. Customers complain less if they feel like you
hear them.

• Check back in with people who had previous issues and ensure satisfaction.

• Create polls, surveys and e-mail questionnaires to follow up on any issues, or to get a
sense of your brand’s perceived position and trustworthiness.

• “Kill ’em with kindness.” No matter what you say, it must come across as positive.

• Watch out for multicultural methods of communications.


Advanced: Crisis Management Tactics

• Create a network of SMEs (advocates) within your business category who are willing to
publicly respond to your defense should it be required.

• If the issue is so large that it's collecting "mass opinions," you need to be ready to
deploy ongoing messaging to the collective. Construct a website to drive attention of the
issue into one area where you can control it.



• In all cases of mass opinion, you and your team must increase your social monitoring to
more granular keywording, and listen for abstractions that come from the opinion. This
monitoring should be around the clock until you deem it no longer necessary.

STANDARD LISTENING PRACTICE

Brand

Keyword Keyword Keyword

DURING A DEFINED CRISIS

Issue Users Press

Detail keywords Comments Responses

Public opinion Ratings/rankings In the news



• Actively train your staff to look out for possible threats to your brand and its messaging.

• Your “digital voice” – Train your staff to make sure they communicate online in a way
that can only be interpreted as positive.

• Lastly, you and your staff must understand how to take responsibility for mass opinion.
Like it or not, you're here to please the customer, not make/defend a point on your
social channels.


Social Deployment Strategies


Social Deployment Strategies

When starting in social media or running a social media campaign, there are an array of
rules that will improve your overall success. The most important thing is to simply play a part
in your social marketing efforts as a positive, active, participant, and not a know-it-all leader.


Pre, During & Post


Social Deployment

ESTABLISH TRUST AGENTS
MAINTAIN ENGAGEMENT
INVITATIONAL PHASE

ACTIVELEY RECRUIT
ESTABLISH STORY

CRESCENDO
INCENTIVISE
NEW CAMPAIGN CAMPAIGN END

TEST & OPTIMIZE


Campaign Transition Phase


Social Campaign Transitioning

CAMPAIGN END NEW CAMPAIGN


Gamification & Social Channels


Gamification & Social Channels

"Gamification is the use of game design techniques and mechanics to solve problems and
engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications (also known as
"funware"), particularly consumer-oriented Web and mobile sites, in order to encourage
people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired
behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology
more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans'
psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to
perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping,
or reading web sites."

Additionally:

• Contests, trivia, sweepstakes and other basic gameplay is the baseline for most online
“games.”

• Gamification takes basic games to the next level and makes them social by using
rewards like points, leader boards, time incentives, progressive complexity and other
factors to maintain community and entice users with a reason to return.


Storytelling & Problem Solving


Storytelling & Problem Solving

Great social campaigns and blogs break down into two types:

Storytelling:

• Every great story has basic components that can be exploited within the confines of a
marketing campaign or message. Primarily the ability to easily pass it along to others
and develop more interest via - “word of mouth” (WOM) and digital sharing methods.

Problem Solving:

• Other successful social campaigns are bound in the ability to bring actionable content to
a user base. People who derive benefit from the sites, brands and campaigns they
follow are typically loyal and will invest a great deal of time participating as much as
aggregating


Digital Intelligence


Digital Intelligence Defined

Looking at digital intelligence reports are different on a case-by-case basis. Each report will
give you insight into different specifics such as (but not limited to):

• Traffic to your website

• Traffic to a specific page, post, content item (photo, video, etc.) or comment

• Demographics, psychographics breakdowns

• Geographic reports

• Search ranking

• Advertising and campaign analytics

• Customer and buying life cycles

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics#Key_definitions


Social Deployment in Ten Steps


10 Steps in Social Media Best Practices

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH BASELINE SOCIAL MIX USER EXPERIENCE

CREATIVE DEPLOY & ENGAGE RECRUIT SYNCHRONIZE TEST & OPTIMIZE


Step 1: Understanding

30
LOYALISTS

CAMPAIGN USERS

FUTURE USERS

UNKNOWN


Step 2: Research

When researching your competitive social spectrum, seek key differentiators. It should be
expected that they will be in all the primary social platforms. Therefore it is necessary to
interview all key stakeholders in the brand, especially online.

• Seek goal assessment and hierarchy within those goals.

• Prioritize and understand the market landscape, product and competitive set.

• Seek perceived key differentiators.


Step 3: Defining the baseline Baseline

Define social channels Mobile-enble

Call center Special tools

Contests Video

Couponing Live chat

Blogging Partnerships

Paid media Dynamic integration

Multilingual SMS program

User-generated content E-mail/newsletter program

Social channels Live shows/speaking engagements

Newsletters News/PR/published?


Step 4: Social Mix

Your mix of social channels should be kept simple at first unless you have the necessary
information to reach out and establish engagement within more specific channels.

FACEBOOK GOOGLE+

TBD SOCIAL WEBSITE EMAIL BLOG TBD SOCIAL

TWITTER YOUTUBE


Step 5: User Experience

“User experience (UX) is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service.
User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of
human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s
perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system.
User experience is subjective in nature, because it is about an individual’s feelings and
thoughts about the system. User experience is dynamic, because it changes over time as
the circumstances change.”

Additionally:

• When constructing your UX, first make sure it corresponds to your story and goal
assessment.

• UX should not only give a sense of the way your campaign should look, but the voice,
tone and manner of your conversation.

• Remember to assess later in the campaign and test your UX to ensure your audience is
getting the most from your efforts.


Step 6: Creative

The biggest point to be made here is that it’s best if your creative is consistent across all
your social channels. Even if you’re between campaign efforts, make sure all your channels
are properly branded. The only caveat to this would be if you are running multiple storylines,
brands or product sets that are different enough to be uniquely branded


Step 7: Deploy & Engage

Before launch:

• Connect measurement and listening tools

• Pre-populate content

• Invite a “beta” audience in to pre-populate conversation and give feedback

• Construct campaign distribution

• Overlap events

• Prepare follow-up


Step 8: Recruit

Recruitment, Community & Retention:

• Ask for “friends, fans & followers” (F3)

• Be consistent in your messaging

• Complete transparency

• Maintain message consistency

• “Make me special” - Incentives, deals & insider content!


Step 9: Synchronize

Synchronizing your engagement is not about posting the same content across channels. It
is about coordinating your efforts in unison. Therefore if you push out a post or interesting
comment, do your best to make sure it goes across your chosen channels.

Please note that synchronization is not part of standard conversation within a thread. If
you’re having a conversation with one if your F3s on a channel, it’s not necessary to
replicate it on another channel. Each channel is as unique as the conversation it contains.


Step 10: Test & Optimize

To ensure you’re getting the most out of social business efforts, analyze your social
channels using the analytics they provide. “Perceived” ROI is going to be different from one
brand to another, but many seek the following:

• Online sales

• Increased followers

• Increased comments

• E-mail/SMS signups

• Positive brand impression

• Positive ratings (especially on sites outside your immediate control)

• PR Hits


Great Sites To Follow


Great Sites To Follow About Social Media & Blogging

•http://adage.com/power150/ •http://www.jaffejuice.com/ •http://www.slashdot.org/

•http://www.mashable.com/ •http://www.socialwayne.com/ •http://www.almostsavvy.com/

•http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/ •http://www.smedio.com/ •http://socialmediainfluence.com/

•http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ •http://heidicohen.com/ •http://dannybrown.me/

•http://www.copyblogger.com/ •http://www.twitip.com/ •http://www.socialmediainformer.com/

•http://www.likeable.com/blog/ •http://www.kikolani.com/ •http://www.mediabadger.com/blog/

•http://www.socialmediatoday.com/ •http://www.briansolis.com/ •http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

•http://www.wearesocial.net/ •http://www.scottmonty.com/ •http://www.socialnorth.com/

•http://www.social-media.alltop.com/ •http://www.socialmedia.biz/ •http://www.starmark.com/blog/social/

•http://www.bethkanter.org/ •http://www.socialfresh.com/ ...or just Google it.

•http://www.christopherspenn.com/ •http://www.socialtimes.com/

•http://www.converstations.com/ •http://www.searchenginepeople.com


Full Disclosure

A portion of this material was aggregated from my position as Vice President of Interactive &
Social Creative Director for the Starmark advertising agency. Many of the sections from
within this deck came directly from previous webinars that I wrote and presented.

These presentations can be found in their entirety here:

• http://www.slideshare.net/starmarkintl/starmark-2012-trends-report

• http://www.slideshare.net/starmarkintl/social-media-crisis-management-9891604

• http://www.slideshare.net/starmarkintl/etips-webinar-best-practice-in-business-blogging

• http://www.slideshare.net/starmarkintl/best-practices-of-web-site-design

Additionally, I suggest that you get our weekly updated “eTips” from here:

• http://etips.starmark.com/


Questions & Answers
“JusticeMitchell” - Twitter, Skype, AIM, Gmail
www.JusticeMitchell.com


Integrated Social Business, Deployment & Optimization

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