SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY // RECOGNITION // INTERACTION // // BRAND BUILDING //
OBJECTIVES
What will you be using the social media chanells for?
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To inform and get deeper recognition within the industry and potential customers` base (Gain recognition as the experts in the Performance Marketing sector (with a focus on Google AdWords; Bid Management etc.)
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To build a brand (!) – Because the most relevant media for Adspert is obviously web Above all the things the company does as a business platform, it is barely possible to build a brand in a traditional meaning (with the clear image and a set of customers‘ beliefs and associations connected to it) based only on the technical objectives of what the company does (also because only the very small, well informed targets can participate in a brand recognition then – To get new audience, such as rather small companies, not having their IT departments, which will be perfect to absorb the „full automated process“ statement. The branding strategy needs to get more of a „human“ face (Ask the audience questions, Inform about the events where they could meet you personally)
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To let your customers contact you in the most comfortable way ( it always gets easier to ask a random question throughout Facebook, than to call or use a contact form on the official website.)
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To keep customers informed (Inform Audience about changes, news, interesting information. What is the branch talking about?)
// To show off your knowledge and skills (to place your opinion to the current discussions.) // // // //
To get deeper knowledge about your audiences and their habits By publishing posts regularly, you as well make sure you always keep yourself up to date with the most recent news from the industry To be able to inform about any new features to the product and establish a dialogue with clients - as SM can also be treated as a Customer Service Traffic building , Content marketing
THE MOST RELEVANT MEDIA/TOOLS // Facebook //
Google +
// Twitter // Blog //
Youtube / Socialcam
// LinkedIn //
Online communities, Industry-related forums etc.
THE MOST COMMON B2B SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIONS campaign implementation paths
CREATING A SPECIFIC NETWORK RELATED TO PRODUCT/SERVICE f.e. OPEN forum, online community where playing a role of a host, Twitter+YouTube combo – answering with videos to questions posted via Twitter, Blog with newsletter – the mailing list popup
SOCIAL / PARTICIPATION / CONTESTS f.e. submit-a-photo, video contest – effective if being lead by a certain theme, perhaps more of a „fun“ approach
THE EXPERTISE PATH f.e. publishing own reports, brochures, organizin conferences, events, courses in fields related to the business branch
CONTENT STRATEGY f.e. „theme“ campaigns` presence in various media – 360°
B2B SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY – CASE STUDIES 1. American Express – OPEN forum & FB The „Big Brake“ national contest for small businesses owners http://www.openforum.com 2. Avanade – Twitter&YouTube combo -> answering questions submitted by users on Twitter via videos on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/AvanadeUK 3. Cree/LED chips manufacturer – Social site plus participation -> users had been encouraged to submit their photos of poor lightning in office, and each month 5 entrants were selected to receive free Cree products http://www.creeledrevolution.com 4. Archer Technology – Online communities and marketplaces -> online community built – aprox. 7000 users who could actively communicate & collaborate ( Idea Exchange! ) https://exchange.archer-tech.com 5. Dell – America’s favourite small business contest ->Video-contest + online series https://www.facebook.com/DellBusiness?ref=ts http://www.youtube.com/user/dellbusiness 6. Econsultancy (digital marketing industry – long term case study) -> published reports -> training brochures -> starts organizing events -> adding jobs board to website -> blog -> MSc course in digital marketing -> Twitter -> „Innovation“ awards -> Expansion abroad -> Traveling „Geek“ conferences ->„JUMP“ magazine and conference https://www.facebook.com/Econsultancy?ref=ts 7. Hubspot (Marketing software – easy.integrated.powerful.) – Content – funny series and „music“ videos - creating buzz around it http://www.youtube.com/user/HubSpot
3 MAIN TYPES OF DECISIVE GROUPS
According to a typical Value Chain of more complex enterprises, where decision is being made by a „ladder“ of employees
// Decision – makers // Motivators // Users
B2B SOCIAL MEDIA USER - BASIC PROFILE // //
Core needs : Confidence / Security / Proffesionalism & Expertise The difference between B2C vs. B2B customer – Much more demanding, sceptic, and less active than within B2C markets
THE TYPICAL B2B SM CAMPAIGN CHARACTERISTICS // // // //
Thought through and less agresive than in B2C Introducing the brand as the main objective Highlighting the advantages that lie in an interesting offer Often the presence of a contact form / private message, where questions being answered
THE AUDIENCE // //
B2B customers – agencies and other outsourcers B2B – small companies? And other, less informed customers (keep an eye on whether they follow – you can have a gallery with pictures visualizing the simplified process? People tend to know a bit of what is the process about – of course, they need to know their benefits, how to log on etc. , but most of them would probably also like a simple, very basic explanation ( to recall it later when talking to other potential customers etc. – may provide a big plus to a recognition within less informed customers simply trough the grapevine) // Experts, Journalists related to the industry – the presence of those people on your profile requires posting the most relevant news – the certain opportunity lies in it, but also needs to be done very carefully – even a few overdue posts can make you loose your credibility (especially when it comes to media, technique and online industries etc.) – show off your knowledge, focus on innovation, keep ahead of competitors! // Investors // Competitors to be challenged – other people worth getting into an open discussion with
COMPETITORS PODs & POPs – COMPETITORS ANALYSIS // // // // // // // //
Ask how, what the other companies sell differs from the product&service you offer? How can you differenciate from them as a brand? What are your strong points and what „more“ (the added value) can you offer? Make it sound out loud and then try to translate it into the SM strategy. What`s their Facebook activity about? How often do they post? What kind of posts are these? Analize the number of fans and active responses Look up competitors` high sharers – are them journalists, collegues or their satisfied clients?
Company
language on FB
Likes
Posting Frequency
Intelliad
DE
509 Likes Aprox. Once a week
Refined Ads Labs
ENG
37 Likes
1 post
Kenshoo
ENG
3200 Likes
Post every 3-4 days
Efficient Frontier – Adobe AdLens
ENG
161 Likes
None
Marin Software
ENG
850 Likes Post every 3-4 days
Competitors conclusion - What can we learn from them?
Majority of your competitors keep their SM strategy 360°, incorporating all the available t build a customer-based community around (like blog or FB fanpages). The most “spectac KENSHOO – because its SMstrategy has been well differenciated from their competitors: // Posts very often – every 3-4 days ( there‘s a big difference between the number of fan // Is slightly more social, relaxed, has a funny attitude – others tend to be very strickt an // They have a consistent, based on a very simple idea of using a cardboard object to tak How do [ you ] Kenshoo? / [ I ] am Kenshoo. // Why do [I] Kenshoo? campaign on YouTube channel, where reference customers are Kenshoo? etc.) // English Language – goes better with it on FB, where plenty of people from around th posting might probably work even better, as a great deal of your clients and partners
PRO content
SOCIAL content
Other tools used
Seminarees, Team, Food, Industry-related Marathon, news Time out
FB,Twitter,Google+,LinkedIn, Slideshare,blog: www.intelliad.de/blog/
„Dialog über die Medien“
FB,Twitter,blog: www.refinedlabs.com/blog
Conferences, Seminarees, Industry-related news and links
/
More of a professional style: Seminarees, Fairs, Info
/
„I am Kenshoo“ campaign!, Happy hours, Barbeques, Fun, Sport /
/
FB,Twitter,Google+,LinkedIn, Slideshare, YouTube channel
Adobe official www&blog
FB,Twitter,Google+,LinkedIn, blog: insights.marinsoftware.com
tools to inform and brand their SM areas, and some of them use a channel or even a few to cular” (3200 – second one has 850) number of fans, responses and actions undertaken has
ns when it’s being posted once against two times a week! ) nd focused on the industry only ke photos with it as a frame; ( cheap or perhaps costless ) „theme“: being asked various questions ( such as : What do you do with all the time saved thanks to
he world may like to learn about your business ( In your case: the double-launguage s are German-speaking)
BRANDING
Branding is vital to the success of the online - based business. Traditional marketing message offline doesn’t always translate into an effective message online, because these two spheres work differently. But the traditional branding strategy can easily be adapted to suit online marketing simply by the way you decide to present it. An effective online communication is based on that people can relate to, can engage with and identify with it within their online communities. Branding online is about getting your message across and making sure people recognize and remember you. The most important online branding element is consistency, being defined as „the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time“. So all your content: messages, visuals and way of presenting your business should be the same throughout all social media platforms. It’s one thing to have your website and banner ads looking the same but what about your social media marketing efforts? As social media becomes a core part of any business’ marketing plan, your brand and message should follow through and be familiar. From your website through to all your social networking accounts. By keeping your brand image consistent - in the way it looks and messages it conveys - you’re building trust and establishing your authority in social media communities. If people start to remember your unique branding, they are much more likely to recognize your company and product. What‘s more is that, when you additionaly are able to deliver what you promise, the customers will also recommend your brand to friends. ONLINE ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE BRANDED: // website // banner ads // text ads // profiles // avatars and photos // messages or USP Post regularly. Update everything at the same time. Create some buzz and most importantly inform your audience, and try to get some feedback from them, since it is the best resource for finding out what works and what fails. Branding is about creating a clear image and consistent communication that lasts for a long time and is a fundament of building a relationship with your customers, both offline and online.
VALUE ADDED
What MORE does it offer – comparing to competitors, Why is it more efficient, easier, better than a complex service offered by the „full-set“ online marketing agencies (look up the „Competitors“) User-oriented? User-friendly design/interface? // // // // // //
Brand senses ( APP ) Benefits vs. Problem solving ( question-answer model, as on the dmexco presentation) Is it unique? – sure it is! (Why?) Is the price relatively low set? Is it solving any problems above the core function? Can using „the tool“ provide any source of more of emotional relation – relief, more time etc. – How can you manage to make your customers grateful, feeling that „their life wasn’t the same without your product/service“
BRAND EQUITY
These days brand is no longer what you tell your customers it is, but rather what the customers tell each other it is. // // //
Reference customers Where the old/new/potential sources of brand equity lie? ( ex. Ask what was unique&positive within the time working for your reference customers? Could the count on a fact that it’s always done according to deadlines? Why did the prefer hireing you to another company? Had they already hired another agency/used another tool before? If so, What made them change their mind?
-> Prepare the case studies containing monitored outcomes of your collaborations!
BRAND WITHIN SOCIAL MEDIA KEY QUALITIES/FEATURES // Performance oriented // Focused // Proffesional (skillful engineers) // Work-fun balance/team spirit // Innovation // Hub/Lab etc. // Start-up – the insight into fresh approach to business // Service – automatic tool + what more can be offered? > App + reliable support in person, fast reactions to customers’ needs, taking off all the doubts of their mind // An individual offer, consulting, full control over the campaign’s budget
MAKE IT CLEAR & CONSISTENT ADSPERT // advertising + expert // specialists – skillful, knowledgable // plus concious about What? Why? How? and having clear goals // online advertising experts // a will to explain, educate and share knowledge // capacity of translating the complicated knowledge onto different levels and grounds // translate, explain, educate ( prepare clients for a change! , show them some new ways of thinking, open their minds for something fresh, new and truly boosting their performance!) THE TEAM : A young company, with a fresh approach highly proffesional experts with a wonderful background, to whom work is passion, who are concerned about the progressive innovation, excelently oriented within the industry, concious about the business potential and how powerful the product and its’ growth opportunities are. People who are passionate are also fun to be around, and capable of finding the right balance between work&leisure (relax). Focused specificaly on one issue and looking for the best solution – do not want to get distracted ( it’s better to become an absolute expert in a narrow field, than to maintain an average level within many). People who contribute their passion, skills and experience to „make a difference“ /„push things forward“. THE TOOL: Problem: Large amounts of data can only be managed manually Answer: Statistics/Automation/Simplicity The analysis methods in Adspert are purely scientific and fact-based - there are no fixed rules as with other providers, but the system learns and decides itself through the constant bid optimization, for example, seasonalities are recognized.
HELPFUL QUESTIONS 1. Our brand position - WHAT WE DO... 2. Our brand mission - WHAT DRIVES US... 3. Our core values - WE HOLD AS SACRED... 4. Our brand personality - WE ARE... 5. Our client experience - WE WANT CLIENTS TO SAY ...
MISSION What drives us is passion, and everything we do is motivated in our deep will to always search for the right answers, self-develop, and make a difference. Our mission is to constantly look for better solutions, making the complex media planning process easy-manageable and profitable for all the companies, no matter how large or small, that advertise through Google AdWords. We want to be a platform for a continous customers‘ growth, creating better performance than any other bid management tool does. But most of all, we believe that by collaboration with other passionate people, we can elevate growth for each of us to a new level. Bigger and better universe - We take you and your business there!
VISION We want to become a standard, The first thing that comes to your head when wondering about an efficient bid-management solution - We want Adspert tool to become commonly used by all enterprises that are using Google advertising, simply because we believe that there is no need to put so much time and effort into the process that we already provide fully - automated. Our major goal can be compared to the story of automotive systems such as ABS - The solution that initially was rather perceived as an additional feature - has later on become a standard. We believe that every make-life-easier-solution requires some time to enter the canon, but when the moment comes, no one no longer imagine functioning the way from the time „before it“.
STORY Our history is a story of people who like to be challenged, always looking for answers and want to „push things forward“. And so as a logical consequence of that, the business concept occured. The idea was born caused by curiousity, becoming an answer to a question of how could focus be moved from the time-consuming work (which from the beginning seemed to be perfectly possible to automate), towards more of the innovational fields. By saving the precious time in the areas where our tool can be used, you now are able to gain more space for creative activities. Based on our expertise within financial market mathematical forecasting, we are able to operate a complex, fact-based data, by providing a full automatization of your Google Adwords Optimization.
SOCIAL MEDIA PERSONAS PERSONA - BASED MARKETING
Persona-based marketing is one of the most poweful tools to be used to better connect with prospects and customers. Basically, persona-based marketing looks from one hand like a Hollywood characterization and on the other - business analytics. It involves constructing a fictional customer-character, based on real-life data and intelligence-and use it as a yardstick for promotional and selling decisions.
Persona-based marketing goes beyond simple demographic data - it describes who customers are by, inter alia, answering questions about their behaviour, such as: How does he spend his time? How does she like to be sold to? Are they tend to stay with the same company working their way up the ladder over time or do they rather jump around every couple of years (months)?
Referring to these fictional characters as you formulate and execute your messages, can make your marketing more effective and prevent your promotions from becoming too generic to be noticed. The persona-based decisions can stop you from looking at an issue from a subjective standpoint of „I think“ ,and push you to start wondering about „what would our customer or prospect think?“
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Look up the competitors’ clients/audience via social media profiles
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Try to build up an artificial profiles of the typical SM user / typical customer to whom the profiles may apply -> create PERSONAS
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Divide personas into a few different categories – one for each type of customers, ex.:
1.
PROFFESIONAL/ IT/ INDUSTRY-RELATED/ JOURNALIST
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Men/woman, age 25-34 ( according to every FB statistic - rankings of your competitors, that’s the most actively participating age-based target)
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Aprox. 3-8 years of proffesional experience
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An active proffesional, focused on innovation and goals
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well informed
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waiting for all the freshest news , scientific research outcomes
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interested in getting informed about the industry-related conferences, lectures etc.
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Not very much into „socializing“, their activity based mostly on giving adequate opinions on industry-related topics whe these are being discussed in SM
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Dynamic lifestyle ( think about adding a sport, travelling etc. into the „Interests“ field)
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Include all the relevant media/journalists etc. in „Likes“
2.
FUTURE POTENTIAL CUSTOMER / SMALL-MEDIUM BUSINESS OWNER / DECISIVE SENIOR EMPLOYEE
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Poorly oriented within technology and online market , its issues and opportunities
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Understands basic, rather non-tech. topics, at the same time links and articles suitable for proffesional he/she doesn’t understand so that completely don’t appear to him/her
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Needs more of a social- emotional, trust and relation-building content
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He/she probably has a deep need to know who they’re talking to in person, so that you ought to make sure there is a nice team-page built
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Provide some fun, cheerful stuff
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Show your engagement into the proffesional ground ( the rule applied will be, that they not necessary need to understand all these technical principals, but rather intuitively see how deep into business your experts are! )
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Try to provide a learning content, suitable more for amateurs, to allow them to go a bit deeper into the subject matter
-> it is very unlikely to work if you are going to use the jargon – try to work on a more down-to-earth writing style, in case if you wanna target some part of the content to those people. Note it is likely that the decisive person might be related to marketing department - try to talk to them in a way that a person with more of traditional, offline approach to marketing are able to follow as well.
CONTENT
INFORMATIVE / INTERESTING / HELPFUL / FUN / ENTERTAINING
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The Question - Answer tag on a blog, after discussing with sales the type of questions that are the most frequently asked by customers – to inform better, to make it sooner for Sales Department to enter the whole process, FAQ on the official website
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LINKS – to redirect users from Social Media to the follow- ups on www/professional blog
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Open comments – also on the professional blog – to build trust within your audience
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Forums - posting links. In an appriopriate way. Another way can be to set a forum where your audience could share their opinions about a product and more. (trust building!)
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VIDEOS – Socialcam tool can be used ( „Istagram for video“) – let public behind the scenes, instead of big-budget virals – set up a chanell where the most important thing is to post often, short and interesting ( the more often you post, the more it appear in the news feed for the users!)
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PHOTOS – pictures of your team, both from professional (seminarees etc.) and more of behind-the-scenes standpoint, funny photos/collages that can be reposted/reblogged and spread around the SM, causing in the traffic increase within your official website
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PR - Bloggers and Reference customers – request posts informing about your company
TOP FEATURES OF YOUR SM PROFILES MAJOR GOALS/ DESIRABLE ACTIONS // //
Manage to make „the contact“ one of the top 3 features – No forms there (tends to make the contact more indirect) – simple, easy Private Message Concider one of the channels as a kind of a basic customer service platform
SOCIAL MEDIA SOLUTION 1. Content - which topics will be both informative and interesting to your audience - target market. Above that, consider including: stories of business success, employee profiles, philantrophy info ( if any ) 2. Delivery - Content Integration - f.e. building a twitter following or starting a conversation on LinkedIn, the twitter - YouTube combo etc.
TRACKING SM As you build profiles and engaged followers on the various social networks, you will also see an increase in traffic to your official website. If you are doing other forms of advertising like Pay Per Click (PPC), it can become even more difficult to determine what’s bringing you the results and what fails. That is where you need to start using some analitics programs to make your work easier. Using an analytics program will streamline the process and make it much easier to see where the traffic is coming from. It will also allow you to measure different metrics such as percentage of impressions and feedbacks to your posts, number of replies,“likes“,views, relevant followers, „retweets“, social shares, comments, click rates, and finally - conversions. It is important to ensure a data flow between different Social Media channels. For example, each time you are publishing a new post on the official blog, make sure it will also appear as an update to your LinkedIn profile, Put the link to it on your Facebook Timeline etc. With tracking the online „paths“ of your audience, the analitics programs will also apply. For example, the Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics let you look at interactions across different digital media and shows how these channels work together to create sales and conversions. The ways your customers interact with your channels are all part of the marketing funnel leading to conversion. Often the customers engage more with these channels than they do with the very final „click“. You then can observe where exactly the traffic comes from. Thanks to Google Analitics you can see how your customers interacted with all the channels before the conversions, so that you are able to identify channels making the assets and optimize your strategy. It will also show you how your channels work together and in what order set these to bring you the most conversions.
ACTION PLAN 1. Blog // // // // //
Create Blog - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 3hour/week ) Blog Posts - Post content on blog with SEO optimized content/photo ( 45mins ) Reputation management - Reply to comments on blog posts, Search for mentions ( 20mins ) Blogger Outreach - Like and comment on relevant blog posts related to key words, phrases, industries ( 30mins ) SEO - Align company description, optimize tags, photos etc. ( 20mins )
2. Facebook // // // // //
Audit existing page - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 1hour/week ) Increase Like count - Prouce and post interactive content, use ads and sponsored stories ( 30mins ) Post content - Utilize existing resources to create engaging content: articles, reminders,discounts (20mins ) „Like“fun pages - Search for relevant pages to receive updates ( 10mins ) Community Engagement - Like and comment on relevant posts, Post questions, respond ( 20mins )
3.Linked In // // // //
Create business page - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 1hour/week ) Increase company follower count - Engage LinkedIn users to follow updates ( 30mins ) Post content - Post direct viewers to Blog and FB ( 10mins ) Community engagement & management - Retweet other Twitter user‘s content, Reply to users who engage with Adspert, Comment on tweets related to key words, phrases, industries ( 30 mins )
4. Google+ // // // //
Create business page - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 1hour/week ) Suggest Google+ Hangout sessions - host a monthly session for an industry-related topic ( 45mins ) Add people to „circles“ ( 30 mins ) Share content to profile ( 30mins )
5. Twitter // // // //
Create Account - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 1hour/week ) Follow Users / Backs - Search for and follow relevant users ( 30mins ) Tweet - tweet content types - at least 2times a day ( 20mins ) Community engagement & management - Retweet other Twitter user‘s content, Reply to users who engage with Adspert, Comment on tweets related to key words, phrases, industries ( 50 mins )
6. Youtube / Socialcam // //
Create channel - Add company details, ensure consistency across platforms ( 1hour/week ) Add videos - Add video testimonials to channel, get code for posting videos ( 1hour/week )
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